8Rffi8BaBw!tt8 DA 145 ffin SHU WSm m H Imlii ibb PfflB MSB ifll it£wB& 1 ^^H y.'A'i:./^ .**.j»ifc.%. ^.liS:./^ ^%j» ,V 5W V' V T -» T v v^v V-* &9*. 0-0 9* *^ C u -•-' ^ -11131? « «£*V 4©* V™> ^0 4 v? ..* <£» ■53* »»o * ^ r^ • lews * <£ ^ „ 9 ^«p" ^ "* «r . w * •■• «J C«p t 4 * °o ^7fT«* o^ ^ -•„ (5°^ .VJH .v^.. 1 X. t M Cambridge Antiquarian Society. / Octavo publications. No. XX. OK AN ATTEMPT TO TRACE ROMAN AND OTHER ANCIENT ROADS THAT PASSED THROUGH THE COUNTY OF CAMBRIDGE; A BECOED OF THE PLACES WHEEE ROMAN COINS AND OTHER REMAINS HAVE BEEN FOUND. SECOND EDITION, MUCH ENLARGED. BY CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON, MA., F.R.S., F.S.A. FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED FOR THE CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN BOCIETY. SOLD BY DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.; and MACMILLAN & CO, LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS. 1883. Price Five Shillings. •' /3 %,uxmt €mhtxtyts\xxt: OE AN ATTEMPT TO TEACE EOMAN AND OTHER ANCIENT ROADS THAT PASSED THROUGH THE COUNTY OF CAMBRIDGE ; A RECORD OF THE PLACES WHERE ROMAN COINS AND OTHER REMAINS HAVE BEEN FOUND. SECOND EDITION, MUCH ENLARGED. CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON, M.A., F.R.S., F.S.A./ FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, AND PEOFESSOE OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVEESITY OF CAMBEIDGE. CAMBRIDGE: PEINTED FOB THE CAMBEIDGE ANTIQUAEIAN SOCIETY. SOLD BY DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.; and MACMILLAN & CO. LONDON : GEORGE BELL & SONS. 1883 '01 ©amfirttigc j PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SON, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. PBEFACE. It is not pretended that the subject treated of in this Essay is exhausted, but only that all the facts relating to it have been collected and arranged, as far as they are known to me. I have not knowingly neglected any source of information which is open to me. As was remarked in the preface to the first edition, this treatise has gradually attained its present size from a very small original. It consisted at first of a short account of the Roman roads which crossed each other at Camboejttjm (Cambridge) ; and did not describe them, except through a very few miles on each side of that place. As such it was com- municated to the Cambridge Antiquarian Society on March 4, 1850. But circumstances caused delay in its publication, and it was gradually extended until it included the whole of the known Roman remains in the county. In this latter form it was issued by the Society in 1853, as No. 3 of the 8vo. series of the Publications of the Cambridge Antiquarian IV Society. At the request of the Society I have now prepared a new edition, including all the additional information obtained since 1853, and also such cor- rections as required to be made. In doing this 'it has been thought best not to alter the plan or arrangement of the little book more than is abso- lutely necessary. An attempt has again been made to trace all the roads in the county which appear to have been used in early times, pointing out their probable origin ; to name all the places where Homan antiquities or coins have been found, with the authorities for them ; and to describe the ancient ditches, camps and other earth-works. The position of Cambridgeshire as part of the territory of the South Gyrwas, on the frontiers of East Anglia and Mercia, and its consequently dis- turbed state during much of the so-called Anglo- Saxon period, has unfortunately caused it to be very deficient in records of those centuries, during which we might reasonably have expected to find the ancient roads and sites mentioned in charters : as an illus- tration of what we have lost, reference may be made to the proof noticed in a future page (110) that the so- called Cnut's Dyke is older than the time of King Cnut, derived from its mention, under another of its names, in a charter of a date anterior to his reign. Very small pretensions are made to originality, but in all cases the quotations have been taken from the works themselves. What is here collected will shew how thoroughly this district was occupied in the Roman period, for there is scarcely a parish in which Roman coins have not been found, and many where Roman occupation is shewn by the remains of their fictile manufactures. No attempt has been made to enumerate all the pre-Roman remains, although it is believed that most of them are noticed ; especially when they adjoin, or are in any way associated with Roman remains. The plans given in this treatise have been made with care, and are, it is believed, accurate, but that of Camboritum has been materially corrected for the present edition. The modern parts of the plans of the stations at Cambridge and Grantchester are reduced from Baker's large map of Cambridge ; the plan of the station at Bury is derived from an eye- sketch and measurement made by pacing the ground ; the villa at Comberton was carefully measured and laid down to scale by my friend the Rev. J. J. Smith, late - Fellow of Caius College, but unfortunately the scale is lost. The general outline of the accompanying map, and the positions of modern places in the county, have been derived from Walker's Map of Cambridgeshire. No modern villages are marked upon it which do not tend in some way to point out the position of sites mentioned in this treatise ; but all places are inserted, and their names underlined, at or near to which Roman remains or coins have been found. No modern roads are introduced. An attempt has been made to point out by a different mode of drawing the supposed VI origin, more or less certain antiquity, and the course of the several ancient roads : the expense of colouring being one which it has been thought better to avoid. Only such of the watercourses are given as appeared to be necessary for the purpose of shewing the ancient state of the country or the position of places. British antiquities, such as stone implements, pal- staves, spear-heads and swords of bronze, beads of glass, &c, have occurred throughout the county, but they are rarely specially noticed, unless they are in some way associated with the Roman remains. Cambridge, Jan. 1, 1883. CONTENTS. PAGE Introductory Remarks . . . . . . .1 I. Roman Station at Cambridge, the ancient Camboritum.— Iter V. of Antoninus 4 II. Ancient Roads through Cambridge . . . . . .14 1. The Akeman Street. — (1) Cambridge to Brancaster. — (2) Cambridge to Cirencester. —Villa at Comberton. — Akeman Street continued. — Baldock to Shefford. — Akerman Street at Ely. — Dr Mason's supposed road from Cambridge to Verulamium. — Akeman Street between Verulamium and Alcester ib. 2. The Via Devana. — (1) Cambridge to Colchester. — Wooden causeway in Bridge Street, Cambridge. — Via Devana con- tinued. — Vandlebury. — Antiquities at Linton. — (2) Cam- bridge to Chester. — (3) Road from Red Cross to Grant- chester and Barton. — Roman Fort at Grantchester. — Trumpington. — Supposed continuation of this road to Bourn 26 3. Other supposed Roads from Cambridge. — (1) To Chesterford. — Camp at Granham Farm. — (2) To Braughing . . .50 III. Other Ancient Roads in Cambridgeshire ... .52 4. The Erming Street . . ib. 5. The Icknield Way . 55 6. The Ashwell Street. — Roman Cemetery and Villa at Lit- lington. — Limbury Hill . 57 7. The Peddar Way 64 via PAGE 8. The Fen Road . . 68 9. The road from Ely to Spalding 73 10. The Suffolk and Sawtry Way 75 11. The Aldreth Causeway .79 Bury near Ramsey 86 12. The Bury to Wisbech and Spalding Road .... 88 13. The Bullock Road 91 14. Cnut's Dyke 95 IV. Ancient Ditches in Cambridgeshire ib. 1. The Devil's Ditch 97 2. The Fleam or Balsham Dyke . . ' . . . .99 3. The Brent or Pampisford Ditch 100 4. The Bran or Hay don Ditch 101 [5. The Foss or Devil's Dyke in Norfolk] . . . .104 V. The Car Dyke .......... 105 VI. The old Course of the Rivers through the Fens . . .110 ANCIENT CAMBRIDGESHIRE. It is remarkable that until the issue of the former edition of this treatise no separate work had appeared concerning the ancient state of this county. But, although no separate or connected work on this interesting subject exists, there are scattered materials from which a considerable amount of in- formation may be obtained. The persons to whom we are chiefly indebted for the knowledge that they have preserved for us are few in number, but their remarks are of very great value, from having been made before the inclosure of the parishes destroyed all traces of many of the ancient roads and other antiquities. They are : (1) Dr William Bennet, formerly fellow of Emmanuel College, and afterwards Bishop of Cloyne (1790). Large ex- tracts from his manuscript account of the Roman roads are printed in Lysonss Magna Britannia. (2) Dr Charles Mason, formerly fellow of Trinity College, and rector of Orwell, who made a trigonometrical survey of the county, and many manuscript notes. These were used by Gough in his edition of Camden's Britannia, and by Lysons in his Magna Britannia, but the originals are not now to be found. B. 1 (3) We have the very learned, but fanciful works of Stukeley, entitled Itinerarium Curiosum, 1724 ; and Medallic History of Carausius, 1757 — 1759. (4) Much valuable matter and many judicious remarks are to be found in Horsley's Britannia Romana, 1782. (5) Dr William Warren, formerly Vice-Master of Trinity Hall, wrote a dissertation upon the subject of the site of the Grantacasster of Bede, which is said to have " demonstrated the thing as amply as a matter of that sort is capable of," that that place is now represented by the Castle End of Cambridge. Brydges informs us that it was the intention of his brother, Dr R. Warren, to publish this tract which came into his hands after the death of the Vice-Master (Be- stituta, iv. 388). It does not appear that he carried out his intention, nor have I succeeded in learning the fate of the manuscript. A note in Gough's Camden led me to hope that it might exist in the archives of the Spalding Gentleman s Society, but it does not appear that the paper was ever com- municated to them, for their minutes, as I learn through the kindness of Mr Charles Green, one of the few members of that ancient and celebrated society, merely record the reading of a letter from the Rev. Mr Pegg, on Sept. 4, 1735, stating the fact of Dr Warren's demonstration, but not giving its mode of proof. As Dr Warren left some manuscripts to Trinity Hall, concerning the antiquities of that college, I had some faint hopes that the missing tract might be preserved amongst them, but the Rev. W. Marsh, some time Vice-Master of that society, had the kindness to examine the papers left by Dr Warren, and informed me tbat the treatise on Grantacasster is not amongst them. Having made these preliminary remarks, I proceed to the description of the ancient roads which pass through the county; and, as it will be most convenient to take Cambridge as a starting-point from which to trace those that diverged from thence, it will also be proper to occupy ourselves shortly with Cambridge itself. I. CAMBRIDGE. The Roman station at Cambridge was wholly situated to the north of the river Cam, and a considerable part of three of its sides may still be easily traced. If we commence by entering the town from Huntingdon, and immediately turn to the right, we soon find ourselves upon the top of the lofty bank of a broad and deep ditch which was apparently 10 or 12 feet deep, and perhaps nearly 40 in width. A row of cottages, called Pleasance Row, stands upon it and there is a steep descent from their front to their back walls. Bowtell (MS. ii. 96) says that the width of another part of the ditch was seen in 1802, when men were digging across a spot skirting the east side of the station to obtain brick-earth. The place was called Blackamore Piece, and the ditch appeared to have been from 10 to 12 feet deep, and 39 broad. Returning to the bank and passing in front of the Storey's Alms-houses we arrive at the western angle of the ancient town, rounding it, a row of cottages called Mount Pleasant is found to stand upon the top of the rampart, which may be followed through nearly its whole length on that south-western side of the station. Traces of the ditch in front of this face of the for- tification could recently be seen, but it is now filled up with rubbish and a road formed in it. The lane called Northampton Street, by which an entrance is obtained into the town from the St Neots road, seems to be carried along the bottom of the rampart, which passing to the south of St Giles's church, defended the south-eastern side in the time of the Romans. Perhaps there was no ditch on this side, it was sufficiently 1—2 defended by the river, a branch of which ran close to it, as we learn from the foundation deeds of St Giles's church, preserved in the Cottonian Library (Gough's Camden, 130). The continuation of this river-face of the fortification is well seen in Magdalene College garden, where a terrace-walk is formed upon the vallum, and the garden upon what was the bed of the river. The line of Roman fortifications may still be traced for a short distance along the north-eastern side of the old town between the Ely road and the Cromwellian works near the Castle Hill. Half of the north-western side also has been levelled. The extent of the site was measured by Dr Stukeley, who, however, erroneously includes Pytha- goras School, more correctly called Merton Hall, within the walls, and found by him to be " 2500 Roman feet from east to west, and 2000 from north to south." Even allowing for the error of including Pythagoras School within the station, it is very difficult to conjecture by what mode Dr Stukeley obtained such a large extent for it. The Roman foot is scarcely -fa of an inch shorter than the English foot, and the real extent of the station (taking the measurements from a recent survey) is about 1650 feet from north to south, and 1600 from east to west, measuring diagonally, as Stukeley seems to have done ; or the north-east and south-west sides are each about 1320 feet long, and the north-west and south- east about 930 in length 1 . Bowtell states that some remains of the Roman wall were found in 1804 ; his words are : " On the interior side of this fosse stood a very ancient wall, some remains, whereof were discovered in March 1804, when 'improvements' were making thereabouts by destroying a part of the vallum towards the north-west end, which wall abutted eastwards on the great road near to the turnpike-gate. [This turnpike-gate was at 1 The outline of the station is shewn by the broken line on the plan, where unfortunately the name of St Neots is misspelt. the point where the Histon road branches from that to Hunting- don.] The materials in the foundation of this wall consisted of flinty pebbles, fragments of Eoman bricks, and ragstone so firmly cemented that prodigious labour with the help of pick- axes, &c. was required to separate them. A part of the wall was consequently left undisturbed, and the fosse filled up with earth" (Bowt. MS. ii. 98). He also states that men digging at about the middle of the east side of the station met with the foundations of a stone building, supposed to be part of the Decuman Gate, and that directly opposite across the station similar foundations were seen in 1810 on occasion of the erection of the original building of the Old, then called the Lancastrian, Schools (ii. 99). Mr Bowtell measured one of many Roman bricks found on the edge of the fosse when the Gaol was built, and states it to have been 16 inches by 12 inches, and from f to If in thickness (ii. 166). In 1804 at about 100 paces from the north-west side of the ditch, and to the west of the turnpike-road, several antiquities were found, such as a cornelian intaglio set in a finger-ring of silver, and representing Mercury with the caduceus in his left and a purse in his right hand ; also a bronze figure of Mercury, two inches high, with wings on his bonnet and feet, and holding a purse (Bowt. MS. ii. 175). Many Roman coins have been found near to the castle (Gough, Camden, ii. 219) from an early period ; and in 1802 and the seven following years, 41 of first brass, 25 of second, and 86 of third brass, also 16 of silver, besides others of which 3 were British, were found there (Bowt. MS. ii. 191). The following list of the Emperors, &c. is derived from Vol. vili. of Bowtell's MS. at Downing Coll., in which the coins are all fully described. They were: "of first brass, coins of Nero, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina, Commodus, Didius Julianus, Macrinus, Severus Alexander, Julia Mammsea, Gordianus, Balbinus, Quintus Herennius Hostilianus, Julius Philippus. Of second brass, of Germanicus, Claudius, Ves- pasian, Trajan, Severus Alexander, Faustina, Probus, Antoninus Pius, Philippus, Gallienus, Carausius, Constantinus Chlorus, Valerius Severus, Decentius, Theodosius, Constans, Constantinus, Maximianus, Magnentius, Valerius Licinianus Licinius. Of third brass, of Claudius, Gallienus, Tacitus, Victorinus, Claudius Gothicus, Aurelianus, Tetricus, Carausius, Allectus, Fl. Max. Theodora, Cams, Helena, Constantinus, Posthumus, Constantius, Crispus, Constantinus Junior, Constans, Magnentius, Valentin- ianus, Valens, Theodosius, Gratianus, Arcadius, Honorius. The silver coins were of Trajan, Hadrian, Faustina, Caracalla, Severus Alexander, Posthumus, Domitian, Gordianus, Otacilla Severa, Philippus." A second brass coin of Otacilla was found near the castle in 1846 (Gamb. Antiq. Soc. Gat. of Coins, 13) ; a second brass of Vespasian at the same place and date (1. c. 7) ; and in 1852 a first brass of Gordianus, and a second brass of Nero. The coins have chiefly belonged to the lower empire. Indeed coins are constantly being found on the site of Camboritum. But such discoveries are not confined to that site, for coins are often found in Modern Cambridge and at Barnwell. Coins of the lower empire, as of Constantine, Licinius, and other of the later emperors, and of the type inscribed URBS . roma have been dug up in Sidney Street. At Barnwell an Antoninus Pius with the reverse Britannia was found in 1853. Others need not be enumerated, as enough has been stated to shew that such coins are not uncommon. Urns, Paterae embellished with figures, Querns, Lachry- matories, Armillae of bronze, a variety of Amphorae and frag- ments of green and blue glass were found near the castle in 1802—6 (Bowt. ii. 166, 167, 168), and also more recently urns have been found there. Stukeley thought that there was a ford at the " Great Bridge," near Magdalene College (Itin. Cur. 78). Mr Essex says, that when he was superintending the excavations for the foundation of the Great Bridge in 1754, he saw those of the ancient stone- bridge over the river Graunt, built on piles. It consisted of two small round arches as he learned from finding some of the stones that formed the arch. Mr Essex does not call this bridge Roman but only "very ancient." He says that there was probably a paved ford there in the time of the Romans, which "very plainly shewed itself in the year 1754 as a firm pavement of pebbles." At the same time he states that several pieces of Roman antiquities were found, one of them being a weight, which Dr Stukeley called a representation of Carausius's supposed Empress Oriuna (Bowt. v. 944, 945). In Lysons's Cambridgeshire (44) Mr Essex is stated to have considered the bridge to be Roman, and that the ford was an idea of Stukeley's. (See also Beliq. Gal. 53.) Mr Benjamin Bevan, son of the engineer who superin- tended the erection of the present Great Bridge, kindly placed in the author's hands some of his father's papers relative to its erection, which took place in the year 1823. This bridge was preceded by one of stone erected in 1754, and which was itself the successor of a series of wooden bridges replacing each other from a period closely succeeding if not preceding the Norman conquest. We have seen that in 1754 Mr Essex saw the foundations of an ancient round-arched stone bridge when excavating for the bridge of stone erected by him. Mr Essex's bridge was removed in 1823 to make way for the present iron bridge. In digging down to the foundation of the south abutment on Sept. 26, 1823, Mr A. Browne, the con- tractor, found it to be "very different from that on the north side ; it is one course of stone deeper than that, and the stone and masonry is laid on two courses of bond timber (laid across each other), each about GJ or 7 inches thick by 13 or 14 inches wide. The timbers in each course are laid close to each other, and form an uniform mass of timber about 13 inches thick under the whole abutment.... I think there are no piles under it. It is 9 feet 11 inches from the high water-mark to the bottom of the stone-work, and about 11 feet to the bottom of the lowest course of timber. The soil under the old abutment, and where we are excavating for the new part [the new bridge is wider than the old one], is as strong and firm a gault as I have ever seen, without any springs of water in it, as on the 9 other side" {Letter from Mr A. Browne to B. Bevan, Esq., dated 26 Sept. 1823). On the 29th and 30th of September Mr Bevan was at Cambridge, and a minute of his instructions shews that he left the old bed of timber undisturbed, merely- extending it so as to form a foundation large enough for the new bridge. He states that he " found the planks spiked down very firm," and "the lower course of hewn Totternhoe stone set on a thin course of about three inches of clay." It is not clear to what date this timber foundation ought to be referred, but it has appeared desirable to record its existence. Tottern- hoe is in Bedfordshire, and not far from the Iclcnield Way, and therefore possessing an easy means of communication with Cambridge from a very early period. "A Lachrymatory" was found in removing the foundations of the old Provost's Lodge of King's College, which stood between the present front of the College and King's Parade. A small Roman vessel was found in the excavation for a sewer in Park Street in 1848. A patera of Samian ware, and a lachrymatory of white clay were found at the south-west corner of Northampton Street in 1847 (C. A. S. Museum). It is stated in Gough's Camden that Roman bricks were to be seen in his time in the north-west corner of St Peter's church-wall. In excavations made in the garden of Trinity Hall in 1880, close to Garrett's Hostel Lane, many Roman remains were found, at the depth of a few feet, but all broken (G. A. S. Report, March 1, 1880). The excavators met with " (a) garden soil and recent debris, 1 — 2 ft. ; (b) earth containing bones, pottery, &c, referred to a period dating back from the xvnth cent, to earlier mediaeval times, 2 J — 3| ft. ; (c) pits with black earth, bones, pottery, &c, of Roman age, of irregular depth : some were bottomed at about 10 ft. from the surface ; (d) low river- terrace gravel." " In (c) there were the usual layers of oyster shells, muscles, bones of animals which had been used for food, 10 and broken pottery. There were many fragments of a dark ware, differing in form from the common types found at Chesterford, and a few bits of Samian ware, one of which was a small saucer with a simple pointed leaf-pattern around the margin ; another was a piece of a handsome basin with a winged figure and part of a hunting scene in relief. Also a nearly- perfect mortarium and some bits of glass were found." That there was a tolerably large station here in the time of the lower empire cannot be doubted ; but the name borne by it does admit of doubt. This question was discussed at great length by the antiquaries of the eighteenth century. It seems most probable that it is the Camboritum of the Itineraries which are peculiarly confused in their reference to this district. That name is given to this station by Gale (Anton. 92), where he derives it from " Gam, ' fluvius,' rhyd, ' vadum'." He is gene- rally believed to be correct ; but Stukeley (Car. ii. 139) places that station at Chesterford, and Horsley (Brit. Rom. 430) at Icklingham. In the same manner Durolipons has been placed at Godmanchester, which is now generally allowed to be its true site, at Ramsey, and even at Cambridge. Cambridge is the Caer Graunt of Nennius (ed. Gale, 115), for I cannot agree Avith those who place that " city " at Grantchester where, as I hope to shew, there was only a small fort. Stukeley (Car. ii. 1G0, &c.) invented a city of Granta which is unknown to antiquaries, but which he supposed to have been founded by his favourite Emperor Carausius after the compilation of the Itineraries. The name given by Nennius is doubtless a fact in his favour. To conclude, in the words of Bishop Bennet after he had carefully examined the subject, " I feel myself incompetent to affix any certain name to the station at Cam- bridge, although, if I was obliged to decide, I should on the whole prefer that of Camboritum." The late Dr Guest told me that he thought that Cambridge was derived from Cam-to-brig. The position of this fortified town was well chosen, for it 11 is situated on one of the most commanding spots to be found in the district. Its site is the projecting extremity of a low range of hills, backed by a slight depression, or broad and shallow valley. On at least two of its sides the ground fell away rather rapidly from the foot of the ramparts, and the river defended the fourth side. It fronts the only spot where the river could be easily passed by the Roman way now called the Via Devana, or indeed approached without traversing extensive morasses. Grantchester possesses none of these advantages, nor is it situated upon either of the great Roman roads. It is highly probable that the Saxon town of Orantabrigge stood upon the same site as the Roman Camboritum, and that it was at a late period, perhaps even after the Norman conquest, that the principal part of the town was transferred to the south side of the river. May not the construction of the Norman castle have been a promoting cause of this removal of the popu- lation, as was the case at Lincoln ? The Domesday Survey informs us that twenty-seven houses were destroyed for the purpose of building or enlarging the castle at Cambridge, and that what had constituted two of the wards of the town in the time of King Edward the Confessor was then, on account of this destruction of the houses, considered as forming only one ward {Domesday Book, i. 189). But it is worthy of remark that the existence of the very ancient church of St Benedict shews that there was a settlement in the heart of what became Cambridge, before the time of the Normans. Perhaps the Caer Graunt of the Britons is represented by the village of Grantchester, to which a British trackway will be shewn to have led, and that the Romans, finding the situation better suited for their purposes, founded Camboritum at Cambridge. A similar event seems to have taken place at Norwich, where the present city represents the British town, and Caister the Roman fort in its neighbourhood (see Wood- ward's Norwich). This would remove much of the difficulty 12 which attends the determination of the sites of Caer Graunt, Camboritum, Grantaccester and Grantebrigge ; indeed all, if Bede is allowed to have been as misinformed concerning the true name of the spot where St Etheldreda's coffin was found as he was of its material (Gaii Hist. Canteb. Acad. 8 1 ). It must however be added that the Castle Hill, which is situated within the walls of Camboritum, is manifestly one of the ancient British tumuli, or rather perhaps look-out posts, so often found to occupy commanding sites, and to have been fortified in after times. The lower part of the hill is natural, but the upper half is in all probability artificial. The existence of this tumulus and the want of any ascertained British remains at Grantchester throw doubt upon the suggestion that Caer Graunt was there ; as indeed does the name of Chesterton being given to the parish adjoining the Roman town to the north-east. It is remarkable that although the site of the Castle is within the walls of Camboritum it is nevertheless in the parish of Chesterton. Indeed the name of this village of Chesterton has excited much curiosity. Unfortunately we do not know when the name was first used to designate that parish. It may have been the site of a village when Camboritum was in ruins. The late Mr T. Wright thought that there was an outpost there, similar to that at Grantchester, but gives no reasons for his opinion (Celt, Roman and Saxon, Ed. 2, p. 134). No traces of Roman work have been noticed at Chesterton. It may be allowable to remark here that the difficulties attending some of the Itineraries of Antoninus are very great, owing probably in part to the corruption of the text, but also 1 Bede informs us that the nuns of Ely sent to Grantacsester and obtained a fine white marble sarcophagus to use at the translation of the remains of Etheldreda, but we learn from Caius that when the shrine was removed in ttie reign of Henry VIII. the coffin was found to be formed of common stone. 13 from the circuitous course taken by them. In that route with which we are interested, viz. the Iter v., it certainly does seem very remarkable that the traveller should be led from Loudon to Colchester on his way to Lincoln ; more especially as we find the Erming Street forming an almost direct communication between the two places. On examining the Iter vi. we find another route connecting the same stations of Londinum and LlNDUM, but deviating from the direct course to about as great a distance to the west (to Daventry) as the Iter v. does to the east. This may perhaps be explained by supposing that these Itineraries were not meant to give a list of the stopping-places upon the great roads of Britain, but are derived from the note- book of some person visiting officially the different stations, and taking such a course as would most conveniently admit of his doing so. Indeed there is only one place of any apparent importance which is situated upon the southern part of the Erming Street, and not visited in one or the other of these journeys, viz. Ad Fines, which is placed at Braughing in Hert- fordshire. An anonymous writer, who has published The Roman Roads in England, under the signature " A. H.", suggests with much probability that in Iter v. Villa Faustina was at Wood- bridge and Iciani at Dunwich, the travellers returning from this latter place to Colchester and proceeding along the Via Devana to Cambridge, which he names Camboritum. By this scheme the number of miles between the stations accords reasonably well with those stated in the Itineraries, and if the object of the journey was such as I have above supposed to be probable, this deviation will not be looked upon as unlikely to have taken place. The late Lord Braybrooke considered Iciani to have been at Chesterford, but does not, as far as I am informed, explain how he made that idea accord with the Itineraries (Journ. Archceol. Assoc, iii. 208). If the usual idea of the Itineraries forming a kind of road-book is adopted, we find many undoubt- edly important Roman roads unnoticed in them. For instance, 14 the Akeman Street which passes through Cambridge is omitted, and also that part of the Via Devana which lies to the north - west of this town. II. ANCIENT KOADS THROUGH CAMBRIDGE. Two great lines of road passed by or through Camborittjm, crossing each other nearly at right angles ; namely, (1) The Akeman Street, which starting from the north coast of Norfolk terminated by a junction with the Foss Way at Cirencester (Corinium) ; and (2) the so-called Via Devana leading from Colchester (Colonia or Cameloduntjm) to Chester (Deva). (3) Some fancied roads from Cambridge are noticed after the description of these. The other roads that passed through any part of the county were (4) the Erming Street, (5) the Icknield Way, (6) the Ashwell Street, (7) the Peddar Way, (8) the Fen Road, (9) the Ely and Spalding Way, (10) the Suffolk and Sawtry Way, (11) the Aldreth Causeway, (12) the Bury, Wisbeach, and Spalding Way, (13) the Bullock Way, (14) Cniit's Dyke. 1. The Akeman Street. — (1) Cambridge to Brancaster. It left the northern angle of the station at Camborittjm, and could be traced over the open fields to King's Hedges as a track for carts, but has recently been obliterated on the inclosure of the parish of Chesterton. A Roman vase of reddish ware, full of fragments of flint, was found on Blackamore Piece l on the south side of the road close to the town, in 1862. I have often walked along this road to King's Hedges, where there is a large oblong camp on its southern side, which may be of .Roman origin, as Roman coins (particularly one of silver with the head 1 Blackamore Piece was named from Alderman Blackamore, who lived in the xivth century. 15 of Roma on one side and Castor and Pollux on horseback on the reverse) have been found there (Gale, Anton. 92 ; Gough's Camden, ii. 226, from the Aubrey MS.). Or, as seems more probable, King's Hedges camp may have been made by William I., who is believed to have occupied it during his war with the Anglo-Saxons of the Isle of Ely. On the side of this camp bounded by the Roman Road a large ditch was perhaps not to be expected, but upon the other sides there must undoubtedly have been ditches if it was of Roman origin. Scarcely any traces of large external ditches are now to be seen ; such may, neverthe- less, have been there ; for the embankment, which has been of enormous width, is now so much lowered by the removal of the soil as to be throughout the greater part of its extent only faintly traceable. The camp is situated in a quite level country, and is large enough to have been the site of a Roman station ; whereas if belonging to that people it can hardly have been more than a castrum cestivum. If a Norman work its size is not an objection, for the armies of that period, consisting chiefly of cavalry, required a very large space relatively to their number. Careful measurements give the following dimensions for this encampment : Length parallel to the Akeman Street . . . 738 yds. Width 295 Thickness of the embankment in the best preserved parts 13 The corners are rectangular. Also, at a short distance from the road on the other side there is a camp of the form of a four-centred arch called Arbury, which may have been used by the Romans, as seems to be generally supposed, but from its shape is most probably of British origin. The cord of the arch is nearly obliterated, but as far as can be made out it was about 286 yards in length, and is said to have been very lofty. The width of the ditch, or of 16 the bank, cannot be determined as they are nearly destroyed by cultivation. Both these camps are in Chesterton parish, although one side of each of them forms part of its boundary. I do not know of any camp or fort nearer to that village, which is about two miles distant. Coins of silver and copper of Trajan, Hadrian, and Faustina have been found at Chesterton, as I learned from Mr E. Litchfield ; also one of Carausius now in Dr Churchill Babington's collection. From King's Hedges the road still exists in the form of a country lane, in some parts presenting the usual raised form of Roman roads, as far as Landbeche, where a coin of Carausius, also in Dr Babington's collection, was found in 1861, and other small coins are often found ; and may then be faintly traced to its junction with the Cambridge and Ely road near Denny Abbey. There it bore slightly to the right of the present road, and crossed the Old Ouse " at a ford near an Ozier-holt, half a mile below [Stretham] ferry," " having crossed the road and ditch and being visible until it dips into the fen " (Bennet in Lysonss Gamb. 45) ; then (passing by the east end of Grunty Fen) was continued to near Ely. Mr W. Marshall of Ely has a first brass coin of Trajan, which was found in 1853 near to the Ely Poor-house ; and about 30 much defaced Roman coins found near that city are in the museum there. Amongst these occur coins of Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Carausius and Gratian ; and there are also two bow-shaped fibulas in the same collection (Arcliceol. Journ. xix. 365). Mr Marshall Fisher says (I.e.) that there was undoubtedly a " Roman camp" at about two miles to the S. W. of Ely, where he has collected numerous fragments of pottery and other Roman relics. This spot is probably situated near to Witchford, to the south of the Ely and Witchford road and just to the north of a road running parallel to it at about a quarter of a mile distance. In Coveney Fen, not far from Ely, two fine bronze circu- 17 lar shields, now in the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's collec- tion, were found in 1846. They are fully described and illus- trated by four beautiful plates in the Quarto Publications of the C. A. S. (Vol. II.), and their backs shown by the two cuts here given : the curious bosses and fasteners (?) being repre- sented of the full size, the shields themselves of one-eighth of the true size. From Ely the road went to Littleport, where it crossed the Old Ouse river. Stukeley derives the name of that place from Porth, the Welsh term for a road {Car. 143). A gold coin of Valerianus has been found at Littleport. The road then went to B. 2 18 a farm called Cold Harbour, or Cobam, as Dr Bennet names it, wbere be informs us tbat the track was " visible." This farm is situated on the boundary of the county of Cambridge. We then pass into Norfolk, when the road seems to have turned to the right in order to cross the Little Ouse river to Southery, in and near to which place Roman vessels have been found and also Roman coins, but mostly in very bad preservation. In G runty Fen, near Ely, a gold torque, weighing 4 oz. and 3 grains, and 42 inches long exclusive of the solid ends, was found in 1845, having three bronze palstaves lying above it (C. A. S. Museum).. At a place called Little Shallows in Burnt Fen, near Prickwillow, which is not far from the line of this, road after passing Ely, a bronze vessel resembling a saucepan, with an ornamented flat handle, bearing the maker's name, BOD- VOGENVS. F., was found in 1838 (Archceol. xxviii. 436, t. 25). • Also parts of two copper mirrors were discovered in Burnt Feu, 1852. One of them seems to have been 5 inches in 19 diameter. Also, what was probably the handle of another, about 3 inches long, and beautifully moulded, was found at the same place. Likewise a hand of brass, 2J inches long, with the fingers extended and in contact, but the thumb placed at right angles to them. From the mass of metal remaining in the palm of the hand it would appear to have supported something which is lost. Several beads occurred at the same place; one of them was of blue glass, inlaid with a curious crole-pattern in white enamel ; another was of pale glass, streaked with faint lines from its imperfect vitrification. Part of a bronze fibula was also obtained from the same place. These things were all lying on the clay at the bottom of the peat, and coins of Hadrian, Yespasian and Constantine were found with them (Mr. I. Deck in Proc. Sitff. Soc. I. 312) ; as were also a first brass of Domitian, a first brass of Maximinus, a third brass of Con- stantine, a small Yalentinian, an Urbs Roma, a plated de- narius of Postumus, and some others illegible. Again returning to its old direction the road passed Hilgay and Denver, when it was crossed by what I call the Fen Road leading from near Peterborough to Swaffham in Norfolk, which will be noticed further on. These roads probably crossed each other at a spot named Stone Cross. To the south of the angle in the lane leading towards the south from that spot there seem to be traces of an old lane with a rather raised ridge on its eastern side, crossing the road and passing through Riston Park towards Hilgay Bridge. From Denver this Roman way went by Downham, and, passing near Lynn, to Castle Rising and Brancaster, which was probably the Brancodunum of the Romans. An account of the Roman works at the latter place as they existed in 1846 will be found in the Archaeological Institutes Norwich Volume (p. 9.). Although crossing the Fen country, this line of road is so laid down as to take the utmost advantage of the " high-lands." It first entered the fen near Denny Abbey, and escaped from it 2—2 20 again after crossing the Old Ouse river, at a distance of about 1 1 mile. It next left the " high-land " at Littleport to again pass the Ouse, and continued in the fen for about six miles, emerging from it after crossing the Little Ouse to Southery. Between Southery and Hilgay there is less than half a mile of fen, and similarly, there is about half a mile of it bounding the Stoke river, between Hilgay and Fordham on the way to Denver. Thus there were not more than nine miles of fen country to be crossed by the Roman Way between Cambridge and the high ground of Norfolk. We here see a beautiful example of the engineering skill of the Romans. Additional instances will be pointed out in the course of this treatise. (2) Gambridge to Cirencester. — Returning to Cambridge and starting in the opposite direction. The road was, in Bishop Bennet's day, to be " easily followed along the green balks in the fields at the back of the Colleges, until it falls into the common road from Cambridge to Barton at a tumulus." Un- fortunately both balks and tumulus have been removed, so that without his help we should have had little more than con- jecture to lead us to the belief of its having taken this course. The late Dr F. Thackeray informed me that about 1790 he was taken to the point where the Huntingdon and Barton roads now join, and shown this Roman road extending in both directions, as it is here described. It appears to have run parallel with the north-western side of Cambomtum. In the field opposite to Storey's Almshouses, when dug over for "coprolites" in April and May, 1871, interments were met with, and some Roman potter} 7 . This spot lay in the angle .between the Akeman Street and the Via Devana. Leaving the town at its western angle the road crossed the gardens and the Madingley road ; and soon afterwards the long lane leading from Burrell's Walk to the Coton footpath at about the middle of the last field on the right-hand side, then went close to the eastern end of the buildings of St John's 21 College farm (thus avoiding the angle of the Binn Brook) and joined the present Barton road at a little beyond Stone Bridge. On arriving at about the third mile-stone from Cambridge it was joined by a road from Grantchester, which will be noticed when describing the Via Devana. Then leav- ing the present road it passed through Barton church-yard, and, following a farm-track, rejoined the road to Wimpole near Lord's Bridge, at a little beyond which its raised crest was recently to be seen near to a tumulus called Hey Hill. This tumulus was opened by Dr E. D. Clarke in 1817, and a skeleton, but no antiquities, was found. It is scarcely now distinguishable. Near to the same place a chain with collars for conducting captives, and a double fulcrum to support a spit, both of iron, were found, and were presented to the Fitz- william Museum by Dr E. D. Clarke. The next year an amphora covered by a stone, and inclosing one black and two red terra-cotta vases, was found near to Hey Hill (Archceologia, xix. 56, t. 4). The Roman track then followed almost exactly the line of the present road. " It leaves Orwell to the left, mounts the range of hills not far from Orwell wind-mill, and descends straight by a hedge-row into a lane," probably the present road "crossing Lord Hardwicke's long avenue, and presently after the turnpike-road," which now represents the firming Street, "having Armingford," or, as it is called on the Ordnance map, Arrington " bridge on the left ; it then enters the closes on the opposite side of the road, and seems to have borne to the right towards the Roman station at Sandy" (Lysons's Camb. 46). On Orwell hill there is an ancient track- way diverging from it, and keeping on the crest of the hill with a curved course until it joins the firming Street at about three miles to the north of Arrington Bridge. It is called the Mare Way. Several miles to the north of this track there is a place named Caldecot, and to the north-east of that village, but in the parish of Hardwick, there is an old track-way called the 22 Port Way. These three names, as is justly remarked by the Rev. C. H. Hartshorne, are characteristic of spots occupied by the Romans. Rev. S. S. Lewis possesses a patera of red ware found at Orwell in 1870 and bearing the potter's mark under- neath paterati • of. At about a mile from Hey Hill, and just below the ridge upon which the church of Comberton stands, the remains of a Roman Villa were discovered a few years since in a bed of gravel. The following is the account of this Villa as described and shewn to me by the Rev. J. J. Smith, then of Caius College. In February, 1842, workmen employed in digging gravel on the low ground between Comberton Church and the Bourn Brook, found some massive brickwork, and immediately informed their master of it. He (Mr Wittett) caused the 23 earth to be carefully cleared away, and exposed to view the foundations of an extensive Roman building. The plan made by the Rev. J. J. Smith, which is here given (see woodcut) will best convey an idea of its form. Each of the piers consisted of 10 tiles, 1| inches thick, and 8 inches square. The walls were 3 feet thick, and 3^- feet in height of them was standing. They consisted of masses of Ketton stone, chalk-marl, and immense flints, kinds of stone not found in that neighbourhood. The area was filled with fragments of Roman tiles and bits of coloured stucco and fresco-paintings, of which the colours continued quite bright. Flue tiles still shewed the action of the fire. A small Roman brick and two keys, fragments of glass and of coarse pottery, also three hair-pins formed of the fossil called Belemnite, were found. Coins bad for some time past been found at Com- berton. On the site in question two coins of Septimus Severus, one of Vespasian, one of Gallienus, one of Constantine, one of Gratianus, and one of Gordianus have been picked up. On one of the square tiles there is a remarkably distinct impression of a dog's foot, which must have been made when the tile was in the course of manufacture. (Similar marks have been found at Litlington.) Also on another there is a perfect impression of a shoe, furnished with nails like those used by country people at the present time. A small Roman lock and two keys, and much pale yellow pottery ornamented, with red lines, also a fragment of the top of a vessel with a well executed female face on one side, have been found at this villa. In the village, about 1| mile to the north of the villa, there is a "Maze" in excellent preservation. (Mr I. Deck, in Gamb. Chron. Mar. 5, 1842.) The spot called the "Maze" is just in front of the National School, and if it were not known to be ancient might .be passed without observation. It is angular in its outline tending to a square, and has from time immemorial been kept paved with pebbles by the villagers. The ditch and bank that once bounded it are nearly 24 destroyed. Its use and date I am unable to conjecture. There is said to be a similar " Maze " at Hilton, near Fenny Stanton, in Huntingdonshire. In the same newspaper (Oct. 2, 1842) some slight addi- tional information concerning the villa is given. A hexagonal room, with sides ten feet long and Avails two feet thick, had been excavated, and many fragments of glass, Samian pottery, and fresco painting found in it. This room was destroyed before Mr Smith's plan was made. A portion of the leaden pipe and two of the hollow flue tiles through which it passed ; two other tiles (measuring eighteen inches by eight) which formed the piers, and two beautiful upper millstones, nineteen inches in diameter, are in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. Also in the same collection there will be found a small earthen vessel, resembling the lid of a jar, formed of whitish clay, and coated with a red material so as to resemble the Samian ware. Gibson, in his treatise upon Antoninus, expresses an opinion that there probably was a Roman town at Comberton, indeed he hints that the name may be derived from Camboritum, and that place have been there situated. This idea does not seem to be well founded, nor does he place much dependence upon it, as he writes throughout his. book as if he was con- vinced that Camboritum was situated at or close to Cam- bridge. To return to the description of the Aheinan Street. In the opinion of Mr Hartshorne, with which I concur, the road did not go to Sandy, as was supposed by Dr Bennet, but " passed through Tadlow and Wrestlingworth," by a place called Cold Harbour (a name nearly always associated with Roman or British tracks) and Road Farm, both near to Biggleswade. " On the west side of that town, just below Caldecot Green, it is called Hill Lane, and thence it proceeds to the small circular encampment of Old Warden. In the immediate vicinity we meet with the well- known accompaniments of Roman positions, in Warden Street and Loes Bush " (Hartshorn e, Salop. Antiqua, 249), and Ickwell Bury. Where it may have run from thence I know not, but another branch of it seems to have gone by Stanford and Stan- ford Bury to Shefford (where the fine Boman antiquities pre- served in the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Museum were found) and Ampthill, to botli which places it is taken by Dr Stukeley. A very full account of the discoveries at Shefford, made by Mr Tho. Inskip and others will be found in the Archceol. Joum. (xxxix. 275), from the pen of Mr Thompson Watson. As these interesting remarks refer to Bedfordshire they do not come within my plan, and the reader is referred to the Journal named for them. It seems probable that another track has reached Shefford from the Erming Street at Baldock by the way of Norton Bury, Stotfold, Etonbury, and Clifton Bury. Indeed this part of Bedfordshire seems quite full of places of Roman origin. Beyond Ampthill, Dr Stukeley states that it went by " Ridge way (so called from the road), Woburn, Little Brickhill, Winslow and Edgecot (so called from the road, agger) ; it enters Oxfordshire at Elia Castra, now Alcester, proceeds by Bicester, . . .to Stunsfield between Burford and Lechlade to Cirencester " (Car. ii. 144). He states that it is called Akeman Street in several parts of this course. There is an Akerman Street in Ely, now called Egreman Street. As I learn from the Rev. D. J. Stewart, it is so named in an old survey of Ely, A.D. 1416 — 17. It does not seem pro- bable that this had anything to do with the Akeman Street which, as it probably followed the course of the Littleport Road, must have been crossed by the Akerman Street nearly at right angles. Mr W. Marshall of Ely informs me that the name is written in ten different ways in old documents, viz. Akeman, Acreman, Agremony, Egremont, Egrinian, &c. Dr Bennet says concerning a supposed branch of this road 26 that " Dr Mason, who (being rector of Orwell) had many oppor- tunities of examining this ground, was of opinion that traces of another road were to be seen on the south side of the river near this place [Orwell], which he conceived to have been thrown off from this in some part of its course, and to have formed the communication between Cambridge and Verulamium." Of this supposed road nothing more is known. It must be remarked here that there is another ancient road also called Akeman Street, which appears to have started from Verulamium and passed by Tring and A}desbury to Alcester, where it joins the line above described. The application of the name to this road has been supposed to be an error of the maker of an old county map, but that seems unlikely, from the name being used, as I am informed, by the country people about Tring. 2. ViaDevana*. — (1) Cambridge to Colchester. This road left the Cambridge station by its southern gate, immediately crossing the river close to the site of the present bridge, where the swampy borders of the river must from the nature of the spot have been narrow. My friend the late Mr W. G. Ashton informed me that in the year 1823 (when he resided in Bridge Street) an excava- tion was made for the formation of a great sewer, and that the late Mr Lestourgeon showed to him a Roman causeway in very good preservation, extending from near the Great Bridge to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and occupying about half the width of the street on its eastern side. It was at about fourteen feet below the present surface of the ground, had black peat earth beneath it, and was covered by a few feet of the same kind of soil. It was formed of piles of wood driven into the ground. There were squared beams of wood (probably oak) placed upon the piles, and thus a 1 It should be recorded here that this name, Via Devana, is not ancient, but it is not known at what time it was first used. 27 continuous road was formed of such a considerable width as to allow of its having been used as a way for horses. From the appearance of the soil, it was supposed to have been originally elevated a foot, or rather more, above the then surface of the bog, and thus to have formed a dry road to the spot where a Roman bridge is believed to have crossed the river, and of which the remains are said, as has been already remarked, to have been found by Mr Essex (Lysons's Camb. 44). The wood was in a good state of preservation, but had become black, as is usual with oak when long buried in a wet peat soil. The fact that it was at least fourteen feet below the surface of the present street shows that it must have been of great anti- quity; and there being several feet of the peat above it, proves almost conclusively that it had been disused and forgotten before this very ancient part of Cambridge was built. As Granta- csestir is stated by Bede (Hist. Lib. iv. c. 19) to have been desolate (civitatulam quandam desolatam) in the seventh cen- tury, there may have been sufficient time for the channel of the river to become obstructed at the bridge, and the height of the water being thus raised it would permanently cover the low boggy ground over which this causeway extended. Peat would then quickly form, and in a very few years bury the structure and preserve it for discovery in future ages. There does not seem to be any other period in the history of Cambridge at which these changes could have taken place, without the' pre- sence of a population which was interested in the preservation of such a work as that described ; and with such an interest it is not credible that the timbers should have been allowed to become totally buried, but would doubtless have been removed, and the whole structure raised so as to admit of its being used, or a different kind of causeway formed to replace that which had become useless. It may be interesting to remark, before we proceed with the description of the Via Devana, that somewhat similar Roman 28 structures of wood have been found in other parts of Britain. In the year 1849, or 1850, a railway was formed along the side of the river Mersey, at Wallasey Pool, near Birkenhead, and in the course of the excavations required in the works for it, a timber bridge was found, covered by 14 feet of silt, and 9^ feet below the present highest level of the tides. As there was a solid bottom in this case, and rocky abutments, piles were not required, and the timbers rested upon the rock and upon two piers of masonry {Journal of the Architect. Archceolog. and His- toric Society of Chester, Pt. i. 55, and plate). Also, in Lancashire, a wooden causeway, called the Danes' Path, formed of pairs of piles supporting longitudinal timbers, has been traced for a mile and a half across the mosses of Rawcliffe, Stalmine, and Pilling, and is known to have extended for about the same distance further to the ancient sea-beach near Scronka {Proceedings and Papers of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, iii. 121, and plate). What appear to be conclusive reasons are stated for its being considered as a Roman or Romano-British work. A similar work to that found at Cambridge was discovered in Kincardine Moss, in Scotland, and was undoubtedly a Roman work (Wilson's Prehist. Annals of Scotland, 34). Unfortunately, in the case of Cambridge, the attention of antiquaries was not directed to the discovery, and the interesting causeway was either destroyed to give place to the sewer, or again perma- nently buried under the street at such a depth as to be inac- cessible. Although I am myself satisfied, from the above account of the causeway (for which I am indebted to Mr Ashton's remembrance of what was shown and explained to him by the late Mr Lestourgeon, who was a gentleman much in- terested in archaeology), it is right to state that the late Mr E. Litchfield, who also remembered these excavations, did not believe that the piles and timbers which he saw were Roman. For the reasons already stated I am Unable to find any other period in the history of Cambridge to which to refer 29 them. It is very unfortunate that the work was not examined by some experienced antiquary. The road nearly followed the course of the modern streets of Cambridge, as far as the church of St Andrew the Great, which Dr Bennet states to be placed upon it. From thence it kept to the left of the present Hills' Road, along the highest part of the land between the fens of Cherry Hinton and Trum- pington. Traces of it were probably found in the form of a ridge of gravel, at the distance of three or four yards from that road, when the ground was trenched to form a plantation at the border of the Botanic Garden property adjoining the Hills' Road. This is, however, uncertain, as the subsoil of all that district is gravel, and the appearances may have been natural. Traces of it are much more certainly to be found at a little to the east of the Great Tithe Farm, where its ridge may still be seen crossing the private road to the farm, and in the next and one succeeding hedge as you proceed along its course towards the south. These traces, although now very faint, are interesting as confirmatory of Dr Bennet's statement, that it took this course ; a statement made before the enclosure and drainage of the lands, and therefore at a time when its ridge was doubtless to be easily observed. We next see it near Red Cross Farm, where it changed its direction so as to ascend the hill along the course of Worts' Causeway. Its ridge may be observed crossing the private road at a few yards to the north-east of the farm-house, in both the neigh- bouring hedges, and (looking back upon our course) across the whole width of the adjoining field, and in the hedge be- yond it; bearing in such a direction as to appear as if its destination was Grantchester, to which place a road, to be described presently, branched off here. It is probable that the curve in the Via Devana and the junction of these two ancient tracks took place at, or very near to, this latter hedge ; the line bearing from that point, in one direction straight to 30 ( 'amboritum, and in the other nearly following the present course of the Worts' Causeway in an easterly direction, until it attained the top of the hill, where it regains its original nearly south-east course. The reason for this remarkable deviation from the usual direct line of the Roman roads is to be found in the formerly impassable character of Hinton Moor, which would have been encountered if it had been continued in a straight line to Cambridge. The only mode of reaching that place, without crossing deep morasses, being the very course which we have found that it followed, namely, along the narrow but slightly elevated ridge that separates Hinton Moor from the marshy track extending from Shelford to the river Cam, and along which the Vicar's Brook flows, which supplies the conduits in Cambridge with water. The road only deviates just sufficiently to avoid the wet country which near Red Cross extended a little to the west of the Worts' Causeway. It was supposed, says Horsley {Brit. Rom. 431), that a road from Chesterton, which must have crossed the river near to the present railway bridge, and kept to the east of Cold- ham's Common, joined the Via Devana at the top of the hill where we have now arrived ; but no trace of such a track having, it is believed, ever been observed, it is unnecessary to notice it further. At this point, where the road returns to its original direction, there are the remains of two tumuli, called the Two- penny Loaves, one of which was opened in 1778, and seven skeletons were found at its bottom ; six of them were laid close together and parallel, with their heads pointing due north, the other lay with its head directed due west, and its feet next the side of the nearest of the six (Nichols's Lit. Anec. vin. 631). At Fulbourn, which lies at a short distance to the north-east of this point, various British remains have been found, such as a leaf-shaped sword of bronze, a 31 spear-head of that metal, and others (Archceol. xix. 56, t. 4). Mr Litchfield had a bronze Roman key found at Fulbourn. Fulbourn has also produced two other leaf-shaped swords ; and the late Lord Braybrooke remarked at the meeting of the Archaeological Institute at Cambridge that a man named Richard Manning told him of " a square brick grave in which were some glass and pottery vessels which he saw broken by the workmen." Near Fulbourn some remarkable discoveries were made in 1874. Mr James Carter thus describes them in the Cambridge Chronicle (May 10, 1874). He says: "In making a cutting through some rising ground, about half a mile on the Cam- bridge side of the Fulbourn Railway Station, the workmen came upon three pits or wells sunk in the chalk. They were about three feet from each other and situated upon the summit of the low hill through which the cutting was made. The largest of them, namely that nearest to the Fulbourn Station, was a circular shaft sunk about ten feet in the chalk. It was carefully built up, and the inside smooth, and coated with a layer of hard cement about, three inches thick. There was then a layer of coarse concrete about ten inches in thickness, which was reddened by the action of fire. At about six feet from the top the shaft was abruptly reduced in diameter from 9 ft. 3 in. to 6 ft. 3 in., thus forming a set-off 20 in. wide. It was then carried down to a further depth of nearly four feet in the chalk. The inner surface of the lower and narrower portion was blackened, as if by the combustion of wood and other vegetable substances, and contained masses of black car- bonaceous matter. The workmen stated that at the bottom they found some slabs leaning obliquely against the sides, so as to construct a sort of flue for draught : but I saw nothing of this. " The upper and wider portion of the pit was filled partly by the surface soil, and below that there was a layer two to three 32 feet thick of a very soft calcareous deposit, which the workmen called 'butter.' The 'butter' was so soft that it could readily be rubbed into a paste between the fingers. I analysed this substance and found it to be composed of slaked lime, containing a considerable quantity of water. By exposure to the air it became quite dry and hard. Below and by the sides of this soft layer of lime was a layer of vesicular, spongy, calcareous matter, very light and composed of pure chalk, i.e. carbonate of lime. I imagine that this layer was formed by water filtered through the lime, of which it dissolved a considerable quantity, and subsequently deposited it, as evaporation took place, upon plants lining the shaft. It had not the least appearance of being produced by burning. "At the junction of the wide and narrow parts of the shaft there was a round-headed opening leading into a second ex- cavation by a passage 2 ft. 6 in. in length. This second pit was simply sunk in the hard chalk and not built up like the other pit. It was of equal diameter throughout ; not narrowed in the lower part. I could not detect any traces of the action of fire, except that the sides of the opening between the shafts were burned and reddened. The side of this second shaft opposite to the opening into the first was perforated by another similar opening, which led into a third opening, which ap- peared not to have been circular, but a cutting with parallel sides, the floor of which inclined upwards, and, as the workmen supposed, had led to the surface. " It is quite evident that the largest and deepest of these pits was used as a kiln of some kind : it could hardly have been for burning bricks or pottery ; nor could I detect the slightest evidence that it had been used for cremation, as was suggested. The presence of a quantity of slaked lime seems to prove that it was used as a limekiln. I suppose that the chalk was put into the upper and wider part of the kiln, and the fuel into the narrower and lower part. The opening would admit of the 33 removal of the lime and the introduction of fuel ; but it is not very evident what cau have been the use of the second pit. " We have no very positive evidence of the age of these pits, but as far as an opinion can be formed from the objects found in the surface soil by which they were partially filled they may perhaps be regarded as Roman. I saw no object which had been found in the lower part of the shafts, but the soil which filled the upper part contained broken pottery of both red and black Roman ware, and also human and other bones, such as ox, horse, and a horned sheep's. A good many human skeletons, perhaps as many as thirty, were discovered in making the cutting of about half a mile in length between the station and the pits. The soil also was full of fragments of pottery and bones of animals, all of very ancient date. The human teeth were ground down as if by the mastication of coarsely ground corn." Of course no remnant of this curious place remains. To return to the road : at a short distance to the west of the point at which we have arrived there is, upon the top of Gogmagog hill, a large rudely circular camp, called Vandlebury. It is 246 paces in diameter, has three ramparts and two ditches between them (Bowtell, MS. vii. 2641) and encloses about 13| acres. It was probably a work of the Britons, but is shown, by the discovery of coins, to have been occupied by the Romans. The coins were found in 1685, in digging the foundations of the house now belonging to the Duke of Leeds, which stands within the camp. They were of Valentinian I. and Valens ; a knuckle- ring and coins of Trajan and Antoninus Pius were afterwards picked up; in 1730, several large brass coins and a silver ring; and in 1752, a small brass coin of Nero (Gough's Camden, ii. 138; Bibl. Topog. Brit. iii. 15; Gale, Anton. 93). A coin of Cunobeline has also been found there (Bowtell MS. ii. 96). The hills surrounding this place are now called Gogmagog, which i^ perhaps a corruption of Hogmagog, itself believed by Gale to have come from " Hoog macht, quod altum robnr B. 3 34 significat et naturae loci satis congruit." Vandlebury may have been the chief fort of the Vandals who were placed in Cambridgeshire by Probus and removed by Belisarius ; but is probably much older than their time. The road is now plainly distinguishable for many miles, with its crest highly raised, and is still used. It crossed the Ichiield Way, which is represented by the road from Ches- terford to Newmarket, at Worsted Lodge, passed about a mile to the south of Balsham, a short distance to the north of Horseheath Lodge, and entered Suffolk near Withersfield. In this part it is fully forty feet wide. Its course from thence to Colchester, by Haverhill and Halsted, it is unneces- sary to notice. In Cambridgeshire this part of the road goes by the name of Woolstreet, or Worsted. Near Vandle- bury and between the Woolstreet and Fleam Dyke there are many tumuli. At Barham Hall, near Linton, about two miles to the south of the road, there are some very unin- telligible intrenchments. They are situated in the first and second fields, beyond the inclosures of the Hall, on the way to Bartlow, between that road and the river Bourn, and have been supposed to be the remains of a camp. There are con- siderable traces of a scarped slope, but no ditch, upon the north-west and south-west sides of a large space ; and near to the entrance of the first field there is a deep trench, which does not seem to have any connexion with the supposed camp. In the parish of West Wickham several Roman coins were found in 1863, chiefly of the lower empire, those of Constan- tine, Tacitus and Claudius Gothicus were deciphered. Roman coins have also been found at Linton, near which place at Little Linton Roman pottery has occurred, as we learn from Lord Braybrooke. He has also a coin of Theodosius from Castle Camps, and a bronze ladle from Shudy Camps.f These, and all the other antiquities mentioned as found by him, are 35 probably still preserved in the museum which he formed at Audley End. On the opposite side of the brook called the Bourn and close to it, in the parish of Hadstock but adjoining the town of Linton, there was a Roman villa, which was exhumed by the late Lord Braybrooke in 1850 (for an account of it see Archceol. Journ. viii. 27). Gough saw the bronze bust of a satyr found at Linton (Gough's Camden, ii. 138). In 1832 a boy found a vase con- taining many silver Roman coins in a field in the parish of Horseheath, belonging to S. Batson, Esq. Amongst them there were those of Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, the two Antonines, Faustina, and L. iElius Verus {Camb. Ghron. Oct. 5th, 1832, and Jan. 25th, 1833). At Bart- low, which is about two miles from the road, are the well-known Bartlow Hills, the examination of which attracted so much attention between forty and fifty years since (Archceol. xxv. 1, t. 1 — 3, and xxvi. 300, t. 31 — 35). A third brass coin of Valens was found there (Archceol. xxvi. 463). The hills are formed of a succession of very thin layers of mould and chalk regularly alternating and horizontal. Mr I. Deck gave an account of the opening of one of them, in the Cambridge Chronicle (May 5, 1838), and of another afterwards (Ibid. May 2, 1840). But these places are not in Cambridgeshire. (2) Cambridge to Chester. Returning to Cambridge and proceeding in the opposite direction, the Via Devana passed out at the north-western gate of the station, just to the west of the present junction of the Huntingdon and Histon roads, and kept to the left of the line of the existing road, but " passed through the fields of the ancient hamlet called How's House, where a barrow containing several Roman coins was removed in making the present road " (Lysons's Camb. 44) ; by Lolworth hedges and Fenstanton to Godmanchester on its way to Leicester and Chester. In a field between Gravel Hill Farm and the Huntingdon road some large and small 3—2 36 Roman funereal vases, broken pieces of Samian ware, and a few bits of Roman pottery (of the smoky kind) were found in 1861, together with burned bones. These were apparently by the side of the " Via Devana." By the course of the same road two large stone coffins were found in 1862. They had their ends towards the road, and were sunk a little below the surface soil. The very perfect skeleton of a female was found in one of them quite undisturbed, and the stone coffin was unbroken. At the feet of this skeleton there were several glass bottle-shaped vessels (see cuts on this and the following page) and a small vase of the Roman period ; also an amulet of jet and the remains of two jet pins. The other coffin was larger and had been mended with two iron clamps (showing the value of the stone coffins at that time and place) : it contained nothing except the remains of the skeleton much disturbed, by water having obtained access to the coffin (Camb. Antiq. Comm. ii. 289). Two Roman-British urns of the ordinary coarse black pottery, and one of fine yellow ware with a narrow neck were found near the Observatory in May, 1878. 37 In 1881, during some alterations of the ground near Girton College, an extensive Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered. It seems to have been the quiet burial place of a peaceable time, which was probably of rather long continuance. Proof was found of interment by cremation and by inhumation. Many vases and ornaments such as fibulae and beads were found. It is not my intention to give any account of the Anglo- Saxon remains found here, but only of those of the Roman period. The former will, it is expected, be described in detail by Mr 38 Jenkinson in the Comm. of the Camb. Antiq. Society, and do not fall within the scope of this treatise. " The Roman remains consisted principally of the contents of two square wooden boxes, the form of which was clearly traced by the nails and the pieces of wood adhering to them. Each contained a glass cinerary vessel : of these one was square, the other hexagonal. Each contained an iron lamp with hooked rod for suspension, and other vessels of glass and of Samian and other ware. The marks on the Samian were all of known potters (PAVLLI.M., pavli-F- (sic), borilli • M., PATERATi • OF- ) ; a glass bottle bore on its flat bottom the circular legend, c • LVCRETI • FESTIVI, and an undecipherable mark in the centre." A glass patera showed impressed on the under side the figure . 3s. VIII. A Catalogue of the MSS. and scarce books \e Library of St John's College. By M. Cowie, M.A. Part Ix. 1..43. *** Nos. 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