_ 
$26 Walks in Berkshire. 
the name of another: is-known, but not 
the position;* and, respecting the third, 
antiquaries agree. as to its situation, but 
they are totally at aloss concerning its 
original name. 
Ati any rate, the road by which we are 
now winding up Streatly hill, is allowed 
to besa branch of the ancient Ickleton 
way; and this branch of the original 
Street passes Hampstead Hermitage, and 
proceeds towards Newbury and Old 
Sarum. 
It has been asserted in.a very respect- 
able work, that there are two Roman 
mile-stones to be seen between the vil- 
Jages of Streatly and Aldworth. With 
all the zeal of a man who was aaxious to 
add a mite or more of information ‘to 
the stock possessed by the antiquaries of 
his favourite county, did I search after 
these memorials of Roman thoroughfare. 
Wo huntsman ever more vigilantly beat 
the bush in pursuit of a secreted hare, 
but never, alas! was huntsman more 
completely thrown out. My chace was 
like that described by Sterne, when he 
sought the tomb of the two lovers; and. 
I was compelled to follow the conduct 
- of a very wise man, when he found it 
impracticable to satisfy the prevalent 
desire of the moment: I sat down, 
* The site of the ancient Calleua remains 
unknown, though some have conjectured» 
Wallingford, and others have confidently 
supposed Silchester, to present the ground- 
work of that ruired city. Where great 
license of conjecture is allowable, perhaps I 
may be pardoned for noticing it as possible 
that Calieva stood on a spot now occupied as 
a farm by a Mr. Child, in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Streatly. It is certain that 
the plough frequently turns up fragments of 
building, apparently Roman, on several 
parts of this ferm and the relative situation 
approaches as nearly to an accordance with 
the distances specified by Antoninus, as does 
that of Wallingford. 
In the neighbourhood of Mr. Child’s farm,. 
there is amill called Clewe mill. A fanciful 
antiquary would almost believe the name of 
this mill to be a corruption of the word Ca/- 
eva. see no reason for disbelieving that a 
mill may have occupied the same spot for 
fourteen or fifteen centuries. I know it to 
be comparatively ancient; for I have seen it 
specified in a map two hundred and fity 
years old. The antiquity of many mills is 
certainly very great. It was lately proved, 
in a trial respecting a right of water course, 
JT tlfink, near Epsom, in Surry, that the pre- 
cise spot now occupied by a corn-mill, was 
used for the same purpose in the reign of 
Edward the Confessor. ~ 
[July 1, 
wiped my brow, and said, with great 
pluiosophy, ‘* All is vanity and vexation 
of spirit 1” 
But when I deviated from the old 
Roman way, and entered the blithe. 
woodlands, and strayed along the tran- 
quil soothing vales, where perhaps a 
Cesar had trodden before, with more 
elevated -but possibly less pleasing 
schemes. mantling in his fancy, I dis- 
covered.a little memorial of humble con- 
tentment and affection in recent life, 
which gratified me at the moment, and 
which perhaps is more grateful to recol- 
lection, than would have been the dis- 
covery of a moss-grown Roman fort, or: 
the blood-stained tumulus of some 
lofty, chieftain of a past day, dignified by 
posterity with the name of hero. It was 
a tomb, simple but capacious, erected 
in. the garden of the cottage which they 
had formerly tenanied, to the: memory of 
a husbandman and his wife, who lie 
buried beneath its base. The cottage is 
seclusion itself; thick woods, august 
hills, and sloping pasture-grounds, are 
the only objects in view. Yet, so en 
deared was this sober spot to the feelings 
of those who had traced all the different 
stages of life, and various hopes and 
fears connected with humanity, amid its 
bowers, that the thought of quitting it, 
even in death, was ‘hot supportable. 
Where shall we. find the baron so much 
attached to his domain, or the monarch 
to his palace? Surely the poet had ns 
tomb in view when he said: 
‘¢There scatter’d oft, the earliest of ba 
year, \ 
By hands unseen are show’rs of vil’ets 
found; 
The redbreast loves to build and warble 
there, 
And little footsteps lesey prints the 
ground. a 
Regaining the trace of the conquering 
Romans, the pedestrian speedily enters. 
the parish: of Aldworth, formerly the re- 
sidence of the aflluent, the hospitable, 
and the warlike—now the abode of pea- 
sants only, whose straggling cottages 
scarcely atford so marked an idea of a 
direct neighbourhood, as to induce the 
traveller to believe that he is arrived at 
the .once-flourishing village. The ma- 
norial rights of this district, and the more 
solid benefits of the lands and appur- 
tenances thereunto belonging, were, for 
a considerable period, in the possession 
of the De la Beche family, many mem- 
bers of which lie, with memorable sepul- 
chral honours, in the little church of the 
village. 
