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Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 
the railway was lately widened. At the descent into the Idmiston valley 
the track of the Roman road leaves the railway and diverges somewhat 
from the straight course in crossing the valley. It is shown on the old 
Ordnance map running the same straight line and passing round a 
barrow, but all traces of road and barrow are now effaced by ploughing. 
Through Porton and Gumbleton the course of the road is uncertain, but 
on the other side of the Bourne valley it is shown by a line of highways 
and tracks pointing straight to the south side of the central mound of 
Old Sarum, and continuing to within half-a-mile of it. A straight line 
from Silchester to Old Sarum passes a mile to the south of the Roman 
road, at Quarley Hill, where the road lies farthest away from a straight 
line in the thirty-six miles between those places. It is to be noticed 
that this road, the Roman road from Winchester, and that on to the west, 
all three point to the inner of the two immense concentric ramparts of 
Old Sarum. The outer ring, which is supposed to have been strengthened 
by Alfred, has a mean diameter of about 520 yards.” 
‘* Old Sarum to the West. The course of this road for the first 34 
miles across the valleys of the Avon and the Wily is uncertain. A ford 
and causeway across the Wily about a quarter of a mile below South 
Newton Mill, may possibly mark the crossing of that river. Sir R. C. 
Hoare described this road and gave a map of it, which is based on the 
old Ordnance survey with additions and slight alterations. Then, as 
now, the first traces of the Roman road appear on a ridge issuing from 
the north-east side of Groveley Wood, pointing to the ramparts of Old 
Sarum, and according to Sir R. C. Hoare it continued an uninterrupted 
course through thick copse wood for several miles until it made its exit 
near Dinton Beeches, and he speaks of its well-known course. The 
old Ordnance map and Sir R. C. Hoare’s both show the ridge in a straight 
line between the south side of the inner rampart of Old Sarum, and the 
high ground near Dinton Beeches, and then on in nearly the same straight 
line through Stockton Wood and Great Ridge Wood to a quarter of a 
mile north of Lower Pertwood Farm, 164 miles from Old Sarum. The — 
new Ordnance map marks its course through Groveley Wood, where it 
is now very difficult to follow it, by a dotted line, not straight, but 
changing its direction at Groveley Lodge, and bending in the wood to 
get to Dinton Beeches; and beyond, what is a very crooked ditch and — 
bank on the south of Stockton Wood and Great Ridge Wood is marked — 
Roman road. Sir R. C. Hoare carefully mapped and described both the 
ditch and the road, and he found the latter beyond Dinton Beeches 
distinguishable across arable fields by a line of large flints, and passing 
into Stockton Wood, where he shows it on his map of the Stockton 
earthworks. It is not now traceable, but there is little doubt that the 
true line of the Roman road is that laid down on the old Ordnance map. — 
Near Lower Pertwood Farm the ridge is shown on the old Ordnance 
map, and it is described by Sir R. C. Hoare as passing round a tumulus 
in its course. Beyond that traces of the road are lost; Sir R. C. Hoare 
conjectured that the course was along a road north of Kingston Deverill, 
and then confesses himself at fault for a very considerable distance; and 
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