Prospect of Benavona July 6th. 1725.
Stukeley delin.
Fletcher sculp.
Thus far we have gone through Northamptonshire and Bucks: now we enter Bedfordshire, and arrive at Magiovinium.Magiovinium, or Dunstable. The road hither from Fenny Stretford is deep sand (and comes from Salinæ, or sandy) till you arrive at the bottom of the chalk-hills, or chiltern, which arise very steep on this side, as being north-west, conform to my assumption, p. 4. The town stands upon this chalk; whence its Roman name, importing the white town:[102] it consists of four streets, intersecting at right angles, but oblique to the cardinal points, because such is the direction of the Icening and Watling-street, which here meet. In the centre stood one of those beautiful crosses of queen Eleanor; but fanatic zeal has robbed the town of this ornament. This being a high situation, and no running water near, they are forced to draw up their water, from very deep wells, by machinery of great wheels. Kingsbury, the royal seat over-against the church, is now a farm-house. The church is composed of many parts tacked together, some very old: it was part of the priory: arch-bishop Cranmer was the last prior here. In Dunstable church is this inscription,
Hic iacent Nicholaus Lane quondam presidens frat’nitat’
sci Johannis Baptiste De Dunstable qui obiit ii die mens’ Decembr
anno Dm Mo CCCCo lir Et Agnes ur. eio quorum animabus propicietur
Deus amen.
Maiden Bower. British.
I visited Maiden-Bower,[103] mentioned by Mr. Camden, but cannot think its name has any relation to that of the town: though Roman coins have been found here, I am persuaded it is a British work, like that at Ashwell, at like distance from the Chiltern, and of like form, but more circular: it stands upon a plain, but not far from the edge of a lesser eminence of these hills, about a little mile from Dunstable: the rampire is pretty high, but very little sign of a ditch; nor do I think there ever was much more: it incloses about nine acres: the ground round it is ploughed: this chalk yields good wheat. Between here and the town is a long barrow called the Mill-hill, no doubt from a mill which was afterwards set upon it; the ends of it ploughed somewhat: it stands east and west: I have no scruple in supposing it Celtic. Tumuli British.A high prominence of the Chiltern overlooks all, called the Five Knolls, from that number of barrows, or Celtic tumuli, round, pretty large, and ditched about upon the very apex of the hill. Close by are two round cavities, as often observed in Wiltshire. The Icening-street runs under the bottom. These chalk hills have frequently veins of strong clay intermixed, and the like between these hills and the sand more northward. This great tract of chalk comes from the eastern sea, and traverses the kingdom much in a like direction with the Icening-street.
At Woburn is some fullers earth. There was a noble abbey, now the seat of the duke of Bedford; in it several valuable works of Inigo Jones left, particularly a curious grotto.
From Dunstable the Itinerary leads us out of the road, going strait to Verolam, and takes in another station by the way, Durocobrivis.Durocobrivis; which demonstrates it was made not so much for travellers, as for the soldiery or officers that were to visit the garrisons, therefore comprehends as many as could conveniently be taken into that route. About this station antiquaries have been much divided, when it certainly ought to be placed at Berghamsted, commonly Barkamstead, in TAB XXIX. 2d Vol.Hertfordshire, which well suits the assigned distances from Magiovinium, and the subsequent Verolanium, and has evidently been a Roman town, as its name imports; and probably the castle there stands upon a Roman foundation. It is certain Roman coins are frequently dug up there: my friend Mr. Browne Willys has a Roman coin, found there: young Mr. Whitfield, brother to the major at St. Alban’s, has many Roman coins, great and small, found in the castle at Berghamsted. The inside, within the walls where the lodgings were, is about two acres: the entrance was not at the corner, where now, but in the front of the south side: many chimneys remain in the wall, of the lodgings which extended quite round, leaving a spacious court within; and all the windows looked inward: the ground of the court is distinguishable, being good soil, and there they find the Roman coins; the rest is rubbish and foundations; so that the Saxon castle was made upon the Roman: the chapel seems to have stood against the west wall, where be signs of a stair-case: the walls are of flints gathered from the highlands, very thick, and laid with strong mortar. This town fully answers the distance in the Itinerary, and remarkably the import of the name, according to Mr. Baxter’s derivation, though he erroneously places it at Woburn, civitas paludosi profluentis; for here is a large marsh, or bog, wherein the ancient British oppidum was placed: it is most sweetly surrounded with high, hard, and pleasant ground all around, full of hedge-rows, pastures, and arable: the castle was set very judiciously in the north side, upon a piece of dry ground, incompassed with springs, by the Saxons made exceedingly strong. The town is upon the south side of the marsh, stretching itself a good length in handsome buildings, and a broad street: the church is a large handsome building, a monumental effigies of a knight and a lady; upon his coat a bend or belt, and in the sinister chief a martlet; a lion his crest under his feet: it is full of chapels and monuments old and new. This town has been an old corporation; the kings of Mercia resided here; Wightred, king of Kent and Mercia, anno 697, held a parliament here; and here king Ina’s laws were published: all which further confirm its being the place we assert.[104]