46 Flowers and their Pedwrees. 



i> 



to Apollo. Those straight white lines and green- 

 grown ridges on the flanks of Banagh Down and the 

 eastern heights are the vestiges of the old Roman 

 causeways — the Fosse and its branches— now totally 

 disused or else degraded into modern cait-roads ; and 

 the Institution Buildings in the valley below cover or 

 contain all the remaining memorials of the stately 

 Roman town. Back of me again, on Hampton Down, 

 stand the earthworks of Caer Badon, the later British 

 village, planted there when fear of the heathen West 

 Saxon invaders had driven back the Christian Welsh- 

 man to the hills which he had deserted for the fruitful 

 valle}' during the .security of the Pax Romana ; and 

 this long mound, on whose summit I am standing to 

 catch the view, actually forms part of Wansdyke, the 

 great boundary barrier behind which the Welshmen 

 of the Somersetshire principality entrenched them- 

 selves, after the pagan English pirates had taken pos- 

 session of the Avon dale and of Bath itself The 

 decisive battle which settled the fate of the city was 

 fought at Dyrham Park, among those blue downs on 

 the northern horizon ; and the tiny village of English- 

 combe, nestling below the solitar)- beacon of High 

 Barrow Hill on my left, marks in its very name the 

 furthest westward extension of the Teutonic settlers 

 towards the ever-unconquered recesses of Mendip. 



