Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/329

 SILCHESTER. 213 called the Devil's Ditch, or Dike.'^ In its general bcarin*; this work runs south.® It is not quite straight, but conforms to the shape of" the valley foi- some distance from the road, about a quarter of a mile perhaps, and distinguished beyond that by a plantation of fir trees, where it is said to form the boundary of the parish of St. Mary Bourne. There it is well preserved, and may be examined to advantage, particularly at its south end, where the railway has cut through it and exposed a section, from which it would appear that the ditch was about eight feet below the ground, and the rampart the same above it, with the ditch on the west. From the railway it ascends a rising ground called Tinker's Hill, and sweeps round the west edge of the summit in a manner to present its ditcli to the westward, thus commanding a view of the declivity, and, at the same time, forming a defence to the top of the hill. It does not appear to have been carried beyond this hill, and terminates about 350 yards to the south of the old road called the Oxen-drove. Thouo;h there is a tradition that the entrenchment extended beyond the Portway on the north, we could not ascertain, nor see any proofs of the story ; but about 800 yards north-west of the point of junction we find two tumuli, on a rising ground, a little on the west of Trendley Copse. These tumuli are situated, it may be observed, on the ditch-side of the entrenchment. Devil's Ditcli may have been an ancient way, or a boundary, of which the Portway may have been its connecting way or side. HENRY MACLAUCHLAN. The various relics of Roman times which have been disinterred from time to time at Silchcster, arc very numerous. Gough, in his additions to Camden's Britannia (vol. i., p. 204, edit. 1806), has enumerated many, now, it ' It is near to tliis ancient dike that with Mr. Leman, in placing V'nidomu Sir R. C. Hoare has placed Vindomis, on near Andover, on the way to .Salishnry, rinkley Farm, about GOO yards on the only because it lies wide of Winchester, south of the Portway, and 200 yards to but because there is cviry rc.Tson to be- the west of the diive. lieve that the l'..rt-way,' or .Salisl>ury The distance of this spot, from Sil- road, was not at that period in existence, Chester, is about seventeen English miles ; for the Itineniries uniformly make the and th.at to Winchester about thirteen, in road to Salisbury pass through Wiii- a straight line. (Anc. Wilts., vol. ii. choster." (Anonymous Obs. Rom. Roads, I> 49 ; f,,l. ed.) &c., p. 30 ) " " Neither can I bring myself to agree V<-'L. VIII. I, I,