victory over the Persians. The other coin was a large brass of T. Antoninus Pius. Rev. SALVS a sitting figure.

Very likely, if the mill were ever to be pulled down, we might have a second edition of the Bassingbourne discovery. The gravel on the south side of the river is about 5 feet from the surface, so that the little bit of marsh could not have been very formidable. I have little doubt that the present nearly-deserted road which continues the route straight away indicates Iter IX. It is a watercourse road, and probably the Roman road lay just to the east of it, detail being thus arranged for carrying off the water. On the top of the ridge there is a welldefined double elbow, the middle about 50 yards long, quite level, and at right angles to the general course of the road. This way is described as the Packway, between Wangford Cross and Wangford Green. It seems to be an excellent instance of the method called 'doublespanning' so well known to colonists. Waggons bound for Sitomagus, en route perhaps for Colchester or London, would be halted after crossing the river, and a double service of beasts would be put on to tug the first waggon to this level, at the further end of which it would be left while the animals returned for the next, and so on, till the troublesome hill was worked. 'Wangford' Green, between Mettingham Castle and the slope of the hill, was all open common till the enclosure of 1817. No trace therefore can be found here, save that land between Mettingham Castle and Wainford Bridge is described as abutting on a certain street called Wangford Street.' I think, however, that at the north-west corner of the Mettingham Castle property the Roman road appears again, and goes away for Ilketshall St. John's Church, with another double elbow before the dip for the little stream which has there to be crossed. There are some suspicious-looking pieces of brick in the outer wall of this church. Here the road assumes its most important aspect, and begins to bear the high title of Stone Street.

The church and churchyard of Ilketshall St. Laurence, on the left of the road, stand on an artificially-raised platform. At St. Laurence's Green the road is crossed by another, leading to Rumburgh, westwardly, which westward road is called St. Margaret's Street; and eastwardly, avoiding all brooks in a truly British fashion, coming out on the piece of corduroy road,' described by Mr. Edwards in his pamphlet dealing with the question whether the Waveney ever reached the sea at Lowestoft. The name of Stone Street belongs to the road, even after passing the Triple Plea, when it turns towards the right for Halesworth. The farm called Harley Archer's lies on the left after this turn. Part of it is described in the titledeeds as abutting upon the Queen's Highway and turnpike road leading from Halesworth aforesaid to Bungay, formerly called Stone Street, or the broadway, towards the south.' Broadway Farm is on the right of the road. On the other side the road turns eastward for Holton, but the name of Stone Street no longer belongs to it, a piece of copyhold land hard by being described in the court books of the manor of Dame Margaries, in Halesworth, as situate in Holton, and 'abutting upon the common way, leading from Holton towards Stone Street.'

This, however, may have been part of Iter IX. leading down to Holton, and so by the present road, nearly parallel to the river, to Blythford. Or it may be that the road worked more easterly from the Triple Plea, by the village of Wangford-not to be confounded with Wainford. Here the names of 'Streetwalk Corner,' 'One Mile Field,' and 'King's Lane' are noticeable.

At Blythford the circumstances of crossing are most favourable. I am convinced that I thought too well of Blythburgh. For the rest of the way there would be an easy course over the heaths to Dunwich.

It appears to me that great efforts were made to deal effectively with the worst parts of the road.

Sticking in the mud time after time, between Holton and Ilketshall St. John's, and attacked by parties of

plunderers when in these straits, the great necessity was to get clear of this middle section of the stage. Hence not only was this grand Stone Street laid down, but little redoubts were thrown up at some distance from the route, not as summer camps, but rather to be occupied occasionally, when some baggage train was to pass to or from Norwich. Such was Rumburgh, a highly suggestive name. There seem to have been earthworks here, but I am not bold enough to discriminate between them and the foundations of the house of the Augustinian canons. Such was Mells, a little scarped position guarding a ford just above Blythford. Such was the little square rampart in which stands that venerable building known as the Old Minster, while Alburgh,1 the great mounds at Bungay, and others of British origin, may have been turned to useful account. I have a first-brass Clodius Albinus dug up in Mr. Lait's garden at the back of the hills,' at Bungay, and a good Vespasian with incuse reverse, found near that town, is in the possession of Mr. R. Walesby.

Passing out of the first stage, we must not linger on the ruins of Dunwich, where, though the sea has destroyed the old town, Roman coins, pins, etc., are found in abundance, but pursue our journey over the little Minsmere stream at Fordley, probably by Kelsale and Saxmundham, to Stratford St. Andrew, where the name reassures us. Once more probability has to be our guide, as to the road originally passing close to Glemham Hall, and being turned northward for the improvement of that park. We leave Wickham Market on the left, and are on what looks like a British track straightened out, with Charsfield on the right and Debach on the left, till we strike into the valley of one of the Deben feeders just above Clopton, which seems to be the Com, or hollow, pointed out by Combretonium. On the east side of this little ravine stand within a very short distance of each other the churches of Clopton and Burgh; the former just to the north of a square camp, and the latter within 1 1 Just over the Norfolk border.

it. Burgh churchyard is well scarped to the south and west, and at about 200 yards to the south the remains of a trench, now filled in, may be clearly seen. This, at a point east-south-east of the church, turns northward, and then between the two churches westward till it meets the scarp. The name Castle Field is still preserved, and the late Major Rouse of Woodbridge could remember the ruined walls. Here, a few years ago, a gold Roman bracelet was found, and at the further end of Clopton, in 1883, a boy named John Gardiner found a gold Roman coin, which he sold to a watchmaker in Woodbridge. Fictile remains are found strewn on the ground, and Burgh tower contains much suspicious brick. Certainly no outward sign of a Roman station is wanting in this place, and the measurements suit Combretonium.

name.

Returning to the point where we first struck into this valley, we follow a road which leaves Otley Church on the right and Swilland on the left. This will bring us to Henley and Barham, near to the Orwell Valley, and by some ford we cross the stream, and find ourselves on Route V., by which we reach the next station, Ad Ansam, or Stratford St. Mary. There are three interpretations of this peculiar Ansa in classical Latin means a handle or clamp, and the roads and paths which meet here, then the lowest fordable point of the Stour, may have been regarded as gathered up in a handle. But ansaria is a low-Latin word for market produce, and the existence of Chipping Hill, or Market Hill, in Stratford parish, suggests to Mr. Coote that a British market gives the name to the station.1 The French derivation from ansa, anse, means, among other things, a creek, which suits well with the situation.

This is the second Stratford, or paved ford, on Route IX., the first being Stratford St. Andrew, already mentioned. The well-known Stratford atte Bowe' is a third; and though it lies far beyond our limits, I will not leave the conjoined Routes V. and IX. without quoting what Defoe said in 1722:

1 Coote's 'Romans of Britain,' p. 355, etc.

'There seems to be lately found out in the bottom of the Marshes (generally called Hackney Marsh, and beginning near about the place now called the Wick, between Old Ford and the said Wick), the remains of a great stone causeway, which, as it is supposed, was the highway, or great road from London into Essex, and the same which goes now over the great bridge between Bow and Stratford.

'That the great road lay this way, and that the great causeway landed again just over the river, where now the Temple Mills stand, and passed by Sir Thomas Hickes's house at Ruckolls, all this is not doubted; and that it was one of those famous highways made by the Romans there is undoubted proof, by the several marks of Roman work, and by Roman coins and other antiquities found there, some of which are said to be deposited in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Strype, vicar of the parish of Low Leyton."1

The Ravenna cosmographer of the seventh century, -himself, apparently, an indifferent copier, or possessed of imperfect information—has not been happy in his transcribers. We have in him this sequence, puzzling enough :

LONDINIVM AVGVSTA

CÆSAROMAGUM

CAMVLODVLO COLONIA

DVRCINATE

DVROVIGVTO

DVROBRISIN

VENTA CENONIVM.

The suggestion is that the fourth, fifth, and sixth names have been inserted from another route, perhaps Route III. of Antonine, representing DUBRIS, DVROVERNO, DVROCOBRIVIS (Dover, Canterbury, Rochester) respectively. Whatever may be the reading of the riddle, it will add nothing to our knowledge of Roman East Anglia.

The last document which tells us of the Roman occupation is the survey entitled Notitia Imperii, made shortly 1 'Tour through the Eastern Counties' (Cassells), p. 17.