326 Remit Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 



radius, and is followed for a mile by the county boundary between Wilts 

 and Berks. The ridge of the road is still very plain over Chute Heath, 

 raised three or four feet above the surface, and six or seven yards wide. 

 The semicircle ends near Tidcombe, and another straight line is entered 

 upon which lies between Haydown Hill, near Fosbury Camp, and 

 Barbury Castle, 16 miles distant. Highways having parish boundaries 

 along them for 1^ miles and traces of the ridge, mark the course of the 

 road from near Tidcombe by Marten and Crofton to Savernake Forest, 

 and the ridge is shown on the old Ordnance map nearly on to Savernake 

 house, close to which Sir E. C. Hoare found it visible. The course 

 continues through the forest, on the north-east of the avenue, and nearly 

 parallel with it. On reaching the high ground on the southern edge of 

 the Kennet valley the road takes a more northerly direction, and it can 

 be seen on the north side of the valley rising up from Werg, where the 

 river was crossed, to Poulton Down. The Roman stcition Cunetio, at 

 Folly Farm . . . lies to the west of the prolongation of the straight 

 line from Haydown . . . From the north side of the Kennet valley 

 the course of the road is almost straight for 6^ miles to the edge of the 

 chalk escarpment between Badbury and Chisledon. It is marked by a 

 line of highways up to Poulton Down, across which is a green track with 

 the ridge almost entirely effaced ... A lane follows the line to 

 Ogbourne, from which onwards the Roman road was evident when Sir 

 R. C. Hoare saw the turnpike road being made in 1818. There is a very 

 slight turn at a high point near Whitefield Farm, and beyond a parish 

 boundary runs along the road for a mile. Near Badbury the road bends 

 to the east, and descends into the valley ; and it then lies straight between 

 a high point on the edge of the escarpment and the point of junction 

 with the Roman road from Speen ... A parish boundary runs 

 along the present road for f -mile towards the junction of the Roman 

 roads 3 miles due east of Swindon Station." 



Silchester to Speen, Bath, and South Wales. From Speen to Cunetio 

 there is little or no trace of the road. " It probably followed the line of 

 the Bath road, and continued on by Rudge to the north of Hill Barn, 

 on the south side of the Kennet valley about f-mile to the east of 

 Mildenhall where the ridge remains on the down. Sir R. C. Hoare, in 

 his map of Cunetio, shows the Roman road onwards to the lane at 

 Cockatrip Cottage . . . There are no indications of the Roman road 

 onwards towards Marlborough . . . The first trace of the road is 

 three miles further on, near West Overton, where a short length of the 

 ridge is shown on the old Ordnance map at the north side of the Bath 

 road, and it is still traceable. A little further on Sir R. C. Hoare ob- 

 served the causeway 5 feet high and 18 or 20 feet wide, and the ditches 

 were distinct in 1884. The road passed round Silbury Hill on the south 

 side . . . From Silbury the course is straight for 2£ miles to a 

 point on a spur of Calston Hill. A slight curve brings the road in 1^ 

 miles to the 700 feet contour line on the north side of Morgan's Hill, 

 along which it is carried on a terrace about 5 yards wide cut into and 

 embanked upon the slope of the hill . . . From the junction of 



