SOUTH-WEST OF BKITAIN BY VESPASIAN. 27 



slipped in the then well known Saxon name for the British one 

 although he called the stronghold by the old British name. The 

 word"gwyl" (wyl), and its verb "gwylio" are commonly 

 used in the "Welsh Testament for a " watch" and " To watch." 

 In the 16th Iter of Antonine the Roman Station in the stead of 

 the town which is now called Totness is called Durius (Dwr.), 

 the water, meaning the broad estuary of the Dart to which the 

 Latin writer put on the words Amnis, a river, to show that th e 

 water was not the open sea. Some Antiquaries, a,e they may 

 have gone over the Downs of Dorset, and have come upon one 

 of its many earthworks of sundry kinds, may have thought that 

 they had found one ortwoof Vespasian' scamps, and itmaybe well 

 to bear in mind in what points such a camp should match a Eoman 

 castra of Vespasian's time. (1.) A camp of Vespasian should 

 and would have been roomy enough for his men ; one legion and 

 the body of Auxiliaries ; and a legion (as would be found in a 

 dictionary of Eoman antiquities) would have been three or four 

 thousand men, who would have a helping force of about as many 

 men with some cavalry. (2.) The earthwork should be of the 

 then common shape a parallelogram with four gates, one on 

 each side. (3.) It should bear the tokens of Eoman handiwork 

 in finish and straightness of line. (4.) It should be near to 

 water. A body of eight thousand men would hardly cast up a 

 high mound (castra) a mile or two from any water, or stream, 

 or spring. An Indian officer once told me that a man who went 

 ahead of a force to mark out their camp for the night forgot 

 water, and the weary any thirsty men, on reaching their so 

 thought place of rest and refreshment, had, to their sorrow, to 

 march on again over the Beaban (waterless land). And it 

 would hardly be wise to overlook the question whether Vespa- 

 sian, in his seemingly fast marh, cast up strong earthworks for 

 a night's halt. As he took one after another of the British 

 earthworks he had]each of them that he took for his own use. 

 " What is in a name ?" has been asked. Well, sometimes 

 much weight, of which the name Gwydir has some with me. 

 Gwyder means water-ground or water-land, and there is a place 



