By Sir Charles Hobhouse, Bart, 



69 



CHAPTER II. 



Antiquities. 



I shall begin with the days of the Romans, and there is undoubted 

 evidence that our parish was known to and frequented by them. 



We abut upon Kingsdown Common, and are only one mile from 

 Bathford, two from Box, and four from Bath, as the crow flies. 



That the Romans occupied Bath is, of course, well known, but it 

 may not be so well remembered that a Roman camp existed on 

 Kingsdown, and that Roman villas have been discovered at Bath- 

 ford and Box. 1 



Thsse facts would lead us to expect to find Roman remains in our 

 parish, and accordingly at the north west angle of it and forming 

 the boundary-line between it and Box parish, are traces of the 

 Roman road from Bath to Marlborough. 



" Across the parish," says Canon Jackson, u a little northward of 

 the manor house, runs from west to east a certain line which many 

 of our antiquarians consider to have been part of a celebrated boun- 

 dary, called the Wansdyke. Its traces are not very distinct here, 

 but in those places in which it has never been disturbed by the 

 plough, and where it may still be seen (as on the Marlborough 

 Down) in its original perfection, the Wansdyke consists of a high 

 earthen bank with a deep trench running below it on the northern 

 side. 



' c The name appears to have been of Saxon origin ; Wodensdyke, 

 the ditch of Woden, the Saxon name for Mercury, a deity whom 

 there is also no doubt our Saxon forefathers held in the first honor. 

 The name of Wodensdyke is found applied to this ancient line in 

 numerous Saxon charters, so that, so far as the name goes, it would 

 seem to be a work of that nation and therefore not older than A.D. 

 450, the earliest date of the arrival in this country of any wor- 

 shipper of Woden. " 



The learned Canon then enters into a discussion as to the antiquity 

 of the Wansdyke, and as to the purposes for which it was made, and 

 concludes that, whether the work traceable in our parish be a part 



Skrine's Bathford, p. 23. Aubroy, p. 55. 



