Martinshal Hill. Ro. camp.
North of these is Martinsal hill, a vast stationary Roman camp, upon a high hill steep to the east, which is seldom observable. I measured it quite round, in company with lord Hertford and lord Winchelsea: it is conspicuous at a great distance, and within sight of all the camps in the country. I take it to haveTAB. XLIV. been made when the Romans were thoroughly possessors of the kingdom, and one of their chief fortresses, whence they might give or receive signals all around, in case of distress, by fire or smoke. On two sides the precipice is dreadfully steep. Lord Winchelsea has a brass Alexander Severus found here; on the reverse, Jupiter fulminans, with PM. TR. P. COS. On the west side, upon the top of the hill, without the camp is a round pit full of good spring water, always to the brim but never overflowing in the driest summers; which at those seasons is of greatest service to the country round, and thousands of cattle are driven every day from a considerable distance to drink there. I am told there is another such upon the top of Chute hill, south east from hence, very high, and no water within some miles of it. So provident has Nature been in subliming, by some unknown powers, the liquid element to these barren heights, that every part of her works should not be without its graces and use. The prospect from Martinsal must needs be exceeding fine. Salisbury steeple, twenty miles off, bears south-west and by west: the port of this camp is north-east.
Martinalia.
I take the name of this hill to come from the merriments among the northern people, called Martinalia, or drinking healths to the memory of St. Martin, practised by our Saxon and Danish ancestors. I doubt not but upon St. Martin’s day, or Martinmass, all the young people in the neighbourhood assembled here,[126] as they do now upon the adjacent St. Ann’s hill upon St. Ann’s day. The true word is Martinsheil, heyl signifying health; and the Germans call a bowl, or drinking-vessel, schale: likewise hali in the Saxon signifies holy; whence our hallow; and the Washeyl bowl at Christmass, full of spiced ale, which they carry about, singing of carols in the streets. Monsieur Keysler speaks of these matters largely in his Antiquitates Septentrionales, p. 358. and that the German gilds, or societies, were obliged to keep drinking festivals to St. Mary, St. Martin, St. Nicholas, &c. p. 487. he says, at a village in tractu Albino, the married women upon St. Martin’s day pay 4 d. to the questor: and the Spring upon this hill still further favoured their ceremonies. So beneficial a bason in heathen times merited divine honours; and the people, not willing to part with a holy-day, blended their rites into christian. The English took the opportunity of the day after this great festival of St. Martin, much observed by the Danes, to commit that universal massacre upon them drunken, which totally extirpated them. This was anno 1002, upon the 13th of November, the feast day of St. Brittius, says Chron. Joann. Alb. Petriburg. on Hock Tuesday, which Spelman says had its denomination thence.
In the fields about Chute are bones dug up very plentifully, in a place called Blood-field especially: they likewise found there a stone coffin with a skeleton inclosed, and an arrow or spear-head of brass, as described to me: there was a horse found buried about three yards from the body. Whether this was Roman or British, I cannot affirm: I am inclinable to think the latter: but it seems that a battle was fought here between them.
Barbury. Ro. camp.
Full north from hence, upon the Barbury hills, the next ridge overlooking the north part of Wiltshire, is another camp, called Barbury, in the parish of Ogburn St. George. The noble lords late mentioned assisted in measuring it: it is double ditched quite round, the inner very deep, and rampart high, of a circular form; an entrance upon the east, and another on the west diameter, which is 2000 Roman foot long: at the west the inmost rampire retires inwards a little, to make a port with jambs: eastward the outer ditch turns round with a semi-circular sweep, leaving two passages through it obliquely to the main entrance, like our modern half-moons: both these methods I have often seen practised.[127] This mighty camp stands on one of the western eminences of this ridge, running east and west; very steep to the north and west, separating the high ground or downs from the fertile country below, which belonged to the Dobuni, and lies under the eye like a map, as far as the Welsh hills beyond the Severn; whose lovely prospect would naturally animate the Britons in its defence, as the Romans in its conquest: it is indeed a fine scene of woods, towns, pastures, rivers and valleys. A little beyond, upon the same ridge, is Badbury.Badbury camp; and the whole is well planted with stout camps and frequent, the eye-sore and terror of the plain: hence you see Martinsal camp and many more.
Ro. road to Bath. via Badonica.
Having recited these matters as preliminary, I shall begin my journey from Marlborough, the Roman Cunetio. I forbear speaking of the infinite number of Celtic monuments I have found in this country, designing them for a particular treatise, to be honoured with your lordship’s illustrious name; and from Marlborough pursue the Roman road, which we have before traced from Newbury hither, and lately discovered its whole progress toward the Bath, which for distinction sake we may call Via Badonica: its course is east and west: it goes hence all along the north side of the Kennet river, between it and the high grounds; and is the present road, but highly wants a Roman hand to repair it. When we have rode about a mile, over-against Clatford, at a flexure of the river, we meet with several very great stones, about a dozen in number, which probably was a Celtic temple, and stood in a circle: this form in a great measure they still preserve. I guess the Romans buried them in the ground under their road, because directly in its passage: the materials throughout have since been worn away, or sunk into the ground, being in this place meadow, and so has restored their huge bulk to day-light. Hence it proceeds directly up to the famous Overton hill, where I first discovered its ridge, when surveying the beautiful circle of stones there, belonging to the majestic temple of the old Britons at Abury: this ridge is a little to the north of the present road, somewhat higher up the hill; it points directly east and west, one end to Marlborough, the other to Silbury hill: and this shows a defect in our maps, which place Abury too much to the south: it is perfect for some space over the down; but upon descending the hill westward, they have ploughed it up, and found several Roman coins near it, some of which I have by me.[128] At the bottom, by the corner of the hedge, it meets again the common road near the White-hart ale-house; and so they go together above West Kennet to Silbury-hill: this was the post and coach road to the Bath, till, for want of reparation, they were forced to find a new one, more northward upon the downs, and farther about, through the town of Abury: when on the south side of Silbury hill, it goes very strait and full west through the corn-fields on the south of Bekhamton, where it is sufficiently known by the name of the French way; for what reason I cannot imagine. They have of late endeavoured to exclude travellers going upon it, by inclosing it at both ends with ditches; but the badness of the lower road has defeated their purpose, and made people still assert the public right. Beyond Bekhamton it again enters the downs, and marches up the hill in a very plain ridge, and beautiful to behold; the pits and cavities whence the earth was taken, on both sides, being conspicuous all the way: besides, the Romans have defaced a druid’s barrow, and another Celtic one near, which saved them some labour: a proof they were there before the Roman road; but this is not a proper place to enlarge upon it. When it has gained the summit of the hill, it leaves Oldbury. Ro. camp.Oldbury castle a little to the north: this is a great and strong TAB. XLII.Roman camp on the north-west point of the hill, overlooking Calne: the precipice on those two sides is altogether inaccessible, falling down in narrow cavities or ribs, as it were the great roots of a tree, with an odd and tremendous aspect; and that way there was need but of very slender work for its security: but on the other sides it is double ditched, having but one entrance to the east, and that fortified with a return of the outer ditch and inner rampire, very artificially: there is a ditch likewise across the middle, as if it had been inlarged with an additional intake westward: it is in the main of a squarish form, and has a very fine prospect. On the northern limit, in the highest part, seems to have been a prætorium. On this hill, which is wholly a chalky down, with a most delicate turf (and softer to walk upon than a Turky carpet) about a foot or two under the superficial earth, they dig great quantities of flints to mend the highways withal: one would imagine they had been spewed out of the hardening chalk at the creation, as extraneous bodies, though of greater specific gravity than itself.