Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/484

324 COLLECTIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF to Cirencester, and there meeting the Akeman Street, which extended to Alcester, in Berkshire. In this there appears to be some confusion; the road from Aust Passage appears to fall into the "Ridge Way," near Old Down, in its course between Bristol and Gloucester, and is not satisfactorily traced as far as Cirencester. With the advantage of so many main roads, the military position became the resort of the rich and great, and its consequence as a civil station is sufficiently indicated by the number, as well as the magnitude and beauty of the remains which still exist. The modern town does not occupy more than one-third of the area of the Roman city, the south-eastern portion being now garden ground, and the extensive pleasure grounds of the Abbey being in great part within the line of the Roman wall. The mounds, and occasionally parts of the walls, can still be traced for more than a mile on the east, south, and west sides, and masonry of some strength may be seen near the mill beyond the London road to the southward. The stream taken up for this mill is carried on a bank supported for a quarter of a mile or more by the Roman wall. The town may be assumed to have had four gates at least, viz., at the points where the two great Viæ above mentioned entered and left the walls; no traces of them are visible, but as the four principal streets of the present town mostly coincide with the lines of the ancient viæ, it is not difficult to obtain a sufficiently accurate knowledge of the position of the Roman buildings, confirmed in a number of instances by remains of structures hitherto discovered. In the site opened in August last, however, the foundations run obliquely across the present Dyer Street, proving that the curve in that street is a deviation from the line of the Roman street, a part of which was uncovered, with foundations on the opposite side, indicating its width. In this part of the town the rich Abbey of Cirencester, and also the Convent of St. Peter at Gloucester, had large possessions, and it is at the period in which monastic influence was dominant, that the existing street was most probably formed.

Before describing more particularly the pavements lately disinterred, it may not be amiss to advert shortly to former discoveries of a similar kind made at different times in Cirencester. The earliest recorded, I believe, is by Leland, who, after speaking of the ruins of an ancient tower, broken down in