38 THE CHILTERN COUNTRY. 
it severs the Counties of Buckingham and Hertford (a sure sign 
of its antiquity as a road dating from before the time of Alfred 
the Great), and is best known as Shire Lane, from this cireum- 
stance. Crossing the turnpike road, it strikes directly through 
the village of Drayton Beauchamp, where it is still well-known as 
Hollow Way. Beyond the point where it crosses the Aylesbury 
canal, in the parish of Drayton, I have not endeavoured to trace 
it; but I make no doubt it was intended as a line of communi- 
cation from the vale of the Thames to the vale of the Ouse, and 
was so used by our Celtic forefathers. It is accompanied by 
several circular intrenchments, which were the settlements (opprda, 
as Ceesar calls them) of the inhabitants. Besides that at Choles- 
bury, there is a remarkable one at Hawridge, and there are two 
in the parish of Great Missenden, within a few hundred yards of 
the road. The road may perhaps have terminated at or near the 
enormous entrenchment or oppidum in Bulstrode Park, in the 
parish of Fulmer. 
This remarkable camp is believed by some Buckinghamshire 
archeologists to be the identical town or oppidum of the Britons 
which Julius Cxsar took and sacked. Verulam or St. Albans 
contests this honour with it. The principal objection made to the 
claims of the Chiltern forest is, that Cesar specially excepts the 
beech and the fir from his list of the trees which grew in Britain: 
all sorts, he announces, are to be found, ‘preter fagum et 
abietem.”” Hence, the argument proceeds, Czesar evidently could 
never have visited Buckinghamshire. This, however, we get over 
easily enough, by replying that the fagus means, not fagus silvatica 
of the Chiltern hills, but fagus castanea or Spanish chestnut; and 
the abies the silver fir, or foreign deal, neither of which is indi- 
genous to our island, though they flourish abundantly when 
planted. Whitaker, in his History of Manchester, states that 
the Romans found the fir in Britain, but imported the Beech 
—probably in the same vessel which introduced the Cuckoo! 
We have positive arguments in favour of Buckinghamshire and 
the Chiltern forest being the scene of Julius Cesar’s invasion and 
sojourn in Britain. Cvsar tells us he crossed the Thames. The 
