Chartham news: or A brief relation of some strange bones there lately digged up in some grounds of Mr. John Somner's, of Canterbury: written by his brother, Mr. William Somner, late auditor of Christ Church Canterbury, and register of the archbishops court, there; before his death. Somner, William, 1598-1669. 1669 Approx. 24 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 8 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A60893 Wing S4662 ESTC R221589 99832885 99832885 37360 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A60893) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 37360) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2061:16) Chartham news: or A brief relation of some strange bones there lately digged up in some grounds of Mr. John Somner's, of Canterbury: written by his brother, Mr. William Somner, late auditor of Christ Church Canterbury, and register of the archbishops court, there; before his death. Somner, William, 1598-1669. [4], 10 p., 1 leaf of plate printed for T. Garthwait; London : MDCLXIX. [1669] Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Dental anthropology -- Early works to 1800. Archaeology -- England -- Kent -- Early works to 1800. Kent (England) -- History -- Early works to 1800. 2003-04 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-07 Jennifer Kietzman Sampled and proofread 2003-07 Jennifer Kietzman Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-08 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Chartham News : OR A BRIEF RELATION OF SOME STRANGE BONES THERE LATELY DIGGED UP , IN SOME GROUNDS OF Mr. JOHN SOMNER'S , OF CANTERBURY : WRITTEN By his Brother , Mr. WILLIAM SOMNER , late Auditor of Christ Church Canterbury , and Register of the Archbishops Court , there ; before his Death . LONDON , Printed for T. Garthwait , MDCLXIX . TO THE READER . Kind Reader , THE Author of this short Discourse , even whilest he was upon it , and had scarce read it over himself , was seised upon , first by sickness , then death , the common Fate of all men . If therefore there be any thing amiss , or imperfect in it ; it would be great unkindness , to impute it to him , who by such unavoidable necessity , was prevented the benefit of a review ; and no less unkindness perchance , though more tolerable , to blame him , who , as out of a due respect to the Author ; so , out of a desire to gratifie them , ( not a few probably ) who may desire to satisfie their Curiosities , or improve their Knowledge , in such things ; hath published it . Farewel . I. S. News from Chartham , in KENT . ALthough it may , and perhaps must be granted , that Miracles ( strictly understood ) are long since ceased : yet in the latitude of the notion , comprehending all things uncouth and strange , ( miranda , as well as miracula ; wonders , as well as miracles ) they are not so : but do , more , or less , somewhere , or other , dayly exert , and shew themselves . Dies Diem docet . New days , make new discoveries ; especially to such , as are in any measure , curious , ( shall I say ) or ingenious , and inquisitive ; as few enough amongst us here in England are , unless acted and animated by some profit , or advantage to themselves by the discovery ; how considerable and remarkable soever it may be otherwise . 'T is true , New lights , are now adays much cried up : but as in matters ( mostly ) of Religion ; so ( if you mark it ) by whom ? But such , as not so much for conscience , as for lucre-sake , broach and obtrude them upon a credulous giddy sort of people , whose applause they first catch , and then , their purses . But leaving these spiritual Mountebanks , and their counterfeit ware , new lights only in pretence ; I shall here acquaint you with a piece of new light indeed , but of another kind , presented and held forth upon no account , or aim at all of profit , or advantage to the publisher ; but ( if he mistakes not ) of good use and profit ( in point of knowledge ) unto others , ( learned Antiquaries , and Naturalists , as I suppose ) of more skill , insight and judgment , ( if they please to employ them on this occasion ) in things so rare and extraordinary , then he can , doth , or would be thought to pretend unto . Well , to the matter of fact then . Mr. John Somner , in the moneth of September , 1668. sinking a Well at a new House of his , in Chartham , a Village about three miles from Canterbury , towards Ashford , on a shelving ground , or bankside , within twelve rods of the River , running from thence to Canterbury , and so , to Sandwich Haven ; and digging , for that purpose , about seventeen foot deep , through gravelly and chalky ground , and two foot into the Springs ; there , met with , took , and turned up a parcel of strange and monstrous Bones , some whole , some broken , together with four Teeth , perfect and sound , but in a manner petrified , and turned into Stone ; weighing , ( each Tooth ) something above half a pound , and almost as big ( some of them ) as a mans fist . Cheek-Teeth , or Grinders , as to the form , they are all , not much unlike , but for the bigness , the Grinders of a man. And whereas I said , almost as big , some of them , as a mans fist : it brings to my remembrance , what I have read in Ludovicus Vives , of such a Tooth , but a little bigger ; ( dens molaris pugno major ; he saith : that is , a Cheek-Tooth , bigger than a fist ) which was shewed to him for one of St. Christophers Teeth , and was kept in a Church , that bare his name : which whether he believed , or not , I know not : but contradict it , he doth not , I am sure ; neither he , nor his learned companion , whom he doth name there . Just such another Tooth of the bigness , he saith , of an ordinary fist , was seen by Acosta , ( a very creditable Author ) in the Indies , digged out of the ground , in one of their houses there , with many other bones ; which put together , represented a man , of a formidable , or as he speaketh , deformed bigness : or , greatness : as he judged of it . And so must we have judged of these Teeth , and of the body , to which they belonged ; had not other Bones been found with them , which could not be mans Bones . Some that have seen them , by the Teeth , and some other circumstances , are of opinion , that they are the Bones of an Hippopotamus , or Equus Fluvialis ; that is , a River-horse ; for a Sea-horse , as commonly understood , and exhibited , is a fictitious thing . Yet Pliny makes Hippopotamum , ( mari , terrae , amni communem ) to belong to Sea , Land and Rivers . But what are the differences and properties of each kind , I leave to others to inquire . The Earth or Mould about them , and in which they all lay , being like a Sea-earth , or Fulling-earth , not a stone in it , unless you dig three foot deeper , and then it rises a perfect gravel . So have you the story , an account , if you please , of what was found , where , when , and upon what occasion . For more publick satisfaction , and to facilitate the discovery ; at least , to help such , as are minded to employ their skill in guessing and judging of the Creature , whose remains these are , what it was for kind ; we have by , and with the help of an able Limner , adventured on a Scheme , or Figure , of several of the Teeth and Bones , with their respective dimensions , of breadth , length , and thickness . No man , we conceive , not willing to be censured of rashness , will be very forward to divine , much less to define or determine , what the Creature was ; and doubtless dubious enough it is , whether of the twain , the Sea , or the Land may more rightly lay claim unto it . But leaving all others to the freedom of their own judgments and conjectures ; if he may have the same liberty from them for his , who as he knows the place , with the Country about it , hath taken a large time of consideration of all particulars and circumstances fit to be duly and deliberately weighed and observed in the case ; he would adventure to conjecture it to be some Marine , or Sea-bred Creature , to which the Land can of right lay no claim . But admitting that ( supposing it , I mean , a Sea-bred Creature ) how then ( will some say ) should it possibly come there ? Piscis in arido ? and at such a depth under ground too ? I answer , first , with as little wonder , as a Land creature should , which who with reason can imagine to have ever had at first so deep a burial ? Next I say , the Mould , Soil or Earth , wherein it lay , was altogether miry , like to that coenum ( oase , some call it ) on many parts of the Sea coast , both in England and abroad . But how possibly ( will it be said ) a Sea creature , when found at so remote a distance from the Sea ? For solution ( if it may be ) of this , and the like incidental doubts , and removing all rubs out of the way of this conjecture ; our future discourse and further progress in this argument , shall branch it self out into these four following Queries . 1. Whether the situation and condition , face and figure of the place may possibly admit of the Seas once insinuating it self thither ? 2. Whether ( that possibility being granted , or evinced ) the Sea did ever actually insinuate it self so far as to this place , and when ? 3. How in probability , and when this Valley , or Level being once Sea land , should come to be so quite deserted and forsaken of the Sea , as it is at this day ; the Sea not approaching by so many , a dozen miles , or more . 4. By what means , the Sea once having its play there , this Creature comes to lodge , and be found so deep in the ground , and under such a shelving bank . 1. As for the first ( the places capacity and aptitude for the Seas influx , or insinuation ) such as know the situation , withal cannot but know , and must agree it to be so . As for strangers , and such as are unacquainted with the place , for perfecting their information in what either the common Maps , or a particular Scheme and draught of the Level , herewith intended , may chance to be defective in ; they may please to know , that the place ( the locus loci ) we are upon , is a part of that wide , fair and fruitful Level , or Valley , extending it self not less than twenty Miles in length , between a continued series and range of Hills , Downs , or high grounds , lying at a pretty equal distance each from other all the way ; beginning at the East-Kentish shore , and stretching it self , Westward , by Sandwich , Fordwich , Canterbury , Chartham , Chilham , Godmersham , Wy , Ashford , sometime in a direct , sometime in a winding course , as far at length , as to that famous spacious Level of Romney-marsh , and is washed and watered all along , at least from about Ashford , by a sweet and pleasant River running through the midst of it , as far as to Sandwich , and there by the Creek , or Haven , emptying it self into the Sea : nothing at all of obstruction , by the interposition of Hills , or high grounds , hindring , or controlling the Seas free play and passage for so many miles together . The place then , with the parts , the tract above and below it , from the condition , or constitution of it , is plainly not unapt or uncapable of the Seas insinuation and influence . If any shall object , Canterburies being in the way , as an obstruction , or bar ; they are easily enough answered . For although that City seemeth , and indeed is , at this day , for the most part somewhat elevated above the pitch of the rest of the Valley or Level we are upon ; yet not so much , as to desend it self many times from flouds , and overflowings in the lower , and most depressed parts of it , even by the Springs it stands upon , to her great damage and annoyance : towards the helping whereof , by the care and providence of former ages , it is very certain , and by digging Wells , Vaults , Cellars and the like , dayly experimented , that the most part of the City , not excepting the very heart and center of it , is made and raised ground ; the tokens of foundations upon foundations , to a very considerable depth , daily appearing , and the ground ( as at Amsterdam , Venice and elsewhere ) for supporting superstructures , in several places often stuck and stuff'd with Piles of wood , or long Poles and Stakes , forced into the ground , as Wells and Cellar-diggers have inform'd me . Nay , and as if where about now the Bull-stake market-place is kept , the River had sometime had its course or current , Pits and otherlike Tanners Utensils , have , not many years since , been met withal in digging for Cellars thereabouts . To this let me add , that my very next neighbour in Castle-street , within these thirty years sinking a Cellar , did at a good depth ( five or six foot deep ) light upon , and was put to some stop and stand , in his work , by a strong and well couched arched piece of Roman Tile or Brick , which he was fain to take , or break asunder , and remove , before he could proceed . Hereof I wàs an eye witness , and ( for curiosity sake ) took one of the Bricks or Tiles to my self , which with some other like Roman remains ( some found in that , which is my own Garden ) I keep by me to this day . However then , Canterbury may now seem to stand in the Aestuaries way ; yet time was , when in probability it did not ; when I mean the place , the soil which now the City occupies , as the rest of the whole valley both above and below it , was of too low a pitch , to be an obstacle to it . 2. As to the second enquiry , ( whether probably the Sea did ever actually insinuate it self so far as to this place , and when ) the answer is nothing so easie : Record of it , we have none . The best and eldest account we have now of the Condition , Scite and Constitution of these our Eastern Parts and Tract , we owe to Julius Caesar , and the Romans after him : from whom ( alas ) we have not the least spark of light to such a discovery : rather indeed the contrary ; both the Sea-coast , and In-land parts , by his , and their relation ; bearing in a manner one and the same face and figure then , as now . However , that the Level we are upon , was sometime an Aestuary , or Arm of the Sea ; several Criteria , or tokens , are not wanting . For example ; besides what may be argued and inferr'd from this parcel of strange Teeth , and Bones now under consideration ; much ( as I conceive ) there is of probability for it , resulting from our Rivers name of Stoure , more anciently , not seldom both called and written Aesture , Esture , &c. which I doubt not to proceed and come from the Latin Aestuarium , and in process of time to have been corrupted and contracted into Sture and Stoure ; giving name in part to Stourmouth , a place ( a Parish ) about six miles Eastward from Canterbury ; so called from the Rivers disimboying there into the Sea , or Salt-water , flowing up thither : as also giving name to that Mannor of the Archbishops ; at this day , and for some ages past called Westgate-Court , at Canterbury ; but more anciently , as in the Conquerors time ( witness Domesday-book ) called , the Mannor of Esture and Esturesaete , from its situation by the Sture or Stoure . From which occasion doubtless , the late Lord Finches Seat in — about five or six miles nearer to the Spring head , at this day vulgarly miscalled , East-Steward ; is of old sometime called Esture , sometime Aet-sture . From Saxon Monuments and Records I could easily trace the name up to a very high date , by many examples . But to leave that , and proceed to other Criteria ; as by the Teeth and Bones now under consideration , we have an instance on that side of the Valley for the probability of the Seas quondam occupation of it ; so I shall give you here another no less remarkable from the other , or opposite side of it . By credible relation and assurance then you may know , that at a place called Westbere , an obscure Village , about three miles from Canterbury , Eastward , lying under the brow of the Hill stretching out by Upstreete , as far as to the West end of Sarr-wall , by which you make your entrance into Thanet ; upon the like occasion to that here at Chartham , ( the digging , or sinking of a Well ) at a very great depth , store of Oyster and otherlike shells , together with an Iron Anchor , f●rm and unimpaired , were found and turned up in our time . The like I have been told of an Anchor in our days digged up at Broomedowne , on the same side of the Level somewhat above Canterbury , Westward . And although I can at present instance only in these few on either side the Valley ; yet happily upon enquiry other might be found for confirming our conjecture . And I shall desire and hope , that every ingenuous person will so fat oblige and incourage me , as upon this overture to help me in this research and scrutiny , by imparting to me , what either of his own knowledge , or credible relation from others , may conduce towards so noble a discovery . 3. Mean time let us entertain our selves with our third Query , and see if happily somewhat may not thence result adminicular and suppletory to what may be defective and wanting in the former . Our third Query now is , how in probability , and when this Valley or Level , being once Sea-land , should come to be so quite deserted , and forsaken of the Sea , as it is at this day , the Sea not approaching it by so many , a dozen miles , or more ? In answer whereof , I must needs say and grant , that in case this Level were once Sea , an Aestuary I mean , or Arm of it ; so very long it was ago , as we may not reasonably think , that Canterbury ( whether as a City , or never so mean a Pagus , or Village ) was then in rerum natura , or a place inhabited ; which happily it may have been , if not as long as Julius Caesars days , yet undoubtedly , not longafter . For an account we have of it ( as of some other places in Kent ) in the Romans time , both from Ptolemy the Geographer , Antoninus Itinerary and elsewhere . Now ( as was hinted erewhile ) elder Records either of Kent , or of Britain that we may confide in , as Authentick ; we have none that I know of , before the Romans time : no written credible evidences to help us in this scrutiny . We must therefore either sit us down , and rest contented to throw off all further inquiry , or else cast about for information as we can . Such as are for this latter , will tell you , that the world ( all know ) is very aged , many thousand years old , and that many and manifold are the alterations , changes and mutations , which time hath made in several parts and quarters of the world , to the notice and discovery whereof , no written Record , or unwritten Tradition at this day , can reach or direct us ; Tradition it self ( longer liv'd many times than any written evidence ) failing us for age . Of such a nature they conceive may this of the Aestuary be , so very ancient , as time hath quite worn out the memory of it ; withdrawn all light from us , that might conduct us in the scrutiny , and left us as men in the dark , without either vola , or vestigium , to stumble out our way , and rome and ramble at uncertainties . Such a one happily shall he be thought , that adventuring to conjecture at the reason and occasion of the Seas recess here , with an absolute valediction to the place of its wonted resort , shall pitch upon the Seas breaking , bursting and cleaving asunder that Isthmus , or neck of Land , between Gaule and Britain , rendring the latter of the same Continent with the former , such things ( t is certain ) have hapned elsewhere . Thus ( saith Seneca ) hath the Sea rent Spain , from the Continent of Africk . Thus ( as he adds ) by Deucalions flood , was Sicily cut from Italy . More instances of this kind may be found in Mr. Cambdens Cantium , and elsewhere . And although there be no certain evidence of such an accident here from ancient either Historians , or Geographers ; yet is the thing so strongly and rationally argued , by him especially , as by Verstegan also , Twine and others before him ; and the conjecture back'd with such plenty of pregnant and probable Criteria , by the former ; that what others may think I know not ; but were I of the Jury , I should more than incline to concur with them , who would find for the Isthmus . Especially , when to the plenty of Arguments mustered up by Mr. Cambden , I shall have contributed this one , by him and the rest omitted , which is , that by a received constant Tradition , Romney-Marsh , that large and spacious Level , containing ( saith Mr. Cambden ) fourteen miles in length , and eight in breadth ; was sometime Sea-land , lying wholly under Salt-water , and is therefore of some not improperly called , the Seas gift ; which having , when time was , forsaken it , and withdrawn his wonted influence from it ; the place thereupon became and continues firm Land. And if I may guess at the time and occasion of both that , and our Canterbury Levels recovery and riddance from the Sea , I shall ( for my part , with submission to better judgments ) be apt to pitch upon that of the Seas breaking through , and in time working and washing away that Isthmus , between Us and France . And then whereas before-time Romney Level ( which had and hath its Stoures too , or Aestuaria as well as ours ) and this other , not improbably ( no high Lands , as we see , interposing for impeding their conjunotion ) were but one and the same Level , and lay under the Seas and Salt-waters tyranny ; now both the one and the other ( the Sea having so much more play and elbow-room , than formerly by cleaving asunder the Isthmus ) were rescued from it , and of an Aestuary , became such a rich and noble Valley , or Level , as is second to none ( I take it ) in England . I am resolved to keep home and conceive my self no further concerned than in our own Level . But if from hence any other shall take an hint to consider of the Nether-lands , or Low-Countries , and enquire whether those in whole , or in part , may not have arisen out of , and been gained from the Sea , by the very same occasion , which is here conjecturally assigned for our Kentish Low-lands ; I shall not at all wonder at it , thinking it ( for my part ) a task not unworthy a learned , judicious , sober undertaker : and were I as much concern'd , and as well instructed there as here , I should not know how to purge my self of negligence , if I did not undertake it with the first . 4. To come , at length , to the fourth and last of our Queries , by what means the Sea once having its play there , ( at Chartham ) this Creature comes to lye and be found so deep in the ground , and under such a shelving bank ? My answer is , that supposing this with the rest of the Level or Valley once occupied by the Sea , or Salt-water , that being a Creature which by fluxes and refluxes always is in motion , and thereby in time beating upon and working itself into the bank , or rising ground there , might at length so far undermine , eat into , and loosen it , as to fetch down so much mould , or earth upon , or over the place , as might lodge the Creature at so great a depth . Or else perhaps , the continual agitation of the Water might in time force , drive up , and cast over it , that great quantity of Ouse , Earth and other matter under which it lay . By the way , it is observed that the nature of the Soil here and there , is such , so loose , supple , rotten , and sandy , that meerly of it self , it is apt to sink and fall in ; as was lately experimented by a Saw-pit , digg'd hard by , which after a little time by the Earths giving way on each side of it , fell in , and fill'd up it self . Thus have you ( gentle Readers ) our Chartham News , or discoveries with the circumstances , and the use my little skill will serve me to make of them , in point either of History or Geography . Arcana they are , but whether tanti ; whether I mean , grateful , or useful to the Publick , is left to the judicious Antiquaries , Naturalist , &c. who are desired to take the matter , where the Historian hath left it . It hath been the Finders care , and good will , as to preserve , so to expose and communicate what he hath found : and if at length , to this of the parts , and by them , a full discovery of the whole , by the skill and dexterity of the learned in the School , and secrets of Nature , may be added , for the benefit of the Common-wealth of learning ; both the Finder , and Relator will think their time and pains very well both bestowed , and recompensed . FINIS . The exact Figure ( part of what the Author intended , if he had lived ) of two of the Teeth , is here set down at the end .