Part 24

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. 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; 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, 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.

[Sidenote: +Martinshal Hill.+ Ro. _camp_.]

[Sidenote: TAB. XLIV.]

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 have 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.

[Sidenote: +Martinalia.+]

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.

[Sidenote: +Barbury.+ Ro. _camp_.]

[Sidenote: +Badbury.+]

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 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.

[Sidenote: Ro. _road to_ +Bath. via Badonica.+]

[Sidenote: +Oldbury.+ Ro. _camp_.]

[Sidenote: TAB. XLII.]

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 castle a little to the north: this is a great and strong 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.

[Sidenote: +Wansdike.+]

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, 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.

[Sidenote: +Verlucio.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LXVIII.]

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.

ITER XIII.

_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.

ITER XIIII.

_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. _Calleva 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.

[Sidenote: +Punctuobice.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LXIX.]