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Leaving Kington the Djke runs almost due south-east, to the 

 Wye near Kenchester (the former Roman Station of Magna), 

 and from here I think it keeps pretty near the river the rest of 

 the way to Beachley; only leaving it to secure such stronger 

 positions as the hills or cliflFs at a little distance could afford. 



It would perhaps he dif&cult to say why its termination at 

 Beachley is carried across the Peninsula, instead of keeping 

 down by the edge of the Wye to its very mouth ; unless it was 

 intentionally done to secure some neutral ground. That the 

 ground was neutral we may gather from the fact that the Danes 

 were allowed to land there and trade, both with the English 

 and Welsh. Looking at the general direction of the dyke, we 

 find it cutting a tolerably straight line southward, until it leaves 

 Radnorshire, where it bears away towards the east, scarcely if 

 at all touching the present county of Monmouth. This is to be 

 accounted for from the powerful stand made by the Silures, who 

 had never been so thoroughly subdued by the Romans, as had 

 other British tribes ; and who were regarded by those rulers of 

 the world as among the most formidable foes they had ever had 

 to encounter. Tacitus distinctly says so ; and there is good 

 reason to believe he speaks on the authority of his father-in-law, 

 Ageicola, who had served against them under Julius Frontinus, 

 the general who, Camden thinks, constructed the Via Julia, or 

 Great Roman Road through South Wales. Certain it is, that 

 after the second Roman legion had been quartered at Caerleon 

 and Caerwent for more than three hundred years, and during 

 which time they not only " requisitioned " them permanently, 

 but in aU probability, drafted away numbers of the younger 

 men to serve in the Cohorts in Egypt, Armenia, and other 

 distant parts of the world ; there still was life and will enough 

 left among the Silures to keep the Saxons at bay, all through 

 both Heptarchy and Monarchy. It is possible, therefore, (I do 

 not put it forward as a fact, but only a possibility) that as the 

 Silures were powerful enough to prevent Ofpa from encroaching 

 on their territory, they may have made their power felt suffi- 

 ciently in the treaty of peace following Ofpa's war, to compel 

 him to reserve them a sufficient landing place on the English 



