Volume 1

The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme.

Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    long, by forty-three yards wide. Within and around it, are found numerous fragments of Roman pottery, bricks, and tiles, and the site of the foundations is still more clearly traced on closer inspection by means of the moles, which throw up along the lines of the several walls small portions of the foundations intermixed with the soil. Without the walls on the east side, are immense quantities of oyster- shells, immediately below the turf; and on the south side is a well or pond, which is pitched up the sides and at the bottom. On the north is a barrow of circular form, but not of great height. I learned from the information of Job Lousley, Esq., of Hampstead Norris, that great numbers of Roman coins had at various times been found on this hill; and that in a field called the Stad, at Compton, not far distant from this place, very numerous discoveries of Roman coins had been made at different periods and to a considerable extent. Yours, etc. John Richards, Jun. Bray. [1795, Port II., pp. 629, 630.] I have often wished that our antiquaries would unite their exertions to compose a map accurately and completely illustrative of the Roman topography of this island. I am aware the work would be long and laborious; but it could be performed with less difficulty now than when a longer time shall have elapsed from the period of the Roman invasion; and it could also be better performed. The antiquaries are in possession of sufficient proofs whereon to ground such an illustration. Numerous are the Roman vestigice exposed to sight, and many are the collections of Roman curiosities open to inspection. Much of the trouble and expense that would attend making farther enquiries would be found to be done away by the readiness with which you, Mr. Urban, forward in your Magazine inquiries of that nature; and your publication is also a ready vehicle for the convey- ance of voluntary intimations conducive to the perfecting such a plan. It is to offer a mite of that sort that I trouble you, Mr. Urban, with this letter. I neither pretend to make positive assertions, nor to detail minutiae; but I submit circumstances and reports that may lead to the discovery, investigation, and elucidation of facts. The parish of Bray, in the county of Berks, claims, but has never had, the attention of a modern antiquary. This parish is situated between Windsor and Maidenhead bridge, and is bounded on the north-east by the river Thames, on the bank of which the church stands. To say more of the place than what is connected with Roman antiquity would be foreign to my purpose; and, therefore, I proceed to mention, that a short piece of a Roman highway was thought, some years ago, to have been discovered between the river and the east corner of the church- yard ; and, certain it is, that several Roman coins, together with fragments of armour and weapons, have been at different times