Itinerarium curiosum (centuria II) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain. To which is added, the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, monk of Westminster. With an account of that author and his workStukeley, William
History
Itinerarium curiosum (centuria II) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain. To which is added, the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, monk of Westminster. With an account of that author and his work
Stukeley, William
Great Britain -- Antiquities -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
Just before we came to Robin Hood’s well, we met the Hermen-street
with a very high and perfect ridge coming from Castle-ford; it bears
north-west and south-east precisely: presently after, it makes an
angle, and goes southward. Robin Hood’s well stands upon the road in
a valley: there is a new cover made to it lately by Sir John Vanbrug.
Then the Roman road leaves us on the right a little, till at Doncaster
town-end. At the marsh-gate is an old chapel and a cross of stone,
triangular, with three niches. Doncaster church and steeple is large
and beautiful: at the east end is an old chapel, now converted to
secular uses. Near the market-place another older chapel, of St.
Magdalen, which the corporation use for their place of assembly. I
believe the Roman _castrum_ was by the river side, where the church and
parsonage-house stand. Coming out of the town is another cross upon the
road, where they fable a Roman emperor was buried. The Roman road a
little farther is very apparent, going over a fine heath, so to Bawtry,
upon the river Idle, slowly conducting its waters through a large level
moor to the Humber. Probably here was a camp formerly. They have some
trade here in lead from Derbyshire, mill-stones, and Roch-abbey stone
of a good kind. Hither comes the Hermen-street, which I call the new
branch, from _Agelocum_. We passed over a deep valley at Went, beyond
Robin Hood’s well: the northern precipice of it is rocky, as that of
Gateshead.
Having brought this journal to the edge of Nottinghamshire and
Lincolnshire, of which parts I gave my observations in former _Iters_,
I conclude this with the following reflections. The amazing scene of
Roman grandeur in Britain which I beheld this journey, the more it
occurred with pleasure to my own imagination, the more I despaired
of conveying it to the reader in a proper light by a rehearsal. It
is easy for some nations to magnify trifles, and in words gild over
inconsiderable transactions till they swell to the appearance of an
history; and some moderns have gone great lengths that way: but if
in any people action has outdone the capacity of rhetoric, or in any
place they have left historians far behind in their valour and military
performances, it was in our own country; and we are as much surprised
in finding such infinite reliques of theirs here, as that we have no
history of them that speaks with any particularity of the last 300
years that the Romans dwelt in Britain, and rendered it perfectly
provincial. The learned memoirs are very short; and it is well they
were guided with such a spirit, as left monuments sufficient to supply
that defect, when handled as they deserve: though I have no hope of
coming up to that, yet I hold myself obliged to preserve, as well
as I can, the memory of such things as I saw; which, added to what
future times will discover, will revive the Roman glory among us,
and may serve to invite noble minds to endeavour at that merit and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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