CULVER.

At the time of the Roman occupation Thanet was an island, and to
guard the north-west end of the important channel of the "Wantsume,"
which separated the island from the main part of Kent, the Romans
built Regulbium, corresponding to the greater Rutupiae of the
southern outlet.[9] The Roman fort was probably one of the earliest
in the country. It must have covered about eighty acres, and was
garrisoned by the first cohort of Vetasii from Brabant. In 670,
Bassa, a priest, erected a monastery and church here, which, nearly
three hundred years later, were annexed by the monks of Christ
Church, Canterbury. The greater part of these buildings was
ruthlessly destroyed by the villagers in 1809, but the intervention
of the Trinity House authorities in the following year saved the
towers of the church, to serve as landmarks to the mariner. The
churchyard is being slowly eroded by the sea.

[Footnote 9: It is possible that works now proceeding, necessitated
by the Great War, may result in the regulation of the waterways close
to Sandwich and in its neighbourhood in such wise as to open up again
this channel, and constitute Thanet once more an island in fact as
well as in name.]

RICHBOROUGH.--Rutupiae.

This furnishes one of the finest remaining relics of Roman Britain.
Built somewhat later than Reculver--about the middle of the third
century A.D.--the castle guarded the principal and oldest port of
entry into Britain in the Roman period. The rectangular enclosure
still existing was the fortress of a considerable Roman settlement
which lay to the south and south-west. At a little distance is an
amphitheatre with three entrances. Out of the West or Decuman Gate,
the Roman road to London and the North started. In the centre of the
North wall is the opening of the Postern Gate, and there were
probably central gates on the east and south. The feature of greatest
interest remaining is the subterranean structure in the centre. This
consists of an overhanging platform on a concrete foundation. There
are traces of an encircling wall, and projecting upwards from the
centre is an extraordinary cruciform platform. An underground passage
runs round the whole. Some antiquaries consider that all this formed
part of some temporary or substitutional building raised in lieu of
an original more ambitious design; others think it may have been a
signal tower combined with a lighthouse. In the Liverpool Museum are
to be found