BADBURY RINGS. 2l 



I cannot, I think, do better now than give a literal transcript of 

 my notes written at the time when the enquiry was engaging my 

 attention. They are as follow, viz : 



"THE BRANCH ROAD FROM THE VIA ICENIANA TO 



POOLE HARBOUR. 



" December 14th, 1847. The first trace of this Roman road is 

 seen at Corfe Mullen Gravel-pit, about 1J miles S.W. of 

 Wimborne, where there is a vertical section of it, and its founda- 

 tion marked by a dark list in the gravel, being the original surface 

 of the ground, is clearly seen ; above which the soil is raised some 

 two or three feet. The raised way is not very conspicuous over 

 this piece of heathy land, but it may be clearly traced to a 

 point on the Merley Lane, about 400 or 500 yards E. of * Cogdean 

 Elms ;' on the other side of the lane it appears again, and soon 

 upon the heath land shews a well-formed raised dorsum, and is 

 continued in almost a straight line from Merley Lane across the 

 Heath to Upton. A waggon track follows its course, running 

 sometimes parallel with it, at others on its top. During this 

 course its direction is about N. and S., and it forms the boundary 

 between Canford and Corfe Mullen parishes, extending between 

 three and four miles to Upton. The fact of its having been a 

 Roman road is perfectly well known to the peasantry in its 

 neighbourhood. I met with a man named Allen, who lives on the 

 Heath, who informed me that the Roman road continues straight 

 through Upton Park, and at the back of the house makes a bend 

 to the West, obviously to avoid the creek which communicates 

 with Poole Bay at high water. Having rounded this point it 

 makes for Hamworthy Church in a line with its former course ; 

 and my informant stated that he dug through it about 20 yards W. 

 of the Church. It probably terminates about that spot, where he 

 also dug up several old coins, and his father some years ago dug up 

 some pavement formed of pieces of different coloured brick in a 

 field not far from the Church. From Corfe Gravel-pit to 

 Hamworthy Church may be about five miles. 



