Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/238

 A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE of stone for repairing Watling Street.' ' But no mosaic floors, no costly ornaments, or other traces of wealth and luxury have as yet been detected, nor have w^e any reason to believe that such will ever be discovered there. In short, Towcester was a little Romano-British town or village, possibly larger than Irchester, distinguished from it by its position on the great Roman highway of Watling Street, but resembling it, and indeed exceeding it, in the general simplicity of its remains and the absence of objects that indicate riches and splendour. (</) WHILTON, NORTON The Itinerary of Antoninus mentions a place called Bannaventa as the next station from Lactodorum, 1 2 Roman miles on the road to Viroconium, and another place called Tripontium as 12 miles further on.' The road in question is that which we now call Watling Street, and these two ' stations ' ought to be found on or near that well known way. Their exact identification has however been a matter of much dispute. Talbot, the first Englishman to comment on the Itinerary, put Bannaventa at Weedon Beck, and Camden, Morton, Stukeley and others followed him. But Weedon is too near Towcester to agree with the Itinerary mileage, and it has yielded hardly any Roman remains. Others, attracted by the coincidence that the five letters avent occur in both names, have placed Bannaventa at Daventry, and have tried to substantiate their etymology by citing the remains on Borough Hill and at Burnt Walls (p. 195). But these lie well away from Watling Street. Horsley probably hit the truth when he suggested that Bannaventa might be found on Watling Street itself, not far from Whilton Lodge. The position suits the mileage of the Itinerary, and considerable remains have been noticed here at various dates. Morton, two centuries ago, observed that, ' in that part of Whilton Field which adjoins Watling Street old foundations, the stones of ruined walls and the like have been ploughed and digged up, and amongst the ruins some pieces of Roman money.' Baker records the discovery in 181 3 of a skeleton and some Constantinian coins in a field called Great Shawney near the footpath to Whilton, and states that near a farm called Thrupp Grounds, in the north of Norton parish, ' thick foundation walls and fragments of ancient pottery ' were frequently turned up over a space of nearly 30 acres. ' Cimden, ii. 266 ; Morton, p. 508 ; Stukeley, Itin. Curksam, p. 40 (denarius of Hadrian) ; Minutes of Soc. of Antiquaries, J.inu,iry 19-26, 1748 (graves); Bridges, i. 272; Cough's Add. to Camden, ii. 274 ; Baker, ii. 320; Jciii-nal of the British Archaokgical Association, vii. 109, xxi. 186 (inscribed lamp) ; the late Sir Henry Dryden, Antfjuary, vii. 87 and MSS. in Northampton Museum ; a large collection of pottery, coins, etc., made by the late Mr. Tite, now in Northampton Museum. The 'cheese strainers ' resemble one figured (without exact provenance) in the Proceedings of the Soc. of Antiquaries, xiv. (1892) 173, and one found at Birdosvvald in 1896 {Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Arch. Soc. xiv. 426, pi. iii.). Simil.ir objects have been found elsewhere (Bursian, Aventi- cum, pi. xiii., etc.). A Bactrian coin of King Menander was picked up at Towcester in 1882 {North- amptonshire Notes and Queries, i. 99) ; doubtless it h.id been dropped by some returned Anglo-Indian. venta, Bennavena, etc., and even Isannavantia ; but there can hardly be any doubt that all are corrup- tions of the one form Bannaventa. The theories built on the hypothesis of two place names, one commencing with B and the other with Is {Archecokgia, xxxv. 392, etc.) are baseless. (,
 * Itin. Ant. 470, 477, 479. The MSS. of the Itinerary give several varieties of spelling, Benna-