Note 2773 — PORTUS ITIUS

‘The fact,’ says a writer in the Edinburgh Review (Oct., 1900, p. 442), ‘that it was in mediaeval times a “frequented port” is, strictly speaking, not a fact at all ... the contemporary references to it which have been collected by French scholars show that it was neither a town nor a harbour, but an open beach, which travellers in a hurry could use with a favourable wind.’ These remarks are inaccurate: see p. 580, infra. The mediaeval port, or portlet, if local tradition is to be trusted, was, however, simply the mouth of the rivulet, variously called the Rieu de Sombre, Rieu d’Herlan, and Ruisseau du Moulin, which flows through the modern town of Wissant, enlarged and deepened (F. A. F. Mariette, Lettre à M. Bouillet, &c., p. 30, n. 20; D. Haigneré, Étude sur le Portus Itius, p. 91); and the tradition has been confirmed by the explorations of M. Rigaux (Annales de la Soc. géol. du Nord, xxviii, 1899, p. 88). In the dunes which border on the creek formed by the rivulet there have been found certain old balks of oak, mentioned by Haigneré (op. cit.) and C. de Saulcy (Les campagnes de Jules César dans les Gaules, p. 172), which may have belonged to the quays of the mediaeval harbour.

According to Le Quien, the inhabitants of Wissant in his time (early in the eighteenth century) affirmed that the entrance of the harbour had been at the mouth of the Rieu de Ghibelen,—the rivulet nearest to Cape Grisnez (Mém. de litt. tiréz des registres de l’Acad. Roy. des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, xiii, 1734-7 [1741], p. 417). I agree with Haigneré that the harbour, such as it was, was at the mouth of the Rieu d’Herlan. As he says (Étude, &c., p. 91),‘Pour s’assurer de l’endroit où était le port, il n’y avait qu’à se demander où était le village. Or, le village a toujours occupé l’emplacement sur lequel il est encore bâti de nos jours, savoir: partie à l’est du ruisseau d’Herlan ... où les maisons se reconstruisent avec les débris des précédentes,’ &c. See also Bull. de la Soc. de géogr. de Lille, xix, 1893, p. 199.