194 



On the Roman Conquest of Southern Britain, 



the first now generally identified with Wans House, near Bromham 

 — the second with Folly Farm, about one mile east of Marlborough. 

 The Roman villa discovered at St. Edith's Marsh, in the parish of 

 Bromham, must have been connected with the station of Verlucio 

 (cp. Wilts Arch. Mag., xix., p. 299—302) . Mr. A. C. Smith figures 

 a die for playing hazard found at Wans House (B. & R. Ant., p. 30) . 

 (See also Wilts Arch. Mag., iv., p. 232). This interesting object is of 

 bronze, and is of a flattened oval shape. The name of the other 

 station, Cunetio, can hardly be dissociated from that of the river 

 Kennet, near which it lies. I do not, however, know how to explain 

 the fact that the villages o£ East and West Kennet lie about five or 

 six miles distant along the same road, and of course considerably to 

 the west of Marlborough. Roman remains and large numbers of 

 coins are found also at Mildenhall, which formed probably part of 

 the same station, in all probability a large one (see the plate in 

 " Anc. Wiltshire/' ii., p. 90 and cp, Waylen's "Marlborough/' 

 pp. 9, 10). 



Another rather important road not in the Itinerary seems to have 

 passed through Cunetio, branching off from the Cirencester to Speen 

 road at or near Wanborough. Its line probably was very much 

 that taken by modern roads, through Chiseldon and the two Og- 

 bornes, after which it becomes lost, then after leaving Cunetio it 

 runs straight through Savernake Forest, through Wilton and Marton, 

 and near, but not through, Tidcombe, and on through Tangley and 

 the neighbourhood of Andover to Winchester. With this road we 

 naturally connect the remains found at Great Bedwyn, described as 

 "a small castrametation surrounding about two acres of land/' 

 which it is supposed was the centre of the station, " and still contains 

 a large quantity of bricks, tesserae, and other evidences of Roman 

 habitation." (Rev. John Ward, " Great Bedwyn," in Wilts Arch. 

 Mag., vi., p. 261, pub. in 1860.) This station was situated about 

 half-a-mile east of the road. A bronze cup, found at Rudge, near 

 Froxfield, now preserved at Alnwick Castle (C. I. L., vii. p. 14 b), 

 and a pavement at Littlecot also testify to Roman habitations in 

 the line of the main road from Marlborough to Speen. 



The Rudge Cup, which is figured by Sir Richard C. Iioarc (Anc. 



