It would be a mistake to imagine that it solely was due to that bloody
deed perpetrated on a certain December afternoon back in Norman times
that Canterbury occupies a place of such pre-eminence in English
history, for the city was ancient before the days of Thomas of
Canterbury; and in this short chapter it is the writer's endeavour to
indicate the position of that tragic occurrence in the chronology of
the former Kentish capital.

The earliest people who have left evidence of their existence near
Canterbury belong to the Palæolithic Age; but as it is not known
whether this remote prehistoric population occupied the actual site,
or even whether the valley may not have then been a salt-water creek,
it is wiser in this brief sketch to pass over these primitive people
and the lake-dwellers who, after a considerable interval, were
possibly their successors, and come to the surer ground of history.
This brings us to the early Roman invasions of Britain and Julius
Cæsar's description of the people of Kent, whose civilization he found
on a higher level than in the other parts he penetrated. He described
them as being little different in their manner of living from the
Gauls, whose houses were built of planks and willow-branches, roofed
with thatch, and were large and circular in form, but he adds:

All the Britons dye themselves with woad, which gives them a
bluish colour, and so makes them very dreadful in battle. They
have long hair, and shave all the body except the head and
upper lip.

These people, owning allegiance to various chiefs and living in camps
or villages defended by earthen ramparts, were attacked by the Roman