ON ITER XV. OF THE ITINERARY OF ANTONINUS. 125 



Win, SO identifying at once the town with the Eoman station ; 

 and, by an ingenious but fanciful extension of the etymology, 

 he could see a clear reference to the situation of the station, 

 " between two rivers or swords," such being the situation of 

 Winborne, at the confluence of the Allen with the Stour. His 

 compound word, Vin-du gleddy, unchallenged as it may have 

 been by the learned of his day, has not escaped a later criticism 

 by Welsh scholars, who are not led away by Camden's etymo- 

 logical fancies. But the great Antiquary reigned supreme at 

 that period, nor do we wonder that his authority has reigned 

 supreme for a century or two after his death ; and that thus 

 Viudogladia and Winborne continued to be accepted as places 

 identified with the sanction of time. It seems to have been for- 

 gotten that a station on a given line of Roman road could not 

 be reasonably expected to be found at the distance of three miles 

 from it. But thus the matter remained until Stukeley gave 

 expression to doubts, such as most probably had also occurred to 

 Roger Gale and others interested in the question. 



Stukeley found himself in the course of one of his excursions* 

 at the village of Gussage All Saints, which borders on the line 

 of the Eoman road. From information there received, he felt 

 convinced, he says, that the honour of representing Vindogladia 

 must be transferred from Winborne to Boreston, which is a farm 

 and small hamlet in Gussage parish, on the right bank of the 

 Allen. Although a mile and half distant from the Eoman road, 

 the tradition of the existence of an ancient population in the 

 neighbourhood seems to have confirmed his opinion. Here the 

 question rested, still doubtful and unsettled, when Sir Eiehard 

 Colt Hoare appeared on the scene, and in the course of his anti- 

 quarian survey's and explorations in South Wilts and the adjoin- 

 ing parts of Dorset, in or about the year 1809, made the dis- 

 covery on Gussage Cow-down of a very remarkable series of 

 ancient British earthworks, flanked at their east end by other 

 remains of an undeniably Eoman character. These being within 

 the distance of 300 yards from the Via Iceniana ; and their dis- 



* Iter Ctiriosuni, 1724, Iter vii., p. 188. 



