There are also monuments of the Baynards, the Cusanzes, and the Blewets, which families were owners of the manor from the time of the conquest for some generations.
On the south side of the city is a small postern under the wall, called by the common people “Onion’s hole,” and is so designated from a traditional account of a giant of that name; the coins which have been discovered are called from the cause “Onion’s pennies.”
A fair field is here open for the researches of the antiquarian; and it is much to be regretted that a good account of the place is not yet published. “The History and Antiquities of Silchester,” whence I have cited, is a pamphlet of thirty-two pages, and affords but little information. Hoping to see justice done to the place, I beg to subscribe myself, &c.
J. R. J.
[419] The History and Antiquities of Silchester, p. 12.
Silchester, a parish bordering on Berkshire, about 7 miles N. from Basingstoke, and 45 from London, contains, according to the last census, 85 houses and 407 inhabitants. It is supposed to have been once a populous city, called by the Romans “Segontiaci,” by the Britons “Caer-Segont,” and by the Saxons “Silcester,” or the great city. Capper.—Ed.
[420] Livy, b. i.
[421] Plutarch in Romul. See Kennet’s Antiquities of Rome, p. 29.
[422] I should like to be informed the meaning of these letters—there is no date to the monument. J. R. J.