242 SILCHESTER. failed for the purpose of containing water, the bottom being composed of rubbish, rich manure, and broken pottery. Scarcely any of the relics found seem to have been pre- served; two Roman coins, apparently of GalUenus and Claudius Gothicus, picked up here, are now in the possession of Mrs. Vincent at the farm-house adjoining. These, however, are not sufficient to prove that Egbury was the Vindomis of the Itineraries. With respect to the distances of the camp from the Port- way, the farmer pointed out clearly where it ran,^ despairing of iDoing ever able to reduce the stony line to the fertOity of the surrounding soil ; its bearing proves the correctness of his observation, though the uncertainty of its appearance has been the cause of its not being continued just here in the Ordnance map. The distance from Silchester would agree with the Itinerary, being neaxly Jifteeu miles ; but that from Winchester can scarcely be reconciled with the distance of Vindomis from Venta Belgarum, being stated in the Itinerary, both of Antoninus and Richard, to be twenty-one^ mAes. If we follow the straight line in one case, it would be but consistent to do so in another, and even with the short miles of D'Anville ^ we cannot make more than sixteen miles between "Winchester and St. Mary Bourne. Had this been the Vindomis, it is presumed that some distance from Speen {Spinis) would also have appeared in one of the Itineraries. The Port way is traceable from the certainty of its having followed a straight line : it must have crossed the St. Mary Bourne stream about 2.30 yards south of the church, where there is still a ford and foot-bridge into Chorley Meadow ; this ford may possibly have been continued from the Roman age. Proceethng to the west, its traces appear at the south-east corner of Butt Close, and ascending that field, in which a few of the enormous flints are still found, it is visible as a slight ridge through Derry-down Copse, and thence forms the ancient pathway to Flesh, or Fleych Stile, where it becomes visible as the common road to Middlewick Farm. About half a mile beyond tlie farm it descends to lower ground, and passes the end of a deep entrenchment
- About 770 yards S.W. of Mr. Vincent's Chron., p. -l?.!. "From these resulta
house. D"An-ille estimates the Roman mile at 755 6 Bohn's Antiq. Lib , Six Old Eng. toises, or 1593 yards, Englisli measure."
