those places which were most convenient for their invasion -viz., Richborough, Walmer, Dover and Hastings." [1]
For here at any rate we find the Dover Monks, writing at a time when the incorporation of Hastings with the other ports was still comparatively recent, yet ascribing to her an existence of several centuries prior to that incorporation, and a like origin with Richborough and Dover, of whose existence as Roman places of strength there has never been any doubt. But, while the monks think it likely that Arviragus was the fortifier of Hastings towards the expiration of the Roman dominion , the circumstance of the times would render it far more probable that Hastings was fortified at least as early as when the Romans placed the south -eastern maritime district under military organization. After their first wars of subjugation were over, they held peaceable possession for three centuries ; but from that time the Barbarian hordes from the North and East, began to harass the empire; and these shores became subject to the periodical attacks of the Saxons, so much so that the whole coast, long before it had any Saxon inhabitants, was known as the Litus Saxonicum or Saxon shore ; in the same way as the borders of England subject to the incursions of the Scotch and Welsh , were called respectively the Scottish and Welsh Marches : and it became neccessary to appoint a governor who had special charge of the Kent and Sussex shore under the name of Comes Tractus Maritimi, Count of the Maritime -
- ↑ Leland. De rebus Britannicis Collectanea , ii, 50.
