34 The Twenty-third General Meeting. 
traced. The place must have been almost, if not quite impregnable. 
When the Romans had taken possession of this part of Britain, they 
formed numerous straight roads, some of which converged at Old 
Sarum. It was a matter of surprise, however, to him that he had 
never been able to find any traces of the Romans at Old Sarum. 
Dr. Stukeley—one of the most intelligent of antiquaries—had pointed 
out a fragment of what he believed to have been a Roman wall which 
formerly extended around the fortress. Sir Richard Colt Hoare did 
not remark upon it, but they would have an opportunity of seeing 
it. If part of a Roman castle the question arose whether the Romans 
might not have been living in juxta-position, and in friendly alliance 
with the Britons? That was evidently the case in many other parts 
of Britain. . There was no trace, even in the Salisbury Museum, of 
a hostile occupation of Old Sarum by the Romans. Was not that 
a sign of a peaceful alliance, and of the general prosperity of that 
part of the country? The speaker then referred to the removal of 
the Cathedral from Old to New Sarum, and expressed his belief that 
the original stones were used in the erection of the new building. 
Having visited the citadel the company went to look at the frag- 
ment of so-called Roman masonry on the north side of the fortress. 
Mr. Smitx expressed his strong belief that it was Roman: it was 
certainly unlike Norman and medieval work altogether. He re- 
pudiated the notion that it was part of a continuous wall, and had 
no doubt whatever that it was what he had stated. 
Mr. Parker confessed that he had come to the spot with con- 
siderable prejudice against the work being Roman, but now that he 
had seen it he could not help agreeing in Mr. Smith’s opinion that 
it was really a piece of Roman work. He could not see what 
else it could be but Roman work. In Norman masonry they had 
fine joints, while the joints of this wall were very open. It was not 
Norman, it was pre-Norman, and it might be a Roman round tower. 
Mr. Stevens stated that the Dean and Chapter and Mr. Marsh, 
the occupant of the land, had given permission to test whether it 
was a portion of a rectangular building or a circular wall. As to 
Mr. Roach Smith’s statement, he would venture to say that there 
was a good deal of evidence to show that the masonry really formed 
