Extracts of Letters, &c. to the AUTHOR

I

and EDITOR.

Cannot but congratulate the present Age, that fuch a Genius for Antiquities is risen amongst us : from whose Researches and Difcoveries the World may expect much publick Service. Macte virtute efto. A. B.

I

Have read over your Hiftory, &c. of WHEATFIELD, and, next that of Colchester 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

I

B. C.

Muft not forget to thank you for the Loan of

your Antiquities, &c. I hope you intend to make them publick; 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 humi, as well as the best of you Contemporaries. I wish, contrary to my Expectations, the ungrateful World may pay you for your Labours.

G 4

C. D.

To

1

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

SATURN, or Time, no more fhall Britons fear,

Drawn are his Teeth, and run is his Career;
No longer fierce the Column to confume,
Or dufty o'er the Heroe'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 Afhes 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.

OLD

On the Same.

D. E.

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

Have a Care of yourself, there's 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.

Ad Eundem.

E. F.

UUM potis es feclis tritis revocare nitorem, Heu! quondam forma prifca Corinna petit. Ars tua nil magni refugit; miferere Corinna Dentes, quos dempfti a Tempore, dentur ei.

Cum multis aliis.

E. G.

THE

THE

HISTORY

O F

WHEATFIEL D.

T

HE ancient Villa or Parish of WHEAT

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 ftands 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] Britonum 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

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 Traffick 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 à 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 obscure Villages adjacent; for in a Chartulary of the Grants to St. John's Abbey in Colchester, I find that Geffrey de Amblé gave four Acres of Land at Elmfert, near (ignotum per notum) WHEATFIELD.

Neither Poft, Coach, nor Stage-Waggon, set out from hence, nor are they in the leaft wanted; for the Waggons, Tumbrels, and Horfes of the Place are always fufficient to carry out the Inhabitants and their Commodities, as far as they have ever Occafion to go; and the fingle Poftage of a Letter to London will amply pay a Meffenger to the utmost Extent of their Correspondence.

[o] Johnfon's Dict.

WHEAT

WHEATFIEID 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 PhATEFELD, PDATE fignifying Wheat, and FELD Field; which the Moderns, for want of Skill in the Saxon Tongue, mistaking its Etymology, now corruptly call WHATFIELD. There are not wanting learned Men, I confefs, who adhere to the vulgar Reading; and in fupport of it fuppofe, 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 frequent [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 IlId; 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 Æra's. Upon all the Reverses are either CERES AVGVSTA or CERES FRVGIFERA, with Emblems of Wheat Ears and Cornucopias; from which Circumstance 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.