was not the first time on the journey that I had missed the excellent Felix Chassepot, but I confess when I passed by Monsieur Hummel's establishment, in the Rue des Serruriers, it was with a pang that I reflected the absence of one who would not have failed to pronounce the most brilliant eulogium, as well on the "estimable bête" which supplies the matériel for the pâté, as on the accomplished pâtissier who has acquired such universal fame by his mode of preparing them.

upon

Bobèche, however, had not been silent on the way. He instructed me in many things which it was important for me to know, narrated various anecdotes of our masters, with whom he had already been a journey into Italy, and when he left off talking, invariably broke into song, so that, to me at least, the time since we left Fontainebleau, was very agreeably filled up. My impression of the road itself refers to later experience.

Monsieur de Courtine had a motive for not lingering at Strasbourg, so our stay there was a brief one, and Bobèche and I were sent forward with as much expedition as we could use to engage apartments at Baden Baden. This would have been no easy matter for a less accomplished courier than my companion, for the summer season was at its height, and the place crowded to excess, but by dint of cajolery, impudence, and promises of a most magnificent, but at the same time of a very indefinite nature, he succeeded in inducing the landlord of the Hôtel de l'Europe to relinquish for our use a splendid suite, which had been engaged for some time by a Russian Prince, who was expected daily. This done, we again mounted our horses, and rode back to meet the travellers, whom we encountered at Stollhofen, and escorted in triumph to the queen of watering places.

A VISIT TO THE GRAVES OF THE FOLLOWERS OF HENGIST AND HORSA.

BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A.

It was, according to the most probable calculations, in one of the years between 440 and 450, that a party of warriors from the coast of Friesland-" pirates" some call them, but in those days the distinction was not very easily made, and we can now see little difference in this respect between the conquests of a Cæsar or of a Hengist-swept over that sea which their own minstrels designated by the expressive epithet of the "whale's bath," and obtained possession of the Isle of Thanet. The tradition-perhaps we may call it the fable-of after ages, said that they were led by two chiefs named Hengist and Horsa; that they had been banished from their own country, and that they came hither at the invitation of the Britons, who sought their assistance against domestic enemies. The commonly received story of Hengist and Horsa will, however, hardly bear a critical examination, and those worthies appear to have belonged rather to the mythic poetry of the heroic ages of the north, than to the sober annals of Saxon warfare in our island. The names are nearly synonymous in meaning, each signifying a horse, an animal reverenced by

the people of whom we are speaking, who carried it on their standard, and in this sense it may be perfectly true, that the settlers in the Isle of Thanet were, in this expedition of conquest and colonisation, the followers of Hengist and of Horsa.

At this time, England had been for many generations a Roman province, covered with Roman towns and villas, and inhabited by Romans and Romanised natives, who used the Roman manners and customs, and spoke the Latin tongue. The Isle of Thanet was, in these early ages, separated from the rest of Kent by a more considerable river than at present, and by what was then more like an estuary of the sea than a mere succession of marshes and morasses. On the south, this was defended by the strong Roman post of Richborough, or, as it was then called, Rhutupiæ, the grand port of entry of the Romans into Britain, and the spot from whence their luxurious tables were supplied with the choicest oysters, the shells of which are still scattered in profusion among the pottery and other remains which the spade of the husbandman or the pick of the "navy" is constantly turning up. On the north stood the no less formidable station of Regulbium, the remains of which are now known by the name of Reculver. We know little of the manner in which the Isle of Thanet was occupied by the Romans; no towns are mentioned there in their itineraries; but the number of Roman coins and other antiquities found in laying the foundations of Ramsgate pier, and the remains of Roman burial places in the neighbourhood, prove that that great people must have had a settlement of some importance at Ramsgate, and their presence has been traced by similar memorials in the neighbourhood of Minster.

It was at Ebbs-fleet, or, in other words, in the port of Richborough, that the followers of Hengist and Horsa came to land. The Saxon fleets had long infested the eastern shores of Britain with their incursions; and, in the long series of usurpations of the imperial title by governors of the island during the latter period of Roman sway, the Saxon and Roman ships had frequently ridden, side by side, in friendly alliance. In fact, it is probable that the Romano-British navy consisted in a greater degree than we suppose of Saxon mariners. It is not unlikely that they had formed settlements on the eastern coast, called after them, the Littus Saxonicum, long before the Roman legions had relinquished the island. Richborough, the chief station of the Roman navy, would be the last post deserted; and a comparison of the various traditions on the subject, with the few facts that are known, would lead us to suppose that these Saxon settlers came rather as the allies of the Romans than under any other character, and that they established themselves in Thanet under the protection of Regulbium and Rhutupiæ, rather than in fear of these strong fortresses. As the support of the Roman power was eventually withdrawn, supremacy in the province of Britain was left to be contended for in a confused struggle between the new Saxon settlers, the older and more civilised Romano-British population, and the barbarian Picts and Scots of the north. It is not improbable even that much of the Roman population, who had been long accustomed to fight under the same banner with the Saxons in support of their own usurpers, joined with them in this new struggle for power; the two peoples must have been long in the habit of mixing together; along the Saxon coast, the population was probably a mêlée of the two; even Roman legions in Britain consisted in some instances of Saxon, or at least of German,

soldiers; and when the followers of Hengist and Horsa had obtained an acknowledged right to the Isle of Thanet, their numbers and strength were soon increased by fresh arrivals from their native country. When the Roman eagle at last bid adieu to the shores of Britain, it is likely enough that Richborough and Regulbium were left in their possession, and from thence, after their occupation had been for a brief period restricted to the Isle of Thanet, they issued forth to make themselves masters of a more extensive domain, the chief seat of which was established at the Roman city of Durobernum, to which the Saxons gave the name of Cantwara-byrig, or the city of the Kentish-men, which it still retains under the slightly altered form of Canterbury. We have proofs that in the Isle of Thanet itself the Saxon settlers intermixed with the Roman population, in the circumstances which will be noticed further on, that the two peoples are found burying in the same cemeteries; and it appears that Richborough and Reculver were favourite residences of the first Kentish kings subsequently to the adoption of Canterbury as their capital. Richborough still continued to be the port of communication with Gaul.

Within the last few months Canterbury and Ramsgate have been joined together by one of those wonderful structures peculiar to modern society-a railway, and one which, from the nature of the ground over which it runs, affords as great a proportion of interesting views as almost any other line of the same length. You leave Canterbury amid the rich and varied scenery so common to the Kentish districts, and which continues until after passing the station of Grove Ferry, you touch upon the extensive marshes which separate Thanet from the rest of Kent. At a short distance further the view each way becomes more extensive, and you see at once distinctly to the left the twin towers, the only remaining portion of the monastic establishment which formerly occupied the area of the Roman fortress at Reculver, and in the opposite direction the Roman walls of Richborough. The scenery is again more picturesque as you approach Minster, and after passing that station the ground becomes more and more uneven until, within little more than a mile of Ramsgate, the railway passes through a deep cutting in the chalk hills. This hill is called Osengell Down ; its old name was Osendun.

A pleasant walk of about a mile and a half brings the visitor from Ramsgate to the top of Osengell Downs, and is well repaid by the magnificent prospect it affords. It is still open ground, the only habitation being a house known by the name of the Lord of the Manor, which it bore recently as a public house, but it is now a private residence. On one side of the railway cutting the ground is covered with a crop of sainfoin, on the other a field of sprouting corn gives it a hue of brighter green; but no outward marks gave reason for suspecting that any thing lay under the surface more than is found under similar circumstances elsewhere, when the operation of cutting for the railway about two years ago led to the discovery that the whole summit of the hill is covered with the graves of the early Saxon settlers in the isle of Thanet. Within the narrow space of the railway cutting about two hundred graves are supposed to have been destroyed, and their contents were thrown heedlessly and confusedly into the immense heap of chalk and soil cleared out of the excavation, with the exception of a comparatively small number of interesting articles which found their way into the hands of Mr. W. H.

Rolfe, of Sandwich, one of the most zealous antiquarian investigators and collectors in this part of Kent. Mr. Rolfe's attention was immediately called to the spot, and through his exertions and intelligence only the true extent of the discovery was made known to science. The graves cut through by the railway workmen appear to bear an exceedingly small proportion to those which still lie thickly scattered under the ground which is untouched, filled with articles that are of value, because they enable us to judge of the condition and manners of our forefathers at this remote period. Mr. Rolfe immediately obtained a full and exclusive permission to excavate in every part of this now interesting spot, and last summer, with the assistance of Mr. C. R. Smith, he opened a number of graves, the produce of which fully repaid him for his labour. At the beginning of the present month of May, it was determined to renew these operations, and Mr. Smith and myself were invited again to assist, for which purpose we assembled with two or three antiquarian friends at the hospitable house of Mr. Rolfe, at Sandwich, from whence we proceeded each day to the scene of our labours, which began on the morning of the 3rd of May.

The ride from Sandwich to Osengell, on a clear day, is exceedingly fine. The distance is somewhat less than six miles. At first the character of the scenery, and especially the back view upon the town of Sandwich, is purely Flemish. The only remarkable rising ground is the hill to the left, on the summit of which the dark skeleton of Roman Richborough frowns in silent and melancholy grandeur, a weather-beaten memorial of times and people whose story is now involved in almost impenetrable mystery. When we visited the ruins of Richborough on the preceding evening, the voice of a lone nightingale was the only watchword to the warriors who have so long reposed in peace under its green sod. This morning, as we passed it on our way, a long line of white curling vapour marked the progress of a ballast train on the railway now constructing immediately beneath it at the foot of the hill, until it gradually disappeared among the distant trees, over which, a little further on, might be seen the tower of Minster church. Not far beyond Richborough, on the flat ground below, we perceived on the same side of the road a large tumulus or barrow, which (as this is supposed to have been the mode of burial with which among the Romans those who fell in battle were more especially honoured) perhaps covers the bones of a Roman officer who fell in some of the combats in which the Rhutupian garrison had partaken. Hitherto the prospect lies open only to the left; to the right low uninteresting ground, through which the muddy, tortuous Stour drags its course, is easily concealed by a few houses, or stunted plantations. But as these disappear, and the road suddenly approaches nearer the sea shore, the waters of Pegwell Bay open before us, and a long line of distant cliffs terminated by Ramsgate pier and the shipping in Ramsgate harbour form a bold feature in the view. A strip of low swampy ground, dangerous at some periods of the year to those who are betrayed into it, and even now enlivened only by the blue dress of an occasional coast-guardsman, picking his way in search of smugglers by whom this coast has long been infested, separates the sea from the road on which we were travelling. As we pass a tavern, called from its position between Sandwich and Ramsgate, the Half-way House, the road, which before had had no other hedge than a few low bushes of blackthorn, on this occasion whitened with blossom, begins to be bordered

with hawthorn hedges, and we commence a gradual ascent, during which the prospect to the left is cut off by the rising hill, but to the right and behind us the view becomes more glorious at every step. Richborough still continues to present itself as a bold feature in the landscape, and beyond it lies Sandwich, and the line of coast stretching out towards Deal. Higher up the distant line of the Kentish hills offers itself to our view, and the prospect extends over the sea to the Downs and to the remoter coast of France; and when, at length, we reach the spot on which the followers of Hengist and Horsa were buried, with the same magnificent prospect towards the sea, the line of the Kentish hills becomes more extensive inland and the towers of Canterbury cathedral are added to the intermediate landscape; a noble burial-place for men whose birthright it was to play with the ocean, and who had so recently made themselves masters of the valleys that lay extended below.

When we reached Osengell we found that the workmen had already opened three or four graves, to within about a foot of the bottom, at which point they were directed to leave them till our arrival. The graves are dug into the chalk, on an average not more than four feet deep, and often less. They lay apparently in rows, and were, no doubt, originally covered, like the Saxon graves in other parts of the island, with low mounds or barrows, which have been levelled with the surrounding soil by the action of wind and weather, in this exposed situation, during so long a period. Our method of finding them was, to dig trenches on the ground to the surface of the solid chalk, in which they were cut. Along the edges of the railway cutting graves half destroyed may be traced here and there as dips in the line of chalk.

The first grave we examined proved to be an extremely interesting one. It contained three skeletons, evidently those of a man, a woman, and a child of about thirteen or fourteen years of age. All three were laid on the floor of the grave, arm-in-arm, in a posture which could not but give us an advantageous opinion of the domestic and affectionate character of our earliest Anglo-Saxon forefathers. The mother occupied the middle of the grave, with her husband to the right, and a large iron spear-head, in good preservation, literally separated their mouths. The skulls and much of the bones were tolerably well preserved, but some parts, and most of the articles of wood and iron, could only be traced by masses of black and dark brown powder, into which they had been reduced by the process of decomposition. Beneath the chin of the man lay one large bead of amber, and at his waist was found the buckle of his belt, and the small knife which generally accompanies the bodies of the Anglo-Saxons. The lady had a string of amber beads round her neck, and a bronze pin found in front, a little below her waist, appeared to have fastened the lower part of her mantle. The profusion of beads of amber and glass which had been twisted round the neck of the child, led us to suppose that it was a girl, although it had also a small knife by its side. A pair of bronze tweezers (such as are not unfrequently found in AngloSaxon barrows, and appear to have been used for eradicating hairs from the person), and a few fragments of less importance, were found in this grave.

There can be no doubt that these three bodies were interred at the same time, and the imagination is left to seek a cause to account for their simultaneous deaths, which must have occurred in consequence of some epidemic disease, or by violence. Perhaps the whole family may have