the great emperor of that name, in the 18th year of whose reign , Britain was lost to Rome, was found quite recently towards the southern extremity of the mound : and Mr. Ross has discovered traces of Roman ironworks in the Priory Valley.
Within 300 years of the departure of the Romans we first meet with a notice of the town under its present appellation of Hastings, but always in Saxon times with the significant addition of Chester , and it is in fact so called in the Bayeux tapestry. This term ,I believe, invariably indicates that the town so distinguished occupies the site of a Roman Castra or Camp. Now the Romans assuredly would not merely defend the heights above, but also make use of, and strengthen the British defences of the bay below ,where the inhabitants and ships would most require protection . That the British town became in course of time a Roman one with municipal rights, is further evidenced by the term , Baron or Combaron, which has from time immemorial been used to distinguish our representatives, whether in the Commons House of Parliament or when assembled in Brotherhood and Guestling with the other Ports, and, generally , the free men of the Cinque Ports ; and which we are told on the great legal authority of Coke - indubitably points to a Roman origin of the corporate body in which it is used. That our town was supposed to have been fortified 600 years before the present castle was built, is clear from the celebrated pas sage in the Chronicles of the Dover Monastery : " When Arviragus threw off the Roman yoke, it is likely he fortified -
