Tlic Isle of WUjht, the Vectis or Ictis of the Ancients. 57 



the Forest, especially near Butts Ash barrows, by its deep 

 depressions. Both roads, though, can still tell us something 

 of the past. The opinion of late philologists and geogi-aphers, 

 with the exception of Lappenburg and Sir G. C. Lewis, has 

 been against the idea that the Isle of Wight was the Vectis 

 or Ictis of the ancients. The argument, however, against 

 the passage in Diodorus Siculus,* that it would be so much 

 easier for the first traders to have exported the tin from 

 Belerium instead of bringing it by inland transport to the 

 Island, and then shipping it to Gaul, is founded upon 

 ignorance. Sea carriage was then far more difficult and 

 dangerous than land conveyance. Ancient mariners were easily 

 frightened, and their vessels put into land every night. As Sir 

 G. C. Lewis further remarks, foreign merchants were always re- 

 garded with jealousy and distrust, and the overland route would 

 enable the traffic to be carried out through the whole distance by 

 native traders. f 



Singularly enough, however, Warner | states that a large 

 mass of tin was found on the very site of this old Roman road. 



* As the passage is so important, I give it in full : — 'Atotvitovi'tcs 

 5' eZs daTpaydXwv pvO/xoiis KOfii^ovcnv el's Tiva vrjaov TrpoKeifj.^fTjv fj-h ttj's lipeTravaiKTJs, 

 6vofia^opievy]v 5^ "IktlV Kara, yap ras d/UTrcorets dva^Tjpai.uo/x^i'Ov rod pLfra^v tSttov rah 

 afid^ais els TavTrji/ ko/jlL^ovitl 5a\(/i\7} tov KaTTirepov. "loiov 5e ti avp-^aivei wepl 

 rds TrXrjciov vrjcrovs ras fiera^v Kfifxivas tt}s re Ei'/jwttijs /cat t^s Bperrai't/v^s. Kara 

 ixkv yap rds Tr\rjiJ.tJ.vpldas rod yuera^i) iropov TrXripovfiivov vijaoi (fyalvovrai, Kara. Se 

 rdi dp.irwTti.% cnro^pfoija-qs ttjs 6a\dTTr]s Kal ■iroKi'v r&irov dva^rjpatvovffrjs Oeiopovvrai 

 xeppovqffoi. — ]Ah. v., cap. xxii., vol. i., p. 438. Etl. Diiidorf. Lei]).>ic, 

 1828-31. Pliny, as Wesseling remarks, in his note on this passage, qnuteil 

 by Dindorf, vol. iv. p. 421, by some mistake, makes the Isle of Wight 

 (Mictis) six clays' sail from ]*]nglanfl. See Sir G. C. Lewis's Astronomy of 

 the Ancients, chap, viii., sect. iii. p. 4.53. 



t As before, sect. iv. p. 462. 



X l%e Sotith- Western Parts of Ilamiishire, vol. ii. pp. 5, G, 17!)3. 



I 



