Octavius Freire Owen

“ Our end will be attained if we impress any mind with the value of Surrey records in their bearing upon the history of the English people, of the vast treasury of ancient lore which this county especially contains. Our business is, in this respect, one of compilation; the profit will result in the analysis by himself of the material submitted to each reader's mind ”

“ Commercial wealth, its progress through refinement, luxury, and effeminacy, to the final extinction of national greatness; the improvement in arts and arms, the defence of the homestead against the fortress; the recognition of plebeian liberty, the circumscription of feudal oppression, are cognizable from individual acumen exercised upon the sculptured urn and record of the dead; so that the true patriot becomes of necessity the antiquarian, and if history be looked to as the summary of ancient facts, she must rely for evidence upon the corroboration of archæology. ”

“ The footsteps of civilization, from their earliest faint trace upon the rugged and yet impressionable soil of the savage state to their perfected development in the polished empire, are to be ascertained, not from the confused medley of blended history, but, as individuals constitute the mass, from the archæological analysis of personal domestic life. ”

“ It is the habit of the house which attunes the temper of the nation, and the portraiture of its common daily existence gives us the truest index to the political changes of a people. If archæology therefore be frittered away upon trivialities, it is to the oblivion of its high import as the enunciator of historical record ”

“ After the more distant limbs of the kingdom have grown into new life, by a somewhat strange but gratifying anomaly the heart of the empire receives the arterial influence it should have primarily dispensed, and we are now assured of the popular establishment of an antiquarian association for London, to which our own society of Surrey stood the proud and willing sponsor. It is impossible to over4. ”

“ The spirit of the Surrey men also was conspicuous, in being the first to demand the restoration of the king; and the insurrection of Lord Villiers, at Kingston, was not put down without great effort. Though, since that period until the present, little of historical note is connected with the county, yet the above summary, brief as it is, will suffice to prove Surrey rich in materials for archæological display.
Some curious details relative to population in Surrey, arise from examination of the Patent Rolls. Thus, 23. Population. ”

“ ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE COUNTY OF SURREY.
By the Rev. OCTAVIUS FREIRE OWEN, M.A., F.S.A.
1. Apathy of previous times upon Archæology. The observations of Dr. Johnson "that all that is really known of the ancient state of Britain is contained in a few pages," and "that we can know no more than what the old writers have told us," proceeded from the apathy of his time, engendering dearth of archæological information, and which it is the object of the present antiquarian spirit to supply. ”

“ Modern Societies. resulting from individual taste, and not from legal enforcement. Whatever good (it is very little) human nature is inclined to do spontaneously, it will probably do best. Antiquarian research has been ever but slenderly patronized by Government, but gratifies its promoters by emanating from their own volition. ”

“ Warlingham.—A Roman camp.
Woodcote.—Old buildings, coins, urns, bricks, &c.
Woodmansterne.—Glass painting.
During the Saxon Heptarchy, Holinshed informs us "that" the first battell fought between 9. The Saxon Heptarchy. Battle of Wimbledon. the Saxons one against another within this land, after their (the Saxons) first coming to the same," was that which took place at Wimbledon or Wibbandune, in Surrey, between Cealwin, king of the West Saxons, and Ethelbert, king of Kent, for the dignity of Bretwalda, or emperor of Britain. ”

“ Mineral Springs. springs at Epsom, Streatham, Kingston, Dorking, and other places in the county, obtained great note, but have fallen into disuse and out of fashion, from that cause which invariably ruins all medicinal repute, namely, facility of access.
The lover of ecclesiastical architecture will, equally as the investigator of ancient customs, 27. Ecclesiastical Edifices, St. Mary Overie. manorial residences, or castellated fortresses, find in Surrey ample scope for his observation. ”

“ A 19. Reigate Castle. cavern under the castle court, is called the Barons' Cave, and we find that this same castle of Reigate, with those of Guildford and Farnham, fell into the hands of Prince Lewis of France, who, in 1216, landed to assist the barons against the king. In 1217, they were surrendered to the Protector 20. Other fortresses. Pembroke; but, in 1264, the fortress of Kingston, with others, occupy prominent positions during the insurgency of Simon de Montfort. 21. ”