Porchester, where I found myself late in the afternoon, is a very
interesting and curious place. What we really have that is ancient
there is a great walled green about six hundred feet square. We enter
this area to-day on the west, the outer gate being thus opposite to us
in the eastern wall, the castle keep and bailey on our left in the
north-west corner, and the church to the south-east. All this is
mediaeval work, but the origins of Porchester are far older than that;
the place was a fortress of the Romans.
It is certain that a Roman road ran, as I have said, from Southampton
to Chichester, which it entered by the West Gate, and met the Roman
military highway, the Stane Street which entered Chichester by the East
Gate, whither it had come from London' Bridge. This Roman road
doubtless served many a little port upon these creeks and harbours that
lie between Southampton Water and Chichester Harbour, but undoubtedly
the most important port upon that road, apart from the two cities which
it joined, was the Roman Porchester.
It has been suggested, and not without reason, that the Stane Street
itself dates only from the latter part of the Roman occupation of
Britain, that it was, in fact, a purely military way built for the
passage of troops, which until the fourth century were certainly not
needed in any quantity in southern Britain.
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