Chapter VI: Preface (6)

The collegiate church is stately enough: in it is buried the restless king John; not where now his monument stands in the choir before the high altar, but under a little stone before the altar of the eastermost wall of the church; on each side him, upon the ground, lie the effigies of the two holy bishops and his chief saints Wolstan and Oswald, from whose vicinity he hoped to be safe from harm: the image of the king likewise I suppose formerly lay here upon the ground, now elevated upon a tomb in the choir as aforesaid. There is a large and handsome stone chapel over the monument of prince Arthur, son of Henry VII. on the south side of the high altar. The cloysters are very perfect, and the chapter-house is large, supported, as to its arched roof, with one umbilical pillar: it is now become a library well furnished, and has a good many old manuscripts. There is a large old gate-house standing, and near it the castle, with a very high artificial mount or keep nigh the river. We met here with an odd instance of a prodigious memory, in a person the powers of whose soul are run out (as we may speak) intirely into that one; for otherwise his capacity is very weak: if we name any passage in the whole Bible, he will immediately tell you what book, chapter, and verse, it is in; a truly living concordance. Here are a great many churches, and in good repair: one steeple is octangular, another is remarkable for its lofty spire. A large bridge of six arches over the beautiful Severn, enriched on both sides with pleasant meadows. This is a large city, very populous and busy, and affords several fine prospects, particularly from Perry wood. No doubt but this was a Roman city; yet we could find no remains, but a place in it called Sidbury, which seems to retain from its name some memorial of that sort.

_Præhonorabili Dⁿᵒ. Eduardo Dⁿᵒ. Harley bonarum Artium
cultori & fautori Tabula votiva._

_J. Pine sculp._ _W. Stukeley designat_]

_Tempus edax Rerum Tuqᵤₑ Invidiosa Vetustas
Omnia destruitis. Vitiataqᵤₑ dentibus Ævi
Paulatim lenta consumitis Omnia Morte._
+Ov.+

Jacobo Hill Ar. J. C. Vicinæ Civitatis formam consecrat W. Stukeley.

_Stukeley delin._]

[Sidenote: +Ypocessa.+]

[Sidenote: +Salinis.+]

[Sidenote: +Malvern.+]

A Roman road goes hence along the river to Upton, where antiquities are dug up, (I take it for _Ypocessa_ of Ravennas) and so to Tewksbury, where it meets with the Ricning-street way. A little below Worcester a river called Teme falls into the Severn; and many other synonymous rivers there are in England, beside the great Thames, which shows it a common name to rivers in the old Celtic language, and the same with the Greek Ποταμος, the first syllable cut off. A little above, a river called Saltwarp falls into the Severn from Droitwich, a Roman town, which occurs too in Ravennas under the name of _Salinis_; and they still make salt at the place. From hence I made an excursion to Great Malvern, a considerable priory at the bottom of a prodigious hill of that name: the church is very large and beautiful, with admirable painted glass in all the windows, and several old monuments: upon a stone now in the body of the church, but taken from without the south side in a garden, which was anciently the south wing, this.

PHILOSOPHVS DIGNVS BONVS ASTROLOGVS LOTHERING,
VIR PIVS AC HVMILIS MONACHVS PRIOR HVIVS OVILIS
HAC IACET IN CISTA GEOMETRICVS AC ABACISTA
DOCTOR WALCHERVS FLET PLEBS DOLET VNDIQ. CLERVS
HVIC LVX PRIMA MORI DEDIT OCTOBRIS SENIORI
VIVAT UT IN CELIS EXORET QVISQ. FIDELIS M. C. XXXV.[49]

there is a carved stone image, by the south wall of the choir, of very rude and ancient workmanship: it is a knight covered with mail and his surcoat; in his right hand a halbert like a pick-axe, in his left a round target. Here are many coats of arms and cognizances upon a glazed sort of brick; such I have seen at other places. A handsome gate-house is left, and from the houses in the town you command a very noble prospect over Worcester, as far as Edghill, as they tell us: it is thought the Malvern has metals in its bowels. We diverted ourselves, as we rode through Dean forest, with a house after the primitive style, built round an oak tree, whose branches are still green with leaves. Vide Vitruv. L. II. C. I. Two thousand years ago, one would have suspected it to be a Druid’s.

[Sidenote: +Ariconium.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LXXXV.]

[Sidenote: +Credonhill.+ Br. _camp_.]

[Sidenote: +Sutton walls.+ Ro. _camp_.]

The city of Hereford probably sprung up from the ruin of the Roman _Ariconium_, now Kenchester, three miles off, higher up the river Wye, but not very near it; which may be a reason for its decay. Ariconium stands upon a little brook called the Ine, which thence encompassing the walls of Hereford falls into the Wye. Two great Roman ways here cross each other: one called the Port-way comes from _Bullæum_, now Buelt, in Radnorshire; passing eastward by Kenchester, through Stretton, over the river Lug, to Stretton Grantham upon the Frome, it goes to Worcester: the other road comes from the south, and Abergavenny, _Gobannium_, by Old town formerly _Blescium_; so by Dowre a-cross the Golden vale and Archenfield to the river Wye, which it passes at Eaton, where is a Roman camp for security, and a bridge for convenience of the passage: thence it goes to Kenchester, so northwards by Stretford: this Archenfield seems to retain the name of Ariconium. Nothing remaining of its splendour, but a piece of a temple probably, with a niche which is five foot high and three broad within, built of Roman brick, stone, and indissoluble mortar: the figure of it is in the fore-mentioned plate. There are many large foundations near it. A very fine Mosaic floor a few years ago was found intire, soon torn to pieces by the ignorant vulgar. I took up some remaining stones of different colours, and several bits of fine potters ware of red earth. Mr. Aubury in his manuscript notes says, anno 1670, old Roman buildings of brick were discovered under-ground, on which oaks grew: the bricks are of two sorts; some equilaterally square, seven or eight inches, and one inch thick; some two foot square, and three inches thick. A bath was here found by Sir John Hoskyns about seven foot square: the pipes of lead intire; those of brick were a foot long, three inches square, let artificially one into another: over these I suppose was a pavement. This is an excellent invention for heating a room, and might well be introduced among us in winter time. In another place is a hollow, where burnt wheat has been taken up: some time since colonel Dantsey sent a little box full of it to the Antiquarian Society. All around the city you may easily trace the walls, some stones being left every where, though overgrown by hedges and timber trees. The ground of the city is higher than the level of the circumjacent country. There appears no sign of a foss or ditch around it. The site of the place is a gentle eminence of a squarish form; the earth black and rich, overgrown with brambles, oak trees, full of stones, foundations, and cavities where they have been digging. Many coins and the like have been found. Mr. Ja. Hill, J. C. has many coins found here, some of which he gave to the said society. Colonel Dantsey has paved a cellar with square bricks dug up here: my lord Coningsby has judiciously adorned the floor of his evidence-room with them. This city is overlooked and sheltered towards the north with a prodigious mountain of steep ascent crowned at the top with a vast camp, which ingirdles its whole _apex_ with works altogether inaccessible: it is called Credon hill, seemingly British: if you will take the pains to climb it, you are presented with a most glorious and extensive prospect, as far as St. Michael’s mount in Monmouthshire; bipartite at top, Parnassus-like, and of especial fame and resort among the zealots of the Roman creed, who think this holy hill was sent hither by St. Patrick out of Ireland, and has wonderful efficacy in several cases. On the other hand you see the vast black mountain separating Brecknockshire from this county: the city Ariconium underneath appears like a little copse. On the other side of the Wye you see Dinder hill, whereon is a Roman camp: and upon the Lug are Sutton walls, another vast Roman camp upon a hill overtopping a beautiful vale, the royal mansion of the most potent king Offa, but most notorious for the execrable murder of young king Ethelbert, allured thither under pretext of courting his daughter, and buried in the adjacent church of Marden, situate in a marsh by the river side: hence his body was afterwards conveyed to Hereford and enshrined; but the particular place we cannot find. I suppose this martyr’s merits were obliterated by the succeeding saint, Cantilupe, the great miracle-monger on this side the kingdom, as his tutor and namesake Thomas Becket was in Kent.

[Sidenote: +Hereford.+]

In the north wing of the cathedral of Hereford is the shrine where Cantilupe was buried, and which wing he himself built: his picture is painted on the wall: all around are the marks of hooks where the banners, lamps, reliques, and the like presents, were hung up in his honour; and, no doubt, vast were the riches and splendor which filled this place; and it is well guarded and barricadoed to prevent thieves from making free with his superfluities: the shrine is of stone, carved round with knights in armour; for what reason I know not, unless they were his life-guard. I saw a book, printed at St. Omar’s, of no little bulk, which contained an account of his miracles. The church is very old and stately, the roof, ailes, and chapel, have been added to the more ancient part by succeeding bishops, as also the towers, cloysters, &c. The most beautiful chapter-house of a decagonal form, and having an umbilical pillar, was destroyed in the civil wars. I saw its poor remains, whence I endeavoured to restore the whole in drawing as well as I could, from the symmetry and manner of the fabric, which I guess to be about Henry the Sixth’s time: there are about four windows now standing, and the springing of the stone arches between, of fine rib-work, which composed the roof; of that sort of architecture wherewith King’s-college chapel at Cambridge is built: two windows were pulled down, a very little while ago, by bishop Bisse, which he used in new fitting up the episcopal palace: under the windows in every compartment was painted a king, bishop, saint, virgin, or the like; some I found distinct enough, though so long exposed to the weather. Here are the greatest number of monuments of the bishops I ever saw, many valuable brasses and tombs, one of Sir Richard Penbrug, knight of the garter, which I drew out for Mr. Anstis: in our Lady’s chapel, now the library, a fine brass of Isabella the wife of Richard Delamare, ob. 1421. Between the cathedral and episcopal palace is a most venerable pile, exceeding it in date, as I conjecture from its manner of composure; built intirely of stone, roofed with stone: it consists of two chapels, one above the other: the ground-plot is a perfect square, beside the portico and choir: four pillars in the middle, with arches every way, form the whole: the portico seems to have a grandeur in imitation of Roman works, made of many arches retiring inwards: two pillars on each side consist of single stones: the lowermost chapel, which is some steps under ground, is dedicated to St. Catharine, the upper to St. Magdalen, and has several pillars against the wall, made of single stones, and an odd eight-square cupola upon the four middle pillars: there have been much paintings upon the walls: the arched roof is turned very artfully, and seems to have a taste of that kind of architecture used in the declension of the Roman empire.

The city of Hereford stands upon a fine gravel, encompassed with springs and rivulets, as well as strong walls, towers, and lunettes; all which, with the embattlements, are pretty perfect, and enabled them to withstand a most vigorous siege of the Scots army under general Lesley. The castle was a noble work, built by one of the Edwards before the Conquest, strongly walled about, and ditched: there is a very lofty artificial keep, walled once at top, having a well in it faced with good stone: by the side of the ditch arose a spring, which superstition consecrated to St. Ethelbert: there is a handsome old stone arch erected over it. Without the walls are the ruins of Black Friers monastery, and a pretty stone cross intire; round which originally were the cloysters built, as now the cloysters of the cathedral inclose another such. These crosses were in the nature of a pulpit, whence a monk preached to the people _sub dio_, as is now practised once a year in the cloysters of some colleges in the universities; and I suppose Paul’s cross in London was somewhat of this sort. There was likewise an opulent priory, dedicated to our country saint, Guthlac of Crowland, now intirely ruined: the situation of it in a marshy place best suited him. White Friers on the other side the town is intirely ruined: a gate-house and several other parts were seen by many now living. All these religious conventions (as tradition goes) had subterraneous passages into the city under the ditch, that the holy fraternities might retire from the fury of war, upon occasion.

In our way from Hereford to Leominster we ascended with some difficulty the mighty Dynmaur hill, the meaning of which appellation is the great hill: it makes us some amends for the tediousness of climbing, by the extensive and pleasant prospect it affords us from its woody crest commanding a vast horizon.

[Sidenote: +Leominster.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. XXII.]

Leominster is a town of brisk trade in manufactures of their admirable wool, in hat-making, leather, and many others; it lies in a valley luxuriant above measure. Three rivers of very swift current go through the town, besides others very near: nor will the industrious inhabitants suffer the water-nymphs that preside over the streams to be idle: for with mills, and machinery of various contrivance, they make them subservient to many uses in the way of their trades. Here was a considerable priory on the north-side of the church, two ailes of which are very ancient, and I suppose belonged to the priory: two other ailes of more lightsome work have been added. The mayor, who invited us to attend him thither, had a long black _caduceus_ to walk withall, tipped with silver. There are some poor remains of the priory, chiefly a little chapel, which I imagine belonged to the prior’s family: underneath it runs a pretty rivulet, which used to grind his corn, now converted to a fulling-mill: near are very large ponds for fish, to furnish the monks on fasting days. There was a fine gate-house, pulled down not long since, near the Ambry close, denominated from the place (Almery) in which they gave their scraps away to poor people at the gate, as I have observed at several other religious houses: this is reckoned a great argument of their charity, whilst idle folks lost their time in waiting for it. Round the cross built of timber I saw this inscription, _Vive deo gratus, toti mundo tumulatus, crimine mundatus, semper transire paratus_, and some more stuff of that sort. In this town the soil is luxuriant above measure: trees of all sorts flourish prodigiously: we were surprised at the extravagant bulk of plants, leaves of dock as big as an ordinary tea-table, comfry leaves as long as my arm. Mr. Gale and I disputed a good while about borage quite grown out of cognizance.

We were entertained by my lord Coningsby at his seat of Hampton-court, three miles off: at dinner time, one of the ancient bards in an adjacent room played to us upon the harp, and at proper intervals threw in many notes of his voice, with a swelling thrill, after a surprising manner, much in the tone of a flute. This is a fine seat, built by our countryman Harry of Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry the Fourth: it is, castle like, situate in a valley, upon a rapid river under coverture of Dynmaur: the gardens very pleasant, (the finest greens I ever saw) terminated by vast woods covering all the sloping side of the hill; whose wavy tops, when agitated by the wind, entertain the eye with a most agreeable spectacle, and verdant theatric concavity, as high, and as far, as you can well see. Here is a great command of water, on all sides of the house, for fountains, basons, canals: within are excellent pictures of the earl’s ancestors, and others, by the best hands; Holbein, Dobson, Van Dyke, Sir P. Lely, &c. there is an original of the founder, Henry the Fourth, of queen Elizabeth, of the duchess of Portsmouth, &c. The windows of the chapel are well painted, some images of the Coningsbys: here are two new stone stair-cases after a geometrical method, with a view, I suppose, of security from fire: the record-room is at top of a tower arched with stone, paved with Roman brick; an iron door. From the top of the house goes a stair-case, which they say has a subterraneous conveyance into Dynmaur wood; which was the method of ancient times to escape the last extremity of a siege. After dinner my lord did us the honour to ride out with us into the park, which for beauty, diversity, and use, is very fine: it is eight miles in circumference, and has all the variety of scenes you can imagine; about 1200 head of deer in it: there are extensive prospects, on one side reaching into Wiltshire; on another, over the Welsh mountains; lawns, groves, canals, hills and plains. There is a pool three quarters of a mile long, very broad, included between two great woods: the dam that forms it across a valley, cost 800l. and was made in a fortnight by 200 hands. There is a new river cut quite through the park, the channel of which for a long way together is hewn out of the rock: this stream enriches with derivative channels vast tracts of land that before was barren. Here are new gardens and canals laid out, and new plantations of timber in proper places to complete its pleasures; warrens, decoys, sheep-walks, pastures for cattle, and the like, intirely supply the house with all necessaries and conveniences, without recourse to a market. His lordship showed us in his study four or five vast books in manuscript, being transcripts out of the record-offices, relating to his manors, royalties, estates and muniments, which cost him 500l. in writing and fees: many of his galleries and passages are adorned with the genealogy of his family, their pictures, arms, grants, history, &c. The Roman road from Ariconium to Uriconium lies west of Lemster by Stretford; then passes over the Arrow, the Oney, the Lug; so through Biriton, two miles north of Lemster, where they dig up the pavement of it, as it runs through the grounds, made of squarish rag-stone.

_Remnant of the Priory of Leominster Sep. 14. 1722._

_Black Fryers in Glocester._
_Aug. 24. 1721._

_Stukeley delin._ & Nobilissimo Thomæ Comiti de Coningsby DD. _E
Kirkall sculp._]

[Sidenote: +Ludlow.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. IV. V.]

Our next expedition was to Ludlow, a place of fame and antiquity, the residence of the lords presidents of Wales under the prince. In the way hither we found the _euonymus pannonicus_ in the hedges. This town is walled quite round, and pretty strong, having five gates, situate upon a hill-top, running from south-east with an ascent towards north-west, on which, precipitous to the north and west, stands the castle. On the south side runs the Teme, fettered with numerous dams across, in nature of cataracts; by which means abundance of mills are turned: the superfluous water pours over them, cascade-like, with a mighty noise. Here is a very good church and handsome tower, with a pleasant ring of six bells in the cross thereof: the windows are full of painted glass pretty intire: there are some old monuments of the lords presidents, &c. and an inscription upon the north wall of the choir relating to prince Arthur, who died here: his bowels were buried in this place: one told me they took up his heart not long since in a leaden box. In the eastern angle of the choir is a closet, anciently called the _God-house_, where the priests locked up their roods, wafers, and such things: it has a window strongly barred outward. This church is consecrated to St Laurence: and in the market-place is an hexagonal cistern, or conduit, like a cross; on the top of which is a long stone cross, bearing a niche with an image of that saint in it. West of the church was a college, now converted to a dwelling-house, whose owner showed us a pretty collection of pictures, one by Holben. There was a rich priory out of the town on the north side; small ruins now to be seen, except a little adjoining church once belonging to it: about the same place an arched gate-way went cross the street, but now demolished. The greatest rarity of Ludlow is the noble and strong castle and palace, placed on the north-west angle of the town upon a rock, commanding a delightful prospect northward; but on the west, where runs the river, it is overlooked by a high hill. It is strongly environed by embattled walls of great height and thickness, with towers at convenient distances: that half which is within the walls of the town is secured moreover with a deep ditch; the other founded on the solid rock. It is divided into two separate parts; the castle, properly so speaking, wherein the palace and lodgings; and the green, or out-work, what I suppose they call the Barbican: the first is in the strongest or north-west corner, and has likewise walls and ditch hewn out of the rock towards the green: this was the residence of the lords presidents: it was a noble structure, but now, alas! only groans out with its last breath the glories of its ancient state. A chapel here has abundance of coats of arms upon the panels; so has the hall, together with lances, spears, firelocks and old armour; but the present inhabitants live upon the sale of the timber, stone, iron, and other materials and furniture, which dwindles away insensibly. Here died prince Arthur. The green takes in a large compass of ground, wherein was formerly the court of judicature and records, the stables, garden, bowling-green and other offices; all which now lie in ruins, or are let out at rack-rents to those that pilfer what they can: over several of the stable-doors are queen Elizabeth’s arms, the earls of Pembroke’s, and others.

Hence we went along the river Teme to Tenbury. In a niche in the chancel is a stone, a yard long, of a child of lord Arundel’s of Sutton-house, as they say, dressed like a knight, cross-legged: another knight cross-legged under the south wall of the church; on his shield a chevron between three stars pierced. In the meadow, upon the river, a _tumulus_ covered with old oaks, called Castle-mead bower, or burrow.

[Sidenote: +Bewdley.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. XIII. XIV.]

Bewdley is a pleasant town by sweet meadows upon the Severn, which is the most delightful river I have seen. Here, upon a hill over-looking the town, is Tickenhall, built by Henry VII. for his son prince Arthur; part of the old palace is standing, of timber-work: here was a park too, part of Wire forest. This is a thriving town. A mile off is Ribsford, the seat of the lord Herbert of Cherbury, pleasantly encompassed with woods. Here is a good picture of William I. earl of Pembroke: the ends of the hills toward the river are generally rocks. Blackston hill has an hermitage cut out of it, with a chapel and several apartments, which I have represented in prospect and ground-plot: near it is a pretty rock upon the edge of the water, covered with Nature’s beautiful canopy of oaks and many curious plants: near the water, upon the rock, _liver-wort_ grows plentifully. They dig up coal hereabouts, about twelve yards under ground. Kederminster is but two miles off: in the church a cross-legged monument of Sir Tho. Acton. In Wulverhampton church are several old monuments; a brass statue of Sir Richard Leveson, who fought the Spaniards under Sir Francis Drake: there is a very old stone pulpit, and a very old stone cross in the church-yard. Was I to chuse a country residence for health and pleasure, it would be undoubtedly on the west side of the island, not far from this river, and where it is most distant from the sea; for natural reasons, which I need not mention to you.

Bewdley, 17 Sept. 1721.

_Stukeley delin._ _I. Harris Sculp._]

Robto Cornwall Barrᵗᵗᵒ. d.d. _W. Stukeley_]

_Stukeley delin:_ _E. Kirkall sculp:_]

_The Groundplot & Section of an Hermitage near Bewdley._

_The Hermitage at Dale Abby_

_W Stukeley Del_]

ITER ROMANUM. V.

_Salve magna parens frugum Britanica tellus,
Magna virum! tibi res antiquæ laudis & artis
Ingredior. Sanctos ausus recludere fontes,
Antiquum repeto Romana per oppida cursum. +Virg.+
Nam quid Britannum cœlum differre putamus._ +Lucret. vi.+

_To my Lord_ WINCHELSEA.

The journey I here present your lordship is intirely Roman; for I went from London full northward to the banks of the Humber, upon the famous Hermen-street road, passing through Lincoln: then coasting about a little, at Lincoln again I took the Foss way to its intersection of the Watling-street in Warwickshire: upon that I returned back to London, and pursued it to the sea-coasts of Kent: likewise some part of the Icening-street, as it crosses the others, where it lay not too far out of my main route, was the subject of my enquiry: so that in this account is somewhat of all these four great roads of Britain, which our old monkish writers make a considerable harangue about, but are scarce able fully to distinguish them, and of the reason of their names say but little to our satisfaction: but the ways themselves, as drawn quite a-cross the island in different directions, are sufficiently manifest to a traveller of common sagacity. Though my discoveries herein are mean enough, yet I reckon this an happy _æra_ of my life, because, the very day before I undertook it, I had the good fortune to be known to your lordship, and at the end of it enjoyed the pleasurable repose of your delightful seat at Eastwel, but what is more, your own conversation: since then your many favours, like all other felicities in life, give me uneasiness in the midst of joy, as sensible of my own little merit. I have no hope indeed of retaliating; and I know that great minds like yours imitate Providence, expecting no return from its beneficiaries: but it is consentaneous to human nature to endeavour at it, and offer tokens of gratitude, however unequal. The delight you take in rescuing the monuments of our ancestors, your indefatigable zeal in collecting them, your exquisite knowledge in the Greek, Roman, and British antiquities, and especially your great love for those of your own country, which you continually commit to writing in your private commentaries, add a reputation to these studies, and make the Muses hope for a sunshine, when men of your lordship’s noble birth entertain them with that familiarity and condescension which was one great glory of the Augustan age.

[Sidenote: Roman _roads_.]

For arts military and civil, that became a most wise government, the Romans beyond compare exceeded all nations; but in their roads they have exceeded themselves: nothing but the highest pitch of good sense and public spirit could prompt them to so immense a labour: it is altogether astonishing to consider how they begirt the whole globe,[50] as it were, with new meridians and great circles all manner of ways; as one says,

_Magnorum fuerat solers hæc cura Quiritum
Constratas passim concelebrare vias._

As well as use, they studied eternity in all their works, just opposite to our present narrow souls, who say, It will serve our time well enough. For this reason they made few bridges, as liable to decay; but fords were laid with great skill and labour, many of which remain firm to this day without any reparation. No doubt but the Romans gave names to these roads from the commanders under whose government and direction they were laid out, as was their custom elsewhere: but because they generally held their posts here but for a short time, and perhaps scarce any finished one road intirely; therefore, whilst each endeavoured to stamp his own name upon them, so it fell out that they were all forgotten. The present appellatives seem to be derived either from the British or Saxon: William the Conqueror calls them _Chemini majores_ in confirming the laws of St. Edward about these four ways. All misdemeanours committed upon them were decided by the king himself. Though there was no need of paving or raising a bank in some places, yet it was done for a perpetual direction; and every where I suppose stones were set at a mile’s distance, many of which are still left. Of these four celebrated ways, the Foss and Icening-street traverse the kingdom from south-west to north-east, parallel to one another: the Watling-street crossed them quite the contrary way, with an equal obliquity: the Hermen-street passed directly north and south: and besides these are very many more. I purpose not to give a full history of them here, any farther than I travel upon them, reserving that till I am better able.

[Sidenote: +Hermen-street.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LVI.]

[Sidenote: Br. _camp._]

Somewhat on the Hermen-street is said already in my first letter about Lincolnshire, where it divides itself into two, which we may call the old and the new branch. Here I design to search it up to its fountain-head. As to its name, we have no reason to seek any farther than the Saxon language, where _Here_ signifies an army; _Hereman_, a soldier or warriour:[51] the Hermen-street then is the military street, in the same propriety the Romans used it. It begins at Newhaven, at the mouth of the river Ouse in Sussex, and passes on the west side the river through Radmil, probably taking its name thence; so through Lewis by Isfield: then it seems to pass over the river at Sharnbridge, as we may guess by its name, and so proceeds to East Grinsted, but I suppose lost in passing through the great woods: then through Surrey it goes by Stane-street, Croydon, Stretham, and, by its pointing, we may suppose was designed originally to pass the Thames at the ferry called Stangate by Lambeth, where it coincides with the Watling-street. Of this I can say nothing yet, having not travelled it. There I apprehend the road went before London became very considerable; but when the majesty of the place suddenly arose to great height, this road, and all others directed this way, deflected a little from their primitive intention, to salute the _Augusta_ of Britain, destined to be the _altera Roma_; and this has rendered them all obscure near the city. It is generally thought the Hermen-street goes hence through Bishopsgate, and along the northern road; but I apprehend that to be of much later standing than the original one, which goes more on the west. By the quotation I mentioned in my first letter, when upon this road, out of Mr. Gale’s Itinerary, of Lowlsworth near Bishopsgate, it seems as if it was done in Lollius Urbicus his time. The original one perhaps passes through unfrequented ways near Enfield and Hermen-street, seeming to retain the old name: on the eastern side of Enfield chace, by Bush hill, is a circular British camp upon an eminence declining south-west; but our ancient road appears upon a common on this side of Hertford by Ball’s park, and so passes the river below Hertford; then goes through Ware park, and falls into the present road on this side Wadesmill,[52] and so to Royston. Here must have been several stations upon it, but I see no hope of ever retrieving their names: that Hertford is one is reasonable to think, it having been ever in the royal demesne, and passing a river at a proper distance from London: but in the assignment of _Durocobrovis_ here, I take leave to dissent from Camden and other learned men; it by no means answers the distances in the Itinerary, or the import of the name; the Red Ford, or the Ford of Harts, are fancies without foundation: either _trajectus militaris_ is the meaning, or it is the passage of the river Ard, now the Beane: Ardley at the spring-head of it: _ardh_ in British is _altus_.

[Sidenote: +Icening-street.+]

[Sidenote: +Wilbury.+ Br.]

[Sidenote: Ro. _camp._]

[Sidenote: +Harbury Banks.+ Br.]

At Royston the Icening-street crosses the Hermen-street, coming from Dunstable going into Suffolk: this about Baldock appears but like a fieldway, and scarce the breadth of a coach, the farmers on both sides industriously ploughing it up: between Baldock and Icleford it goes through an intrenchment, taking in the top of a hill of good compass, but of no great elevation: it consists of a _vallum_ only, and such a thing as I take to be properly the remains of a British _oppidum_: it is called Wilbury hill, and is said to have been woody not intirely beyond memory: this street, quite to the Thames in Oxfordshire, goes at the bottom of a continued ridge of hills called the Chiltern, being chalk, the natural as well as civil boundaries between the counties of Hertford and Bedford, very steep northward. Ickleford retains the name of the street, which at this place passes a rivulet with a stoney ford wanting reparation. Near Periton church has been a castle of Saxon or Norman times, with a keep. These high chalk hills, having a fine prospect northward, are covered with a beautiful turf like the Wiltshire downs, and have such like barrows here and there, and indeed are but a continuation of them quite a-cross the kingdom. Near Hexton is a square Roman camp upon a _lingula_, or promontory, just big enough for the purpose: it is very steep quite round, except at a narrow slip where the entrance is; double ditched, and very strong, but land-locked with hills every way, except to the north-east, and that way has a good prospect: under it is a fine spring: it seems made by the Romans when they were masters of all the country on this side, and extending their arms northward. On High downs is a pleasant house by a wood, where is a place called Chapel close: in this wood are barrows and dikes, perhaps of British original. Liliho is a fine plot of ground upon a hill steep to the north-west, where a horse-race is kept: from under it goes the Icening-street by Stretley to Dunstable. North of Baldoc we visited the camp by Ashwel, taken notice of in Camden, called Harbury banks: it is of a theatrical form, consisting wholly of an _agger_: though Roman coins have been found in it, I am inclinable to think it is earlier than their times. Between Calcot and Henxworth, two miles off, several Roman antiquities have been dug up this year; many in the custody of my friend Simon Degg, esq; he gave me this account of it: some workmen, digging gravel for the repair of the great northern road, struck upon some earthen vessels, or large urns, full of burnt bones and ashes, but rotten: near them a human skeleton, with the head towards the south-east, the feet north-west: several bodies were found in this manner not above a foot under the surface of the earth, and with urns great or small near them, and _pateras_ of fine red earth, some with the impression of the maker on the bottom: there were likewise glass lachrymatories, _ampullas_, a _fibula_ of brass, six small glass rings, two long glass beads of a green colour, and other fragments.

[Sidenote: +Salinæ.+]

Northward still upon a high sandy hill, by the bank of the river Ivel, is a Roman camp called Chesterton: under it lies the town called Sandy, or Salndy, the _Salinæ_ of the Romans in Ptolemy, where great quantities of Roman and British antiquities have been found, and immense numbers of coins, once a brass _Otho_, vases, urns, lachrymatories, lamps. Mr. Degg has a cornelian intaglia, and a British gold coin dug up here, _Tascio_ upon it. Thomas Bromsal esq. has a fine silver _Cunobelin_ found here, of elegant work; others of Titus, Agrippina, Trajan, Hadrian, Augustus, Antoninus Pius, Faustina, Constantius Chlorus, Constantinus Magnus, Carausius, Alectus, Tetricus, and many more.[53] His great grandfather, high-sheriff of this county, preserved the invaluable Cottonian library from plunder in the time of the commonwealth, whilst it was at Stratton in this county, about anno 1650. The soil here is sand, perfectly like that on the sea shore. I imagine a Roman road passed by this place westward from Grantchester by Cambridge.

[Sidenote: +Camboritum.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LIX.]

[Sidenote: Roman _camp_.]

[Sidenote: TAB. XLV.]

Return we to Royston again. Going upon the Icening-street the other way, just upon the edge of Cambridgeshire, we come to Chesterford upon the river going to Cambridge, near Icleton and Strethal. In July, 1719, I discovered the _vestigia_ of a Roman city here: the foundation of the walls is very apparent quite round, though level with the ground, including a space of about fifty acres: great part of it serves for a causeway to the public Cambridge road from London: the Crown inn is built upon it:[54] the rest is made use of by the countrymen for their carriages to and fro in the fields: the earth is still high on both sides of it: in one part they have been long digging this wall up for materials in building and mending the roads: there I measured its breadth twelve foot, and remarked its composition of rag stone, flints and Roman brick: in a little cottage hard by, the parlour is paved with bricks; they are fourteen inches and an half long, and nine broad. In the north-west end of the city,[55] the people promised to show me a wonderful thing in the corn, which they observed every year with some sort of superstition. I found it to be the foundation of a Roman temple very apparent, it being almost harvest time: here the poverty of the corn growing where the walls stood, defines it to such a nicety, that I was able to measure it with exactness enough: the dimensions of the cell, or _naos_, were fifteen foot in breadth, forty in length; the _pronaos_, where the steps were, appeared at both ends, and the wall of the portico around, whereon stood the pillars. I remarked that the city was just a thousand Roman feet in breadth, and that the breadth to the length was as three to five, of the same proportion as they make their bricks: it is posited obliquely to the cardinal points, its length from north-west to south-east; whereby wholesomeness is so well provided for, according to the direction of Vitruvius. The river Cam runs under the wall, whence its name; for I have no scruple to think this was the _Camboritum_ of Antoninus, meaning the ford over this river, or the crooked ford: in Lincolnshire we called a crooked stick, the butchers use, a _cambril_.[56] They have found many Roman coins in the city or Borough field, as they call it: I saw divers of them. In this parish, they say, has been a royal manor: not far off, by Audlenhouse, upon an eminence is a great Roman camp called Ringhill; a hunting tower of brick now stands upon it. Beyond this the Icening-street goes toward Icleworth in Suffolk, parting the counties of Cambridge and Essex all the way; and almost parallel to it runs a great ditch, viz. from Royston to Balsham, called Brentditch, where it turns and goes to the river below Cambridge, there called Flightditch. I imagine these to be ancient boundaries of the Britons, and before the Roman road was made, which naturally enough would have served for a distinction by the Saxons, as at other places, had their limits lain hereabouts. Two miles both ways of Royston is chalky soil:[57] about Puckeridge it is gravelly. On Bartlow hills there is a camp too, castle camps, and Roman antiquities found: I am told of three remarkable barrows thereabouts, where bones have been dug out. At Hadstok they talk of the skin of a Danish king nailed upon the church-doors.

_Thomæ Bawtre Conterraneo Suo Tabula votiva._

_Stukeley delin._]

_View of_ Silchester Walls _from the N.E. corner Aug. 5. 1722. Ro.
Brick & Flint._

_Stukeley delin:_ & Amico Peregrino Bertie Ar. vovet. _E. Kirkall
sculp:_]

Now we shall take along with us the Itinerary of Antoninus in his fifth journey; for after he has gone from London toward Colchester, and part of Suffolk, he turns into this Icening-street at _Icianis_, which seems to be Icesworth beyond St. Edmundsbury; from whence to this _Camboritum_ is thirty-five miles: from thence to Huntingdon is just twenty-five, as they are noted; but it is to be supposed that the Itinerary went along the Icening-street to Royston, then took the Hermen-street; for so the miles exactly quadrate.

[Sidenote: +Royston.+ Ro. _town_.]

Royston, as being seated upon the intersection of these two roads, no doubt was a Roman town[58] before Roisia[59] built her religious house here, and perpetuated her own name upon the Roman, which is now lost; and this very year they found Roman coins near there: but there seems to be the stump of her cross still remaining at the corner of the inn just where the two roads meet. The Hermen-street now coincides all the way with the common northern road. At Arminton, denominated from it, passes another branch of the river going to Cambridge in Armingford hundred; so by Caxton, which was probably a baiting-place: there are some old works without the town. A red clay begins now. Anno 1721, near this road my lord Oxford, digging canals at Wimpole, found many bodies, and pieces of iron rusty, the remains of some battle. Wimpole is now improved and honoured with his residence, and the noble Harleian library.

[Sidenote: +Durocinonte.+]

At Godmanchester, or Gormanchester, on this side Huntingdon river, the name _chester_ ascertains the Roman _castrum_ to have been; nor is there any dispute of it, however critics vary about its name, whether _Durosiponte_ or _Durocinonte_; whether there was a bridge, a ferry, or a ford, in most ancient times: no doubt but the Romans inhabited both sides of the river, and probably rather at Huntingdon, being a much better situation; therefore, as to antiquities here found, I hold myself more excusable if at present I have nothing to say. Mr. Camden tells us Roman coins have been frequently ploughed up at Gormanchester, and Henry of Huntingdon says it has been a noble city: but I took notice of a wooden bridge over a rivulet between the two towns, which ought not to be forgot, as a grateful and public charity, having this inscription.

ROB̄TUS COOK EMERGENS AQUIS HOC VIATORIBUS
SACRUM DD. 1636.

In Huntingdon is the house where Oliver Cromwell was born: though it is new-built, yet they preserved that room in its first state.[60]

[Sidenote: +Stukeley.+]

From hence the Hermen-street goes in a strait line through Great and Little Stukeley, so called from the soil, and most anciently written _Styvecle_, signifying a stiff clay.[61] I should be ungrateful to my ancestors, not to mention that hence they had their name and large possessions in both towns, and many others hereabouts. I have the genealogy of them from Herebert be Styvecle, mentioned in Madox _Hist. Scaccar. cap._ xiv. _fol._ 382. _mag. rot._ 12. H. II. _rot._ 6. Cant. & Hunt. which shows that they had lands here before. His descendants of this place have been high sheriffs of the counties of Huntingdon and Cambridge more than thirty times, and knights of the shire in parliament more than forty times: but I remember Lucan says,

————_perit omnis in illo
Nobilitas, cujus laus est in origine sola._

In Great Stukeley church is a font of a very ancient make, and in the north aile a monumental brass of Sir Nicholas Styvecle: the legend round the verge of the stone was kept for some time in the town chest, when it was taken off being loose, but now lost: the effigies being in the same condition, we carried it to be hung up in the hall now belonging to James Torkington esq; whose ancestors married the heiress of the family, and now enjoys the estate.

_W. Stukeley delin._ _& Amicissimo S. Gale Ar. D.D._ _E. Kirkall
sculp:_]

[Sidenote: +Conington+.]

[Sidenote: +Ramsey+.]

[Sidenote: TAB. XVII.]

The Hermen-street hence becomes notorious by the name of Stangate; whence we may conjecture that it was originally paved with stone: a mile beyond Little Stukeley it turns somewhat to the right, and then proceeds full north and south: near Stilton some parts appear still paved with stone: it passes through great woods between the two Saltrys, where was a religious foundation of Simon Silvanect II. earl of Huntingdon and Northampton; among whose ruins lie buried Robert Brus, lord of Anandale in Scotland, and of Cleveland in England, with Isabel his wife, from whom the Scottish branch of our royal family is descended. Near the road-side Roman urns have been dug up. I thought it piety to turn half a mile out of the road, to visit Conington, the seat of the noble Sir Robert Cotton, where he and the great Camden have often sat in council upon the antiquities of Britain, and where he had a choice collection of Roman inscriptions, picked up from all parts of the kingdom. I was concerned to see a stately old house of hewn stone large and handsome lie in dismal ruin, the deserted _lares_ and the _genius_ of the place fled: by it a most beautiful church and tower; in the windows is fine painted glass, but of what sort I know not: a poor cottage or two seem to be the whole town, once the possession of the kings of Scotland.[62] From those woods aforementioned, standing on high ground, you see all over the level of the fens, particularly that huge reservoir of water called Whitlesey-mere, full of fish, and a very pleasant place in summer time, where the gentry have little vessels to sail in for diversion: upon this hill Sir Robert Cotton, digging the foundation of a house, found the skeleton of a fish twelve foot long. A little to the right lies Ramsey, famous for a rich abbey, where every monk lived like a gentleman: there is little of it left now, but a part of the old gate-house. In the yard I saw the neglected statue of the famous Alwyn the founder, called alderman of all England, cousin to king Edgar: I take this to be one of the most ancient pieces of English sculpture which we knew of: the _insignia_ he has in his hand, the keys and ragged staff, relate to his office. Anno 1721 many pecks of Roman coins were found there. Probably from the name we may conjecture it was a Roman town. Near it is Audrey causeway: at the south end of it, in the parish of Willingham, a camp of a circular form, large, called Belsar’s hills, thought that of William the Conqueror, or his general Belasis, when busied in the reduction of the isle of Ely, or Odo Balistarius. A Roman pavement found at Ramsey.

Stilton, or Stickleton, analogous to _Stivecle_, is famous for cheese, which they sell at 12d. per pound, and would be thought equal to Parmesan, were it not too near us. Beyond here the road is perfect, with a ridge upon the open fields, for a long way together: it goes pretty near north and south about Stangate; but now it takes a turn to the left a little, to avoid the vast fens full before our view. I cannot but take notice of the great stones, set at every mile from Grantham hither by Mr. Boulter, which he designed to have carried on to London. Any thing that assists or amuses travellers is most highly commendable: hence the good understanding of the ancients prompted them to set their funeral monuments by the road side, not crouded round their temples: they knew the absurdity of filling the mind with ideas of melancholy, at such times as they approached the sacred altars: there nought but what is beautiful and great ought to appear, as most besuiting the place where we seek the Deity. With them Mercury was the god of ways, and the _custos manium_. I have often wondered that the cheap and easy method of setting up posts with directions at every cross road is so little practised; which methinks deserves to be enforced by a law: it would teach the carpenters that make them, and the country people, to read, with much more emolument to the public than some other methods now in vogue: of other uses I need say nothing. All the country between Huntingdon river and Peterborough river is clay, sand, and gravel; but beyond that to the Humber is stone. At Gunwath ferry over Peterborough river is a new bridge, where boats too pay a toll; such is the modern way of encouraging trade and navigation. The people of Peterborough are averse to having their river made navigable, out of an absurd notion that it will spoil their trade.

[Sidenote: +Durobrivis.+]

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

The imperial Itinerary makes 35 miles between the last station, _Durocinonte_, and _Durobrivis_;[63] but a decimal too much is put into the number, for 25 is full enough: it is indeed 25 measured miles from Huntingdon river to the Nen at Caster: there is no dispute but Chesterton by Caster is the place. Dornford retains somewhat of the old name, where the road traversed the river by a bridge (of brass, the common people say.) At Chesterton on this side is a large tract of ground, called the Castle field, with a ditch and rampart around it:[64] the Roman road runs directly through it, and still retains its high ridge. I observe every where near the fenny country great precaution and strength employed; which seems owing to the incursions of the Britons from that part, who, no doubt, retired into these fastnesses as their last refuge, when the Roman arms shined all around them: and that reason must induce the Romans very early to think of draining the country, and rendering it provincial, which was the only means of preventing that inconvenience. The Hermen-street beyond the river runs for some space along the side of it upon the meadow, then turns up with an angle, and proceeds full north. Caster[65] is above half a mile from it, upon the hill. I espied a bit of the foundation of the wall of the Roman _castrum_ in the street to the north-west corner of the church, under the wall of the house where the minister lives: it is easily known by the vast strength of the mortar, built of the white slab-stone of the country: this _castrum_ then went round the church-yard, and took in the whole top of the hill, facing the mid day sun. Underneath it lay the city; for below the church-yard the ground is full of foundations and Mosaics: I saw a bit of a pavement in the cellar of the ale-house (the Boot.)

————_varias ubi picta per artes
Gaudet humus, suberantque novis asarota figuris._ +Stat. Silv.+

_Prospect of Castor_, Durobrivis. 11. July. 1724._

_Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall sculp._]

They know of many such: particularly at Mr. Wright’s, and in the landlord’s garden, is an intire one untouched. Roman coins are found in great abundance: I have before me a long and particular catalogue of many I have seen of all times, from the consular to the later emperors, in brass and silver, but think it a nauseous formality to print them: a few I will repeat of the silver.

_M. poblic_ ℞ — _nus imp._
_Ant._ III. _vir_ _leg._ VI.
_Sabin_ _l. titur._ the rape of the Sabins.
_Augustus divi fil._ _imp_ x _act_.
_Cæsar Augustus pater patriæ._ _Augusti f. cos. design. princ. juvent._
[exergue] _Cl. Cæsaris_
_Augustus Cæsar_ a comet. _idus jun._
_Cæsar_ _l. juli l. f._ a chariot drawn by cupids.
_Hadrian Cos._ III. _Ægyptos_, a recumbent figure with the
_sistrum_.
_Theodosius_ _virtus romanorum tr. p. s._
_Silanus_ _l. f. roma._