REMAINS OF ROMAN VILLA ON THE HEATH, WALTON ON THE HILL, SURREY.

The dark tints indicate the recent trenches from which foundations have been removed, the lighter ones more remote excavations.

Scale.-12 ft. to the Inch.

Surrey Collections.

I.

ROMAN PAVEMENT, ETC. UPON WALTON

HEATH.

BY W. W. POCOCK, Esq., B.A., F.R.I.B. A.

READ AT A GENERAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY, HELD AT LAMBETH PALACE, 31ST OCTOBER, 1856.

ANYTHING relating to the Romans, those great masters of the ancient world, must be interesting, on their account, even if comparatively trivial in itself. Their history, like that of other nations, is too much a page of wars and murders, to afford any general insight into their every-day, in-door life and habits, the scenes so dear to every English heart; and yet so deeply have these imperial republicans stamped their impress upon the whole region of mind throughout Europe, that no investigation seems traced to the fountain-head, that does not extend back at least as far as the period of the Cæsars.

If this absorbing interest attaches to everything Roman throughout the world, how much more when the object of our research relates to our own beloved isle! We do not deny that these foreigners were the conquerors of our land; we are flattered by their

admission that it was "reduced to obedience only, and not to servitude." We rather boast the length and obstinacy of the struggle our hardy forefathers maintained against the science and discipline of the legions; for though we have but a one-sided testimony from contemporary history, and that, scanty at the best, penned by those least inclined to do justice to the subjugated, we cannot but admit the superiority of the invaders in point of science and of art. Gladly, therefore, do we hail every discovery that withdraws, however partially, the thick veil in which the Anglo-Roman period of our history is enveloped.

It is in this spirit, that I invite attention to the discoveries lately made on Walton Heath, which though, so far as I know, some of the most considerable yet brought to light in the county of Surrey, have not produced, hitherto, anything like the splendid works of Bignor, in Sussex, or Woodchester and Cirencester, in Gloucestershire.

Walton Heath is part of the high ground forming the southern rim of the chalk basin of London, and of which Banstead and Epsom Downs are parts adjacent. It lies in the crow's flight from London to Chichester, and in a direct line with Farley Heath, where lately, such numerous Roman remains have come to light. It is also in the direct line from Sandwich or Richborough, the Ritupiæ, and head-quarters of the Roman fleet, to Kingston or Walton on Thames, where, it seems, Cæsar first crossed the river, and in which vicinity, it appears, the Romans built their first bridge across that stream. The Roman street from London to Chichester must have passed at no great distance, if not across, the heath; and not far from here, must be the most hopeful search for the long-lost Noviomagus of Antoninus.

This Roman station, which has been looked for in Dartford, Croydon, Guildford, and perhaps a score more places, is described in the "Itinerary of Antoninus," compiled probably in the reign of Hadrian, or about A.D. 120, as situated on one of the roads from London to Canterbury, passing, not through Rochester, but through Vagniacæ, probably Maidstone. Ptolemy, the geographer of about the same date, calls it the capital of the Regni, who inhabited Surrey and Sussex, in which he is also supported by Richard the Monk of Cirencester, who, in the fourteenth century, professed to compile an itinerary of Roman Britain from an ancient Roman MS., and is generally considered a good authority. Chichester, probably the Regnum of Antonine, was, in the time of this emperor, reached from London through Winchester and Clausentum, or Southampton. But at a later date, the road from Chichester ran by Bignor and Pulborough, in Sussex, to Oakwood, in Surrey; thence by Ockley and Anstie Bury Camp to Dorking; and for a considerable portion of this distance, it still remains under the name of Stane Street. From Dorking it ran towards London, through Croydon or Wallington, either over Mickleham Down or Walton Heath, the road across which, still in use, has much of a Roman aspect, and in so doing it probably joined the road to Maidstone at Noviomagus.

There seems good reason for supposing, that the whole of the country from Maidstone to Salisbury, was one unbroken forest, almost impervious to the Roman legions, the densest part being about the wild of Surrey. This Mr. Long supposes to have been the reason for the road to Chichester going round by Reading and Winchester, the wood in that direction being less thick. This south-east portion of the island was the part