[18] Some writers, not aware of the extent to which wattle-work can be used and has been used, have said that _virgea_ must in this connection mean "made of boards," not of wattle. There seems to be no sufficient reason for putting this interpretation upon a well-known word. And even if it had that meaning, we should find in the recently revealed British marsh-fortress an equally good illustration of their skill in working boards. The principal causeway is faced with oak boards on its two vertical sides. These are kept in their place by carefully squared oak posts, driven deep into the ground below, so that their tops are level with the surface of the causeway. The tops of the posts are morticed, and a bar of oak, across the causeway, is let into the tops of the two posts opposite to one another, and is fastened there with oak pegs. Thus the boards which face the vertical sides of the causeway are clamped tight in their places. The work is done throughout with extreme neatness of fit and finish. [19] Juvenal, _Satires_, xii. 46; Martial, _Epigrams_, xiv. 99. [20] _Ep._ xi. 53. [21] _Wars of the Jews_, vi. 6. [22] _Annals_, xiv. 32, 33. [23] That is, in December 1893, in the war with the Matabele. [24] It is added that in the eventual revenge of the Romans, some eighty thousand of the Britons were killed. These numbers seem at first sight very large, too large to be historical. But we may bear in mind that Caesar a hundred years before had noted with surprise the populousness of Britain--_hominum infinita multitudo_, countless swarms of men. [25] See p. 117. As I have found myself obliged by historical considerations to abandon the interesting old tradition of King Lucius, I may as well give in a note some details of the story which have special interest for us in London. It may be mentioned as a preliminary, that Gildas (about A. D. 560) makes no reference to the story. Bede, who usually follows Gildas, gets his information about Lucius from the Roman Chronicle, as enlarged in the time of Prosper. But he gives two different dates, in one place (i. 4) A. D. 156, which is inconsistent with the names of the reigning emperors as given by him, and in another place (the summary at the end of book v) after A. D. 167. The earliest British testimony to the story is that of Nennius, in the ninth century. He tells us that Lucius was called Lleur maur, the great light, because of this event.