e said at the time to be Roman, but since tobacco
was not introduced till the reign of Elizabeth that idea was rejected.
In the year 1904, however, a large quantity of fragments of similar clay
pipes were found in the ruins of the Roman fort of Aliso, near Halteren
on the river Lippe, in Western Germany, some of rude structure, some
decorated with figures and Roman characters. They were lying at a depth
of 9 feet below the surface, and had evidently lain undisturbed since the
time of the Roman occupation. From the marks upon them it was manifest
that they had been used, and it is now known from the statements of the
Roman historian Pliny, and the Greek Herodotus, that the use of narcotic
fumes was not unknown to the Romans, as well as to other ancient nations;
the material used was hemp seed and cypress grass. In the Berlin
Ethnological Museum, also, vessels of clay are preserved, which are
supposed to have been used for a like purpose. This discovery, then, at
Horncastle is very interesting as adding to our Roman remains, and we may
picture to ourselves the Roman sentinel taking his beat on the old castle
walls and solacing himself, after the manner of his countrymen, with his
pipe. (An account of this later discovery is given in a German
scientific review for August, 1904, quoted _Standard_, August 12, 1904).

Of what may be called the close of this early historic period in
connection with Horncastle there is little more to be said. The Roman
forces withdrew from Britain about A.D. 408. The Britons harried by
their northern neighbours, the Picts and Scots, applied for assistance to
the Saxons, who, coming at first as friends, but led to stay by the
attractions of the country, gradually over-ran the land and themselves in
turn over-mastered the Britons, driving them into Wales and Cornwall.
The only matter of interest in connection with Horncastle, in this
struggle between Saxon and Briton, is that about the end of the 5th
century the Saxon King Horsa, with his brother Hengist, who had greatly
improved the fort at Horncastle, were defeated in a fight at Tetford by
the Britons under their leader Raengeires, and the British King caused
the walls to be nearly demolished and the place rendered defenceless.
(Leland's _Collectanea_, vol i, pt. ii, p. 509).

[Picture: North-east corner of the Castle Wall, in Dog-kennel Yard]

The Saxons in their turn, towards the close of the 8th century, were
harassed by marauding