author we have quoted, "is supposed to have been the first innovation upon the primitive Roman structure, and is said to have taken the place of a Roman tower which is ever found to exist on the right of the prætorium in all their castra." We thus think ourselves borne out in the suggestion, that the great Roman wall now surrounding Porchester Castle, owes its origin to Arviragus, who fought against Claudius. We are free to admit the difficulty of decision as regards the rank of the former when he defended Caer Peris: the history of Cymbeline belongs to what is termed the fabulous age of England. According to Geoffrey of Monmonth, Guiderius and Arviragus were no other than Caractacus and Sogodumnius, though which was Caractacus we are not told. In spite of Milton's sneer at the Monmouth writer, we find the story of Claudius, Guiderius, Guenissa, Arviragus, and Hamo, in "Hardyng's Chronicle," to which last we are disposed to give credit, on the score of the repute in which the chronicler was held by Bishop Nicolson. It is more probable that Arviragus was a son of Cymbeline by a former marriage, to which Shakspeare alludes, and ruler of the small state of which Caer Peris was the capital. That he was eventually King of Great Britain, there is no manner of doubt. In that rare book, "Albion's England," the death of Guiderius and the events that followed, are recorded in quaint verse, thus:—, "But Romish Hamo (from whose death Southampton had that name) Maintained fight, and wonne the field, ere Breeton's knew the thing And with his winnings also won the emperour to grace: Who sending for his daughter fair Genissa, so did ende And then Warner, the author, goes on with a longer story than Geoffrey indulges in; what may be Warner's authority is untold in the work before us. He is considered, however, of "good yearres and honest reputation." See also another rare book, "The Pastime of the People," by Rastell, who mentions "Guiderius, son to Kymbeline, a mighty man and of high heart. A Roman, Hamond, slew him traitorously, and after, Arviragus, the king's brother, slew Hamond, and cast him into a water, which was therefore called Hamond Hauyn, whereof the town of Southampton take furst his name. Arviragus was made king the year of Christ 44. He denied fealty to Rome, encountered Vespasian, but peace was made by the mediation of Queen Guenissa. Arviragus ruled the land by such good laws, that all Europe spake of him with honour." Let us for a moment consider the derivation of the names which were bestowed by founder and conqueror successively on what was once a flourishing town, but which, "as the ocean encroached on the commodity of the haven, was deserted by the inhabitants for the island of Portsey (Portsea) adjoining." "As our island," says a modern writer, "changed its conquerors, and they their language, so did the castle its names. To the Britons it was known as Caer Peris, to the Romans as Portus Magnus, to the Saxons, and thence, as Porceastre-Porchester." Lambarde and some others have as sumed the notion, that this place "toke at first its name from one Port, a Saxon, that landed there in aid of Cerdic," but on close investigation, we are disposed to abide by Camden, who says, "Caer Peris changed its name to Portus Magnus, from Claudius Ptolemy, who wrote his geography in Greek, designating it the "Great Haven." Ceastre is the only Saxon part of the word, and this has been modernized in many instances to Chestre-Chester, having originally come from the Roman word Castra-an encampment or halting ground of one description or another. The word Caer (urbs, town), is still in common use as a prefix, but the origin of Peris was not so easily traced, and no wonder, seeing that the date of the reported founder's (King Perrex or Porrex) reign is fixed by some antiquaries as far back as seven hundred and fifty-two years before the birth of Christ, by others, three hundred and forty-six years. But is not the history of "How King Porrex was slaine by his brother King Porrex, about the yeare before Christ 491 ;" and of "How King Porrex, which slew his brother, was slaine by his own mother and her maidens, about the year before Christ 491," written in that "True chronicle historie of the untimely falle of such unfortunate princes and men of note as have happened since the first entrance of Brute into this our island, untill this our latter age." * At whatever period then we fix the reign and death of Peres, Perrox, or Porrox, the ancient town of Porchester received its its first name of Caer Peris in honour of him. History, subsequent to the period we have touched upon, is sufficiently clear. As men advanced in civilization, records more lasting than the bard's traditions were given to posterity, and the invasion of Britain by the Saxons, the substitution of their rude idol worship, for the more graceful superstition of the heathen mythology: albeit a ray of Divine light had shed its influence on the British Lucius, and passed away, leaving all darker than before, the Norman Conquest; and the events that followed have had no lack of able chroniclers. But the past, the past which cannot be recalled, the past closely and jealously veiled by the hand of time, hath charms to the thoughtful and enthusiastic, who are fain to content themselves with such associations as tradition has linked with the age whose mysteries they seek to penetrate, and thus every spot consecrated by such monuments as the one we speak of, revives events which, so to speak, lie below the horizon of " memory's waste." Porchester! behold it first as Caer Peris, bought with a brother's blood, a scene of deadly cruelty between the nearest and dearest relatives; next besieged by the ambitious Cæsar, and inhabited by a race whom Diodorus Siculus describes as a "faire conditioned people, plain, and of upright dealing," yet "fierce in warre, fighting not only with horse and footmen, but with chariots and wagons,t the Mirour of Magistrates. Rastell, also, says in his "Pastime for the People," Porrex and Ferrex strove for the land, but Porrex slew his brother, and therefore his mother called Idon, with her maidens, when he was asleep, cut him all to pieces, and after this the land was divided into three kingdoms." The laconic style in which such events are recorded by old chroniclers, proves how lightly they were considered at the time. + Pliny. axletrees armed at both ends with hooks and scythes, delighting in magic, with all complement of ceremonies," circumnavigating their island in osier vessels, and involved in a most lamentable chaos of superstitions. "The ugly spectres of Britannia," saith Gildas, were more diabolical, exceeding well neere in number those of Egypt," fighting desperately for their liberty hand to hand with the Roman legions of Cæsar; "now in the shallows, now in the sand; beaten at one moment, yet rallying by force or by stratagem; now casting their darts from their chariots, now jumping from the vehicles while at full speed, and now springing on the backs of their terrified and bewildered horses, and charging like so many centaurs the enemy's phalanx, as he strove to gain a footing on the shore; and finally, with yells of savage fury, giving way to discipline, rendering up their hostages, and submitting to pay the tribute." It was from Arviragus's determination to resist the "rendering tribute unto Cæsar," that the wall of defence at Porchester was built, and strengthened, and defended. The Romans, under Julius Cæsar, found the Britons living in forests and huts, but rude entrenchments of earth had been thrown up at such points of landing as commanded the encroachments of enemies. Those Druid woods, those sacred groves, those mysterious sacrifices, those terrific shrines! behold these haunts invaded by the advent of dissolute and daring soldiery! Even now the depths of those forest aisles are penetrated by us with sentiments of awe, as we call to mind how their sylvan temples were profaned by the rush of accoutred legions. Lo! the golden sickles fall from the trembling hands of panic-stricken vestals, the aged priests pause in their sacrificial rites, and the victims of cruel superstition rush from their doom into the recesses overshadowed by the sacred mistletoe; the clang of arms succeeds the invocations of the idol worshippers, and amid the shades of stately oaks, the ribaldry of the Roman army unites in terrific chorus with the shrieks of women and the curses of "the sons of Brennus," while the remnant of the priesthood, in fear and doubt, make their stealthy way across the land and sea, seeking rest, and finally dying for their faith at Mona (Isle of Anglesea). In the days of Cymbeline, we may believe Caer Peris to have lain in peaceful security. Britain was a Roman province, nominally tributary to Augustus Cæsar, who so loved Cymbeline, that he cared not always to enforce the payment of the tribute. Those days of Cymbeline, the son of Theomantius! of whom says Lanquette," There is nothing written but that in his reign our Saviour Jesus Christ, the very light of the world was born of the Virgin Mary." At this epoch the war trumpet of the world was silenced, the Temple of Janus was shut, Christ was declared from the heavens, there were voices in the sky proclaiming peace on earth and good-will towards men; the very Sibyls unconsciously announced our Saviour's coming, the angel Gabriel descended to the temple, forewarning Zacharias that his son John the Baptist should be the herald of the Redeemer, and Virgil unintentionally foreshadowed the descent of God's Son upon earth. • Gold was in use among the Britons at this time, as has been proved by contemporaneous writers: an ancient British corslet of gold was found some years ago at Mold, in Flintshire. But, alas! alas! Heathenism was still rife; even the Jewish king Herod, albeit he was desirous of finding favour in the eyes of the people he ruled, sought to please Cæsar by introducing the Roman eagle, the bird of Jove, among the ornaments of the temple, whose beauty he affected to restore; the Baptist fell a victim to the enchantments of the dancing daughter of Herodias; a few poor fishermen alone followed the fortunes of the meek and lowly Jesus; Jove reigned supreme in Britain, and the destinies of nations were ruled by the inferences which augurs drew from the mangled limbs of cruelly slaughtered animals. Such were the circumstances connected with the early days of Porchester. While Arviragus reigned, St. Mark the Evangelist, preached the Gospel in Egypt; the light of Christianity was already irradiating the shores which had so long been darkened by the errors of superstition, and from which the Jews, still obstinate, had been released by a merciful and patient God; but the little peninsula which then, as now, stretched out its green banks beneath the downs of Hampshire, its battlements reflected in the clear haven which protectingly encircles it, lay buried in the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death. The Druid fanes were levelled with the dust, but other altars desecrated the vernal forests; Rome sent hither her ships, her artificers, her nobles; the land was apparently blessed, fair, indeed, to the eye, but unsound within; the name of Christ was unknown, and crumbling edifices which men raised to defend their nation from invaders are indicative of the unstable tenure by which they held their country, their rights and their lives. War yet holds her bloody sway among the most civilized nations of the earth. It is still necessary to establish defences for our land; our ramparts still bristle with guns, our forts bid defiance to invaders, our armaments" go down to the sea in ships;" our envoys smile with daggers at their hearts in foreign courts; but England, amid her difficulties, plants with a strong and determined hand, the standard of the Gospel above all other banners. Her reign will end, but her name will never die. She may perish "as the garment fretted by the moth," her ancient and modern attributes of fame may sink beneath the waters that now protect her; but the Cross of Christ which she hath helped to raise, and hath carried into the depths of the wilderness, will be to her an unfading type of grace and glory, a rallying point at which her Army of the Faithful shall hereafter meet in triumph and in peace. One might wander on from one event to another, but we think we have said enough of the epoch which has interested ourselves, to tempt the most careless traveller into a glance at Porchester as he passes it. If so, we bid him take a solitary ramble through the ruins; but let him draw what inferences he may; let him ponder with doubt, or certitude, or pleasure, as the case may be, on the contemporary history of the times of the Cæsars, the Saxons or the Normans, but bid him not trust to the traditions of a guide, who will dispel as she has already done, all the dim visions of a world of mystery, all his castles in the air, by informing him that " Porchester Castle was built when Julius Cæsar came over to Britain to marry Queen Elizabeth!' THE FOREST RIDE OF A WEST INDIA PLANTER. EDITED BY W. H. MAXWELL, ESQ. "Who thundering comes on blackest steed, With spur of fire, and hoof of speed!"-The Giaour. I WAS scarcely fourteen, and an employé in a mercantile house in Trinidad, when, in order to complete the cargo of a vessel which was about to sail for Europe, it was necessary that a quantity of sugar should be forwarded from the interior of the island to the port, and that, too, with the least possible delay. When this intelligence was communicated to Mr., evening was setting in, the sky was dark and threatening, and a sudden change of temperature, added to other well-known intimations of a coming hurricane, discouraged the two senior clerks from undertaking what, they very properly considered, would prove a disagreeable mission. Aware of my equestrian propensities, and as a last resource, Mr. proposed the duty, and the use of a black cob, to me. The overture jumped with my humour, as Dr. Ollapod says-if I did not embrace him, I did his offer and reckless both of sounds and signs, which too surely foreboded a coming tempest, in a few minutes I was settled on the pig-skin, and also upon the back of as intractable a quadruped as ever had been dispatched on a sugar-hunting expedition in Trinidad on the eve of a hurricane. Jumbo, as my black charger was named, seemed anything but well inclined for the evening's excursion. With him, "coming events threw their shadows before,"-and, like gentlemen who in old times, en route to Tyburn, and when regularly settled ❝ in cart, Very often took leave, but seem'd slow to depart," it was only by the smart application of a rattan and heels unprovided with iron, that I did overcome his objection to the road. We started-he, evidently, in any mood but a contented one, and I, in full anticipation of a pleasurable excursion. Mr. Murphy, whose memory will exist so long as almanacs remain, never detected a gathering tornado with half the precision that Jumbo evinced on this momentous evening. Wisdom crieth in the streets in vain, and in the woods of Trinidad her warnings are even less attended to. Affrighted birds cleft the air on hurried wing; cattle bellowed and hastened from field to shed and stable; from sugarcane and coffee-plantations, the negroes retreated in double quick; window and shutter were closed jealously; and every hut and house we passed, showed note of preparation to encounter the elemental war; but still, on we went. As Jumbo and I neared an extensive wood, down came the night with startling rapidity,-for twilight, apparently but a span's length, only divided the day from "murky midnight." The stars seemed discarded from the sky; deep, deep darkness set in; the moaning wind changed to furious and frequent gusts; for heaven's floodgates seemed actually to have been expanded, and the rain came down not in showery successions, but barrels-full. The thunder that had for some time muttered in the distance, rapidly drew closer, until at last it seemed to have collected its whole fury for a concentrated volley, and that directly over head. If the rider's skin had been Mackintoshed, its waterproof qualities on this occasion would have been, as I verily believe, found want |