residence of the lords presidents of Wales under the prince. In the way
hither we found the _euonymus pannonicus_ in the hedges. This town is
walled quite round, and pretty strong, having five gates, situate upon
a hill-top, running from south-east with an ascent towards north-west,
on which, precipitous to the north and west, stands the castle. On
the south side runs the Teme, fettered with numerous dams across, in
nature of cataracts; by which means abundance of mills are turned: the
superfluous water pours over them, cascade-like, with a mighty noise.
Here is a very good church and handsome tower, with a pleasant ring of
six bells in the cross thereof: the windows are full of painted glass
pretty intire: there are some old monuments of the lords presidents,
&c. and an inscription upon the north wall of the choir relating to
prince Arthur, who died here: his bowels were buried in this place:
one told me they took up his heart not long since in a leaden box.
In the eastern angle of the choir is a closet, anciently called the
_God-house_, where the priests locked up their roods, wafers, and
such things: it has a window strongly barred outward. This church is
consecrated to St Laurence: and in the market-place is an hexagonal
cistern, or conduit, like a cross; on the top of which is a long stone
cross, bearing a niche with an image of that saint in it. West of
the church was a college, now converted to a dwelling-house, whose
owner showed us a pretty collection of pictures, one by Holben. There
was a rich priory out of the town on the north side; small ruins now
to be seen, except a little adjoining church once belonging to it:
about the same place an arched gate-way went cross the street, but
now demolished. The greatest rarity of Ludlow is the noble and strong
castle and palace, placed on the north-west angle of the town upon a
rock, commanding a delightful prospect northward; but on the west,
where runs the river, it is overlooked by a high hill. It is strongly
environed by embattled walls of great height and thickness, with
towers at convenient distances: that half which is within the walls
of the town is secured moreover with a deep ditch; the other founded
on the solid rock. It is divided into two separate parts; the castle,
properly so speaking, wherein the palace and lodgings; and the green,
or out-work, what I suppose they call the Barbican: the first is in
the strongest or north-west corner, and has likewise walls and ditch
hewn out of the rock towards the green: this was the residence of the
lords presidents: it was a noble structure, but now, alas! only groans
out with its last breath the glories of its ancient state. A chapel
here has abundance of coats of arms upon the panels; so has the hall,
together with lances, spears, firelocks and old armour; but the present
inhabitants live upon the sale of the timber, stone, iron, and other
materials and furniture, which dwindles away insensibly. Here died
prince Arthur. The green takes in a large compass of ground, wherein
was formerly the court of judicature and records, the stables, garden,
bowling-green and other offices; all which now lie in ruins, or are let
out at rack-rents to those that pilfer what they can: over several of
the stable-doors are queen Elizabeth’s arms, the earls of Pembroke’s,
and others.
Hence we went along the river Teme to Tenbury. In a niche in the
chancel is a stone, a yard long, of a child of lord Arundel’s of
Sutton-house, as they say, dressed like a knight, cross-legged: another
knight cross-legged under the south wall of the church; on his shield a
chevron between three stars pierced. In the meadow, upon the river, a
_tumulus_ covered with old oaks, called Castle-mead bower, or burrow.
[Sidenote: +Bewdley.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XIII. XIV.]
Bewdley is a pleasant town by sweet meadows upon the Severn, which is
the most delightful river I have seen. Here, upon a hill over-looking
the town, is Tickenhall, built by Henry VII. for his son prince
Arthur; part of the old palace is standing, of timber-work: here was
a park too, part of Wire forest. This is a thriving town. A mile off
is Ribsford, the seat of the lord Herbert of Cherbury, pleasantly
encompassed with woods. Here is a good picture of William I. earl
of Pembroke: the ends of the hills toward the river are generally
rocks. Blackston hill has an hermitage cut out of it, with a chapel
and several apartments, which I have represented in prospect and
ground-plot: near it is a pretty rock upon the edge of the water,
covered with Nature’s beautiful canopy of oaks and many curious plants:
near the water, upon the rock, _liver-wort_ grows plentifully. They
dig up coal hereabouts, about twelve yards under ground. Kederminster
is but two miles off: in the church a cross-legged monument of Sir
Tho. Acton. In Wulverhampton church are several old monuments; a brass
statue of Sir Richard Leveson, who fought the Spaniards under Sir
Francis Drake: there is a very old stone pulpit, and a very old stone
cross in the church-yard. Was I to chuse a country residence for health
and pleasure, it would be undoubtedly on the west side of the island,
not far from this river, and where it is most distant from the sea; for
natural reasons, which I need not mention to you.
Bewdley, 17 Sept. 1721.
[Illustration: 4 _The North Prospect of Ludlow Castle._]
[Illustration: _The Ichnography of Ludlow Castle._
_Stukeley delin._ _I. Harris Sculp._]
[Illustration: 5 _The West prospect of Ludlow Castle. Sep. 16. 1721._
Robto Cornwall Barrᵗᵗᵒ. d.d. _W. Stukeley_]
[Illustration: 13 _View of_ Blackston Cave. _River Severn & Lᵈ.
Herberts house near_ Bewdley _Sep. 23. 1721_.
_Stukeley delin:_ _E. Kirkall sculp:_]
[Illustration: 14 HERMITAGES.
_The Groundplot & Section of an Hermitage near Bewdley._
_The Hermitage at Dale Abby_
_W Stukeley Del_]
ITER ROMANUM. V.
_Salve magna parens frugum Britanica tellus,
Magna virum! tibi res antiquæ laudis & artis
Ingredior. Sanctos ausus recludere fontes,
Antiquum repeto Romana per oppida cursum. +Virg.+
Nam quid Britannum cœlum differre putamus._ +Lucret. vi.+
_To my Lord_ WINCHELSEA.
The journey I here present your lordship is intirely Roman; for I went
from London full northward to the banks of the Humber, upon the famous
Hermen-street road, passing through Lincoln: then coasting about a
little, at Lincoln again I took the Foss way to its intersection of the
Watling-street in Warwickshire: upon that I returned back to London,
and pursued it to the sea-coasts of Kent: likewise some part of the
Icening-street, as it crosses the others, where it lay not too far
out of my main route, was the subject of my enquiry: so that in this
account is somewhat of all these four great roads of Britain, which
our old monkish writers make a considerable harangue about, but are
scarce able fully to distinguish them, and of the reason of their names
say but little to our satisfaction: but the ways themselves, as drawn
quite a-cross the island in different directions, are sufficiently
manifest to a traveller of common sagacity. Though my discoveries
herein are mean enough, yet I reckon this an happy _æra_ of my life,
because, the very day before I undertook it, I had the good fortune to
be known to your lordship, and at the end of it enjoyed the pleasurable
repose of your delightful seat at Eastwel, but what is more, your own
conversation: since then your many favours, like all other felicities
in life, give me uneasiness in the midst of joy, as sensible of my own
little merit. I have no hope indeed of retaliating; and I know that
great minds like yours imitate Providence, expecting no return from its
beneficiaries: but it is consentaneous to human nature to endeavour at
it, and offer tokens of gratitude, however unequal. The delight you
take in rescuing the monuments of our ancestors, your indefatigable
zeal in collecting them, your exquisite knowledge in the Greek, Roman,
and British antiquities, and especially your great love for those of
your own country, which you continually commit to writing in your
private commentaries, add a reputation to these studies, and make the
Muses hope for a sunshine, when men of your lordship’s noble birth
entertain them with that familiarity and condescension which was one
great glory of the Augustan age.
[Sidenote: Roman _roads_.]
For arts military and civil, that became a most wise government, the
Romans beyond compare exceeded all nations; but in their roads they
have exceeded themselves: nothing but the highest pitch of good sense
and public spirit could prompt them to so immense a labour: it is
altogether astonishing to consider how they begirt the whole globe,[50]
as it were, with new meridians and great circles all manner of ways; as
one says,
_Magnorum fuerat solers hæc cura Quiritum
Constratas passim concelebrare vias._
As well as use, they studied eternity in all their works, just opposite
to our present narrow souls, who say, It will serve our time well
enough. For this reason they made few bridges, as liable to decay;
but fords were laid with great skill and labour, many of which remain
firm to this day without any reparation. No doubt but the Romans
gave names to these roads from the commanders under whose government
and direction they were laid out, as was their custom elsewhere: but
because they generally held their posts here but for a short time, and
perhaps scarce any finished one road intirely; therefore, whilst each
endeavoured to stamp his own name upon them, so it fell out that they
were all forgotten. The present appellatives seem to be derived either
from the British or Saxon: William the Conqueror calls them _Chemini
majores_ in confirming the laws of St. Edward about these four ways.
All misdemeanours committed upon them were decided by the king himself.
Though there was no need of paving or raising a bank in some places,
yet it was done for a perpetual direction; and every where I suppose
stones were set at a mile’s distance, many of which are still left.
Of these four celebrated ways, the Foss and Icening-street traverse
the kingdom from south-west to north-east, parallel to one another:
the Watling-street crossed them quite the contrary way, with an equal
obliquity: the Hermen-street passed directly north and south: and
besides these are very many more. I purpose not to give a full history
of them here, any farther than I travel upon them, reserving that till
I am better able.
[Sidenote: +Hermen-street.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. LVI.]
[Sidenote: Br. _camp._]
Somewhat on the Hermen-street is said already in my first letter
about Lincolnshire, where it divides itself into two, which we may
call the old and the new branch. Here I design to search it up to its
fountain-head. As to its name, we have no reason to seek any farther
than the Saxon language, where _Here_ signifies an army; _Hereman_, a
soldier or warriour:[51] the Hermen-street then is the military street,
in the same propriety the Romans used it. It begins at Newhaven, at
the mouth of the river Ouse in Sussex, and passes on the west side the
river through Radmil, probably taking its name thence; so through Lewis
by Isfield: then it seems to pass over the river at Sharnbridge, as we
may guess by its name, and so proceeds to East Grinsted, but I suppose
lost in passing through the great woods: then through Surrey it goes by
Stane-street, Croydon, Stretham, and, by its pointing, we may suppose
was designed originally to pass the Thames at the ferry called Stangate
by Lambeth, where it coincides with the Watling-street. Of this I can
say nothing yet, having not travelled it. There I apprehend the road
went before London became very considerable; but when the majesty of
the place suddenly arose to great height, this road, and all others
directed this way, deflected a little from their primitive intention,
to salute the _Augusta_ of Britain, destined to be the _altera Roma_;
and this has rendered them all obscure near the city. It is generally
thought the Hermen-street goes hence through Bishopsgate, and along
the northern road; but I apprehend that to be of much later standing
than the original one, which goes more on the west. By the quotation I
mentioned in my first letter, when upon this road, out of Mr. Gale’s
Itinerary, of Lowlsworth near Bishopsgate, it seems as if it was done
in Lollius Urbicus his time. The original one perhaps passes through
unfrequented ways near Enfield and Hermen-street, seeming to retain
the old name: on the eastern side of Enfield chace, by Bush hill, is a
circular British camp upon an eminence declining south-west; but our
ancient road appears upon a common on this side of Hertford by Ball’s
park, and so passes the river below Hertford; then goes through Ware
park, and falls into the present road on this side Wadesmill,[52] and
so to Royston. Here must have been several stations upon it, but I
see no hope of ever retrieving their names: that Hertford is one is
reasonable to think, it having been ever in the royal demesne, and
passing a river at a proper distance from London: but in the assignment
of _Durocobrovis_ here, I take leave to dissent from Camden and other
learned men; it by no means answers the distances in the Itinerary, or
the import of the name; the Red Ford, or the Ford of Harts, are fancies
without foundation: either _trajectus militaris_ is the meaning, or
it is the passage of the river Ard, now the Beane: Ardley at the
spring-head of it: _ardh_ in British is _altus_.
[Sidenote: +Icening-street.+]
[Sidenote: +Wilbury.+ Br.]
[Sidenote: Ro. _camp._]
[Sidenote: +Harbury Banks.+ Br.]
At Royston the Icening-street crosses the Hermen-street, coming from
Dunstable going into Suffolk: this about Baldock appears but like a
fieldway, and scarce the breadth of a coach, the farmers on both sides
industriously ploughing it up: between Baldock and Icleford it goes
through an intrenchment, taking in the top of a hill of good compass,
but of no great elevation: it consists of a _vallum_ only, and such a
thing as I take to be properly the remains of a British _oppidum_: it
is called Wilbury hill, and is said to have been woody not intirely
beyond memory: this street, quite to the Thames in Oxfordshire, goes
at the bottom of a continued ridge of hills called the Chiltern, being
chalk, the natural as well as civil boundaries between the counties
of Hertford and Bedford, very steep northward. Ickleford retains the
name of the street, which at this place passes a rivulet with a stoney
ford wanting reparation. Near Periton church has been a castle of
Saxon or Norman times, with a keep. These high chalk hills, having a
fine prospect northward, are covered with a beautiful turf like the
Wiltshire downs, and have such like barrows here and there, and indeed
are but a continuation of them quite a-cross the kingdom. Near Hexton
is a square Roman camp upon a _lingula_, or promontory, just big enough
for the purpose: it is very steep quite round, except at a narrow
slip where the entrance is; double ditched, and very strong, but
land-locked with hills every way, except to the north-east, and that
way has a good prospect: under it is a fine spring: it seems made by
the Romans when they were masters of all the country on this side, and
extending their arms northward. On High downs is a pleasant house by a
wood, where is a place called Chapel close: in this wood are barrows
and dikes, perhaps of British original. Liliho is a fine plot of ground
upon a hill steep to the north-west, where a horse-race is kept: from
under it goes the Icening-street by Stretley to Dunstable. North of
Baldoc we visited the camp by Ashwel, taken notice of in Camden, called
Harbury banks: it is of a theatrical form, consisting wholly of an
_agger_: though Roman coins have been found in it, I am inclinable to
think it is earlier than their times. Between Calcot and Henxworth, two
miles off, several Roman antiquities have been dug up this year; many
in the custody of my friend Simon Degg, esq; he gave me this account of
it: some workmen, digging gravel for the repair of the great northern
road, struck upon some earthen vessels, or large urns, full of burnt
bones and ashes, but rotten: near them a human skeleton, with the
head towards the south-east, the feet north-west: several bodies were
found in this manner not above a foot under the surface of the earth,
and with urns great or small near them, and _pateras_ of fine red
earth, some with the impression of the maker on the bottom: there were
likewise glass lachrymatories, _ampullas_, a _fibula_ of brass, six
small glass rings, two long glass beads of a green colour, and other
fragments.
[Sidenote: +Salinæ.+]
Northward still upon a high sandy hill, by the bank of the river
Ivel, is a Roman camp called Chesterton: under it lies the town
called Sandy, or Salndy, the _Salinæ_ of the Romans in Ptolemy,
where great quantities of Roman and British antiquities have been
found, and immense numbers of coins, once a brass _Otho_, vases,
urns, lachrymatories, lamps. Mr. Degg has a cornelian intaglia, and a
British gold coin dug up here, _Tascio_ upon it. Thomas Bromsal esq.
has a fine silver _Cunobelin_ found here, of elegant work; others of
Titus, Agrippina, Trajan, Hadrian, Augustus, Antoninus Pius, Faustina,
Constantius Chlorus, Constantinus Magnus, Carausius, Alectus, Tetricus,
and many more.[53] His great grandfather, high-sheriff of this county,
preserved the invaluable Cottonian library from plunder in the time of
the commonwealth, whilst it was at Stratton in this county, about anno
1650. The soil here is sand, perfectly like that on the sea shore. I
imagine a Roman road passed by this place westward from Grantchester by
Cambridge.
[Sidenote: +Camboritum.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. LIX.]
[Sidenote: Roman _camp_.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XLV.]
Return we to Royston again. Going upon the Icening-street the other
way, just upon the edge of Cambridgeshire, we come to Chesterford upon
the river going to Cambridge, near Icleton and Strethal. In July, 1719,
I discovered the _vestigia_ of a Roman city here: the foundation of
the walls is very apparent quite round, though level with the ground,
including a space of about fifty acres: great part of it serves for
a causeway to the public Cambridge road from London: the Crown inn
is built upon it:[54] the rest is made use of by the countrymen for
their carriages to and fro in the fields: the earth is still high on
both sides of it: in one part they have been long digging this wall up
for materials in building and mending the roads: there I measured its
breadth twelve foot, and remarked its composition of rag stone,
flints and Roman brick: in a little cottage hard by, the parlour is
paved with bricks; they are fourteen inches and an half long, and nine
broad. In the north-west end of the city,[55] the people promised
to show me a wonderful thing in the corn, which they observed every
year with some sort of superstition. I found it to be the foundation
of a Roman temple very apparent, it being almost harvest time: here
the poverty of the corn growing where the walls stood, defines it to
such a nicety, that I was able to measure it with exactness enough:
the dimensions of the cell, or _naos_, were fifteen foot in breadth,
forty in length; the _pronaos_, where the steps were, appeared at both
ends, and the wall of the portico around, whereon stood the pillars.
I remarked that the city was just a thousand Roman feet in breadth,
and that the breadth to the length was as three to five, of the same
proportion as they make their bricks: it is posited obliquely to the
cardinal points, its length from north-west to south-east; whereby
wholesomeness is so well provided for, according to the direction of
Vitruvius. The river Cam runs under the wall, whence its name; for
I have no scruple to think this was the _Camboritum_ of Antoninus,
meaning the ford over this river, or the crooked ford: in Lincolnshire
we called a crooked stick, the butchers use, a _cambril_.[56] They have
found many Roman coins in the city or Borough field, as they call it: I
saw divers of them. In this parish, they say, has been a royal manor:
not far off, by Audlenhouse, upon an eminence is a great Roman camp
called Ringhill; a hunting tower of brick now stands upon it. Beyond
this the Icening-street goes toward Icleworth in Suffolk, parting the
counties of Cambridge and Essex all the way; and almost parallel to it
runs a great ditch, viz. from Royston to Balsham, called Brentditch,
where it turns and goes to the river below Cambridge, there called
Flightditch. I imagine these to be ancient boundaries of the Britons,
and before the Roman road was made, which naturally enough would have
served for a distinction by the Saxons, as at other places, had their
limits lain hereabouts. Two miles both ways of Royston is chalky
soil:[57] about Puckeridge it is gravelly. On Bartlow hills there is
a camp too, castle camps, and Roman antiquities found: I am told of
three remarkable barrows thereabouts, where bones have been dug out.
At Hadstok they talk of the skin of a Danish king nailed upon the
church-doors.
[Illustration: 59 +Camboritvm.+
_21. Aug. 1722._
_Thomæ Bawtre Conterraneo Suo Tabula votiva._
_Stukeley delin._]
[Illustration: 45 _The_ Hunting Tower _in the Ro. Camp near_ Littlebury
_Aug. 21. 1722._
_View of_ Silchester Walls _from the N.E. corner Aug. 5. 1722. Ro.
Brick & Flint._
_Stukeley delin:_ & Amico Peregrino Bertie Ar. vovet. _E. Kirkall
sculp:_]
Now we shall take along with us the Itinerary of Antoninus in his
fifth journey; for after he has gone from London toward Colchester,
and part of Suffolk, he turns into this Icening-street at _Icianis_,
which seems to be Icesworth beyond St. Edmundsbury; from whence to
this _Camboritum_ is thirty-five miles: from thence to Huntingdon is
just twenty-five, as they are noted; but it is to be supposed that
the Itinerary went along the Icening-street to Royston, then took the
Hermen-street; for so the miles exactly quadrate.
[Sidenote: +Royston.+ Ro. _town_.]
Royston, as being seated upon the intersection of these two roads, no
doubt was a Roman town[58] before Roisia[59] built her religious house
here, and perpetuated her own name upon the Roman, which is now lost;
and this very year they found Roman coins near there: but there seems
to be the stump of her cross still remaining at the corner of the inn
just where the two roads meet. The Hermen-street now coincides all the
way with the common northern road. At Arminton, denominated from it,
passes another branch of the river going to Cambridge in Armingford
hundred; so by Caxton, which was probably a baiting-place: there are
some old works without the town. A red clay begins now. Anno 1721,
near this road my lord Oxford, digging canals at Wimpole, found many
bodies, and pieces of iron rusty, the remains of some battle. Wimpole
is now improved and honoured with his residence, and the noble Harleian
library.
[Sidenote: +Durocinonte.+]
At Godmanchester, or Gormanchester, on this side Huntingdon river, the
name _chester_ ascertains the Roman _castrum_ to have been; nor is
there any dispute of it, however critics vary about its name, whether
_Durosiponte_ or _Durocinonte_; whether there was a bridge, a ferry,
or a ford, in most ancient times: no doubt but the Romans inhabited
both sides of the river, and probably rather at Huntingdon, being a
much better situation; therefore, as to antiquities here found, I hold
myself more excusable if at present I have nothing to say. Mr. Camden
tells us Roman coins have been frequently ploughed up at Gormanchester,
and Henry of Huntingdon says it has been a noble city: but I took
notice of a wooden bridge over a rivulet between the two towns, which
ought not to be forgot, as a grateful and public charity, having this
inscription.
ROB̄TUS COOK EMERGENS AQUIS HOC VIATORIBUS
SACRUM DD. 1636.
In Huntingdon is the house where Oliver Cromwell was born: though it is
new-built, yet they preserved that room in its first state.[60]
[Sidenote: +Stukeley.+]
From hence the Hermen-street goes in a strait line through Great and
Little Stukeley, so called from the soil, and most anciently written
_Styvecle_, signifying a stiff clay.[61] I should be ungrateful to my
ancestors, not to mention that hence they had their name and large
possessions in both towns, and many others hereabouts. I have the
genealogy of them from Herebert be Styvecle, mentioned in Madox _Hist.
Scaccar. cap._ xiv. _fol._ 382. _mag. rot._ 12. H. II. _rot._ 6. Cant.
& Hunt. which shows that they had lands here before. His descendants
of this place have been high sheriffs of the counties of Huntingdon
and Cambridge more than thirty times, and knights of the shire in
parliament more than forty times: but I remember Lucan says,
————_perit omnis in illo
Nobilitas, cujus laus est in origine sola._
In Great Stukeley church is a font of a very ancient make, and in
the north aile a monumental brass of Sir Nicholas Styvecle: the legend
round the verge of the stone was kept for some time in the town chest,
when it was taken off being loose, but now lost: the effigies being
in the same condition, we carried it to be hung up in the hall now
belonging to James Torkington esq; whose ancestors married the heiress
of the family, and now enjoys the estate.
[Illustration: 17 +Inclytus Ailwinus Totius Angliæ Aldermanus Fundator
Abbatiæ de Ramsey, (In Lapide. 1719.)+
_W. Stukeley delin._ _& Amicissimo S. Gale Ar. D.D._ _E. Kirkall
sculp:_]
[Sidenote: +Conington+.]
[Sidenote: +Ramsey+.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XVII.]