The Environs of Bath. 205 



Wansdyke took this course. The continuation of the dyke 

 eastward of the Hampton Camp is in a great measure a 

 matter of surmise, the surface of the chff having been in great 

 part quarried. Two series of dotted lines are given on the 

 map, as it is difficult to ascertain the connecting link of the 

 dyke between the fragment on the other side of the river 

 Avon denoted by the letters l and m and the Camp. A little 

 stream rises near the S.E. angle of the Camp and falls almost 

 precipitously over the cliff. This stream is called in an old 

 survey — " The land limits of Hampton," the " Mere broc." 

 This stream is the present boundary of the parish, and from 

 this circumstance it may be inferred that the Wansdyke 

 followed the course of this stream, although it is more pro- 

 bable that it took the line indicated between k and l. 



The Roman road known as the Fosse-way from Ilchester 

 (Iscalis) appears to have avoided AqucR Suits and to have 

 been carried partly along the Wansdyke, to the south of the 

 latter city, on the lines shown on the map (the broken lines 

 showing the unascertained way) through Hampton-down 

 Camp, afterwards crossing the river and bearing away to the 

 north. This road, which obtained a fabulous celebrity in 

 the Welsh legends as having passed " from Totness unto 

 Caithness," and which can be traced for some distance west- 

 ward of Ilchester to the boundary of the county of Somerset, 

 was the road to Cirencester (Corinium), and thence to a 

 place called Stretton-on-the-Vorse near Leamington and 

 another Stretton-on-the-Fosse in Warwickshire, not very far 

 from High Cross (Venoniae) where it cut the course of the 

 Watling Street, and so on towards Newark, and thence (still 

 being known as the Fosse-way) to the Roman Colonia at 

 Lincoln (Lindum). "The latest and most accurate sur- 

 veys," says Gale, " have followed the Fosse from the Bath by 



