SILCIIESTER. 235 Tlioiigh there can bo littlu doubt that tlii.s is the true lloiuau hue, we find no <htc,li on either side, or any cmluiik- nieiit, nor any (lints on the surface ; but when wc find that this last chrection of the line leads thi'ough the east ^ate, and (coincides, in continuation, with a street as traced within the ancient town, we cannot refuse to admit that we are on the hue. Beyond this, however, we may observe, that though the coiu'se of the present road terminates 1000 yards before it arrives at the gate, and the line of the fence forward can scarcely be relied on, a recent breaking up of a meadow, iallcd Mouse-hill Meadow, which had been grass-land boyoinl the memor}'^ of man, disclosed the bed of flints embedded in gravel cemented with ferruginous clay, precisely in the hne towards the gate, about a foot or 18 inches below the •surface, and I saw them carted away as an obstruction to
- ultivation. This field is the second from the gate, and the
- hird from the cross-road.
The next important line of Roman road from Silchester «ras towards Winchester.^ This also is presumed to have jcen straight, at least as far as Rook's Dow^n, near Basing- stoke, over which it appears to have gone, there being a tradition that a part of it was formerly dug up, the present 2;encral appearances also of the road confirming this This road does not appear to have departed straight in continuation from the south gate of the wall ; but the north md the south gate being truly so of each other, the street •onnecting them was continued, it is presumed, in each ^stance, on to the outer rampart, and the road commenced ts direction through the town from that oufer gate. Presumino- this to have been the direction of the south o oad, to which the present line generally conforms for a con- iderable distance, we find it to be bearing S. W. to S 2h° S., .nd, following this course, at Latchmore Green we find that [emains have been dug up in two gardens,* and a small neadow ^ on the west of the present road, and that other emains have been ploughed up on Moor's Farm, in a field lalled Long Ayhffs.^ i ' "There is one of these (military ways) sawpit at the back of Moor's Farm ; and, ptvisible, that leads towards Winchester." in di<;fjing down, came upon a hcil of tlorsley, p. 45.9.) large flints like a road. A. Ham heard his I' Statement of John and Ambrose father speak of the same flints. !ara. James Simpson, a sawyer, at Sil- '-' Stated by David Norris. Iiester, ninety years of age, made a ^ By William Morrell, of Moor's Farm. VOL. VIII. K K
