Silchesier. 389 



to take the sacrament. In the year 1596 two thousand tokens are 

 aecouuted for at two pence each. The money so gathered seems to 

 have been used for charitable purposes, but it is not clear whether 

 the people named really went to the sacrament, or whether the 

 contribution alone made amends. Something analagous still exists 

 amongst the Presbyterians in Scotland. 



[The thanks of the Society are due to Mr- Nightingale for taking upon himself 

 the cost of the plates which illustrate his paper, and to the Society of Anti- 

 quaries for the loan of the wood-biock of the Berwick Chalice. (Ed.)] 



[Read before the Society at Andover by the Rev. R. H. CLUTTiSBBtrcK, August 



16th, 1883.] 



^ BELIEVE I shall best meet your views by expressing, iu 

 ^ the fewest words I possibly can, what it is you are to see 

 at Silchester ; leaving for abler hands all discussion on controverted 

 points, and all allusion to other than matters of observable fact. 



Silchester, then, is the walled site of a Roman city. It is situated 

 almost on the very border of Hampshire, near Mortimer Stratfield, 

 in Berkshire. 



The commonly-received opinion is that it is Calleva of the 

 Itineraries. 



Mr. Coote, in his most valuable work, " The Romans of Britain," 

 thinks that it was the civitas of a territory which may have been 

 the present Hampshire. 



You will observe there are four roads starting from the forum, 

 N., S., E. and W. These roads, says Mr. Coote, are the incohate 

 limites maximi which extended through the territory of the colony. 

 The road through the east gate led to Londinium by Pontes (Staines). 

 That through the south gate to Venta Belgarum (Winchester), and 

 also to Sorbiodunum (Old Sarum), through Vindomis, which Sir 

 R. C. Hoare considered to be Finkley, in my parish. Through the 

 west gate the road led to Aquae Solis (Bath), by Cunetio, and also 

 to Corinium by Spinas. The walls enclose about 100 acres. They 



