There is also a grammar free-school, with a good
allowance to the master, who is chosen by the town.
4. The castle of Colchester is now become only a monument showing
the antiquity of the place, it being built as the walls of the town
also are, with Roman bricks, and the Roman coins dug up here, and
ploughed up in the fields adjoining, confirm it. The inhabitants
boast much that Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, first
Christian Emperor of the Romans, was born there, and it may be so
for aught we know. I only observe what Mr. Camden says of the
Castle of Colchester, viz.: In the middle of this city stands a
castle ready to fall with age.
Though this castle has stood one hundred and twenty years from the
time Mr. Camden wrote that account, and it is not fallen yet, nor
will another hundred and twenty years, I believe, make it look one
jot the older. And it was observable that in the late siege of
this town, a common shot, which the besiegers made at this old
castle, were so far from making it fall, that they made little or
no impression upon it; for which reason, it seems, and because the
garrison made no great use of it against the besiegers, they fired
no more at it.
There are two charity schools set up here, and carried on by a
generous subscription, with very good success.
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