Previous Data

p. 25

PREVIOUS DATA.

A number of observers have recorded confirmatory facts.

Mr. G. H. Piper ("Woolhope Club Transactions, 1882," p. 176) says: "A line drawn from the Skerrid-fawr (mountain) northwards to Arthur's Stone would pass over the camp and the southernmost point of the Hatterill Hill, Old Castle, Longtown Castle, and Urishay and Snodhill Castles."

Mr. Thos. Codrington ("Roman Roads in Britain," 1903) says: "Between the extreme points there are many straight pieces not quite in the same line, generally pointing to some landmark. There are several instances where a barrow or tumulus was the landmark, the road passing round it on nearing it. Silbury affords one example, and Brinklow, on the Foss, another."

Mr. James G. Wood ("Woolhope Club Transactions, 1910," p. 146) says: "The origin and purposes of these tumps associated with Roman roads will well repay investigation. I have traced a line of such works across South Monmouthshire and West Gloucestershire from Caerleon through Caerwent into the Forest. All of these are so placed that each is in sight of the next in either direction. Again, we find that such roads were in many cases ranged or laid out in line with small camps or such tumuli-being, in fact, surveying stations."

The Rev. S. Baring-Gould ("Book of Dartmoor," 1900) says: "The stone row is almost invariably associated with cairns and kistvaens. They do not always run parallel; they start from a cairn and end with a blocking stone set across the line."

The Rev. S. Bentley ("History of Bosbury," 1891) says: "Under the cross in the churchyard, at its removal to its present site in 1796, a huge shapeless mass of rock weighing upwards of two tons was found. This stone now lies in the churchyard close to the tower on the south side." Another writer refers to it as "this large unhewn mass of Silurian rock."

Mr. Hillaire Belloc ("The Old Road," 1904), writing of the Pilgrim's Way, says: "Now on its way from Winchester to Canterbury the Old Road passes, not in the mere proximity of, but right up against, thirteen ruined or existing churches."

Mr. Belloc also says: "The sacredness of wells is commingled all through Christendom with that of altars"; and giving Continental instances, also refers to the one under the altar at Winchester.