the northern brow of the hill: it is single ditched and of a roundish
form: before the chief entrance is an half-moon, with two apertures
for greater security: there is a ditch indeed goes from it downward
to the valley on both sides, but not to be regarded. This I imagine
relates not to the camp; for I observed the like across the same road
in many places between little declivities, and seem to be boundaries
and sheep-walks made since, and belonging to particular parishes. I
fancy this name imparted from some shepherd’s cot, anciently standing
hereabouts, in Saxon _Ccsol_. It seems to be a Roman camp, but of later
date. At the end of this course, when you come to the great chalk-hill
looking towards Shaftesbury, are three or four Celtic barrows, one long
and large, pointing east and west: in this hill is a quarry of stone,
very full of sea-shells. Not far off, in the parish of Tisbury, near
Warder castle, is a great intrenchment in a wood, which was probably a
British _oppidum_, and near the river before mentioned.
[Sidenote: Carvilii _tumulus_.]
Returning, we see upon the highest eminence that overlooks Wilton,
and the fertile valley at the union of the Nader and Willy, the
famous King-barrow, as vulgarly called: it is a round _tumulus_,
of a most ancient form, flat at top, and without any ditch. Your
lordship rightly judges it in situation to be one of the highest
barrows in England, being, by exact observation from the water-level
and calculation, at least four hundred foot above the surface of the
ocean. This, questionless, is a Celtic _tumulus_: and the very name,
inherent through long revolutions of time, indicates it to be the grave
of a king of this country of the _Belgæ_, and that Wilton was his
royal residence, which for goodness of air, of water and soil, joined
with the most delightful downs all around it, must highly magnify his
judgement in choice of a place second to none for all the conveniences
and delicacies of life. If we reflect a little upon the matter, it
appears a supposition far from improbability, that this is the very
monument of Carvilius mentioned by Cæsar, who, joining with the other
kings along the country on the sea-side from hence to Kent, attacked
his sea-camp on the Rutupian shore: and this was to make a diversion
to the great Roman general, pressing hard upon Cassibelan; for, as the
late learned and sagacious Mr. Baxter observes in his Glossary, where
should _Carvilius_ live, but among the _Carvilii_? as _Segonax_, one
of his confederates, among the _Segontiaci_; that is, _Segontium_,
or _Caersegont_, as the Britons call it; which is now Silchester.
And it seems to have been the fashion of that time for kings to be
denominated from the people or place they governed; as _Cassibelan_
was in name and fact king of the _Cassii_; and many other instances
I might bring of like nature. Where then should _Carvilius_ live,
but at _Carvilium_, now Wilton; or where be buried, but in the most
conspicuous place near his palace? and no other barrow competitor to
leave any doubt or scruple. It is natural to suppose that the very spot
where his residence was, is the same where king Edgar’s queen spent
the latter part of her life in a religious house she built near your
lordship’s seat, being a hard dry soil, gravelly, and incompassed with
two fine rivers, which in early times added much to the security of the
place, and much sought for by the Britons. We took notice, when with
particular pleasure we visited his _tumulus_, and paid our respects to
the illustrious _manes_ of the royal defunct, that, among other views
of great distance, we could see Long-barrow beyond Stonehenge, and
all the long ridge of Martinsal hill, St. Ann’s hill, and Runwayhill
beyond that; upon which goes the great Wansdike, which I take to be the
northern boundary of the Belgic kingdom. I question not but one purpose
of this interment was to be in sight of the holy work, or temple, of
Stonehenge. Here then may we conclude rest the ashes of Carvilius, made
immortal by Caæsar for bravely defending his country; now resting in
the possessions of a successor, master of both their great qualities;
who, when wielding the British trident, in a fleet infinitely superior
to Cæsar’s, could assert a more universal empire. In you, my lord,
the memory of Carvilius flourishes again, in your eminent love for
your country’s honour, and in your care for preserving his monument,
and adorning it with fresh verdure; by planting four trees round its
edge,[125] and introducing it as a _terminus_, in one of the visto’s,
to the admirable equestrian statue of M. Aurelius, in the middle of the
principal star of your park. Thus, according to ancient usage, was the
_tumulus_ of Diomedes planted with the _platanus_ brought from Asia for
that purpose; as Pliny informs us in book XII. cap. +i+.
[Illustration: 41 Chlori _Imp. Castrum vulgo_ Clorendon _Aug. 25.
1723_.
A. _Icening Street._ B. _Old Sarum._ C. _New Sarum._ D. _Clarendon
Park._ E. _Ford._ _Stukeley del:_]
[Illustration: 67 _View from_ Harnham hill _Aug 26. 1723._
_Stukeley del._]
[Sidenote: +Yarnbury.+ Ro. _camp_.]
[Sidenote: +Amsbury.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. LXVII.]
[Sidenote: +Chloridunum.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XLI.]
[Sidenote: TAB. IX.]
From hence riding along the hare-warren and end of the park, we are
entertained with the landscape of no less than five rivers, four
retaining the old British names: the villages on each side of them are
so thick, that they seem to join and form long cities in woods. About
the union of these rivers are three cities and three cathedrals within
a triangle, whose sides are less than three miles; Wilton, Old and New
Sarum. The _Nadre_ signifies a snake or adder, metaphorically drawn
from its winding current: it rises by the end of the Ten-mile course
above described, and passes by a pleasant village belonging to your
lordship, Chilmark, famous for its quarries; of a very good stone,
white, and that rises in any dimensions: there is now a single stone,
lying over the mouth of the quarry like an architrave, full sixty foot
long, twelve foot thick, and, as the workmen have assured me upon
examination, perfectly without flaw: sometimes here are found great
petrified oyster-shells. The Willy rises about Warminster, taking in a
little brook, the Dyver, passing under ground, runs by Yarnbury, a vast
Roman camp, where some think is Vespasian’s name; a great semi-circular
work at the entrance: several Roman coins have been found here. Not
far off is a ditch called Chiltern, which seems to be some division of
the hundreds. There is another camp on the other side the Willy: then
it runs by Grovely, a great wood of your lordship’s: it admits another
stream coming on the west side of Stonehenge from Orcheston, remarkable
for a long kind of grass, which without good proof I should scruple
relating, for it is commonly twenty-five foot in length, much coveted
by cattle; by Mr. Ray called _gramen caninum supinum longissimum_:
he says they use to fatten hogs with it. This Willy, that gives name
to Wilton, passes chiefly on the north side of the town, makes the
canal before the front of the house, and then joins the Nadre, coming
on the south side of the town and through the gardens, at the end of
the avenue. The Avon arises from under the great ridge of hills that
divides Wiltshire into north and south, crowned with the Wansditch: it
passes southward through innumerable villages to Ambsbury, the _pagus
Ambri_ famous for a monastery built by one Ambrus, which the monks and
fabulous writers have wrested into _Ambrosbury_; then for a celebrated
nunnery of noble-women, great numbers of whom, against the institution
of Nature and Providence, were here veiled: it is now the seat of my
lord Charlton, built by Inigo Jones, and deservedly to be admired: some
new works are added to it under the direction of my lord Burlington,
possessor of his spirit, and a noble collection of his designs. The
famous old city of _Sorbiodunum_ may be said to stand upon this river:
it meets with the other two just before it passes through Salisbury,
and beyond it receives the Bourn, which has dropped its proper name:
but I guess it to have been _Colin_ or _Colinity_, the same as _Clun_;
for at its fountain-head is _Colinburn_: all these rivers are called
_burns_, _Willyburn_, _Adderburn_, &c. below Salisbury enters another,
I suppose called _Ebbesburn_. From Harnham hill we have a view of both
Sarums: the old city, with its high-crested triple fortifications,
threatens all the circumjacent country: the new justly boasts of its
lofty spire, as wonderful for the slenderness of its foundation, as its
great height, being 450 foot, making one of the visto’s to the front
of Wilton-house. To the east is Clarendon, which your lordship first
observed, from old writings, ought to be called _Clorendun_, from the
famous Roman camp half a mile off the park near the Roman road: this
was made or repaired by Constantius Chlorus, father of Constantine the
Great; it was he that slew Allectus, after he had basely murdered the
valiant Carausius. Constantius lived at the neighbouring _Sorbiodunum_:
he was of British extract, the husband of Helena, a famous British
princess. This camp therefore, properly written, is _Chloridunum_,
being a beautiful fortification of a round form upon a dry chalk hill:
within is a circular ditch, having two entrances answering to the
entrances of the camp, and leaving a large space between it and the
_vallum_. I suppose this ditch was a lesser camp before, inlarged by
Chlorus, for keeping his legions as in a summer-camp before the city:
this they did by carrying away all the earth of the old _vallum_ to the
new; for it is evident the present rampart is of much larger quantity
than could be taken out of the subjacent ditch. Chlorendon park is a
sweet and beautiful place: here king John built him a palace, where
several Parliaments have been held: part of the building is still
left, though they have been pulling it down many years: it is chiefly
of flint, and was a large place upon the side of a hill, but no way
fortified. This palace of king John answers directly to the front visto
of Wilton house over the length of the great canal, and is called the
King’s Manor: they say here is a subterraneous passage to the Queen’s
Manor. Between the camp and the park runs a Roman road, which has not
been taken notice of, from _Sorbiodunum_ to Winchester full east and
west.
[Sidenote: +Aukbury.+ Br. _oppidum_.]
[Sidenote: +Walls.+ Vespasian’s _camp_.]
[Sidenote: +Cheselbury.+]
As we go from Wilton to Stonehenge, between Grovely wood and Woodford
runs a ditch across the plain, with a high rampart southward: the ditch
is broad, and goes east and west. I take it to be one of the boundaries
of the _Belgæ_, which I call the third: the reason will hereafter
appear. On the east side of the Avon, by Great Dornford, is a very
large camp covering the whole top of a hill, of no determinate figure,
as humouring the height it stands on: it is made intirely without any
ditch, the earth being heaped up very steep in the nature of a parapet,
when dug away level at the bottom. I doubt not but this was a camp of
the Britons, and perhaps an _oppidum_, where they retired at night from
the pasturage upon the river, with their cattle: within it are many
little banks, carried strait and meeting one another at right angles,
square, oblong parallels and some oblique, as the meres and divisions
between ploughed lands; yet it seems never to have been ploughed: and
there is likewise a small squarish work intrenched, no bigger than a
large tent: these to me seem the distinctions and divisions for the
several quarters and lodgements of the people within; for I have, upon
the downs in Dorsetshire, often remarked the like, of too small a
compass to be ploughed fields. This camp has an aspect very old; the
prominent part of the rampart in many places quite consumed by time,
though the steep remains perfect; one being the natural earth, the
other factitious: it certainly has so much of the manner of Vespasian’s
camp, as induces one to think it an imitation. I know not whether we
ought to derive the name of it from the British _Og_, signifying the
hurdles and pens they fence their cattle in with, which perhaps stood
upon those meres, or little banks, to distinguish every man’s property.
Vespasian’s camp is within sight of it, a little higher up the river,
and on the other side: it is a famous camp, properly and by universal
consent attributed to him, called the Walls; well chose, being a high
piece of ground at a flexure of the river, which closes in an end and a
side of it: the other side has a broad and very deep valley along it,
and at the other end is the entrance: the whole hangs over the town of
Amsbury: the manner of this camp too consists mostly in a rampire, but
much more operose than that last mentioned; the form oblong: the road
to the town goes quite through it: it is high in the middle, and has a
barrow inclosed, but partly level; this I suppose originally Celtic, on
account of its vicinity to Stonehenge, therefore elder than the
camp. The east side of Vespasian’s camp is sufficiently guarded by the
precipice of the river. Further northwards, in the road from Ambsbury
to Marlborough, is the remain of another round camp, extremely old,
and almost obliterated: this is between Collinburn and Burbich, upon
a rising ground, seemingly British: and on the west side of the river
Avon, over-against it, is another, called too Cheselbury, and said to
have a fair _prætorium_ in it. These camps so contiguous, with a river
between, seem still remains of Vespasian’s conquests; and that he got
the country by inches.
[Illustration: 9 Ruins of King Johns Palace at Clarendon Aug. 3. 1723.
_Stukeley. delin._]
[Illustration: 44 Prospect of Martinsal hill, a Roman Camp 6 July 1723.
A Prospect in Somersetshire 19. Aug. 1723.
a. _Mountagu hill._ b. _a Camp._ c. _the Foss Road._ _Stukeley del:_]
[Sidenote: +Martinshal Hill.+ Ro. _camp_.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XLIV.]
North of these is Martinsal hill, a vast stationary Roman camp, upon
a high hill steep to the east, which is seldom observable. I measured
it quite round, in company with lord Hertford and lord Winchelsea:
it is conspicuous at a great distance, and within sight of all the
camps in the country. I take it to have been made when the Romans
were thoroughly possessors of the kingdom, and one of their chief
fortresses, whence they might give or receive signals all around, in
case of distress, by fire or smoke. On two sides the precipice is
dreadfully steep. Lord Winchelsea has a brass _Alexander Severus_ found
here; on the reverse, _Jupiter fulminans_, with PM. TR. P. COS. On the
west side, upon the top of the hill, without the camp is a round pit
full of good spring water, always to the brim but never overflowing in
the driest summers; which at those seasons is of greatest service to
the country round, and thousands of cattle are driven every day from
a considerable distance to drink there. I am told there is another
such upon the top of Chute hill, south east from hence, very high,
and no water within some miles of it. So provident has Nature been in
subliming, by some unknown powers, the liquid element to these barren
heights, that every part of her works should not be without its graces
and use. The prospect from Martinsal must needs be exceeding fine.
Salisbury steeple, twenty miles off, bears south-west and by west: the
port of this camp is north-east.
[Sidenote: +Martinalia.+]
I take the name of this hill to come from the merriments among the
northern people, called _Martinalia_, or drinking healths to the memory
of St. Martin, practised by our Saxon and Danish ancestors. I doubt not
but upon St. Martin’s day, or Martinmass, all the young people in the
neighbourhood assembled here,[126] as they do now upon the adjacent St.
Ann’s hill upon St. Ann’s day. The true word is _Martinsheil_, _heyl_
signifying health; and the Germans call a bowl, or drinking-vessel,
_schale_: likewise _hali_ in the Saxon signifies holy; whence our
_hallow_; and the _Washeyl_ bowl at Christmass, full of spiced ale,
which they carry about, singing of carols in the streets. Monsieur
Keysler speaks of these matters largely in his _Antiquitates
Septentrionales_, p. 358. and that the German gilds, or societies,
were obliged to keep drinking festivals to St. Mary, St. Martin, St.
Nicholas, &c. p. 487. he says, at a village in _tractu Albino_, the
married women upon St. Martin’s day pay 4 d. to the questor: and the
Spring upon this hill still further favoured their ceremonies. So
beneficial a bason in heathen times merited divine honours; and the
people, not willing to part with a holy-day, blended their rites into
christian. The English took the opportunity of the day after this
great festival of St. Martin, much observed by the Danes, to commit
that universal massacre upon them drunken, which totally extirpated
them. This was anno 1002, upon the 13th of November, the feast day of
St. Brittius, says Chron. Joann. Alb. Petriburg. on _Hock_ Tuesday,
which Spelman says had its denomination thence.
In the fields about Chute are bones dug up very plentifully, in a
place called Blood-field especially: they likewise found there a stone
coffin with a skeleton inclosed, and an arrow or spear-head of brass,
as described to me: there was a horse found buried about three yards
from the body. Whether this was Roman or British, I cannot affirm: I am
inclinable to think the latter: but it seems that a battle was fought
here between them.
[Sidenote: +Barbury.+ Ro. _camp_.]
[Sidenote: +Badbury.+]
Full north from hence, upon the Barbury hills, the next ridge
overlooking the north part of Wiltshire, is another camp, called
Barbury, in the parish of Ogburn St. George. The noble lords late
mentioned assisted in measuring it: it is double ditched quite round,
the inner very deep, and rampart high, of a circular form; an entrance
upon the east, and another on the west diameter, which is 2000 Roman
foot long: at the west the inmost rampire retires inwards a little,
to make a port with jambs: eastward the outer ditch turns round with
a semi-circular sweep, leaving two passages through it obliquely to
the main entrance, like our modern half-moons: both these methods I
have often seen practised.[127] This mighty camp stands on one of the
western eminences of this ridge, running east and west; very steep
to the north and west, separating the high ground or downs from the
fertile country below, which belonged to the _Dobuni_, and lies under
the eye like a map, as far as the Welsh hills beyond the Severn; whose
lovely prospect would naturally animate the Britons in its defence, as
the Romans in its conquest: it is indeed a fine scene of woods, towns,
pastures, rivers and valleys. A little beyond, upon the same ridge,
is Badbury camp; and the whole is well planted with stout camps and
frequent, the eye-sore and terror of the plain: hence you see Martinsal
camp and many more.
[Sidenote: Ro. _road to_ +Bath. via Badonica.+]
[Sidenote: +Oldbury.+ Ro. _camp_.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XLII.]
Having recited these matters as preliminary, I shall begin my journey
from Marlborough, the Roman _Cunetio_. I forbear speaking of the
infinite number of Celtic monuments I have found in this country,
designing them for a particular treatise, to be honoured with your
lordship’s illustrious name; and from Marlborough pursue the Roman
road, which we have before traced from Newbury hither, and lately
discovered its whole progress toward the Bath, which for distinction
sake we may call _Via Badonica_: its course is east and west: it goes
hence all along the north side of the Kennet river, between it and the
high grounds; and is the present road, but highly wants a Roman hand to
repair it. When we have rode about a mile, over-against Clatford, at
a flexure of the river, we meet with several very great stones, about
a dozen in number, which probably was a Celtic temple, and stood in a
circle: this form in a great measure they still preserve. I guess the
Romans buried them in the ground under their road, because directly in
its passage: the materials throughout have since been worn away, or
sunk into the ground, being in this place meadow, and so has restored
their huge bulk to day-light. Hence it proceeds directly up to the
famous Overton hill, where I first discovered its ridge, when surveying
the beautiful circle of stones there, belonging to the majestic temple
of the old Britons at Abury: this ridge is a little to the north
of the present road, somewhat higher up the hill; it points directly
east and west, one end to Marlborough, the other to Silbury hill: and
this shows a defect in our maps, which place Abury too much to the
south: it is perfect for some space over the down; but upon descending
the hill westward, they have ploughed it up, and found several Roman
coins near it, some of which I have by me.[128] At the bottom, by the
corner of the hedge, it meets again the common road near the White-hart
ale-house; and so they go together above West Kennet to Silbury-hill:
this was the post and coach road to the Bath, till, for want of
reparation, they were forced to find a new one, more northward upon
the downs, and farther about, through the town of Abury: when on the
south side of Silbury hill, it goes very strait and full west through
the corn-fields on the south of Bekhamton, where it is sufficiently
known by the name of the French way; for what reason I cannot imagine.
They have of late endeavoured to exclude travellers going upon it,
by inclosing it at both ends with ditches; but the badness of the
lower road has defeated their purpose, and made people still assert
the public right. Beyond Bekhamton it again enters the downs, and
marches up the hill in a very plain ridge, and beautiful to behold;
the pits and cavities whence the earth was taken, on both sides, being
conspicuous all the way: besides, the Romans have defaced a druid’s
barrow, and another Celtic one near, which saved them some labour: a
proof they were there before the Roman road; but this is not a proper
place to enlarge upon it. When it has gained the summit of the hill, it
leaves Oldbury castle a little to the north: this is a great and strong
Roman camp on the north-west point of the hill, overlooking Calne: the
precipice on those two sides is altogether inaccessible, falling down
in narrow cavities or ribs, as it were the great roots of a tree, with
an odd and tremendous aspect; and that way there was need but of very
slender work for its security: but on the other sides it is double
ditched, having but one entrance to the east, and that fortified with a
return of the outer ditch and inner rampire, very artificially: there
is a ditch likewise across the middle, as if it had been inlarged with
an additional intake westward: it is in the main of a squarish form,
and has a very fine prospect. On the northern limit, in the highest
part, seems to have been a _prætorium_. On this hill, which is wholly
a chalky down, with a most delicate turf (and softer to walk upon
than a Turky carpet) about a foot or two under the superficial earth,
they dig great quantities of flints to mend the highways withal: one
would imagine they had been spewed out of the hardening chalk at the
creation, as extraneous bodies, though of greater specific gravity than
itself.
[Illustration: 42 Oldbury Castle _11 Iuly. 1723_.
_Stukeley del:_]
[Sidenote: +Wansdike.+]