THE HEATHS 95 



this and Dorchester there was another post whose 

 name and position are alike unknown, although the 

 course of the road may yet be faintly traced past the 

 fortified hill of Badbury Rings, the Mons Badonicus 

 of King Arthur's defeat, to Tincleton and Stinsford, 

 and so into Dorchester, the Dmniovaria of the 

 Romans, through what was the Eastgate of that city. 

 The names and sites of two more stations westw^ard 

 are lost, and the situation of Moridunum, the next- 

 named post, is so uncertain that such widely sundered 

 places as Seaton, on the Dorset coast, and Honiton, in 

 Devon, eighteen miles farther, are given for it. 

 Morecomblake, a mile from Seaton, is, however, the 

 most likely site. Thence, on to Exeter, this Roman 

 military way is lost. 



XVI 



From Virginia Water up to the crest of Shrub's 

 Hill, Sunningdale, is a distance of a mile and a quarter, 

 and beyond, all the way into Bagshot, is a region of 

 sand and fir-trees and attempts at cultivation, varied 

 by newly-built villas, where considerable colonies of 

 Cobbett's detested stock-jobbers and other business 

 men from the ' Wen of wens ' have set up country 

 quarters. And away to right and left, for miles 

 upon miles, stretches that wild country known vari- 

 ously as Bagshot and Ascot Heaths and Chol:)ham 

 Rido-es. 



o 



The extensive and drearv-looking tract of land, 



