fact, and need not enter into a dispute, whether necessity or choice
determined the Romans here to use the present materials, or whether the
entrance was originally of the manner we see it: it is certain, that in
all the places where I have seen these amphitheatres, the Roman walls
that incompassed the towns are still left, built with ranges of brick,
stone, flint, and indissoluble mortar; so that ignorance of building
cannot be laid to their charge. Nor is this practice wholly confined
to our island, and without parallel; for there is now in France an
amphitheatre, not improperly to be reckoned of this sort, whereof
Lipsius gives us a large account: it is at a place called Doveon, near
Pont du sey, upon the river Loire, as you go from Anjou to Poictou; a
place where the Druids are said to have had a seat: this is cut out of
a mountain of stone, but of a very soft kind, and, I suppose, not much
better than our chalk: it is not near so big as ours, and much inferior
in beauty and convenience: here are chambers hewn out of the rock for
the caves; and the _area_ is but very small. The seats of the theatre
of Bacchus at Athens are still visible, cut out of the natural rock.
It is not much to be doubted, that in many places in France, and other
provinces of the Roman empire, where the same chalk is the soil, there
are such as ours, though as little regarded: and we may reasonably
think, in the beginning of the commonwealth, before art, luxury, and
magnificence had got to its highest pitch, that the Romans themselves
were contented with such of grassy turf. The people of Rome originally
stood at the games. Cicero, _de Amicit._ c. 7. says, _stantes
plaudebant in re ficta_. So Tac. _Annal._ XIV. 20. “If you look back
to customs of antiquity, the people stood at the shows; for if they
had been accommodated with seats, they would have idled the whole day
away at the theatre.” Valer. Max. XI. 4. says, “it was ordered by the
senate, that no one should set benches for shows in the city, nor
within a mile of it, or should see the games sitting, that the manly
posture of standing, the peculiar note of the Roman nation, should be
observed even at diversions.” If any one had rather think, that ours
never had any seats, but that the people stood upon the plain grassy
declivity, I shall not be averse to it, and the rather because it is
your lordship’s opinion: yet it seemed to me, viewing the sides very
curiously, when the sun shone upon them with a proper light and shade,
that I could see the very marks of the poles that lay upon the slopes,
whereon the benches were fastened. Ovid, _de arte amandi_, speaking of
theatres, says the seats were turf.
_In gradibus sedet populus de cespite factis,
Qualibet hirsutas fronde tegente comas._
On grassy seats of turf the people sate,
And leaves of trees Thessalic caps supply.
This of ours seems to be a better method than that in the amphitheatre
at Pola; and, if it is readily owned much inferior to those at Rome,
yet even those were exceeded by the noble Greek architects, especially
by that most admirable theatre near the temple of Æsculapius in
Epidaurus, of which Pausanias, an eye-witness of both, speaks _in
argolicis_: “for, though it is not so big as some others, yet for the
art of it, the nicety of its constituents, and for beauty, who dare
contend with Polycletus, who was the architect of it?” says he.
As it is not my intent to write a complete history of amphitheatres,
or further than what is necessary to our present purpose, and to give
a clear understanding of our work; so I forbear saying any thing of
the manners, times, qualities, and circumstances, of the games here
practised, but suppose them much the same in all points with those used
at Rome, and other places, and with suitable grandeur and magnificence;
whether in relation to hunting or fighting of wild beasts, of the same
or different kinds, with one another, or with men; of the gladiators,
wrestlings, of the pageants called by the ancients _pegmata_, whence
our word seems derived; of the showers of saffron water to refresh
the spectators; of the gods these places were dedicated to, and their
festivals: the whole of these matters, by those that have a mind to
make themselves acquainted therewith, is best learnt from authors who
have largely and professedly handled the subject; such as the learned
Lipsius before quoted, Donatus, and many more Pitiscus will inform
us of in his Lexicon. It is not to be questioned, that the Romans,
who had so firmly settled themselves here for the space of 400 years,
were for elegance and politeness much upon the level with those of the
continent. But amongst other shows and diversions of beasts, we may
safely imagine that our British bull-dogs bore a part, since the Romans
brought them up for the use of the Italian amphitheatres. Claudian
speaks of them thus,
_Magnaque taurorum fracturi colla Britanni._
But see a large and learned account of them from ancient authors in Mr.
Camden’s _Britannia_, Hampshire, pag. 119.
I shall give the reader a plain calculation of the number of people,
that might commodiously be present at the solemn sports and diversions,
made generally upon holy-days and great festivities of their gods.
The people hereabouts told me, that once they executed a woman for
petit-treason, in the middle of the _area_, by burning; which brought
all the country round to the sight, and filled the whole place: they by
a gross guess supposed there might be 10,000. But if we allow a foot
and half for each person sitting, and the number of seats, as I have
delineated it, 24; then one side of the building spread _in plano_ will
form a conic _frustrum_ 440 feet long at top, 280 at bottom; taking the
medium number 360, multiplying it by 24, it gives us 8640 feet; from
which take off a fourth part, to reduce it to single places of a foot
and half, there remain 6480 places on one half of the amphitheatre;
double this for the other side, and you produce 12,960 single places
for spectators upon the whole range of seats. For fear of exceeding the
truth, I omit all that might occasionally stand on the terrace at top,
the ascent up to it, and on the entrance.
It would be vain to talk of the exact time, or the persons concerned
in building this amphitheatre: but my friend Mr. Pownall of Lincoln,
before spoken of, has a silver coin of Philippus, ploughed up in the
very place. _imp. m. jul. philippus aug._ ℞ _lætit. fundat._ a Genius
with a garland in his right, the helm of a ship in his left hand: the
legend of the reverse, I must own, seems strongly to intimate he made
or repaired this work, or that some solemn sports were here performed
in his time; notwithstanding his melancholy and cynical nature, which
Sext. Aurelius gives us an account of, or that he was a christian. He
reigned about A. D. 240. yet I chuse to think it is of a higher date.
Tacitus tells us, so early as the time of Agricola in Titus his reign,
they began to introduce luxury among the Britons; for he exhorted
them privately, and publicly assisted them, to build temples, places
of public resort, and fine houses; and by degrees they came to those
excitements to debauchery, portico’s, baths, and the like, of which
we frequently find the ruins. Therefore we may suppose amphitheatres
were not forgotton; and probably this was not later than that time,
so near the southern coast, (which among the Britons themselves was
the most civilised) so rich and fine a country: for Titus his father
Vespasian, partly under Claudius the emperor, and partly under Aulus
Plautius his lieutenant, conquered all the parts hereabouts (as we
mentioned in the beginning of this letter) where he fought the Britons
thirty times, subdued two of their most potent nations, took above
twenty of their towns, and the whole Isle of Wight. No doubt but the
people, inhabitants of this country, the _Durotriges_, and the town of
Dorchester, _Durnovaria_, were included in his conquests; and they,
whatever reign it was in, for their entertainment, erected this noble
work; of which, in comparison of our modern bear-gardens, and places of
prize-fighting, I shall venture to give it as my sentiment,
_Hunc homines dicant, hos statuisse feras._
7 Nov. 1723.
ITER SEPTIMUM ANTONINI AUG. VII.
_Adde tot egregias urbes, operumque laborem.
Tot congesta manu præruptis oppida saxis,
Fluminaque antiquos subterlabentia muros._ +Virg. Geor. II.+
_To_ ROGER GALE, _Esq_;
The reasons I have to address the following journey to you, are
both general and particular: of the first sort, the title affixed
to it could not but put me in mind of your claim to these kind of
disquisitions from any hand, whose excellent commentary on Antoninus’s
Itinerary has deservedly given you the palm of ancient learning, and
rendered your character classic among the chief restorers of the Roman
Britain. But I am apprehensive it will be easier to make these papers
of mine acceptable to the world, than to yourself, both as the most
valuable part of them is your own, and as I purpose by it to remind
you of favouring the public with a new edition of that work, to which
I know you have made great additions; and in this I am sure they will
join with me. The honour you have indulged me of a long friendship,
the pleasure and advantage I have reaped in travelling with you, and
especially a great part of this journey, are particular reasons, or
rather a debt from myself and the world, if any thing of antique
inquiries I can produce that are not illaudable, if what time I spend
in travelling, may not be wholly a hunting after fresh air with the
vulgar citizens, but an examination into the works of nature, and of
past ages. I have no fears, that aught here will be less acceptable to
you, because perhaps in some things I may differ from your sentiments:
the sweetness of your disposition, and your great judgement, I know,
will discern and applaud what is really just, and excuse the errors:
difference of opinions, though false, is often of great service in
furthering a discovery of the truth: to think for one’s self is the
prerogative of learning; and no one, but a tyrant in books, will
persecute another for it. It is certain, Antoninus his Itinerary is an
endless fund of inquiry. I doubt not but in future researches I shall
be induced as much to vary from myself as now from others; and, after
our best endeavours, succeeding writers will correct us all.
[Sidenote: +Via Trinovantica.+]
The last summer I travelled this whole Seventh Journey, and in the
order of the Itinerary; but I took in several other places by the way,
which relate to the clearing some parts of other journeys. Parallel to
the great Icening-street, runs another Roman road from south-west to
north-east, through London, beginning at the sea-coast in Hampshire by
Rumsey, and ending at the sea-coast in Suffolk about Aldborough. The
name of it is utterly lost: if I might have the liberty of assigning
one, it should be _via Trinovantica_, as it tends to the country of
those people; and names are necessary to avoid confusion. The lower
part of it, or that comprehended between London and Ringwood upon the
edge of Dorsetshire, is the subject of this journey; but because I have
already given an account of several towns that relate to the XIIIth
and XIVth journeys of Antoninus, which have some connexion with this,
and that I conceive they are considerably faulty in the original, I
shall run through some few more I had opportunity to see, and offer my
conjectures towards the restitution of those journeys.
Upon the great moor between Bagshot and Okingham, near East-Hamsted
park, we saw a large camp upon a hill doubly ditched, commonly called
Cæsar’s camp, as many more without any reason: there has been a well
in it, and both Roman and British coins have been found there, one of
Cunobelin in silver: its figure is not regular, but conformable to the
top of the hill: near it are two large barrows, Ambury and Edgebury.
At Berkham by Okingham I bought a very elegant British coin of gold,
dug up by a woman in her garden: it is of the most ancient kind, and
without letters. I saw a British gold coin found near Old Windsor;
another dug up, 1719, at Hanmer hill, between Guildford and Farnham.
[Sidenote: +Vindoma.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. LXI.]
All the country hereabouts, and to Silchester, is clay, moor, sand,
gravel by spots, much boggy, springy land, much good land, but more
bad: the water is blackish every where. Silchester is a place that
a lover of antiquity will visit with great delight: it stands upon
the highest ground thereabouts, but hid with wood, which grows very
plentifully all about it. Many were the Roman roads that met here,
though now scarce any road; which is the reason it is so little known:
it is likewise inconvenient for travellers, because no inns are near
it; and it may be serviceable to tell the curious, that Aldermaston is
the nearest town where lodging is to be found, three miles off; for at
the place we may truly say,
_Rarus & antiquis habitator in urbibus errat._
The walls of this city are standing, more or less perfect, quite
round; perhaps the most intire of any in the Roman empire, especially
the whole north side of the wall, which is a most agreeable sight.
The composition is chiefly flint for the space of four foot high,
then a binding of three layers of rag-stone laid flat: in many places
five of these double intervals remain for a great length. There was
a broad ditch quite round, and now for the most part impassable, and
full of springs. Here and there Roman bricks are left in the walls.
Though on the out-side they are of this considerable height, yet the
ground within is so raised as nearly to be equal to the top, and that
quite round crowned with oaks and other timber-trees of no mean bulk,
and which Mr. Camden takes notice of in his time. Not long since,
lady Blessington cut 500l. worth of timber from thence. Gildas says,
Constantius the son of Constantine the Great built it, and sowed corn
in the track of the walls, as an omen of their perpetuity:[135] indeed,
now the whole city is arable; and among the fields Roman bricks, bits
of pots, rubbish of buildings, are scattered every where, and coins
are picked up every day. It is a parallelogram whose shortest side
to the longest is as 3 to 4; its length about 2600 feet, its breadth
2000; standing conformable to the four cardinal points: it had two
gates upon its length opposite. There is only one farm-house within
it, and the church. To the east, by that house, the foundation of
the gate is visible, and several Roman bricks thereabouts. All the
yards here are like a solid rock, with rubbish, pavements and mortar,
cemented together. The late Rev. Mr. Betham, minister of this place,
a learned, curious and worthy person, had collected a vast number of
coins and antiquities found here: he is buried under the north wall
of the chancel without side: within is another monument of a person
of quality: it is remarkable that a wall only divides them in their
graves, who both met a sad and disastrous fate at different times
in the same place, being drowned in Fleet-ditch. Onion-hole, in the
middle of the southern wall, is a place much talked of here by the
ignorant country people, which is only an arch in the foundation for
the issue of a sewer: they have a like story here of this city being
taken by sparrows. I saw a silver coin of Philippus, and a brass one
of Constantine, and many more. A spring arises from under the wall at
the church-yard. The streets are still visible in the corn. Rings with
stones in them are often found, among inscriptions and all sorts of
other antiquities.
[Sidenote: +Amphitheatre.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XLIII. 2d Vol.]
Five hundred foot without the city, on the north-east corner I espied
another great curiosity, which the people think was a castle: I
presently discerned it to be an amphitheatre: it is in bulk, in shape,
and all points, the same as that at Dorchester, but not built of so
solid materials; for it is chiefly clay and gravel: it stands in a
yard by the road side, near a ruinous house and barn, upon a sloping
piece of ground: eastward toward the road there is a pit: there it is
sixty foot high on the out-side. The whole _area_ or _arena_ within
is now covered with water, but they say it is not much above three
foot deep: the bottom of it, and the work, must certainly be exceeding
solid, and well compared, to retain the water so many years without
draining through: it is a most noble and beautiful concave, but
intirely over-grown with thorn-bushes, briars, holly, broom, furze,
oak and ash trees, &c. and has from times immemorial been a yard for
cattle, and a watering-pond; so that it is a wonder their trampling has
not defaced it much more. I examined this fine antiquity with all the
exactness possible: the terrace at top, the circular walk, the whole
form, is not obscure: it is posited exactly as that before described,
with its longest diameter from north-east to south-west; its entrance
north-east, though farthest from the city. There is an ascent to it
from the entrance side, that being upon the lowest ground: at the
upper end, the level of the ground is not much below the top of the
terrace, and vastly above that of the _arena_; so that I conceive the
better sort of the people went that way directly from the city into
their seats: there is such a gap too in that part, from the ruin of
the cave where the wild beasts were kept. An old house standing there
with an orchard has forwarded its ruin from that quarter; and they
have levelled some part of the terrace for their garden. Surveying the
whole could not but put me in mind of that piece of Roman magnificence,
when the emperors caused great trees to be taken up by the roots, and
planted in the amphitheatres and circs, _pro tempore_, to imitate
forests wherein they hunted beasts; which here is presented in pure
nature.
[Sidenote: _Barrows_ Br.]
Riding along the road on the north side of Silchester, I left it with
this reflection: Now a person of a moderate fortune may buy a whole
Roman city, which once half a kingdom could not do; and a gentleman may
be lord of the soil where formerly princes and emperors commanded. To
the west of the place, but at some distance, runs a high bank overgrown
with trees seemingly north and south: they say there is another
such, south of the city: which would make one suspect they were raised
by some besiegers. Farther on I crossed a great Roman road coming
from Winchester: they call it Long-bank and Grimesdike. I have very
often found this name applied to a road, a wall, a ditch of antiquity;
which would make one fancy it is a Saxon word signifying the witches
work; for the vulgar generally think these extraordinary works made by
help of the devil. They told me it goes through Burfield and Reading.
Towards Winchester I could see it as far as the horizon, perfectly
strait, ten miles off. We may say with the poet,
_Tellus in longas est patefacta vias._ +Tibull.+
Near it they talk of a stone thrown by an imp from Silchester walls, a
mile off, which I suppose a mile-stone. Mr. Camden says a Roman road
runs westward from Silchester, which I imagine goes to Andover. From
Aldermaston is a fine view of the country hanging over the Kennet,
lately made navigable. Going from Aldermaston to Kingsclere, where once
was a palace of the Saxon kings, I passed over Brimpton common: here
are many very fine Celtic barrows: the soil is a moor full of _erica_,
which they dig up for fewel; underneath it is sand: at Kingsclere the
mighty chalk-hills begin. Upon the top of a very high promontory is a
square Roman camp, in a park. From hence to Andover is an hard way and
open country. Just before I descended the continuation of this great
ridge of hills overlooking Andover, I crossed a ditch like Wansditch,
hanging upon the edge of the hills, which I suppose some division
among the ancient Britons: it extended itself both ways as far as I
could see: the foss is not very large, though the bank is: the foss is
northward.
[Illustration: 43·2ᵈ. _The Side view of the_ Amphitheater _at
Silchester. May 8. 1724._
_Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall sculp._]
[Sidenote: +Andaoreon.+]
[Sidenote: +Bury-hill+ Ro. _Camp_.]
Andover is (not to be questioned) the _Andaoreon_ of Ravennas: the name
signifies the watery habitation; _annedh_, habitatio; _dur_, aqua. It
stands on the slope of a hill just by the springs of the river Tees, or
_t’isca_: they arise here northward of the town very plentiful, and are
carried in a thousand rills through all the meadows, till they unite
and pass under the bridge. The church is an aukward old building; the
west door, of an ancient circular make. They are now pulling down the
timber market-house to build a new one of stone: the market-place is a
broad street. Upon a very high hill to the south-west is a large Roman
camp, seeming to be admirably well fortified: it is called Bury hill.
Between this and Stockbridge is Dunbury hill, a circular camp, doubly
intrenched with various works at the entrance.
I travelled along a fine downy country, ’till passing the river Bourn
in Wiltshire I came to the Icening-street near Haradon hill; where I
intended to observe the great eclipse of the sun, which was to be on
the next day; of which memorable _phænomenon_ I judge it will not be
disagreeable if I repeat what I wrote of it.
To Dr. _Edmund Halley_.
According to my promise, I send you what I observed of the solar
eclipse, though I fear it will not be of any great use to you. I was
not prepared with any instruments for measuring time, or the like,
and proposed to myself only to watch all the appearances that Nature
would present to the naked eye on so remarkable an occasion, and which
generally are overlooked, or but grosly regarded. I chose for my
station a place called Haradon hill, two miles eastward from Amsbury,
and full east from the opening of Stonehenge avenue, to which it is as
the point of view. Before me lay the vast plain where that celebrated
work stands, and I knew that the eclipse would appear directly over
it: beside, I had the advantage of a very extensive prospect every
way, this being the highest hill hereabouts, and nearest the middle of
the shadow. Full west of me, and beyond Stonehenge, is a pretty copped
hill, like the top of a cone lifting itself above the horizon: this is
Clay hill, near Warminster, twenty miles distant, and near the central
line of darkness, which must come from thence; so that I could have
notice enough before-hand of its approach. Abraham Sturgis and Stephen
Ewens, both of this place and sensible men, were with me. Though it was
very cloudy, yet now and then we had gleams of sun-shine, rather more
than I could perceive at any other place around us. These two persons
looking through smoaked glasses, while I was taking some bearings
of the country with a circumferentor, both confidently affirmed the
eclipse was begun; when by my watch I found it just half an hour after
five: and accordingly from thence the progress of it was visible,
and very often to the naked eye; the thin clouds doing the office of
glasses. From the time of the sun’s body being half covered, there was
a very conspicuous circular _iris_ round the sun, with perfect colours.
On all sides we beheld the shepherds hurrying their flocks into fold,
the darkness coming on; for they expected nothing less than a total
eclipse, for an hour and a quarter.