more, that I have seen, did the Romans show their fine genius for
choice of a station, than this: there is a narrow promontory juts
forward to the west, being a rock full of springs, level at top;
and on this did they build their town. One may easily guess at the
original Roman scheme upon which it was founded, and now in the main
preserved: this whole town takes in three squares of full 300 feet
each, two of which are allotted to the castle, the third is an _area_
lying to the east before it, between it and the hill, which is still
the market-place: the streets are all set upon these squares, and at
right angles: at each end are two outlets, going obliquely at the
corners to the country round about, two above, two descending the hill
thus distributed: the north-east to the Humber mouth, south-east to
Louth, north-west to Wintringham, south-west to Lincoln. What is the
meaning of this place being called _Thongcaster_,[87] among some others
in England, I know not; one in Kent: but it gave occasion to the same
fanciful report of its original, as queen Dido’s founding Carthage
upon as much ground as she could incompass with an ox’s hide cut into
_thongs_; and a person in the town told me there was an history of
the building Caster in _Virgil_, and offered to show it me. I should
not have thought this worth mentioning, had not Mr. Camden spoke of
it, as if he believed it to be true: but there can be no doubt that
this castle was built long before Hengist’s time; for I saw enough
of the old Roman wall to evince its founders: one great piece stands
on the verge of the church-yard; another by a house: there are more
behind the school-house in the pastures, and I have met with many
men that have dug at its foundations in several other places: it is
built of white rag-stone laid sometimes sideways, sometimes flat, in
mortar exceedingly hard, full of pebbles and sand; nor is it mixed to
any fineness: so that I conjecture it was the method of the Romans
to pour the mortar on liquid, as soon as the lime was slaked: thus
the heat and moisture, struggling together, created a most strict
union or attraction between the lime and stone, the motion favouring
their approximation; and the lime, no doubt, being made of the same
stone, promoted a more intimate union between the cement and the hard
materials by similitude of parts. I suppose this narrow tongue of land
was thus encompassed with a wall quite to the market-place, objecting
only its end to the plain before the hill, the rest standing upon the
stoney precipice. From under the castle-walls almost quite round rise
many quick springs; but Syfer spring is most famous, having now four
fluxes of water from between the joints of great stones laid flat like
a wall; and joined together with lead, probably first by the Romans,
for it is under their wall; shaded over with trees very pleasantly:
this is the morning and evening rendezvous of the servant-maids, where
consequently intelligence is given of all domestic news: they say,
within memory it ran much quicker, so that the water projected three
or four foot from the wall; others say, that originally it ran in one
stream like the sheet of a cascade. Syfer spring, no doubt, is the
Saxon _syfer_, pure, clean, as the stream here deserves to be called.
There is a place by the fold, south-west of the church, still called
Castle-hill, where many bodies have been dug up. I am inclinable to
think the meaning of _Thong-castle_ to be fetched from _Thane Degen_,
Saxonicè, _miles_, _præfectus_, analogous to the Latin _comes_.[88]
Here it is likely our Saxon ancestors placed a garrison of troops to
secure this country, as they conquered from the Roman Britons. In the
church is a monumental _effigies_, in stone, of a knight of the name
of Hundon; another, of a lady; another, of a knight of St. John of
Jerusalem, cross-legged.
In Snarford church some fine monuments, in alabaster, of the family of
St. Paul’s. Return we now to Lindum.
_Sol medium cœli conscenderat igneus orbem
Cum muros arcemque procul & rara domorum
Tecta vides, modo quæ Romana potentia cœlo
Æquavit_—— +Virg.+ Æ. viii.
A mile north upon the Foss is a _tumulus_ of hard stone, called the
Castle.
From hence I determined to proceed to London all the way on the Roman
road, which perhaps has not been so scrupulously travelled upon for
this thousand years: the intent, which I executed, was to perform the
whole sixth journey in Antoninus his Itinerary; of which I shall give
as complete an account as can be expected, considering how totally most
of the stations here are erased, and that I was resolved so far to
imitate an ancient traveller, as to dine and lie at a Roman town all
the way if possible, and sometimes in danger of faring as meanly as a
Roman soldier: nor could I always readily say,
_Longum iter hic nobis minuit mutatio crebra,
Mansio sub noctem claudit ubique diem._
Add to this, that the whole was new to me; that I had almost every
place to find out; that I was alone, and had no other guide than what
Mr. Gale has pointed out to us, who is the first that hit upon the true
notion of this road: and I doubt not but the reader’s candour will
overlook the errors or imperfections of this simple narration, of what
I could observe myself, and fish out from the uncouth relations of
the country people, who, for one half of the way, had never heard of
enquiries of this sort since any memory, and were too apt to be morose
upon that occasion, thinking I had some design upon their farms in my
inquisitiveness.
[Illustration: 20·2ᵈ. Syfer Spring _at Caster in Lincolnshʳ. July 26. 1724. (a
Roman Work.)_
_Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall fe._]
[Illustration: 21·2ᵈ. _Prospect of_ Crocolana _from Potter hill.
Sept. 7. 1722._
A. _Brough the Roman City._ B. _Newark._ C. _the cliff by the Trent._
D. _Potter hill._
_Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall sculp._]
[Sidenote: _Foss_ road.]
This journey proceeds from Lincoln upon the great Foss road, as it
tends to the Bath quite through Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire (but
most terribly defaced) till it meets with and crosses (having gone
sixty miles) the great Watling-street coming from Chester, and going
to Dover, at High-cross in Warwickshire: hence to London, about ninety
miles more, I went upon this Watling-street, which completes that
journey of the Itinerary.
[Sidenote: +Crocolana.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XXI. 2d Vol.]
I apprehend the _Foss_ is the name transmitted through the British,
which comes from _digging_, as being an artificial road; whence they
are often called _dikes_, a word of contrary significations, as the
Latin _altus_.[89] Descending southwards, where the Foss parts with the
Hermen-street below Lincoln, by the abbey without the most southern
gate, and passing over the river Witham by Bracebridge, before it comes
to Lincoln; I soon perceived myself upon the Foss road, by its strait
ridge carried over the barren moory ground, by a mill near Stickham.
Hard by lies a stone cross of good height, of one piece, vulgarly
called Robin Hood’s Whetstone upon the Foss, and is called sometimes
the three-mile stone. The elevation of the road is still preserved,
the common road going round about: it is much overgrown with goss,
and the moor but thinly so; its strait length easily distinguishable
for that reason: it butts a good deal to the east of Lincoln. Between
Bracebridge and its union with the Hermen way, some pavement is left
of flag-stone set edgewise: the road beyond the moor goes through
the inclosures of Hikeham and Thorp, then enters Morton lane, very
pleasantly set on both sides with woods full of game.[90] And so
journeying to the space of about twelve Roman miles, I found Collingham
on my right hand: there is a high barrow or _tumulus_ called Potters
hill, where they say was a Roman pottery: it stands upon an eminence
commanding a prospect both ways upon the road. Half a mile farther is
Brough, the undoubted _Crocolana_ of the Romans: it is three miles
North of Newark. Great plenty of wild Saffron grows hereabouts; whence
I once thought the name came, signifying the saffron field, from the
Celtic word, a field or inclosure (_lhan._) In the later times of the
empire, when they shortened words, it was called _Colana_; and some
critic restoring _Croco_ to it, doubled the second syllable; whence it
is found in Antoninus his Itinerary, _Crococolanum_: but I judge Mr.
Baxter’s derivation of it is right, _ericetum pulchrum_: the ground is
very woody and pleasant, and full of goss or heath, in Welsh _grûg_.
From _Colana_, Collinghams, two miles off, probably had their name,[91]
springing up from its ruins, as well as Newark, the Saxons approaching
nearer the water side; the Trent and the Foss road being neglected,
which supported the Roman town by travellers chiefly. Collinghams
stand upon a mere or rivulet, abounding with springs called the Fleet,
running into the Trent. The lands at Collingham belong to Peterborough
church; probably the gift of some king:[92] they have a report, that
one arch of South Collingham church came from Brough, which is
probably true of the whole: they say Collingham was a market-town
before Newark; and that Brough was a famous place in time of the Danes,
who destroyed it in Edmund Ironside’s days. Danethorp is hard by, the
seat lately of lady Grey.
At Brough no Roman token visible, but the remarkable straitness of all
the roads and by-lanes thereabouts: the city has been most perfectly
levelled by the plough, so that the mark of ridge and furrow remains
in the very road: the hedge-rows were planted since. Were it not for
many distinguishing tokens, one may be apt to conclude as Floras did,
_laborat annalium fides ut Veios fuisse credamus_. They say here was
a church upon a place called chapel-yard, and a font was once taken
up there. The old landlady at the little ale-house, which is the only
house there, till Thomas Cope’s and another were lately built, says,
that where her fire-place is, the cross once stood; and that the whole
is fairy ground, and very lucky to live on. There have been many
Roman coins dug up here, and all the way between it and Newark:[93] I
bought a large brass _Faustina junior_, lately found in the corn-field
over-against the ale-house: in digging too they find great foundations,
for half a mile together, on each side the road, with much rusty iron,
iron ore and iron cinders; so that it is probable here was an eminent
Roman forge. Across the road was a vast foundation of a wall, and part
still remains: out of one hole they showed me, has been dug up ten or
fifteen load of stone; so that it should seem to have been a gate: the
stones at the foundation are observed to be placed edgewise, and very
large ones, but not of a good sort: this was the method the Romans
justly thought most convenient, in this springy soil; for the springs
rise here, all about, within two foot of the surface. They told me some
very large copper Roman coins have been found here, and silver too, and
many pots, urns, bricks, &c. they call the money Brough pennies. The
earl of Stanford is lord of the manor, and all is copy-hold, probably
originally in the crown. The country people have a notion that the Foss
road is the oldest in England, and that it was made by William the
Conqueror. This is all that I could learn of this city, which I thought
no contemptible gleaning from the shipwreck of time; for
_Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit_——
is true of all the stations of this whole journey, more or less; and I
was glad when any part of the harvest might be applied to the gathering
of antiquities. From hence the road goes extremely strait to Newark
between hedge-rows, having the steeple before us as a visto: but, much
to their disgrace, it is in very ill repair; nay, in some places they
dig the very stone and gravel out of it to mend their streets.
[Sidenote: +Newark.+]
Newark was certainly raised from the neighbouring Roman cities, and has
been walled about with their remains: the northern and eastern gate,
still left, are composed of stones seemingly of a Roman cut; and not
improbably the Romans themselves had a town here; for many antiquities
are found round about it,[94] especially by the Foss side, which runs
quite through the town. My friend the reverend Mr. Warburton, of this
place, gave me a coin or two dug up here; and likewise this further
information, that lately a gentleman (Mr. Holden) digging to plant
some trees by the Foss road side, discovered four urns lying in a
strait line, and at equal distances: they were soon broke in pieces
by the workmen, imagining to find treasure therein: in one there was
only a rude piece of brass, about the bulk of a small walnut, half
melted down, with a bit of bone and some of the ashes sticking in the
surface thereof, amidst the other burnt bones and ashes: he conjectured
that it was a _fibula_ belonging to the habit of the dead: there
were square earthen beads in others, which seem to be British: in
another was a small brass _lar_ about an inch and half long, but much
consumed by rust: he told me likewise a pot of Roman money was found at
Carlton-scrope near them. There are two fine stone crosses at Newark:
the market-place is a spacious square: the church is very large and
handsome, with a very high steeple.[95]
[Illustration: 90 _A Prospect of_ Ad Pontem _upon the Eminence. A Mile
South on the Foss. Sep. 7. 1722._
_W. Stukeley delin._ a. _Old work Spring._ b. _the Foss_ c. _a
Tumulus_ RR. _the Roman City._ _E. Kirkall Sculp._]
[Sidenote: +Ad Pontem.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XC.]
From Newark the Foss passes by Queen’s Sconce, one of the great forts
erected in the civil wars, and so along the Trent side by Stoke, famous
for a battle, and an inn called the Red inn. We arrived, at about six
miles distance south of Newark, to the station of the Romans called _Ad
pontem_. East Bridgford lies near a mile to the right upon the river
Trent: doubtless there was the bridge over the river, which created
the denomination, in the Roman times, as being the passage from the
eastern parts to those beyond the Trent: and as to this particular
station upon the road, perhaps a bridge was the sign of the inn, that
travellers might know where to turn out for that purpose, for I cannot
suppose here was a bridge at the road. At Bridgford they told us there
were formerly great buildings and cellars on the right as you descend
to the Trent, and a quay upon the river for vessels to unlade at.[96]
The Roman station upon the Foss I found to be called Boroughfield,
west of the road: here a spring arises under the hedge, called Oldwork
spring, very quick, running over a fine gravel; the only one hereabouts
that falls eastward, not directly into the neighbouring Trent, towards
Newton. Hereabouts I saw the Roman foundations of walls, and floors
of houses, composed after the manner before spoken, of stones set
edgewise in clay, and liquid mortar run upon them: there are likewise
short oaken posts or piles at proper intervals, some whereof I pulled
up with my own hands. Dr. Batteley tells us of oak very firm, found
at Reculver, under the Roman cisterns: the earth all around looks
very black: they told us that frequently the stones were laid upon a
bed of pease-straw and rush-rope or twisted hay, which remained very
perfect. Houses stood all along upon the Foss, whose foundations have
been dug up, and carried to the neighbouring villages. They told us too
of a most famous pavement near the Foss way: close by, in a pasture,
Castle-hill close, has been a great building, which they say was
carried all to Newark. John Green of Bridgeford, aged 80, told me that
he has taken up large foundations there, much ancient coin, and small
earthen pipes for water: his father, aged near 100, took up many pipes
fourscore yards off the castle, and much fine free-stone: some well cut
and carved: there have been found many urns, pots, and Roman bricks;
but the people preserved none of them; and some that had coins would by
no means let us see them, for fear we were come from the lord of the
manor. About a mile farther is a _tumulus_ upon an eminence of the road
beyond Bingham lane, a fine prospect to Belvoir castle, Nottingham,
the Trent, &c. whence I took a small sketch of the road we had passed,
regretting the oblivion of so many famous antiquities.
In my journey forwards, upon the declension of a stiff clayey hill,
near the lodge upon the wolds, an inn under a great wood. The pavement
upon the road is very manifest, of great blue flag-stones laid edgewise
very carefully: the quarries whence they took them are by the side
of the hill: this pavement is a hundred foot broad, or more; but all
the way thence it has been intirely paved with red flints, seemingly
brought from the sea-coasts: these are laid, with the smoothest face
upwards, upon a bed of gravel over the clayey marl, which reaches
beyond Margidunum; that we may well say,
_O quantæ pariter manus laborant!
Hi cædunt nemus, exuuntque montes.
Hi ferro scopulos trabesque cædunt_, &c. +Stat. Sylv.+ iv.
This pavement is very broad, and visible where not covered with dirt,
and especially in the frequent breaches thereof. They preserve a report
still, that it was thus paved all the way from Newark to Leicester,
and that the Foss way went through Leicester shambles: the yard of the
lodge in the wold is paved with these same stones plundered from the
road. June 15, 1728, Mr. L. Hurst, of Grantham, told me he saw at Mr.
Gascoign’s, a goldsmith in Newark, a large gold ring weighing 42s.
lately brought him by a countryman, which he found upon the Foss-way.
There was a seal upon the gold; a fox (he thought) engraved under a
tree. Afterward I bought the seal: it is a wolf under a tree. Perhaps
Norman. AD PONTEM.
[Sidenote: +Margidvnvm.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XCI.]
Willughby brook is the next water. When arrived over-against Willughby
on the wold on the right, Upper and Nether Broughton on the left,
you find a _tumulus_ on Willughby side of the road, famous among
the country people: it is called Cross hill: upon this they have an
anniversary festival: the road parts the two lordships; but the name
of Broughton set me to work to find the Roman town, among the people
getting in harvest. After some time I perceived I was upon the spot,
being a field called Henings, by which I suppose is meant the ancient
meadows: this is upon the brow of the hill overlooking Willughby
brook, rising in Dalby lordship, and playing in pretty meanders along
a valley between corn-fields, with a moderate water unless raised by
rains. Here they said had been an old city, called Long Billington: it
is often called the Black field in common discourse, from the colour
and excessive richness of the soil, so that they never lay any manure
upon it. Here is a place called Thieves, and on the other side of the
valley a place called Wells, near where now a barn stands: and all
this length they say the city reached, and that there was a church on
the top of Wells; but the city was mostly on Willughby side; for the
land on the other side in Broughton lordship is poor, whilst this is
luxuriant to the last degree; so that a farmer once happening to set
his sheep-fold here, it rotted the corn upon the spot; and often
he has been forced to mow the blade before it spindled (in their way
of talking.) The soil is perfectly black, though all the circumjacent
land be red, especially north of the valley upon the edge of the hill,
and where most antiquities are found; which certainly was the true
place, whence the Roman name, signifying a marly hill. Richard Cooper,
aged 72, has found many brass and silver coins here: there have been
some of gold. They have a notion of great riches being under ground,
and a vulgar report that one balk, or mere, (i. e. a division between
the ploughed fields) has as much money under it, as would purchase
the whole lordship: but people have been frighted from digging it by
spirits; and several pleasant stories are told thereupon. They have
likewise a tradition that the city was destroyed by _thieves_, perhaps
from the place so called. Many Mosaic pavements have been dug up: my
landlord Gee of Willughby says, he has upon ploughing met with such
for five yards together, as likewise coins, pot-hooks, fire-shovels
and the like utensils, and many large brass coins, which they took for
weights, ounces and half-ounces, but upon trial found them somewhat
less. Broad stones and foundations are frequent upon the side of the
Foss: several found at Wells. The ground naturally is so stiff a marl,
that at Willughby town they pave their yards with stones, fetched from
the Foss way even to the slope of their pits, for the cattle to drink
at. At Over and Nether Broughton, and Willughby too, the coins are so
frequent, that you hear of them all the country round. There is a fine
prospect from Wells hill every way, whence I drew a little view of the
place. In Willughby town is a handsome cross of one stone, five yards
long: in the time of the reforming rebellion the soldiers had tied
ropes about it to pull it down; but the vicar persuaded them to commute
for some strong beer, having made an harangue to show the innocence
thereof. Richard Cooper likewise told me of a pot of Roman money found
at Wilford near Nottingham.
[Illustration: 91 Prospect of Margidunum from Wells hill _by yᵉ Barn
upon_ Foss _Sept. 8. 1722. Nobilissimo Principi Duci Kingstoniæ &c._
_W. Stukeley delin._ To face +Nether Broughton+ _Kirkall Sculp._]
[Illustration: 11 CROSSES
_Sᵗ. Guthlac’s Cross upon the bank, between Crowland & Spalding,
near Peakill Lineʳ._
_Ivy Cross by Romans bank in Sutton Sᵗ. James Parish Holland
Lincʳ.]_
_The Pedestal of a Cross, Hadenham Cambʳ._
_A Stone Cross found at Sᵗ. John Old Castles near the Barr.
Presented to Lord_ Harley _by Mʳ._ J. Mickleton, _deceased._
_On the Pedestal of a Stone Cross at Drayton near_ Norwich.
_This Cross was at Ednam Lincʳ. drawn by Sʳ._ H. Spelman. Form
Octangular, 9 Inches Diam. 4 Sides twice as broad as the other._
_At Willughby on the Wold, one Stone 5 yards high_
_Stukeley delin:_ _E. Kirkall scu._]
[Sidenote: TAB. XI.]
So much for Margidunum, of which we may say,
_Nunc passim vix relliquias vix nomina servans._
In passing forwards towards Leicester, between here and the river Wrek,
I found the Foss road began to be very obscure, not only where it
has been ploughed up in some places, but where it goes over a grassy
common: the reason is, travellers have quite worn it away, because of
the badness of the roads; and the negligence of the people so far from
repairing it, that they take away the materials. Moreover, you are oft
in danger of losing it through the many intersections of cross roads;
and sometimes it is inclosed with pastures, or passes under the sides
of a wood: therefore upon every hill-top I made an observation of some
remarkable object on the opposite high ground, which continued the
right line; so that by going strait forwards I never failed of meeting
it again. I observed too, that at such a time of the day exactly, the
sun was perpendicular to the road; for it continues the same bearing
throughout: this I tried by the compass soon after I left Lincoln,
and when I came to High-cross, where it crosses the Watling-street,
and at intermediate places; finding it always butted upon the same
degree, to surprising exactness. At Abketilby in the vale of Belvoir,
and thereabouts, in the quarries is a vein of rag-stone wholly made of
shells, covered with a thin vein of good hewing stone: this is in one
corner of that great vale, under the Lincolnshire _Alpes_.
[Sidenote: +Shipley-Hill+ Br _barrow_.]
At Cossington (just before I came to the river Wrek, parting the
counties) is a vast barrow, 350 foot long, 120 broad, 40 high or near
it: it is very handsomely worked up on the sides, and very steep: it
seems to have lost some of its length at both ends, especially the
northern, a torrent running close by: it stands exactly north and
south, upon the very edge of the ings; and in wet times it must be
almost incompassed with water: they call it Shipley hill, and say a
great captain called Shipley was buried there. I doubt not but this is
of great antiquity, and Celtic, and that the intent of it is rightly
preserved by the country people; but as to the name of him I can say
nothing. On the top are several oblong double trenches cut in the
turf, where the lads and lasses of the adjacent villages meet upon
Easter-Monday yearly, to be merry with cakes and ale. I observed upon
the Foss, all along, that in almost every parish were such like tables,
for the same purpose; and such a one I formerly found at Rowldrich
stones in Oxfordshire. Near this place, at Radcliff, so called from
the road, it seems that the Foss road passes over this brook, and
filling up its cavity, made it necessary to cut a new channel, that
the road might run strait, and like the Roman _terminus_ give place to
nothing. Having passed the river, it proceeds over the meadows: just
beyond them is a large round _tumulus_, which I suppose Roman: then the
road goes strait through Thumarton, and ends full upon the east gate
of Leicester. But before we speak of this station, we must with the
Itinerary make an excursion to take in _Vernometum_.
[Sidenote: +Vernometum.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XXII 2d Vol.]