n and
Lewes, where the principal scene of action must have been, and bearing
every Roman mark.

That there was a Roman station in this neighbourhood is admitted by the
antiquarians, though its exact situation is not as yet ascertained. The
Portus Aldurni, placed by the learned Selden at Aldrington, two miles to
the west of Brighthelmston, is by the ingenious Tabor presumed to have
been at East Bourne, eighteen miles to the east of it: yet there are many
local and incidental circumstances belonging to this place, and which are
wanting in those towns, that render a conjecture probable as to its having
been a Roman station.

The Praepositus of the Exploratores, whose office was to discover the
state and motions of the enemy, and who was certainly in this part of
Sussex, could be no where more advantageously placed than in the elevated
situations of the strong camps at Hollingsbury and White-Hawke, commanding
a most extensive view of the whole coast from Beachy-Head to the Isle of
Wight. The form of this town is almost a perfect square; the streets are
built at right angles to each other, and its situation is to the south
east, the favourite one among the Romans. To these may be added, that an
urn has been some time ago dug up in this neighbourhood, containing a
thousand silver denarii marked from Antoninus Pius to Philip, during which
tract of time Britain was probably a Roman province. And, lastly, the
vestiges of a true Roman via running from Shoreham towards Lewes, at a
small distance above this town have been lately discovered by an ingenious
gentleman truly conversant in matters of this nature.

The light sometimes obtained in these dark matters from a similitude of
sounds in the ancient and modern names of places, is not to be had in
assisting the present conjecture. Its ancient one, as far as I can learn,
is no way discoverable; and its modern one may be owing either to this
town's belonging formerly to, or being countenanced in a particular manner
by a Bishop Brighthelm, who, during the Saxon government of the island,
lived in this neighbourhood: or perhaps may be deduced from the ships of
this town having their helms better ornamented than those of their
neighbouring ones.

It is true here are no hypocausts, Mosaic pavements, inscriptions, or any
other delicate monuments of Roman antiquity,[4] that might corroborate in
a stronger manner this supposition: these, if any such existed here, have
been defaced by ti