HORNCASTLE is pleasantly situated at the foot of that bold and even range of hills which, from their openness, have been termed the wolds. It is nearly in the centre of the Lindsey division of the county of Lincoln, and is the chief of a soke of fifteen parishes, to which it gives name. The principal part of the town is built in an angle formed by the confluence of two rivers, the Bane and the Waring, where an ancient fortification formerly stood, the scite of which is still visible, denoting it to have been a station of importance in early times. The character of the place is however now completely changed. From a military station it has become a situation of trade; and being surrounded by a considerable number of villages, possesses one of the largest markets in the county. Its distance from the city of Lincoln is twenty-one miles, and eighteen from the town of Boston. HORNCASTLE DURING THE ROMAN AND SAXON GOVERNMENTS. BEFORE the invasion of Britain by the Romans, whilst yet the island was divided into independent states, the present scite of Horncastle with its immediate neighbourhood was doubtless appropriated, like the rest of the country of the Coritani, to the pasturing of herds and flocks. In the formation of settlements no other circumstances influenced the Britons than the conveniences which might be afforded them in their accustomed occupations. Vallies fertilized by streams, and the contiguous hills would supply food for their cattle and sheep, whilst the neighbourhood of forests invited to the pursuits of the chase. The rich tracts of open grass land stretching along the banks of the river Bane, and its tributary stream, would be populously occupied by the pastoral inhabitants of this district. Hence it may be presumed, that when the weak efforts of the Coritani for independence had left them vanquished by the victorious arms of the Romans, under Ostorius Scapula, and finally a tributary state by the more efficient achievements of Suetonius Paulinus, this portion of the country was soon secured by fixing on the present scite of Horncastle a military station. From the almost imperishable masses of the ancient wall which still remain, and by the numerous coins, urns, and other vestiges of the Roman people which have been found in this place, and are still met with in turning up the soil, it apparently became in process of time a station of considerable importance. It is however difficult to make any definite suggestions as to the period at which the fortifications might have been erected, no inscription having been found throwing light upon the subject.