Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/319

SILCHESTER. 233

spot it makes n slight bend to the south, and may l)c' traced, jut very obscurely, close on the west of" the farm buildings, md at about 150 yards distance disappears altogether ; this last direction, which is south-west by west, would lead near

o the hamlet called Little London, considerably to the west

if where the supposed Roman road had been j^loughed up by I person named "William Morrell, in Long Ayliffs Field. The third entrenched line, which, as we have already stated, points northward, cannot be seen for 330 yards after t has left the outer entrenchment. As we enter Ford's Copse, the traces are very evident, and continue to within a short distance of the brook, where it is lost, but appears igain, with the ditch on the west side, (which seems to be partly natural and partly artificial) as we ascend the hill, [n the meadow, west of the farm house, it is totally lost ; and though it is probable that it followed the course of the road, close to the pound and the pond, the traces are scarcely sufficient to be considered a continuation of it, though beyond

lie cross road, on the west of the fence, in the same con-

iuuous right line, a bank and ditch look very like its course ; out beyond this nothing has been traced of either the rampart or the ditch. These three entrenched lines are very similar, but there is no reason to suppose that they are of Roman construction ; for they are not straight, have not been found to have been paved, and the low ground, or ditch, is only on one side.^

Having thus examined what there is left of the entrenched lines, we will now proceed to examine what traces may be discerned of the Roman wa3^s. And, first, we may observe, that since the neighbourhood of Silchester consists of the roled flints and sands of Bagshot Heath, or of the plastic lay formation, it is not at all probable that any of the large nroUed flints of the chalk would be found near the surface f the ground. The only large stones found about the place

^ If we presume these three lines of entrenchment, with the outer rampart and ditch, as well as an inner rampart and ditch on which the present wall stands, to have existed before the Romans visited the island, it is possible, that finding the present north and south gateway in existence, they made their principal street between them, and drew the rest some parallel, and others at right angles to this principal street; also, that the street from the west gate was made to conform with an ancient entrance, and that they broke through the rampart to form an entrance on the east for their own Roman way; for had they constructed the work anew, there was nothing in the ground to have made them deviate from the usual method of rectangular construction of the walls.