but coming from _Margidunum_, you turn out of the road by Sison
over-against Radcliffe before mentioned. This place is Borough, or
Erdborough, i. e. the earthy camp, in Gartre hundred east of Leicester.
It is a very great Roman camp upon a very high hill, the north-west
tip of a ridge of hills, and higher than any other part of it, of a
most delightful and extensive prospect, reaching as far as Lincoln
one way: the fortification takes in the whole summit of the hill; the
high rampire is partly composed of vast loose stones piled up and
covered with turf: it is of an irregular figure, humouring the form
of the ground, nearly a square, and conformed to the quarters of the
heavens: its length lies east and west, the narrowest end eastward: it
is about 800 foot long, and for the most part there is a ditch besides
the rampire, to render the ascent still more difficult to assailants:
the entrance is south-west at a corner from a narrow ridge: here
two rampires advance inwards, like the sides of a gate, for greater
strength: within is a rising hill about the middle, and they say that
vaults have been found thereabouts. Antiquarians talk of a temple,
which possibly may have been there, and in the time of the Britons:
thus the old _Fanum_ of Apollo at Delphos was in a concavity on the
top of a hill. The name of _Vernometum_ signifies a sacred plain, as
they tell us from authority. It contains about sixteen acres: several
springs rise from under the hill on all sides, and I observed the rock
thereof is composed intirely of sea-shells: they frequently carry
away the stones that form the rampires, to mend the roads with. The
town itself is now but a small village. There is another Roman castle
southward near Tilton, but not so big as Borough hill: a petrifying
spring near it, and a Roman road, as thought, called Long Hedges. I am
not without suspicion that the true name is _Verometum_, and must be
sought for somewhere near a river.
[Sidenote: +Ratæ+ Coritanorum.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XCII.]
[Sidenote: TAB. LV.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XXIII. 2d Vol.]
[Sidenote: +Rawdikes+ _a_ Br. _cursus_.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. 2d Vol.]
Leicester is the _Ratæ Coritanorum_ of the Romans. The trace of the
Roman wall quite round is discoverable without difficulty, especially
in the gardens about Senvy gate: there was a ditch on the outside,
very visible in the gardens thereabouts: it is 2500 Roman feet long,
and as much broad towards the south-east, 2000 Roman feet broad to the
north-west: this was repaired by Edelfleda, a noble Saxon lady, anno
914. but the stories in Mr. Camden, of the piles it stood on, and the
indissoluble tenacity of the mortar, seem meant of the Roman work. The
streets run in the manner we observed of _Camboritum_, the length of
the city being from north-west to south-east. There is a Roman musive
pavement in a cellar, in part remaining, of a person standing by a
deer, Cupid drawing his bow, delineated in differently-coloured small
stones as usual.[98] The old work called Jewry wall is composed of
rag-stone and Roman brick: several fragments and foundations are in all
the houses hereabouts of this building, whatever it were, as well as in
the adjacent church, which seems to be built in the very _area_ of it,
and out of its ruins. Not far off is a place called Holy Bones, where
abundance of bones of oxen have been dug up, the _exuvia_ of their
sacrifices: this is however a most noble piece of Roman antiquity, and
I lament it should be so much abused. Many Roman coins are found at
Leicester: at the entrance into White Friers a pot full dug up about
five years ago, and many great foundations. At St. Mary de Pree’s
abbey they dug up a body, about three years ago, which they supposed
to be cardinal Wolsey’s: in this abbey is nought worth seeing, but a
pleasant terrace-walk, supported by an embattled wall, with lunettes
hanging over the river and shadowed with trees. The little remains of
the old building are new modelled by later hands, and scarce to be
distinguished: it was made a dwelling-house since the Dissolution; and
that is now spoiled of floors, roof, and windows; and the naked walls
are left to daily ruin and pillage: the spot of the abbey is turned
into a garden: they show us a place in it, where has been much search
for the famous cardinal’s body; but it did not seem to me a likely
place. The church, though wholly erased, did not probably come out
so far toward the river: indeed there is thorough work made of all
the religious houses at Leicester, and scarce one stone left in its
original site. St. Margaret’s church was a bishop’s see in the time of
the Saxon kings. Within the castle is a collegiate hospital, founded
by Henry earl of Lancaster, who with his son Henry duke of Lancaster
lie buried in the chapel: the church was very fine, demolished in the
Suppression. Here, say some, was buried Richard III. this castle was
built by Simon de Montfort. There is a very pretty arch reaching across
the river, called Bowbridge, at Black Friers, under which they have
a notion that king Richard III. was buried; which seems to allude to
the British romance that tells of king Lear being buried here. Half
a mile southward from Leicester, upon the edge of the meadows is a
long ditch called Rawdikes: upon view of the place I found it to be a
British _cursus_. King Charles I. when besieging Leicester, lay at the
vicarage-house at Elston; and during the storm of the town, when his
men took and pillaged it, he stood, as they report, upon the banks of
this Rawdikes. About February 1721–2. a tesselated pavement was found
the other side the river, about Wanlip, with coins of Constantine,
broken urns, a human scull, &c. a foundation by it, doubtless of the
house that covered it.
[Illustration: _Prospect of_ Burrow hill _from the Leicester road.
Sepᵗ. 8. 1722._ +Vernometvm.+
_Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall sculp._
Willᵒ: Cheselden Chirurgo peritissimo, Amico _Tab. dd. W. Stukeley_.
_Key found at Burrow Hill_
_T. Lyus Delin._
_from Revᵈ. G Ashby’s Museolum at Barrow Suffolk. 1791]
[Illustration: 92 _Leicester._
Samueli Carte A.M. d.d. W. Stukeley.
_Stukeley delin._]
[Illustration: 55 _The Roman Building commonly called the Temple of Janus
at Leicester._
_Ne tantam Ruinam absorbeat Inimica Ætas aq. forti fecit. Wˢ.
Stukeley & Samⁱ Gale Ar. consecratā voluit. 1722._]
[Illustration: 23·2ᵈ. _The west side of the_ roman building _at_
+Leicester+ _Sept: 8. 1722_.
_Stukeley delin_: _E. Kirkall sculp_:]
[Illustration: 24·2ᵈ.]
[Illustration: 25·2ᵈ. _A Prospect of the British Cursus near
Leicester, call’d Raw Dikes from the hills above. September 10.
1722._]
[Illustration: 26·2ᵈ. _The Side View of the British Cursus at Leicester
Sep. 10. 1722._
_Stukeley del._ _I. Vᵈᵉʳ. Gucht Sculp._]
[Illustration: 27·2ᵈ. _A Prospect of the British Cursus at Leicester
call’d Rawdikes from the other side of yᵉ River by the Foss road Sep.
9. 1722._]
Soon after you go from Leicester, taking the Foss at Bronstongate, you
come to some inclosures and troublesome gates across the road: here
they have fenced it out into a narrow scantling, scarce the breadth
of a coach, to the shame as well as the detriment of the country,
suffering so scandalous an incroachment. I travelled by Narborough
on the west side of the river, and a very wet journey under foot for
one that was resolved to keep upon the road: sometimes I rode half
a mile up to the horse’s belly in water upon the Roman pavement.
The river Soar running near its east side, it is carried over many
bogs, quags, and springs, for miles together, with a visible pavement
of great round coggles by Sharnford, so called from the causeway:
approaching High-cross it enters inclosures again, and is crossed by
some more lakes scarce passable. Just upon the edge of Leicestershire
and Warwickshire, at High-cross, I met the Watling-street, my future
conductor.
[Sidenote: +Benonis.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XCIII.]
Benonis stands in the intersection of the two great Roman roads that
traverse the kingdom obliquely, and seems to be the centre of England,
and highest ground; for from hence rivers run every way. The Foss
went across the back-side of the inn, and so towards Bath. The ground
hereabouts, the site of the ancient city, is very rich; and many
antiquities, stones, Roman bricks, &c. have been dug up: Roman coins
were found when they ploughed the field west of the cross.[99] Much
_ebulus_ grows here, sought for in cure of dropsies. Claybroke lane has
a bit of an old quick-set hedge left across it, betokening one side
of the Foss: the bearing of the Foss here is exactly north-east and
south-west, as upon the moor on this side Lincoln. In the garden before
the inn was a _tumulus_ lately taken away: under it they found the
body of a man upon the plain surface, as likewise under several others
hereabouts upon the Watling-street. Foundations of houses have been
frequently dug up along the street here, all the way to Cleycester.
Here is a cross of handsome design, but of a mouldering stone, through
the villainy of the architect, one Dunkley, built at the charge of
the late earl of Denbigh, and the gentlemen in the neighbourhood: it
consists of four Doric columns regarding the four roads, with a gilded
globe and cross a-top upon a sun-dial: on two sides, between the four
Tuscan pillars, that compose a sort of pedestal, are these inscriptions.
_Vicinarum provinciarum Vervicensis
Scilicet & Leicestrensis ornamenta
Proceres patriciique auspiciis
Illustrissimi Basilii comitis de
Denbigh hanc columnam statuendam
curaverunt in gratam pariter
& perpetuam memoriam Jani tandem
a serenissima Anna clausi._
A. D. MDCCXII.
_Si veterum Romanorum vestigia
quæras, hic cernas viator. Hic enim
celeberrimæ illorum viæ militares
sese mutuo secantes ad extremos usque
Britanniæ limites procurrunt, hic
stativa sua habuerunt Vennones & ad
primum abhinc lapidem castra sua
ad stratam & ad fossam tumulum
Claudius quidam cohortis præfectus
habuisse videtur._
Cloudbury-hill, two thorn-bushes upon a _tumulus_ on the Foss,
supposed the sepulchre of one Claudius. The city probably was of a
square form, humouring the crossing of the roads, and had consequently
four streets and four quarters. Many foundations are dug up along all
the roads. It commands a charming prospect to _Ratæ_, _Vernometum_,
Coventry, &c. and quite round. You go through a gate by the cross to
regain the Foss: at the length of a pasture it meets the true old road.
[Illustration: 93 +Bennonis.+
_Sepᵗ. 9. 1722._
_Stukeley del_: _I. Vᵈᵉʳ. Gucht Sculp._
_Thomæ Bacon Ar Relliquias Romanas dd. Wˢ. Stukeley._
_Coins found near High-Cross_
High Cross. A.D. 1618.
High Cross, 1722.
_Bonnonis Sept. 9. 1722._]
[Sidenote: +Watling-street.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. LVI.]
Being now got upon the Watling-street, I made this remark of it, that
it is the direct road to Rome: for take a ruler, and lay it in a map
of Europe from Chester through London and Dover, and it makes a strait
line with Rome: so the great founders had this satisfaction when they
travelled upon it, that they were ever going upon the line that led
to the imperial Capitol. Our antiquarians are much at a loss, after
torturing of words and languages, to find out the reason of the name
of this street, which is so notorious, that many other by-roads of the
Romans, in different parts of the kingdom, have taken the same, and it
became almost the common appellative of such roads. My judgment of it
is this: it is natural to denominate great roads from the places they
tend to, as the Icening-street from the Iceni: the Akeman-street is
said to come from Akemancester: in Wiltshire, and other places, the
way to Exeter they call the Exeter road, though a hundred mile off:
so the London road is every where inquired for as the most remarkable
place: thus _Watling-street_, tending directly to Ireland, no doubt was
called the Irish road, that is the _Gathelian_ road, _Gathelin-street_;
whence our present word _Wales_ from _Gauls_, _warden_ from _guardian_,
&c. _Scoti qui & Gaidelii_ says _ogygia extera_. Whether there be any
thing in the story of Gathelus, as founder of the Irish, I do not
concern myself at present; but their language is called _Gaothela_:
so Mr. Camden says the true genuine Scots own not that name, but
call themselves _gaoithel_, _gaiothlac_, as coming from Ireland;
and that they glory in this name: and there is no dispute but this
is the ancient appellative of the Irish,[100] which the learned Mr.
Edward Lluyd has turned into _Gwydhelians_: and this name, which has
superseded that which the Romans gave it, (whatever it was) seems to
show there was such a road in the ancient times of the Britons, as the
track of the trade between Ireland and the continent; yet it must be
owned nought but Roman hands reduced it to the present form.
Hence-forward we turn our course upon the Gathelin-street directly for
London along with the Itinerary. The road is now altogether between
hedge-rows, very clayey and bad, full of lakes and mires, through the
intolerable negligence of the inhabitants: here and there they have
stupidly mended it, by making a ditch in the middle of the road to
raise a bank of earth; for which they ought rather to be punished than
commended.
I turned out of the road to the west, through some inclosures, to see
Cester-over, induced by the name. I found a house in a little square
deeply intrenched upon the side of a hill, but the earth rather thrown
outward than inward as a _vallum_, and the level within much lower than
the field around it. I perceived it was a religious house; some part of
the building left; and without the ditch a fine chapel, built of brick
with good stone coins and mullioned windows, converted into a barn:
and a-cross a valley hard by I saw dams, or stanks, for fish-ponds.
The people within could give me no manner of intelligence, having but
lately come thither. I fancied it to have been a nunnery, and that it
was called _Sister-over_, to distinguish it from other neighbouring
towns; as _Church-over_, _Browns-over_, _&c._ but afterwards I learnt
from other hands that there is a close called Old-town, where they dig
up foundations, being very rich land (said to have been a city) lord
Brook possessor.
[Sidenote: +Tripontium.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XCIV.]
Thence passing a rivulet, from Bensford bridge[101] I came to
_Tripontium_, placed in a sweet little valley, but the sides pretty
steep: the road on the opposite hill looks perfectly like a perspective
scene at the play-house. This is the next Roman station, which is
rightly placed at Dovebridge upon the Avon, running by Rugby to
Warwick. The stream here divides into two, with a bridge over each:
upon one a stone inscription, very laconic, showing the three counties
that repair it. The first syllable of _Tripontium_ has relation to
the old British word _tre_, a town or fortification: the remainder is
generally thought to signify a bridge; but it is not to be imagined
the Romans would make a bridge over this rill, or one so eminently
large as to denominate the town: indubitably it comes from the
British word _pant_, a little valley as this is, and remarkably so;
which the Britons pronouncing broad, created the Latin _Tripontium_.
Here are no manner of remains of antiquity, but the distances on each
hand ascertain this the place: hard by antiquities have been found both
at Cathorp and Lilburn, one on the north, the other on the south of
the river; so that the Roman city stood on both sides. Castle hills, a
place at Lilburn, where are some old walls: Camden speaks of it. Mr.
Morton has treated largely on this station, to whom I refer the reader.
The neighbouring Newton probably succeeded it, and then Rugby.
Yet rolling Avon still maintains its stream,
Swell’d with the glories of the Roman name.
Strange power of fate, unshaken moles must waste,
While things that ever move for ever last!
With this reflection of the poet leave we the name of _Tripontium_,
made immortal in the imperial Itinerary.
[Illustration: 94 Johi Bridges Ar. _Romanæ Stationis in Comitatu Suo.
delineationem d.d. W.ˢ Stukeley._
_Dowbridg_
TRIPONTIUM
9 Sep. 1722]
[Sidenote: +Burrow hill.+ Ro. _camp_.]
[Sidenote: +Arbury Hill.+ Ro. _camp_.]
When we mount the next hill there is a lovely prospect as far as
Watford-gap, four miles off, a great vale or rather level meadow lying
between, a-cross which the road is drawn: and hereabouts the ridge of
it is very high for miles together: the nature of the way, on both
sides being stoney, has spared it. Several _tumuli_ upon the road;
bodies found under them: this shows the Romans did not travel upon
them on horse-back. Watford-gap is a convenient inn for antiquaries to
supply the mansion of _Tripontium_, which I think proper to advertise
them of: it has a pleasant prospect of the road northwards: it is a
high hill, and a rock of stone six foot under the surface, which is
softish; then a bed of clay; under that a blue hard stone of good
depth: below this rock it is springy, and at the bottom by the meadows
are many quick springs. At Legers Ashby near here has been another old
town, as they say, destroyed by the Danes: there are great ditches,
causeways, and marks of streets. Catesby owned the town, who hatched
the powder-plot. I went out of the road through Norton to see a great
camp called Burrow hill, upon the north end of a hill covered over with
fern and goss: here is a horse-race kept; and the whole hill-top, which
is of great extent, seems to have been fortified: but the principal
work upon the end of it is squarish, double ditched, of about twelve
acres: the inner ditch is very large, and at one corner has a spring:
the _vallum_ is but moderate: a squarish work within, upon the highest
part of the camp, like a _prætorium_. They say this was a Danish camp;
and every thing hereabouts is attributed to the _Danes_, because of
the neighbouring _Daventre_, which they suppose to be built by them:
the road hereabouts too being overgrown with _dane-weed_, they fancy
it sprung from the blood of the Danes slain in battle, and that, if
upon a certain day in the year you cut it, it bleeds. As to the camp,
I believe it to be originally Roman; but that it has been occupied by
some other people, and perhaps the Danes, who have new modelled it,
and made new works to it. Consult Mr. Moreton, who has discoursed very
largely about it. Much _cotyledon_ and _ros solis_ grow in the springs
hereabouts: the stone is red and sandy, and brim-full of shells. I saw
a fine _cornu ammonis_ lie neglected in Norton town road, too big to
bring away, and where they have fresh mended the Watling-street with
this stone; it was an amusement for some miles to view the shells in
it. Hereabouts the road is overgrown with grass and trefoil, being well
nigh neglected for badness, and the trade wholly turned another way,
by Coventry, for that reason. Between the head of the Leam and this
Avon is Arbury hill in view, another Roman camp, upon a very high hill;
notoriously made for a guard between the two rivers.
[Sidenote: +Benavona.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XXVIII. 2d Vol.]
[Sidenote: +Castledikes.+]
The next station the Watling-street leads us to is Weedon on the
street; beyond dispute _Benavona_, as surely it ought to be wrote,
being situate on the head of the _Aufona_, running to _Northavonton_,
or Northampton. This too affords but little matter for the antiquary.
The old town seems to have been in two pastures west of the road, and
south of the church, called Upper Ash-close and Nether Ash-close, or
the Ashes; in which are manifest vestiges of the ditch and rampart
that surrounded it, and many marks of great foundations: they show you
the site of king Wolfhere’s palace, the Saxon kings of this province
having their seat here. The Ashes was the Roman _castrum_: here was
a chapel of St. Werberg, daughter of king Wolfhere, abbess to the
nunnery in this place: there has been dug up abundance of very fine
stone, and many Roman coins. Now Weedon consists of two parishes, and
has been a market-town. There is a large Roman camp a little higher
toward the river-head, southward a mile, as much from Watling-street,
called Castledikes, probably one of those made by P. Ostorius Scapula,
_proprætor_ under Claudius. Roman coin and pavements have been found
there. I visited the place: it is of a very pleasant and healthful
situation, being in a wood on the top of a dry hill: probably it was a
Roman villa, afterwards rendered Saxon: a house stands by it. Another
of these camps of Scapula I mentioned before, at Guildsborough. At
Nether Hayford, on the other side the road, anno 1699, a Roman Mosaic
pavement was found, of which Mr. Moreton gives us a drawing, but in too
small a compass.
[Sidenote: +Lactorodum.+]
Towcester is a considerable town between two rivulets; but what
its Roman name, time has envied us, the Itinerary passing it by.
_Lactorodum_ is the next station, being Old Stretford, on the opposite
side of the Ouse to Stony Stretford: many Roman coins have been found
in the fields thereabouts, and queen Eleanor’s cross stood a little
north of the Horse-shoe inn, pulled down in the rebellion; which shows
that the town was on this side the bridge in the time of Edward I.
Mr. Baxter says, the name imports the ford over the water. My friend
Browne Willys esq; who lives in the neighbourhood, has inquired into
the antiquities of this place, and gives us an account of them in
his curious Treatise of Burroughs, which it is to be wished he would
continue. A little on this side Stretford, to the west, upon very high
ground stands Whaddon hall, Mr. Willys’s seat; it has a most delicate
prospect: this manor formerly belonged to the lords Grey; one, a knight
of the garter, lies buried in the church. Spencer the poet lived here,
and the learned duke of Bucks. Here is the original picture of Dr.
Willys: I saw many of his MSS. letters, consultations, lectures, and
other works unprinted.
Still higher stands Stukeley, a very large parish, on the same sort
of soil as that in Huntingdonshire. This is the oldest church, and
most intire, I ever saw, undoubtedly before the Conquest, in the plain
ancient manner, being a parallelogram of four squares: two are allotted
to the church; one covered by the steeple, which stands between it and
the choir, carried across the church upon two round arches; one square
to the choir, which is vaulted over with stone: the windows are small,
with semi-circular arches, and few in number: at the west end are three
arches, the door in the middlemost: the whole of a very good manner of
symmetry.
[Illustration: 28·2ᵈ. _Prospect of_ Benavona _July 6ᵗʰ. 1725._
_Stukeley delin._ _Fletcher sculp._]
[Sidenote: +Magiovinium.+]
Thus far we have gone through Northamptonshire and Bucks: now we enter
Bedfordshire, and arrive at _Magiovinium_, or Dunstable. The road
hither from Fenny Stretford is deep sand (and comes from _Salinæ_,
or _sandy_) till you arrive at the bottom of the chalk-hills, or
_chiltern_, which arise very steep on this side, as being north-west,
conform to my assumption, p. 4. The town stands upon this chalk;
whence its Roman name, importing the white town:[102] it consists
of four streets, intersecting at right angles, but oblique to the
cardinal points, because such is the direction of the Icening and
Watling-street, which here meet. In the centre stood one of those
beautiful crosses of queen Eleanor; but fanatic zeal has robbed the
town of this ornament. This being a high situation, and no running
water near, they are forced to draw up their water, from very deep
wells, by machinery of great wheels. Kingsbury, the royal seat
over-against the church, is now a farm-house. The church is composed of
many parts tacked together, some very old: it was part of the priory:
arch-bishop Cranmer was the last prior here. In Dunstable church is
this inscription,
*Hic iacent Nicholaus Lane quondam presidens frat’nitat’ sci
Johannis Baptiste De Dunstable qui obiit ii die mens’ Decembr anno
Dm Mᵒ CCCCᵒ lir Et Agnes ur. eiᵒ quorum animabus propicietur Deus
amen.*
[Sidenote: +Maiden Bower.+ British.]
[Sidenote: Tumuli _British_.]
I visited Maiden-Bower,[103] mentioned by Mr. Camden, but cannot think
its name has any relation to that of the town: though Roman coins
have been found here, I am persuaded it is a British work, like that
at Ashwell, at like distance from the Chiltern, and of like form, but
more circular: it stands upon a plain, but not far from the edge of a
lesser eminence of these hills, about a little mile from Dunstable: the
rampire is pretty high, but very little sign of a ditch; nor do I think
there ever was much more: it incloses about nine acres: the ground
round it is ploughed: this chalk yields good wheat. Between here and
the town is a long barrow called the Mill-hill, no doubt from a mill
which was afterwards set upon it; the ends of it ploughed somewhat:
it stands east and west: I have no scruple in supposing it Celtic. A
high prominence of the Chiltern overlooks all, called the Five Knolls,
from that number of barrows, or Celtic _tumuli_, round, pretty large,
and ditched about upon the very _apex_ of the hill. Close by are two
round cavities, as often observed in Wiltshire. The Icening-street runs
under the bottom. These chalk hills have frequently veins of strong
clay intermixed, and the like between these hills and the sand more
northward. This great tract of chalk comes from the eastern sea, and
traverses the kingdom much in a like direction with the Icening-street.