Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 



the railway was lately widened. At the descent into the Idmiston valley 

 the track of the Koman road leaves the railway and diverges somewhat 

 from the straight course in crossing the valley. It is shown on the old 

 Ordnance map running the same straight line and passing round a 

 barrow, but all traces of road and barrow are now effaced by ploughing. 

 Through Porton and Gumbleton the course of the road is uncertain, but 

 on the other side of the Bourne valley it is shown by a line of highways 

 and tracks pointing straight to the south side of the central mound of 

 Old Sarum, and continuing to within half-a-mile of it. A straight line 

 from Silchester to Old Sarum passes a mile to the south of the Roman 

 road, at Quarley Hill, where the road lies farthest away from a straight 

 line in the thirty-six miles between those places. It is to be noticed 

 that this road, the Roman road from Winchester, and that on to the west, 

 all three point to the inner of the two immense concentric ramparts of 

 Old Sarum. The outer ring, which is supposed to have been strengthened 

 by Alfred, has a mean diameter of about 520 yards." 



" Old Sarum to the West. The course of this road for the first 3 \ 

 miles across the valleys of the Avon and the Wily is uncertain. A ford 

 and causeway across the Wily about a quarter of a mile below South 

 Newton Mill, may possibly mark the crossing of that river. Sir R. C. 

 Hoare described this road and gave a map of it, which is based on the 

 old Ordnance survey with additions and slight alterations. Then, as 

 now, the first traces of the Roman road appear on a ridge issuing from 

 the north-east side of Groveley Wood, pointing to the ramparts of Old 

 Sarum, and according to Sir R. C. Hoare it continued an uninterrupted 

 course through thick copse wood for several miles until it made its exit 

 near Dinton Beeches, and he speaks of its well-known course. The 

 old Ordnance map and Sir R. C. Hoare's both show the ridge in a straight 

 line between the south side of the inner rampart of Old Sarum, and the 

 high ground near Dinton Beeches, and then on in nearly the same straight 

 line through Stockton Wood and Great Ridge Wood to a quarter of a 

 mile north of Lower Pertwood Farm, 16J miles from Old Sarum. The 

 new Ordnance map marks its course through Groveley Wood, where it 

 is now very difficult to follow it, by a dotted line, not straight, but 

 changing its direction at Groveley Lodge, and bending in the wood to 

 get to Dinton Beeches ; and beyond, what is a very crooked ditch and 

 bank on the south of Stockton Wood and Great Ridge Wood is marked 

 Roman road. Sir R. C. Hoare carefully mapped and described both the 

 ditch and the road, and he found the latter beyond Dinton Beeches 

 distinguishable across arable fields by a line of large flints, and passing 

 into Stockton Wood, where he shows it on his map of the Stockton 

 earthworks. It is not now traceable, but there is little doubt that the 

 true line of the Roman road is that laid down on the old Ordnance map. 

 Near Lower Pertwood Farm the ridge is shown on the old Ordnance 

 map, and it is described by Sir R. C. Hoare as passing round a tumulus 

 in its course. Beyond that traces of the road are lost ; Sir R. C. Hoare 

 conjectured that the course was along a road north of Kingston Deverill, 

 and then confesses himself at fault for a very considerable distance ; and 



