the time of their conquest of the island, as it was afterwards by William the Conqueror, cannot very well be doubted.

Following on, about six miles take us from Berin's Hill, through Nettlebed, where, says Archbishop Baldwin,* "there are still the remains of a Roman camp," to Henley-on-Thames, which Dr. Gale, on a mistaken assumption, makes the Calleva Atrebatum of Antoninus and Caleba of Ravennas. The evidence of Roman occupation of this place is rather scanty, but Roman coins have been found there, and traces of a Roman road seem to have been discovered, which Gale connects with a road to Spinæ. Dr. Plot considers that what is now called Grim's Dyke, referred to a few pages on, was a Roman way between Wallingford and Henley, and thence to Colnbrook. It is very inviting to adopt the learned geographer's views, owing to the direct connection between the two points, particularly as they receive the support, to some extent, of Stukeley, confirmed by Grose,† who states

"Oxon.-Another (Roman) road is the remains of a vicinal way called Grime's Dike, which enters this county from Berkshire near Wallingford, crosses the Thames, and running southeast and crossing Icknield Street, passes the Thames a second time near Henley, and re-enters Berkshire." Mr. Pointer, after describing the Icknield Way, adds, "Another old Roman way is a vicinal way, an old vallum, or high-ridged bank, now called Gryme's Dyke, crossing the Icknield within two miles of Ewelme, between Wallingford and Colnbrook." A like opinion is expressed in the 1727 edition of the "Magna Britannia," although the position of Wallingford station is considered to have been between Mongewell and Newnham Murren, to the south of the existing borough boundary. The better opinion appears to be that Grim's Dyke constituted a British tribal boundary, and ought not to be classed strictly among Roman roads; but be this as it may, it must be conceded that this ridge and trench bank, which opened up such an important part of the country, although not originally designed as a highway, was doubtless used as such, not only possibly by Julius Cæsar, as suggested, but also by the Romans before their own more perfect military roads were constructed, just as we know they used and improved other British works when they had a purpose to serve.

Itinerary" (A.D. 1188).

+ "Antiquities," vol. iii.

Harpsden, close to Henley, has a fortification unmistakably Roman, which Mr. Reade considers was the original post, transferred to Henley in later and more peaceable times. From Henley to Bibracte (Maidenhead or Bray) in the eighteenth Iter of "Cirencester," and thence to Langley or Colnbrook, we get over about seventeen miles. The former place is supposed by some to be the Pontes of Antoninus. It is seventeen miles from London, and on the old Bath Road, which was diverted to its present course upon the building of Maidenhead Bridge in 1772. Colnbrook is also on the old Bath Road, and more generally supposed to be the Pontes referred to. It is about two miles nearer London; then meeting the Roman road, which crosses from Turnham Green to Shepherd's Bush, on the Uxbridge Road, the city would be entered by way of Oxford Street and Holborn.

Bray and Maidenhead are adjoining parishes, and it is supposed the station was nearer the latter town than the former village. Leland states that this town was originally denominated "Alaunodunum," but I do not find the name in any other authority.* According to the Rev. Charles Kerry, the entrenchments on Maidenhead Thicket are unquestionably of Roman origin; other writers refer to this spot as the undoubted site of a Roman camp. "Numerous Roman coins," says Kerry, "have been found at Bray, including specimens of the reigns of Vespasian, Julianus, Constantius, Constans, Constantine, Valens, Gallienus, and Arcadius." A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1795, associates with them various fragments of armour and weapons, which have been at different times ploughed up.

It seems to be urged that, because a Roman road has been traced to the river at Staines, therefore Colnbrook, as the Ad Pontes of Antoninus, must be excluded, and that name applied to Staines; but by the fifteenth Iter of " Cirencester we are led to Bray or Maidenhead as the Roman station Bibracte, which is in the direct line from Wallingford to Colnbrook. I fail to see the force of this argument for the rejection of Colnbrook, and it is certainly a strong circumstance in favour of that place that the river Colne northward divides itself

* Mr. Martin remarks, “Leland mentions it in the 'Cygnea Cantio,' but I am not aware of its being really a Roman name. Many of the names in that poem are Leland's invention."

into three distinct streams, which would have to be crossed, and to which, assuming there were bridges over them, the term "Ad Pontes " is singularly applicable-an applicability which in no sense attaches to Staines.

The suggested line through Marlow, though it cannot claim any learned advocacy, is not without support as a continuation of a direct road from Cirencester. Having crossed the Icknield Way near Wallingford, a stage of about seventeen miles would take us into the neighbourhood of Marlow, where a Roman camp is said to have been. At Little Marlow north end, thirty-two Roman copper coins were found in 1772, chiefly of the middle empire. Of eight of them, once in the possession of Colonel Innes, two were of Antoninus Pius, two Faustina, two Vespasian, one Trajan, and one Aurelius. Not far off is the supposed site of a Roman station in Desborough field, near the circular camps at High Wycombe and West Wycombe, and where British coins, mosaic pavement, and coins of the Emperors Nerva, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, have been found.

Keep or Castle Hill, about half a mile from High Wycombe, bears evident traces of having been a British or Roman station. Vestiges of the outworks appear, and there are two fosses on the north and east sides. In 1827 ten British coins were discovered there, and are now in the British Museum. In 1722 a tesselated pavement was found in Lord Shelburne's* grounds, and in 1797 part of a Roman vessel was dug up in the High Street of the town. These circumstances, and the situation of Castle Hill, induced the Rev. Thomas Langley, D.C.L.,† to think that the Romans had here a more permanent residence than a station. From the neighbourhood of Marlow or Wycombe the route would take a south-easterly direction, through Farnham Royal (where are some large and deep entrenchments) to Langley and Colnbrook, and London would be entered by the Turnham Green Road, as before described.

Thus we reach the great metropolis, by a route much more direct than that through Silchester, the mileage being ten or twelve less.

*Archæologia, vol. xxi. p. 297; Gentleman's Magazine for 1827, p. 493. "History and Antiquities of the Hundred of Desborough."

CHAPTER V.

ROMAN PERIOD-continued.

The Grim's Dyke of South Oxfordshire.

DR. PLOT classes Grim's Dyke "amongst the many vicinal ways, or chimini minores, mentioned by Antoninus in his 'Itinerary," and considers that it went between Pontes, now Colnbrook, and the old city Calleva, now Wallingford; and he remarks, ""Tis plain that Wallingford stood not formerly where it now doth, this old vallum, or high ridged way pointing down between Mongewell and Nuneham [Newnham] Warren, or Murren, on the Oxfordshire side of the river, as described in the map, near a mile below the town as it is now seated.

"This vallum, or ridged bank, now called Grimsdike, as it runs toward Pontes, yet remains very high, but is but single till it comes near the woods near Tuffield, alias Nuffield, where it appears double, with a deep trench between, like the ways near Piperno and at Porto, in Italy, which induces me to believe that that part near Wallingford was once so too, and therefore called Grimsditch; the trench, in all likelihood, being filled up with one of the banks thrown into it upon the increase of agriculture, perhaps at first designed only to carry off the water, and the two banks on each side for the carriages twixt the stations; those from Wallingford to Pontes going upon one bank, and those from Pontes to Wallingford on the other, so that there should be no disturbance by meeting on the way. From Tuffield, I was told, it holds on its course through the thick woods, and passed below Henley into Berkshire again; but, the woods scarce admitting a foot-passage, much less for a horse, I could not conveniently trace it further."

Mr. Burn, in his "History of Henley-on-Thames," fixes the exact position of Grim's Dyke in Bell Street, in that town, obtaining his information from some old muniments of title, dated 1591 and 1775, in which the situation of the dyke is described. He adds, "It is, however, still uncertain at what part of the river it was connected with the Berkshire dyke, but probably above the bridge." Following its course westward into the Chiltern range, he gives a minute and interesting description; and, nearing Wallingford, he remarks, "The trigonometrical survey shows the line of the ditch from the east of Wallingford to Mongewell."

Mr. Reade, entertaining the opinion that Grim's Dyke was a work of the Celtic Britons, combats the views of Dr. Plot in giving to the dyke a Roman origin. It may be that the doctor never penetrated into the earlier history of the dyke; but, assuming the work to be Celtic, and, as before suggested, utilized by the Romans, its classification in the lower grade of Roman ways may be accepted as not altogether without

excuse.

66

Mr. Reade also speaks doubtfully as to a continuance of the dyke on the other side of the river at Henley. A branch, called by the common people 'Grimmers," and by geographers a remarkable foss," runs on the south of the parishes of Padworth and Aldermaston, and takes an opposite direction to Henley, over a tract of country originally down, and now abounding in woodland. No trace of the dyke appears to be recorded over the more highly cultivated land on the east of Henley.

The Icknield, or Ickleton, Ways and their connections, etc.

(Ante, p. 81.)

This was probably the great high-road from east to west in ancient times. The Oxfordshire portion of it is delineated in the map of Dr. Plot, who seems to have carefully traced it from its entrance into his county, near Chinnor, at the north-east, to its junction with the river Thames on the south-west. He terms it one of the four Consular or Pretorian ways (chimini majores). The road is known by various names-Ickleton, Icknil, Acknil, Hackney, Hackington, Icknield, and it seems to have been confounded with the Ickle Street of Dugdale and Hollingshed, which passes through Warwickshire. Enter