152 NOTE ON A ROMAN ROAD. 



the intercalation of a station but the prolongation of the distance 

 between Old Sarum and Gussage Cowdown by four miles. Doctor 

 T. Wake Smart's view (see vol. iv. " Proceedings of the Dorset 

 Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club," p. 122) commends 

 itself to me in preference to Dr. Stukely's ; for it merely requires 

 the addition of the letter X as initials to the numerals attached to 

 ' Vindogladia ' and ' Durnovaria ' of the Iter, by which the xii. of 

 the one and the viii, become xxii. and xviii., which approximates 

 the true measurement, if Vindogladia is removed from Gussage 

 Cowdown to Badbury Camp. Messrs. Parthey and Pindar* make 

 it clear that the distances given in the Iter must be received as 

 rough estimates only, and that the letters ra. p. m. signify mila plus, 

 or minus. The distance of Badbury Camp from Old Sarum is 

 21 \ miles by the Ordnance map, and from Dorchester 18}, the 

 total number 40J English miles, or 43J Roman miles. These 

 numbers very nearly accord with Dr. Smart's amended figures. 



The commanding position of Badbury Camp, overlooking an 

 extensive range of country, must have attracted the Romans, and 

 was more likely to have been selected by them for a station in 

 preference to the less conspicuous Gussage earthworks, which 

 might have formed one of the many halting places or Cold harbours 

 which were attached to the Roman roads between the stations, and 

 to which I attribute the Kingston Down and Milborne earth- 

 works. It is probable when Gussage Cowdown has been 

 examined by General Pitt-Rivers the earthworks there will be 

 found to be pre Roman. Dr. Wake Smart's theory that the letter 

 x has fallen out of the text of Iter xv. is remarkably supported 

 by a similar error in Iter x., where there is a discrepancy of 49 

 miles between the aggregate and detailed distances, and which 

 can be equalised by the substitution of the letter I for i t by which 

 ci. becomes cl., which represents the proper distance in Roman 

 miles. By the substitution of the letter I for L in the first instance 

 the figures will nearly assimilate, and both will be 150. In each 

 case we can easily conceive that the letters have been wrongly 

 * Journal of Arch. Institute 1880, p. 9. 



