ROMANO-BRITISH 

 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



THE county of Buckingham partakes of the essential characteristics 

 of the midland counties, and shares in that lack of striking phy- 

 sical features which especially marks this part of England. It is 

 traversed by no great rivers or high hills, the Chilterns consti- 

 tuting its highest range, and, with the exception of the extreme southern 

 border where the River Thames divides the county from Berkshire, is 

 unusually artificial in the position of its boundaries. Hence, taken as an 

 item in the Roman Province of Britain, it is comparatively unimportant. It 

 is difficult in describing its Roman remains to satisfy the demands which a 

 county history necessarily makes, and to separate the county district from 

 surrounding areas, or to evolve any history of these remains. Buckingham- 

 shire constituted in Roman times a small district in that part of Britain which 

 may be described as the Lowlands. The greater Roman highways for the 

 most part run outside the county. It is only in the extreme north-east that 

 one of these traverses it, and that only for a few miles, where Watling Street 

 runs through Fenny Stratford and Stony Stratford. As a natural corollary 

 to this, there were no towns of any importance throughout the district, 

 nothing, in fact, larger than the posting station at Magiovintum on Watling 

 Street. The Roman remains for the most part participate in the undistin- 

 guished character of the physical features of the county, and there is very 

 little which can throw light on the character and customs of the former 

 inhabitants. 



With the exception of a few isolated sites, at Olney in the extreme 

 north, at Mentmore in the east, and at High Wycombe, Latimer, and Great 

 Missenden in the south, these remains fall into lines along the course of the 

 roads or tracks in the county. 



Thus, we have those near to the course of Watling Street, at Stony 

 Stratford, Shenley, and a little distance from it, at Haversham and Castle 

 Thorpe. There is another rough line of remains along the modern road 

 passing through Buckingham and Fenny Stratford, consisting of those at 

 Buckingham, Thornborough, Whaddon Chase, Bletchley, and Fenny Strat- 

 ford, which last stands on Watling Street. 



The third line constitutes the Roman branch-way from Alcester to 

 Magiovintum and passes through Bicester, Steeple Claydon, and Winslow, 



