Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/210

MEMOIR ON REMAINS OF THE ANGLO-ROMAN AGE, AT WEY- COCK, IN THE PARISH OF LAURENCE WALTHAM, BERKSHIRE; AND ON THE EXCAVATIONS THERE MADE IN 1847, BY DIRECTION OF THE HON. RICHARD C. NEVILLE, F.S.A. A REPORT of the foundations discovered at Weycock will be best introduced by a few remarks as to its locality, which, combined with a record of the antiquities brought to light in the neighbourhood, may afford some clue to the origin and date of the structure, supposed to have been a fort or tower, and perhaps point out the people to whom it should be ascribed. Waltham Saint Laurence is five miles south-west of Maidenhead, and ten miles west of Windsor ; it forms a portion of the Hundred of Wargrave, which was granted by Edward VI. to Sir Henry Nevill, from whom it descended with the Bilhngbeare estates to Lord Braybrooke, the present possessor. The field called Weycock, in which Roman remains have been frequently discovered, beyond the memory of man, is situated near the south-west extremity of the parish of Laurence Waltham. That this spot contained the foundations of some building had been matter of notoriety, ever since the time of Camden, who, speaking of Sunning, states, in his Britannia, vol. i. p. 1 70, " not far off stands Laurence Waltham, where the foundations of an old fort are to be seen, and Roman coins are often dug up." Hearne, in the preface to his edition of "Leland's Itinerary," alluding to Roman remains in the parish of White Waltham, his native place, remarks, that " the broken tiles, scatter'd up and down the ground in no small quantity, are like those in Weycock, (in the parish of Laurence Waltham,) about a .mile westward." Further, also, " Weycock was without doubt," speaking of supposed Roman works at other places, — " such a work (and perhaps was once in Antoninus) there having been, as there arc now continually, great numbers of coyns plough'd up by the husbandmen to confirm it : and 'twas from this evi- dence that Mr, Camden has said, that 'twas a Roman fort." ^ ' Leland's Itin. by Hcarnc, vol. i, Prof., p. x.