Although there is no doubt that the vicinity of Brighton at a very remote period was occupied as a Roman military station, it is not the intention of the compiler of this work to date, merely on supposition, the origin of the town, coeval as it might have been with the landing of Julius Cæsar in Britain. The “Magna Britannia,” published in 1737, mentions:—“As to the antiquity of this town, there is reason to believe it to have stood a vast tract of time. From the accounts our historians give of it, for some of them speak of it ever since Julius Cæsar’s arrival in Britain, and affirm, that this was the place where he landed his legions; (August 26th, 55 B.C., {1}) but since others assert his landing to have been at Hastings, we shall not be very positive, yet may justly insist upon it as most probable, because there is good anchorage in the bay here; and besides, there appears on the west side of this town to this day, for near a mile together, vast numbers of men’s bones, and some of them of prodigious size, which plainly proves that there has been some warlike engagement near it.” As an illustration that what has been transmitted to us orally, especially of remote periods, cannot be relied on, there is told the following tale of “Cæsar’s Stile”:—Dr. Stukely, or some other antiquarian, was travelling through England, when he heard that on a certain hill there was a stile called Cæsar’s Stile. “Ay,” said the doctor, “such a road, mentioned in Antoninus, passed near here; and the traditional name confirms the possibility of a Roman camp on this spot.” Whilst he was surveying the prospect, a peasant came up, whom the doctor addressed thus—“They call this Cæsar’s Stile, my friend, do they not?” “Ees, zur,” said the man, “they calls it so arter poor old Bob Cæsar, the carpenter; rest his soul; I holped him to make it, when I was a boy.”