Extracts of Letters, &. to the AUTHOR and EDITOR.

I Cannot but congratulate the prefent Age, that fuch a Genius for Antiquities is rifen amongst us: from whose Researches and Difcoveries the World may expect much public Service. Mate virtute efto. A. B.

I

Have read over your Hiftory, &c. of WHEATFIELD, and, next that of Calchefter in the Year 1748, I think it the best and most useful Book that has been written, of many Years, upon that Subject. — I am certain your Dedication can give no Offence, though you had not fpecial License: I fhould be proud of it, could it be transferred to

B. C.

I Muft not forget to thank you for the Loan of your Antiquities, &c. I hope you intend to make them public; the Chain, as far as it continues whole, is excellently difpofed, and, where broken, is happily amended by natural Conjectures; and your Stile, like the Emblem of your Subject, ferpit bumi, as well as the best of your Contemporaries, I wish, contrary to my Expectations, the ungrateful World may pay you for your Labours.

To the unknown AUTHOR and EDITOR of the HISTORY and ANTIQUITIES of WHEATFIELD.

SATURN, or Time, no more shall Britons fear,

Drawn are his Teeth, and run is his Career; No longer fierce the Column to confume, Or dufty o'er the Hero's nodding Plume. By you fet free, and, prompt at your Command, See Pillars, Columns, Arches cloud the Land! Heroes, that long in Duft and Ashes lay,

Start from their Tombs, and cry, Come, come away, You give Oblivion nought but trivial Things, Songs to the Fair, and Birth-day Odes to Kings.

On the Same.

D. E,

LD Time, with your Scythe, and your Snake,
and your Glass,

Have a Care of yourself, there's a a Snake in the Grafs!
A Snake, like the Serpent in MOSES's Hand,
That will eat up your Snake at the Word of Com-
mand.
E. F.

Ad Eundem

UUM potis es feclis tritis revocari nitorem, Heu! quondam forma prifca Corinna petit. Ars tua nil magna refugit; miferere Corinna; Dentes, quos dempti a Tempore, dentur-ei,

Cum multis aliis.

F. G.

THE

THE

HISTORY

OF

WHEATFIELD.

HE ancient Villa or Parish of WHEAT

TH

FIELD lies on the South-weft Part of the County of Suffolk, in the 52d Degree, 12 Minutes of Northern Latitude, and diftant from London 66 Miles. It stand upon the South and East Side of a lofty Hill, and gradually rifing from the River Brett, which begins at a Village called Brettenham [a], Pritonum Villa, and ends at Higham in the faid County, where it empties itself into the Stour, the River that Parts Suffolk from Effex;

Quo non alius per pinguia culta

In Sturam puram dilectior influit amnis.

There are no lefs Number than five Bridges, three of Brick, and two of Wood, over the Brett, and five

[a] Baxt. Gloff.

Water

Water-mills, all within the compass of three Miles; befides a Ford, call Overgang, probably fo named by the Scots, upon paffing this River at that Place; the Word Gang being of [b] Scotish Extraction. Thefe numerous Communications were made for the Sake and Convenience of carrying on the 'Traffic of Wheat; and the no lefs numerous Mills (all of them to this Day Corn-mills) were erected with a View to the fame End; for it does not appear, from the oldest Records, that ever any Manufacture was established here, or any where near, fo as to make this Village a Thorough-fare,

So noted was this Place, even fince the Conqueft, that it appears to have been made a Guide or Direction to the more obfcure Villages adjacent; for in a Chartulary of the Grants to St. John's Abbey in Colchester, I find that Gefrey de Amble gave four Acres of Land at Elmfert, near (ignotum per notum). WHEATFIELD.

Neither Poft, Coach, nor Stage-Waggon, sets out from hence, nor are they in the least wanted; for the Waggons, Tumbrels, and Horfes of the Places are always fufficient to carry out the Inhabitants and their Commodities, as far as they have ever Occafion to go; and the single Postage of a Letter to Londen will amply pay a Meffenger to the utmoft Extent of their Correfpondence.

[b] Johnfon's Dia.

WHEAT

WHEATFIELD was called by the Romans, VILLA FRUMENTARIA, and fometimes, hyperbolically, SICILIA BRITANNICA, for the Excellency and Plenty of Wheat growing therein. The Saxons called it WATEFELD, WHATE fignifying Wheat, andFELDField; which theModerns, for want of Skill in the Saxon Tongue, miftaking its Etymology, now corruptly call WHATFIELD. There are not wanting learned Men, I confefs, who adhere to the Vulgar Reading; and in support of it suppose, that the Saxons, out of Surprize and Amazement at the Fertility of the Place, cried out, What Feld! And from that Moment, according to the capricious and licentious Nomination of Men and Things of those Times, called it WHATFELD.

It appears to have been a Roman Station, from the fre uent [c] Foffa in many Parts of the Villa; and by the [d] Coins often plough'd up in a Field called Caftle Field, to have been in their Hands from the Beginning of Claudius to the Death of Valentinian IIId; when the Roman Eagle took its Flight from

[c] Dion. Amm. Mar.

[d] Camden tells us, that from the Time of Claudius to that of Valentinian, the Roman Coin only was current in this Nation. It is certain all the Coins found here begin and end at thofe Ara's. Upon all the Reverfes are either CERES AVGVSTA or CERES FRVGIFERA, with Emblems of Wheat Ears and Cornucopiae; from which Circumftance I collect that this particular Money was coined for the Use of this Village, and that its Currency probably never exceeded the Boundaries of it.

Britain