112 PAPERS, ETC. 



town called, from the river on which it stood, Ad Uxellam, 

 now Bridgewater, and thence to Isca (Exeter) ; the other 

 led by a town of some importance, named Ischalis, now 

 Ilchester, to Moridunum, on the southern coast. The 

 traveller who would proceed direct from Londinium to 

 Aquae öolis, followed the westem road tili he reached the 

 town of Spinae (Speen), where he turned ofF by a branch 

 road, which led him by the towns of Cunetio, near Marlbro', 

 and Verlutio, near Heddington, to Aqute Solls. From 

 AqujB, the same road was continued to a Station on the 

 Avon, called Ad Abonam, or Abona, which seems to be 

 correctly placed at Bitton, and thence to another part, on 

 thebanks of the Avon, where it enters the Bristol Channel, 

 thence called Ad Sabrinam. 



Having thus given but a very hasty and imperfect 

 sketch of those interesting relics, which have, in by-gone 

 times, formed the subject of such profound enquiry, and 

 which, for the most part, remain stUl to exercise our 

 ingenuity, and to kindle our interest in the manners and 

 habits of a people long passed away, but the remnant of 

 whose labours and works of art stir up our admiration ; it 

 may be permitted me to observe that such a study, pursued 

 in a candid frame of mind, can never be without good fruit, 

 not merely in informing the inteUect, but in improving 

 the heart; not merely in supplying an agreeable recreation 

 from weightier occupations, but in causing us to form true 

 views of times present, by contemplating times past. In 

 tracing the vestiges of old Rome, and her potent sway, we 

 mark the relics of that Iron Empire, which was to break in 

 pieces and tread underfoot the Empires that had preceded 

 it ; but which, in its tum, was to be overthrown by a power 

 unlike to any of the rest ; and which, not arising as its fore- 

 runners, by man'a ambition, was, unlike them, to be im- 

 perishable. 



