JOURNAL 
OF 
A NATURALIST. 
The village in which I reside is situ.ated upon a very 
ancient road, connecting the city of Bristol with that 
of Gloucester, and thus with all the great towns in the 
North of England. This road runs for the chief part 
upon a high limestone ridge, from which w T e obtain a 
very beautiful and extensive prospect : the broad estuary 
of the river Severn, the mountains of Glamorgan, Mon- 
mouth, and Brecon, with their peaceful vales, and 
cheerful-looking white cottages, form the distant view : 
beneath it lies a vast extent of arable and pasture land, 
gained originally by the power of man from this great 
river, and preserved now from her incursions by a con- 
siderable annual expenditure, testifying his industry 
and perseverance, and exhibiting his reward. The Aust 
ferry, supposed to be the “ trajectus,” or place where 
the Romans were accustomed to pass the Severn, is 
visible, with several stations of that people and the an- 
cient British, being a part of that great chain of forts 
originally maintained to restrain the plundering inroads 
of the restless inhabitants of the other bank of the 
river: Thornbury, with it's fine cathedral-like church 
and castle, the opposite red cliffs of the Severn, and the 
stream itself, are fine and interesting features. 
An encampment of some people, probably Romans, 
occupies a rather elevated part of the parish, consisting 
of perhaps three acres of ground, surrounded by a high 
agger, with no ditch, or a very imperfect one, and prob- 
ably was never designed for protracted resistance : it 
appears to form one of the above-mentioned series of 
forts erected by Ostorius, commencing at Weston, in 
Somersetshire, and terminating at Bredon in the county 
