ITER DUMNONIENSE. VI.
I Have sometimes in travelling been apt, within my own mind, to make a comparison between the excellence of the study of Philosophy, and that commonly called Antiquity, that is, ancient history. The beauties and the advantage of natural inquiries I cannot but be highly sensible of; yet I must needs give the preference to the latter, as it more nearly concerns the rational part of the creation, for whom the whole was made: it is a comment upon the wonderful volumes of divine wisdom, and the conduct of providence in the management of its supreme workmanship. God has given us indeed a large manuscript of his power, and other adorable attributes, in his wide-extended products, the furniture of the world; but in man, a more correct epitome of himself; a delegated immaterial particle of his spirituality, a self-moving principle of free agency, from the very fountain of all existence. As he is the great master-wheel and primum movens; so we are the subordinate executors of his mighty purposes, by his direction and superintendence carrying on the regular government and unseen operations thereof. Whoever declaims against this, ought to be looked upon as one of a poor, narrow way of thinking, and who does not deserve so much as that noble faculty of the soul, reminiscence or memory, which is the same to a single man, as ancient history is to the whole community: such a one no more claims the name of a scholar, than he that knows but the letters of the Alphabet, or whose study consists only in Gazettes. It is the knowledge of antiquity that can give us a maturity in judgement, either in persons or things; and how unfit such a one is, that is destitute of it, in the executing the great offices of life, I need not inculcate.
But nothing I can say in favour of this subject, can be so great a panegyric to it, as your lordship’s illustrious name prefixed. The glorious ardour for this kind of learning, that kindled in your younger years, and that through a long cultivation of it has produced a boundless extent of knowledge, with the deepest penetration, the strongest judgement, the fire of the soul, and all sublimest qualities which the world admires in your lordship; bears down all opposition to the study of antiquities, wherein you preside most worthily; wherein no one dares to be rival, or hopes to be equal. We see the fruits of it in the best-chosen library of ancient authors, in the best collection of most ancient coins, statues, busto’s, and learned marbles, which the world can show. You, my lord, by treading in the steps of the great Arundel, have brought old arts, Greece and Rome, nay Apollo and all his Muses, to Great Britain: Wilton is become tramontane Italy.
Every part of learning is your lordship’s province, and sure of your protection. But I have a particular happiness in laying before you the following account of this summer’s journey, because the greatest part of it was by your own direction, and as excursions I made whilst at your lordship’s most delightful seat at Wilton. I shall begin with what I observed in my tour about it, and proceed to my more western perambulation through a country pregnant of antiquities, and the greatest curiosities in the world.
The Belgæ, the ancient inhabitants of this country, were a brave and warlike people, when on their original continent; and we have no reason to think, after transplantation on the British soil, they abated aught of their courage and valour, natural to its inhabitants. These were one of those powerful nations, whose conquest gave opportunity to the emperor Vespasian highly to signalize his conduct when he first made a figure in arms. Hence it is that we find so many camps hereabouts, from the sea side to the midland parts; many of which were made by him, and others by his undaunted opposers. The road from Wilton to Shaftesbury, called the Ten-mile Course, is a fine ridge of downs, continued upon the southern bank of the river Nader, with a sweet prospect to the right and left, all the way, over the towns and the country on both sides: a traveller is highly indebted to your lordship for adding to his pleasure and advantage, in reviving the Roman method of placing a numbered stone at every mile, and the living index of a tree to make it more observable; which ought to be recommended as a laudable pattern to others: thus C. Gracchus planted a stone at every mile, with the distance inscribed, says Plutarch; and thus Rutilius, Itinerar. II.
Between No 5. and 6. is a pretty large camp, calledChiselbury. Chiselbury, upon the northern brow of the hill: it is single ditched and of a roundish form: before the chief entrance is an half-moon, with two apertures for greater security: there is a ditch indeed goes from it downward to the valley on both sides, but not to be regarded. This I imagine relates not to the camp; for I observed the like across the same road in many places between little declivities, and seem to be boundaries and sheep-walks made since, and belonging to particular parishes. I fancy this name imparted from some shepherd’s cot, anciently standing hereabouts, in Saxon Ccsol. It seems to be a Roman camp, but of later date. At the end of this course, when you come to the great chalk-hill looking towards Shaftesbury, are three or four Celtic barrows, one long and large, pointing east and west: in this hill is a quarry of stone, very full of sea-shells. Not far off, in the parish of Tisbury, near Warder castle, is a great intrenchment in a wood, which was probably a Br. oppidum.British oppidum, and near the river before mentioned.
Returning, we see upon the highest eminence that overlooks Wilton, and the fertile valley at the union of the Nader and Willy, the famous King-barrow, as vulgarly called: it is a round Carvilii tumulus.tumulus, of a most ancient form, flat at top, and without any ditch. Your lordship rightly judges it in situation to be one of the highest barrows in England, being, by exact observation from the water-level and calculation, at least four hundred foot above the surface of the ocean. This, questionless, is a Celtic tumulus: and the very name, inherent through long revolutions of time, indicates it to be the grave of a king of this country of the Belgæ, and that Wilton was his royal residence, which for goodness of air, of water and soil, joined with the most delightful downs all around it, must highly magnify his judgement in choice of a place second to none for all the conveniences and delicacies of life. If we reflect a little upon the matter, it appears a supposition far from improbability, that this is the very monument of Carvilius mentioned by Cæsar, who, joining with the other kings along the country on the sea-side from hence to Kent, attacked his sea-camp on the Rutupian shore: and this was to make a diversion to the great Roman general, pressing hard upon Cassibelan; for, as the late learned and sagacious Mr. Baxter observes in his Glossary, where should Carvilius live, but among the Carvilii? as Segonax, one of his confederates, among the Segontiaci; that is, Segontium, or Caersegont, as the Britons call it; which is now Silchester. And it seems to have been the fashion of that time for kings to be denominated from the people or place they governed; as Cassibelan was in name and fact king of the Cassii; and many other instances I might bring of like nature. Where then should Carvilius live, but at Carvilium, now Wilton; or where be buried, but in the most conspicuous place near his palace? and no other barrow competitor to leave any doubt or scruple. It is natural to suppose that the very spot where his residence was, is the same where king Edgar’s queen spent the latter part of her life in a religious house she built near your lordship’s seat, being a hard dry soil, gravelly, and incompassed with two fine rivers, which in early times added much to the security of the place, and much sought for by the Britons. We took notice, when with particular pleasure we visited his tumulus, and paid our respects to the illustrious manes of the royal defunct, that, among other views of great distance, we could see Long-barrow beyond Stonehenge, and all the long ridge of Martinsal hill, St. Ann’s hill, and Runwayhill beyond that; upon which goes the great Wansdike, which I take to be the northern boundary of the Belgic kingdom. I question not but one purpose of this interment was to be in sight of the holy work, or temple, of Stonehenge. Here then may we conclude rest the ashes of Carvilius, made immortal by Caæsar for bravely defending his country; now resting in the possessions of a successor, master of both their great qualities; who, when wielding the British trident, in a fleet infinitely superior to Cæsar’s, could assert a more universal empire. In you, my lord, the memory of Carvilius flourishes again, in your eminent love for your country’s honour, and in your care for preserving his monument, and adorning it with fresh verdure; by planting four trees round its edge,[125] and introducing it as a terminus, in one of the visto’s, to the admirable equestrian statue of M. Aurelius, in the middle of the principal star of your park. Thus, according to ancient usage, was the tumulus of Diomedes planted with the platanus brought from Asia for that purpose; as Pliny informs us in book XII. cap. i.
From hence riding along the hare-warren and end of the park, we are entertained with the landscape of no less than five rivers, four retaining the old British names: the villages on each side of them are so thick, that they seem to join and form long cities in woods. About the union of these rivers are three cities and three cathedrals within a triangle, whose sides are less than three miles; Wilton, Old and New Sarum. The Nadre signifies a snake or adder, metaphorically drawn from its winding current: it rises by the end of the Ten-mile course above described, and passes by a pleasant village belonging to your lordship, Chilmark, famous for its quarries; of a very good stone, white, and that rises in any dimensions: there is now a single stone, lying over the mouth of the quarry like an architrave, full sixty foot long, twelve foot thick, and, as the workmen have assured me upon examination, perfectly without flaw: sometimes here are found great petrified oyster-shells. The Willy rises about Warminster, taking in a little brook, the Dyver, passing under ground, runs by Yarnbury. Ro. camp.Yarnbury, a vast Roman camp, where some think is Vespasian’s name; a great semi-circular work at the entrance: several Roman coins have been found here. Not far off is a ditch called Chiltern, which seems to be some division of the hundreds. There is another camp on the other side the Willy: then it runs by Grovely, a great wood of your lordship’s: it admits another stream coming on the west side of Stonehenge from Orcheston, remarkable for a long kind of grass, which without good proof I should scruple relating, for it is commonly twenty-five foot in length, much coveted by cattle; by Mr. Ray called gramen caninum supinum longissimum: he says they use to fatten hogs with it. This Willy, that gives name to Wilton, passes chiefly on the north side of the town, makes the canal before the front of the house, and then joins the Nadre, coming on the south side of the town and through the gardens, at the end of the avenue. The Avon arises from under the great ridge of hills that divides Wiltshire into north and south, crowned with the Wansditch: it passes southward through innumerable villages to Amsbury.Ambsbury, the pagus Ambri famous for a monastery built by one Ambrus, which the monks and fabulous writers have wrested into Ambrosbury; then for a celebrated nunnery of noble-women, great numbers of whom, against the institution of Nature and Providence, were here veiled: it is now the seat of my lord Charlton, built by Inigo Jones, and deservedly to be admired: some new works are added to it under the direction of my lord Burlington, possessor of his spirit, and a noble collection of his designs. The famous old city of Sorbiodunum may be said to stand upon this river: it meets with the other two just before it passes through Salisbury, and beyond it receives the Bourn, which has dropped its proper name: but I guess it to have been Colin or Colinity, the same as Clun; for at its fountain-head is Colinburn: all these rivers are called burns, Willyburn, Adderburn, &c. below Salisbury enters another, I suppose called Ebbesburn. From Harnham hill we have a view of TAB. LXVII.both Sarums: the old city, with its high-crested triple fortifications, threatens all the circumjacent country: the new justly boasts of its lofty spire, as wonderful for the slenderness of its foundation, as its great height, being 450 foot, making one of the visto’s to the front of Wilton-house. To the east is Chloridunum.Clarendon, which your lordship first observed, from old writings, ought to be called Clorendun, from the famous Roman campTAB. XLI. half a mile off the park near the Roman road: this was made or repaired by Constantius Chlorus, father of Constantine the Great; it was he that slew Allectus, after he had basely murdered the valiant Carausius. Constantius lived at the neighbouring Sorbiodunum: he was of British extract, the husband of Helena, a famous British princess. This camp therefore, properly written, is Chloridunum, being a beautiful fortification of a round form upon a dry chalk hill: within is a circular ditch, having two entrances answering to the entrances of the camp, and leaving a large space between it and the vallum. I suppose this ditch was a lesser camp before, inlarged by Chlorus, for keeping his legions as in a summer-camp before the city: this they did by carrying away all the earth of the old vallum to the new; for it is evident the present rampart is of much larger quantity than could be taken out of the subjacent ditch. TAB. IX.Chlorendon park is a sweet and beautiful place: here king John built him a palace, where several Parliaments have been held: part of the building is still left, though they have been pulling it down many years: it is chiefly of flint, and was a large place upon the side of a hill, but no way fortified. This palace of king John answers directly to the front visto of Wilton house over the length of the great canal, and is called the King’s Manor: they say here is a subterraneous passage to the Queen’s Manor. Between the camp and the park runs a Roman road, which has not been taken notice of, from Sorbiodunum to Winchester full east and west.
As we go from Wilton to Stonehenge, between Grovely wood and Woodford runs a ditch across the plain, with a high rampart southward: the ditch is broad, and goes east and west. I take it to be one of the boundaries of the Belgæ, which I call the third: the reason will hereafter appear. On the east side of the Avon, by Great Dornford, is a very large camp covering the whole top of a hill, of no determinate figure, as humouring the height it stands on: it is made intirely without any ditch, the earth being heaped up very steep in the nature of a parapet, when dug away level at the bottom. Aukbury. Br. oppidum.I doubt not but this was a camp of the Britons, and perhaps an oppidum, where they retired at night from the pasturage upon the river, with their cattle: within it are many little banks, carried strait and meeting one another at right angles, square, oblong parallels and some oblique, as the meres and divisions between ploughed lands; yet it seems never to have been ploughed: and there is likewise a small squarish work intrenched, no bigger than a large tent: these to me seem the distinctions and divisions for the several quarters and lodgements of the people within; for I have, upon the downs in Dorsetshire, often remarked the like, of too small a compass to be ploughed fields. This camp has an aspect very old; the prominent part of the rampart in many places quite consumed by time, though the steep remains perfect; one being the natural earth, the other factitious: it certainly has so much of the manner of Vespasian’s camp, as induces one to think it an imitation. I know not whether we ought to derive the name of it from the British Og, signifying the hurdles and pens they fence their cattle in with, which perhaps stood upon those meres, or little banks, to distinguish every man’s property. Vespasian’s camp is within sight of it, a little higher up the river, and on the other side: it is a famous camp, properly and by universal consent attributed to him, called the Walls. Vespasian’s camp.Walls; well chose, being a high piece of ground at a flexure of the river, which closes in an end and a side of it: the other side has a broad and very deep valley along it, and at the other end is the entrance: the whole hangs over the town of Amsbury: the manner of this camp too consists mostly in a rampire, but much more operose than that last mentioned; the form oblong: the road to the town goes quite through it: it is high in the middle, and has a barrow inclosed, but partly level; this I suppose originally Celtic, on account of its vicinity to Stonehenge, therefore elder than the camp. The east side of Vespasian’s camp is sufficiently guarded by the precipice of the river. Further northwards, in the road from Ambsbury to Marlborough, is the remain of another round camp, extremely old, and almost obliterated: this is between Collinburn and Burbich, upon a rising ground, seemingly British: and on the west side of the river Avon, over-against it, is another, called too Cheselbury.Cheselbury, and said to have a fair prætorium in it. These camps so contiguous, with a river between, seem still remains of Vespasian’s conquests; and that he got the country by inches.
North of these is Martinsal hill, a vast stationary Roman camp, upon a high hill steep to the east, which is seldom observable. I measured it quite round, in company with lord Hertford and lord Winchelsea: it is conspicuous at a great distance, and within sight of all the camps in the country. I take it to haveTAB. XLIV. been made when the Romans were thoroughly possessors of the kingdom, and one of their chief fortresses, whence they might give or receive signals all around, in case of distress, by fire or smoke. On two sides the precipice is dreadfully steep. Lord Winchelsea has a brass Alexander Severus found here; on the reverse, Jupiter fulminans, with PM. TR. P. COS. On the west side, upon the top of the hill, without the camp is a round pit full of good spring water, always to the brim but never overflowing in the driest summers; which at those seasons is of greatest service to the country round, and thousands of cattle are driven every day from a considerable distance to drink there. I am told there is another such upon the top of Chute hill, south east from hence, very high, and no water within some miles of it. So provident has Nature been in subliming, by some unknown powers, the liquid element to these barren heights, that every part of her works should not be without its graces and use. The prospect from Martinsal must needs be exceeding fine. Salisbury steeple, twenty miles off, bears south-west and by west: the port of this camp is north-east.
I take the name of this hill to come from the merriments among the northern people, called Martinalia, or drinking healths to the memory of St. Martin, practised by our Saxon and Danish ancestors. I doubt not but upon St. Martin’s day, or Martinmass, all the young people in the neighbourhood assembled here,[126] as they do now upon the adjacent St. Ann’s hill upon St. Ann’s day. The true word is Martinsheil, heyl signifying health; and the Germans call a bowl, or drinking-vessel, schale: likewise hali in the Saxon signifies holy; whence our hallow; and the Washeyl bowl at Christmass, full of spiced ale, which they carry about, singing of carols in the streets. Monsieur Keysler speaks of these matters largely in his Antiquitates Septentrionales, p. 358. and that the German gilds, or societies, were obliged to keep drinking festivals to St. Mary, St. Martin, St. Nicholas, &c. p. 487. he says, at a village in tractu Albino, the married women upon St. Martin’s day pay 4 d. to the questor: and the Spring upon this hill still further favoured their ceremonies. So beneficial a bason in heathen times merited divine honours; and the people, not willing to part with a holy-day, blended their rites into christian. The English took the opportunity of the day after this great festival of St. Martin, much observed by the Danes, to commit that universal massacre upon them drunken, which totally extirpated them. This was anno 1002, upon the 13th of November, the feast day of St. Brittius, says Chron. Joann. Alb. Petriburg. on Hock Tuesday, which Spelman says had its denomination thence.
In the fields about Chute are bones dug up very plentifully, in a place called Blood-field especially: they likewise found there a stone coffin with a skeleton inclosed, and an arrow or spear-head of brass, as described to me: there was a horse found buried about three yards from the body. Whether this was Roman or British, I cannot affirm: I am inclinable to think the latter: but it seems that a battle was fought here between them.
Full north from hence, upon the Barbury hills, the next ridge overlooking the north part of Wiltshire, is another camp, called Barbury, in the parish of Ogburn St. George. The noble lords late mentioned assisted in measuring it: it is double ditched quite round, the inner very deep, and rampart high, of a circular form; an entrance upon the east, and another on the west diameter, which is 2000 Roman foot long: at the west the inmost rampire retires inwards a little, to make a port with jambs: eastward the outer ditch turns round with a semi-circular sweep, leaving two passages through it obliquely to the main entrance, like our modern half-moons: both these methods I have often seen practised.[127] This mighty camp stands on one of the western eminences of this ridge, running east and west; very steep to the north and west, separating the high ground or downs from the fertile country below, which belonged to the Dobuni, and lies under the eye like a map, as far as the Welsh hills beyond the Severn; whose lovely prospect would naturally animate the Britons in its defence, as the Romans in its conquest: it is indeed a fine scene of woods, towns, pastures, rivers and valleys. A little beyond, upon the same ridge, is Badbury.Badbury camp; and the whole is well planted with stout camps and frequent, the eye-sore and terror of the plain: hence you see Martinsal camp and many more.
Having recited these matters as preliminary, I shall begin my journey from Marlborough, the Roman Cunetio. I forbear speaking of the infinite number of Celtic monuments I have found in this country, designing them for a particular treatise, to be honoured with your lordship’s illustrious name; and from Marlborough pursue the Roman road, which we have before traced from Newbury hither, and lately discovered its whole progress toward the Bath, which for distinction sake we may call Via Badonica: its course is east and west: it goes hence all along the north side of the Kennet river, between it and the high grounds; and is the present road, but highly wants a Roman hand to repair it. When we have rode about a mile, over-against Clatford, at a flexure of the river, we meet with several very great stones, about a dozen in number, which probably was a Celtic temple, and stood in a circle: this form in a great measure they still preserve. I guess the Romans buried them in the ground under their road, because directly in its passage: the materials throughout have since been worn away, or sunk into the ground, being in this place meadow, and so has restored their huge bulk to day-light. Hence it proceeds directly up to the famous Overton hill, where I first discovered its ridge, when surveying the beautiful circle of stones there, belonging to the majestic temple of the old Britons at Abury: this ridge is a little to the north of the present road, somewhat higher up the hill; it points directly east and west, one end to Marlborough, the other to Silbury hill: and this shows a defect in our maps, which place Abury too much to the south: it is perfect for some space over the down; but upon descending the hill westward, they have ploughed it up, and found several Roman coins near it, some of which I have by me.[128] At the bottom, by the corner of the hedge, it meets again the common road near the White-hart ale-house; and so they go together above West Kennet to Silbury-hill: this was the post and coach road to the Bath, till, for want of reparation, they were forced to find a new one, more northward upon the downs, and farther about, through the town of Abury: when on the south side of Silbury hill, it goes very strait and full west through the corn-fields on the south of Bekhamton, where it is sufficiently known by the name of the French way; for what reason I cannot imagine. They have of late endeavoured to exclude travellers going upon it, by inclosing it at both ends with ditches; but the badness of the lower road has defeated their purpose, and made people still assert the public right. Beyond Bekhamton it again enters the downs, and marches up the hill in a very plain ridge, and beautiful to behold; the pits and cavities whence the earth was taken, on both sides, being conspicuous all the way: besides, the Romans have defaced a druid’s barrow, and another Celtic one near, which saved them some labour: a proof they were there before the Roman road; but this is not a proper place to enlarge upon it. When it has gained the summit of the hill, it leaves Oldbury. Ro. camp.Oldbury castle a little to the north: this is a great and strong TAB. XLII.Roman camp on the north-west point of the hill, overlooking Calne: the precipice on those two sides is altogether inaccessible, falling down in narrow cavities or ribs, as it were the great roots of a tree, with an odd and tremendous aspect; and that way there was need but of very slender work for its security: but on the other sides it is double ditched, having but one entrance to the east, and that fortified with a return of the outer ditch and inner rampire, very artificially: there is a ditch likewise across the middle, as if it had been inlarged with an additional intake westward: it is in the main of a squarish form, and has a very fine prospect. On the northern limit, in the highest part, seems to have been a prætorium. On this hill, which is wholly a chalky down, with a most delicate turf (and softer to walk upon than a Turky carpet) about a foot or two under the superficial earth, they dig great quantities of flints to mend the highways withal: one would imagine they had been spewed out of the hardening chalk at the creation, as extraneous bodies, though of greater specific gravity than itself.
Return we to the Roman road, which proceeds across another valley, and so towards Runway hill, the highest in all these parts. This was famous for a battle in the late civil wars; and they oft find the bullets, when digging for the pebbles as afore mentioned; and below the hill they plough up the bones of the slain: but much more is Runway eminent for two mighty works of antiquity, this Roman way, and Wansdike. The most lovely prospect here will tempt even a hasty traveller to cast his eyes about him, and see all the country far beyond the Bath, and so proportionably quite around. I am not doubtful that it takes its name from the Roman way, which here has an unusual and the most curious appearance of any I have seen. I took pleasure in examining the particularity of it more than once; and it is a masterstroke of skill to conduct it down the north side of this long and steep hill (as I have so often remarked to be the condition of northern heights) to render it easy, or even practicable. When from the top of this hill you look towards Marlborough, which is full east, you may discern that the road curves a little northward, not discernible but in the whole: the reason is to be attributed to the river Kennet, thrusting it out somewhat that way; otherwise the true line should have lain a little more to the south of Silbury. To the right you see Wansdike.Wansdike, creeping all along from south of Marlborough (about two mile) upon the northern edge of the great ridge of hills, parting North and South Wiltshire, till it descends St. Ann’s hill; and makes several right angles to humour the edges of the other hills: the vallum is always on the south side, and the higher ground behind it: then it mounts up to the highest apex of Runway hill. But the method of the Roman road is this: it goes along the northern side of this hill, preserving itself upon the level, being cut like a terrace-walk, with a parapet before it next the precipice; and that winding in and out, as the curvatures of the hill require: it passes just by Calston lime-kiln, and is defaced by it; for the workmen make no scruple to dig through it for their materials, and this practice has been so old as to denominate the town lying beneath. Soon after, it meets with the Wansdike, descending the hill just by the gibbet: here it enters full into it, and very dexterously makes use of it, all along to the bottom, on a very convenient shelf, or spurn of the hill: at the place of union is a flexure of the Wansdike, so that the Roman road coincides with it directly; and in order to raise it from a ditch into a road, the Roman workmen have thrown in most part of the rampire, still preserving it as a terrace to prevent the danger, and the terror of the descent on one side.
I shall mention, upon another occasion, some other observations I have made long since, that overthrow the notion of those that imagine Wansdike was cast up by the Saxons, as a limit of the West Saxon and Mercian kingdoms, or that its name is derived from their god Woden: but here we have a most incontestable proof that it was in being before the Roman times; and its very name shows it, signifying, in the old British language, the division dike, guaban, distinctio, separatio: it is indeed the work of the Belgæ, their fourth and last boundary. These two, the Roman road and Wansdike, go together after this manner, till they enter the inclosures a little north of Hedington town below Runway hill. At Calston is a most famous spring, or cataract of water, coming out of the chalk-hill, and much talked of. Wansdike was made by the people of the south, to cover their country, as the mode of it sufficiently testifies, and, as we said before, was the most northern bounds of the Belgic kingdom. When from the top of these hills you view the Roman road, towards the west you see it butts full upon the Bath, or that great chink between Lansdown and the banks of the river Avon going to Bristol.
I had no sooner traced out this road, but I found a fair opportunity presented of setting the antiquaries right, as to part of the XIVth journey of Antoninus his Itinerary, in which they have hitherto been much perplexed. I found no manner of difficulty in settling Verlucio at Hedington; Hedda’s town, Heddan genitivo. This town is but small at present, lying at the bottom of this great hill in a rich marly country. The inhabitants are not surprised when you inquire for antiquities; they assert it to have been a very old and great city: infinite quantities of antiquities are found here: handfuls of coins brought home every time they plough, (madam Whitlock has many) and the streets and foundations of houses found for a great length, sufficiently evince it.[129] Reuben Horsal, clerk of Abury, told me, he had seen a gallon of Roman coin taken up at a time in Hedington field, in an urn covered with a stone. I suppose its original name was Verolucio, as Verolanium, &c. and then it signifies, in the old Celtic, the white habitation, vrô llug; llug denoting splendid, as Lugdunum, a white hill; the same as the Greek Λευκος albus: if lug imports pure water, then it must relate to Calston spring, breaking forth like a cascade: if we take the word gloyii, limpidus, it is all one. It must be noted, that both the XIIIth and XIVth journeys of Antoninus his Itinerary are abominably corrupted, and want a healing hand as much as any throughout: and being both one journey by a different route, I shall undertake thus to restore them.
Ab Isca Callevam M. P. CXXXIX. sic
| Isca leg. II. Aug. | Caerleon | ||
| Burrium | Usk | IX |
|
| Blescium | Old town | XI |
|
| Ariconium | Kenchester | XI |
|
| Glevum colonia | Glocester | XXXV |
|
| Durocorinium | Cirencester | XIV |
|
| Cunetio | Marlborough | XIX | |
| Spinas | Newberry | XV |
|
| Vindoma | Silchester | X | |
| Caleva Atrebatum | Farnham | XV. |
toto CXXXIX. |
In the copies the sum total is set down CIX. miles; when, if you cast up the particulars, it amounts to no more than XC. so that no less than nineteen in the original is lost: this shows plainly that some station is dropped out, and geography itself indispensably demonstrates it. Mr. Fulk was sensible of some deficiency, by his adding Gobannium, though thereby he hit not the white: in truth, both stations and numbers are wanting; for it is notorious that the distance between Ariconium and Glevum, places sufficiently known, and about which we have no contest, is much too little, when set down only XV. mile; and XX. must unavoidably be added. Though I am as cautious as any man living in laying hand upon these venerable remains, and altering them; yet, where nature and reason absolutely require it, I have not the least fear in adding two stations, which are quite slipped out from the original: between Cirencester and Newberry it is evident Cunetio must be interposed, or the distance heightened to twice as much: the truth is, one station is intermitted, Cunetio: and the like between Spinas and Calleva; for Vindoma, or Silchester, must be added, beyond which is our Calleva, or Farnham; all in a strait line, and upon a Roman road from Aricomum. Cast up the whole account, it comes to CXXXIX. instead of CIX. then all the difficulties that have hitherto obscured this journey, vanish: they that compare William Harrison’s first copy with the others of this journey, will not be surprised at the effects of negligent transcribers, when, out of seven names in other books, he has missed two; and so frequently in other journeys. In the next place I offer this as the true reading of the fourteenth journey of Antoninus.
Alio itinere ab Isca Callevam M. P. CIII. sic
| Isca leg. II. Aug. | Caerleon | ||
| Venta silurum | Caerguent | IX |
|
| Trajectus | Old-bury | IX |
|
| Abone | Henbury | IX |
|
| Aquæ solis | Bath | VI |
|
| Verlucio | Hedington | XX |
|
| Cunetio | Malboro | X |
|
| Spinas | Newberry | XV |
|
| Vindoma | Silchester | X. | |
| Caleva Atrebatum | Farnham | XV |
toto CIII. |
This journey leads us to Calleva another way. Mr. Gale has observed Trajectus and Abone transposed. The sum total here likewise is invariably in all copies CIII. when the particulars amount but to ninety-eight; whence we likewise infer a station is dropped out, as before, viz. Silchester, with the number X. annexed. Now it happens that number was not lost, though the station was; but was erroneously placed to Marlborough, being XX. instead of X. seeing the distance between the Bath and Marlborough is notoriously too much. Setting then X. mile to Cunetio, its real distance from our Verlucio, Hedington; it remains further to correct the number annexed to Verlucio, XX. for XV. the letter X being easily corrupted into an V. then we answer the distances on all hands, having a Roman road accompanying us, and complete the sum total set at top precisely CIII. and restore the whole to its ancient purity. When we reflect a little, that, take the matter how we will any other way, the difficulties are unsurmountable, I am thoroughly satisfied in these corrections.
Much rusty old iron is dug up at the quarries by Brunham, probably of the Romans: it is a mile off Hedington.
Upon the hedge of the hill which overlooks Hedington, as it bends a little southward, is another pretty little Roman camp, in an angle of the hill, of a square form, and as if not finished, or made for but a small time of abode upon an expedition; for neither vallum nor ditch of any great strength: it is situate on a very convenient promontory, or rather peninsula of high ground, the steepness whereof is a guard to three sides of it; the other has the slender vallum made chiefly of the surface of the earth thrown up a little. From the edge of these hills is an indefinite prospect over the country of the Dobuni, the Belgæ, and Durotriges: the descent to it, as being on the west side of the hill, is very steep. I think this place is called Bagdon hill.
Under it, to the left, is the Devises: this I take to be the Punctuobice of Ravennas, which he mentions by parcels thus: Leucomagus, Bedwin, (Cimetzone for) Cunetione in the ablative case, Marlborough; Punctuobice, the Devises: then he begins a new period of cities in Wales, Venta Silurum, &c. I suppose here is a remnant of the former part of the word Punctuobice in Poulsholt, a little village hard by; Potern another, Potern-wood, and the name of the hundred Potern, taken, in the first times of their division, from such a corrupt appellation of this place: the last syllable bice subsists in the present name Devises, vulgarly vies. This town is excellently situated, about two miles from the bottom of the hills, which keep off the eastern winds, and in a rich soil.[130] Under the hill at Runway is an excellent spring, which the inhabitants have not yet found means to convey thither, though it runs but a little way off the town, where they want water. It is a very large old town, consisting chiefly of two long parallel streets; the houses for the most part of timber, but of a very good model: they value themselves for one of the best weekly markets in England, and for being tenants to the king. It was inclosed by the Romans with a vallum and ditch, which I presently found out: they have made a road of the ditch in most parts round the town; but in several places both that and the vallum are visible enough, and it took in the castle: this castle was Roman originally, finely chosen upon a natural fortification, but in after-times made in a manner impregnable by Roger a bishop of Salisbury; though now it is ignobly mangled, and every day destroyed by people that care not to leave a wall standing, though for a fence to their garden. Here are two churches; the choir of St. Mary’s, of a very old model; the steeple, choir, and both wings of St. John’s, the same, to which parcels have since been tacked all round, and new wide windows put in with pointed arches, instead of the ancient narrow semi-circular ones. Just out of town is a pretty plain, called the Green, with another handsome church and steeple, suburbs to the old town. Here William Cadby, a gardener, dug up his collection of gods, which he carried about for a show: they were found in a garden, in a cavity inclosed with Roman brick: the Venus is of an excellent design; and the Vestal Virgin, as they call it, a fragment of Corinthian brass; it is of very curious drapery: Vulcan is as lame as if made at a forge: the rest equal in designing with the lares of the Ostiaques, and not at all mended in the plate published by Dr. Musgrave: he had several coins found thereabouts, and a brass Roman key which my lord Winchelsea bought. Roman antiquities are found here every day. My lord Winchelsea has one brass Probus; on the reverse, Victoria Germ. with a trophy: and a great fund of such antiquities is to be met with all around the country. At Calne incredible numbers of Roman coin dug up; so at Studley, in the way to Bath, once a seat of the Saxon kings: I have seen and bought some of these: my lord Winchelsea has many found there.