2e6 Tl^e Environs of Bath. 



Walcote into Wiltshire* at the Shire stones ; from thence it 

 visibly takes its course by North Wraxall, Littleton Drew, 

 Alderton, and Shearston, where the coins found seem to in- 

 dicate a Roman station ; then it passes by Easton Grey, and 

 leaving Tetbury a mile-and-a-half to the west, enters 

 Gloucestershire a little beyond Kemble," thus practically 

 bounding, the counties of Wilts and Gloucester till it reaches 

 Siddington, and so on to Cirencester. 



The Roman road from Caerleon {Isca Silurum) -was the 

 line of communication between the great fortress at Caerleon 

 and Silchester (Caleva), and appears to have also neglected 

 Aqua Suits, crossing the river to the north of the city and 

 so to Hampton-down Camp, to Marlborough, Speen, Sil- 

 chester, and London. The intermediate stations west of 

 Aqua Suits were at the ferry (Sabrina) Sudbrook by Ports- 

 kewet iPorts-is-cefri) and Bitton (Abone). 



A branch of this road was continued on the north side of 

 the river, avoiding both Aqua Suits and Hampton-down 

 Camp, joining the road to Cirencester as also the road to 

 London at Bathford. 



The western portion of this road has been called the Via 

 Julia or Strata Julia, and many ingenious guesses have been 

 hazarded as to whether it was Julius Agricola or Julius 

 Frontinus or some other public man of the Julian race who 

 gave his name to this great military work. It seems, however, 

 to be much more probable that the street derived its medi- 

 seval appellation from a fanciful derivation of the name of 

 Strigul Castle (Castellum de Estrighoet) by Chepstow, in 

 which name the monkish chroniclers found a reference to 

 the first syllables of the words composing a Roman name. 



* Hearne's Leland, vi. 114. 



