294 South Wilts in Romano-British Times. 



that^ there is no reason for doubting that the author [Asser] 

 translated direct from the Chronicle. True ; but stan has two 

 meanings in old English, both a " stone," and a " rock " ; thus, in 

 St. Matthew, xvi., 18, ofer j'ysne stan ic getinibrige mine cyricean," 

 where the Vulgate has "super banc ^je^raw aedificabo ecclesiam 

 nieam," and Wyclif, " this ston." 



It might be thought that the words petra and " stan " might 

 refer to the rocky nature of the hill. But the geology is against 

 this; Dr. Blackmore tells me that White Sheet Hill is capped 

 with the upper chalk, which is softer than the middle chalk. {Sec 

 C -Reid, Geology of the Country round Salisbury ; explanation of 

 Sheet 398 of the Geological Survey, p. 49, sq.) 



ADDENDUM to p. 274. 



Haverfield, Romanization of Roman Britain, p. 26, says : — 



" Many of the lists of coins found in country houses close about 350 — 360. 

 The rural districts, it is plain, began to be no longer safe, and some houses 

 were burnt by marauding bands, and some abandoned hy their owners." 



He illustrates this by the dates on the hoards of coins deposited 

 atThruxton, Abbot's Ann, Carisbrooke, and elsewhere in Hampshire, 

 and at Croydon (351 A.D.). 



Bishopstrow is an exact illustration. The latest date of the 

 coins found in the hoard at the Buries- (Daniell's Warminster, p. 

 6) is the reign of Constans (d. 350) and Magnentius (d. 353). 

 Clearly, this valley was becoming unsafe, exposed to the raids of 

 Saxon pirates coming from Southampton Water over Hampshire, 

 and Bishopstrow was abandoned. But the list of the coins found 

 on the hills north and south (given above, p. 274) shows that the 

 population was centred upon them. 



' Stevenson, Asser's Life. Introd. p. Ixxxiv. 

 - Hoare's plan, A. W., Eoman Era, 109, does not give what appears to 

 be a double vallum at the north-west where the moat-like river recedes. 



