and all sorts of antiquities, which I encouraged them to preserve for the future. This city was fenced with a bank and ditch quite round: it is a square of one thousand foot each side, standing upon the four cardinal points: the _vallum_ and ditch are sufficiently visible, though both have met with equal change; the _vallum_, from the plough, which levels it to a certain quantity every year; and the inundation of the meadow raises the ditch: these are most easily discernible at the corners, for there they are still pretty perfect, and so notoriously, that the country people tell you in those places were four towers to defend the city. This little brook, that runs on the southern ditch, encompassed the city quite round originally: the track of the way that passes the city in the middle from south to north, is still very high raised, and another street crossed it the contrary way in the middle, and so went eastward, meeting the Akeman in its way to Langford: these were the two principal streets, and doubtless there were others; and great foundations are known to be all around in the meadows, especially northward and eastward upon both sides the Akeman. On the west side of the city, a little distance from the ditch, is an artificial hill in the very middle of the meadow which they call the Castle hill, and is full of Roman bricks, stone, and foundations. I attentively considered this place: the circuit of it is very plain and definable; it was a square of two hundred foot: I guess it originally to have been some considerable building in the middle of an _area_, or court; whether a _pretorium_, or a temple, might probably be ascertained upon digging: the edge of the _area_ is very distinct upon the meadow, by the difference in the colour of the grass, the one gray, the other green; but the main body of the building reached not so far, but lies in a great heap of rubbish, much elevated, and of much less extent: before it, to the south, has been another _area_, paved with a bed of gravel, at least above a hundred foot broad: I doubt not but a curious person, that will be at the expence of digging this plot, would find it well worth his while. This is the sum of what I observed at the place: whether the present name be Alcester, as retaining any thing of the Latin, or Aldcester, signifying the old city, I dispute not; but think it has no manner of relation to Allectus that slew the brave Carausius. The name of Akeman way I am fit to think a vulgar error, as commonly imagined from going to the Bath:[36] more probably it is _ag maen_, the stony _agger_, or ridge; this is confirmed by the people calling the other road too, that goes north and south, by the same name, Akeman-street. There has been a religious house at Bicester near the church, a priory of St. Eadburg, founded by Gilbert Basset. This town is famous for excellent malt liquor, of a delicate taste and colour. [Illustration: 7·2ᵈ. _Prospect of Tame._ +Tamese.+ _14 Sept. 1724._