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
Willughby brook is the next water. When arrived over-against Willughby
on the wold on the right, Upper and Nether Broughton on the left,
you find a _tumulus_ on Willughby side of the road, famous among
the country people: it is called Cross hill: upon this they have an
anniversary festival: the road parts the two lordships; but the name
of Broughton set me to work to find the Roman town, among the people
getting in harvest. After some time I perceived I was upon the spot,
being a field called Henings, by which I suppose is meant the ancient
meadows: this is upon the brow of the hill overlooking Willughby
brook, rising in Dalby lordship, and playing in pretty meanders along
a valley between corn-fields, with a moderate water unless raised by
rains. Here they said had been an old city, called Long Billington: it
is often called the Black field in common discourse, from the colour
and excessive richness of the soil, so that they never lay any manure
upon it. Here is a place called Thieves, and on the other side of the
valley a place called Wells, near where now a barn stands: and all
this length they say the city reached, and that there was a church on
the top of Wells; but the city was mostly on Willughby side; for the
land on the other side in Broughton lordship is poor, whilst this is
luxuriant to the last degree; so that a farmer once happening to set
his sheep-fold here, it rotted the corn upon the spot; and often
he has been forced to mow the blade before it spindled (in their way
of talking.) The soil is perfectly black, though all the circumjacent
land be red, especially north of the valley upon the edge of the hill,
and where most antiquities are found; which certainly was the true
place, whence the Roman name, signifying a marly hill. Richard Cooper,
aged 72, has found many brass and silver coins here: there have been
some of gold. They have a notion of great riches being under ground,
and a vulgar report that one balk, or mere, (i. e. a division between
the ploughed fields) has as much money under it, as would purchase
the whole lordship: but people have been frighted from digging it by
spirits; and several pleasant stories are told thereupon. They have
likewise a tradition that the city was destroyed by _thieves_, perhaps
from the place so called. Many Mosaic pavements have been dug up: my
landlord Gee of Willughby says, he has upon ploughing met with such
for five yards together, as likewise coins, pot-hooks, fire-shovels
and the like utensils, and many large brass coins, which they took for
weights, ounces and half-ounces, but upon trial found them somewhat
less. Broad stones and foundations are frequent upon the side of the
Foss: several found at Wells. The ground naturally is so stiff a marl,
that at Willughby town they pave their yards with stones, fetched from
the Foss way even to the slope of their pits, for the cattle to drink
at. At Over and Nether Broughton, and Willughby too, the coins are so
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account