16 
pity, possess uncontested power over the 
districts once defended with streams of 
Roman and of British blood. 
I have described the first view of the 
majestic fragments of Vindonum as 
bursting on the traveller while he 
threads the mazes of obscure and em- 
bowered lanes. The prospect is truly 
linpressive and surprising. We see a 
wall, in some places still nearly twenty 
feet high, and through the whole boun- 
dary of the city twenty-four feet in 
thickness, half-veiled by towering oaks 
which have taken root even in the firm 
cement of, the ponderous wall itself. 
The slow process of vegetation, which 
has tinted the stone with green, and 
created a little forest in the place once 
occupied by battlements and coping, 
is very nearly the whole alteration that 
has been effected since the hour in which 
the Saxons ravaged the city, and reduced 
the pride of its fortified barrier to a mere 
monument of the instability of local 
grandeur. 
The Romans were judiciously attached 
(as the situation of antient Rome might 
suffice to prove,) to aa elevated site for 
their most important cities. In atten- 
tion to this habitual predilection, Vindo- 
num was placed on the apex of a cluster 
of hills, whose summits appear to have 
been rendered artificially level for the 
accommodation of the military settlers, 
The city was built in the form of a 
parallelogram 2600 by 2000 feet, and 
was entirely surrounded by a wall of the 
thickness mentioned above, and of a 
very considerable height, though its 
precise degree of elevation cannot now 
be ascertained. Four gateways opened 
to the city, the situations of which are 
still distinctly marked, and show that 
the entrances were placed exactly at the 
four cardinal points. The foundation of 
the walls consists of regular layers of 
Jarge flat stones, and the walls are com- 
posed of rubble-stone, flints, and pebbles, 
held together by a bed of strong cement. 
The stones and flints are not arranged 
with any uniformity ofmethod, but are 
variously placed in the cement, at differ- 
ent parts of the wall. 
Sull, for an indeterminate distance, a 
similarity of arrangement appears to 
have been preserved, as if certain spe- 
ecified proportions of the structure had 
been allctted to the task of a particular 
band of artificers, and each band had 
its peculiar plan of workmanship. 
The extent of the wall is nearly two 
English miles, and round the whole was 
1 - 
Waiks in Berkshire. 
fAug. I, 
adeep ditch, or fosse, a great part of 
which is now filled with the ruins of the 
walls. Beyond the ditch was con- 
structed the external vallum, which may 
still be easily traced, and which is, in 
many places, fifteen or sixteen feet high. 
On the western side of the walls is an 
embankment, thrown up in a semi-circu- 
lar form, with a ditch beyond it. This’ 
bank is of a considerable height, and 
was evidently constructed for the defence 
of the city. 
On the north-east, at some small dis- 
tance from the city wall, are the remains 
of an amphitheatre, which are now used 
as a yard for the cattle of a neighbouring 
farmer! 
A street, thirty feet in width, extends 
from each gate to the opposite entrance, 
and the traces of various subordinate 
passages are still to be observed towards 
the approach of harvest in dry seasons, 
when the corns (probably from the 
circumstance of the pavement of the 
streets sull remaining entire, on which 
Jie heaped the materials of the houses 
razed by the Saxons) fails, and the exas 
miner may Clearly ascertain the width and 
direction of each smaller avenue once 
trodden by the Ronmran inhabitants. 
From the very retired character of 
the neighbourhood, the walls have 
escaped with singular good fortune 
from all other dilapidations than such 
slow hints at fragility as are the inevita- 
le consequences of a lengthened age. 
The whole of the remains appear now in 
the same state as when visited by 
Camden. ‘That most industrious antis 
quary mentions an aperture or passage, 
underneath the southern wall, through 
which he could searcely pass, im conse= 
quence of the heaps of rubbish which 
incumbered the former private avenue 
of the garrison. This passage (called 
Onion’s hole) presents exactly the same 
aspect at the present day. Indeed, it 
would almost appear that the various 
generations of the moderns have con- 
curred in treating these ruins with ten- 
derness and respect; for, between two 
‘and three hundred years back, a church 
and farm-house (both mentioned by 
Camden as’ recent erections) were cons 
structed near the eastern 
These are both remaiing, and | found 
them to be composed of brick. Now, 
as such immense quantities of useful 
materials were contained close at hand, 
in the fragments of thé Roman walls, it 
seems dificult to discover any other mo- 
tive for the founder of these buildings« ~~ 
r preferring 
entrance, * 
» 
a ae 
