I must confess to you, that I was (I believe) the only person in England that regretted not the cloudiness of the day, which added so much to the solemnity of the sight, and which imcomparably exceeded, in my apprehension, that of 1715, which I saw very perfectly from the top of Boston steeple in Lincolnshire, where the air was very clear: but the night of this was more complete and dreadful. There indeed I saw both sides of the shadow come from a great distance, and pass beyond us to a great distance; but this eclipse had much more of variety and majestic terror: so that I cannot but felicitate myself upon the opportunity of seeing these two rare accidents of nature, in so different a manner: yet I should willingly have lost this pleasure for your more valuable advantage of perfecting the noble theory of the celestial bodies, which last time you gave the world so nice a calculation of; and wish the sky had now as much favoured us for an addition to your honour and great skill, which I doubt not to be as exact in this as before. _Ambsbury, Wilts, May 10, 1724._ Return we to matters of antiquity. Upon this very hill-top are great pits dug lately by order of my lord Charlton for clay, which they find here of a very stiff sort, by nature let in like veins among clefts of the solid chalk: the workmen here, whilst they have been busy in taking it up, have found many Romans coins, silver and brass, some very deep in the earth, as they say; several of which I have now by me. I saw likewise a very fair gold _Constantius_; the reverse, two Genii holding a shield, _vot._ xxx. _victoria Augg._ It seems as if the Romans, with their wonted sagacity, had been occupied here in the same way, to make pottery ware, and not neglected to leave proof of it according to their method. I took notice likewise of one side of the summit being covered with oyster-shells loose upon the surface; and how they came there I could get no information. [Sidenote: +Icening-street.+] [Sidenote: +Sorbiodunum.+] [Sidenote: TAB. LXV.] [Sidenote: TAB. LXVI.] [Sidenote: Roman _way_.] [Sidenote: +Brige.+]