188 



Barhury Castle. 



the Saxon men had passed the forest harriers and the Bryts had 

 given ground • perhaps step by step, perhaps of set purpose, they 

 had evacuated the country and, having chosen their battle-ground 

 at the chalk ridge, the Britons had awaited the northward march of 

 their relentless enemy, and determined— or, in fact, were driven— 

 to stake all upon a great battle. 



The position of Barbury Castle had a special importance from its 

 neighbourhood to several ancient highways. Following the course 

 of that most venerable of roads, the Ridgeway, from near Avebury 

 to the defile at which the Thames breaks through the barrier of 

 chalk hills at Streatley and Goring, it will be seen that where the 

 road leaves the high ridge at Hakpen to cross the Og valley, it is 

 scarped in the steep side of the hill on which Barbury Castle stands ; 

 and where it leaves the valley to again reach the high level of the 

 downs, the « Castle" of Liddington— or, as it should be more 

 appropriately called, of Badbury— stands upon the hill close by. 

 These twin hill-forts not only stood sentinel over the Ridgeway, 

 they also guarded what had been a Roman road, a branch from the 

 Western, so called Ermin Street, that led from Gloucester to 

 Winchester, and, after cutting the Ridgeway nearly at right angles 

 at Chisledon, still is a highway as it runs down the Og valley, in 

 parts of its course from Nythe Farm, near Wanborough, by Chiseldon 

 to Marlborough. The Old Roman Road, in fact, branched at the 

 Nythe Farm, the other arm taking a direction through Wanborough 

 by Speen (the Roman Spinee), and near Newbury on to Silchester. 

 Other roads converging on the gap, or pass, between Hakpen and 

 Barbury led southwards. One still connects Wroughton (Elyngdun) 

 with this gap. Hay Lane, too, is probably a subsidiary Roman or 

 British road from Cricklade to (Marlborough or) Cunetio. Cricklade 

 was in Roman times a place of importance. 1 It was the first Roman 

 station on the Ermin Street after it left Corinium (Cirencester). A 

 low rampart, that no doubt once carried a palisade, still may be 

 traced round the present town of Cricklade. The continuation of - 

 Hay Lanejsvould intersectjthe Ridgeway where it threads the gap 



1 It must have been a (Roman) walled town^7money^a7coined there in 

 fcaxon times. 



