_A Roman Station--the Camp of Claudius--Manners, Customs, and Dialects
of the people of the District._
About two miles to the west of Little Claybrook, in the hundred of
Luthlaxton, in Leicestershire, is a place called High Cross, which,
according to some antiquarians, was the Benonce or Vennones of the
Romans. Dr. Stukely describes this station as situated at the
intersection of the two great Roman roads, "which traverse the kingdom
obliquely, and seem to be the centre, as well as the highest ground in
England; for from hence rivers run every way. The foss road went on the
backside of an inn standing here, and so towards Bath. The ground
hereabout is very rich, and much _ebulus_ (a herb much sought after
for the cure of dropsies,) grows here. Claybrooklane has a piece of
quickset hedge left across it, betokening one side of the Foss; which
road in this place bears exactly north-east and south-west as it does
upon the moor on this side of Lincoln. In the garden before the inn
abovementioned, a tumulus was removed about the year 1720, under which
the body of a man was found upon the plain surface; as likewise hath
been under several others hereabout; and foundations of buildings have
been frequently dug up along the street here, all the way to Cleycestre,
through which went the great street-way, called Watling-street; for on
both sides of the way have been ploughed and dug up many ancient coins,
great square stones and bricks, and other rubbish, of that ancient Roman
building, not far from a beacon, standing upon the way now called High
Cross, of a cross which stood there some time, upon the meeting of
another great way."
At the intersection of the roads is the pedestal, &c. of a cross which
was erected here in the year 1712; on which are the two following Latin
inscriptions. On one side is--
Vicinarum provinciarum, Vervicensis scilicet et Leicestrensis,
ornamenta, proceres patritiique, auspiciis, illustrissimi Basili
Comitis de Denbeigh, hanc columnam statuendam curaverunt, in gratam
pariter et perpetuam memoriam Jani tandem a Serenissima Anna clausi
A.D. MDCCXII.
Which is thus translated,
The noblemen and gentry, ornaments of the neighbouring counties of
Warwick and Leicester, at the instances of the Right Honourable Basil
Earl of Denbeigh, have caused this pillar to be erected in grateful as
well as perpetual remembrance of Peace at last restored by her Majesty
Queen Anne, in the year of our Lord, 1712.