322 



the wall of Hadrian), the Quays of the Eiver Sabrina (Severn) 

 and of one of its little tributaries, the Twyver (p. 24), which has 

 disappeared, and the existence of which is proved by the finding 

 of an old boat, and the former existence of a water-mill. (p. 33) 

 The total length of the walls is found to be almost identical with 

 those of the Colonies Eburacum (York), and Lindum (Lincoln), 

 namely from 1200 to 1300 feet ; (1) the total area of the oblong, 

 as the red lines on the plan (plate 4) show, being about 2,022,000 

 square feet. The author had in his researches the advantage of 

 the intelligent and active co-operation of an officer and a soldier 

 of the Ordnance Survey (p. 18). He did not hesitate to ask his 

 neighbours for permission to examine their cellars ; and he 

 describes with a certain gusto, how his subterranean visits now 

 and then furnished him with " proofs of 9 feet thickness," for 

 the correctness of the direction as assigned by him to the City 

 Walls (p. 18). He further mentions with what distrust the 

 daughter of a beer-seller saw the fine-looking sergeant of the 

 Engineers climb about between the casks of beer in her father's 

 cellar; he relates too, how he himself crawled about on his 

 hands and knees, lantern in hand, throxigh the damp passages, 

 sometimes frightened by mischevous dogs, and such like. The 

 disappearance of these mighty walls is accounted for chiefly by 

 an Edict of King Charles II, by which everybody who chose, 

 was allowed to cart away stones from the wall (pp. 3 and 17). 

 The King wished to do away with the fortifications of the town 

 which had offered resistance to his father;* up to that time 

 they seem to have existed on a very extensive scale ; modern 

 progress has done the rest at Gloucester as elsewhere. The 

 recollections of one of the oldest inhabitants of the town, (Capt. 

 Pkice, aet. 82), popular traditions, and the old names of streets 



(1) The circumference of the old Colony of Eburacum is in reality, and as we 

 may expect from the importance of the place, somewhat larger. The most recent 

 treatise about it, 6. T. Clark's lecture on the defences of York (Arch. Joui-n. 31, 

 1874, p. 221 — ff), which, however, treats principally of the post-Roman enlargement 

 of the fortifications of York, gives 452 to 530 yards, i.e. 1356 to 1690 feet as the 

 circumference of the walls, referring to Skaif's antiquarian map of York, which 

 is not at hand. 



* / mentioned thii on the authority of popular tradition at Gloucester. Since 

 doing so, I find there is no documentary evidence to support it. J. B. 



