Ribchesters. The smaller enclosures, like Melandra Castle and Hardknott, probably originated somewhat earlier; certainly some of the Scottish forts, with their multiple ditches and mounds, seem to be of first century work. Then followed an interval of a hundred years, after which a fresh source of danger demanded that the south-eastern coast should be protected by a chain of forts. It is not difficult to believe that Richborough, authentically the harbour Rutupia of literature, should be first protected; we have seen that the character of its works bears out the supposition. Then followed, though in what order it would be useless to speculate from the evidences adduced, the forts of the types of Porchester and Pevensey, Bradwell and Burgh Castle-until a chain of ten defended points bound the coast from Porchester, in Hants, to Brancaster, in Norfolk. It cannot be said that the needs of defence along the Saxon shore developed the new types of fortress. It is only necessary to glance abroad to see the new style permeating the whole of the empire, whether in Algeria, at an oasis in Upper Egypt, or in Syria. The very palace of Dioclesian, at Spalatro, was built upon a plan consistent with the changed order of things.

The illustrations for this article are taken from the undermentioned sources:

BRADWELL Lewin in Archeologia, xli.

BURGH CASTLE: Fox, Arch. Journal, 1900.
CARDIFF Ward, in Archeologia (current).

HARDKNOTT: Dymond, Cumb and West. Arch. Soc., 1893.
LAMBESSA Cagnat, L'Armée Romaine d'Afrique.

MELANDRA: Garstang, Derb. Arch. Soc., 1901.

NIEDER BIEBER: Von Cohausen, Der Römische Grenzwall in Deutschland.

RIBCHESTER Garstang, Roman Ribchester 1899.
RICHBOROUGH Garstang, Arch. Cantiana, 1901.
ROME: Walls, Middleton, Archæologia, li.

SAALBURG: Jacobi, Das Romerkastell Saalburg.

SILCHESTER: Fox and Hope, Silchester Reports in Archæologia, 1897.

WEISBADEN, Von Cohausen, ib supra.

Some plans of Roman forts are taken from the Ordnance Sheets, by courtesy of the Director General.

LANCASHIRE HEARTH TAXES.

By Wm. Fergusson Irvine.

Read 15th February, 1900.

N this paper it is intended to draw the attention of the Society to a class of document which has hitherto been largely neglected, namely, The Hearth Tax Returns, now preserved at the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane. These documents fill a gap between the Subsidy Rolls of the later middle ages and the more accurate copying of the parish registers, which is to be found, as a rule, in the eighteenth century; and they also form a useful adjunct to those parish registers for the period over which the hearth taxes extend.

These tax returns, it is true, only refer to a comparatively short period; but for Lancashire, at all events, there are several very complete series still in existence, and owing to the wide scope of the tax we get a remarkably full return of the householders of this district during the reigns of Charles II and James II.

As will be seen from the extracts from the Statute Book which follow, this tax practically touched

everyone who possessed a house, and so we get a complete return of the inhabited houses and the names of their occupants. Some light is also thrown on the social condition of the people by the number of chimneys returned for each district, and the whole may be taken as constituting the earliest known Directory in existence.

It would be an interesting study to deal with the statistical aspect of the question, but for this we have no time to-night. It may be pointed out, however, that a careful analysis of these tax returns would be of the greatest possible interest, and would give us a very accurate idea of the population for the various years in which they were made. The complete character of the return will be understood when it is stated that at the end of each book a list is given of those who are too poor to pay the tax; so that we may take it the results represent practically the names of the heads of every family that possessed a separate dwelling.

Referring especially to the town of Liverpool, it will be seen that in the year 1664 the number of houses amounted to 252. Allowing for the existence of a certain number of apprentices and servants who must have lived on the premises, it is, perhaps, not too much to take an average of five people to a house, which gives us a total population of 1260. The only earlier return that we have for Liverpool is one that was made for military purposes in 1565, where the number of householders and cottagers is mentioned as being 138, which, on the same basis of calculation, gives a population of practically 700. One is accustomed to think of the small number of people living in Liverpool at this early period, still, it is rather surprising to have the figures put down in this concrete way; one is almost tempted to ask whether there may not be some mistake, though it is difficult to see where such a mistake

could arise. Picton estimates that the population of Liverpool in 1700 had reached the number of 7000, although he does not state on what grounds he bases the calculation. There is nothing improbable, however, in this, as the increase of Liverpool, in the last twenty-five years of the seventeenth century, must have been astonishingly rapid.

It was thought that it would interest the Society if extracts were taken from the return, made in 1662 for the Hundred of West Derby, of the names of all those who possessed houses with a larger number of chimneys than three; and as this only makes a comparatively short list, it has been printed at the end of this paper. Many of the names are of. considerable interest, and as the returns are for occupiers and not landlords, we often get interesting hints as to the whereabouts of various members of the local families at the time.

To turn to the Statute Book, we find that by the Act which gave Hearth Taxes to the King, it was provided that from the 25th March, in the year 1662, every dwelling-house and all lodgings and chambers in the Inns of Court, Inns of Chancery, Colleges, and other societies within the kingdom of England, dominion of Wales, and town of Berwick-on-Tweed, should be charged with the annual payment to the King, for every firehearth and stove, the sum of 2s. a year, to be paid at Michaelmas and Ladyday in equal portions, the first payment to be made on the feast day of St. Michael the

Archangel, 1662. In order that a correct return might be made, it was provided that every keeper of such house, within six days after notice having been given to him by the constables, head-boroughs tything men, should deliver to them a true and just account in writing of all hearths and stoves in their respective houses. The first return was to be made by

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