Notice of Books

( lxii ) NOTICE OE BOOK. A Short Account of the Becords of Bichborough. By W. D. 2nd Edition. Price 3d. Margate: Printed at the Isle of Thanet Gazette Office. 1913. We have received from Mr. W. Denne of Beltinge, Herne Bay, a little pamphlet with the above title, which professes to give a " short description and history of Eichborough . . . . from the works of the late C. Eoach Smith, G. Dowker and Papers published in Archceologia Oantiana, including the results of later researches at the Castrum undertaken by Mr. Garstang" (1900). Within the narrow limits of twelve small octavo pages of course it was impossible to do more than give the barest outline of what has been done to elucidate the history of the Castrum, but it maybe sufficient to enable the tourist to take an intelligent interest in what he sees, though we regret the opportunity of a second edition was not taken to amplify the sketch both from the historical and archaeological standpoint. That the Castrum was " one of the first stone-built forts in Britain, founded at an early period of the Eoman occupation," we take leave to doubt, expert opinion being fairly unanimous that the masonry exhibited at Eichborough is characteristic of an age relatively late in the Eoman occupation. Nor is it possible, we think, to connect, as the Author appears to do, the cruciform structure upon the platform of masonry within the Castrum with the coming of St. Augustine, or to describe it as a Christian symbol at all. Leland's "little parish church of St. Augustine" within the Castle has always been more or less of a puzzle, because the Eegisters of the See of Canterbury contain no entries relating to institutions of incumbents to the Church of Eichborough. But the Eegisters do contain such entries relating to the Church of Flete, which doubtless may be identified with the church mentioned by Leland. It was, however, not a parish church in the strict sense of the term—at any rate in Leland's time—but a chapelry attached to Ash, and, like that church, in the hands of the Provost and Canons of Wingham College. Mr. Denne is so good as to say that he proposes to devote any profit which may accrue from the sale of this little book to further excavations at Eichborough undertaken by the Kent Archseological Society. C. E. W.