A Roman Town Today

The current city of Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex (and actually the only city in West Sussex). Chichester's history is sprawled across the city in its Norman, Tudor, Georgian, and Victorian architecture. Though the majority of Chichester appears to be of the Georgian period, with its Norman cathedral, Chichester is a Roman town. It has a long history as a settlement from Roman times and was important in Anglo-Saxon times.

The suffix of -chester or -cester to English towns are common indications that the place is the site of a Roman castrum, meaning a military camp or fort. The area around Chichester is believed to have played significant part during the Roman Invasion of A.D 43, as confirmed by evidence of military storage structures.

The city centre stands on the foundations of the Romano-British city of Noviomagus Reginorum, capital of the Civitas Reginorum. The Roman Road of Stane Street, connecting the city with London, started at the east gate, while the Chichester to Silchester road started from the north gate. The current plan of the city is inherited from the Romans: the North, South, East and West shopping streets radiate from the central market cross dating from medieval times.

Many typical aspects of Roman cities (walls, baths, amphitheaters) are found in Chichester. Thick Roman walls were discovered, lasting for one and half thousand years, but were then replaced by a thinner Georgian wall.

Roman baths were also found and are on display in a museum, The Novium, which preserves and showcases the remnants of the baths, as well as presentes a history of the area from pre-Roman to the twentieth century.

An amphitheatre was built outside the city walls, close to the East Gate, in around 80 AD. The area is now a park, but the site of the amphitheatre is discernible as a gentle bank approximately oval in shape.

Like many great English cities, I've visited that began as Roman towns (York, Chester, London), it never ceases to amaze me how far back English history goes. Though towns may look only a few hundred years old, they are in fact thousands of years old.

What is Boxing Day?

As an American, I have no idea what Boxing Day is, except that it is on December 26th. (I asked an American friend who happens to live in England about Boxing Day. She referred to it as "Hangover Day." And it could be that now and then, too).

Since Boxing Day has been a national holiday in Britain, Ireland and Canada since 1871, how did it come to exist? There seems to be a few histories as to how Boxing Day began and what its purpose was:

1. Alms Giving
During Advent, Anglican parishes displayed a box for churchgoers to fill with monetary donations. The boxes were broken open the day after Christmas to distribute to the poor. 

2. Gift Giving
Since servants of the aristocracy were required to work for their employers on Christmas Day, they were given the following day off from work to visit their families. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts and bonuses, and sometimes leftover food.

3. Tip Giving
It was also customary for tradesman to receive money or presents, "Christmas boxes," on the day after Christmas as gratitude for good service throughout the year. Samuel Pepys' diary entry for December 19, 1663 mentions making an errand to the shoemakers to pay a bill and give to "the boys' box against Christmas."

Saturday 19 December 1663
Up and to the office, where we sat all the morning, and I laboured hard at Deering’s business of his deals more than I would if I did not think to get something, though I do really believe that I did what is to the King’sadvantage in it, and yet, God knows, the expectation of profit will have its force and make a man the more earnest. Dined at home, and then with Mr. Bland to another meeting upon his arbitration, and seeing we were likely to do no good I even put them upon it, and they chose Sir W. Rider alone to end the matter, and so I am rid of it. Thence by coach to my shoemaker’s and paid all there, and gave something to the boys’ box against Christmas. To Mrs. Turner’s, whom I find busy with Sir W. Turner, about advising upon going down to Norfolke with the corps, and I find him in talke a sober, considering man. So home to my office late, and then home to supper and to bed. My head full of business, but pretty good content.

(http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1663/12/19/)

When looking at the calendar, December 26th will no longer be a mystery to me.

What Is In a Title?

I’m currently reading Maria McCann’s As Meat Loves Salt, and every time I speak about the book, I wonder what that title means. So to the Internets I ventured!  

The phrase ‘as meat loves salt’ seems to have originated in the English fairy tale “Cap O’ Rushes.” To summarize the story:

 

A wealthy man has three daughters and asks each one how much they love him. First two daughters respond accordingly with answers such as ‘as much as the world’ and ‘as much as life’ while the third states she loves her father ‘much as meat loves salt’. She is cast out, dresses in rushes, and becomes a scullery maid in a great estate. The plotline proceeds much like “Cinderella” with a ball, which the third daughter attends dressed up in finery and catches the attention of the estate owner’s son, who of course falls madly in love with her and marries her. At the wedding feast, the daughter, now bride, orders that the food be prepared without salt. All the dishes were tasteless and awful. Her father attends the wedding feast as a guest not knowing that his own daughter was the bride. He finally realizes what his daughter had meant when she declared her love to him ‘as meat loves salt’. The bride revels herself as his daughter and hurrah for happy ending.

 

The full “Cap O’ Rushes” can be read here. The story was published in 1890 by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales.

 Since discovering the provenance of ‘as meat loves salt’, I’ve become fascinated by the depth of devotion and complexity the phrase conveys and how it is portrayed in this novel. As Meat Loves Salt is as intriguing a book as the phrase it is named after. I found myself suddenly enthralled with the plot and characters and before I knew it, 300 pages into the complex passionate actions of the characters. Set in the 1640’s, the historical framework seamlessly supports the story that you forget you are reading a historical novel and settle in to enjoy the intimate scenery McCann has woven on the page.

I will not say much more because in this instance because the less you know before reading the better.

 

 

I Wish I May, I Wish I Might...

With the new year upon us, it causes one to think of the wishes, hopes, and resolutions for the year ahead. Some wish to lose weight. Some resolve to eat better. Some hope for a change in their circumstances - a new job, a new house, a new {insert want or need}. At the heart of these explorations is a search into identity - who we think we are or should be or want to be seen as. 


In November 2010, historian Simon Schama published in The Guardian his vision of how and why history should be taught in schools. In this article, he states that history is not a measure to merely calm or please arguments and misfortunes. "It's exactly because history is, by definition, a bone of contention that the arguments it generates resist national self-congratulation."


The Greek word historia meant and was used as "inquiry."  The "father of history" Herodotus traveled and wrote about the people and places he saw examining the cultures and legends of regions he ventured through. So, according to Schama, the inquiry into a nation's history "is not the uncritical genealogy of the Wonderfulness of Us, but it is, indispensably, an understanding of the identity of us."  The investigation and analysis of history is integral to the self-examination of who we are today.


I am preoccupied with this inquiry into the past to better understand today. Who are we and why? What is the impact of this political incident or that economic event on the culture and society of a peoples? How did it all coalesce into a nation and a national identity? 


As an anglophile, I've chosen to delve in to British history to explore these questions. I hope to consider these weighty inquiries in this forum throughout the coming year. Answers may not be found and further questions may result, but the conversation will begin. 

Anglophilia

For the first entry, it seems appropriate to begin at the beginning: with etymology…

“Anglophile” derives from the Latin for English (Anglus) and the Greek for friend (phile) and simply means friendly to or favouring England (and later Britain), its people, customs, etc., according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Referenced in the French journal Revue des deux mondes in which the journal itself was described as “a thorough ‘Anglo-phile’ periodical.”

This particular modern periodical is intended to be a commentary on British history of all periods and topics, regions and identities. Particular attention will be paid to the construct of identity and what it means to be British, English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish.