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ON THE BRITISH ANTIQUITIES op WARWICKSHIRE/ 



By M. H. Bloxam, Esq. 



When Sir William Dugdale wrote his History and Antiquities 

 of Warmckshirej he appears to have paid but little attention to its 

 most ancient remains^ for his work — almost exclusively devoted to 

 matters relating to family antiquity, of historical detail, to the 

 transmission of manorial rights, to heraldic notices, and to matters 

 relating to the monks and monastic and ecclesiastical establishments, 

 and containing on these and other subjects an immense mass of va- 

 luable information — is extremely defective in many branches of ar- 

 chaeological research, the study of which was then little under- 

 stood, and the notices which he gives of British, Roman, and 

 Saxon remains, are few and unsatisfactory. 



Nor has any one since his time, — if we except Dr. Thomas, who, 

 upwards of a century ago, republished the work of Sir William Dug- 

 dale, with some additions on the same plan, — attempted to give any 

 general history of this county, or even to treat of it in those points 

 in which Dugdale's History is most deficient. 



In the wide and discursive field, then, of antiquarian research 

 which the county of Warwick every where presents, its earliest an- 

 tiquities have hitherto been scarcely noticed, or else they have been 

 so confounded with remains of a later date as to mislead the general 

 inquirer, who may not have had the advantage of an actual and 

 local investigation. For on close examination it will, I think, ap- 

 pear that many of the ancient camps and earthworks in this county, 

 which hitherto have had the reputation of being either Roman, 

 Saxon, or Danish, or have even been ascribed to a much later era, 

 are, in reality, ancient British remains, constructed at a period an- 

 terior to the invasion of this island by the Romans. 



In like manner, also, those isolated tumuli which lie scattered 

 over the county, most of which are, perhaps, only known to the 

 local investigator, were formerly considered as Roman; and this 

 conjecture was strengthened by the fact that many of them were 

 situated near to those celebrated Roman roads, the Wattling-street 

 and the Foss, both of which intersect this county ; but it is now 

 generally admitted that these Roman roads were formed on pre-ex- 



* The following is the substance of a Lecture delivered at the Birmingham 

 Philosophical Institution. 



VOL. IV. — NO. XVI. M 



