ITER SEPTIMUM ANTONINI AUG. VII.
Adde tot egregias urbes, operumque laborem.
Tot congesta manu præruptis oppida saxis,
Fluminaque antiquos subterlabentia muros. Virg. Geor. II.
To ROGER GALE, Esq;
THE reasons I have to address the following journey to you, are both general and particular: of the first sort, the title affixed to it could not but put me in mind of your claim to these kind of disquisitions from any hand, whose excellent commentary on Antoninus’s Itinerary has deservedly given you the palm of ancient learning, and rendered your character classic among the chief restorers of the Roman Britain. But I am apprehensive it will be easier to make these papers of mine acceptable to the world, than to yourself, both as the most valuable part of them is your own, and as I purpose by it to remind you of favouring the public with a new edition of that work, to which I know you have made great additions; and in this I am sure they will join with me. The honour you have indulged me of a long friendship, the pleasure and advantage I have reaped in travelling with you, and especially a great part of this journey, are particular reasons, or rather a debt from myself and the world, if any thing of antique inquiries I can produce that are not illaudable, if what time I spend in travelling, may not be wholly a hunting after fresh air with the vulgar citizens, but an examination into the works of nature, and of past ages. I have no fears, that aught here will be less acceptable to you, because perhaps in some things I may differ from your sentiments: the sweetness of your disposition, and your great judgement, I know, will discern and applaud what is really just, and excuse the errors: difference of opinions, though false, is often of great service in furthering a discovery of the truth: to think for one’s self is the prerogative of learning; and no one, but a tyrant in books, will persecute another for it. It is certain, Antoninus his Itinerary is an endless fund of inquiry. I doubt not but in future researches I shall be induced as much to vary from myself as now from others; and, after our best endeavours, succeeding writers will correct us all.
Via Trinovantica.
The last summer I travelled this whole Seventh Journey, and in the order of the Itinerary; but I took in several other places by the way, which relate to the clearing some parts of other journeys. Parallel to the great Icening-street, runs another Roman road from south-west to north-east, through London, beginning at the sea-coast in Hampshire by Rumsey, and ending at the sea-coast in Suffolk about Aldborough. The name of it is utterly lost: if I might have the liberty of assigning one, it should be via Trinovantica, as it tends to the country of those people; and names are necessary to avoid confusion. The lower part of it, or that comprehended between London and Ringwood upon the edge of Dorsetshire, is the subject of this journey; but because I have already given an account of several towns that relate to the XIIIth and XIVth journeys of Antoninus, which have some connexion with this, and that I conceive they are considerably faulty in the original, I shall run through some few more I had opportunity to see, and offer my conjectures towards the restitution of those journeys.
Upon the great moor between Bagshot and Okingham, near East-Hamsted park, we saw a large camp upon a hill doubly ditched, commonly called Cæsar’s camp, as many more without any reason: there has been a well in it, and both Roman and British coins have been found there, one of Cunobelin in silver: its figure is not regular, but conformable to the top of the hill: near it are two large barrows, Ambury and Edgebury. At Berkham by Okingham I bought a very elegant British coin of gold, dug up by a woman in her garden: it is of the most ancient kind, and without letters. I saw a British gold coin found near Old Windsor; another dug up, 1719, at Hanmer hill, between Guildford and Farnham.
Vindoma.
TAB. LXI.
All the country hereabouts, and to Silchester, is clay, moor, sand, gravel by spots, much boggy, springy land, much good land, but more bad: the water is blackish every where. Silchester is a place that a lover of antiquity will visit with great delight: it stands upon the highest ground thereabouts, but hid with wood, which grows very plentifully all about it. Many were the Roman roads that met here, though now scarce any road; which is the reason it is so little known: it is likewise inconvenient for travellers, because no inns are near it; and it may be serviceable to tell the curious, that Aldermaston is the nearest town where lodging is to be found, three miles off; for at the place we may truly say,
Rarus & antiquis habitator in urbibus errat.
The walls of this city are standing, more or less perfect, quite round; perhaps the most intire of any in the Roman empire, especially the whole north side of the wall, which is a most agreeable sight. The composition is chiefly flint for the space of four foot high, then a binding of three layers of rag-stone laid flat: in many places five of these double intervals remain for a great length. There was a broad ditch quite round, and now for the most part impassable, and full of springs. Here and there Roman bricks are left in the walls. Though on the out-side they are of this considerable height, yet the ground within is so raised as nearly to be equal to the top, and that quite round crowned with oaks and other timber-trees of no mean bulk, and which Mr. Camden takes notice of in his time. Not long since, lady Blessington cut 500l. worth of timber from thence. Gildas says, Constantius the son of Constantine the Great built it, and sowed corn in the track of the walls, as an omen of their perpetuity:[135] indeed, now the whole city is arable; and among the fields Roman bricks, bits of pots, rubbish of buildings, are scattered every where, and coins are picked up every day. It is a parallelogram whose shortest side to the longest is as 3 to 4; its length about 2600 feet, its breadth 2000; standing conformable to the four cardinal points: it had two gates upon its length opposite. There is only one farm-house within it, and the church. To the east, by that house, the foundation of the gate is visible, and several Roman bricks thereabouts. All the yards here are like a solid rock, with rubbish, pavements and mortar, cemented together. The late Rev. Mr. Betham, minister of this place, a learned, curious and worthy person, had collected a vast number of coins and antiquities found here: he is buried under the north wall of the chancel without side: within is another monument of a person of quality: it is remarkable that a wall only divides them in their graves, who both met a sad and disastrous fate at different times in the same place, being drowned in Fleet-ditch. Onion-hole, in the middle of the southern wall, is a place much talked of here by the ignorant country people, which is only an arch in the foundation for the issue of a sewer: they have a like story here of this city being taken by sparrows. I saw a silver coin of Philippus, and a brass one of Constantine, and many more. A spring arises from under the wall at the church-yard. The streets are still visible in the corn. Rings with stones in them are often found, among inscriptions and all sorts of other antiquities.
Amphitheatre.
TAB. XLIII. 2d Vol.
Five hundred foot without the city, on the north-east corner I espied another great curiosity, which the people think was a castle: I presently discerned it to be an amphitheatre: it is in bulk, in shape, and all points, the same as that at Dorchester, but not built of so solid materials; for it is chiefly clay and gravel: it stands in a yard by the road side, near a ruinous house and barn, upon a sloping piece of ground: eastward toward the road there is a pit: there it is sixty foot high on the out-side. The whole area or arena within is now covered with water, but they say it is not much above three foot deep: the bottom of it, and the work, must certainly be exceeding solid, and well compared, to retain the water so many years without draining through: it is a most noble and beautiful concave, but intirely over-grown with thorn-bushes, briars, holly, broom, furze, oak and ash trees, &c. and has from times immemorial been a yard for cattle, and a watering-pond; so that it is a wonder their trampling has not defaced it much more. I examined this fine antiquity with all the exactness possible: the terrace at top, the circular walk, the whole form, is not obscure: it is posited exactly as that before described, with its longest diameter from north-east to south-west; its entrance north-east, though farthest from the city. There is an ascent to it from the entrance side, that being upon the lowest ground: at the upper end, the level of the ground is not much below the top of the terrace, and vastly above that of the arena; so that I conceive the better sort of the people went that way directly from the city into their seats: there is such a gap too in that part, from the ruin of the cave where the wild beasts were kept. An old house standing there with an orchard has forwarded its ruin from that quarter; and they have levelled some part of the terrace for their garden. Surveying the whole could not but put me in mind of that piece of Roman magnificence, when the emperors caused great trees to be taken up by the roots, and planted in the amphitheatres and circs, pro tempore, to imitate forests wherein they hunted beasts; which here is presented in pure nature.
Riding along the road on the north side of Silchester, I left it with this reflection: Now a person of a moderate fortune may buy a whole Roman city, which once half a kingdom could not do; and a gentleman may be lord of the soil where formerly princes and emperors commanded. To the west of the place, but at some distance, runs a high bank overgrown with trees seemingly north and south: they say there is another such, south of the city: which would make one suspect they were raised by some besiegers. Farther on I crossed a great Roman road coming from Winchester: they call it Long-bank and Grimesdike. I have very often found this name applied to a road, a wall, a ditch of antiquity; which would make one fancy it is a Saxon word signifying the witches work; for the vulgar generally think these extraordinary works made by help of the devil. They told me it goes through Burfield and Reading. Towards Winchester I could see it as far as the horizon, perfectly strait, ten miles off. We may say with the poet,
Tellus in longas est patefacta vias. Tibull.
Near it they talk of a stone thrown by an imp from Silchester walls, a mile off, which I suppose a mile-stone. Mr. Camden says a Roman road runs westward from Silchester, which I imagine goes to Andover. From Aldermaston is a fine view of the country hanging over the Kennet, lately made navigable. Going from Aldermaston to Kingsclere, where once was a palace of the Saxon kings, I passed over Brimpton common: here are many very fine Celtic barrows:Barrows Br. the soil is a moor full of erica, which they dig up for fewel; underneath it is sand: at Kingsclere the mighty chalk-hills begin. Upon the top of a very high promontory is a square Roman camp, in a park. From hence to Andover is an hard way and open country. Just before I descended the continuation of this great ridge of hills overlooking Andover, I crossed a ditch like Wansditch, hanging upon the edge of the hills, which I suppose some division among the ancient Britons: it extended itself both ways as far as I could see: the foss is not very large, though the bank is: the foss is northward.
43·2d.
Stukeley delin.
E. Kirkall sculp.
The Side view of the Amphitheater at Silchester. May 8. 1724.
Andaoreon.
Andover is (not to be questioned) the Andaoreon of Ravennas: the name signifies the watery habitation; annedh, habitatio; dur, aqua. It stands on the slope of a hill just by the springs of the river Tees, or t’isca: they arise here northward of the town very plentiful, and are carried in a thousand rills through all the meadows, till they unite and pass under the bridge. The church is an aukward old building; the west door, of an ancient circular make. They are now pulling down the timber market-house to build a new one of stone: the market-place is a broad street. Upon a very high hill to the south-west is a large Roman camp, seeming to be admirably well fortified: it is called Bury-hill Ro. Camp.Bury hill. Between this and Stockbridge is Dunbury hill, a circular camp, doubly intrenched with various works at the entrance.
I travelled along a fine downy country, ’till passing the river Bourn in Wiltshire I came to the Icening-street near Haradon hill; where I intended to observe the great eclipse of the sun, which was to be on the next day; of which memorable phænomenon I judge it will not be disagreeable if I repeat what I wrote of it.
To Dr. Edmund Halley.
ACCORDING to my promise, I send you what I observed of the solar eclipse, though I fear it will not be of any great use to you. I was not prepared with any instruments for measuring time, or the like, and proposed to myself only to watch all the appearances that Nature would present to the naked eye on so remarkable an occasion, and which generally are overlooked, or but grosly regarded. I chose for my station a place called Haradon hill, two miles eastward from Amsbury, and full east from the opening of Stonehenge avenue, to which it is as the point of view. Before me lay the vast plain where that celebrated work stands, and I knew that the eclipse would appear directly over it: beside, I had the advantage of a very extensive prospect every way, this being the highest hill hereabouts, and nearest the middle of the shadow. Full west of me, and beyond Stonehenge, is a pretty copped hill, like the top of a cone lifting itself above the horizon: this is Clay hill, near Warminster, twenty miles distant, and near the central line of darkness, which must come from thence; so that I could have notice enough before-hand of its approach. Abraham Sturgis and Stephen Ewens, both of this place and sensible men, were with me. Though it was very cloudy, yet now and then we had gleams of sun-shine, rather more than I could perceive at any other place around us. These two persons looking through smoaked glasses, while I was taking some bearings of the country with a circumferentor, both confidently affirmed the eclipse was begun; when by my watch I found it just half an hour after five: and accordingly from thence the progress of it was visible, and very often to the naked eye; the thin clouds doing the office of glasses. From the time of the sun’s body being half covered, there was a very conspicuous circular iris round the sun, with perfect colours. On all sides we beheld the shepherds hurrying their flocks into fold, the darkness coming on; for they expected nothing less than a total eclipse, for an hour and a quarter.
When the sun looked very sharp, like a new moon, the sky was pretty clear in that spot: but soon after a thicker cloud covered it; at which time the iris vanished, the copped hill before mentioned grew very dark, together with the horizon on both sides, that is, to the north and south, and looked blue; just as it appears in the east at the declension of day: we had scarce time to tell ten, when Salisbury steeple, six mile off southward, became very black; the copped hill quite lost, and a most gloomy night with full career came upon us. At this instant we lost sight of the sun, whose place among the clouds was hitherto sufficiently distinguishable, but now not the least trace of it to be found, no more than if really absent: then I saw by my watch, though with difficulty, and only by help of some light from the northern quarter, that it was six hours thirty-five minutes: just before this the whole compass of the heavens and earth looked of a lurid complexion, properly speaking, for it was black and blue; only on the earth upon the horizon the blue prevailed. There was likewise in the heavens among the clouds much green interspersed; so that the whole appearance was really very dreadful, and as symptoms of sickening nature.
Now I perceived us involved in total darkness, and palpable, as I may aptly call it: though it came quick, yet I was so intent that I could perceive its steps, and feel it as it were drop upon us, and fall on the right shoulder (we looking westward) like a great dark mantle, or coverlet of a bed, thrown over us, or like the drawing of a curtain on that side: and the horses we held in our hands were very sensible of it, and crouded close to us, startling with great surprise. As much as I could see of the men’s faces that stood by me, had a horrible aspect. At this instant I looked around me, not without exclamations of admiration, and could discern colours in the heavens; but the earth had lost its blue, and was wholly black. For some time, among the clouds, there were visible streaks of rays, tending to the place of the sun as their centre; but immediately after, the whole appearance of the earth and sky was intirely black. Of all things I ever saw in my life, or can by imagination fancy, it was a sight the most tremendous.
Stukeley del.
E. Kirkall sculp.
The appearance of the Total Solar eclipse from Haradon hill May 11, 1724.
Toward the north-west, whence the eclipse came, I could not in the least find any distinction in the horizon between heaven and earth, for a good breadth, of about sixty degrees or more; nor the town of Amsbury underneath us, nor scarce the ground we trod on. I turned myself round several times during this total darkness, and remarked at a good distance from the west on both sides, that is, to the north and south, the horizon very perfect; the earth being black, the lower part of the heavens light: for the darkness above hung over us like a canopy, almost reaching the horizon in those parts, or as if made with skirts of a lighter colour; so that the upper edges of all the hills were as a black line, and I knew them very distinctly by their shape or profile: and northward I saw perfectly, that the interval of light and darkness in the horizon was between Martinsal hill and St. Ann’s hill; but southward it was more indefinite. I do not mean that the verge of the shadow passed between those hills, which were but twelve miles distant from us: but so far I could distinguish the horizon; beyond it, not at all. The reason of it is this: the elevation of ground I was upon gave me an opportunity of seeing the light of the heavens beyond the shadow: nevertheless this verge of light looked of a dead, yellowish and greenish colour: it was broader to the north than south, but the southern was of a tawny colour. At this time, behind us or eastward toward London, it was dark too, where otherwise I could see the hills beyond Andover; for the foremost end of the shadow was past thither: so that the whole horizon was now divided into four parts of unequal bulk and degrees of light and dark: the part to the north-west, broadest and blackest; to the south-west, lightest and longest. All the change I could perceive during the totality, was that the horizon by degrees drew into two parts, light and dark; the northern hemisphere growing still longer, lighter, and broader, and the two opposite dark parts uniting into one, and swallowing up the southern enlightened part.
As at the beginning the shade came feelingly upon our right shoulders, so now the light from the north, where it opened as it were: though I could discern no defined light or shade upon the earth that way, which I earnestly watched for; yet it was manifestly by degrees, and with oscillations, going back a little, and quickly advancing further; till at length upon the first lucid point appearing in the heavens, where the sun was, I could distinguish pretty plainly a rim of light running along-side of us a good while together, or sweeping by at our elbows from west to east. Just then, having good reason to suppose the totality ended with us, I looked on my watch, and found it to be full three minutes and a half more: now the hill-tops changed their black into blue again, and I could distinguish a horizon where the centre of darkness was before: the men cried out, they saw the copped hill again, which they had eagerly looked for: but still it continued dark to the south-east; yet I cannot say that ever the horizon that way was undistinguishable: immediately we heard the larks chirping and singing very briskly for joy of the restored luminary, after all things had been hushed into a most profound and universal silence: the heavens and earth now appeared exactly like morning before sun-rise, of a greyish cast, but rather more blue interspersed; and the earth, as far as the verge of the hill reached, was of a dark green or russet colour.
As soon as the sun emerged, the clouds grew thicker, and the light was very little amended for a minute or more, like a cloudy morning slowly advancing. After about the middle of the totality, and so after the emersion of the sun, we saw Venus very plainly, but no other star. Salisbury steeple now appeared. The clouds never removed, so that we could take no account of it afterward, but in the evening it lightened very much. I hasted home to write this letter; and the impression was so vivid upon my mind, that I am sure I could, for some days after, have wrote the same account of it, and very precisely. After supper I made a drawing of it from my imagination, upon the same paper I had taken a prospect of the country before.
I must confess to you, that I was (I believe) the only person in England that regretted not the cloudiness of the day, which added so much to the solemnity of the sight, and which imcomparably exceeded, in my apprehension, that of 1715, which I saw very perfectly from the top of Boston steeple in Lincolnshire, where the air was very clear: but the night of this was more complete and dreadful. There indeed I saw both sides of the shadow come from a great distance, and pass beyond us to a great distance; but this eclipse had much more of variety and majestic terror: so that I cannot but felicitate myself upon the opportunity of seeing these two rare accidents of nature, in so different a manner: yet I should willingly have lost this pleasure for your more valuable advantage of perfecting the noble theory of the celestial bodies, which last time you gave the world so nice a calculation of; and wish the sky had now as much favoured us for an addition to your honour and great skill, which I doubt not to be as exact in this as before.Ambsbury, Wilts, May 10, 1724.
Return we to matters of antiquity. Upon this very hill-top are great pits dug lately by order of my lord Charlton for clay, which they find here of a very stiff sort, by nature let in like veins among clefts of the solid chalk: the workmen here, whilst they have been busy in taking it up, have found many Romans coins, silver and brass, some very deep in the earth, as they say; several of which I have now by me. I saw likewise a very fair gold Constantius; the reverse, two Genii holding a shield, vot. xxx. victoria Augg. It seems as if the Romans, with their wonted sagacity, had been occupied here in the same way, to make pottery ware, and not neglected to leave proof of it according to their method. I took notice likewise of one side of the summit being covered with oyster-shells loose upon the surface; and how they came there I could get no information.
Icening-street.
The Icening-street runs between this hill and the Bourn river, coming from Newberry, as I suppose, through Chute forest, where vulgarly called Chute causeway: at Lurgishal it makes a fine terrace-walk in the garden of Sir Philip Medows; then passes the Bourn river about Tudworth, and so by this place to the eastern gate of Old Sarum, the Roman Sorbiodunum.Sorbiodunum, where it runs most precisely north-east and south-west, as we said before. TAB. LXV.This city is perfectly round, and formed upon one of the most elegant designs one can imagine: probably a fortress of the old Britons, and I fancy somewhat like the famous Alesia in Gaul, memorable for the ancient Hercules, its founder, and for the siege of the great Cæsar; which only his genius could have taken in his circumstances. The prospect of this place is at present very august, and would have afforded us a most noble sight when in perfection: such a one will not be difficult to conceive when we have described it. It fills up the summit of a high and steep hill, which originally rose equally on all sides to an apex: the whole work is 1600 foot diameter, included in a ditch of a prodigious depth: it is so contrived that in effect it has two ramparts, the inner and outer, the ditch between: upon the inner, which is much the higher, stood a strong wall of twelve foot thick, their usual standard, which afforded a parapet at top for the defendants, with battlements quite round: upon still higher ground is another deep circular ditch, of 500 foot diameter; this is the castle or citadel. Upon the inner rampire of this was likewise another wall, I suppose of like thickness: so that between the inner ditch and the outer wall, all around, was the city. This is divided into equal parts by a meridian line: both the banks are still left; one to the south, the other to the north; and these had walls upon them too: the traces of all the walls are still manifest, and some parts of them left; but we may say with the poet of the whole,
————lapsis ingentia muris
Saxa jacent, nulloque domus custode tenetur. Lucan. I.
In the middle of each half, toward the east and west, is a gate, with each a lunette before it, deeply ditched, and two oblique entries; that to the east is square, to the west round: the hollow where the wall stood is visible quite round, though the materials are well-nigh carried away to New Sarum: in every quarter were two towers, the foundations plainly appearing: then, with those that were upon the cardinal points, the gates and the median rampart, as it must necessarily be understood, there were twelve in the whole circumference; so that, supposing it about 5000 feet in circumference, there was a tower at every 400. Hence we may imagine the nature of the city was thus: a circular street went round in the middle between the inner and outer fortifications, concentric to the whole work; and that cross streets, like radii, fronted each tower: then there were twenty-four islets of building for houses, temples, or the like. Now such is the design of this place, that if one half was taken by an enemy, the other would still be defensible; and at last they might retire into the castle. The city is now ploughed over, and not one house left. In the angle to the north-west stood the cathedral and episcopal palace: the foundations are at present so conspicuous, that I could easily mark out the ground-plot of it, as in the [65th plate]: near it is a large piece of the wall left, made of hewn stone with holes quite through at equal spaces. One would imagine the Romans, in laying down the area of this city, had Plato’s rules in view,[136] in his fifth dialogue of laws. Many wells have been filled up, and, no doubt, with noble reliques of antiquity: they must have been very deep, and especially that in the castle, and dug out of the solid chalk. Of the castle-wall a good deal of huge fragments and foundations are left: a double winding stair-case led up to the gate, where bits of arch-work and immense strength of stone and mortar remains; and within, many foundations and traces of buildings. In the north-east corner of the city there is another rampart upon a radius, including a squarish piece of ground; probably for some public edifice, but what in particular, is now hard to say. TAB. LXVI.Certainly, for strength, air, and prospect over the lovely downs, and for salubrity, this place was well calculated, and impregnable to any thing but death and hunger. The river Avon runs near the bottom of the hill. The history of its glory, its strange vicissitudes, and its ruin by removal of the church to New Sarum, may be learnt from Camden, Burton, and other authors; my business being chiefly to describe things: but the very sight of such a carcass would naturally from a traveller extort such an expostulation: Is this the ancient episcopal see, and the seat of warlike men, now become corn-fields, and pasture for sheep? Is this the place where synods have been held, and British parliaments; where all the states of the kingdom were summoned to swear fealty to William the Conqueror; the palace of the most potent British and Saxon kings, and Roman emperors? and conclude with Rutilius,
Non indignemur mortalia corpora solvi,
Cernimus exemplis oppida posse mori.
Nor grieve at our own fate, since here we see
That towns themselves must die as well as we.
Before the eastern gate of Sorbiodunum, a branch of the Roman way.Roman way proceeds eastward to Winchester, which has never yet been observed: upon this goes part of the XVth imperial journey in these words; Venta Belgarum, Brige, Sorbiodunum. This way passes the river Bourn at Ford: the ridge of it is plain, though the countrymen have attacked it vigorously on both sides with their ploughs: we caught them at the sacrilegious work, and reprehended them for it: then it goes between Clarendon park, and the camp of Chlorus before described: on the whole length of Farley common it is very conspicuous, made of hard matter dug up all along on both sides; then ascends the hills at Winterslow, which signifies the white hill; then through Buckholt forest, where with good heed the course of it may be followed, though through by-ways, pastures, woods and hedges; sometimes running the length, sometimes crossing it: a little northward of West Titherley it goes close by a farm-house and large barn upon a rising ground, and at the edge of a wood. This is the proper distance of eight miles from Sorbiodunum, and was the ancient Brige.Brige; and Roman antiquities are often found here: the British name imports a town upon the top of the hill; brege, cacumen.
Nunc situs informis premit & deserta vetustas. Hor.
All this country being part of the Conqueror’s new forest, this colony of the Romans shared in that great depopulation he made for his diversion. It is near the brink of that woody hill, called Horseshoe wood from its being upon a hill, overlooking Broughton upon the river Wallop, where Mr. Camden places the Brige. A little way farther upon the same brink, on an apex of the hill, stands a large Celtic barrow, ditched about, called Bols turret:[137] there are several other barrows thereabouts, and probably some Roman; for the Roman road, here called the Cause-way, proceeds upon this edge to the river at Bossington, though sometimes intercepted by corn-fields, where the common road goes about, and then falls into it again: it passes over the river at Bossington, then marches directly to Winchester west gate.
65
SORBIODVNVM.
1. Aug. 1722.
The View.
The Ichnography.
The Section.
Stukeley designavit.
Antiquæ Urbis Cadaver in Æs transtulit Joħes Pine Chalcographus.
66
Stukeley del.
A. Stratford B. the Icening Street.
Prospect of Old Sarum Aug. 1. 1723.
75·2d.
MARCVS MODIVS MEDICVS. In Marmore
Apud Illustrissimum Comitem Penbrokiæ, In Villa Carviliana.
Stukeley delin:
G. Vdr. Gucht Sculp.
Having described this road, let us return to Sorbiodunum, in order to pursue the Icening-street: but first give me leave to impart to the reader somewhat of the pleasure you and I reaped at the neighbouring Wilton.Wilton. I shall only at this time give a catalogue of my lord Pembroke’s most noble collection of ancient marbles, which may be of use to the curious, in knowing the particulars of that glorious Musœum, or that have a mind to view them.
The BUSTO’S are in number 133. The STATUES 36. The BASSO RELIEVO’S 15. MISCELLANIES 9.
I. Of the BUSTO’S. 1. Those made with eyes of different matter from the bust. A Sibyl, the whole cavity of the eyes hollowed: Ariadne, with agate eyes: A Greek Cupid, with agate eyes: Drusus, Germanicus; these two are in copper, finely performed, with silver eyes.—2. Learned persons. Hesiod: Homer, brought from Constantinople, seems by its high antiquity to have been the first model of the father of the poets: Sappho, the inimitable in poetry; this is of the ivory marble, the last perfection of Greek sculpture: Pythagoras: Anacharsis, of an admirable character: Socrates, by the roguish carver dressed like a Satyr, with sharp ears: Plato, very ancient, and of a most venerable aspect: Aristotle: Aristophanes: Apollonius Tyanæus, a most valuable antiquity, with the right hand and arm: Marcus Modius, an Athenian physician, of excellent Greek work: Epicurus, a little bust of the great atomic philosopher:TAB. XLIV. 2d Vol. Posidonius, preceptor to Cicero: Sophocles: Aspasia, who taught Socrates rhetoric: Isocrates: Cato major: Cicero, of touch-stone: Horace, as some think; a young busto of speckled porphyry; I am inclined to believe it Ovid: Seneca: Persius the Satyrist: Titus Livius.—3. Of coloss proportion. Arsinoe mater: Ahenobarbus, the bad father of the worse Nero: Julia Domna, wife of Severus: Geta when young, their son.—4. Persons of Greece before the Roman empire: Cecrops and his wife represented as Janus: Tmolus, a most ancient founder of a colony: Ganymede, with the Phrygian bonnet, very beautiful: Dido: Arsinoe filia: Phædra, wife of Theseus: Damas, the learned daughter of Pythagoras: Olympias, mother of Alexander: Alexander magnus: Lysimachus: Berenice mater: Berenice filia: Ptolemy, brother to Cleopatra: Cleopatra, wife to Antipater: Ammonius Alexandrinus, one of the Olympic victors: Iotape, wife of Antiochus Comagenes king of Syria.—5. Consular persons: Lucius Junius Brutus, who slew Tarquin: M. Junius Brutus, who slew Cæsar: P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus: Scipio Asiaticus: P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica: one of the brothers of the Horatii: Marcellus: Marius: Sulpicius Rufus: Dolabella: Cneius Pompeius magnus: Sextus Pompeius.—6. Emperors, Empresses, Cæsars and Augustæ, beside Geta and Julia Domna already mentioned. Julius Cæsar, of oriental alabaster, the only original: Augustus: Julia, daughter to Augustus, incomparably fine: Cajus Cæsar: Lucius Cæsar: Marcellus: Drusus senior: Germanicus: Agrippina senior: Antonia, of curious marble: Tiberius, of small brass: Caligula: Cæsonia, wife of Caligula: Claudius, the conqueror of Britain: Drusilla: Messalina: Nero: Sabina Poppæa, his wife, a naked busto: Octavia, his wife: Marcia: Galba: Otho: Vitellius: Lucius Vitellius, brother to the emperor: Vespasian: Titus: Julia, daughter of Titus: Domitian: Vespasianus novus, the adopted son of Domitian: Nerva: Trajan: Hadrian: Sabina: Antinous, Hadrian’s favourite: Antoninus Pius: Faustina senior: M. Aurelius Antoninus Philosophus: Annius Verus: Lucius Verus: Commodus: Lucilla, wife of Ælius: Lucilla junior, wife of Verus: Pertinax: Didius Julianus: Crispina, wife of Commodus: Septimius Severus: Plautilla, wife of Caracalla: Julia Paula: Macrinus: Annia Faustina, wife of Heliogabalus: Julia Mammæa, wife of Verus: Julia Moesa: Lucilla junior: Alexander Severus: Gordianus Cæsar: Balbinus: Sabina Tranquillina, wife of Antonius Gordianus, emperor: Marcia Otacilla; Q. Herennius, a boy: Hostilianus: Volusianus: Valerianus, a boy: Constantinus magnus the Briton, of better work than was commonly in that age, as a few of his medals were.—7. Divinities. Jupiter: Pallas: Apollo, a fine large bust: Diana: Venus, like that of Medicis: Bacchus: Faunus: Fauna: Libera: Libertas: Mercury Pantheon, made of different faces.
II. STATUES. A queen of the Amazons defending herself from a horseman in battle: Cupid, a man, breaking his bow: Clio, the muse, sitting: a Faunus: these are of most admirable workmanship. Five statues reckoned as ancient as any in the several parts of the world. Egypt, Isis with her husband Osiris in Theban iron stone. Thrace, Jupiter Ammon from the temple built by Sesostris, with a ram on his shoulders; it is a very venerable piece. Asia Minor, Diana of Ephesus; the head, hands and feet black, the rest of white marble. Phrygia, Cupid tied to a tree; a Phrygian cap on his head. Lydia, Hercules wrestling with Achelous. Paris with the Phrygian bonnet and shepherd’s coat of skins. Saturn with an infant in his arms. The Egyptian Bacchus, of a fine shape, carrying the young fat Greek Bacchus on his shoulder. A shepherd playing on the flute. A Greek Bacchus. Flora. Silenus drunk, with a club in his hand, fancying himself Hercules, supported by a younger; a piece of most incomparable art. A boy dancing and playing on music. Cupid holding the golden apple. A young Bacchus smiling. Marcus Aurelius on horseback, made at Athens, small. The river Meander, recumbent. A boy in an eager posture, catching at some live thing on the ground. A coloss Hercules, six Attic cubits high, with three apples in one hand. Cleopatra giving suck to Cæsarion her son, sitting. Julia Pia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus, sitting. Livia, the wife of Augustus, sitting. Manlia Scantilla, sitting. Attys the Phrygian, engraved by Montfaucon without the head, which is here restored. Mark Antony, a crocodile at his feet. Apollo. Ceres. Pomona. Andromeda. Young Hercules with the serpents. Hercules, old, with his club. The dwarf of Augustus.
III. BASSO RELIEVO’S. The Story of Niobe, alto relievo, very ancient: there are twenty figures; the marble is 2400 weight; seems to have been a pannel in some temple of Apollo, or Diana. The story of Meleager, being the side of a sarcophagus, seventeen figures, mezzo relievo, 1500 weight, of an admirable taste. Curtius on horseback, leaping into the gaping cavern, of most excellent work. M. Aurelius and Faustina, adversa capita, fine work. Caracalla, a three-quarters relievo. The three Graces. One on horseback, cutting at a soldier defending himself under the horse. The ancient manner of eating, Jupiter served by Hebe: he is accumbent. A frize of a sea-triumph, small figures. Cleopatra with the asps in a covered vase, alto relievo. Part of a frize from a temple of Neptune, Naiades and Tritons. A basso from a temple of Bacchus, the thyrsus, &c. A basso relievo on porphyry of Roemitalces king of Thrace. A child stealing fruit from the altar through a mask.
IV. MISCELLANIES. A nuptial vase, representing the ceremonies of marriage. Ara Hammonis, a cube of white marble, on front the symbol of Jupiter Hammon on a circular piece of the old Theban marble. Two black porphyry pillars brought from Rome by the earl of Arundel. The column of Egyptian granite, weighing near 7000 weight, from the ruins of the temple of Venus genetrix, built by Julius Cæsar: this my lord has set up in the front of the house. A very ancient altar of Bacchus, adorned with basso relievo’s. An altar table of red Egyptian granite, large, and four or five inches thick. An antique pavement, four sorts of marble, of gradual light and shade. The antique picture from the temple of Juno: it is in thick stucco. The sarcophagus of Epaphroditus intire, finely carved with the history of Ceres. The front of Claudia’s sepulchre, sister of Probus the emperor: her head is joined with his. Eighty-five termini of antique marbles, busto’s on seventy-two of them.
Icening-street.
From the gate of Sorbiodunum the Icening-street goes from north-east to south-west, by the name of Port lane, over the river Avon at Stretford; then ascends the hill, and passes the united Nadre and Willy near Bemerton, where the stony ford is still very perfect: then it goes across my lord Pembroke’s horse-race course and hare-warren, making a visto to M. Aurelius his equestrian figure in the park. If the spirits and genii of the ancient Romans travel this way, no doubt they will be surprised to find themselves so near the Capitol. Then it traverses the brook at Fenny-Stretford, and so along the great downs toward Cranburn chace: here it delights one to turn and survey its direction towards Sorbiodunum, a sweet prospect; whether we regard what share of it is due to nature, or what to art; and of the latter sort, what is owing to the road, or what to the old city. As it enters the chace there is a most remarkable diverticulum, and which notoriously demonstrates it was begun from the south: for here, as it came from thence across the woods, where its ridge is very perfect, made of stone, it butts full upon the end of a vast valley, very deep and of steep descent; where it was absolutely impracticable to carry the road on in a strait line: the Roman surveyor therefore wisely gave way to nature, turned the road side-ways along the end of the valley, then with an equal angle carried it forward upon the upper side of that valley in full direction to Old Sarum. That great and wise people, though ignorant of submission, knew nature might be drawn aside, but not directly opposed, especially in works that are to be lasting: hence my intent was, to pursue this noble road as far as it would carry me; and the pleasure one perceives in such a concomicant is not to be imagined by any one but those that experience it: to observe their methods in the conduct of such works, their artifices and struggles between industry and the difficulties and diversities of ground, of rivers, &c. and the continual presentment of somewhat worthy of remark by the way, renders it short, and vastly entertaining; nor is the mind ever at a loss for learned amusement. When it has passed through the woods of Cranburn chace, and approaches Woodyates, you see a great dike and vallum (Venndike) upon the edges of the hills to the left by Pentridge, to which I suppose it gave name: this crosses the Roman road, and then passes on the other side, upon the division between the hundred. The large vallum here is southward, and it runs upon the northern brink of the hills; whence I conjecture it a division or fence thrown up by the Belgæ before Cæsar’s time. I call this the second boundary of the Belgæ; two others are already mentioned. I pleased myself with the hopes of observing the Roman road running over it, as doubtless it did originally: but just at that instant both enter a lane, where every thing is disfigured with the wearing away and reparations that have been made ever since. Its high ridge is then inclosed within a pasture just at Woodyates, then becomes the common road for half a mile, but immediately passes forward upon a down, the road going off to the right. I continued the Roman road for two or three mile, where it is rarely visited: it is very beautiful, smooth on both sides, broad at top, the holes remaining whence it was taken, with a ditch on each hand: it is made of gravel, flint, or such stuff as happened in the way, most convenient and lasting. There are vast numbers of Celtic barrows upon these downs, just of such manner and shapes as those of Salisbury plain: at the first and more considerable group I came to, there was a most convincing evidence of the Roman road being made since the barrows: two instances of this nature I gave in the last letter. One form of these barrows, for distinction sake, I call Druids (for what reasons I shall not stand here to dispute:) they are thus. A circle of about 100 foot diameter, more or less, is inclosed with a ditch of a moderate breadth and depth: on the outside of this ditch is a proportionate vallum; in the centre of this inclosure is a small tump, where the remains of the person are buried, sometimes two, sometimes three. Now so it fell out, that the line of direction of the Roman road necessarily carried it over part of one of these tumuli, and some of the materials of the road are dug out of it: this has two little tumps in its centre.
It was now my business to look out for the station in Antoninus called Vindogladia, mentioned in the last journey to be twelve mile from Sorbiodunum. By this time I was come to a proper distance: accordingly I found, at the end of this heath, the road which is all along called Iclingdike, descended a valley where a brook crosses it, from two villages called Gliffet. At All-Saints, or Lower Gliffet, there was a small ale-house, and the only one hereabouts (the Rose:)Vindogladia. my old landlady, after some discourse preparatory, informed me that at Boroston, a mile lower upon the river, had been an old city; and that strangers had come out of their way on purpose to see it; that ruins and foundations were there; that it had seven parish-churches, which were beaten down in the war time; that many old coins had been ploughed up when she was a girl, which the children commonly played withal; but the case at present was plainly the same with that of old Troy, described in the ballad upon her wall, where she showed me these passionate verses,
Waste lie those walls that were so good,
And corn now grows where Troy towers stood.
This account, so natural, satisfied me that Vindogladia must here be fixed, and Wimbornminster be robbed of that honour, where the tide of antiquarians have hitherto carried it, for no other reason but name sake; the distances and road being repugnant. I suppose the name signifies the white river, or vale; vint, white; gladh, a river; whence our glade, or valley where a river runs. This place being not capable of affording me a proper mansion, I left the more particular scrutiny of it for another opportunity.
Hence I pursued the road on the opposite chalk-hill, where they have dug it away to burn for lime, but much degenerate from Roman mortar in strength: it was not long before I absolutely lost it in great woods beyond Long Crechil; but by information I learnt that it passes the Stour at Crayford bridge below Blandford, where I was obliged to take up my nightly quarters. I was glad to gain the downy country again westward of it, and still full of barrows of all sorts by clusters or groups. I frequently observed on the sides of hills long divisions, very strait, crossing one another with all kinds of angles: they look like the balks or meres of ploughed lands, and are really made of flint over-grown with turf: they are too small for ploughed lands, unless of the most ancient Britons, who dealt little that way; but just such like have I seen in what I always imagine British camps. Above the town of Blandford is an odd intrenchment on a hill, a squarish work, with others like the foundation of small towers: a barrow near it.
Vol. I. p. 81
A Roman Camp near Bere Regis (Ibernium) Dorsr 9 Iun 1724.
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Blandford.
Blandford is a pretty town, pleasantly seated in a flexure of the river, before charming meadows, and rich lands. Wood thrives exceedingly here: indeed this country is a fine variety of downs, woods, lawns, arable, pasture, and rich valleys; and an excellent air: the dry easterly winds, the cold northern, and the western moisture, are tempered by the warm southern saline breezes from the ocean, and nearest the sun. The incredible number of barrows that over-spread this country from the sea-side to North Wiltshire, persuade me a great people inhabited here before the Belgæ, that came from Spain, which we may call the Albionites: but it is not a time to discourse of that. This year, wherever I travelled, I found the bloom of the hedge-rows, and indeed all trees whatever, excessively luxuriant beyond any thing I ever knew. In this part the buck-thorn, or rhamnus catharticus, is very plentiful; and a traveller, if he pleases, may swallow a dozen of the ripe berries, not without use. Near the passage of the Icening-street at Crayford is Badbury, a vast Roman camp, where antiquities have been found.
Wansdike.
About three mile beyond this I found another ditch and rampart, which I believe to be the first of the colony of the Belgæ; it has indeed a rude ancient look; so that they made four of these boundaries successively as their power enlarged, the last being Wansdike, between North and South Wiltshire. By what I could see or learn, in travelling over this intricate country, the Roman road passes upon a division between Pimpern and Bere hundred to Bere; and that I reckon a convenient distance for a station between Vindogladia and Dorchester, being near the middle: on one side it is about thirteen mile, on the other nine. Now in the last journey of Antoninus before mentioned, immediately after Ibernium.Vindogladia follows Durnovaria M. P. IX. Dorchester being very truly nine mile off this town Bere, and which is a market-town too, but far otherwise as to Wimbornminster; I doubt not but this is the true place designed in the Itinerary; but that a town is slipped out of the copies. I think I have fortunately discovered it in the famous Ravennas, by which we may have hopes of restoring this journey to its original purity. That author mentions a town next to Bindogladia, which he calls Ibernium: this verily is our Bere. Mr. Baxter corrects it into Ibelnium, and places it at Blandford, for no other reason, as I conceive, but because he imagined it must necessarily be hereabouts. I was not a little pleased when I found my notion highly confirmed by a great and elegant Ro. Camp.Roman camp upon a hill near Bere, I think it is called Woodbury, where a yearly fair is kept: TAB. XLV 2d Vol.this is between Bere and Milburn upon the river: it is doubly intrenched, or rather a double camp one within another. This town of Bere denominates the hundred too. In this case, where a Roman camp, a road, and all distances concur, which in the others are very abhorrent from reality, I imagine the reader will find little difficulty in passing over to my sentiments. The town is called Bere Regis, and the camp is the Æstiva to the town. Of Dorchester I have spoken already, beyond which is the original of the Icening-street: from thence I travelled along the southern coasts, in order to come to the beginning of this seventh journey.
Moriconium.
Wareham is denominated from the passage or ford over the two rivers between which it is situate, where now are bridges: this has been a Roman town. A great square is taken in, with a very high vallum of earth, and a deep ditch: there has been a castle by the water-side, west of the bridge, built by William the Conqueror, perhaps upon the Roman. It is an old corporation, now decayed, the sands obstructing the passage of vessels; and Pool, being better seated, from a fisher’s town has rose to be a rich flourishing sea-port, robbing this place. They say here have been many parish-churches, and a mint. This is probably the Moriconium of Ravennas, as Mr. Baxter asserts. I heard of Roman coins being found here. This country is sandy for the most part, as commonly toward the sea-coasts. I saw a ruinous religious house as I came by the side of the river Frome. This haven is of a vast extent, like a sea, having a narrow entry; an indulgent formation of Nature to her beloved island of Great Britain. I saw vast stones lying loose upon this sand, in some places, like the Wiltshire grey weathers. It is a melancholy unpleasant view hereabouts for travellers, when they come from the other delightful scenes of the better parts of Dorsetshire: it is moory for the most part, full of ling or heath, as on all the sea-coasts here, from the chalk-hills in Dorsetshire to those in Sussex. Two rocks about Corf castle have an odd appearance hence.
Alauna.
Wimburnminster is a small place, of no great trade: a large old church with two towers; the middle one in the cross very old, and most of the church before the time of the Conquest: this middle steeple had a spire which fell down. The river Stour runs a little way south of the town, through a large bridge; sdour, a sibilus put to the old Celtic word. The river Alen in several divisions runs through the town, which makes me think it to be the Alauna of Ravennas, put next to Bolnelaunium.Bolnelaunium, which I conjecture to be Christ’s-church by the sea-side, that being subsequent to Moriconium: that it was not Pool, as Mr. Baxter places it, is plain from a reason just mentioned, Pool being an upstart. Wimburnminster stands in a large extended fruitful vale like a meadow, with much wood about it. These rivers abound with fish. Here was a nunnery built anno 712, by Cuthburga sister to king Ina. King Etheldred was buried here.
From hence I went to Ringwood upon the river Avon, over a deep sandy moor; which has ever been thought the Regnum.Regnum in the Itinerary, and begins the Iter septimum of Antoninus.TAB. XLVI. 2d Vol. It is a large thriving place, full of good new brick houses, seated by the side of a great watery valley, the river dividing itself into several streams, and frequently overflowing large quantities of the meadow: it seems well calculated to have been an old British town: they deal pretty much in leather here, and woollen manufactures of stockings, druggets, narrow cloth. Roman discoveries I could make little; but the name and distances seem to establish the matter: so I hastened through New Forest, where I found it necessary to steer by the compass, as at sea. They tell us at Wattonsford the memory of Tyrrel is still preserved, as passing over there when he unawares shot William Rufus. The soil is sand, gravel, stone, clay by parcels: these are pleasant solitudes for a contemplative traveller, did not the intricacies of the roads give one uneasiness. Here are whole acres of the most beautiful fox-gloves that one can see, rising upon a strong stem, adorned with numerous bell-flowers as high as one’s horse. Mr. Baxter has a right notion of this name, signifying lemurum manicæ, from the supposed fairies. I take these names, and foxes bells, and the like, to be reliques of the Druids, who did great cures by them; for this is a plant of powerful qualities, when prudently administered, in a constitution that will bear it. I observe we derive the names of very many plants from the old Celtic language, as I believe the Greeks and Latins did likewise. The king’s house, as called still, was at Lyndhurst: the duke of Bolton has a hunting-seat thereabouts. I rode through an old camp in the midst of the forest: it is overgrown with wood, seems to have been round: at bottom is a spring: no doubt but it is a British Br. oppidum.oppidum. You may see Southampton from thence. They say the king was killed hereabouts. Here is a great plantation of young oaks, for the use of the crown: a great deal of fine oak-timber left; but the beech-trees are very stately and numerous.
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Prospect of Ringwood 14 June 1724 Regnum.
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Prospect of Winchester from the South 9 Sep. 1723.
VENTA Belgarum.
Arminis.
Romsey was unquestionably a Roman town, and its present name shows as much. The church is a noble old pile of architecture, arched with stone in the form of a cross, with semi-circular chapels in the upper angles. These churches, hereabouts called minsters, were doubtless built by the Saxon kings as soon as they became christian: the manner of their structure is much like those built by queen Helena in Palestine: at the west end of it is a bit of an old wall, perhaps belonging to the nunnery built here by king Edgar. I heard of a silver Roman coin found here. This town is an old corporation, in situation extraordinary pleasant, having woods, corn-fields, meadows, pastures, around it in view: the river and rivulets, which are many, have a rapid course.
Venta Belgarum.
Two miles before I came to Winchester, the downs of chalk begin again with barrows upon them. I saw several double ones. The walls of Winchester inclose a long square about 700 paces one way, 500 the other: it stands on the western declivity of a hill,TAB. LXXXIII. the river running below on the east. Many branches, and cuts of it too, pass through the midst of the city, and render their gardens very pleasant: the walls and gates, as repaired in times long after the Roman, and chiefly of flint, are pretty intire; no doubt, built upon the old Roman. In the higher part of the city is the castle, which overlooks the whole:[138] here is a famed round table, where king Arthur’s knights used to sit. I saw some great ruins still left of the walls and towers that belonged to it; but the main of it was pulled down when Sir Christopher Wren projected the king’s palace there in king Charles the IId’s reign: it fronts the west end of the cathedral. The houses in the town were bought in order to make a street between both, which would have had a noble effect. This palace is a large pile of building, and beautiful, yet with all the plainness that was necessary to save an extravagant expence, or that became a royal retirement: it fills up three sides of a large square, so that the opening of the wings or front looks over the city: three tier of windows, twenty-six in a row, fill up every side externally, besides the fronton in the middle of each side, composed of four Corinthian pilasters: a handsome balustrade runs quite round the top: the inside of this open court is more elegant, and enriched with portico’s, &c. the late duke of Tuscany gave some fine marble pillars towards the adorning it. A great bridge was to have been built across the foss in the principal front; and a garden, park, &c. were to have been made before the back front: the citizens entertain great hopes, that since the happy increase of the royal family, this palace will be finished: it is of plain brick-work, but the window-cases, fascias, cornice, &c. of good Portland stone. There is a great old chapel near it. This place was the residence of the potent kings of the West Saxons.
The cathedral is a venerable and large pile: the tower in the middle and transept are of ancienter work than the choir and the body. Inigo Jones has erected a delicate screen of stone-work before the choir. Here was the burial-place of many Saxon and Norman kings, whose remains the impious soldiers in the civil wars threw against the painted glass: they show too the tomb of king Lucius. Queen Mary was here married to Philip of Spain: the chair used in that ceremony is still preserved. In the body of the church is a very ancient font, with odd sculptures round it. In the city is a pretty cross of Gothic workmanship, but ill repaired. Without the southern gate is a stately fabric, the college, erected and endowed by William of Wickham, bishop here, for education of youth. There is good painted glass of imagery in the chapel windows: in the middle of the cloysters is a strong stone building, the library, well contrived to prevent fire: the school is a more modern structure, handsome, with a very good statue of the founder over the door, made by Cibber. This country is intirely chalk, whence I suppose the name of Venta: the city is a genteel and pleasant place, and abounds with even the elegancies of life. Beyond the river eastward is a high hill, called St. Giles’s, from an hospital once there; now only some ruins of it to be seen, and a church-yard, seeming to have been a camp, beside the marks of bastions, and works of fortifications in the modern stile. Here Waltheof, earl of Northumberland and Huntingdon, was beheaded, by order of William I. whose body was carried to Crowland, and asserted to have miraculous virtues.
In digging the foundation of a house near the college, in a stone coffin was found a stone set in a gold ring, with this inscription in very old characters, supposed about the sixth century.
Duce domino comite fidele meo.
A mile to the south of Winchester is a magnificent hospital, called Holy Cross, founded by bishop Blois: the church is in the form of a cross, and has a large square tower. Over it, on the other side the river, hangs a camp upon St. Catharine’s hill, with a brachium reaching down to the water side, for convenience of that element. The way between Winchester and Southampton we perceived plainly to be a Roman road, especially as far as the chalk reached: then we came to a forest where the soil is gravelly all the way.
Southampton.
Southampton was strongly walled about with very large stones, full of those little white shells, like honey-combs, that grow upon the back of oysters: this is a sort of stone extremely hard, and seems to be gathered near the beach of the sea. These walls have many lunettes, and towers, in some places doubly ditched; but the sea encompasses near half the town: it was built in the time of king Edward III. I observe they have a method of breaking the force of the waves here, by laying a bank of sea-ore, as they call it: it is composed of long, slender, and strong filaments, like pilled hemp, very tough and durable; I suppose it is thrown up by the ocean: and this performs its work better than walls of stone, or natural cliff. At the south-east corner, near the quay, is a fort with some guns upon it, called the Tower: on one we saw this inscription,
Henricus VIII. Anglie, Franciæ & Hiberniæ rex,
fidei defensor invictissimus f. f.
MD. XXXXII. HR. VIII.
In the north-west corner was a strong castle with a mount, walled about at top, as a keep: upon this a round stone tower, with a winding ascent: the Anabaptists are about pulling it down, to build a meeting-house. The main of this town consists of one broad street, running through its length: there are many old religious ruins, and great warehouses, cellars, store-houses, &c. but with their trade gone to decay. It was a great sea-port not long since, and had the sole privilege, by charter, of importing wine from France, till they foolishly sold it to the city of London.
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Portvs Magnvs 12 Sep. 1723. Portchester
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View in the Port.
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Prospect of Southampton from the East Sep 11. 1723.
Travsantvm
A. St Mary’s where the old Trausantum Stood
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Prospect from Portsmouth
Trausantum.
The old Roman city stood more eastward, upon the banks of the river Itching coming from Winchester, where now is a hamlet called St. Mary’s. There is a handsome new churchTAB. LXXIX. built upon the ruins of an old one, which they say was burnt in some French wars: it is near the present ferry and opposite to Bittern. Many antiquities have been found upon the site of the old city. Likewise at Bittern was an old Roman castle, surrounded by a ditch, into which the sea-water flowed: many antiquities likewise have hence been produced, of which Mr. Camden gives us an account. Perhaps the buildings on both sides the river were comprehended under one name of Trausantum; therefore this river must have been the Antona: it was ruined in the Danish wars, and Southampton arose from its ashes. This is the place memorable for the famous experiment of king Canute, who sitting upon the banks of the river, crowned and in regal robes, commanded the tide not to approach his footstool; but the ocean, like an unlimited monarch, was as regardless of his menaces, as the Hellespont, of Xerxes his bridles and fetters.
Leaving this lesson of the perishing glory of monarchs and cities too, we journeyed to Portsmouth, an entertaining sight of the maritime majesty of Great Britain, in this point excelling the ancient Roman grandeur. Over a moory common we passed by Fareham, and by Portchester, a castle made out of a Roman city. We have little reason to doubt that this is the Portus Magnus.portus magnus of Ptolemy, as it deserves to be called, where a thousand sail of the biggest ships may ride secure: the mouth of it is not so broad, as the Thames at Westminster, and that secured by numerous forts; on Gosport side, TAB. LXXX.Charles fort, James fort, Borough fort, which name seems to intimate a Roman citadel formerly there; Blockhouse fort, which has a platform of above twenty great guns level with the water: and on the other side, by Portsmouth, Southsea castle, built by Henry VIII. of a like model with those I saw near Deal upon the Kentish shore.
Portsmouth is the most regular fortification, of the modern manner, which we have in England;TAB. LXXIX. a curious sight to those that have not been out of it. The government has bought more ground lately for additional works, and no doubt it is capable of being made impregnable; for a shallow water may be brought quite round it. Here is one of the greatest arsenals for the royal navy: above thirty men of war of the highest rates lie here, capable of being fitted out in less than a fortnight; among them, the Royal William, that can play off at once 120 battering-rams of brass, infinitely more forceable than that famous one Titus used against the walls of Jerusalem. The yards, the docks, the store-houses, where all their furniture is laid up in the exactest order, so that the men can go in the dark and fetch out any individual, is a sight beyond imagination. The immense quantities of cables, masts and tackle, of great guns, bullets, bombs, carcasses, mortars, granado’s, &c. these of all sorts and sizes, and the regular methods they are reposited in and distinguished by, are prodigious, and no where to be equalled but in England; for when I was informed that this place is outdone, in all the particulars, both at Chatham and Plymouth, there was no more room left for wonder. The Royal William’s mast is a noble piece of timber 124 foot long, and this is only the bottom part of the main mast; it is 36 inches diameter, clear timber: its lantern is like a summer-house: its great anchor and all accoutrements are equally astonishing. The rope-house is 870 foot long, one continued room, almost a quarter of a mile: we chanced to have the pleasure of seeing a great cable made here; it requires 100 men to work at it, and so hard the labour, that they can work but four hours in a day. The least complement of men continually employed in the yard is a thousand, and that but barely sufficient ordinarily to keep the naval affairs in good repair. But I have talked enough of matters so much out of my sphere. I was sorry to leave this amazing scene of naval grandeur, with the shocking sight of a wretched statue of king William, gilt indeed in an extraordinary manner; but of all the bad works in this fort, I have seen, it is the very last. From Portsmouth there is a fine prospect of the isle of Wight, famous for Vespasian’s first attempts in subduing the southern parts of Britain: its beautiful elevations, some woody, some downy, its towns, havens and white cliffs, at this distance, seem to persuade one it is an epitome of Great Britain, as that of the world; or that Nature made it as an essay, or copy, of her greater and more finished work. Before I leave Portsmouth I shall set down this catalogue of the British fleet as it stands this present year, given me by an officer; by which some people, fond of magnifying the mimic endeavours of some other powers, may calculate, if they please, when such will come up to rival it.
| Rates. | Guns. | No of each rate. | Complement of men to each. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st. | 100 | 7 | 780 |
| 2d. | 90 | 13 | 680 |
| 3d. | 80 | 16 | 520 |
70 | 24 | 440 | |
——— | |||
60 | |||
——— | |||
| 4th. | 60 | 18 | 365 |
50 | 46 | 280 | |
——— | |||
124 | |||
——— | |||
| 5th. | 40 | 24 | 190 |
30 | 4 | 155 | |
——— | |||
152 | |||
——— | |||
| 6th. | 20 | 27 | 130 |
——— | ——— | ||
179 | 3540 | ||
——— | ——— | ||
The whole complement | |||
| Fire-ships | 3 | ||
| Bombs | 3 | ||
| Sloops | 13 | ||
| Yachts | 12 | ||
| Hoys | 11 | ||
| Smacks | 2 | ||
| Hulks | 7 | ||
| Store-ships | 1 | ||
| Hospital-ships | 1 | ||
——— | |||
232 | |||
82
Prospect of Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight Gosport, Portchester &c. Sep. 13. 1723.
A. The Isle of Wight. B. Southsea Castle. D. Portsmouth. E. Landgard fort. F. Gosport. G. Portchester. H. Portsdown hill.
Stukeley del.
Prospect of Chichester Sep. 14. 1723.
81
Mantantonis
Sep. 14. 1723.
- Where the Roman Temple stood
- Grey-fryers
- Black fryers
- St. Marys Hospital
Stukeley Delin.
Parker Sculpt.
I observed, the great quantity of water and ditches about this place is apt to render it aguish. The reader will excuse me from giving any description of the fortifications here, for the same reason that I did not offer to draw any thing; but passing by draw-bridges, bastions, gates, fosses, counterscarps, &c. we repeated our steps to the Ports-down hills, which are of chalk, and at a reasonable distance from the shore extend themselves into Sussex; leaving to the south a less elevated, woody, and rich country. Here we turned to admire the delightful view of the ground we had passed, and that we were going to: the ports, creeks, bays, the ocean, the castles fixt, and those moving on the water, the isle of Wight in its full extent, all lay before us, and under the eye, as in a map: Portchester, Gosport, which is a very considerable town, Portsmouth, Southampton, Chichester, and all the sea-coast from Portland isle to the TAB. LXXXII.Sussex coasts, were taken in at one ken. I took a little sketch of it in passing, in [plate 82].
We found some of the Roman way upon this ridge, which I suppose went through Fareham and Havant, between Trausantum and Chichester, with a vicinal turning out to Portchester: it goes east and west. We passed by a large long barrow. We were led to Chichester by the fame of a most ancient inscription lately discovered there, whereof transcripts were handed about, that appeared not exact enough: this has revived the lustre of Chichester; for, though the termination of its name, and a Roman road called Stane-street coming to it, is evidence sufficient of its being a Roman city, yet none has positively affirmed it, because we have not hitherto been able to assign it a name. Mr. Camden satisfied himself that it owed its name and foundation to Cissa, the South-Saxon king. It is probable the city was destroyed soon after the Romans evacuated this kingdom, either in the wars between the Britons and first Saxons, or by the plundering Danes, who ravaged all the sea-coasts; so that its name was utterly forgot: but Cissa becoming master of this country, and there chusing to fix his seat, repaired the ancient castle or walls, whose vestigia were of too lasting materials wholly to have lost the appearance of their workmanship: then it was natural enough to prefix his name to this Roman termination, by which the Saxons always called castles of the Romans: or it might be simply called caster, chester, as was frequent in other places, till he restored it; and then it took his name, importing Cissa’s chester: but had it been originally founded by him, it would never have assumed that adjunct.
TAB. LXXXI.
I doubt not but the walls of the present city are built upon the old Roman foundations chiefly. It is of a roundish form, the river running under part of the walls. Two principal streets cross it at right angles upon the cardinal points, where stands a curious cross erected by bishop Read. The church takes up one of these quadrants: it is remarkable for two side-ailes on both sides, and the pictures of all the kings and queens of England since Cissa, which are hung upon the wall of the southern transept; all the bishops on the opposite wall. Eastward of the cathedral is a place called the Pallant, which seems derived from the Latin palatium. In the middle of North-street was dug up this memorable inscription, which I have printed in [plate 49]. To your explication of it nothing can be added: the reader and myself will be obliged to you for the leave you have given me here to insert it. It was happy we took great care in transcribing the letters; for, since it has been in the possession of the duke of Richmond, I hear a workman, who pretended to set the fragments together, has defaced it.
An Account of a ROMAN INSCRIPTION found at Chichester.
By Roger Gale, Esq.
TAB. XLIX.
THIS inscription, as curious as any that has yet been discovered in Britain, was found, the beginning of last April, at Chichester, in digging a cellar under the corner house of St. Martin’s lane, on the north side, as it comes into North-street. It lay about four foot under ground, with the face upwards: by which it had the misfortune to receive a great deal of damage from the picks of the labourers, as they endeavoured to raise it; for, besides the defacing of several letters, what was here disinterred of the stone was broke into four pieces: the other part of it, still wanting, is, in all probability, buried under the next house, and will not be brought to light till that happens to be rebuilt. The inscription is cut upon a grey Sussex marble, the length of which was six Roman feet, as may be conjectured by measuring it from the middle of the word TEMPLVM to that end of it which is intire, and is not altogether three foot English, from the point mentioned: the breadth of it is 2 and ¾ of the same feet; the letters beautifully and exactly drawn; those in the two first lines three inches long, and the rest 2¼.
Being at Chichester in September last with Dr. Stukeley, we took an accurate view of this marble, which is now fixed in the wall under a window within the house where it was found; and, that we might be as sure of the true reading as possible, wherever the letters were defaced, we impressed a paper with a wet sponge into them, and by that means found those in the fifth line to have been as we have expressed them above, and not as in other copies that have been handed about of this inscription.
The only letter wanting in the first line is an N before EPTVNO, and so no difficulty in reading that. As to the second, though it was more usual, in inscriptions of this nature, to express the donation by the word SACRVM only, referring to the temple, or altar, dedicated; yet we have so many instances, in Gruter’s Corpus Inscriptionum, of TEMPLVM and ARAM also cut on the stones, that there is not the least occasion to say any thing farther upon that point.
The third line can be no other way filled up, than as I have done it by the pricked letters: I must own, however, that I have had some scruple about the phrase of DOMVS DIVINA, the same thing as DOMVS AVGVSTA, the imperial family; which I cannot say occurs, with any certainty of the time it was used in, before the reign of Antoninus Pius, from whom, down to Constantine the Great, it is very frequently met with in inscriptions. This kept me some time in suspence, whether this found at Chichester could be of so early a date as the time of Claudius: but as we find several inscriptions in Gruter with those words in them, or I. H. D. D. In Honorem Domus Divinæ, which is much the same thing, without any mark of the time when they were cut, they may have been before the reign of Antoninus Pius, and then only came into more general use; and as the time that Cogidunus lived in, will not let this be of a later standing, I think we may offer it as an authority for the use of this piece of flattery to the emperors long before that excellent prince came to the purple.
The third line, as I believe, was EX AVCTORITATE. TIB. CLAVD. and the fourth COGIDVBNI. R. LEG. &c. that is, Ex auctoritate Tiberii Claudii Cogidubni regis, legati Augusti in Britannia; for the following reasons: we are informed by Tacitus, in vita Agricolæ, cap. 14. that after Britain had been reduced to a Roman province by the successful arms of Aulus Plautius, and Ostorius Scapula, under the emperor Claudius, Quædam civitates Cogiduno Regi erant donatæ, is ad nostram usque memoriam fidissimus remansit, vetere ac jam pridem recepta Populi Romani consuetudine ut haberet instrumenta servitutis & Reges. This Cogidunus seems to be the same person as Cogidubnus in our inscription, the letter B in the third syllable making little or no difference in the word, especially if pronounced soft, as it ought to be, like a V consonant.
It is so well known to have been the custom of the Roman Liberti and Clientes, to take the names of their patrons and benefactors, it would be wasting of time to prove the constant usage of that practice. Now, as this Cogidubnus, who in all probability was a petty prince of that part of the Dobuni which had submitted to Claudius, and one that continued many years faithful to him and the Romans, (vide Tacit. ut supra) had given him the government of some part of the island by that emperor, nothing could be more grateful in regard to Claudius, nor more honourable to himself, after he was romanised, than to take the names of a benefactor to whom he was indebted for his kingdom, and so call himself TIBERIVS CLAVDIVS COGIDVBNVS.
I suppose him to have been a Regulus of the Dobuni; because we are told by Dion Cassius (in lib. lx.) that Aulus Plautius having put to flight Cataratacus and Togodumnus, sons of Cunobelin, part of the Boduni (the same people as the Dobuni) who were subject to the Catuellani, submitted to the Romans; and the name Cogidubnus, or Cogiduvnus, Coc o Dubn, or Duvn, (vid. Baxteri Glossar. in verbis Cogidumnus, & Dobuni) signifying expresly in the British language PRINCEPS DOBVNORVM, seems to put the matter out of all doubt.
How far his territories extended, it is impossible to define. Bishop Stillingfleet, Orig. Britan. p. 63. supposes them to have lain in Surrey and Sussex. Sussex certainly was part of them, since the temple mentioned in this inscription was erected in it by his authority; and it is not unlikely, that besides the Regni, who were the people of those two counties, he might have that part of the Dobuni which had submitted to the Romans, and seems to have been his own principality, together with the Ancalites, Bibroci and Segontiaci, whose countries lay between the Dobuni and the Regni, bestowed upon him; the words civitates quædam, in Tacitus, not importing no more than some few towns, but several people; the word civitas always signifying a people in that historian.
Before I proceed any farther, it will not be amiss to observe, that Togodumnus and Cogidubnus, though their names are so much alike, were two distinct persons: the first was son of Cunobelin, king of the Trinobantes, vanquished and killed in battle by Aulus Plautius; the second, a prince that submitted to Ostorius Scapula, and continued in his fidelity to the Romans, in nostram usque memoriam, says Tacitus, who was born at the latter end of Claudius’s reign; so that Togodumnus was probably dead before Cogidubnus had his government conferred upon him.
I call it his government; for though, by the letter ·R· standing in the inscription with a point both before and after it, by which it plainly denotes an intire word of itself, it may seem that it was intended for COGIDVBNI REGIS, and I believe was so in respect of his quondam dignity, yet it is evident, that he had condescended to take the title of LEGATVS AVGVSTI IN BRITANNIA from Claudius: and that too must have been only over those people that he had given him the government of; Aulus Plautius, Ostorius Scapula, Didius Gallus, Avitus Veranius, and Suetonius Paullinus, having the supreme command successively about this time in this island, the second and last of which are called expresly Legati by Tacitus, lib. xii. Ann. cap. 23. & Vit. Agric. cap. 15. The Legati Cæsaris, or Augusti, were those qui Cæsaribus subditas regebant Provincias.
The sixth line has lost at the beginning the letters COLLE; but so much remains of the word, as makes it to have been indubitably, when intire, COLLEGIVM; and the following letters are an abbreviation of FABRORVM.
These colleges of artificers were very ancient at Rome, as ancient as their second king Numa Pompilius, if we may believe Plutarch (in vit. Numæ) who tells us, that the people were divided by him into what we at this day call Companies of Tradesmen, and mentions the ΤÎκτονες or Fabri among them; though Floras (lib. i. cap. 6.) says, that Populus Romanus a Servio Tullio relatus suit in Censum, digestus in Classes, Curiis atque Collegiis distributus. But as the power of the Romans extended itself, it carried the arts of that great people along with it, and improved the nations that it subdued, by civilizing, and teaching them the use of whatever was necessary or advantageous among their conquerors; from which most wise and generous disposition, among other beneficial institutions, we find these Collegia to have been established in every part of the empire, from the frequent mention of them in the inscriptions collected by Gruter, Spon, and other antiquaries.
Several sorts of workmen were included under the name of Fabri, particularly all those that were concerned in any kind of building; whence we meet with the Fabri Ferrarii, Lignarii, Tignarii, Materiarii, Navales, and others: the last named may have been the authors of dedicating this temple to Neptune, having so near a relation to the sea, from which the city of Chichester is at so small a distance, that perhaps that arm of it which still comes up within two miles of its walls, might formerly have washed them. The rest of the fraternity might very well pay the same devotion to Minerva, the Goddess of all arts and sciences, and patroness of the Dædalian profession.
As no less than five letters are wanting at the beginning of the sixth line, there cannot be fewer lost at the beginning of the seventh, where the stone is more broke away than above; so that probably there were six when it was perfect. What we have left of them is only the top of an S: I will not therefore take upon me to affirm any thing as to the reading of them, which is so intirely defaced: perhaps it was A. SACR. S. a sacris sunt; perhaps it was HONOR. S. Honorati sunt: as to the former, we find these Collegia had their Sacerdotes; therefore Qui a sacris sunt, which is found in inscriptions, (vid. Grut. Corp. xxix. 8. cxxi. i. dcxxxii. i.) would be no improper term to express them; or it might have been SACER. S. sacerdotes sunt, since we find such mentioned in the following inscriptions. Spon. Miscell. Erud. Antiq. p. 58.
MAVORTI SACRVM
HOC SIGNVM
RESTIT _ _ _ _ _
COLL. FABR. ARI
CINORVM ANTIQVISS.
VETVSTATE
DILAPSVM ET
REFECER. CVR. L. LVCILIVS
LATINVS PROC. R. P. ARIC.
ET T. SEXTIVS MAGGIVS
SACER. COLL. EIVSD.
Mavorti sacrum hoc Signum restituit Collegium Fabrorum Aricinorum Antiquissimum, vetustate dilapsum, & refecerunt. Curabant Lucius Lucilius Latinus, Procurator Reipublicæ Aricinorum, & Titus Sextius Maggius Sacerdos Collegii ejusdem,
Ibid. p. 64.
L. TERTENI AMANTI
SACER. COLL. LOTORVM
IIVIR. C. SARTIVS C. F.
ITERINVS ET L. ALLIVS
PETELINVS D. D.
Lucius Tertenius Amantius Sacerdos Collegii Lotorum, Duumviri Caius Sartius, Caii Filius, Iterinus, & Lucius Allius Petelinus Dedicaverunt.
As to the latter, those members of the college that had passed through the chief Offices of it, as that of Præfectus, or Magister quinquennalis, had the title of HONORATI conferred upon them: you have several of these HONORATI mentioned in Gruter, particularly a long catalogue of them in Collegio Fabrorum Tignariorum, p. cclxviii. i. and in Reinesius’s Syntagma, p. 605. there is an inscription,
EPAGATHO TVRANNO
HONORATO COLLEGI
FABRVM TIGNARIORVM
ROMANENSIVM &c.
So that the vacuity in our inscription may very well have been filled up with one or other of these words; and the three next letters that follow them, D. S. D. de suo dedicaverunt, will agree with either of them, and what precedes them.
The last line has been PVDENTE PVDENTINI FILio: but there must have been a letter or two of the prænomen at the beginning of it, unless it was shorter than the rest at that, as well as at the latter end of it: and from what I have said, the whole may be read as follows:
Neptuno & Minervæ Templum pro Salute Domus Divinæ, ex Auctoritate Tiberii Claudii Cogidubni Regis, Legati Augusti in Brittanniâ, Collegium Fabrorum, & Qui in eo a Sacris [or Honorati] sunt, De suo Dedicaverunt, Donante aream Pudente Pudentini Filio.
Chichester, by this inscription found at it, must have been a town of eminence very soon after the Romans had settled here, and in process of time seems to have been much frequented, by the Roman roads, still visible, that terminate here from Portsmouth, Midhurst, and Arundel; though, what is very strange, we have no Roman name now for it. I once thought it might have put in its claim for Anderida, which our antiquaries have not yet agreed to fix any where, being situated, very near, both to the Sylva Anderida, and the southern Coast of the island, the two properties of that city: vid. Camb. Brit. and Somner’s Roman Ports and Forts. But Henry of Huntingdon, who lived in the time of Henry II. telling us, that the Saxons so destroyed Andredecester, that Nunquam postea reædificata fuit, & locus tantum quasi nobilissimæ urbis transeuntibus ostenditur desolatus, pag. 312. (Vid. Dr. Tabor’s Discourse of Anderida, Philos. Transact. No 356.) it could not be Chichester; for that was not only rebuilt before his time, but was a place of such note, that when the bishops, soon after the Conquest, anno Dom. 1076. removed their churches from small decayed towns, where several of them were then seated, in urbes celebriores, Stigand, then bishop of Selsey, settled his episcopal chair at that place.
I shall conclude with observing, that when this inscription was dug up, there were also two walls of stone discovered close by it, three foot thick each, one running north, the other east, and joining in an angle, as the North-street and St. Martin’s lane now turn, which, in all probability, were part of the foundations of the temple mentioned on the marble.
October 31. 1723.
To this judicious elucidation of the inscription I have nothing to add, but that it seems to me probable enough, that Pudens, mentioned therein to have given the ground upon which the temple was built, was that Aulus Pudens who married the famous British lady Claudia Rufina, celebrated for her wit, beauty and eloquence. There is room enough in the stone to suppose the letter A at least, as his prænomen was in that part which is lost. Moncæius de incunab. regiis eccles. christ. vet. Britann. thinks Claudia, mentioned by St. Paul,[139] 2 Tim. iv. 21. was daughter of the renowned Caratacus, converted to christianity by him, and married to this Pudens, a Roman Senator. But this may be judged rather too early, on account of the time of St. Paul’s death, and that wherein Martial lived, who wrote two elegant epigrams upon her; and we may with more likelihood conclude her to be the daughter of our Cogidunus, who lived to Tacitus his time, which was the same as Martial’s: and there is equal reason for the name of Claudia to be given her in honour of Claudius the emperor, as for the king her father taking the same upon himself, as appears in this inscription. Martial’s first epigram upon her is the 13th in his IV. L. thus,
Claudia, Rufe, meo nupsit peregrina Pudenti
Macte esto tædis o hymenæe tuis &c.
We may well imagine this was wrote in the reign of Domitian, by the first epigram in that book being in honour of that emperor’s birth day; and sixteen years at least must have passed between that and the time of St. Paul’s death, which happened the last year of Nero. The other epigram is the 54th of XI. L.
Claudia cœruleis cum sit Rufina Britannis
Edita, cur Latiæ pectora plebis habet?
Quale decus formæ! Romanam credere matres
Italides possunt, Atthides esse suam.
Dî bene, quod sancto peperit fæcunda marito
Quot sperat generos, quotque puella nurus.
Sic placeat superis, ut conjuge gaudeat uno,
Et semper natis gaudeat illa tribus.
We may conclude, that if she had been of age sufficient to be converted by St. Paul, she would about this time have been too old to have children, and be accounted beautiful. But times and all circumstances conspire sufficiently to make her the daughter of Cogidunus.
Famous was the contest between Neptune and Minerva in naming the city of Athens, which they referred to the umpire of Apollo: he, to avoid the odium of appearing partial on either side, left it to the decision of mortal men, as Varro tells us: howsoever, these two deities are happily reconciled in a joint partnership of the dedication of this temple. The antiquaries are still at variance about the ancient name of this city. Therefore, Sir, that I may not be wholly an unworthy fellow-traveller, passibus etsi longe inequalibus, I shall venture, if Minerva is not averse, to offer my thoughts towards a recovery of the Roman denomination of Chichester, which appears plainly to have been an eminent and early station: though the journey of Antoninus reaches it not, yet it would be strange if Ravennas should have passed it by, who is very particular in this part of the island.
I observe the river this city stands upon is called Lavant. There are three towns synonymous higher up, East, West, and Middle Lavant; whence I think we may conclude, that the true and original name of the river was Antona, not an uncommon appellative of such in the Celtic dialect: Mr. Baxter, voce Anderida, calls it Ant. Likewise a town called Hampnet stands upon it, which seems some corruption of Antona. Now there are two rivers of this name falling into the southern ocean; that which we spoke of lately, the Itchin, running by Trausantum; and this we are upon: therefore it appears natural and necessary that they should some way or other be distinguished from one another: the former Trausantum, Mr. Baxter, voce Antona, says signifies the farther Antona; and in this same sense, but in a later manner, Ninius calls it Trahannon; as our monk Ravennas, Onna, by a softer pronunciation. Our river then must be the hither or nearer Antona, however actually distinguished; which we must find out. Looking into that author generally called Anonymus, though I suppose his true name is Ravennas, as born there, (it being at that time the method of the ecclesiastics to take the sirname of their native towns) he thus mentions some cities hereabouts: Caleba Atrebatum, Anderesio, Miba, Mantantonis.Mutuantonis, Lemanis, Dubris, &c. Now I imagine Mutuantonis is the place here sought for. TAB. LXXXI.This author probably transcribed these names from inspection of a map, sometimes casting his eye along a road, sometimes a river, sea-coast or the like, and sometimes per saltum: when he has been reciting many names of cities in the inland parts as far as Corinium Dobunorum, or Cirencester, he returns to the south-east part of the island, and begins a new period, as above. Directly in his way to the sea-coasts is Caleba, or Farnham, as I shall show in proper place: next is Anderida; which cannot be this place, for the reason you brought out of Henry of Huntingdon: no doubt it is somewhere upon the Sussex coast; but its particular site I shall not take upon me now to determine. Miba is with good reason thought to be Midhurst; then very naturally follows Mutuantonis, our Chichester: hence he takes his route eastward towards Lemanis, Dubris, &c. in Kent. In short, the evidence is this: the author is plainly describing these parts; and where should Mutuantonis stand, but upon the river Antona? and it does not appear, that any other river hereabouts is so called; or, if it did, Anderida may very well thither be referred, which cannot possibly to this place. I take the name of lavant, or mutuant, to be synonymous words in the British language, to distinguish it, as we said, from trausant;, for llafar signifies sonorous, loquax; and mwth is citus, velox; either of which, prefixed to Antona, describe this rapid or noisy river; and in effect we find it remarkably so. Dr. Holland in his notes at the bottom of Mr. Camden expresly observes, that this river, though sometimes quite dry, at others, and that very often in the midst of summer, is so full as to run very violently: this, no doubt, is owing to its rise in the neighbouring high grounds to the north; for from them it must needs fall with an impetuous torrent. Further, it may possibly be derived from the British llai minor, signifying the lesser Antona, from its short course; the consonant v, or f which is its equivalent, being interposed euphoniæ gratia: or if Mr. Baxter’s correction of Mantantonis be thought just, then it signifies the mouth of the river Antona; and Chichester now stands very near its inlet into the sea, and formerly nearer. What way soever we take it, it seems reasonable to conclude this is the place. Though it was not properly a sea-port town, yet it is plainly near enough for the establishment of the collegium fabrorum here; and the vast plenty of wood from the adjoining forest favoured their work, whether of timber or the forge. Since this inscription, there was found a Mosaic pavement in Mrs. Downes’s garden; and when that was pulled in pieces as usual, a brass coin was discovered under it of Nero and Drusus Cæs. on one side, represented on horseback; on the other, C. Cæsar Divi aug. pron. aug. p. m. tr. p. IIII. pp. which no doubt was there deposited to show the æra of that work.
A little way out of the city northward, we passed by a Roman camp, called Brill, I suppose Bury hill, in Ogilby’s maps called Beauty’s bank: the Roman road called Stone-street causeway, goes directly north-east from hence through this country, and by Darking church-yard in Surrey; TAB. LXXXII.then falls into the Hermen-street at Woodcote.
St. Roc’s hill is a fine elevation, with a spacious circular camp on the top, of a round form, a castrum æstivum, belonging to Mantantonis. Here is a foundation of a chapel, or a beacon, perhaps both: the reader may gather an idea of the view here from TAB. XLIII.[plate 43]. At Midhurst is a fine old seat called Cowdrey, belonging to the Browns viscount Montacute: it stands in a valley incompassed with lawns, hills and woods, thrown into a park, the river running underneath. It is a large house of stone, consisting of one court: the hall is cieled of Irish oak after the ancient manner; Mida.the walls painted with architecture by Roberti, the statues by Goupé, the stair-case by Pelegrini: the room at the end of the hall is of Holbein’s painting, where that famous old artist has described the exploits of Henry VIII. before Bulloign, Calais, his landing at Portsmouth, his magnificent entry into London, &c. In the other rooms are many excellent pictures of the ancestors of the family, and other history-painting of Holbein’s, relating to their actions in war. The whole circuit of rooms above stairs are stately and well furnished, adorned with many pictures: there is a long gallery with the twelve apostles as big as the life; another very neat one, wainscotted with Norway oak, where are many ancient whole-length pictures of the family in their proper habits, which is a very elegant notion: there are four history pieces; two copies of Raphael’s marriage of Cupid and Psyche; several old religious and military paintings from Battle-abbey. The road to Midhurst to us appeared Roman, and therefore strengthens the supposition of its being Mida.
St. Roc’s hill is upon the chalky down running east and west: north of it to Farnham it is sandy, full of erica; but the valleys are rich, warm and woody. The heaths between Farnham and Godalmin are full of barrows. Ferndon hill in the way to Godalmin is very steep northwards, and of an hour’s descent; which you rise to insensibly: it runs east and west.
Calleva Atrebatum.
TAB. XLIV. 2d Vol.
At Farnham is the bishop of Winchester’s palace, a magnificent ancient structure of the castle-form, deeply moted, and strongly walled about, with towers at proper distance: it stands upon the edge of a hill, where is a fine park. One large and broad street of the town, below hill, fronts the castle; the main of the rest of the town consists of a long strait street crossing it at right angles, which is the Roman road coming from Winchester: the river runs parallel to it on the south: this is a fine rich soil with much sand in it, and has an extraordinary propriety for the growth of hops. This place I take to be the Caleva Atrebatum;[140] which because it is a notion of my own advancing, it requires that I should a little enlarge upon it, and propose it to your discerning judgement. This has been hitherto matter of dispute among antiquaries, and I think cannot otherwise be settled than in fixing it at this place: it will make this VIIth journey of Antoninus and some more very clear, that otherwise labour under insuperable difficulties: therefore this I propose to be the true scheme of that journey.
ITER VII. a Regno Londinium M. P. XCVI. sic
| Regnum | Ringwood | |
| Trausantum | Southampton | XX |
| Venta Belgarum | Winchester | X |
| Caleva Atrebatum | Farnham | XXII |
| Pontes | Stanes | XXII |
| Londinium | London | XXII |
| ——— | ||
toto, | XCVI. | |
We have no difference in the copies, but in the sum total at top, which is owing only to a transposition of the letters C and X. therefore all we have to do is to find out the towns; the particular numbers being indisputably right, and rightly cast up in the Suritan edition; and all the places that admit any question, are only Calleva and Pontes, which in this manner mutually prove one another, as being absolutely conformable to geography, and the nearest way one should chuse to go at this day, and having from Southampton a Roman road accompanying all the way. This summer I rode through Winchester and Farnham, through Alresford and Alton, and observed in many places signs sufficient of that nature; though it is horridly out of repair, and even in the midst of summer very bad, notwithstanding such plenty of materials every where to mend it: this has obliged coaches and horsemen frequently to make excursions for their ease and safety. Mr. Aubury likewise pronounces it a Roman road long since in his manuscript collections. Between Farnham and Alton the bank is visible, in several places between Alresford and Alton: the right reverend author of the additions to Camden takes notice of it. The distance is twenty two miles, as in the Itinerary; but to Wallingford, where Mr. Camden places it, it is thirty; to Henley somewhat more: beside, from the one you must cross the Thames three times, from the other twice in the way to London; a thing the Romans would certainly avoid, if possible: but from Farnham by way of Stanes is the direct road, and distances correspondent as before.
44·2d.
Prospect of Farnham Sep: 16. 1723.
Caleva atrebatvm
Stukeley del.
E. Kirkall sculp.
Calleva is again mentioned in the XIIIth and XIVth journeys, both which I have already corrected; and they mutually confirm one another, and take away all difficulties when they are considered together. Lastly, Calleva is mentioned in the XVth journey of Antoninus: I shall exhibit it in this form, which I conceive to be its original one. We have cleared all the other parts of it before, where it differs from this in the printed copies.
ITER XV. a Caleva Atrebatum, Iscam Dumnoniorum M. P. CXXXXI. sic
| Caleva Atrebatum | Farnham | |
| Vindoma | Silchester | XV |
| Venta Belgarum | Winchester | XXI |
| Brigæ | by Broughton | XI |
| Sorbiodunum | Old Sarum | VIII |
| Vindogladia | Boroston | XII |
| Ibernium | Bere regis | XIIII |
| Durnovaria | Dorchester | IX |
| Moridunum | Seaton | XXXVI |
| Isca Dumnoniorum | Excester | XV |
| ———— | ||
| CXXXXI | ||
Perhaps the last X in the sum total was corrupted into a V after the station was dropped out. The first part of it here establishes the site of Calleva in respect to Venta Belgarum; as in the XIIIth and XIVth journeys in respect to Spina; so that it is proved from different points of a triangle, and as it were by mathematical demonstration.
I imagine the occasion of over-sight in this matter is owing to Mr. Camden’s settling the Atrebates in Berkshire; and his authority, no doubt, with every one is of the greatest weight deservedly: yet I suppose his only reason for it is because he thought Wallingford the Calleva Atrebatum, as having some resemblance to his supposed Gallena. In his Roman map he has set these Atrebates partly north of the Thames in Oxfordshire, where himself puts the Ancalites, and partly south, where rightly he fixes the Bibroci in Berkshire: this is in my judgement too far northward. I doubt not but the Bibroci inhabited Berkshire intirely to the Thames, as I proved in a former letter; to which we may add, that if, as he says, this country was called by the Saxons Berrocscyre, there can be no difficulty in asserting the word derived from Bibroci. The Atrebates came undoubtedly from Gallia Belgica, where were a people of the same name upon the sea-coasts; and if we place them here in Surrey about this their capital, they may with some propriety with Mr. Camden be said here in Britain to live over-against their own country, where Ptolemy places them in the maritime parts upon the Sein; but not if he sends them up to the top of the Thames: nor is it probable they should have penetrated so far up the country, even beyond their brethren the Belgæ, by all allowed the most powerful colony of transmarine people at that time. The Segontiaci as well as Bibroci, on this side the Thames, would confessedly oppose such passage; therefore, if we give Sussex to the Regni, we must reserve Surrey for these Atrebates, and Farnham their capital; and this is agreeable to Ptolemy, who places them next the Cantii.
A little without Farnham eastward, the road divides into two branches with an acute angle: one goes to Guildford and Darking, where it meets the Stane-street coming from Chichester; the other to Stanes, which I prosecuted to Farnborow, probably a station or inn, or camp to secure the road over this wild country; for it is deep sand from Farnham to Egham: but where in particular the Roman road went is not easy to define, because of the extraordinary sandiness of the whole country:[141] but at Frimley, near here, about sixteen year ago, an urn with Roman coins and intaglia’s was found: Mr. Titchburn had them. This is directly in the way to Farnbarow. I suppose there was a Roman way from Silchester through Stretley, Hartley row, Harford bridge, which signifies trajectus militaris, but from the mooryness of the soil is quite worn away. I take this road to be a continuation of that coming from the Bath by Marlborough;[142] but at Stanes I saw our road very evidently go through the fields west of the bridge, and directly over-against it;TAB. LVI. for it must be understood that the Romans drew a road, as I said before, under the Icening-street, and parallel to it, which went from Regnum to London. This is what we have been upon, and composes this VIIth Iter: From thence it passed through Colchester to the sea-coasts of Suffolk. Now between Stanes and London it is notorious, being the common road at present, till you come to Turnham green:[143] there the present road through Hammersmith and Kensington leaves it; for it passes more northward upon the common, where to a discerning eye the trace of it is manifest; then it goes over a little brook called from it Stanford-bridge, and comes into the Acton road at a common, and a bridge, a little west of Camden house, so along Hyde-park wall, and crosses the Watling-street at Tyburn, then along Oxford-road. But of this part of it, going to Old-street, north of London, I spoke before.
84
Prospect of Stanes Sept. 16. 1723.
Pontes
16 Sep. 1723.
Between Oxford-street and Stanes, this Roman road was originally drawn through Brentford, which undoubtedly was a mansion between them; and this is a very strait line: I rode the broken part of it between Acton road and Turnham green: it is still a narrow strait way, keeping its original direction, but full of dangerous sloughs, being a clayey soil and never repaired: it butts full upon Stanes bridge, and then beyond it passes forward in a strait line through gardens and yards into the corn-fields, where its ridge is still left, the highest part of all the field, though they plough close to it on both sides; and it is now a road for three quarters of a mile; then it enters a narrow lane, and at last degenerates into a foot-path toward Thorp-lea, in the way to Farnham; the common road leaving it all this while in the way to Egham. So that undoubtedly Stanes was the Pontes.Pontes of Antoninus;[144] the distances of 22 miles on both sides answering the fact, and the TAB. LXXXIV.Itinerary; with which I shall at present conclude mine in the words of the poet,
Hic labor extremus, longarum hæc meta viarum.Virg. Æn. III.
THE
PLATES
IN
ITINERARIUM CURIOSUM, Cent. I.
And where explained.
| 1. | Rural Curiosity. | Marlborough mount, and the cascade at Wilton. | Pag. [64] |
| 2. | Lincolnshire decoys. | [18] | |
| 3. | Seats. | Lord Hartford’s house at Marlborough. | [64] |
| 4. | Ichnography of castles. | Ludlow castle, ground-plot and prospect. | [74] |
| 5. | Prospect of the same. | [74] | |
| 6. | Views of castles. | Rochester castle. | [120] |
| 7. | Bridges. | Croyland bridge. | [34] |
| 8. | Ichnography of Palaces. | Whitehall ruins ground-plot. | [Pref.] |
| 9. | Ruins of Palaces. | King John’s palace at Clarendon. | [138] |
| 10. | Seals. | Of the church of Norwich. | [Pref.] |
| 11. | Crosses. | St. Guthlack’s, Ivy cross, Ednam, Hadenham, and others. | [12], [19], [34], [107] |
| 12. | Waltham cross. | [37] | |
| 13. | Prospects. | Blackston cave, &c. near Bewdley. | [74] |
| 14. | Hermitages. | Dale abbey, &c. and Blackston cave ground-plot. | [53], [74] |
| 15. | Portraits. | Sir Harry Spelman. | [Pref.] |
| 16. | Monumental brasses. | Bishop Smith, founder of Brazen-nose college. | [92] |
| 17. | Marbles. | Aylwin alderman of England. | [81] |
| 18. | King John’s effigies at Worcester. | [68] | |
| 19. | View of churches. | Boston, Lincolnshire. | [31] |
| 20. | Colsterworth church. | [85] | |
| 21. | Holbech church. | [20] | |
| 22. | Religious ruins. | Priory of Leominster. | [72] |
| 23. | Gatehouses. | Reding abbey, and Worcester college. | [63] |
| 24. | Places of interment of archbishops. | St. Augustin, St. Augustin’s abbey. | [123] |
| 25. | Ruins of that abbey, king Ethelbert’s chapel. St. Gregory’s chapel. | [120], [123] | |
| 26. | Kings. | Reding abbey, king Harry I. | [63] |
| 27. | Feversham abbey, king Stephen. | [121] | |
| 28. | Ichnography of abbies. | Kirsted abbey, Tupholm abbey. | [88] |
| 29. | Shrines. | St. Hugh the Burgundian’s shrine, Lincoln. | [92] |
| 30. | Altars. | The high altar of St. Alban’s abbey. | [117] |
| 31. | The backside of the same. | [117] | |
| 32. | White fryers in Gloucester. | [67] | |
| 33. | Ichnography of Glassenbury abbey. | [151] | |
| 34. | The kitchen there. | [152] | |
| 35. | St. Joseph of Arimathea’s chapel. | [152] | |
| 36. | Ruins of Glassenbury abbey. | [152] | |
| 37. | Prospect of the same. | [151], [153] | |
| 38. | Pictish. | The caves of Hauthornden, Scotland. | [53] |
| 39. | British. | The Troglodytes of Nottingham. | [53] |
| 40. | Greek. | A view at Athens. | [Pref.] |
| 41. | Roman camps. | Chlorus his camp, near Clarendon park. | [137] |
| 42. | Oldbury camp in Wiltshire. | [141] | |
| 43. | Camalet castle and view from St. Roc’s hill. | [150], [202] | |
| 44. | Martinsal hill, Montacute hill, &c. | [139], [156] | |
| 45. | Walls. | Silchester walls, and a Roman camp. | [79] |
| 46. | Pharos. | Pharos in Dover castle. | [129] |
| 47. | Ground-plot and section of the same. | [129] | |
| 48. | Romano-Saxonic. | St. Martin’s church, Canterbury, and the Church in Dover-castle. | [129] |
| 49. | Roman inscriptions. | Chichester, &c. | [148], [196] |
| 50. | Amphitheatre. | Dorchester amphitheatre ground-plot. | [165] |
| 51. | From the entrance a view. | [167] | |
| 52. | Another view. | [169] | |
| 53. | The sections and oblique view of the amphitheatre. | [165], [167] | |
| 54. | Gates. | Roman gate at Lincoln and Canterbury. | [89], [122] |
| 55. | Buildings. | Temple of Janus at Leicester. | [109] |
| 56. | Itinerary. | Of Antoninus. | [6], [76], [111], [205] |
| 57. | Ichnography of Roman Cities. | Londinium Augusta, London. | [119] |
| 58. | Garionenum by Yarmouth. | [132] | |
| 59. | and | Camboritum, Chesterford Mag. | [78] |
| 60. | Prospect of Roman Cities. | Spinæ, Newberry. | [63] |
| 61. | Vindoma, Silchester. | [163], [177] | |
| 62. | Cunetio castrum, Marlborough. | [63] | |
| 63. | Prospect of Marlborough. | [63] | |
| 64. | Leucomagus, Great Bedwin. | [64] | |
| 65. | Sorbiodunum, Old Sarum. | [182] | |
| 66. | Prospect of Old Sarum. | [183] | |
| 67. | View of Old and New Sarum from Harnham-hill. | [137] | |
| 68. | Verlucio, Heddington. | [142] | |
| 69. | Punctuobice, the Devizes. | [144] | |
| 70. | Aquæ Solis, Bath. | [146] | |
| 71. | Prospect of the Bath. | [146] | |
| 72. | Ischalis, Ilchester. | [154] | |
| 73. | Isca Dumnoniorum, Exeter. | [156] | |
| 74. | Prospect of Exeter. | [159] | |
| 75. | Moridunum, Seaton. | [159] | |
| 76. | Londinis, Lyme. | [160] | |
| 77. | Durnovaria, Dorchester. | [161], [165] | |
| 78. | Prospect of Dorchester. | [161] | |
| 79. | Trausantum, Southampton, and prospect from Portsmouth. | [193] | |
| 80. | Portus Magnus, Portchester, and view in the port. | [193] | |
| 81. | Mantantonis, Chichester. | [195], [201] | |
| 82. | Prospect of Portsmouth and of Chichester. | [195], [202] | |
| 83. | Venta Belgarum. | [191] | |
| 84. | Pontes, Stanes. | [205] | |
| 85. | Ariconium, Kenchester. | [69] | |
| 86. | Derventio, Little Chester by Derby. | [54] | |
| 87. | Agelocum, Littlebury. | [93] | |
| 88. | Lindum colonia, Lincoln. | [88] | |
| 89. | Banovallum, Horncastle. | [30] | |
| 90. | Ad Pontem, by Bridgford. | [105] | |
| 91. | Margidunum, by Willoughby. | [106] | |
| 92. | Ratæ Coritanorum, Leicester. | [108] | |
| 93. | Benonis, High-cross. | [110] | |
| 94. | Tripontium, Dove-bridge. | [112] | |
| 95. | Verolanium, Verolam. | [116] | |
| 96. | Durovernum, Canterbury. | [122] | |
| 97. | Richborough-castle. | [125], [163] | |
| 98. | Lapis tituli, Folkstone. | [131] | |
| 99. | Lemanus Portus, Limne. | [132] | |
| 100. | Celestial character. | The great conjunction of the five Planets. | [Preface.] |
| 101. | Total eclipse of the Sun in 1721. | [179] |