! Throsby took a drawing in March, 1791, tying his little horse under it: and on the 8th of April the ponderous mass fell. He quaintly, but appropriately, moralizes on the consequences of a pebble stone falling on the extremity of the projecting part while he was under it; he would have been "the fly"-the stone the "wagon wheel." The base of this stone, which is still standing, is about six feet square. Upon this rested "another stone, quite separate, so that you saw between them; and the top hung so much as to have the appearance of falling off."* This description gives good grounds for the conjecture that it had, at a remote period, been a Rocking Stone; and an examination of the area on which it stood, and of the lower part of the mighty mass itself, will strongly incline an attentive observer to that opinion. † Nearer to Woodhouse Eaves, at the other end of the romantic range of rocks called the Hanging Stones, is a kind of rude stone table, about five yards long and two wide. There are strong reasons for believing it was placed there by art, as it lies horizontally and on a different level from the surrounding masses, and its supporters seem to have been artificially placed. This may have been a sacrificial altar. "The Arch Druid, who, it may be, standing there, Dyed it with human immolations, calling On the grey ghosts, the riders of the clouds Or moon-or to the lightnings of the night Or war-god, deaf as winds that whistled by them- A curious circle of stones may be found on the hill above this altar. But to return to the Oaks Hanging Stone.-A spot which is about the centre of a triangle formed by that stone, Kite Hill and the Tin Meadows, was, according to the information of an old Forest Keeper of Lord Hastings', always called "the Grove" before the inclosure. It may, in early times, have been a grove to some temple, or to the Hanging Stone Cromlech. The now solitary stone called the HANGMAN'S STONE, between Lubcloud and Ives Head, very like one of a Druidical circle: and it may be that, from the circumstances of the legend long connected with it, it was left standing when its fellows were removed. It resembles, both in its form and dimensions, the stones composing the circle called the Nine Ladies, on Arbor Low, Derbyshire. is On Strawberry Hill, on the estate of Mr. Kirkby Fenton, is a singularly-formed stone seat, apparently excavated out of the solid rock, and rudely but completely canopied. It is very like one on Durwood Tor, Derbyshire, which Mr. Rooke pronounced to be an "Augurial seat." Certainly a fitter spot for the delivery of auguries could scarcely be selected; the space before the chair being a kind of sloping amphitheatre, just adapted to give the Arch Druid the command of the listening crowd. Ivy, which seems almost coeval with the rock, has wreathed its "wild tapestry" all over it; and I felt confident, when the obliging * Throsby. + Adolphus Trollope, in his "Summer in Brittany," describes a very similar stone, called "Les roulers"—near Le Camp d'Artus-which he thinks of fortuitous formation; though the French antiquaries pronounced it the work of the Druids. proprietor of the estate first pointed out this remarkable spot to my notice, that this, and not the Hermitage near Sharpley, as before conjectured, was the place alluded to by Drayton, when he says, speaking of Sharpley rocks— "And in a Dimble near (even as a place divine For contemplation fit), an ivy-ceiled bower, As Nature had therein ordain'd some Sylvan power." It is observed by Weaver, in his "Munimenta Antiqua," and also by other antiquaries, that in the neighbourhood of all Druidical monuments, there are always found Barrows. It is so at Stonehenge, in the Peak, and in Wales. The only earthwork I have discovered on Charnwood, bearing any resemblance to an ancient Barrow, is a circular elevation, about nine yards in diameter and two yards high, situated on Kellam's farm, near Bardon Hill.* But the word Barrow, as a name, occurs with remarkable frequency on the Forest and its borders. Barrow, Barrow Wood, Billa-barrow Hill, One-barrow Hill, Barrow Cloud Hill, &c., will lead any one, however slightly versed in antiquarian lore, to investigate such localities with attention.† One-barrow is still more significant than the simple word; the prefix seems to denote that some one remarkable personage was inhumed there. For myself, when examining a small square inclosure, formed by immense stones on the western summit of that beautiful and wonderful hill, I could not forbear exclaiming— "In yonder grave a Druid lies!" Again-there is an ancient road, supposed to be British, and afterwards used by the Romans, which, crossing the Fosse at Seg's Hill, almost at right angles, and proceeding through Barrow and parts of Quorn and Beaumanor, has been traced to a point between Beacon Hill, Broombriggs, and Alderman's Haw, where all marks of it are lost. A supposition that it led to the salt-mines at Droitwich, seems completely destroyed by the fact that, a line continued in the same bearing would pass through Staffordshire, leaving Droitwich many miles to the south. If, therefore, it was an ancient British road before it was used by the Romans, its apparent termination, near the supposed site of Andratesbery, gives ground for the belief that it was formed for the use of the ancient Britons, when frequenting, as they did three times a year, the great Druidical Festivals.§ On the summit of the Mount of Alderman's Haw (so called in 1588; see Nichols, III, 1092), now called Baldwin Castle, is a rock, scarcely less remarkable in its form than the Oaks * Mr. Jacomb Hood, the highly-respected proprietor of Bardon, inclines to the opinion that the spot was the remains of an ancient Keep: but its low situation renders that supposition improbable. + Nichols suggests that Barrow-upon-Soar may have derived its name from the shape of the hill on which it stands. How would he have accounted for Barrow-upon-Trent, which is on a perfect level? The latter name, however, is satisfactorily accounted for, by the proximity of the Barrows called Swarkstone Lowes. The Rev. T. Leman, in his observations on the Roman Roads and Stations in Leicestershire, unhesitatingly pronounces this road of British formation; Stukeley, however, considered it British. § The Annual Wake, now kept on Nanpantan, but formerly kept on Beacon, the origin of which is lost in obscurity, may be a remnant of one of these festivals. Hanging Stone. Its top is a platform, to all appearance levelled by art: and on this, I conjecture, the great idol Andrate may have stood. This is the amount of the evidence which I have been able to collect in favour of Charnwood having been an abode of the Druids. An able antiquarian, from the same data, would probably have made the case much stronger. THE ROMANS ON CHARNWOOD. If the foregoing evidence in favour of Charnwood having been inhabited by the Druids prove at all satisfactory, the antiquarian reader will be the more disposed to look for traces of the Romans in the neighbourhood. He will have noticed, that wherever the invaders. observed the chief seats of the Celtic priesthood, to those points they particularly applied their energies. In fact, as the routed Britons invariably flew to their groves and temples, for the divine protection which they expected the Druids would insure or procure them, it was a natural consequence that the Romans should try to dislodge them, and locate themselves in their strong-holds. Thus Paulinus, the Roman General, invested by Nero with the command of the army in Britain, observing that Mona (Anglesea) was a seat of the Druids, and a refuge for the defeated Britons, resolved to reduce it. The sight of the venerable Druids assembled round the army, and with uplifted hands invoking the vengeance of their gods, struck such terror into the Romans as almost to induce them to retreat. Encouraged, however, by their General, they at length drove the Britons from the field, and burned the Druids in the fires which the latter had prepared for the immolation of their enemies, and utterly demolished the altars of sacrifice and the sacred groves.* So it may have been on Charnwood; and a circumstance like the one just described may account for so few vestiges of Druidism having escaped Roman violence. Galet places the Roman Vernometum at "Charnley," and the arguments by which he supports his opinion are not devoid of force. He says, he "finds in the name (Vernometum) traces of the word Guern, (British) an alder, as also in Quarendon and in the name of the ancient forest of Cherne:‡ and traces of Roman names in Loughborough, Burghley, and Barrow-but," he adds, "the miles fix the station at Charnley."§ Now there is no place of that name on the Forest, but the word was formerly in general use to designate the whole tract. There is no place on Charnwood to which this passage of Gale's would more dispose an antiquarian to look for a Roman station or encampment than Beacon Hill. Its central *The Coritani, says Richard, of Cirencester (Book I., chap. 6), lived in a tract of country overspread with woods, which, like all woods of Britain, were called Caledonia-(Calyddon means coverts, or thickets). And Florus, the Historian, speaking of Cæsar, says, “Caledonias sequutus in sylvas”—(Book III., chap. 10). See Rose's Historia Technica Anglicana. + Quoted in Gough's Camden, Vol. II., page 212. Cernewoda is the earliest name of Charnwood to be met with; it was so called temp. Henry I. Cernelega is the name for Charley in Domesday Book, and was still so temp. Henry I.-(Nichols, Vol. III., p. 120.) A witness to a Deed of William de Ferrariis is Gilbertus de Boschernia, or Gilbert of Charnwood.-(See Nichols' West Goscote, under Tonge). The early name, noticed in page 6, was, I find, taken from an old legend. § Antoninus places Vernometum twelves miles from Ratæ. and commanding situation, as well as its very name, and its proximity to the ancient road (whether of British or Roman foundation), are reasons that will have weight with the inquiring antiquary. Its signal fires would be observed from no less than six undoubted Roman stations.* Bar Beacon, near Birmingham, would appear to have been one of the "answering fires." Led by Gale's remark, I commenced a strict search for Roman remains on this hill: and discovered, on the south-west and unprotected side, some works which I think I am not mistaken in pronouncing indubitable vestiges of ancient fortification. The camp may have been of Saxon formation-but I incline to the opinion that the remains are "The mouldering lines Where Rome, the mistress of the world, Of yore her eagle wings unfurl'd." From the ancient road already alluded to, we find, just at the point that offers the best ascent up the acclivity, an elevated road, forming an inclined plane. Following this, we arrive at a point that appears to have been the entrance, where the castrametation becomes well defined. Hence a mound runs on the lower or south-western side to a rock which appears to have flanked it: and nearly parallel with this mound, but higher up the hill, is another, terminated also by a rock: forming together two sides of a trapezium. But the form will be better understood by the following rough sketch : * Signal fires are so obvious a mode of transmitting intelligence, that they have been used in all ages. Those of the Greeks are beautifully described in the Agamemnon of Æschylus. The plan is almost a perfect facsimile of a camp at Hunnington, near Ancaster; and it is somewhat singular, that Beacon, Hunnington, and a Roman camp at South Ormsby, are all in the direct line to Salt-fleet, from whence salt was probably brought to the midland districts. A field in Quorn was called Saltgate in 1607,† and Saltby is the name of a village situated very near the point where this road enters Leicestershire. Mr. Langham, of Needless Inn, informs me that he well remembers that, thirty-four years ago, there stood, on the highest point of Beacon, an erection of rude and ancient masonry, about six feet high, of a round form, and having in its centre a cavity about a yard deep and a yard in diameter, the sides of which were very thickly covered with burnt pitch. This, he says, had all the appearance of having been used for holding the beacon fires. ‡ He remembers, too, that at that period, the entrenchments above described were much more visible than they are now. He is the only person with whom I have conversed that seems ever to have noticed them, except Mr. William Lester, of Woodhouse; and they are not mentioned by any writer whatever, unless Gale's remark applied to them. I discovered, by digging, many heaps of nearly perished mortar, mingled with fragments of stone and dark red brick. An examination of the above plan, when laid down, and a comparison of it with some similar ones in Gough's Camden, suggested the idea that the mound and rampart, which appear terminated by the rock on the western side, would probably be found continued in other parts of the hill, not naturally fortified by precipitous rock. Accordingly, on the 8th of March of the present year, I again visited Beacon, and found that my conjecture had been correct. The lines of fortification are continued along the entire circumference of the hill— in several places, indeed, they are double-always so in the most accessible parts. Even after the lapse of nearly two thousand years, and in a situation extremely exposed to the varying action of the elements, the fortifications, in many parts, still retain so much of their original boldness as to be truly astonishing. On the north-east and eastern sides, within the entrenchments, are several square and oblong lines of time-worn stones— apparently the foundations of buildings. It is chiefly opposite these that the trench and rampart are double. It would appear, that if these fortifications were Roman, the part described in the first wood cut was the summer, and this the winter camp. Between the two tops of our Parnassus (for, like that classical hill, Beacon has also two apices), the ruins of the circular Beacon Tower, already alluded to, are still plainly perceptible. It is five yards in diameter. An elevation of a foot above the surface, surrounded by the foundation of a wall, strongly cemented together, is all that can now be traced. I am disposed to consider the tower of considerable antiquity; it may, indeed, be coeval with the fortifications that surround it. The spot on which it stands would, in a Roman Camp, have been the Prætorium. "Salters' Road, adjoining Denton, may * Stukeley MS. (quoted by Gough in his Coritani, p. 251), where he says, + Nichols' West Goscote, page 166. The almost imperishable nature of pitch is shown by the letters on ancient tombs: retaining, after many centuries, all the freshness of newly-melted bitumen. |