( i )
Camden, and many other antiquaries since his time, who have written on the Roman roads and stations in Essex, have maintained such a difference of opinions respecting their situations, as to involve them in much per- plexity. The difficulty is now happily obviated by this branch of the British antiquities having become an object of particular research, and being, at this present period, ascertained and positively defined. This Work is highly in- debted to the Rev. Thomas Leman, of Bath, who has personally investigated every part of the county, and obligingly communicated the following memoir on the British trackways and subsequent Roman roads, which came too late to be introduced at the commencement of this publication.
& dlififtt Sftetri) of t$e RntmiUe* of <&mx+ The first inhabitants of the county of Essex were the Cassii 9 (a tribe of the j^J^ Celtic Catieuchlani, whose dominions extended, on the north of the Thames, from theCawii. ' the banks of the Severn to the German ocean.) Before the invasion of the Romans, however, they were dispossessed of a great part of their territories Firgt Bd . by the Trinobantes, and this county fell a prey to this Belgic Colony. — The ^^^ s capital oj this people, Camalodun*, was then at Lexden, where there still exist Brith ^ the most extensive remains : besides which certain town, we have reason to of camaiodim at Lexden. think that they had others at Ambresbury; at Walbury; at Weald; at Witham; QthCT British at Writtle; at Ongar; at Maiden, and possibly at Horkesley; because earthen towns, works of a very early date, and of an irregular form, appear near each of these places, all of which are close to the British trackways I shall hereafter mention.
- The Romans altered these uncouth British names, and latinized them by calling them Camalodu*
num, Durolitum, and Csesaromagus.
