Riding along the road on the north side of Silchester, I left it with this reflection: Now a person of a moderate fortune may buy a whole Roman city, which once half a kingdom could not do; and a gentleman may be lord of the soil where formerly princes and emperors commanded. To the west of the place, but at some distance, runs a high bank overgrown with trees seemingly north and south: they say there is another such, south of the city: which would make one suspect they were raised by some besiegers. Farther on I crossed a great Roman road coming from Winchester: they call it Long-bank and Grimesdike. I have very often found this name applied to a road, a wall, a ditch of antiquity; which would make one fancy it is a Saxon word signifying the witches work; for the vulgar generally think these extraordinary works made by help of the devil. They told me it goes through Burfield and Reading. Towards Winchester I could see it as far as the horizon, perfectly strait, ten miles off. We may say with the poet, _Tellus in longas est patefacta vias._ +Tibull.+ Near it they talk of a stone thrown by an imp from Silchester walls, a mile off, which I suppose a mile-stone. Mr. Camden says a Roman road runs westward from Silchester, which I imagine goes to Andover. From Aldermaston is a fine view of the country hanging over the Kennet, lately made navigable. Going from Aldermaston to Kingsclere, where once was a palace of the Saxon kings, I passed over Brimpton common: here are many very fine Celtic barrows: the soil is a moor full of _erica_, which they dig up for fewel; underneath it is sand: at Kingsclere the mighty chalk-hills begin. Upon the top of a very high promontory is a square Roman camp, in a park. From hence to Andover is an hard way and open country. Just before I descended the continuation of this great ridge of hills overlooking Andover, I crossed a ditch like Wansditch, hanging upon the edge of the hills, which I suppose some division among the ancient Britons: it extended itself both ways as far as I could see: the foss is not very large, though the bank is: the foss is northward. [Illustration: 43·2ᵈ. _The Side view of the_ Amphitheater _at Silchester. May 8. 1724._ _Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall sculp._] [Sidenote: +Andaoreon.+] [Sidenote: +Bury-hill+ Ro. _Camp_.]