Chapter IV: MISCELLANIES. A nuptial vase, representing the ceremonies of

marriage. Ara Hammonis, a cube of white marble, on front the symbol of Jupiter Hammon on a circular piece of the old Theban marble. Two black porphyry pillars brought from Rome by the earl of Arundel. The column of Egyptian granite, weighing near 7000 weight, from the ruins of the temple of Venus genetrix, built by Julius Cæsar: this my lord has set up in the front of the house. A very ancient altar of Bacchus, adorned with _basso relievo’s_. An altar table of red Egyptian granite, large, and four or five inches thick. An antique pavement, four sorts of marble, of gradual light and shade. The antique picture from the temple of Juno: it is in thick stucco. The _sarcophagus_ of Epaphroditus intire, finely carved with the history of Ceres. The front of Claudia’s sepulchre, sister of Probus the emperor: her head is joined with his. Eighty-five _termini_ of antique marbles, busto’s on seventy-two of them.

[Sidenote: +Icening-street.+]

From the gate of _Sorbiodunum_ the Icening-street goes from north-east to south-west, by the name of Port lane, over the river Avon at Stretford; then ascends the hill, and passes the united Nadre and Willy near Bemerton, where the stony ford is still very perfect: then it goes across my lord Pembroke’s horse-race course and hare-warren, making a visto to M. Aurelius his equestrian figure in the park. If the spirits and _genii_ of the ancient Romans travel this way, no doubt they will be surprised to find themselves so near the Capitol. Then it traverses the brook at Fenny-Stretford, and so along the great downs toward Cranburn chace: here it delights one to turn and survey its direction towards _Sorbiodunum_, a sweet prospect; whether we regard what share of it is due to nature, or what to art; and of the latter sort, what is owing to the road, or what to the old city. As it enters the chace there is a most remarkable _diverticulum_, and which notoriously demonstrates it was begun from the south: for here, as it came from thence across the woods, where its ridge is very perfect, made of stone, it butts full upon the end of a vast valley, very deep and of steep descent; where it was absolutely impracticable to carry the road on in a strait line: the Roman surveyor therefore wisely gave way to nature, turned the road side-ways along the end of the valley, then with an equal angle carried it forward upon the upper side of that valley in full direction to Old Sarum. That great and wise people, though ignorant of submission, knew nature might be drawn aside, but not directly opposed, especially in works that are to be lasting: hence my intent was, to pursue this noble road as far as it would carry me; and the pleasure one perceives in such a concomicant is not to be imagined by any one but those that experience it: to observe their methods in the conduct of such works, their artifices and struggles between industry and the difficulties and diversities of ground, of rivers, &c. and the continual presentment of somewhat worthy of remark by the way, renders it short, and vastly entertaining; nor is the mind ever at a loss for learned amusement. When it has passed through the woods of Cranburn chace, and approaches Woodyates, you see a great dike and _vallum_ (Venndike) upon the edges of the hills to the left by Pentridge, to which I suppose it gave name: this crosses the Roman road, and then passes on the other side, upon the division between the hundred. The large _vallum_ here is southward, and it runs upon the northern brink of the hills; whence I conjecture it a division or fence thrown up by the _Belgæ_ before Cæsar’s time. I call this the second boundary of the _Belgæ_; two others are already mentioned. I pleased myself with the hopes of observing the Roman road running over it, as doubtless it did originally: but just at that instant both enter a lane, where every thing is disfigured with the wearing away and reparations that have been made ever since. Its high ridge is then inclosed within a pasture just at Woodyates, then becomes the common road for half a mile, but immediately passes forward upon a down, the road going off to the right. I continued the Roman road for two or three mile, where it is rarely visited: it is very beautiful, smooth on both sides, broad at top, the holes remaining whence it was taken, with a ditch on each hand: it is made of gravel, flint, or such stuff as happened in the way, most convenient and lasting. There are vast numbers of Celtic barrows upon these downs, just of such manner and shapes as those of Salisbury plain: at the first and more considerable group I came to, there was a most convincing evidence of the Roman road being made since the barrows: two instances of this nature I gave in the last letter. One form of these barrows, for distinction sake, I call Druids (for what reasons I shall not stand here to dispute:) they are thus. A circle of about 100 foot diameter, more or less, is inclosed with a ditch of a moderate breadth and depth: on the outside of this ditch is a proportionate _vallum_; in the centre of this inclosure is a small tump, where the remains of the person are buried, sometimes two, sometimes three. Now so it fell out, that the line of direction of the Roman road necessarily carried it over part of one of these _tumuli_, and some of the materials of the road are dug out of it: this has two little tumps in its centre.

[Sidenote: +Vindogladia.+]

It was now my business to look out for the station in Antoninus called _Vindogladia_, mentioned in the last journey to be twelve mile from _Sorbiodunum_. By this time I was come to a proper distance: accordingly I found, at the end of this heath, the road which is all along called Iclingdike, descended a valley where a brook crosses it, from two villages called Gliffet. At All-Saints, or Lower Gliffet, there was a small ale-house, and the only one hereabouts (the Rose:) my old landlady, after some discourse preparatory, informed me that at Boroston, a mile lower upon the river, had been an old city; and that strangers had come out of their way on purpose to see it; that ruins and foundations were there; that it had seven parish-churches, which were beaten down in the war time; that many old coins had been ploughed up when she was a girl, which the children commonly played withal; but the case at present was plainly the same with that of old Troy, described in the ballad upon her wall, where she showed me these passionate verses,

Waste lie those walls that were so good,
And corn now grows where Troy towers stood.

This account, so natural, satisfied me that _Vindogladia_ must here be fixed, and Wimbornminster be robbed of that honour, where the tide of antiquarians have hitherto carried it, for no other reason but name sake; the distances and road being repugnant. I suppose the name signifies the white river, or vale; _vint_, white; _gladh_, a river; whence our glade, or valley where a river runs. This place being not capable of affording me a proper mansion, I left the more particular scrutiny of it for another opportunity.

Hence I pursued the road on the opposite chalk-hill, where they have dug it away to burn for lime, but much degenerate from Roman mortar in strength: it was not long before I absolutely lost it in great woods beyond Long Crechil; but by information I learnt that it passes the Stour at Crayford bridge below Blandford, where I was obliged to take up my nightly quarters. I was glad to gain the downy country again westward of it, and still full of barrows of all sorts by clusters or groups. I frequently observed on the sides of hills long divisions, very strait, crossing one another with all kinds of angles: they look like the balks or meres of ploughed lands, and are really made of flint over-grown with turf: they are too small for ploughed lands, unless of the most ancient Britons, who dealt little that way; but just such like have I seen in what I always imagine British camps. Above the town of Blandford is an odd intrenchment on a hill, a squarish work, with others like the foundation of small towers: a barrow near it.

_Vol. I. p. 81_

_Stukeley delin:_ _E. Kirkall sculp._]

[Sidenote: +Blandford.+]

Blandford is a pretty town, pleasantly seated in a flexure of the river, before charming meadows, and rich lands. Wood thrives exceedingly here: indeed this country is a fine variety of downs, woods, lawns, arable, pasture, and rich valleys; and an excellent air: the dry easterly winds, the cold northern, and the western moisture, are tempered by the warm southern saline breezes from the ocean, and nearest the sun. The incredible number of barrows that over-spread this country from the sea-side to North Wiltshire, persuade me a great people inhabited here before the _Belgæ_, that came from Spain, which we may call the _Albionites_: but it is not a time to discourse of that. This year, wherever I travelled, I found the bloom of the hedge-rows, and indeed all trees whatever, excessively luxuriant beyond any thing I ever knew. In this part the _buck-thorn_, or _rhamnus catharticus_, is very plentiful; and a traveller, if he pleases, may swallow a dozen of the ripe berries, not without use. Near the passage of the Icening-street at Crayford is Badbury, a vast Roman camp, where antiquities have been found.

[Sidenote: +Wansdike.+]

[Sidenote: +Ibernium.+]

[Sidenote: Ro. _Camp_.]

[Sidenote: TAB. XLV 2d Vol.]

About three mile beyond this I found another ditch and rampart, which I believe to be the first of the colony of the _Belgæ_; it has indeed a rude ancient look; so that they made four of these boundaries successively as their power enlarged, the last being Wansdike, between North and South Wiltshire. By what I could see or learn, in travelling over this intricate country, the Roman road passes upon a division between Pimpern and Bere hundred to Bere; and that I reckon a convenient distance for a station between _Vindogladia_ and Dorchester, being near the middle: on one side it is about thirteen mile, on the other nine. Now in the last journey of Antoninus before mentioned, immediately after _Vindogladia_ follows _Durnovaria M. P._ IX. Dorchester being very truly nine mile off this town Bere, and which is a market-town too, but far otherwise as to Wimbornminster; I doubt not but this is the true place designed in the Itinerary; but that a town is slipped out of the copies. I think I have fortunately discovered it in the famous Ravennas, by which we may have hopes of restoring this journey to its original purity. That author mentions a town next to _Bindogladia_, which he calls _Ibernium_: this verily is our Bere. Mr. Baxter corrects it into _Ibelnium_, and places it at Blandford, for no other reason, as I conceive, but because he imagined it must necessarily be hereabouts. I was not a little pleased when I found my notion highly confirmed by a great and elegant Roman camp upon a hill near Bere, I think it is called Woodbury, where a yearly fair is kept: this is between Bere and Milburn upon the river: it is doubly intrenched, or rather a double camp one within another. This town of Bere denominates the hundred too. In this case, where a Roman camp, a road, and all distances concur, which in the others are very abhorrent from reality, I imagine the reader will find little difficulty in passing over to my sentiments. The town is called _Bere Regis_, and the camp is the _Æstiva_ to the town. Of Dorchester I have spoken already, beyond which is the original of the Icening-street: from thence I travelled along the southern coasts, in order to come to the beginning of this seventh journey.

[Sidenote: +Moriconium.+]

Wareham is denominated from the passage or ford over the two rivers between which it is situate, where now are bridges: this has been a Roman town. A great square is taken in, with a very high _vallum_ of earth, and a deep ditch: there has been a castle by the water-side, west of the bridge, built by William the Conqueror, perhaps upon the Roman. It is an old corporation, now decayed, the sands obstructing the passage of vessels; and Pool, being better seated, from a fisher’s town has rose to be a rich flourishing sea-port, robbing this place. They say here have been many parish-churches, and a mint. This is probably the _Moriconium_ of Ravennas, as Mr. Baxter asserts. I heard of Roman coins being found here. This country is sandy for the most part, as commonly toward the sea-coasts. I saw a ruinous religious house as I came by the side of the river Frome. This haven is of a vast extent, like a sea, having a narrow entry; an indulgent formation of Nature to her beloved island of Great Britain. I saw vast stones lying loose upon this sand, in some places, like the Wiltshire grey weathers. It is a melancholy unpleasant view hereabouts for travellers, when they come from the other delightful scenes of the better parts of Dorsetshire: it is moory for the most part, full of ling or heath, as on all the sea-coasts here, from the chalk-hills in Dorsetshire to those in Sussex. Two rocks about Corf castle have an odd appearance hence.

[Sidenote: +Alauna.+]

[Sidenote: +Bolnelaunium.+]

Wimburnminster is a small place, of no great trade: a large old church with two towers; the middle one in the cross very old, and most of the church before the time of the Conquest: this middle steeple had a spire which fell down. The river Stour runs a little way south of the town, through a large bridge; _sdour_, a _sibilus_ put to the old Celtic word. The river Alen in several divisions runs through the town, which makes me think it to be the _Alauna_ of Ravennas, put next to _Bolnelaunium_, which I conjecture to be Christ’s-church by the sea-side, that being subsequent to _Moriconium_: that it was not Pool, as Mr. Baxter places it, is plain from a reason just mentioned, Pool being an upstart. Wimburnminster stands in a large extended fruitful vale like a meadow, with much wood about it. These rivers abound with fish. Here was a nunnery built anno 712, by Cuthburga sister to king Ina. King Etheldred was buried here.

[Sidenote: +Regnum.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. XLVI. 2d Vol.]

[Sidenote: Br. _oppidum_.]

From hence I went to Ringwood upon the river Avon, over a deep sandy moor; which has ever been thought the _Regnum_ in the Itinerary, and begins the _Iter septimum_ of Antoninus. It is a large thriving place, full of good new brick houses, seated by the side of a great watery valley, the river dividing itself into several streams, and frequently overflowing large quantities of the meadow: it seems well calculated to have been an old British town: they deal pretty much in leather here, and woollen manufactures of stockings, druggets, narrow cloth. Roman discoveries I could make little; but the name and distances seem to establish the matter: so I hastened through New Forest, where I found it necessary to steer by the compass, as at sea. They tell us at Wattonsford the memory of Tyrrel is still preserved, as passing over there when he unawares shot William Rufus. The soil is sand, gravel, stone, clay by parcels: these are pleasant solitudes for a contemplative traveller, did not the intricacies of the roads give one uneasiness. Here are whole acres of the most beautiful _fox-gloves_ that one can see, rising upon a strong stem, adorned with numerous bell-flowers as high as one’s horse. Mr. Baxter has a right notion of this name, signifying _lemurum manicæ_, from the supposed fairies. I take these names, and foxes bells, and the like, to be reliques of the Druids, who did great cures by them; for this is a plant of powerful qualities, when prudently administered, in a constitution that will bear it. I observe we derive the names of very many plants from the old Celtic language, as I believe the Greeks and Latins did likewise. The king’s house, as called still, was at Lyndhurst: the duke of Bolton has a hunting-seat thereabouts. I rode through an old camp in the midst of the forest: it is overgrown with wood, seems to have been round: at bottom is a spring: no doubt but it is a British _oppidum_. You may see Southampton from thence. They say the king was killed hereabouts. Here is a great plantation of young oaks, for the use of the crown: a great deal of fine oak-timber left; but the beech-trees are very stately and numerous.

_Stukeley del_: _E. Kirkall sculp_:]

A. _the Cathedral._
B. _the Kings house_
C. _the Bishops Palace_
D. _the College_
E. _the Ro: road to Southampton_
F. _the Ro: Road to old Sarum_
G. _Ro: road to Speen & Silchester_

_Dno Rogero Mostyn Barrᵗᵗᵒ.
tab. d.d. Wˢ. Stukeley._

_Wᵐ. Rufus his Tomb_

_Stukeley del_:]

[Sidenote: +Arminis.+]

Romsey was unquestionably a Roman town, and its present name shows as much. The church is a noble old pile of architecture, arched with stone in the form of a cross, with semi-circular chapels in the upper angles. These churches, hereabouts called minsters, were doubtless built by the Saxon kings as soon as they became christian: the manner of their structure is much like those built by queen Helena in Palestine: at the west end of it is a bit of an old wall, perhaps belonging to the nunnery built here by king Edgar. I heard of a silver Roman coin found here. This town is an old corporation, in situation extraordinary pleasant, having woods, corn-fields, meadows, pastures, around it in view: the river and rivulets, which are many, have a rapid course.

[Sidenote: +Venta Belgarum.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LXXXIII.]

Two miles before I came to Winchester, the downs of chalk begin again with barrows upon them. I saw several double ones. The walls of Winchester inclose a long square about 700 paces one way, 500 the other: it stands on the western declivity of a hill, the river running below on the east. Many branches, and cuts of it too, pass through the midst of the city, and render their gardens very pleasant: the walls and gates, as repaired in times long after the Roman, and chiefly of flint, are pretty intire; no doubt, built upon the old Roman. In the higher part of the city is the castle, which overlooks the whole:[138] here is a famed round table, where king Arthur’s knights used to sit. I saw some great ruins still left of the walls and towers that belonged to it; but the main of it was pulled down when Sir Christopher Wren projected the king’s palace there in king Charles the IId’s reign: it fronts the west end of the cathedral. The houses in the town were bought in order to make a street between both, which would have had a noble effect. This palace is a large pile of building, and beautiful, yet with all the plainness that was necessary to save an extravagant expence, or that became a royal retirement: it fills up three sides of a large square, so that the opening of the wings or front looks over the city: three tier of windows, twenty-six in a row, fill up every side externally, besides the fronton in the middle of each side, composed of four Corinthian pilasters: a handsome balustrade runs quite round the top: the inside of this open court is more elegant, and enriched with portico’s, &c. the late duke of Tuscany gave some fine marble pillars towards the adorning it. A great bridge was to have been built across the foss in the principal front; and a garden, park, &c. were to have been made before the back front: the citizens entertain great hopes, that since the happy increase of the royal family, this palace will be finished: it is of plain brick-work, but the window-cases, fascias, cornice, &c. of good Portland stone. There is a great old chapel near it. This place was the residence of the potent kings of the West Saxons.

The cathedral is a venerable and large pile: the tower in the middle and transept are of ancienter work than the choir and the body. Inigo Jones has erected a delicate screen of stone-work before the choir. Here was the burial-place of many Saxon and Norman kings, whose remains the impious soldiers in the civil wars threw against the painted glass: they show too the tomb of king Lucius. Queen Mary was here married to Philip of Spain: the chair used in that ceremony is still preserved. In the body of the church is a very ancient font, with odd sculptures round it. In the city is a pretty cross of Gothic workmanship, but ill repaired. Without the southern gate is a stately fabric, the college, erected and endowed by William of Wickham, bishop here, for education of youth. There is good painted glass of imagery in the chapel windows: in the middle of the cloysters is a strong stone building, the library, well contrived to prevent fire: the school is a more modern structure, handsome, with a very good statue of the founder over the door, made by Cibber. This country is intirely chalk, whence I suppose the name of _Venta_: the city is a genteel and pleasant place, and abounds with even the elegancies of life. Beyond the river eastward is a high hill, called St. Giles’s, from an hospital once there; now only some ruins of it to be seen, and a church-yard, seeming to have been a camp, beside the marks of bastions, and works of fortifications in the modern stile. Here Waltheof, earl of Northumberland and Huntingdon, was beheaded, by order of William I. whose body was carried to Crowland, and asserted to have miraculous virtues.

In digging the foundation of a house near the college, in a stone coffin was found a stone set in a gold ring, with this inscription in very old characters, supposed about the sixth century.

_Duce domino comite fidele meo._

A mile to the south of Winchester is a magnificent hospital, called Holy Cross, founded by bishop Blois: the church is in the form of a cross, and has a large square tower. Over it, on the other side the river, hangs a camp upon St. Catharine’s hill, with a _brachium_ reaching down to the water side, for convenience of that element. The way between Winchester and Southampton we perceived plainly to be a Roman road, especially as far as the chalk reached: then we came to a forest where the soil is gravelly all the way.

[Sidenote: +Southampton.+]

Southampton was strongly walled about with very large stones, full of those little white shells, like honey-combs, that grow upon the back of oysters: this is a sort of stone extremely hard, and seems to be gathered near the beach of the sea. These walls have many lunettes, and towers, in some places doubly ditched; but the sea encompasses near half the town: it was built in the time of king Edward III. I observe they have a method of breaking the force of the waves here, by laying a bank of sea-ore, as they call it: it is composed of long, slender, and strong filaments, like pilled hemp, very tough and durable; I suppose it is thrown up by the ocean: and this performs its work better than walls of stone, or natural cliff. At the south-east corner, near the quay, is a fort with some guns upon it, called the Tower: on one we saw this inscription,

_Henricus_ VIII. _Anglie, Franciæ_ & _Hiberniæ rex,
fidei defensor invictissimus f. f._
MD. XXXXII. HR. VIII.

In the north-west corner was a strong castle with a mount, walled about at top, as a keep: upon this a round stone tower, with a winding ascent: the Anabaptists are about pulling it down, to build a meeting-house. The main of this town consists of one broad street, running through its length: there are many old religious ruins, and great warehouses, cellars, store-houses, &c. but with their trade gone to decay. It was a great sea-port not long since, and had the sole privilege, by charter, of importing wine from France, till they foolishly sold it to the city of London.

_Stukeley d._

_View in the_ Port.]

A. _Sᵗ. Mary’s where the old_ Trausantum _Stood_

_Stukeley d._

_Prospect from_ Portsmouth]

[Sidenote: +Trausantum.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LXXIX.]

The old Roman city stood more eastward, upon the banks of the river Itching coming from Winchester, where now is a hamlet called St. Mary’s. There is a handsome new church built upon the ruins of an old one, which they say was burnt in some French wars: it is near the present ferry and opposite to Bittern. Many antiquities have been found upon the site of the old city. Likewise at Bittern was an old Roman castle, surrounded by a ditch, into which the sea-water flowed: many antiquities likewise have hence been produced, of which Mr. Camden gives us an account. Perhaps the buildings on both sides the river were comprehended under one name of _Trausantum_; therefore this river must have been the _Antona_: it was ruined in the Danish wars, and Southampton arose from its ashes. This is the place memorable for the famous experiment of king Canute, who sitting upon the banks of the river, crowned and in regal robes, commanded the tide not to approach his footstool; but the ocean, like an unlimited monarch, was as regardless of his menaces, as the Hellespont, of Xerxes his bridles and fetters.

[Sidenote: +Portus Magnus.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LXXX.]

Leaving this lesson of the perishing glory of monarchs and cities too, we journeyed to Portsmouth, an entertaining sight of the maritime majesty of Great Britain, in this point excelling the ancient Roman grandeur. Over a moory common we passed by Fareham, and by Portchester, a castle made out of a Roman city. We have little reason to doubt that this is the _portus magnus_ of Ptolemy, as it deserves to be called, where a thousand sail of the biggest ships may ride secure: the mouth of it is not so broad, as the Thames at Westminster, and that secured by numerous forts; on Gosport side, Charles fort, James fort, Borough fort, which name seems to intimate a Roman citadel formerly there; Blockhouse fort, which has a platform of above twenty great guns level with the water: and on the other side, by Portsmouth, Southsea castle, built by Henry VIII. of a like model with those I saw near Deal upon the Kentish shore.

[Sidenote: TAB. LXXIX.]

Portsmouth is the most regular fortification, of the modern manner, which we have in England; a curious sight to those that have not been out of it. The government has bought more ground lately for additional works, and no doubt it is capable of being made impregnable; for a shallow water may be brought quite round it. Here is one of the greatest arsenals for the royal navy: above thirty men of war of the highest rates lie here, capable of being fitted out in less than a fortnight; among them, the Royal William, that can play off at once 120 battering-rams of brass, infinitely more forceable than that famous one Titus used against the walls of Jerusalem. The yards, the docks, the store-houses, where all their furniture is laid up in the exactest order, so that the men can go in the dark and fetch out any individual, is a sight beyond imagination. The immense quantities of cables, masts and tackle, of great guns, bullets, bombs, carcasses, mortars, granado’s, &c. these of all sorts and sizes, and the regular methods they are reposited in and distinguished by, are prodigious, and no where to be equalled but in England; for when I was informed that this place is outdone, in all the particulars, both at Chatham and Plymouth, there was no more room left for wonder. The Royal William’s mast is a noble piece of timber 124 foot long, and this is only the bottom part of the main mast; it is 36 inches diameter, clear timber: its lantern is like a summer-house: its great anchor and all accoutrements are equally astonishing. The rope-house is 870 foot long, one continued room, almost a quarter of a mile: we chanced to have the pleasure of seeing a great cable made here; it requires 100 men to work at it, and so hard the labour, that they can work but four hours in a day. The least complement of men continually employed in the yard is a thousand, and that but barely sufficient ordinarily to keep the naval affairs in good repair. But I have talked enough of matters so much out of my sphere. I was sorry to leave this amazing scene of naval grandeur, with the shocking sight of a wretched statue of king William, gilt indeed in an extraordinary manner; but of all the bad works in this fort, I have seen, it is the very last. From Portsmouth there is a fine prospect of the isle of Wight, famous for Vespasian’s first attempts in subduing the southern parts of Britain: its beautiful elevations, some woody, some downy, its towns, havens and white cliffs, at this distance, seem to persuade one it is an epitome of Great Britain, as that of the world; or that Nature made it as an essay, or copy, of her greater and more finished work. Before I leave Portsmouth I shall set down this catalogue of the British fleet as it stands this present year, given me by an officer; by which some people, fond of magnifying the mimic endeavours of some other powers, may calculate, if they please, when such will come up to rival it.

Rates. Guns. Nᵒ of each rate. Complement of men
to each.
_1st._ 100 7 780
_2d._ 90 13 680
_3d._ 80 16 520
70 24 440
————
60
————
_4th._ 60 18 365
50 46 280
124
————
_5th._ 40 24 190
30 4 155
————
152
————
_6th._ 20 27 130
———— ————
179 3540
———— ————
The whole complement
of men 55720.
Fire-ships 3
Bombs 3
Sloops 13
Yachts 12
Hoys 11
Smacks 2
Hulks 7
Store-ships 1
Hospital-ships 1
————
232

A. _The Isle of Wight._ B. _Southsea Castle._ D. _Portsmouth._ E.
_Landgard fort._ F. _Gosport._ G. _Portchester._ H. _Portsdown
hill._

_Prospect of_ Chichester _Sep. 14. 1723._ _Stukeley del._]

A. _Where the Roman Temple stood_
B. _Grey-fryers_
C. _Black fryers_
D. _Sᵗ. Marys Hospital_

_Stukeley Delin._ _Parker Sculpᵗ._]

[Sidenote: TAB. LXXXII.]

I observed, the great quantity of water and ditches about this place is apt to render it aguish. The reader will excuse me from giving any description of the fortifications here, for the same reason that I did not offer to draw any thing; but passing by draw-bridges, bastions, gates, fosses, counterscarps, &c. we repeated our steps to the Ports-down hills, which are of chalk, and at a reasonable distance from the shore extend themselves into Sussex; leaving to the south a less elevated, woody, and rich country. Here we turned to admire the delightful view of the ground we had passed, and that we were going to: the ports, creeks, bays, the ocean, the castles fixt, and those moving on the water, the isle of Wight in its full extent, all lay before us, and under the eye, as in a map: Portchester, Gosport, which is a very considerable town, Portsmouth, Southampton, Chichester, and all the sea-coast from Portland isle to the Sussex coasts, were taken in at one ken. I took a little sketch of it in passing, in plate 82.

We found some of the Roman way upon this ridge, which I suppose went through Fareham and Havant, between _Trausantum_ and Chichester, with a vicinal turning out to Portchester: it goes east and west. We passed by a large long barrow. We were led to Chichester by the fame of a most ancient inscription lately discovered there, whereof transcripts were handed about, that appeared not exact enough: this has revived the lustre of Chichester; for, though the termination of its name, and a Roman road called Stane-street coming to it, is evidence sufficient of its being a Roman city, yet none has positively affirmed it, because we have not hitherto been able to assign it a name. Mr. Camden satisfied himself that it owed its name and foundation to Cissa, the South-Saxon king. It is probable the city was destroyed soon after the Romans evacuated this kingdom, either in the wars between the Britons and first Saxons, or by the plundering Danes, who ravaged all the sea-coasts; so that its name was utterly forgot: but Cissa becoming master of this country, and there chusing to fix his seat, repaired the ancient castle or walls, whose _vestigia_ were of too lasting materials wholly to have lost the appearance of their workmanship: then it was natural enough to prefix his name to this Roman termination, by which the Saxons always called castles of the Romans: or it might be simply called _caster_, _chester_, as was frequent in other places, till he restored it; and then it took his name, importing _Cissa’s chester_: but had it been originally founded by him, it would never have assumed that adjunct.

[Sidenote: TAB. LXXXI.]

I doubt not but the walls of the present city are built upon the old Roman foundations chiefly. It is of a roundish form, the river running under part of the walls. Two principal streets cross it at right angles upon the cardinal points, where stands a curious cross erected by bishop Read. The church takes up one of these quadrants: it is remarkable for two side-ailes on both sides, and the pictures of all the kings and queens of England since Cissa, which are hung upon the wall of the southern transept; all the bishops on the opposite wall. Eastward of the cathedral is a place called the _Pallant_, which seems derived from the Latin _palatium_. In the middle of North-street was dug up this memorable inscription, which I have printed in plate 49. To your explication of it nothing can be added: the reader and myself will be obliged to you for the leave you have given me here to insert it. It was happy we took great care in transcribing the letters; for, since it has been in the possession of the duke of Richmond, I hear a workman, who pretended to set the fragments together, has defaced it.

_An Account of a_ ROMAN INSCRIPTION _found at_ Chichester.

_By_ +Roger Gale+, _Esq._

[Sidenote: TAB. XLIX.]

This inscription, as curious as any that has yet been discovered in Britain, was found, the beginning of last April, at Chichester, in digging a cellar under the corner house of St. Martin’s lane, on the north side, as it comes into North-street. It lay about four foot under ground, with the face upwards: by which it had the misfortune to receive a great deal of damage from the picks of the labourers, as they endeavoured to raise it; for, besides the defacing of several letters, what was here disinterred of the stone was broke into four pieces: the other part of it, still wanting, is, in all probability, buried under the next house, and will not be brought to light till that happens to be rebuilt. The inscription is cut upon a grey Sussex marble, the length of which was six Roman feet, as may be conjectured by measuring it from the middle of the word TEMPLVM to that end of it which is intire, and is not altogether three foot English, from the point mentioned: the breadth of it is 2 and ¾ of the same feet; the letters beautifully and exactly drawn; those in the two first lines three inches long, and the rest 2¼.

Being at Chichester in September last with Dr. Stukeley, we took an accurate view of this marble, which is now fixed in the wall under a window within the house where it was found; and, that we might be as sure of the true reading as possible, wherever the letters were defaced, we impressed a paper with a wet sponge into them, and by that means found those in the fifth line to have been as we have expressed them above, and not as in other copies that have been handed about of this inscription.

The only letter wanting in the first line is an N before EPTVNO, and so no difficulty in reading that. As to the second, though it was more usual, in inscriptions of this nature, to express the donation by the word SACRVM only, referring to the _temple_, or _altar_, dedicated; yet we have so many instances, in Gruter’s _Corpus Inscriptionum_, of TEMPLVM and ARAM also cut on the stones, that there is not the least occasion to say any thing farther upon that point.

The third line can be no other way filled up, than as I have done it by the pricked letters: I must own, however, that I have had some scruple about the phrase of DOMVS DIVINA, the same thing as DOMVS AVGVSTA, the _imperial family_; which I cannot say occurs, with any certainty of the time it was used in, before the reign of Antoninus Pius, from whom, down to Constantine the Great, it is very frequently met with in inscriptions. This kept me some time in suspence, whether this found at Chichester could be of so early a date as the time of Claudius: but as we find several inscriptions in Gruter with those words in them, or I. H. D. D. _In Honorem Domus Divinæ_, which is much the same thing, without any mark of the time when they were cut, they may have been before the reign of Antoninus Pius, and then only came into more general use; and as the time that Cogidunus lived in, will not let this be of a later standing, I think we may offer it as an authority for the use of this piece of flattery to the emperors long before that excellent prince came to the purple.

The third line, as I believe, was EX AVCTORITATE. TIB. CLAVD. and the fourth COGIDVBNI. R. LEG. &c. that is, _Ex auctoritate Tiberii Claudii Cogidubni regis, legati Augusti in Britannia_; for the following reasons: we are informed by Tacitus, _in vita Agricolæ_, _cap._ 14. that after Britain had been reduced to a Roman province by the successful arms of Aulus Plautius, and Ostorius Scapula, under the emperor Claudius, _Quædam civitates_ Cogiduno Regi _erant donatæ, is ad nostram usque memoriam fidissimus remansit, vetere ac jam pridem recepta Populi Romani confsuetudine ut haberet instrumenta servitutis_ & Reges. This _Cogidunus_ seems to be the same person as _Cogidubnus_ in our inscription, the letter B in the third syllable making little or no difference in the word, especially if pronounced soft, as it ought to be, like a V consonant.

It is so well known to have been the custom of the Roman _Liberti_ and _Clientes_, to take the names of their patrons and benefactors, it would be wasting of time to prove the constant usage of that practice. Now, as this _Cogidubnus_, who in all probability was a petty prince of that part of the _Dobuni_ which had submitted to Claudius, and one that continued many years faithful to him and the Romans, (_vide Tacit. ut supra_) had given him the government of some part of the island by that emperor, nothing could be more grateful in regard to Claudius, nor more honourable to himself, after he was _romanised_, than to take the names of a benefactor to whom he was indebted for his kingdom, and so call himself TIBERIVS CLAVDIVS COGIDVBNVS.

I suppose him to have been a _Regulus_ of the _Dobuni_; because we are told by Dion Cassius (_in lib._ lx.) that Aulus Plautius having put to flight Cataratacus and _Togodumnus_, sons of Cunobelin, part of the _Boduni_ (the same people as the _Dobuni_) who were subject to the _Catuellani_, submitted to the Romans; and the name _Cogidubnus_, or _Cogiduvnus_, *Coc o Dubn*, or *Duvn*, (_vid. Baxteri Glossar. in verbis_ Cogidumnus, & Dobuni) signifying expresly in the British language PRINCEPS DOBVNORVM, seems to put the matter out of all doubt.

How far his territories extended, it is impossible to define. Bishop Stillingfleet, _Orig. Britan._ p. 63. supposes them to have lain in Surrey and Sussex. Sussex certainly was part of them, since the temple mentioned in this inscription was erected in it by his authority; and it is not unlikely, that besides the _Regni_, who were the people of those two counties, he might have that part of the _Dobuni_ which had submitted to the Romans, and seems to have been his own principality, together with the _Ancalites_, _Bibroci_ and _Segontiaci_, whose countries lay between the _Dobuni_ and the _Regni_, bestowed upon him; the words _civitates quædam_, in Tacitus, not importing no more than some _few towns_, but _several people_; the word _civitas_ always signifying a _people_ in that historian.

Before I proceed any farther, it will not be amiss to observe, that _Togodumnus_ and _Cogidubnus_, though their names are so much alike, were two distinct persons: the first was son of Cunobelin, king of the _Trinobantes_, vanquished and killed in battle by Aulus Plautius; the second, a prince that submitted to Ostorius Scapula, and continued in his fidelity to the Romans, _in nostram usque memoriam_, says Tacitus, who was born at the latter end of Claudius’s reign; so that _Togodumnus_ was probably dead before _Cogidubnus_ had his government conferred upon him.

I call it his government; for though, by the letter ·R· standing in the inscription with a point both before and after it, by which it plainly denotes an intire word of itself, it may seem that it was intended for COGIDVBNI REGIS, and I believe was so in respect of his _quondam_ dignity, yet it is evident, that he had condescended to take the title of LEGATVS AVGVSTI IN BRITANNIA from Claudius: and that too must have been only over those people that he had given him the government of; Aulus Plautius, Ostorius Scapula, Didius Gallus, Avitus Veranius, and Suetonius Paullinus, having the supreme command successively about this time in this island, the second and last of which are called expresly _Legati_ by Tacitus, _lib._ xii. _Ann. cap._ 23. & _Vit. Agric. cap._ 15. The _Legati Cæsaris_, or _Augusti,_ were those _qui Cæsaribus subditas regebant Provincias_.

The sixth line has lost at the beginning the letters COLLE; but so much remains of the word, as makes it to have been indubitably, when intire, COLLEGIVM; and the following letters are an abbreviation of FABRORVM.

These colleges of artificers were very ancient at Rome, as ancient as their second king Numa Pompilius, if we may believe Plutarch (_in vit. Numæ_) who tells us, that the people were divided by him into what we at this day call _Companies of Tradesmen_, and mentions the Τέκτονες or _Fabri_ among them; though Floras (_lib._ i. _cap._ 6.) says, that _Populus Romanus a_ Servio Tullio _relatus suit in Censum, digestus in Classes, Curiis atque_ Collegiis _distributus_. But as the power of the Romans extended itself, it carried the arts of that great people along with it, and improved the nations that it subdued, by civilizing, and teaching them the use of whatever was necessary or advantageous among their conquerors; from which most wise and generous disposition, among other beneficial institutions, we find these _Collegia_ to have been established in every part of the empire, from the frequent mention of them in the inscriptions collected by Gruter, Spon, and other antiquaries.

Several sorts of workmen were included under the name of _Fabri_, particularly all those that were concerned in any kind of building; whence we meet with the _Fabri Ferrarii_, _Lignarii_, _Tignarii_, _Materiarii_, _Navales_, and others: the last named may have been the authors of dedicating this temple to Neptune, having so near a relation to the sea, from which the city of Chichester is at so small a distance, that perhaps that arm of it which still comes up within two miles of its walls, might formerly have washed them. The rest of the fraternity might very well pay the same devotion to Minerva, the Goddess of all arts and sciences, and patroness of the Dædalian profession.

As no less than five letters are wanting at the beginning of the sixth line, there cannot be fewer lost at the beginning of the seventh, where the stone is more broke away than above; so that probably there were six when it was perfect. What we have left of them is only the top of an S: I will not therefore take upon me to affirm any thing as to the reading of them, which is so intirely defaced: perhaps it was A. SACR. S. _a sacris sunt_; perhaps it was HONOR. S. _Honorati sunt_: as to the former, we find these _Collegia_ had their _Sacerdotes_; therefore _Qui a sacris sunt_, which is found in inscriptions, (_vid. Grut. Corp._ xxix. 8. cxxi. +I. DCXXXII. I.+) would be no improper term to express them; or it might have been SACER. S. _sacerdotes sunt_, since we find such mentioned in the following inscriptions. _Spon. Miscell. Erud. Antiq._ p. 58.

MAVORTI SACRVM
HOC SIGNVM
RESTIT _ _ _ _ _
COLL. FABR. ARI
CINORVM ANTIQVISS.
VETVSTATE
DILAPSVM ET
REFECER. CVR. L. LVCILIVS
LATINVS PROC. R. P. ARIC.
ET T. SEXTIVS MAGGIVS
SACER. COLL. EIVSD.

_Mavorti sacrum hoc Signum restituit Collegium_ Fabrorum Aricinorum _Antiquissimum, vetustate dilapsum, & refecerunt. Curabant Lucius Lucilius Latinus, Procurator Reipublicæ Aricinorum, & Titus Sextius Maggius_ Sacerdos _Collegii ejusdem_,

Ibid. p. 64.