94 THE EXETER ROAD 



mile or so from Aiulover onward, by the Weyhill route ; 

 the crossmg of the modern highway between ' Wood- 

 yates Inn ' and Tl],orney Down ; and from Dorchester 

 to Bridport, where, as Gay says of his cavahers' 

 journey to Exeter : — 



Now on true Roman way our horses sound, 

 Graevius Avould kneel and kiss the sacred ground. 



Onwards to Exeter the measurements of Antoninus 

 and his fellows — those literally ' classic ' forerunners of 

 Ogilby, Gary, Paterson, and Mogg — are hazy in the 

 extreme, and it is dithcult to say how the Roman 

 road entered into the Queen Gity of the West. 



Oh ! for one hour wdth the author of the Antonine 

 Itinerary, to settle the vexed questions of routes and 

 stations along this road to the country of the Damnonii. 

 ' Here,' one would say to him, ' is your starting-point, 

 Londinium, which we call London. Very good ; now 

 kindly tell us whether w^e are correct in giving Staines 

 as the place you call Ad Pontes ; and is Egham the 

 site of Bihracte? Calleva we have identified with 

 Silch ester, but where was your next station, 

 Vindomis f Was it St. Mary Bourne ? ' 



In the meanwhile, until spiritualism becomes more 

 of an exact science, we must be content with our own 

 deductions, and, wdth the aid of the Ordnance map, 

 trace the Roman Via Iceniana by Quarley Hill and 

 Grateley to the hill of Old Sarum, which is readily 

 identified as the station of Sorhiodunum. Thence it 

 goes by Stratford Toney to ' Woody ates Inn ' and 

 Gussage Gow Down, where the utterly vanished 

 Vindogladia is supposed to have stood. Between 



