BEDDINGTON IN THE ROMAN PERIOD. 5 



Besides these evidences of the residence of the Romans in the neigh- 

 bourhood, a silver spoon, now in the possession of Mr. Cressingham, was 

 found at Barrow Hedges, Carshalton 

 fig' 9)- Fragments of Roman glass 

 have been found at Wallington. FlGt 9 . 



Further south, at Woodcote, Roman remains have been described ; 

 and still further, at Walton-on-the-Heath, Lysons records that the 

 remains of a Roman house were found in the year 1772. 



Various antiquaries have considered the Roman town Noviomagus, 

 mentioned in the Itinerary of Antoninus, to have been situated at Wood- 

 cote, on the hills south of my garden. Camden assigns this situation to 

 it because he considers that the distances agree with the statements in 

 the Itinerary, and because it was described as the chief city of the Regni, 

 a people of Surrey. Dr. Gale also placed it in that position. Gibson, 

 Somner, Stillingfleet, Stukeley, and Baxter, on the other hand, consider 

 that Noviomagus was at Crayford, because that position is in a straight 

 line between Maidstone and London. Curiously enough, Sir Thomas 

 Eliot places this city at Chester, Lilly at Buckingham, Lluyd at Guild- 

 ford, and Talbot at Old Croydon. From these various statements it 

 is manifest that the site of this Roman city is unknown, and I myself 

 regard it as one of those problems which will never be unravelled unless 

 some fresh discovery be made. 



The Roman road called Stane Street, extending from the sea-coast 

 to London, and thence by the Great Ermine Street to Scotland, through 

 Lincoln, is supposed to have passed through or near Beddington 

 parish, though no trace of it is now to be seen. It has been thought 

 to leave Sussex ; it reappears at Ockley, where it is marked in 

 the Ordnance Survey map as running on the present turnpike road 

 for two miles and a half. Some persons think that Stane Street 

 passed north of Dorking, across Walton Heath, thence to Wood- 

 cote, and from this latter place to Streatham. Mr. Standish informs 

 me that Stane Street is not mentioned in the Itinerary, nor does 

 Richard of Cirencester, the mediaeval authority on the subject, 

 A.I). 1350 to 1400, allude to it. Sir Duflfus Hardy, in his map of 



