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pleasant climb towards the Ashley Wood, just below which is the 
Boggy Meadow, the Hnees-leigh of the Saxon Survey. And now we 
came on the new slide by which the Farley Down quarrymasters send 
their stone to Box Station, which slide now forms the boundary. It was 
with some wistful feelings that we watched the tram-cars going up 
empty, when we contemplated the long steep white incline before us, 
but the walk was much lightened by the pleasure of picking the wild 
flowers that skirted the woods on each side. After a pretty stiff climb, 
as it is “a long lane that has no turning,” we found a pathway 
crossing our line to the east, and affording a very gradual ascent to 
the top of the hill. This Captain Sainsbury assured us must have been 
the line of the ancient Roman Road from Bath to Marlborough, which 
certainly must have come near this way, and as the path was evidently 
a paved one originally the conjecture appears nearly certain. Sir 
Richard Colt Hoare could only find slight traces of the road, but 
covered as the side of the hill was with thick brushwood it is not 
unlikely that archeologists, strangers to the district, might not easily have 
found it. Near to the spot where this path emerges on the Farley 
Down are two very sivgular bowl-shaped hollows of considerable size ; 
these are on opposite sides of the path, one is in Wilts and the 
other in Somerset. ‘Their name ‘“shamble-pits” indicates their use 
in former times, and recalls the sports of our forefathers, bull or bear 
_ baiting having then delighted the rustic mind. May not these pits be 
suggestive of sports of still greater antiquity, and bea tradition of those 
of the amphitheatres of the Romans ? 
As we came out on the hill above the wood Captain Sainsbury 
informed us that in a neighbouring recess of the wood he had 
provided a slight collation in the shape of sandwiches, bread and 
cheese, and refreshing drinks, which kind thought was highly 
_ appreciated by the party, who were glad not only of a halt but of some 
shelter from tke fresh breeze, which at this exposed point of the hill 
was something more than fresh, if it might not be called a “nipping 
and an eager air.” After this much-needed rest the Club proceeded 
along the top of the Bathford hill, noticing the fine view to the west 
over the blue hills of Wales, and to the north the line of demarcation, 
_as laid down by Dr. Guest, between the Saxon and British kingdoms 
after the Battle of Dyrham. The opposite hills of Bannerdown and 
Kingsdown, with the valley of the Weaver between, forming the 
