Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/327

 SILCIIESTER. 241 [jowbury, near Conipton, on the nortli, and iVoni Egl)urv <>n he south. Egbury Camp (Vlndovtis?) A learned commentator on Ricliard of" Cirencester's Itinerary, •emarks respecting the situation of ''ni(l(»nis — " Oftlic next itation we can merely offer a conjectui-c. As the country jf the Atrebates and their capital Cnllevn, or Silchester, is by )ur author described as lying near the Thames, in distinction Tom that of the Segontiaci, whose capital, Vivdomifi, was Fiu'ther distant from that river, and nearer the Kermet, one point only appears to suit the distances, which bears the proper relation to the neighbouring stations, and at the same time ffills at the intersection of two known Roman Roads. This is in the neighbourhood of St. Mary Bourne, and affords reason for considering Egbury camp, or some spot near it, as the capital of the Segontiaci."* On examination of the neighbourhood of St. Mary Bourne, we find no remains of any buildings to lead to the supposition that a station so remarkable as the Vindnmis of the Romans was ever placed there. Egbury camp, or castle, is situated one mile and a half ^ast of St. Mary Bourne, and about the same height above the sea as Silchester. The castle, as the entrenchment is called, is in the form of an irregular pentagon, and may originally have enclosed about twelve acres ; but a great part of the rampart has been de- stroyed, and the whole of the ditch has been filled in. There is but one entrance visible, which is on the west, though there ire slight vestiges of one on the east, with faint traces of a "oad communicating with the ancient way from Newbury to Winchester ; which way seems to have touched, if not actually entered the south-east angle of the camp, and thence have
 * aken a new direction towards Winchester.

The rampart is about nine feet high in one part, towards the north-west angle, at which angle there may have been a signal post. Though the vestiges of the ditch are scarcely to be seen, its depth was considerable, as the farmer adjoining found «rhen he dug on the east side for a pond ; this excavation I * See the late Mr. Leraan's observa- See also Sir R. C. Hnare's Ane. Wilts., ions, appended to Mr. Hatcher's edition vol. ii. If Richard of Cirencester, 1809, p. 1.56.