XXIV.
Seguntium, stipendiaria, Caernarvon.
Were I to recite all I have written upon this work, by way of comment, it would amount to a large volume; yet some few remarks I must make.
What all others call Durolenum our author names Durosevum, which I affix to Sittingburn, favouring this reading: the distance conformable.
Sulloniacis, or rather Suellaniacis, has its name from Suellan, or Cassibelin, who fought Cæsar. I place it at Edgware, which has its name from the agger, or high raised Roman way, Watling-street. Here was Cassibelin’s usual residence: his oppidum, or military town, which Cæsar stormed, was at Watford.
Forum Dianæ, a new name, was crouded into the roll of the original Itinerary, where the intermediate distance, XII. miles, between St. Alban’s and Dunstable, remained unaltered: therefore the transcriber repeated the same distance erroneously.
I doubt not, the place is what we now call Market-street, a little on this side Dunstable, upon the great road Watling-street. Here was a fane, and forum, or portico, sacred to Diana; where a panegyre, or fair, as we call it, was annually celebrated, to the honour of the goddess, by the lovers of hunting, on the great festival sacred to her, when stags were sacrificed: this was upon August 13, the hunters’ day, in the Roman kalendar.
I have no need to be ashamed in acknowledging an error incurred in my juvenile travels, when we knew nothing of this work of our author’s; for now I apprehend Durocobrivis is another name of a town near this place: the modern name of Redburn proves it, which means the same as Durocobrivis, the passage over the Redwater brook.
Rotten row, Rowend, Flamsted by Forum Dianæ, names importing high antiquity: Rotten row, just by Bremenium, Ruchester; again at Dorchester, Oxfordshire: they relate to panegyres, or fairs.
Manduessedum, Mancester, on each side the Watling-street, was walled about.