Chapter X: Preface (10)

Sandown castle is composed of four lunettes of very thick arched work of stone, with many port-holes for great guns: in the middle is a great round tower, with a cistern at top; underneath an arched cavern, bomb-proof: a foss incompasses the whole, to which there is a passage over a draw-bridge. Deal castle and Walmer castle are of the same nature, all built by Harry VIII. to guard this naked level coast: moreover, lines are drawn along between castle and castle, and at proper intervals round bastions with a ditch and parapet of earth, where cannon may be planted, as in the infancy of fortification. These are what Camden calls _Rome’s works_, and fancies to be remnants of Cæsar’s ship-camp: the neighbours with as little truth affirm they were thrown up by Oliver Cromwell, for reduction of these castles: one is close by the north side of Deal, and two between Deal castle and Walmer castle. At Walmer castle the cliff begins for about half a mile southward with a gentle rise to a hill, whereon is a _tumulus_: then the shore is plain again in a valley till you come to Kings-wold, which is half a mile’s space. Between Walmer castle and Deal I take to be the spot where Cæsar landed in his first expedition, because it is the first place where the shore can be ascended north of Dover, and exactly answers his assigned distance of eight miles: probably in his second expedition, when he came with many more ships, and had a perfect knowledge of the country, he went a little farther in the downs, whereabouts now is Deal, a town lately sprung up from the mariners. As for his sea-camps, it is vain to expect a sight of them; they are many ages since absorpt by the ocean, which has so long been exercising its power, and wasting the land away. Even since Harry the VIIIth’s time it has carried off the sea-ward _esplanades_ of the three castles, and one half of two of the three circular forts. Indeed, of late years, the providential ejectment of those pebbles has put a stop to it in some measure; and it is amazing to see how it by degrees fills up these fosses and trenches, and sometimes flies over the banks a good way up into the land, with a power well expressed by the poet,

_Aut vaga cum Tethys Rutupinaque littora fervent._ +Lucan.+ vi.

But of this affair of Cæsar’s I reserve to myself another opportunity of speaking, when I shall expresly treat of his expedition hither. At Deal castle is a very good well, though close by the sea.

_Stukeley delin._ _Toms. Sculp._]

_Stukeley delin._ _Toms Sculp._]

Now my journey lay intirely upon the edge of the cliffs, whose precipicious height, with the noble prospect at sea, and most awful roaring of the waves, filled the mind with a sense of Nature’s majesty. About St. Margaret’s on cliff, near the light-houses, I saw in two places a great number of little _tumuli_, of unequal bulk, close by one another; and the like I found frequently about Barham downs, and between Hardres[118] and Chilham, and other places. I know not that such have ever been taken notice of: the people say they were burying-places of the Danes; probably digging into them might give us some satisfaction. I believe them Celtic, because I saw many sorts of them, and such as appear on Salisbury plain.

[Sidenote: +Dubris Portus.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. XXXVIII. 2nd Vol.]

[Sidenote: TAB. XXXIX. XL. 2d Vol.]

Dover is a most romantic situation: it is a great valley, and the only one about this coast where water is admitted inwards of the cliff, here very high; and a running brook discharges itself into the sea:[119] the water formerly came a good way higher up, and made a large port; and they have found anchors above the town. The Roman city of _Dubris_ was to the south of the river: the Watling-street enters it at Bigin gate, coming very strait from Canterbury over Barham down, where it is very perfect:[120] butting directly upon the great tower of the cathedral, it bears a little more northerly than north-west. This city was an oblong square, and some of the walls are left: the churches are of a very antique make: that of St. Martin is collegiate, founded by Wightred king of Kent; it is a venerable ruin: the east end seems to have terminated in three semi-circular works: it was built in form of a cross, as to its main body. Much remains of the priory, now a farm-house. The _maison dieu_ over-against it is become a store-house: here the knights Hospitallers or Templars lodged, coming into, or going out of, the kingdom. The piers that form the haven, or large bason, are costly and great works: above is a fort with four bastions of modern date. The broad beach which lies at the mouth of this great valley, and was the harbour in Cæsar’s time, is very delightful: it is no little part of the diversion, in walking there, to observe the odd produce of the ocean thrown up under your feet, and the sea-plants that grow there; the _umbelli_, _star-fishes_, many curious fossils and shells; the _eringo_, _sea-lungs_, _sea-weed_, or _ood_ as called, &c. One long street here is named Snare-gate, from the most tremendous rocks of chalk hanging directly over the houses; as Cnarsborough in Yorkshire, says Mr. Camden, p. 715.

[Sidenote: +Dover Castle.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. XLVIII.]

[Sidenote: _Roman._ +Pharos.+]

The castle is the strongest place in the world, of old fortification; it takes up thirty acres of ground: it is an amazing _congeries_ of walls, ditches, arches, embattlements, mounts, and all imaginable contrivances to render it impregnable after the old mode: but with highest regret I beheld this most noble and memorable fortress, once thought the key of Britain, and that has divers times had the honour to save the kingdom from conquest and slavery, now become a common prey to the people that belong to it: in the late wars with France they kept 1500 prisoners in the great castle; but within this twelvemonth they have carried away the timbers and floors, disabling it even for that use. Thus much I think out of gratitude is its due; let it stand a monument of antiquity, or sink slowly by its own ruin. The brass gun called Queen Elizabeth’s Pocket-pistol is a great curiosity, twenty-two foot long: it requires fifteen pound of powder, and carries a ball seven miles (as the gunner told me;) it is excellently well wrought. I saw two very old keys, and a brass horn, which seem to be the ensigns of authority belonging to the constable of the castle, or lord warden of the cinque ports. One part of the fortifications consists of a large circular work, in which stands the old church, said to have been built by Lucius, an ancient king of the Britons, and first christian. Bishop Stillingfleet thinks he is no romantic person, but reigned in Kent and Sussex: however that be, I believe this church is as ancient as the time assigned him. There is not much doubt to be made, that upon this hill was a _castrum_ of the Romans, like that at Richborough, to guard this haven. It is somewhat surprizing that our Saxon ancestors should take great pains to demolish Roman works, though they wanted such in the same places, and were forced to build them again. I look upon it as an argument that they had no thoughts of conquering the island at first, and destroyed these bulwarks, that such might not hinder their depredations; but espying the nakedness of the land, thoroughly evacuated of its youth and men of arms by the Romans, they found a conquest practicable: then were they obliged to repair these castles. The church we are speaking of was built, in the first times of christianity, out of part of the Roman ruins, whence there are huge quantities of Roman bricks laid into the work: the arches are intirely turned with them; the corners and many parts, both within and without, are built up therewith; and the remainder is of stone originally cut by the Romans: it is in form of a cross, and has a square tower in the middle. I have represented the drawing of it in plate 48. The stone windows of this church are of later date than the building; they have been put in long since: but the greatest curiosity here is the _Pharos_, or Roman watch-tower, standing at the west end of the church: notwithstanding it is so much disfigured by new daubing with mortar, casing and mending, I discovered its primary intention the first minute I saw it; and sent the three prints of it, which I here present the reader, to monsieur Montfaucon, at the instances of my most honoured lord, the archbishop of Canterbury. I was in hopes they would have been more useful to that celebrated author; for therein at least he might have found, that the building which he first took for a _Pharos_, and whereof he gives us four views, is only the tower of the church we were talking of. The description of this curious work, which I believe the most perfect of any left, in short is thus.

_Stukeley delin._ _Toms sculp._]

_Stukeley delin._ _Toms sculp._]

_The Old Church & Roman Pharos in Dover Castle. 8. Oct. 1722._

_Sᵗ. Martins Church near Canterbury where K. Ethelberts Queen us’d
to goe to Christian Service._

Erudito viro et Amicissimo Johi Hardy de Nottingham.

_Tabulam hanc vovet W. Stukeley_

_Stukeley delin._ _I. Harris Sculp_]

Tabulam Architectonicam Dno. Jacobo Thornhil-Equiti, ad Rem
Pictoriam Servienti

Regio. D.D. _Wˢ. Stukeley._

_Stukeley del._ _I.Vᵈᵉʳ. Gucht Sculp._]

_Quæ olim_ Romanis _navigantibus facem præbuit_
Pharon _in Castro Dubriensi_ Rogᵒ. Gale Arm.
_consecratum posuit_ Wˢ. Stukeley 1722.

_Stukeley delin._ _E Kirkall sculp._]

[Sidenote: TAB. XLVII.]

[Sidenote: TAB. XLVI.]

In the 47th plate we have shown the ground-plot upon which it is formed, and a section of the work; whence we may readily observe that the design is simple, but admirably contrived for its use and purpose: the base is octagonal without, within a square; but the sides of the square and octagon are equal, viz. fifteen Roman feet, which reduces the wall to the thickness of ten feet. In this manner it was carried up to the top, which was much higher than at present; but it retires inward continually from all sides, with much the same proportion as an Egyptian _obelus_. Upon four of these sides there are windows narrow, handsomely turned with a semi-circular arch of Roman brick six foot high, so that the outside of it appears as in our 46th plate. The door to it is on the east side, about six foot wide, very well turned over head, with an arch made of a course of Roman brick and stone alternately, fourteen foot high. All the stones of this work are of a narrow scantling; and the manner of the composure, throughout, is perfectly the same with that lately described at Richborough castle: there are first two courses of this brick, which is level with the bottom of the windows; then seven courses of hewn stone, which mount up to the top of the windows; then two courses of brick, seven of stone alternately, to the top; every window by this means reaching to a stage or story. There are five of these stages left: the windows are visible enough to a discerning eye, though some be stopt up, others covered over, others have modern church-like windows of stone put in. I suppose the inside was intirely filled up with a stair-case: the height of what is left is forty foot; I believe there was twenty foot more originally; and the whole number of windows on a side was eight. This building was made use of as a steeple, and had a pleasant ring of bells in it, which Sir George Rook procured to be carried away to Portsmouth. Since then the office of the ordnance, under pretext of savingness, have taken away the lead that covered it, and left this rare piece of art and masonry to struggle with the sea, air and weather. Mr. Degg gave me a coin of Dioclesian, found here. The Erpinghams arms are patched up against one side of the _Pharos_, being two bars and a canton; so that I suppose it was repaired in Henry the Fifth’s time, lord Erpingham then warden of Dover castle. In the Roman castle here the Tungrican soldiers had their station. I have heard there is another such _Pharos_ at St. Andrew’s in Scotland.[121]

On the other high cliff opposite to this, beyond the town, has been another _Pharos_: some part of the bottom part of it is still left, called The Devil’s Drop, from the strength of the mortar: others call it Bredonstone. Here the new constable of the castle is sworn. If we consider the ancient state of Dover, we must imagine that the little river ran directly into the sea, and left a harbour close to the walls of the town; but in process of time, as the sea threw up that vast beach which lies between the town and it, the river was forced by an oblique passage to creep along the shore under the southern cliff, and there vent itself where now is the harbour. This is what Nature practises in the microcosm in innumerable instances, as the passage of the gall and pancreatic juice into the intestines, in the duct of the urine from the ureters into the bladder, of the chyle into the torrent of the blood, insinuating themselves for some space between the membranes. And this caution may be of service in forming harbours; as in that costly work of the French king’s before Dunkirk, where two banks or piers projected for half a mile through the sands directly, which ought rather to have gone downwards a little towards the fall of the tide. The cliffs here are of solid chalk to the very bottom, full of the blackest flints; and those at Calais seem perfectly like them; and no doubt a long vein of chalk is continued from one to the other under the sea, and perhaps through many countries: but that these two places were ever contiguous, or joined by an isthmus, is chimerical.

Though the mariners have much mathematics on board, and in all their tackle and machinery, yet here I had occasion of observing a gross error, that has not been thought on, in the shape of their oars; where the extremity of that fan-like part, which opposes the water in rowing, is broadest. Now this is quite contrary to Nature’s method, who is the best geometrician in like cases: in the shape of a single feather, or in the wings of birds, the extremity is always pointed, and the broadest part is nearest the joint where the power lies, analogous to the _fulcrum_ of leavers; therefore is drawn off to a narrower scantling, as the part recedes from it, and the effect of the moving force: thus it is even in the wings of butterflies, and all other insects, as well as birds; and so in the water-beetles that row with oars. Though the broad part resists the water more as farther distant from the _fulcrum_, yet it requires more proportionable strength; and in my judgment, therefore, oars ought to be made quite the contrary way, and drawn off into a point, the broadest part nearest the hand; and I doubt not but equal strength will then out-row the other, _cæteris paribus_.[122]

Beyond Dover southward the cliff is exceedingly high to Folkstone. In the road two great Roman barrows, which will be eaten away in a few years by the sea. Here this larger track of cliff ends, as to the ocean, and slaunts off westward towards Wye in a long ledge very steep all the way to the west. The whole county of Kent consists of three or four of these parcels, lying parallel, and running nearly north and south: they rise gently from the east as a reclining plain, and then end suddenly on the western side with a quick descent: at bottom begins another such plain, and it ends in like manner after it has gone its proper distance, to be alike succeeded, as we said before. Beyond this we are upon, southward is a lesser ledge of high ground sandy and rocky, but good land, especially in the valleys, and full of wood. This is terminated by Romney marsh, such another country as our Lincolnshire Holland. To the right of us is Eleham, seated in a pleasant concavity: there has been a religious house. Upon one end of our upper chalk-hills, near Folkstone, is a camp called Castle hill.

_Stukeley d, & Nobilissimo Comiti
Winchilsea d. d_.]

[Sidenote: +Lapis Tituli.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. XCVIII.]

Now descending, Folkstone[123] offers itself, still standing on a cliff, but not so high as the former, and of a rocky composure, the other being chalk: it was anciently called _Flostane_, a lesser rock, or cliff of stone; so that it probably was the _lapis tituli_ of the Romans. Here is a copious spring runs through the town. Near the church, upon the sea side, is a square plain, like that I observed at Burgh in Lincolnshire, and was of the same use. I saw two pieces of old wall hanging over the terrible cliff, seemingly of Roman work: here are some old guns, one of iron of a very odd cast, no doubt as old as Henry the Eighth’s time. Many Roman coins have been found here. A nunnery was built by Eanswide, a religious daughter of Eadbald king of Kent.

I passed by Sandgate castle, another of those built by Henry VIII. in a little valley where the shore is plain: then we enter upon the beach. Here are many springs which come down from the higher ground, and sink immediately into this beach, rendering it a little boggy: this I thought very odd. You ride through a wood of sea-poppy, which is a fine variety in nature, casting all the numerous seeds into a long pod, instead of the common globular head: the leaves look hoary, like sea-ragwort, and are finely crisped; the flowers of a most delicate yellow, taken notice of by the poet,

_Ore floridulo nitens
Alba parthenice velut
Luteumve papaver._ +Catull.+

[Sidenote: +Hythe.+]

Hythe stands on the edge of this lesser ridge, but the marsh has intercepted it from the sea. They talk much of their charnel-house full of human bones, said to have been the massacred Danes; but I thought it not worth going to see, nor believed their report of it. They say this has been a great city, and reached as far as West Hythe, where is an old ruinous chapel: they mean undoubtedly the city of _Lemanis_. Here were two hospitals, St. Bartholomew’s, and St. Leonard’s.

I visited Saltwood castle, in hopes to find somewhat Roman, as is reported: it is a very strong seat of the archbishop’s: the outer wall has towers and battlements, and a deep ditch: within, and on one side, stands the main body of the place: two great and high towers at the gate of this, over which are the founder’s arms, archbishop Courtney, in two escutcheons; the first impaled with those of the see; the other plain, a label over three plates. This inner work has a stronger and higher wall, with a broad embattled parapet at top: within is a court, but the lodgings are all demolished: the floor of the ruinous chapel is strongly vaulted: in the middle of the court is a large square well, which is the only thing I saw that looked like Roman. It is said that hereabouts anchors are dug up; which, if true, is not owing to the sea’s coming so high, as the vulgar think, for that is impossible; but to an iron forge of the Romans, conveniently placed, where so much wood grows, so near the sea, and so many ports. They say too that Roman coins are found at Newington, not far off here.

[Sidenote: +Lemanis+ Portus.]

[Sidenote: TAB. XCIX.]

[Sidenote: TAB. LVIII.]

A little way further, at the end of the Stane-street,[124] the Roman road from Canterbury; and at a proper distance from thence is the port of _Lemanis_. I am surprized that some Kentish antiquaries should, by pretended corrections of the Itinerary, send it farther off to the southern coasts. As soon as I came to Limne church, looking from the brow of the hill to the subjacent marshes, I descried the tattered Roman walls, situate on this southern decline, almost at the bottom. One would imagine the name came from the _Stone-street_; for such it literally signifies, _via lapidea_: this is a solid rock of stone laid out in a strait line between here and Canterbury. Thus in Yorkshire another Roman road is called _Leming-lane_, from its stony composure. _Lhe_ signifies a way in British; _maen_, a stone. Its present appellation of _Studfal_ castle gives occasion to some uncouth etymologies: without any difficulty I think it derived from _stæd-weall_, the sea-shore, in Saxon; so that it signifies no more than _castrum littoreum_. This fine remnant of Roman work, and which was the garrison of the Turnacensian band, hangs as it were upon the side of the hill; for it is pretty steep in descent: the walls include about twelve acres of ground, in form somewhat squarish, without any ditch: a pretty brook, arising from the rock west of the church, runs for some space on the east side of the wall; then passes through it, and so along its lowermost edge by the farm-house at bottom. The composition of the wall is similar to that of Richborough; but instead of hewn stone and regular courses, as there, the interval between the three layers of Roman brick is made of rag-stone: the brick too is of the same whitish kind, but remarkably thin. I suppose the clay shrank much in burning. This interval of stone is four feet of Roman standard: the walls are twelve foot thick, and have some round holes at equal spaces, that run quite through, as we observed at _Sorbiodunum_ and _Verolanium_ perhaps to let the air in for drying the wall, being of so great a thickness. Here are several of the circular, or rather elliptic buttments, as thick as the wall, like those at the castle of _Garionenum_, near Yarmouth in Norfolk, in plate 58. which my worthy and learned friend Mr. Hare gave me from his own mensuration. It is a piece of masonry, I must own, unaccountable to me: they are like round towers or bastions, but solid; and some scarce join to the wall at the sides, but go quite through to the inside. The circuit of this wall is manifest enough on three sides, but that southward is levelled to the ground: every where else, where not standing, it lies sideways, flat, close by, in prodigious parcels; or where standing, cracked through the whole solid thickness, as if Time was in a merry humour, and ruined it in sport: but I believe it is the effect of design and much labour, as I said of Richborough: probably the Saxons or Danes thus dismantled it, to render it useless against their incursions. Where this wall is standing, it is ten foot high or more, made with excellent cement: on the eastern side is such another gate, formed by the return of the wall, as at the place last mentioned. Geo. Hunt, an old man, living in the farm-house, told me he has found coins here: he says, once the sea-bank broke, and his house with all the adjacent marshes was floated: for the level of the ocean is higher than this place; but it has fenced itself out by raising the ground continually near the shore, as it does in other like marshes. Whether the sea reached this lower wall, even in the time of the Romans, I cannot determine; for I do not believe this was the very port, but the castle belonging to it: that, I rather think, was somewhat more eastward, about West Hithe; and there, the town that belonged to it: for they find old foundations frequently under the side of the hill, laid in strong terrace mortar. The rev. Mr. Bagnal, minister of the place, informs me, that the field, of about sixteen acres of ground, adjoining to the church-yard of Limne, is to this day called the Northern town: nor do they know that it ever had any other name; which intimates that the Roman town was thereabouts, lying upon the slope of the hill, as the castle does, and to the east of it. This port is now called Ship-way, where the _limenarcha_, or lord warden of the cinque ports, was anciently sworn; where their courts were kept, and all the pleas relating to these ports: since the decay thereof, that ceremony is transferred to Dover. This Ship-way too denominates the _lathe_, or division of the country. Leland says, the people of Limne had an horn and mace, remaining ensigns of their authority.

Thus have we conducted our journey, for the space of 500 miles, all upon Roman roads, to these three famous ports on the eastern shore, where commonly the great Roman emperors and generals landed from the continent; and in which we have run over such notices as occurred to us in thirty-five Roman stations, many camps, and other things of highest antiquity. The season of the year for expeditions being far spent, it is time to release your lordship’s patience, and retire into harbour, concluding with the great Roman wit, in his poetical voyage,

_Lemanis longæ finis chartæque, viæque._

10 Octob. 1722.

_Dnᵒ. Hans Sloan Barrᵗᵗᵒ._ +M.D.+ _Tabulam d.d. W Stukeley._

_Stukeley Delin_]

Borough Castle

_3. Miles S.W. from Great-Yarmouth contains abᵗ 5. acres_

_Statio fuit hæc Præpositi Equitum Stablesianorum sub comite
Limitis Saxonici._

Henrico Hare Armᵒ. GARIONENVM sua manu dimensum consecrat

_W. Stukeley._]

ITER DUMNONIENSE. VI.

_Ipse locis capitur patriis & singula lætus
Exquiritque, auditque virûm monumenta priorum._ +Virg.+

_To my Lord_ PEMBROKE.

I have sometimes in travelling been apt, within my own mind, to make a comparison between the excellence of the study of Philosophy, and that commonly called Antiquity, that is, ancient history. The beauties and the advantage of natural inquiries I cannot but be highly sensible of; yet I must needs give the preference to the latter, as it more nearly concerns the rational part of the creation, for whom the whole was made: it is a comment upon the wonderful volumes of divine wisdom, and the conduct of providence in the management of its supreme workmanship. God has given us indeed a large manuscript of his power, and other adorable attributes, in his wide-extended products, the furniture of the world; but in man, a more correct epitome of himself; a delegated immaterial particle of his spirituality, a self-moving principle of free agency, from the very fountain of all existence. As he is the great master-wheel and _primum movens_; so we are the subordinate executors of his mighty purposes, by his direction and superintendence carrying on the regular government and unseen operations thereof. Whoever declaims against this, ought to be looked upon as one of a poor, narrow way of thinking, and who does not deserve so much as that noble faculty of the soul, reminiscence or memory, which is the same to a single man, as ancient history is to the whole community: such a one no more claims the name of a scholar, than he that knows but the letters of the Alphabet, or whose study consists only in Gazettes. It is the knowledge of antiquity that can give us a maturity in judgement, either in persons or things; and how unfit such a one is, that is destitute of it, in the executing the great offices of life, I need not inculcate.

But nothing I can say in favour of this subject, can be so great a panegyric to it, as your lordship’s illustrious name prefixed. The glorious ardour for this kind of learning, that kindled in your younger years, and that through a long cultivation of it has produced a boundless extent of knowledge, with the deepest penetration, the strongest judgement, the fire of the soul, and all sublimest qualities which the world admires in your lordship; bears down all opposition to the study of antiquities, wherein you preside most worthily; wherein no one dares to be rival, or hopes to be equal. We see the fruits of it in the best-chosen library of ancient authors, in the best collection of most ancient coins, statues, busto’s, and learned marbles, which the world can show. You, my lord, by treading in the steps of the great Arundel, have brought old arts, Greece and Rome, nay Apollo and all his Muses, to Great Britain: Wilton is become tramontane Italy.

Every part of learning is your lordship’s province, and sure of your protection. But I have a particular happiness in laying before you the following account of this summer’s journey, because the greatest part of it was by your own direction, and as excursions I made whilst at your lordship’s most delightful seat at Wilton. I shall begin with what I observed in my tour about it, and proceed to my more western perambulation through a country pregnant of antiquities, and the greatest curiosities in the world.

The _Belgæ_, the ancient inhabitants of this country, were a brave and warlike people, when on their original continent; and we have no reason to think, after transplantation on the British soil, they abated aught of their courage and valour, natural to its inhabitants. These were one of those powerful nations, whose conquest gave opportunity to the emperor Vespasian highly to signalize his conduct when he first made a figure in arms. Hence it is that we find so many camps hereabouts, from the sea side to the midland parts; many of which were made by him, and others by his undaunted opposers. The road from Wilton to Shaftesbury, called the Ten-mile Course, is a fine ridge of downs, continued upon the southern bank of the river Nader, with a sweet prospect to the right and left, all the way, over the towns and the country on both sides: a traveller is highly indebted to your lordship for adding to his pleasure and advantage, in reviving the Roman method of placing a numbered stone at every mile, and the living index of a tree to make it more observable; which ought to be recommended as a laudable pattern to others: thus C. Gracchus planted a stone at every mile, with the distance inscribed, says Plutarch; and thus Rutilius, Itinerar. II.

_Intervalla viæ fessis præstare videtur,
Qui notat inscriptus millia crebra lapis._

[Sidenote: +Chiselbury.+]

[Sidenote: Br. _oppidum_.]

Between Nᵒ 5. and 6. is a pretty large camp, called Chiselbury, upon 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+.

A. _Icening Street._ B. _Old Sarum._ C. _New Sarum._ D. _Clarendon
Park._ E. _Ford._ _Stukeley del:_]

_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.

_Stukeley. delin._]

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.]