Itinerarium curiosum (centuria I) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great BritainStukeley, William
History
Itinerarium curiosum (centuria I) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain
Stukeley, William
Great Britain -- Antiquities -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
We may be assured that this whole country was well inhabited by the
antient Britons, and that as far as the sea coasts, especially the
islets and higher parts more free from ordinary inundations of the
rivers, or though not imbanked above the reach of the spring tides;
for the nature of this place perfectly answered their gusto, both as
affording abundant pasturage for their cattle, wherein their chief
sustenance and employment consisted, and in being so very secure from
incursion and depredations of war and troublesome neighbours, by the
difficult fens upon the edge of the high country. Here I have not been
able to meet with any remains of them, except it be the great quantity
of _tumuli_, or barrows, in all these parts; scarce a parish without
one or more of them. They are generally of a very considerable bulk,
much too large for Roman; nor has any thing Roman been discovered in
cutting them through; though, a few years ago, two or three were dug
quite away near Boston, and another at Frampton, to make brick of, or
to mend the highways. I guess these were the high places of worship
among our Cimbrian predecessors, purposely cast up, because there
are no natural hills in these parts; and we know antiquity affected
places of elevation for religious rites. No doubt, some are places of
sepulture, especially such as are very frequent upon the edges of the
high countries all around, looking down upon the fens. Hither seem to
have been carried the remains of great men, whose habitations were in
the marshy grounds, who chose to be buried upon higher ground than
where they lived; as is the case all over England; for the _tumuli_ are
commonly placed upon the brink of hills hanging over a valley, where
doubtless their dwellings were.
[Sidenote: +Romans.+]
[Sidenote: _The_ +Hermen Street.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. LVI.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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