VOL. XIX.* (3) 
KXCURSION— CIRENCESTER 
183 
EXCURSIONS— 1917 
(Reports by The President and Roland Austin.) 
Ihe Excursions ot the year had perforce to be planned with due regard 
to facilities for travel, and though the programme included places more or 
less familiar, the meetings, judging from the attendances, proved attractive, 
and gave opportunities for Members to gather together, which might not 
otherwise have occurred. 
CIRENCESTER MEETING. 
May 15TH, 1917. 
The first of the excursions was attended by a large company, there 
being present ; — The President, Earl Bathurst, C. Bowly, E. C. Sewell, 
Roland Austin, C. Bailey, F. H. Bretherton, O. A. Brown, H. T. Bruton, 
H. W. Bruton, Rev. J. J. D. Cooke, Colonel Duke, G. Embrey, J. C. Frith, 
E. W. Fyffe, Ernest Hartland, A. E. Hurry, J. W. Gray, H. H. Knight, J. 
H. Jones, W. C. Lucy, E. Lawrence, Dr. Middleton Martin, A. S. Montgomrey, 
J. F. Muir, Surgeon-Major Newton, H. E. Norris, L. Richardson, E. N. 
Witchell. The Hon. E. H. Pierrepolit, Dr. Beeby, and other visitors were 
also present! 
Members travelling from Gloucester arrived somewhat earlier than those 
from Cheltenham, and on the invitation of Earl Bathurst took the oppor- 
tunity of visiting the Roman pavement at the Barton,’ discovered in 1825, 
and from there walked to the Roman “ Bull Ring,” situated on the property 
of the Hon. E. H. Pierrepont, who had given permission for the visit. Here 
the Cheltenham party was met and a position was taken up on the raised 
bank overlooking the ” Ring ” on the one side and the town on the other. 
Mr E. C. Sewell made the following observations : — 
" When the Members of the British Archaeological Association visited 
Cirencester in 1868, one of the subjects that evoked much discussion was 
whether this so-called Amphitheatre was of Roman origin or of later date. 
Mr J. Bra vender, a surveyor at that time in Cirencester, had prepared a 
plan^ with the following dimensions of the arena. This, including the two 
open ends or entrances, measured 328 feet in length, and 129 feet in breadth, 
while the level of the arena was about 24 feet below the summit of the sur- 
rounding mounds. The cpicstion whether these mounds are artificial, wholly 
or in part, may be answered by saying that the greater part of them on the 
1 Described by E. C. Sewell and .Alfred II. Powell, and illustrated, Trans. />’. G.A. S., xxxiii., 
67-77. 
2 four. Brit. Arch. Assoc. (1868), xxv. 
