198 On Ringsbury and other Camps in North Wiltshire. 



military positions they must have engaged the attention of an invader, and wo 

 should have had some notice of them. Whereas all CsBsar's account of his first 

 struggle shows that the contest was carried on in the Open plain ; and that the 

 Britons did not trust to the security of any earthworks, but to the dense woods, 

 in which they hid themselves, and to the undrained marshes, the track over which 

 they themselves only knew. And in the later occupation of Britain the Romans 

 treated these " camps " with that indifference with which we may suppose they 

 would regard the common dwelling-places of the people, but which they could 

 not have disregarded as the strongholds of an enemy. 



We see their system was to hold the land by strong military positions taken 

 np at suitable centres, as in the neighbourhood of Ringsbury itself, where we 

 find lines of military roads connecting their regular stations ; as, for instance, 

 that from Venta Belgarum (Winchester) passing through Wanborough and 

 Stratton {within a mile of Bury Town), to Corinium (Cirencester). Another 

 striking out at right-angles from this at Spinse (Speen) and passing through 

 Cunetio (Kennet P) to Aquae Solis (Bath), which road, it may be remarked, 

 turned out of its straight line round Silbury Hill, for it was already there when 

 the Roman struck out his road, and was in his way. Another from Corinium 

 to Aqua? Solis (The Foss Way), which, with the other two, already mentioned, 

 made a complete triangle of roads enclosing the district of Abury and the 

 "camps" of Liddington, Barbury, Bury Town, Ringsbury, Bury Hill, and 

 others. But secure in their garrison-stations and keeping their communications 

 open, they seem to have treated with perfect indifference these camps, which, I 

 therefore, would not to them have had any military significance, but which, if 

 regarded as the dwelling-places of the people, they would naturally leave, as they 

 did leave them, unmolested and in use. And also passing from Kennet to Bath 

 round Silbury and in sight of Abury, they must have been familiar with it, and 

 yet they have left no notice of it. Might not the reason be that they, the en- 

 lightened and civilized race, regarded this superstition of the woad-dyed savage 

 (barbarian) with the contempt with which Englishmen regard the " fetish " of 

 the Ashantee, and passed it by ? Added to this the Polytheism of Rome as a 

 religion was without that conviction of truth which is necessary for proselytism, 

 and therefore would rather keep its religion to itself as a peculiar privilege and 

 possession, not to be rashly given to its conquered people. This I think holds 

 true, notwithstanding the persecutions of Christians by the later Roman Emperors, 

 for they were clearly political, and only instigated by some of the best Emperors 

 because they believed that Christianity (as it did) threatened the overthrow of 

 their power. 



I now come to the use of names in confirmation of the above view of these 

 " camps," and this is, perhaps the only bit of direct evidence that we have. 



When the Romans, after a hundred and fifty years of varied struggle, were 

 fairly in possession of the south of the island of Great Britain, and the inhabi- 

 tants had patiently acquiesced in the conquest, the Roman names of places and 

 things would begin to be familiarized among them. Thus the most notable 

 object connected with the life of the people would be these dwelling-places or 

 primitive towns. To these the Romans gave their name of " castellum," and 

 that name we still use in Barbury Castle and Liddington Castle. And I may 

 add that I found on a recent pleasant visit to Breconshire that within a moderate 



