Dumnonia was a Keltic kingdom that existed in Britain from the late 4th to the late 8th centuries . It covered the regions of Cornwall, Devon, and parts of Somerset and Dorset. Its name came from the Dumnonii, a tribe that lived in the area before the Roman invasion. Dumnonia was one of the last bastions of Keltic culture and resistance against the Anglo-Saxon expansion. Its rulers claimed descent from King Arthur and maintained ties with Brittany, where many Dumnonian refugees settled. Dumnonia's history is shrouded in legend and mystery, but it remains a fascinating part of Britain's heritage . Dumnonia was a fascinating kingdom that existed in Britain from the 4th to the 9th centuries. It was ruled by the Dumnonii, a Keltic people who resisted the Roman invasion and maintained their independence for centuries. Dumnonia was rich in culture, religion, and trade, evidence of history and mythology .The origins of christianity christmas and the shortest day and the northern european customs ! The landscape has changed since bodecias' time in Britain !

Pytheas of Massalia (Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης; Latin: Pitheas Massiliae; fl. 4th century BC), was a Greek geographer and explorer from the Greek colony of Massalia (modern-day Marseille). He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe in

THE BRITONS
The inhabitants of Britain before and after the Roman Conquest were mainly of Celtic origin but varied in their ways from tribe to tribe.
Those in the South East were the most sophisticated in their social organisation and had kings or magistrates, laws and minted coins; they also had the technical ability to build the vast hill forts like Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, Dorset and their metalwork was very fine. But the people in the hill country to the west and north were still hunters and fishers with a limited pastoral economy. The coming of Romans forced each tribe to determine its attitude towards conquest; some became allies immediately hoping no doubt to score off their neighbours with whom there was often a state of hostility, others chanced their fighting arm and felt the savage impact of a skilled professional killing machine. The Romans were quick to exact revenge for any of their losses by selective slaughter and enslavement.
After their conquest the tribes were reorganised into large units with a degree of local autonomy, but the process of Romanisation i.e. the conversion of British settlements into urban centres was slow and hesitant and may have affected hardly a quarter of the population directly. The hill people in themilitary zones retained their barbarous condition which made them excellent recruits for the army.
Some of the tribal leaders and wealthy families gradually adjusted themselves to Romanised ways and by the middle of the second century were building themselves houses with some architectural
pretensions and installing heating systems with their tessellated and  mosaic pavements, matched by wall and ceiling decorations very similar to the styles popular all over the Empire.
ATTITUDES - Rome to Britain, Britain to Rome , These are difficult to understand and widely misunderstood. In the first century the Roman government was preoccupied by conquest, and this generated a wide and deep hostility to Rome by the Britons, culminating in the great and tragic revolt of AD 60 under Queen Boudica . After this, Rome realised the need for a policy of pacification and integration. The urbanisation of the major settlements only began seriously towards the end of the century, and it was slow to take effect. Britain only became a civilised province with a populace wholly accepting Rome by the mid second century, but this only applies to the Province which was southern Britain, bounded on the north by a line roughly from the Humber to the Severn and excluding what is now
Wales; beyond this were the military holding down barbarian peoples, these were the Britonnes, suitable only for the army and distinct from the people of the Province with their growing wealth and self assurance as citizens of a great Empire. There never had been any idea of national self determination, since the Britons had regarded their loyalties to their tribe as paramount. The idea that they festered under the Roman yoke, only to rejoice when it was severed, is an historical myth. When eventually the Britons were obliged to fend for themselves in the early fifth century, their lack of administration and military experience created serious difficulties and political power eventually passed to barbarian tyrants and the very mercenaries recruited for their protection The Iron Age hill Fort at Maiden Castle . The poor in towns and the countryside remained a depressed class little better off than slaves and certainly not well cared for, but they multiplied under the Pax Romana and the population probably doubled or even trebled over the centuries. The wealthy paid the taxes to help to pay for the army on the frontiers but became disillusioned when the Imperial government began to disintegrate under the great stresses of the late fourth century. Eventually they had to take over the responsibility of government and defence in the fifth century, but internal strife and the heavy cost of a mercenary army led to a rapid decline in Roman standards and ways of life

TOWN PLANS AND THEIR PRINCIPAL BUILDINGS
The coloniae and tribal capitals were all given the typical Roman street grid and, doubtless, technical help was also available in the design and construction of the large public buildings. These would consist of the Forum and the bath house; the Forum was the market place surrounded by a colonnade with the great basilican town hall at one end. This building was designed for town meetings and
law courts and had a suite of administrative offices attached. The bath-houses were large and very complicated buildings with rooms of differing temperature and humidity. An important section was
the exercise hall, which in the warm Mediterranean countries consisted of a great open palaestra, but in Britain had to be enclosed. This was a kind of social centre where the citizens played games,
exercised or just lounged about eating and gossiping. A feature of urban amenity was the provision of a plentiful and wholesome water supply and adequate drainage. Apart from temples and a few
triumphal arches, there were few of the massive splendid buildings one sees in Gaul and elsewhere. The amphitheatres were mainly earthen ramps with timber revett-ments, except at Cirencester; the
theatres at Canterbury and Verulamium were part of a temple complex for religious ritual and ceremonies. The defences with the gates and towers were purely for protection and not municipal grandeur.
See J. Wacher, The Towns of Roman Britain, Batsford 1974.

VILLA
These splendid buildings in the countryside with their mosaic pavements, and elaborate bath houses, have always been of great interest to the public, and there are many visitors to famous examples
massive barbarian migrations at the end of the third century. The farm houses up to this period are fairly modest in size and wealth, but even in its heyday (c. 330), the villa varies greatly in size. The largest at Woodchester in the Stroud Valley, covered about thirty acres and has the largest pavement in Britain, but is visible only at intervals. The history of each villa differs greatly, their wealth being dependent on that of their owners and in the difficult political climate of the mid fourth century this could be drastically curtailed, so some sites , The Theatre of the Temple complex at Verulamium
were dismantled and reduced, but others continued and expanded. There is very little evidence of any destruction by barbarian raids, but in many cases the lands continued to be farmed into the fifth century, although the buildings themselves fell into ruins, since there was no skill or inclination to maintain them. There must be some continuation into Saxon times, but this has yet to be demonstrated by archaeologists and historians; there are, for example, many villas near or under early churches, a connection yet to be satisfactorily explained. The villa at Chedworth
Nicholas Servian SUP, Woodmansterne Ltd
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The Town of Bayeux Battle of Hastings; Harold's death as depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry
THE BRITONS IN WALES AND THE SOUTH-WEST
Following the withdrawal of the Roman administration independent principalities emerged in the west, with war-leaders like Arthur successful for a while in checking the Anglo-Saxon advance westward. Arthur is a shadowy figure (not a king) of the late 5th and early 6th centuries whose exploits were to be greatly elaborated in later medieval verse and prose which tell us little of the real man. The Anglo-Saxon victory of Dyrham in 577 resulted in the separation of Wales from the British south-west; then the events of the early 7th century saw the Welsh cut off from the north by further Anglo-Saxon expansion. The British world of the south west was gradually penetrated by the Anglo-Saxons (but not completely until the 9th century) leading many
Britons to migrate to Armorica - a migration commemorated in the name 'Brittany'. Wales, however, remained independent with its frontier defined by Offa's Dyke. Historical, place-name and archaeological evidence indicate that Irish settlement took place both in north west and in south Wales. But the Welsh language (and Cornish) remains as a descendant of the common British speech of pre Roman Britain.
FORTIFIED SITES IN WALES TO VISIT
At Dinas Powys, near Cardiff, the 6th/7th-century fortified seat of a petty chieftain has been excavated. Evidence for the buildings which stood on the enclosed hill-top was slight, but imported pottery, glass and metalwork were discovered as well as indications that jewellery was being made. Castell Degannwy, in the Irish ogham script (consisting of groups of long and short strokes across a base-line). Such stones are gradually replaced in fashion by slabs with crosses incised or carved in low relief. The final development, from about the 9th century, is elaborately carved cross-slabs and free-standing crosses. All the Welsh stones are collected together in V. E. Nash-Williams, Early Christian Monuments of Wales' (Cardiff, 1950),but the selection plotted on this map is from C. Houlder, 'Wales: an Archaeological Guide' (London,1974).
Groups of stones to visit:
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Brecknock Museum, Brecon; Margam Abbey Museum, Glamorgan; Carmarthen Museum, Swansea on the river Conwy, and Dinas Emrys, in southern Snowdonia, are craggy hill-top sites in use during the early medieval period. Earlier sites were re-occupied like the great hill-fort of Dinorben in N. Wales, the Breiddin in the east, and the coastal fort of Coygan in S. Wales. A small fort set within the pre-Roman hillfort of Garn Boduan, in Gwynedd, may date to this period, as should another of similar size at Carreg-y-llam. Such small forts may be the descendants of the enclosed homesteads of Gwynedd in the Roman period, by way of enclosed hut-groups like that at Pant-y-saer, on Anglesey.
RELIGIOUS MONUMENTS IN WALES
Standing pre-Conquest ecclesiastical buildings are lacking in Wales, although many important early monastic centres existed, such as Bangor and Llandaff. On a lesser scale, the Roman fort of Caer Gybi (nr. Holyhead) had a monastery founded in it by St. Cybi and, also on Anglesey, there was an important early centre at Penmon founded by St. Seiriol (what may be an early cell survives). The earliest visible remains are typically of 12th century, or later date, as with the early ecclesiastical settlement on the tidal island of Burry Holms, off the Gower peninsula. The present church at Llantwit Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan, contains no traces of its monastic predecessor, but there is a group of fine decorated memorial stones to indicate its former importance. It is in fact such incised and carved stones, known generally as early Christian monuments, that constitute the best archaeological Museum'; St. David’s Cathedral, Dyfed; Penmachno church, Gwynedd; Llantwit Major church Glamorgan; Nevern church. Dyfed . Some important individual stones: Llangadwaladr church, Anglesey (to King Cadfan, or Catamanus', who died c.625); Eliseg's Pillar, Clwyd (9th-century memorial commemorating Elise, 8th-century opponent of Offa of Mercia); Carew, Dyfed (exception ally fine late cross).
BRITISH SITES IN SOUTH WEST ENGLAND
1. Fortified sites to visit Chun Castle (Cornwall) is a fine fort of pre-Roman Iron-Age date consisting of two concentric dry stone walls, with compartments in its interior belonging to its 6th-
century re-occupation. Castle Dore (Cornwall) is another re-used Iron-Age fort, but defended by earthen banks and ditches; excavations have revealed the post-holes of major timber buildings in the interior. The site is traditionally associated with 'King Mark' of the Tristan and Isolde story; some support for this is provided by the near by memorial stone to a 5th/6th-
century Tristan. Much greater in size are two re-occupied Iron-Age hill-forts in Somerset: Cadbury Congresbury and Cadbury Castle (South Cadbury). At Cadbury Congresbury, limited excavations have demonstrated at least partial re-use in the 5th and 6th centuries, but at South Cadbury more extensive excavations have revealed complex and interesting history.
2. South Cadbury a The topmost rampart of this early 6th century, with a rubble rampart, reinforced with timbers and with a rough stone facing. This defence is some 1,200 yards in length and encloses about eighteen acres. The south-western of the entrances was excavated and the traces of a massive timber gateway were discovered. Also belonging to this 5th/6th-century re-occupation were timber buildings on the summit of the hill. No trust can be placed on the 16th-century identification of Cadbury Castle with the 'Camelot' of 'King Arthur' of medieval fiction, although its size is without parallel amongst contemporary fortifications and so it must have been the work of some exceptional leader. The next refortification of South Cadbury was by the Anglo-Saxons in the early 11th century, with a masonry wall; the mint of Cadanbyrig was established and building projects put under way, but these plans were soon abandoned.
Further reading: L. Alcock, '"By South Cadbury is that Camelot" . The Excavation of Cadbury Castle 1966-70' (London, 1972).
3. Religious monuments to visit In the south west there are about 40 incised memorial stones, virtually all of which are in Cornwall and Devon with a small group on Lundy.The presence on some of inscriptions in Irish oghams, and the factthat some commemorate men with Irish names, suggests that there was some secondary Irish settlement of East Cornwall West Devon
connected with the 5th-century Irish settlement of S. Wales. Note also the 'Tristan' stone (nr. Fowey, Cornwall) mentioned in connection with Castle Dore.It has often been claimed that

Tintagel (Cornwall) was a major monastic centre. This dramatic headland was certainly occupied in the 5th and 6th centuries, cut off from the mainland by an earthern rampart, but there is no certain proof at present that this was a monastery rather than a secular stronghold. A similar lack of evidence also makes it impossible to be sure which was the use of an excated
evidence for the early Church in Wales. The earliest stones (of 5th- to 7th-century date) are crude memorials with simple epitaphs, some
20
pressive multi-ramparted hill-fort was refortified, in the late 5th orvated settlement of similar date (no remains to be seen) on the top of Glastonbury Tor (Somerset). At Glastonbury Abbey excavation has revealed a rampart (the monastic enclosure) and traces of timber buildings, but nothing that must be earlier in date than the 7th century. Glastonbury Abbey is claimed to be
the site of Arthur's burial, but its discovery in 1191 might be no more than a monkish fake.

for the field inwhich stands Castle Dore was called Carhurles meaning 'Gorlas's fortress'.

It therefore seems that the chieftain could have preceded King Mark of the Tristan saga at this earthwork which is known to have been re-occupied in Gorlas's time having been abandoned during the Roman period. 
Assuming that the traditional link between

the Arthurian and Tristan sagas could be factual and that King Mark DID succeed GORLAS and hold this southern territory by the sixth century,

TIN. COPPER.  was not, as some writers imagine, limited by the western parts of Somersetshire. It is not to be imagined, that they could neglect a corner of our island, productive of a metal so useful in mechanics as tin, and which it yielded in such plenty, as to receive from that circumstance the name.
So great was the intercourse that foreign nations had with the inhabitants bordering on Belerium,
as to give them a greater scavoir vivre, and more extensive hospitality, than was to be found in other parts of the island. They were equally expert in working the mines, and preparing the ore, which
lay in earthy veins within the rocky strata. They melted and purified it, then cast it into rows of cubes, and carried it to let is, the modern Mount St. Michael: from thence it was transported into Gaul; conveyed from the place it was landed at, on horses’ backs, a journey of thirty days, to the mouth of the Rhone, and also to the Massylians, and the town of Narbonne".
Copper.

Did not Caesar and Strabo agree in their account, I should never have believed it possible
that the Britons could have neglected their rich mines of copper, and have been obliged at first to import that metal. Perhaps the ore was less
accessible, and the art of fusion unknown; for islands, from their very situation, must remain

Then again towards the North of Europe , there is evidently a quantity of gold by far larger than in any other land:

as to how it is got , here again I am not able to say for certain , but it is said to be carried off from the griffins by Arimaspians, a one-eyed race of men.But I do not believe this tale either, that nature produces one-eyed men which in all other respects are like other men. However  it would seem that the extremities which bound the rest of the world on every side and enclose it in the midst possess the things which by us are thought to be the most beautiful and the most rare.  This is a point in which all "Devonians” and,indeed ,dwellers in the three western counties of  Somerset , Devon and Cornwall may be especially interested.“ Dumnonia, ” like “ Demetia ” and “ Demetica regio", is a very ancient geographical term and the Dumnonii certainly go back to Roman times and were noted for their sea fairing qualities.

In King Alfred’s time “ Dumnonia” was used by the King’s Biographer, Bishop Asser, and would certainly mean a good deal more than we now mean by the County of Devon which meets Somerset at Countisbury Gate and Exmoor.

But until we are sure of the exact meaning of say, " Dumnonia ” and “ Demetica regio how can we follow King Alfred’s great Danish campaign of 878   Historical problems wait for their real solution upon the proper explanation of geographical terms.

 Many disputes have turned and still turn upon the exact site of Cynuit and Ethandune, two very momentous fights in our island history........There is an Edington Dumnonia !

 Discovery of Great Britain by the Romans.

The mercantile Phoenicians traded to the Scilly islands, the Cassiterides , or land of tin , from the port of Cadiz , four hundred years before Christ. The Romans, for a considerable time, could not discover the place from whence the former procured the precious metal. They attempted to detect the trade, by following the course of a Phoenician vessel; but the master, faithful to the interest of his country, voluntarily run his ship ashore in another place; preferring the loss of all, rather than sillier n. foreign nation to become partakers of so profitable a secret.

The public immediately compensated Iris loss out of its treasury . This did but make the Romans more eager for the discovery; and after many trials they succeeded. Publius Crassus (father of Marcus Crassus the Triumvir) who was praetor, and governed Spain for several years, landed in the Cassiterides, and found the report of their riches verified.

As soon as the Romans made a conquest of the country, they formed in the tin province camps and roads, still visible; and left behind vases, urns, sepulchres, and money, that exhibit daily proofs of their having been a stationary people in those parts” ; and that Dunmonium extended even to the Belerian promontory, or the Land’s-end

TIN COPPER

And was not, as some writers imagine, limited by the western parts of Somersetshire.

It is not to be imagined, that they could neglect a corner of our island, productive of a metal so useful in mechanics as tin, and which it yielded in such plenty, as to receive from that circumstance the name.

So great was the intercourse that foreign nations had with the inhabitants bordering on Belerium, as to give them a greater scavoir vivre, and more extensive hospitality, than was to be found in other parts of the island.

They were equally expert in working the mines, and preparing the ore, which lay in earthy veins within the rocky strata.

They melted and purified it, then cast it into rows of cubes, and carried it to let is, the modern Mount St. Michael: from thence it was transported into Gaul; conveyed from the place it was landed at, on horses’ backs, a journey of thirty days, to the mouth of the Rhone, and also to the Massylians, and the town of Narbonne".

Copper. Did not Caesar and Strabo agree in their account, I should never have believed it possible that the Britons could have neglected their rich mines of copper, and have beenobliged at first to import that metal. Perhaps the ore was less accessible, and the art of fusion unknown; for islands, from their very situation, must remainlonger ignorant of arts than continents; especially ours, which lay far to the west of the origin of all science.

Strabo says, that the Britons imported works of brass; but it is as certain, that they afterwards did themselves fabricate that metal into instruments.

The Celts, a British, instrument, was made in this island.

Numbers have been found in Yorkshire, and Essex", together with cinders, and lumps of melted metal; which evince the place of a forge. The Romans had then founderies of copper in our island; and cast the metal into regular forms.

A mass was found at Caer hen, the antient Conovium, four miles above Conway, which probably was smelted from the ore of the Snowdon hills; where of late years much has been raised.

This mass is in shape of a cake of beeswax; and on the upper part is a deep concave impression, with the words Socio Romae; across these is impressed obliquely, in lesser letters, Natsol.

I cannot explain it, unless Nat. stands for Natio, the people who paid this species of tribute; and sol. for solvit, that being the stamp-master’s mark. These cakes might be bought up hy a merchant resident in Britain, and consigned Socio RomaE, to his partner at Rome.

The weight of this antiquity is forty-two pounds;

ANCIENT ROADS AND TRACKS.

The road system of Constantine is not merely medieval, it is prehistoric. This is not intended to be a criticism of those who have charge of the roads but merely a statement of fact. There are no

roads in the parish worth mentioning that have been made in modern times .We have seen that the principal roads leading northwards from the Helford River are ridgeways. The most westerly is still in use as the main road from Gweek to the Helston-Truro road ( itself a ridgeway ) at Buttres Gate. Beyond that it once continued by Stythians, Bissoe and Baidu till it joined the principal ridgeway running along the watershed from one end of Cornwall to the other. This road brought the tin bearing region of Stythians into communication with the port of Gweek. It enters Constantine parish at a place called Ponstreath or Ponstrays , which is possibly a corruption of Penstrase , i.e., Street-end, the word strase or strad being used for a paved way, a relic of the Roman strata . At Carloggas a fortification adjoined it . At Tolvan it was crossed by the principal track leading across the parish, and the meeting place of the roads was doubtless suggested by the presence of the Tolvan

Quoit2.

The second ridgeway from Gweek runs up to Carwythenack Chase, where an earthwork lies on its left hand3. Then it went straight up over the top of Brill hill, to Trevease, passing the stone cross at the ford, and so out to join the other ridgeway at Buttres Gate. This road is only used in its lower part, but it can be traced through the crofts on Brill hill by a double line of hedges.

Ancient Roads and Tracks 17

The third ancient ridgeway is that coming from the Quay at Merthen Hole, up through the woods, across the old deer park, where it passes through the ditch of the earthworks, so out over the Downs, across the fields to Brill. Then to Trewardreva and over the ford (Ret) which gave name to Retallack. So up the hill along past the site of Maen Rock, skirting Treworvac, across the fields to the “ Dead lane” , where it proves its antiquity by being a part of the parish boundary, then into the Lestraines lane and out to the Turnpike from Helston to Truro at Rame. The “ Dead lane ” is a strip of this ridgeway which has not been used for over a century, and is so called because It is now a cul-de-sac. On either side of it is a tumulus, for barrows, like ancient roads, are found on ridges. It is remarkable that this lane, about three-quarters of a mile in length, is the only piece of road which forms part of the Constantine parish boundary. All the rest of the boundary is formed by creeks, streams, or, for a very small distance, by hedges. At Merthen Hole it is a typical pack-horse track cut out of the rock. Its paving stones remain beneath the fields and make ploughing Impossible.The fourth main ridgeway is the present main road from Penryn, entering the parish near Bossawsack and continuing past High Cross down to the river atCalamansack. There are two principal tracks across the parish from east to west, 2nd as the lower has to traverse six deep valleys, it affords a good example of the precipitous nature of old roads.

This enters the parish from Mawnan at Tregarne Mill, passes the steep hill to Treworval , by what is now a rough lane, continues across the fields to Driff and Treviades, then down past Gwealllin to the creek-head at Polwheveral. This part bore the name Clodgy lane in 1649, a common name in Cornwall, derived, in all zbability, from Clud, a carriage, or perhaps from Clodding, meaning trenched ” or “ embanked5.” At the bottom stood two grist mills, d • Tucking or Fulling Mill. The bridge over the stream was built  as appears from the contract between the parish and Roger Urd, a mason, of Tregoney, entered into the old Vestry Book . It appears to continue on the other side of the river through Tremayne and Henforth ( =Old road ) to St. Martins. ‘, Clodgy lane at Helston. Mr. Henderson later changed his mind, and Came to the conclusion that Clodgy meant a Lazar-house. a copy of this interesting document in the present writer’s Old Cornish Bridges,

CHAPTER IX.
THE MANOR, TITHING & BARTON OF MERTHEN
The Barton of Merthen has belonged to the Vyvyans of
Trelowarren for three hundred years. It occupies a promontory
that runs out into a long tail-like point, known as the Groyne, between
the two principal arms of the Helford River. From the Barton
House, and still more from the ancient earthworks 350 yards north west of it, one obtains a view that commands the mouth of the Haven,
and it is easy to understand why the Lords of Merthen have always
had such extensive rights over the river.
The meaning of the name Merthen is obscure. It has however nothing whatever to do with the place-name Merther implying a Chapel in honour of a martyr. The earliest spelling of the name,
Meredin, suggests that it is called after a Din or fortress, and the remarkable earthworks in the old Deer-park bear this out. These
earthworks (which have been described on p. 13) consist of two
rectangular enclosures, each of about one acre in area, which join each
other at right angles. The site which they occupy is more
commanding than the site of the farm house, and the line of a very
ancient ridgeway (see p. 17) coming from Merthen Quay northwards
passes through the western ditch of one of them.
There are places called Merthen in St. Austell and Buryan.
Both lie on the coast, the former on a long promontory not unlike
the Groyne, though the creek on one side of it has been filled up.
The word Din, a fortress, latinized into Dunum, was used for a
chief’s residence or capital town. Moridunum (i.e. the sea-city) is
named in the Roman Itineraries as a port on the Roman road east
of Exeter and is generally identified with Sidmouth. Merthen, the
Meridin of the 12th century, may well have been another Moridunum,
a fortress embraced by arms of the sea, which afforded a haven
protected from storms and hostile attack.
Although Merthen has been a farm on the Trelowarren estate for
just three centuries, it has usually been occupied by well-to-do tenants
such as members of the Vyvyan family itself, the Tyackes etc. and it
has preserved much of its former dignity. In the Middle Ages,

HISTORY
Polpenrith , alias Polpere , and Polwevorel Creeks , running up towards Constantine Church ; and a mile fartherdown , Chielow , aliasCalmansake Creek , This haven, within a mile of its mouth, is secure enough for ships of 200 ton ; and at its passage into the sea, is abouta mile wide.This River rises in the highest Northern part of Wendron parish , whence, in about five miles, it reaches the borough ofHelston about a mile below which it forms a Lake , called the Lo Pool; the River giving rise to the Lake , and the Lake , as the mostremarkable part of the Water , giving name to the River. Four brooks give rise to this River ; and uniting at Relubbas from a Western Course, turn to the North , and in three miles reach St. Erth , alias St. Ercy Bridge, of three stone Arches, and a raised Gaucey well walledon each side, reaching cross the valley . The Bridge has been built somewhat more than 400 years, before which time there was a ferryhere, and ships of great burden came up to it.  The valley, above bridge, has been much raised by the sands and earth, washed down from the hills and mines ; and the haven below has suffered the same misfortune, from the sands of the Northern lea ; lb that lighters only come within a bow -lh ot oi the bridge ; and that with the tide of fiood, which at fpring tides
flows near a mile above the bridge.

Here the land of Cornwall, is at it’s narroweft dimenfion ; fo that from the full fca mark o f Hcyl on the North Sea, to the full Sea-mark at Marazion in Mount's
Bay on the South Sea, the diftance is but three miles.

From St. Erth the H c y l b ean d ircflly N o rth , fpreading an area of fand, of half a mile wide at a medium , and two miles long, but navigable
only in the chancl of the River, which admits fm all ships a mile inwards from the fca under the village of Lannant.

Nea r it’s mouth the Hcyl is joined by a brook from the Enft, which , under the Parochial Church of Philac, makes a branch of this haven for fhips o f 100 tons.

The Sea has not only alm oft filled this fm all harbour w ith fand, bur form s a bar alio at it's mouth, over which fhips of 80 and 100 ton only can come in at the height of a fpring
tide ; and the bed o f the whole is lo railed, that it admits the tide in it only fix hours in twelve ; fo that whereas, in harbours openn to
the fca, the tide flow s fix hours, and ebbs fix hours : here ’tis
• KilmJiuch, the Monti
other wife ;

in which King Arthur received his mortal wound : thus recorded by the Poet Naturam Cambela fontis Mutatam stupet este fui, transcendit in undas Sanguineus torrens ripas, et ducit in aequor Corpora caesorum ; plures natare videres,  Et petere auxilium quos undis vita reliquit.”

The other, a bloody battle, fought betwixt the Cornish , and the West Saxons of Devonshire , in the year 824 ’, in which many thousands fell on each side, and the victory remained uncertain. Hence, after a run of about 12 miles, it becomes navigable for sand barges at Parbrok ; and at Eglofhel  , receives a plentiful addition to it’s stream, from the River Laine A mile farther down, this River reaches the greatest bridge in this county, called Wadebridge : about the year 1460 there was a ferry here whilst the tide was in, and a very dangerous ford when the tide was retired , which moved the then Vicar of Egloshel, one Mr. Lovebon, with great industry and public spirit, to undertake this bridge ; a great and useful, but tedious work. Besides the expence, fo disproportioned to his circumftances, in the course of the work, there arose fuch difficulties, as might have baffled a more mechanical age than that in which he lived : the ground, for the foundation of some of the piers, proved so swampy, that after repeated efforts another way, they were forced at last to build on wool-packs ; however, it fhould never be forgotten, that by his follicitations, and the liberal contributions of others, but chiefly by his own perfeverance, and the blessings of providence, he lived to accomplish the bridge as it now stands, with seventeen fair and uniform arches, reaching quite cross the valley, to the great safety of travellers, and the credit of his country. Hither come up small barks of 40 and 60 ton, and supply the country with coal from Wales, with flat, which rifes about ten miles off, lime, timber, and groceries from Bristol.A mile farther down the Alan makes two small Creeks on the East, in return for a brook or two which it receives; then keeping to the North-Weft, and supplying two Creeks on the Western bank which run up into St. Illy, and little Petrock pariflies, in a mile more it reaches the ancient town of Petrockstow, alias Padstow, where there is a pier, and some

 In Camden, page 23. and the Elaine, (Hinnulus) in Radnorshire, and

1 See Saxon chronicle. Montgomery Ihife, &c. probably this River Lain,

m That is, the Church on the River. had the name of Elaine from the fwiftnefs of

" Some Rivers among the British, says Lhuyd it’s course. in Baxter’s glossary, page 273, take their names 0 Leland, Vol. II. page 82. ; as the Caru (Cervus) in Shropfhire,

NATURAL HISTORY
Polpenrith, alias Polpere, and Polwevorel Creeks, running up towards Constantine Church ; and a mile fartherdown , Chielow , alias Calmanfake Creek 

This haven, within a mile of it s mouth, is fccurc enough for fhips of 200 ton ; and at its paflage into the lea, is about a mile wide.
This River riles in the higheft Northern part of Wendron parifh , whence, in about five miles, it reaches the borough of IIlfton  about a mile below which it forms a Lake , called the Lo Pool; the River giving rise to the Lake , and the Lake , as the moft remarkable part of the Water, giving name to the River *. Four brooks give rise to this River ; and uniting at Relubbas from a Westerly Course, turn to the North , and in three miles reach St. Erth , alias St. Ercy Bridge, of three ftonc Arches, and a raifed Giulcywell walled on each fide, reaching crossthe valley. The Bridge has been built fom cw hat more than 400 years , beforce which time there was a ferry here, and Ships of great burden came up to it. The valley, above bridge, has been much raised by the sand and earth, washed down from the hills and mines ; and the haven below has fullered the fame misfortune, from the sands of the Northern lea ; so that lighters only come within a bow-lhotoi the bridge ; and that with the tide of fiood, which at spring tides flows near a mile above the bridge.

Here the land of Cornwall, is at it’s narrowest dimension ;so that from the full fca mark of Hcylon the North Sea, to the full Sea-mark at Marazion in Mount's
Bay on the South Sea, the distance is but three miles.

From St. Erth the Heyl bean dircflly North , spreading an area of sand, of half a mile wide at a medium , and two miles long, but navigable only in the chancl of the River, which admits fm all Ships a mile inwards from the fca under the village of Lannant.Near it’s mouth the Hcyl is joined by a brook from the East, which , under the Parochial Church of Philac, makes a branch of this haven for ships o f 100 tons.

The Sea has not only alm oft filled this small harbour withsand, bur forms a bar alio at it's mouth, over which fhips of 80 and 100 ton only can come in at the height of a spring
tide ; and the bed o f the whole is lo railed, that it adm its the tide in it only six hours in twelve ; so that whereas, in harbours open to the sea, the tide flows six hours, and ebbs six hours : 

Roman general Vespasian captures the Dorset hill forts c. Summer AD 44 Roman general Vespasian captures the Dorset hill fortsIn the second phase of the conquest of Britain, Roman general Vespasian (Titus Flavius Vespasianus – a future emperor) led his II Augusta Legion into Dorset. He fought numerous small-scale battles and captured a string of hill forts, including Maiden Castle and Hod Hill. By 48 AD, the Romans had effectively subdued all territory south of a line from the mouth of the Humber river to the Severn Estuary.

 The Ravenna Cosmography identifies a major regional Roman-era settlement  as Nemetostatio in central Dumnonia  identified with North Tawton , Devon , which would translate from Latin as  * The Outpost of the Sacred Grove *

The first section of the Ravenna Cosmography to deal with Britain, covering , is obscure but nevertheless generally recognised as dealing with south-western England . Why it should have been separated out by the Cosmographer is not at all clear. Rivet and Smith (1979, 197) see it as evidence for a special source covering this area in greater detail than the rest of Britain.

This does not seem a necessary hypothesis for reasons to be given. Indeed, the words that introduce the next section, ‘Again, next to the aforementioned civitas Isca Dumnoniorum’ iterum iuxta superscriptam ciuitatem scadumnamorum , strongly hint that the Cosmographer is looking at the same map as he used as a source for this section. We will see many instances of the Cosmographer duplicating names throughout his text, the most startling being *Moridunum* , Sidford, which is repeated no less than four times. However, they are not noticeably more common in this section than in those that follow. Had he employed a special and separate source for the south-west, it is difficult to see how he would have integrated the information he derived from it with that he derived from his main source without making many more such duplications. We would on this hypothesis also expect the following long section which covers the province or diocese of Britannia to contain a few names relating to the south-western peninsula which the Cosmographer had not noticed as duplications: we do not find them. Arguments e silentio are never strong; more telling are the duplications within this section that cannot be the result of taking names from two different sources.  For instance, the name *Antiuesteum* appears twice,  in both cases with virtually the same truncation.This truncation may well have occurred if the first three or four letters of the name were written ‘in the sea’ on the Cosmographer’s postulated map source . The same error of reading is extremely unlikely to have occurred as a result of using two separate source documents.

There are thus no compelling reasons to believe that the Cosmographer was using a separate and fuller source for the south-west of Britain than for the remainder of the island. True enough, the density of names in the peninsula is high, but it is also high in Cumbria  and between the Roman walls . The contrast is not so much with a low density in the remainder of the province, but with specific areas, such as Wales and East Anglia, very poorly represented. This does not solve the problem of why the Cosmographer should have seen Isca Dumnoniorum, Exeter, as a point at which to insert a break in his listing. The Peutinger Table may offer a clue: although Britain is severely truncated, with only East Anglia and Kent appearing on the surviving copy, Moridunum and Isca Dumnoniorum are also shown without any intervening south-coast places. It is possible that Isca Dumnoniorum was depicted as prominent in some way, perhaps isolated on a promontory or, as seems more likely, as the gateway to .

 In this way the Cosmographer might have decided to break his text at a point which appeared dictated by the geography of the region. He does so further north, where his listing of the Antonine Wall forts occurs ‘where that same Britain is seen to be narrowest from sea to sea’ ubi et ipsa britania plus angustissima de oceano in oceanum esse dinoscitur . Although this was not the primary reason for inserting a break at this latter point, the Cosmographer was clearly sensitive to the depicted shape of the island.

On the other hand, we should perhaps take into account the curious fact that the Civitas Dumnoniorum , basically the Cornish peninsula west of Exeter appears to have been a part of Britain virtually unaffected by those changes to élite behaviour usually termed ‘romanisation’. Is it possible that much of it lay outside provincial or diocesan control and that some kind of border was depicted on the Cosmographer’s map source as separating the south-western peninsula from the rest of Britain? In that case, Isca Dumnoniorum may have been prominent as a point of contact between the wilds of the far south-west and the more ‘civilised’ Durotriges (or Durotrages, following RIB 1673: the form of the name is very uncertain according to Rivet & Smith 1979, 352) to the east. Group 1: the Cornish Peninsula V ¶31 in qua britania plurimas fuisse ciuitates et castra legimus ex quibus aliquantas designare uolumus id est:

 Giano Barnstaple  10546

 Eltabo River Taw 10546

 Elconio River Torridge ? 10547

Nemestotatio North Tawton 10547

Tamaris Launceston ? 

 Puro coronauis ? 10548

 Pilais ? 10549

 Vernilis Liskeard ? 10549

 Ardua rauenatone River Dart 10550

 Deuionisso Statio ? 10551

 deuentia steno Buckfastleigh / Totnes ? 10551/10552

 Duriarno Plymouth  10552

 Vxelis Barnstaple ? 1061

 Verteuia Land’s End 1061 = 1069

This group appears to take us on a general perambulation of the Cornish Peninsula and adjacent area

 * Taua, the second name, is clearly the River Taw .

 *Nemetostatio is probably the fort at North Tawton, which is in an area where a group of modern names containing the elements Nymet and Nemet are found .

 The identification of *Conio* with Ptolemy’s  must therefore be questioned as the general progression seems to be from north-east to southwest.

 It may refer the River Torridge, although this is a Celtic name, derived from a Brittonic *Torric-, ‘violent, rough’.

 *Glano* should therefore be somewhere in north Devon, perhaps in the vicinity of Barnstaple.

 Tamaris, this a site on the River Tamar , perhaps at the crossing at Launceston , not the river itself , as the name recurs in the list of river-names . *Durocornouio* and *Pilais*

Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography: a reassessment K J Fitzpatrick-Matthews cannot now be identified. Charles Thomas (1966a, 87) originally identified the former with The Rumps, a pre-Roman defended enclosure.

 More recently, he suggested that it might be Tintagel, the site of an important sub-Roman trading settlement, although its Romano-British status is not clear . *Vernilis* may be the , perhaps near Liskeard ; the correct RomanoBritish form may have been *Verleua.

The Cosmographer’s form would have arisen by way of a transposition of -l- and -u-, the latter being miscopied as -n-. The next name must be for * Deruentione, the River Dart, so the Cosmographer’s eye may have moved from travelling along the spine of Cornwall, following the poorly known road along the centre of the peninsula, and he has possibly now turned his attention to the road south from Exeter, closer to the south Devon coast. Deuionisso Statio and *Deruentio Statio (which are wrongly divided in the text) are probably unlocated Roman government establishments, perhaps tax offices. The latter may have lain in the Dart valley (Dart being Brittonic *Deruentiu: Ekwall 1928, 114), perhaps at Buckfastleigh or Totnes, and the former perhaps near Newton Abbot or elsewhere on the River Teign. The next name, Duriarno, is probably not the same as Durnouaria (Dorchester), as suggested by Rivet & Smith (1979, 345) following Horsley (1732, 490), since it is probably not corrupt (compare the Arnodurum quoted by Williams (Richmond & Crawford 1949, 32), which shows the more usual ‘continental’ ordering of elements). Instead, it may be the name of a site in the vicinity of Plymouth where the inhumation cemetery at Mount Batten and a sequence of coins attest a settlement of some importance (Thomas 1966a, 86). Uxelis is too far west to be the same as Ptolemy’s Οὔξελλα (II.3, 13), which must be on the River Parrett, his Οὐεξάλλα εἴσχυσις (II.3,2), and may be a site or river in Cornwall, perhaps the Fowey or the Fal, unless it is an example of a name written to the west of its symbol on the map source. If this is the case, then it may have been near Barnstaple (Strang 1997, 30). Group 2: the south Devon and Cornish coast  Melamoni Sidford ? 1062 = 1064/1069/10613 Scadumnamorum Exeter , Termonin    Mesteuia - Land’s End

The mention of Moridunum, Sidford , for the first time indicates a change of direction, and there are now hints of an ordering of names with a general progression from east to west. The -l- for -r- in Moridunum is also found in the next section; it may be that the name was very difficult to read in the Cosmographer’s source. It is unlikely to have occurred as a result of misreading two separate documents, further evidence for the essential unity of the Cosmographer’s sources. The unlocated *Terminum would have been somewhere between Exeter and Land’s End, an admittedly imprecise location. The River Gowy in Cheshire was formerly known as the aqua de Tervin (‘water of Tarvin’) in 1209, the name deriving from the Latin terminus, ‘boundary’, via Welsh Terfyn (Dodgson 1970, 26), which has been retained by a large parish and village. Although the origin of the latter name is generally sought in the post-Roman politics of the region (Bu’Lock 1972, 24), it is probable that the River Gowy was the eastern boundary of the prata legionis of the fortress at Chester. Could a similar origin be suggested for this name, at the western boundary of the prata legionis of the early fortress at Exeter or the territorium of the later capital of the CivitasDumnoniorum?

 Somerset  Milidunum Sidford 

Apaunaris Bath 

 Masona Camerton? 1065

 Alouergium Shepton Mallett 1065

The Cosmographer returns to Moridunum, with the same peculiar -l- for -r- as in the previous group, and a similarly logical ordering of names this time jumping north-eastward and then working back to the starting-point identify Apaunaris with Aquae Sulis, Bath, perhaps correctly, so the two remaining names may relate to sites between Bath and Sidford.

<Masona> suggests a name derived from that of a river, although which cannot now be ascertained; it perhaps refers to the small town at Camerton. The name is corrupt. *Alobergium should be in a hilly location, probably near the Mendip Hills at Shepton Mallett, where parts of a Romano-British small town have recently been identified.

Monday 7 May 2018

"PHŒNICIANS IN DART VALE.

BELSTONE

Derivation of the name—Phœnicians—Taw Marsh—Artillery practice on the moors—Encroachments—The East Okement—Pounds and hut circles—Stone rows on Cosdon—Cranmere Pool—Sticklepath—Christian inscribed stones—South Zeal—West Wyke—North Wyke—The wicked Richard Weekes—South Tawton church—The West Okement—Yes Tor—Camp and Roman road—Throwleigh.

AGOOD deal of pseudo-antiquarianism has been expressed relative to the name of a little moorland parish two and a half miles uphill from Okehampton. It is now called Belstone, and it has been surmised that here stood a stone dedicated to Baal, whose worship had been introduced by the Phœnicians.

I must really quote one of the finest specimens of "exquisite fooling" I have ever come across. It appeared as a sub-article in theWestern Morning Newsin 1890.

It was headed: —

"PHŒNICIANS IN DART VALE.

[SPECIAL.]

"Much interest, not only local but world-wide, was aroused a few months back by the announcement of a Phœnician survival at Ipplepen, in the person of Mr. Thomas Ballhatchet, descendant of the priest of the SunTemple there, and until lately owner of the plot of land called Baalford, under Baal Tor, a priestly patrimony, which had come down to him through some eighteen or twenty centuries, together with his name and his marked Levantine features and characteristics.

"Such survivals are not infrequent among Orientals, as, for instance, the Cohens, Aaron's family, the Bengal Brahmins, the Rechabites, etc. Ballhatchet's sole peculiarity is his holding on to the land, in which, however, he is kept in countenance in England by the Purkises, who drew the body of Rufus to its grave in Winchester Cathedral on 2nd August, 1100.

"Further quiet research makes it clear beyond all manner of doubt that the Phœnician tin colony, domiciled at Totnes, and whose Sun Temple was located on their eastern sky-line at Ipplepen, have left extensive traces of their presence all the way down the Dart in the identical andunaltered names of places, a test of which the Palestine Exploration Committee record the priceless value. To give but one instance. The beautiful light-refracting diadem which makes Belliver the most striking of all her sister tors, received from the Semite its consecration as 'Baallivyah,' Baal, crown of beauty or glory. The word itself occurs in Proverbs i. 9 and iv. 9, and as both Septuagint and Vulgate so render it, it must have borne that meaning in the third century B C., and in the third century A.D., and, of course, in the interval. There are many other instances quite as close, and any student of the new and fascinating science of Assyriology will continually add to them. A portrait of Ballhatchet, with some notes by an eminent and well-known Semitic scholar, may probably appear in theGraphic; in the meantime it may be pointed out that hisname is typically Babylonian. Not only is there at Pantellaria the gravestone of one Baal-yachi (Baal's beloved), but no less than three clay tablets from the Sun Temple of Sippara (the Bible Sepharvaim) bear the names of Baal-achi-iddin, Baal-achi-utsur, and Baal-achi-irriba. This last, which bears date 22 Sivan (in the eleventh year of Nabonidus, B.C. 540), just two years before the catastrophe which followed on Belshazzar's feast, is in the possession of Mr. W. G. Thorpe,F.S.A.It is in beautiful condition, and records a loan by one Dinkiva to Baal-achi-irriba (Baal will protect his brother), on the security of some slaves."

One really wonders in reading such nonsense as this whether modern education is worth much, when a man could write such trash and an editor could admit it into his paper.

Ballhatchet means the hatchet or gate to a ball,i.e. a mine.

As it happens, there is not a particle of trustworthy evidence that the Phœnicians ever traded directly with Cornwall and Devon. The intermediary traders were theVenetiof what is now Vannes, and the tin trade was carried throughGaultoMarseilles, as is shown by traces left on the old trade route. In the next place, there is no evidence that our British orIvernianancestors ever heard the name of Baal. And finally,Belstoneis not named after a stone at all, to return to the point whence we started. InDomesdayit is Bellestham, or theham, meadow of Belles or Bioll, a Saxon name that remains among us as Beale.

Belstone is situated at the lip of Taw Marsh, once a fine lake, with Steeperton Tor rising above it atthe head. Partly because the river has fretted a way through the joints of the granite, forming Belstone Cleave, and partly on account of the silting up of the lake-bed with rubble brought down by the several streams that here unite, the lake-bed is now filled up with sand and gravel and swamp.

The military authorities coveted this tract for artillery practice. They set up butts, but woman intervened. A very determined lady marched up to them, although the warning red flags fluttered, and planted herself in front of a target, took out of her reticule a packet of ham sandwiches and a flask of cold tea, and declared her intention of spending the day there. In vain did the military protest, entreat, remonstrate; she proceeded to nibble at her sandwiches and defied them to fire.

She carried the day.

Since then Taw Marsh has been the playfield of many children, and has been rambled over by visitors, but the artillery have abstained from practising on it.

The fact is that the military have made the moors aboutOkehamptonimpossible for the visitor, and those who desire to rove over it in pursuit of health have been driven from Okehampton to Belstone, and object to be moved on further.

What with the camp at Okehampton and the prisons atPrincetownand encroachments on every side, the amount of moorland left open to the rambler is greatly curtailed.

The privation is not only felt by the visitor but also by the farmer, who has a right to send outhis sheep and cattle upon the moor in summer, and in times of drought looks to this upland as his salvation.

A comparison between what the Forest of Dartmoor was at the beginning of this century and its condition to-day shows how inclosures have crept on—nay, not crept, increased by leaps; and what is true of the forest is true also of the commons that surround it. Add to the inclosed land the large tract swept by the guns at Okehampton, and the case becomes more grave still. The public have been robbed of their rights wholesale. Not a word can now be raised against the military. TheTransvaal Warhas brought home to us the need we have to become expert marksmen, and theForest of Dartmoorseems to offer itself for the purpose of a practising-ground. Nevertheless, one accepts the situation with a sigh.

There is a charming excursion up theEast Okementfrom the railway bridge to Cullever Steps, passing on the way a little fall of the river, not remarkable for height but for picturesqueness. There is no path, and the excursion demands exertion.

On Belstone Common is a stone circle and near it a fallen menhir. The circle is merely one of stones that formed a hut, which had upright slabs lining it within as well as girdling without.

Under Belstone Tor, among the "old men's workings" by the Taw, an experienced eye will detect ablowing-house, but it is much dilapidated.

TheTawand an affluent pour down from the central bog, one on each side of Steeperton Tor,and from the east the small brook dances into Taw Marsh. Beside the latter, on the slopes, are numerouspoundsandhut circles, and near its source is astone circle, of which the best uprights have been carried off for gateposts. South of it is amenhir, the Whitmoor Stone, leaning, as the ground about it is marshy. Cosdon, or, as it is incorrectly called occasionally, Cawsand, is a huge rounded hill ascending to 1,785 feet, crowned with dilapidatedcairnsand ruinedkistvaens. East of the summit, near the turf track from South Zeal, is a cairn that contained three kistvaens. One is perfect, one wrecked, and of the third only the space remained and indications whence the slabs had been torn. From these three kistvaens in one mound start three stone rows that are broken through by the track, but can be traced beyond it for some way; they have been robbed, as the householders of South Zeal have been of late freely inclosing large tracts of their common, and have taken the stones for the construction of walls about their fields.

By ascending the Taw, Cranmere Pool may be reached, but is only so far worth the visit that the walk to and from it gives a good insight into the nature of the central bogs. The pool is hardly more than a puddle. Belstone church is not interesting; it was rebuilt, all but the tower, in 1881. Under Cosdon nestles Sticklepath. "Stickle" is the Devonshire for steep. Here is a holy well near an inscribed stone. A second inscribed stone is by the roadside to Okehampton. At Belstone are two more, but none of these bear names. They areChristian monuments of the sixth, or at latest seventh, century. At Sticklepath was a curious old cob thatched chapel, but this has been unnecessarily destroyed, and a modern erection of no interest or

Inscribed Stone, Sticklepath

beauty has taken its place. South Zeal is an interesting little village, through which ran the old high-road, but which is now left on one side. For long it was a treasury of interesting old houses; many have disappeared recently, but the "Oxenham Arms," the seat of the Burgoyne family, remains, the fine old village cross, and the chapel, of granite.Above South Zeal, on West Wyke Moor, is the house that belonged to the Battishill family, with a ruined cross near it. The house has been much spoiled of late; the stone mullions have been removed from the hall window, but the ancient gateway, surmounted by the Battishill arms, and with the date 1656, remains untouched. It is curious, because one would hardly have expected a country gentleman to have erected an embattled gateway during the Commonwealth, and in the style of the early Tudor kings. In the hall window are the arms of Battishill, impaled with a coat that cannot be determined as belonging to any known family. In the same parish of South Tawton is another old house, North Wyke, that belonged to the Wyke or Weekes family. The ancient gatehouse and chapel are interesting; they belong, in my opinion, to the sixteenth century, and to the latter part of the same. The chapel has a corbel, the arms of Wykes and Gifford; and John Wyke of North Wyke, who was buried in 1591, married the daughter of Sir Roger Gifford. The gateway can hardly be earlier. The house was built by the same man, but underwent great alteration in the fashion introduced from France by Charles II., when the rooms were raised and the windows altered intocroisées.

Touching this house a tale is told.

About the year 1660 there was a John Weekes of North Wyke, who was a bachelor, and lived in the old mansion along with his sister Katherine, who was unmarried, and his mother. He was a manof weak intellect, and was consumptive. John came of age in 1658. In the event of his death without will his heir would be his uncle John, his father's brother, who died in 1680. This latter John had a son Roger.

Now it happened that there was a great scamp of the name of Richard Weekes, born at Hatherleigh, son of Francis Weekes of Honeychurch, possibly a remote connection, but not demonstrably so.

He was a gentleman pensioner of Charles II., but spent most of his leisure time in the Fleet Prison. One day this rascal came down from London, it is probable at the suggestion of consumptive John's mother and sister, who could not be sure what he, with his feeble mind, might do with the estate.

Richard ingratiated himself into the favour of John, and urged him not to risk his health in so bleak and exposed a spot as South Tawton, but to seek a warmer climate, and he invited him to Plymouth. The unsuspicious John assented.

When John was cajoled to Plymouth, Richard surrounded him with creatures of his own, a doctor and two lawyers, who, with Richard's assistance, coaxed, bullied, and persuaded the sickly John into making a deed of settlement of all his estate in favour of Richard. The unhappy man did this, but with a curious proviso enabling him to revoke his act by word as well as by deed. Richard had now completely outwitted John's mother and sister, who had been conspirators with him, on the understanding that they were to share the spoils.

After a while, when it was clear that John was

North Wyke Gate House

dying, Richard hurried him back to North Wyke, where he expired on Saturday, September 2ist,

1661, but not till he had been induced by his mother and sister to revoke his will verbally, for they had now learned how that the wily Richard had got the better of them.

Next day, Sunday, Richard Weekes arrived, booted and spurred, at the head of a party of men he had collected. With sword drawn he burst into the house, and when Katherine Weekes attempted to bar the way he knocked her down. Then he drove the widow mother into a closet and locked the door on her. He now cleared the house of the servants, and proceeded to take possession of all the documents and valuables that the mansion contained. Poor John's body lay upstairs: no regard was paid to that, and, saying "I am come to do the devil's work and my own," he drove Katherine out of the house, and she was constrained to take refuge for the night in a neighbouring farm. The widow, Mary Weekes, was then liberated and also turned out of doors.

The heir-at-law was the uncle John, against whom Mary and Katherine Weekes had conspired with the scoundrel Richard. This latter now sought Uncle John, made him drunk, and got him to sign a deed, when tipsy, conveying all his rights to the said Richard for the sum of fifty pounds paid down. Richard was now in possession. The widow thereupon brought an action in Chancery against Richard. The lawyers saw the opportunity. Here was a noble estate that might be sucked dry, and they descended on it with this end in view.

The lawsuit was protracted for forty years, from 1661 to 1701, when the heirs of the wicked Richard retained the property, but it had been so exhausted and burdened, that the suit was abandoned undecided. Richard Weekes died in 1670.

The plan resorted to in order to keep possession after the forcible entry was this. The son of Richard Weekes had married a Northmore of Well, in South Tawton, and the Northmores bought up all the debts on the estate and got possession of the mortgages, and worked them persistently and successfully against the rightful claimants till, worried and wearied out, and with empty purses, they were unable further to pursue the claim. In 1713 the estate was sold by John Weekes, the grandson of Richard, who had also married a Northmore, and North Wyke passed away from the family after having been in its possession since the reign of Henry III.

It was broken up into two farms, and the house divided into two. Recently it has, however, been repurchased by a descendant of the original possessors, in a female line, the Rev. W. Wykes Finch, and the house is being restored in excellent taste.

In South Tawton church is a fine monument of the common ancestor, John Wyke, 1591. The church has been renovated, monumental slabs sawn in half and used to line the drain round the church externally. With the exception of the sun-dial, bearing the motto from Juvenal, "Obrepet non intellecta senectus"and a Burgoyne monument and that of "Warrior Wyke," the church does not present muchof interest at present, whatever it may have done before it fell into the hands of spoilers.

The West Okement comes down from the central bogs through a fine "Valley of Rocks," dividing and forming an islet overgrown with wild rose and whortleberry. Above it stands Shilstone Tor, telling by its name that on it at one time stood a cromlech, which has been destroyed. This valley furnishes many studies for the artist.

Hence Yes Tor may be ascended, for long held to be the highest elevation on Dartmoor. The highest peak it is, rising to 2,030 feet, but it is over-topped by the rounded High Willhayes, 2,039 feet. Between Yes Tor and Mill Tor is a rather nasty bog. Mill Tor consists of a peculiar granite; the feldspar is so pure that speculators have been induced to attempt to make soda-water bottles out of it, by fusing without the adjunct of other materials.

On the extreme edge of a ridge above the East Okement, opposite Belstone Tor, is a camp, much injured by the plough. Apparently from it leads a paved raised causeway or road, presumed to be Roman; but why such a road should have been made from a precipitous headland above the Okement, and whither it led, are shrouded in mystery. Near this road, in 1897, was found a hoard of the smallest Roman coins, probably the store of some beggar, which he concealed under a rock, and died without being able to recover it. All pertained to the years between A.D. 320 and 330.

Of Okehampton I will say nothing here, as the place has had a chapter devoted to it in myBook ofthe West—too much space, some might say, for in itself it is devoid of interest. Its charm is in the scenery round, and its great attraction during the summer is the artillery camp on the down above Okehampton Park. On the other side of Belstone, Throwleigh may be visited, where there are numerous prehistoric relics. There were many others, but they have been destroyed, amongst others a fine inclosure like Grimspound, but more perfect, as the inclosing wall was not ruinous throughout, and the stones were laid in courses. The pulpit of Throwleigh church is made up of old bench-ends.

No doubt there were all along tares mingled with the wheat.

The Church of the first three centuries was never, except perhaps on the day of Pentecost, in an absolutely ideal condition. But yet during the ages of persecution, the Church as a whole was visibly an unworldly institution . It was a spiritual empire in recognized antagonism with the world-empire.But from the time of the conversion of Constantine, a .d . 312, and still more completely from the time of Theodosius the Great, a d 379 , the Church and . the world seemed, in some respects at any rate, to have made terms with each other.The world, without ceasing to be the world, was no longer outside, but had been admitted within the sacred enclosure.And that Roman world of the fourth century, what a detestable world it was ! On this point Christian writers of every school seem to be agreed.The fervent and eloquent Roman Catholic Montalembert quotes and adopts the words of the Protestant Guizot, who says, “ The sovereigns and the immense majority of the people had embraced Christianity;but at bottom civil society was pagan; it retained the institutions, the laws, and the manners of paganism.It was a society which paganism, and not Christianity, had made.” 1 Montalembert adds that “ this paganism . . . was paganism under its most degenerate form . , . Nothing,” he says, “ has............... ever equalled the abject condition of the Romans of the empire. . . . With the ancient freedom, all virtue, all manliness disappeared. There remained only a society of officials , without strength , without honour , and without rights. . . . We must acknowledge that in this so-called Christian society, the moral poverty is a thousand times greater than the material, and that servitude has crushed souls more than bodies. Everything is enervated, attenuated, and decrepit. Not a single great man, nor illustrious individual rises to the surface of that mire. Eunuchs and sophists of the court govern the state without control, experiencing no resistance but from the Church.” These last words guard Montalembert’s meaning. He is speaking of civil society, which was now nominally inside the Church; but, side by side with this Christianized paganism, the Church still handed on the glorious traditions which had been bequeathed to her by the age of the martyrs. Though it may be true that the civil society of the fourth and fifth centuries produced no great men, yet the hierarchy the Church produced a galaxy of heroes. Let me state only five, Saint Athanasius, Saint Basil , Saint Ambrose, Saint Christostum and Saint Augustine. A religious institution which can produce such splendid names is full of life; but nevertheless the church whioh had admitted the world within her precincts, was in a very different condition from the Church during the first three centuries of her

 Guizot, Histoire de la Civilization en France, leot. 11., quoted in Montalembert’s Monks of the West (English tram, 1861, i. 263). silchester Historic Scenes along the Norwich Road By Charles G. Harper Historian of the British Highways Chapter XL1VThe old coaching road to Norwich,

Roman influence on Britain

The materials produced are quite unlike the early Roman pottery usually found, which has much Belgic influence in Wollaston in the 2nd century, and soon became surrounded by suburban ‘overspill’. In the large areas between these were very many villa-farms and smaller steads. The villa-farms generally occupied only a few acres, and so are too small to be called villages, but were rather larger than single-family modern farms. They supported the Roman Imperial economy by cattle-rearing and agriculture.

Many farms were superimposed on previous Belgic or Iron Age farm sites, and probably to a certain extent used the same field systems and employed the original Celtic populace as labourers.
Proof of a continuity of Iron Age traditions came from the various hut-circle ditches found on Roman sites. At Wollaston, off Hinwick Road, a hut circle of diameter 40 feet with an entrance 13 feet wide had an off-centre hearth made of two large roofing tiles. Both of these tiles had numerals incised on them before firing. In the ditch was a large quantity of early 2nd century a.d. pottery44.
At Deanshanger, similar penannular ditches were found 46.

Gravel workings at Ringstead revealed a hut circle underlying a stone-built circular structure 30 feet in diameter 46. The most complicated stone examples known in the neighbourhood are at Bozeat. One, dating from the early 3rd century, is 48 feet in diameter with four central pier, or post, bases and a few cross walls47.
Only a few such structures are known, and the plan is near-identical with an Iron Age wooden structure at Little Woodbury, Wilts., dating from c. 300 B.C.48. At an estate south of Bozeat High Street there is another site with circular buildings, also of the 3rd century49. Examples have also been discovered in Oxfordshire50.
Villa-farms are certainly the norm of the many Romano-British sites scattered over the whole of Northamptonshire. A few of them had central heating, bath suites, mosaic floors, and painted walls. At Easton Maudit, trial excavations revealed a substantial building with hypocaust box tiles (used to conduct hot air along the walls) and a crude mosaic floor. This was substantially built with a layer of hard-core supporting firm mortar which supported a white very hard plaster in which the stones were embedded. Instead of a design composed of different coloured stones, the floor was made of small stones with a design painted on. Recently a fine floor has been discovered at Thenford61. Several have been known for many years, e.g. those at Nether Heyford noted by Morton (in 1712) and by the Victoria County History.
Bath suites are usually only recognized by large scale excavation. Total excavation of a villa at Brixworth, north of the church, revealed a complicated bath suite with hot and cold compartments . At least two of the Roman sites known at Wollaston seem likely to have been villas, according to the debris in the top soil. A fine aerial photograph of the villa site near Cut-Throat Bridge shows the plan, with a corridor and series of rooms, and some surrounding enclosures.
Painted wall-plaster does not survive in ploughsoil, and so is only known at those sites that have been excavated. At the Brixworth villa several motifs were recovered, and at the housing estate at Bozeat a considerable quantity of fine quality 3rd-century plaster survived in the building debris.
Of the Roman towns there is a very imperfect plan of Chester made by Baker, vicar of Hargrave, in 1879, showing various buildings including a temple. In the 1920s and 1930s many rich finds were found during ironstone quarrying in the cemetery east of the town. These now seem to be lost for the most part, except for some bowls in Northampton Museum. Aerial photographs show the road-plan of Chester to consist of winding lanes rather than the usual grid pattern. These probably represent a continuity from an Iron Age settlement53.
Excavation and aerial photographs at Castor have led to the compilation of a very complicated plan, but again outside the town proper, and not at all regular54.
Of Roman industry there are many remains, principally relating to potters. The invading legions brought with them their own potters, who operated wherever the military was stationed. Such a site has recently been found at Longthorpe. The materials produced are quite unlike the early Roman pottery usually found, which has much Belgic influence. Early kilns, dating from the late 1st century, have been found under the circular buildings at Bozeat. The area of the Nene valley east of Northampton was the centre of an early industry; this, however, later became less important. In later Roman times, the area north of the town of Durobrivae in the parish of Castor was the centre of a very large pottery. The main products were colour-coated wares, often with fine relief designs, finished in white on a black or red background. This pottery was traded throughout the country.
The other industry practised in the south and north of the county was iron smelting. Large areas of black dense slag can be found in fields in the old Rockingham Forest. Each represents a bloomery site where iron was smelted. Some of these sites are several miles away from the nearest ironstone because it was easier to carry the ore to the wooded areas where charcoal was made. This was because the ratio of iron to charcoal needed is about 1:5. Recent excavations of a slag patch at Wakerley55 showed the small clay furnace to be quite miniscule, about 9 inches in diameter. Analysis of the slag shows that no flux was used, and much iron remains as dense black silicate.

Industry and agriculture meet in the process of corndrying. The sitesio Wollaston
in the 2nd century, and soon became surrounded by suburban ‘overspill’. In the large areas between these were very many villa-farms and smaller steads. The villa-farms generally occupied only a few acres, and so are too small to be called villages, but were rather larger than single-family modern farms. They supported the Roman Imperial economy by cattle-rearing and agriculture. Many farms were superimposed on previous Belgic or Iron Age farm sites, and probably to a certain extent used the same field systems and employed the original Celtic populace as labourers.
Proof of a continuity of Iron Age traditions came from the various hut-circle ditches found on Roman sites. At Wollaston, off Hinwick Road, a hut circle of diameter 40 feet with an entrance 13 feet wide had an off-centre hearth made of two large roofing tiles. Both of these tiles had numerals incised on them before firing. In the ditch was a large quantity of early 2nd century a.d. pottery . At Deanshanger, similar penannular ditches were found. Gravel workings at Ringstead revealed a hut circle underlying a stone-built circular structure 30 feet in diameter. The most complicated stone examples known in the neighbourhood are at Bozeat. One, dating from the early 3rd century, is 48 feet in diameter with four central pier, or post, bases and a few cross walls.
Only a few such structures are known, and the plan is near-identical with an Iron Age wooden structure at Little Woodbury, Wilts., dating from c. 300 B.C.48. At an estate south of Bozeat High Street there is another site with circular buildings, also of the 3rd century49. Examples have also been discovered in Oxfordshire50.
Villa-farms are certainly the norm of the many Romano-British sites scattered over the whole of Northamptonshire.

A few of them had central heating, bath suites, mosaic floors, and painted walls.At Easton Maudit, trial excavations revealed a substantial building with hypocaust box tiles (used to conduct hot air along the walls) and a crude mosaic floor.This was substantially built with a layer of hard-core supporting firm mortar which supported a white very hard plaster in which the stones were embedded. Instead of a design composed of different coloured stones, the floor was made of small stones with a design painted on. Recently a fine floor has been discovered at Thetford6. Several have been known for many years,

e.g. those at Nether Heyford noted by Morton (in 1712) and by the Victoria County History.
Bath suites are usually only recognized by large scale excavation. Total excavation of a villa at Brixworth, north of the church, revealed a complicated bath suite with hot and cold compartments52.
At least two of the Roman sites known at Wollaston seem likely to have general plan and some details o f every great work of art, of ruinous or entire, before the mind can properly apply which belong to it. In Stonehenge this especially necessary; for however the imagination by the magnitude o f those masses of stone which in their places, by the grandeur even of the fragments
or broken in'their fall, by the consideration of the vast required to bring such ponderous substances to this desolate
spot, and by surmise o f the nature of.the mechanical skill by which they were lifted up and placed in order and proportion, it is not till the entire plan is fully comprehended that we can properly
surrender ourselves to the contemplations which belong to this remarkable scene. It is then, when we can figure to ourselves a
perfect structure, composed of such huge materials symmetrically arranged, and possessing, therefore, that beauty which is the result
of symmetry, that we can satisfactorily look back through the dim light of history or tradition to the object for which such a structure
was destined. The belief now appears tolerably settled that Stonehenge was a temple of the Druids. It differs, however, from all other Druidical remains, in the circumstance that greater mechanical art was employed in its construction, especially in the superincumbent stones of the outer circle and of the trilithons, fromwhich it is supposed to derive its name; stan being the Saxon for a stone, and heng to hang or support. From this circumstance it is maintained that Stonehenge is of the very latest ages of Druidism; and that the Druids that wholly belonged to the ante-historic period
followed the example of those who observed the command of the law : “ If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.” (Exodus, chap. xx.) Regarding Stonehenge as a work of masonry and architectural proportions, Inigo Jones came to the conclusion that it was a Roman Temple of the Tuscan order. This was an architect’s dream. Antiquaries, with less of taste and fancy that Inigo Jones, have had their dreams also about Stonehenge, almost as wild as the legend of Merlin flying away with the stones
from the Curragh of Kildare. Some attribute its erection to the Britons after the invasion of the Romans. Some bring it down to as recent a period as that of the usurping Danes. Others again
carry it back to the early days of the Phoenicians. The first notice of Stonehenge is found in the writings of Nennius, who lived in the ninth century of the Christian era. He says that at the spot
where Stonehenge stands a conference was held between Hengist and Vortigern, at which Hengist treacherously murdered four
hundred and sixty British nobles, and that their mourning survivors erected the temple to commemorate the fatal event. Mr. Davies, a modern writer upon Celtic antiquities, holds that Stonehenge
was the place of this conference between the British and Saxon princes, on account of its venerable antiquity and peculiar sanctity.
There is a passage in Diodorus Siculus, quoted from Hecataeus, which describes a round temple in Britain dedicated to Apollo; and this Mr. Davies concludes to have been Stonehenge. By another writer, Dr. Smith, Stonehenge is maintained to have been “ the grand orrery of the Druids,” representing, by combinations of its stones, the ancient solar year, the lunar month, the twelve signs of
the zodiac, and the seven planets. Lastly, Stonehenge has been pronounced to be a temple of Budha, the Druids being held to be race of emigrated Indian philosophers. Startling as this last assertion may appear to be, a variety of facts irresistibly lead to the conclusion that the circles, the stones of memorial, the cromlechs, and other monuments of the highest antiquity in these islands, have a distinct resemblance to other monuments of the same character scattered over Asia and Europe, and even found in the New World, which appear to have had a common origin. In Great Britain and Ireland, in Jersey and Guernsey, in France, in Germany in Denmark and Sweden, such monuments are found extensively dispersed. They are found also, though more rarely in the Netherlands. Portugal, and M alta in Gozo and Phoenicia. But their presence is also unquestionable in Malabar, in India, in Palestine, in Persia. Figures 7 and 8 represent a Druidical circle, and a single upright stone standing alone near the circle, which are described by Sir William Ouseley him at Darab, in the province of Fars. in are copied from those in Sir William Ouseley them upon the same page with the If we had obliterated the Oriental figures might easily receive them as from another point of view. The book We have the general arrangement of Stonehenge, and other similar monuments of Europe, led Sir William Ouseley to the natural conclusion that a “ British Antiquary might be almost authorised to pronounce it Druidical, according to the general application of the word
among us.” A t Darab there is a peculiarity which is not found at Stonehenge, at least in its existing state. Under several of the stones there are recesses, or small caverns. In this particular, and
in the general rudeness of its construction, the circle of Darab resembles the Druidical circle of Jersey ,. although the circle there is very much smaller, and the stones o f very inconsiderable
dimensions,— a copy in miniature of such vast works as those of Stonehenge and Avebury. This singular monument, which was found buried under the earth, was removed some fifty years ago by General Conway, to his seat near Henley, the stones being placed in his garden according to the original plan. When we open the great store-house not only of divine truth but of authentic history, we find the clearest record that circles of stone were set up for sacred and solemn purposes. The stones which were taken by Joshua out o f the bed of the Jordan, and set up in Gilgal, supply the most remarkable example. The name Gilgal
itself signifies a circle. Gilgal subsequently became a place not only of sacred observances, but for the more solemn acts of secular government. It was long a controversy, idle enough as ‘'such
controversies generally are, whether Stonehenge was appropriated to religious or to civil purposes. If it is to be regarded as a Druidical monument, the discussion is altogether needless; for the Druids were, at one and the same time, the ministers of religion, the legislators, the judges, amongst the people. The account which Julius Caesar gives of the Druids of Gaul, marked as it is by his usual clearness and sagacity, may be received without hesitation as a description of the Druids of Britain : for he says, “ the system of Druidism is thought to have been formed in Britain, and from thence carried over into Gaul ; and now those who wish to be more accurately versed in it for the most part go thither (/. e. to Britain)
in order to become acquainted with it.” Nothing can be more explicit than his account of the mixed office of the Druids: “ They
are the ministers o f sacred things; they have the charge o f sacrifices, both public and private ; they give directions for the ordinances of religious worship (religiones interpretantur). A great number of young men resort to them for the purpose of instruction in their system, and they are held in the highest reverence. For it is they who determine most disputes, whether of the affairs of the state or of individuals: and if any crime has been committed, if a man has been slain, if there is a contest concerning an inheritance or the boundaries of their lands, it is the Druids who settle the matter: they fix rewards and punishments : if any one, whether in an individual or public capacity, refuses to abide by their sentence, they forbid him to come to the sacrifices. This punishment is among them very severe; those on whom this interdict is laid are accounted among the unholy and accursed ; all fly from them, andshun their approach and their conversation, lest they should be injured by their very touch ; they are placed out of the pale of the law, and excluded from all offices of honour.” After noticing that a chief Druid, whose office is for life, presides over the rest, Csesar mentions a remarkable circumstance which at once accounts for the selection of such a spot as Sarum Plain, for the erection of a great national monument, a temple, and a seat of justice :— “ These Druids hold a meeting at a certain time of the year in a consecrated spot in the country of the Carnutes (people in the neighbourhood of Chartres), which country is considered to be in the centre of all Gaul. Hither assemble all from every part who have a litigation, and submit themselves to their determination and sentence.” At
Stonehenge, then, we may place the seat of such an assize. There were roads leading direct over the plain to the great British towns of Winchester and Silchester. Across the plain, at a distance not exceeding twenty miles, was the great temple and Druidical settlement of Avebury. The town and hill-fort of Sarum was close at hand . Over the dry chalky downs, intersected by a few streams easilv forded, mig ht pilgrims resort from all the surrounding The seat of justice which was also the seat of the highest unity, would necessarily be rendered as magnificent
Id accomplish. Stonehenge might be of a later than Avebury, with its mighty circles and long avenues of tu.Iars : but it might also be of the same period,— the one . sned by its vastness, the other by its beauty of proportion, sriee executed in that judgment-seat was, according to     Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography: a reassessment K J Fitzpatrick-Matthews
Unknown Roman bases in westcountry
This does not solve the problem of why the Cosmographer should have seen Isca Dumnoniorum, Exeter, as a point at which to insert a break in his listing. The Peutinger Table may offer a clue: although Britain is severely truncated, with only East Anglia and Kent appearing on the surviving copy, Moridunum and Isca Dumnoniorum are also shown without any intervening south-coast places. It is possible that Isca Dumnoniorum was depicted as prominent in some way, perhaps isolated on a promontory or, as seems more likely, as the gateway to a peninsula (as suggested by Rivet & Smith 1979, 200). In this way the Cosmographer might have decided to break his text at a point which appeared dictated by the geography of the region. He does so further north, where his listing of the Antonine Wall forts occurs ‘where that same Britain is seen to be narrowest from sea to sea’ (ubi et ipsa britania plus angustissima de oceano in oceanum esse dinoscitur 10750 to 10751). Although this was not the primary reason for inserting a break at this latter point, the Cosmographer was clearly sensitive to the depicted shape of the island.

[...] the circle of Darab resembles the Druidical circle of Jersey, although the circle [in Jersey] is very much smaller, and the stones of very inconsiderable dimentsions,—a copy in miniature of such vast works as those of Stonehenge and Avebury. This singular monument, which was found buried under the earth, was removed some fifty years ago [in 1785] by General Conway, to his seat near Henley, the stones being placed in his garden according to the original plan.”  The ‘seat near Henley’ is now a school:Park Place School, Remenham, Henley-on-Thames. The school Web site makes mention of the remains of a druidical temple brought there from Jersey. There are photographs on thePrehistoric JerseyWeb site.

              On the other hand , we should perhaps take into account the curious fact that the Civitas Dumnoniorum , basically the Cornish peninsula west of Exeter appears to have been a part of Britain virtually unaffected by those changes to élite behaviour usually termed ‘romanisation’. Is it possible that much of it lay outside provincial or diocesan control and that some kind of border was depicted on the Cosmographer’s map source as separating the south-western peninsula from the rest of Britain?In that case,Isca Dumnoniorum may have been prominent as a point of contact between the wilds of the far south-west and the more ‘civilised’ Durotriges (or Durotrages, following RIB 1673: the form of the name is very uncertain according to Rivet & Smith 1979, 352) to the east. Group 1: the Cornish Peninsula V ¶31 in qua britania plurimas fuisse ciuitates et castra legimus ex quibus aliquantas designareted  Giano 

Puro coronauis ? 10548
Pilais ? 10549
Vernilis Liskeard ? 10549
Ardua rauenatone River Dart 10550
Deuionisso Statio ? 10551
deuentia steno Buckfastleigh / Totnes ? 10551/10552
Duriarno Plymouth 10552
Vxelis Barnstaple ? 1061
Verteuia Land’s End 1061 = 1069
This group appears to take us on a general perambulation of the Cornish Peninsula and adjacent area.

*Fl Taua, the second name, is clearly the River Taw (Ekwall 1928, 394; Thomas 1966a, 87; Rivet & Smith 1979, 470). *Nemetostatio is probably the fort at North Tawton,which is in an area where a group of modern names containing the elements Nymet and Nemet are found (Rivet & Smith 1979, 425).The identification of *Fl Conio with Ptolemy’s Κενίωνος ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί (Geography II.3,3) made by Rivet & Smith (1979, 306) must therefore be questioned as the general progression seems to be from north-east to southwest.It may refer the River Torridge, although this is a Celtic name, derived by Ekwall (1928, 414) from a Brittonic *Torric-, ‘violent, rough’.*Glano should therefore be somewhere in north Devon,perhaps in the vicinity of Barnstaple. Tamaris,

the Ταμάρη of Ptolemy (II.3,13), is a site on the River Tamar (Ekwall 1928, 389), perhaps at the crossing at Launceston, not the river itself, as the name recurs in the list of river-names (10748). *Durocornouio and <Pilais>
Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography: a reassessment K J Fitzpatrick-Matthews
15

Peninsula¹:

1. Giano
2. Barnstaple
3. Eltabo (River Taw)
4. Elconio (River Torridge)
5. Nemetotatio (North Tawton)
6. Tamaris (Launceston) Tamaris Launceston ? this we think probably  or Calstock on the tamar ,,,,, also kings tamerton Plymouth
7. Puro coronauis
8. Pilais
9. Vernilis (Liskeard)
10. Ardua rauenatone (River Dart)
11. Deuionisso Statio
12. Deuentia steno (Buckfastleigh / Totnes)

Please note that some of the names mentioned in the map are uncertain, and their exact form is not well-documented¹.

If you would like to learn more about the Civitas Dumnoniorum and its historical significance, I recommend referring to the Wikipedia page on theDumnonii². It provides detailed information about the Dumnonii tribe, their geography, etymology, language, and more.

Let me know if there’s anything else I can assist you with ! cannot now be identified. Charles Thomas (1966a, 87) originally identified the former with The Rumps, a pre-Roman defended enclosure.

More recently, he suggested that it might be Tintagel, the site of an important sub-Roman trading settlement, although its Romano-British status is not clear (Harry & Morris 1997, 121). <Vernilis> may be the same as Ptolemy’s Οὐολίβα (Geography II.3,13), perhaps near Liskeard (Strang 1997, 30); the correct RomanoBritish form may have been *Verleua. The Cosmographer’s form would have arisen by way of a transposition of -l- and -u-, the latter being miscopied as -n-. The next name must be for *Fl Deruentione, the River Dart, so the Cosmographer’s eye may have moved from travelling along the spine of Cornwall, following the poorly known road along the centre of the peninsula, and he has possibly now turned his attention to the road south from Exeter, closer to the south Devon coast. Deuionisso Statio and *Deruentio Statio (which are wrongly divided in the text) are probably unlocated Roman government establishments, perhaps tax offices.

The latter may have lain in the Dart valley  , Dart being Brittonic  *Deruentiu: Ekwall 1928, 114), perhaps at Buckfastleigh or Totnes, and the former perhaps near Newton Abbot or elsewhere on the River Teign.The next name, Duriarno, is probably not the same as Durnouaria (Dorchester),as suggested by Rivet & Smith (1979, 345) following Horsley (1732, 490),since it is probably not corrupt (compare the Arnodurum quoted by Williams (Richmond & Crawford 1949, 32),which shows the more usual ‘continental’ ordering of elements).Instead,it may be the name of a site in the vicinity of Plymouth where the inhumation cemetery at Mount Batten and a sequence of coins attest a settlement of some importance (Thomas 1966a, 86).

Uxelis is too far west to be the same as Ptolemy’s Οὔξελλα (II.3, 13), which must be on the River Parrett, his Οὐεξάλλα εἴσχυσις (II.3,2), and may be a site or river in Cornwall, perhaps the Fowey or the Fal, unless it is an example of a name written to the west of its symbol on the map source. If this is the case, then it may have been near Barnstaple (Strang 1997, 30). Group 2: the south Devon and Cornish coast Melamoni Sidford ? 1062 = 1064/1069/10613
Scadumnamorum Exeter 1062
Termonin ? 1063
Mesteuia Land’s End 1063 = 1061
The mention of Moridunum, Sidford ?, for the first time indicates a change of direction, and there are now hints of an ordering of names with a general progression from east to west. The -l- for -r- in Moridunum is also found in the next section; it may be that the name was very difficult to read in the Cosmographer’s source. It is unlikely to have occurred as a result of misreading two separate documents, further evidence for the essential unity of the Cosmographer’s sources. The unlocated *Terminum would have been somewhere between Exeter and Land’s End, an admittedly imprecise location. The River Gowy in Cheshire was formerly known as the aqua de Tervin (‘water of Tarvin’) in 1209, the name deriving from the Latin terminus, ‘boundary’, via Welsh Terfyn (Dodgson 1970, 26), which has been retained by a large parish and village. Although the origin of the latter name is generally sought in the post-Roman politics of the region (Bu’Lock 1972, 24), it is probable that the River Gowy was the eastern boundary of the prata legionis of the fortress at Chester. Could a similar origin be suggested for this name, at the western boundary of the prata legionis of the early fortress at Exeter or the territorium of the later capital of the Civitas Dumnoniorum?

16

Group 3: Somerset ? Milidunum Sidford ? 1064=1062/1069/10619
Apaunaris Bath ? 1064
Masona Camerton? 1065
Alouergium Shepton Mallett 1065
The Cosmographer returns to Moridunum, with the same peculiar -l- for -r- as in the previous group, and a similarly logical ordering of names (this time jumping north-eastward and then working back to the starting-point). Rivet & Smith (1979, 255) identify Apaunaris with Aquae Sulis, Bath, perhaps correctly, so the two remaining names may relate to sites between Bath and Sidford.

<Masona> suggests a name derived from that of a river, although which cannot now be ascertained; it perhaps refers to the small town at Camerton.The name is corrupt. Alobergium should be in a hilly location, probably near the Mendip Hills at Shepton Mallett, where parts of a Romano-British small town have recently been identified.

Neolithic, Beaker and “ Food Vessel : sherds from Rowberrow Cavern will be described later, were near it.With the pottery was a service of Hint implements wrought by shallow scaling, including part of a polished tool and barbed stone arrowheads.

But undoubtedly the important feature of the industry here found was the presence of , pygmy flints  though not quite the same as the earlier
pygmies from King Arthur’s Cave they are probably derived from the Arthursian industry.

They suggest that the indwellers in Rowberrow Cavern were the descendants of men who dwelt in Britain in y. lardenoisian times.

They in turn perhaps were derived from the
cave men of Old Stone Age.
Cheddar, has also produced an association of round
bottomed Neolithic pottery, sherds of Beaker-ware, finely scaled flint implements and small fragments of a polished axe.

Soldier’s Hole in Cheddar Gorge has so far given us a set of stone implements including a polished axe and a chipped stone spear-head.
The most significant Neolithic site m this district was found by the Somerset Archaeological Society under an overhanging rock in. Chelm’s Combe, Cheddar, where round bottomed bowls and the bones of the men who used them had survived. One of the bowls is of a Spanish type.

The Neolithic men who dwelt in these seven caves had domestic beasts, but they hunted freely to augment their food stocks.
Neolithic Man.
The description of the Palaeolithic man of Aveline’s Hole and Gough’s Cave could be used for the men from the Gloucestershire and Somersetshire long barrows and from Chelm’s Combe without much amending.

Perhaps the main difference is that the long-barrow men had narrower faces than the cave men.Judging by the skeletons we have there is no reason to suppose that the long-barrow men were other than the descendants of the cave men.

But this is a theory that needs testing by research in transitional stations.
A skull was taken from Bisley long-barrow upon which the dangerous and delicate surgical operation of trepanning had been successfully performed. 
It has been asserted that the Megalithic culture was carried across Europe by traders from the Near East who were in quest of gold, amber and pearls. They were dark broad-heads, and are known as Prospectors. Professor Fleure has discovered in Pembroke and South Cardigan, where Megaliths are numerous, numbers of men who may be their descendants.

Never the less, no oriental Neolithic objects have appeared in the West of England and, moreover, the skeletons from the long-barrows all appear to belong to the distinctive native type.
At this period it is probable that work began on the gold bearing gravel of Wicklow.

For centuries this was the most important gold-field in Europe and this may account for the enormous number of flint axes and early bronze implements found in Ireland. But there are few signs of the gold trade in these parts. >
Trade there was:

no one can walk across a ploughed field on Mendip without discovering a flint implement or flake.

No flint is found naturally in the district, therefore, the presence of such enormous quantities on the land is testimony of settled conditions and an interchange of commodities in the New Stone and Bronze Ages.
Die Megalithie stage certainly lasted into the early Bronze Age;

the occurrence of Beaker-ware with Neolithic pottery is good evidence of that.

Stonehenge itself was raised after the close of the New Stone Age. It is now well-known that the inner circle of blue stones was brought thence from Pembrokeshire. Perhaps they were ferried across the Severn estuary to Uphill or Worlehury and toiled along Mendip to the Wiltshire Downs by devout herdsmen.
Merlin s Cave, Symond's Vat.

The Dumnonii of Devon (and Cornwall) were not as advanced as their neighbours in Dorset and Somerset , nor as most other contemporary tribes of lowland Britain. They struck no coins, and for internal exchange seem to have relied on iron currency-bars, a hoard of which has been found at Holne Chase near Ashburton. These, whose value lay in the fact that they could be converted by any smith into implements or weapons, were made in several standard sizes. Coins of Gaulish and of other British peoples however have been found at Mount Batten (Plymouth), showing that some overseas trad­ing existed long before the coming of the Romans.Besides the use of the rivers, inland movement was possible along the ridgeways, which followed watersheds, avoiding valley forests and swamps. These tracks had been in use since early Bronze Age times, and ran close to many hill-forts. Some remain in use as roads today, and one forms a long stretch of the county border on Exmoor.

The Iron age produced most, if not all, of the earthwork forts which still crown hill-tops and clif1s in the Devon landscape. Their construction seems to have begun in the third century BC, in response to further waves of invasion, and to have continued with new building or strengthening for two hundred years. Few sites have yet been properly excavated, and the events of this period are at present less clear than, for example, in Dorset. Evidence suggests that successive invaders crossed the sea from Brittany, established themselves at first near the estuaries of the south coast, and then penetrated inland, either building forts themselves or causing the previous inhabitants to do so for protection. The earliest examples show a single line of rampart and ditch, either cutting off the neck of a headland (‘promon­tory fort’) or following the contour of a hill-top. The ramparts were often revetted with stone or turf or timber, to give a more perpendicular profile than is seen today. One such, Cranbrook above the upper Teign, was never finished, possibly because those building it were attacked and overwhelmed before they could do so.Later forts were built or remodelled with two or more lines of rampart, following the introduction of sling-warfare from Brittany in the first century BC, and the outstanding example in Devon is Hembury near Honiton. This crowns a bold promontory with close-set double or triple lines, designed not for successive defence but to keep attackers at a distance where the defenders, shooting downhill, could reach them without being hit in return. Digging here has revealed stocks of sling-pebbles, signs of a stockade on the inner rampart, and timber platforms for slingers at the gates. This is one of a group in the south-east of the county, possibly built to resist the warlike Durotriges of Dorset, but equally possibly taken over and reconstructed by them— since Duro­trigan pottery has been found in the later layers.A peculiar type of defended settlement, found only in Devon and Cornwall, appeared in the first century BC. These were built on a slope rather than a hill-top, and had widely spaced concentric en­closures. One such, at Milber near Newton Abbot, has an almost rectangular centre, presumably for habitation. Two outer enclosures were probably for stock, while a larger but indefensible one may have been for cultivation. At Clovelly Dykes in North Devon is a similar example, probably representing a separate invasion by the same people by way of the Bristol Channel.By no means all the Iron Age population lived in or near the forts, though their distribution on the map may be some guide to the most populated parts of the country at the time. The commonest type of settlement was probably in undefended farmsteads, and remained so throughout the Roman period; but these, unlike the forts, are difficult to trace. Most Iron Age farming in Devon was still mainly pastoral rather than arable, and many small ring-works may have served as cattle-enclosures rather than as defences.

The climate of the Iron Age was, comparatively cool and wet, making the higher ground previously used by Bronze Age people no longer habitable, while the valley soils had not yet been opened up by clearance and drainage. Most of the Iron Age popu­lation seems to have lived somewhere near the 500-foot (150-metre) contour.The Dumnonii of Devon (and Cornwall) were not as advanced as their neighbours in Dorset and Somerset, nor as most other contemporary tribes of lowland Britain. They struck no coins, and for internal exchange seem to have relied on iron currency-bars, a hoard of which has been found at Holne Chase near Ashburton. These, whose value lay in the fact that they could be converted by any smith into implements or weapons, were made in several standard sizes. Coins of Gaulish and of other British peoples however have been found at Mount Batten (Plymouth), showing that some overseas trad­ing existed long before the coming of the Romans.Besides the use of the rivers, inland movement was possible along the ridgeways, which followed watersheds, avoiding valley forests and swamps. These tracks had been in use since early Bronze Age times, and ran close to many hill-forts. Some remain in use as roads today, and one forms a long stretch of the county border on Exmoor. it is possible that Isca Dumnoniorum was depicted as prominent in some way, perhaps isolated on a promontory or, as seems more likely, as the gateway to a peninsula (as suggested by Rivet & Smith 1979, 200). In this way the Cosmographer might have decided to break his text at a point which appeared dictated by the geography of the region. He does so further north, where his listing of the Antonine Wall forts occurs ‘where that same Britain is seen to be narrowest from sea to sea’ (ubi et ipsa britania plus angustissima de oceano in oceanum esse dinoscitur 10750 to 10751). Although this was not the primary reason for inserting a break at this latter point, the Cosmographer was clearly sensitive to the depicted shape of the island.
On the other hand, we should perhaps take into account the curious fact that the Civitas Dumnoniorum (basically the Cornish peninsula west of Exeter) appears to have been a part of Britain virtually unaffected by those changes to élite behaviour usually termed ‘romanisation’.

Is it possible that much of it lay outside provincial or diocesan control and that some kind of border was depicted on the Cosmographer’s map source as separating the south-western peninsula from the rest of Britain?In that case,Isca Dumnoniorum may have been prominent as a point of contact between the wilds of the far south-west and the more ‘civilised’ Durotriges (or Durotrages : the form of the name is very uncertain according to Rivet & Smith  to the east . Inside this site the noted Roman areas do not seem to fit this revision with the one dig at Calstock : the Cornish Peninsula  in qua britania plurimas fuisse ciuitates et castra legimus ex quibus aliquantas designare uolumus id est: Giano Barnstaple ? 10546 Eltabo River Taw 10546 , Elconio River Torridge ? , 10547 Nemetotatio North Tawton 10547 Tamaris Launceston ? the question mark is from an old enquiry damnonia .blue would suggest Kings' Tamerton situated in plymouth for various reason , click link for why.... 10548 Puro coronauis ? 10548 Pilais ? 10549 Vernilis Liskeard ? 10549 Ardua rauenatone River Dart 10550 Deuionisso Statio ? 10551 deuentia steno Buckfastleigh Totnes ? 10551 ,

10552 Duriarno Plymouth 10552 ? the question mark is from an old enquiry damnonia .blue would suggest plympton

Vxelis Barnstaple ? 1061 Verteuia Land’s End 1061 = 1069
This group appears to take us on a general perambulation of the Cornish Peninsula and adjacent area.

*Fl Taua, the second name, is clearly the River Taw(Ekwall 1928, 394; Thomas 1966a, 87; Rivet & Smith 1979, 470). *Nemetostatio is probably the fort at North Tawton,which is in an area where a group of modern names containing the elements Nymet and Nemet are found (Rivet & Smith 1979, 425).The identification of *Fl Conio with Ptolemy’s Κενίωνος ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί (Geography II.3,3) made by Rivet & Smith (1979, 306) must therefore be questioned as the general progression seems to be from north-east to southwest.It may refer the River Torridge, although this is a Celtic name, derived by Ekwall (1928, 414) from a Brittonic *Torric-, ‘violent, rough’.*Glano should therefore be somewhere in north Devon,perhaps in the vicinity of Barnstaple. Tamaris,the Ταμάρη of Ptolemy (II.3,13), is a site on the River Tamar (Ekwall 1928, 389), perhaps at the crossing at Launceston, not the river itself, as the name recurs in the list of river-names (10748). *Durocornouio and Pilais
Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography: a reassessment K J Fitzpatrick-Matthews


cannot now be identified. Charles Thomas (1966a, 87) originally identified the former with The Rumps, a pre-Roman defended enclosure.

More recently, he suggested that it might be Tintagel, the site of an important sub-Roman trading settlement, although its Romano-British status is not clear (Harry & Morris 1997, 121). <Vernilis> may be the same as Ptolemy’s Οὐολίβα (Geography II.3,13), perhaps near Liskeard (Strang 1997, 30); the correct RomanoBritish form may have been *Verleua. The Cosmographer’s form would have arisen by way of a transposition of -l- and -u-, the latter being miscopied as -n-.
The next name must be for *Fl Deruentione, the River Dart, so the Cosmographer’s eye may have moved from travelling along the spine of Cornwall, following the poorly known road along the centre of the peninsula, and he has possibly now turned his attention to the road south from Exeter, closer to the south Devon coast. Deuionisso Statio and Deruentio Statio , which are wrongly divided in the text are probably unlocated Roman government establishments, perhaps tax offices.

The latter may have lain in the Dart valley , Dart being Brittonic *Deruentiu: perhaps at Buckfastleigh or Totnes, and the former perhaps near Newton Abbot or elsewhere on the River Teign.

damnonia has a few exras to observe waterways have the answer to all the doubts in this old review Iscas and taintona will give you clues

the river Lemon too

The next name, Duriarno, is probably not the same as Durnouaria (Dorchester),as suggested by Rivet & Smith (1979, 345) following Horsley (1732, 490),since it is probably not corrupt (compare the Arnodurum quoted by Williams (Richmond & Crawford 1949, 32),which shows the more usual ‘continental’ ordering of elements).

Instead,it may be the name of a site in the vicinity of Plymouth where the inhumation cemetery at Mount Battenand a sequence of coins attest a settlement of some importance (Thomas 1966a, 86).

Uxelis is too far west to be the same as Ptolemy’s Οὔξελλα (II.3, 13), which must be on the River Parrett, his Οὐεξάλλα εἴσχυσις (II.3,2), and may be a site or river in Cornwall, perhaps the Fowey or the Fal, unless it is an example of a name written to the west of its symbol on the map source. If this is the case, then it may have been near Barnstaple (Strang 1997, 30). Group 2: the south Devon and Cornish coast Melamoni Sidford ? 1062 = 1064/1069/10613
Scadumnamorum Exeter 1062
Termonin ? 1063
Mesteuia Land’s End 1063 = 1061
The mention of Moridunum, Sidford ?, for the first time indicates a change of direction, and there are now hints of an ordering of names with a general progression from east to west. The -l- for -r- in Moridunum is also found in the next section; it may be that the name was very difficult to read in the Cosmographer’s source. It is unlikely to have occurred as a result of misreading two separate documents, further evidence for the essential unity of the Cosmographer’s sources. The unlocated *Terminum would have been somewhere between Exeter and Land’s End, an admittedly imprecise location. The River Gowy in Cheshire was formerly known as the aqua de Tervin (‘water of Tarvin’) in 1209, the name deriving from the Latin terminus, ‘boundary’, via Welsh Terfyn (Dodgson 1970, 26), which has been retained by a large parish and village. Although the origin of the latter name is generally sought in the post-Roman politics of the region (Bu’Lock 1972, 24), it is probable that the River Gowy was the eastern boundary of the prata legionis of the fortress at Chester. Could a similar origin be suggested for this name, at the western boundary of the prata legionis of the early fortress at Exeter or the territorium of the later capital of the Civitas Dumnoniorum?

shall take this opportunity of mentioning incidentally the other minerals of Great Britain, taken notice of by the antients, either as articles of trade or matters of curiosity.

Tin was not only the first metal in these islands which we read of; but also the greatest object of commerce; and which originally led to the discovery of Great Britain by the Romans.

The mercantile Phoenicians traded to the Scilly islands,
the Cassiterides, or land of tin, from the port of Cadiz, four hundred years before Christ. The Romans, for a considerable time, could not discover the place from whence the former procured
the precious metal. They attempted to detect the trade, by following the course of a Phoenician vessel; but the master, faithful to the interest of his country, voluntarily run his ship ashore in another place; preferring the loss of all, rather than sillier n. foreign nation to become partakers of so profitable a secret. The public immediately compensated Iris loss out of its treasury.

This did but make the Romans more eager for the discovery; and after many trials they succeeded. Publius Crassus (father of Marcus Crassus the Triumvir) who was praetor, and governed Spain for several
years, landed in the Cassiterides, and found the report of their riches verified.
As soon as the Romans made a conquest of the country, they formed in the tin province camps and roads, still visible; and left behind vases, urns,

sepulchres, and money, that exhibit daily proofs of their having been a stationary people in Those parts

”1; and that Dunmonium extended even to the Belerian promontory, or the Land’s-end;

Intriguingly , the Ravenna Cosmography identifies a major regional Roman-era settlement as

Nemetostatio in central Dumnonia

identified with North Tawton, Devon which would translate from Latin as

'The Outpost of the Sacred Grove"

Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography:  a reassessment K J Fitzpatrick-Matthews

The south-west

The first section of the Ravenna Cosmography to deal with Britain, covering 10546 to 1065, is obscure but nevertheless generally recognised as dealing with south-western England

(Richmond & Crawford 1949, .

Why it should have been separated out by the Cosmographer is not at all clear.

 see it as evidence for a special source covering this area in greater detail than the rest of Britain.  This does not seem a necessary hypothesis for reasons to be given below . Indeed, the words that introduce the next section , ‘Again, next to the aforementioned  civitas Isca Dumnoniorum’ iterum iuxta superscriptam ciuitatem iscadumnamorum , strongly hint that the Cosmographer is looking at the same map as he used as a source for this section . We will see many instances of the Cosmographer duplicating names throughout his text , the most startling being *Moridunum , Sidford ? , which is repeated no less than four times. However, they are not noticeably more common in this section than in those that follow. Had he employed a special and separate source for the south-west, it is difficult to see how he would have integrated the information he derived from it with that he derived from his main source without making many more such duplications. We would on this hypothesis also expect the following long section which covers the province or diocese of Britannia to contain a few names relating to the south-western peninsula which the Cosmographer had not noticed as duplications: we do not find them. Arguments e silentio are never strong; more telling are the duplications within this section that cannot be the result of taking names from two different sources. For instance, the name *(Anti)uesteum appears twice, at 1061 and 1063, in both cases with virtually the same truncation. This truncation may well have occurred if the first three or four letters of the name were written ‘in the sea’ on the Cosmographer’s postulated map source (Rivet &Smith 1979, 198). The same error of reading is extremely unlikely to have occurred as a result of using two separate source documents.

There are thus no compelling reasons to believe that the Cosmographer was using a separate and fuller source for the south-west of Britain than for the remainder of the island. True enough, the density of names in the peninsula is high, but it is also high in Cumbria (1071 to 1076 and 10710 to 10711) and between the Roman walls (10730 to 10747). The contrast is not so much with a low density in the remainder of the province, but with specific areas, such as Wales and East Anglia, very poorly represented.

This does not solve the problem of why the Cosmographer should have seen Isca Dumnoniorum, Exeter, as a point at which to insert a break in his listing. The Peutinger Table may offer a clue: although Britain is severely truncated, with only East Anglia and Kent appearing on the surviving copy, Moridunum and Isca Dumnoniorum are also shown without any intervening south-coast places. It is possible that Isca Dumnoniorum was depicted as prominent in some way, perhaps isolated on a promontory or, as seems more likely, as the gateway to a peninsula (as suggested by Rivet & Smith 1979, 200). In this way the Cosmographer might have decided to break his text at a point which appeared dictated by the geography of the region. He does so further north, where his listing of the Antonine Wall forts occurs ‘where that same Britain is seen to be narrowest from sea to sea’ (ubi et ipsa britania plus angustissima de oceano in oceanum esse dinoscitur 10750 to 10751). Although this was not the primary reason for inserting a break at this latter point, the Cosmographer was clearly sensitive to the depicted shape of the island.

On the other hand, we should perhaps take into account the curious fact that the Civitas Dumnoniorum  , basically the Cornish peninsula west of Exeter) appears to have been a part of Britain virtually unaffected by those changes to élite behaviour usually termed ‘romanisation’. Is it possible that much of it lay outside provincial or diocesan control and that some kind of border was depicted on the Cosmographer’s map source as separating the south-western peninsula from the rest of Britain? In that case, Isca Dumnoniorum may have been prominent as a point of contact between the wilds of the far south-west and the more ‘civilised’ Durotriges (or Durotrages, following RIB 1673: the form of the name is very uncertain according to Rivet & Smith 1979, 352) to the east. Group 1: the Cornish Peninsula V ¶31 in qua britania plurimas fuisse ciuitates et castra legimus ex quibus aliquantas designare uolumus id est:

Giano Barnstaple ? 10546

Eltabo River Taw 10546

 Elconio River Torridge ? 10547

Nemetotatio North Tawton 10547

 Tamaris Launceston ? 10548

 Puro coronauis ? 10548

 Pilais ? 10549

 Vernilis Liskeard ? 10549

 Ardua rauenatone River Dart 10550

 Deuionisso Statio ? 10551

 deuentia steno Buckfastleigh / Totnes ? 10551/10552

Duriarno Plymouth  10552

 Vxelis Barnstaple ? 1061

Verteuia Land’s End 1061 = 1069

This group appears to take us on a general perambulation of the Cornish Peninsula and adjacent area. *Fl Taua, the second name, is clearly the River Taw (Ekwall 1928, 394; Thomas 1966a, 87; Rivet & Smith 1979, 470). *Nemetostatio is probably the fort at North Tawton, which is in an area where a group of modern names containing the elements Nymet and Nemet are found (Rivet & Smith 1979, 425). The identification of *Fl Conio with Ptolemy’s Κενίωνος ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί (Geography II.3,3) made by Rivet & Smith (1979, 306) must therefore be questioned as the general progression seems to be from north-east to southwest. It may refer the River Torridge, although this is a Celtic name, derived by Ekwall (1928, 414) from a Brittonic *Torric-, ‘violent, rough’. *Glano should therefore be somewhere in north Devon, perhaps in the vicinity of Barnstaple. Tamaris, the Ταμάρη of Ptolemy (II.3,13), is a site on the River Tamar (Ekwall 1928, 389), perhaps at the crossing at Launceston, not the river itself, as the name recurs in the list of river-names (10748). *Durocornouio and Pilais,

Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography: a reassessment K J Fitzpatrick-Matthews

If the roman averice was  for goods then shoud I consider minerals and that water transport was essential ,then I could consider two Iscas , Hoazme and Laira .

Tamar Lyhner Plym  For one the recnt calstock roman fort ,where does that fit in with this old literature hmmm ,another real consideration would be the waterways bear now no resemblance to "2000 yrs ago, cannot now be identified. Charles Thomas originally identified the former with The Rumps, a pre-Roman defended enclosure. More recently, he suggested that it might be Tintagel, the site of an important sub-Roman trading settlement, although its Romano-British status is not clear (Harry & Morris 1997, 121). <Vernilis> may be the same as Ptolemy’s Οὐολίβα (Geography II.3,13), perhaps near Liskeard (Strang 1997, 30); the correct RomanoBritish form may have been *Verleua. The Cosmographer’s form would have arisen by way of a transposition of -l- and -u-, the latter being miscopied as -n-.

The next name must be for *Fl Deruentione, the River Dart, so the Cosmographer’s eye may have moved from travelling along the spine of Cornwall, following the poorly known road along the centre of the peninsula, and he has possibly now turned his attention to the road south from Exeter, closer to the south Devon coast. Deuionisso Statio and *Deruentio Statio (which are wrongly divided in the text) are probably unlocated Roman government establishments, perhaps tax offices. The latter may have lain in the Dart valley (Dart being Brittonic *Deruentiu: Ekwall 1928, 114), perhaps at Buckfastleigh or Totnes, and the former perhaps near Newton Abbot or elsewhere on the River Teign. The next name, Duriarno, is probably not the same as Durnouaria (Dorchester), as suggested by Rivet & Smith (1979, 345) following Horsley (1732, 490), since it is probably not corrupt (compare the Arnodurum quoted by Williams (Richmond & Crawford 1949, 32), which shows the more usual ‘continental’ ordering of elements). Instead, it may be the name of a site in the vicinity of Plymouth where the inhumation cemetery at Mount Batten and a sequence of coins attest a settlement of some importance (Thomas 1966a, 86). Uxelis is too far west to be the same as Ptolemy’s Οὔξελλα (II.3, 13), which must be on the River Parrett, his Οὐεξάλλα εἴσχυσις (II.3,2), and may be a site or river in Cornwall, perhaps the Fowey or the Fal, unless it is an example of a name written to the west of its symbol on the map source. If this is the case, then it may have been near Barnstaple (Strang 1997, 30). Group 2: the south Devon and Cornish coast  Melamoni Sidford ? 1062 = 1064/1069/10613

 Scadumnamorum Exeter 1062

 Termonin ? 1063

 Mesteuia Land’s End 1063 = 1061

The mention of Moridunum, Sidford ?, for the first time indicates a change of direction, and there are now hints of an ordering of names with a general progression from east to west. The -l- for -r- in Moridunum is also found in the next section; it may be that the name was very difficult to read in the Cosmographer’s source. It is unlikely to have occurred as a result of misreading two separate documents, further evidence for the essential unity of the Cosmographer’s sources. The unlocated *Terminum would have been somewhere between Exeter and Land’s End, an admittedly imprecise location. The River Gowy in Cheshire was formerly known as the aqua de Tervin (‘water of Tarvin’) in 1209, the name deriving from the Latin terminus, ‘boundary’, via Welsh Terfyn (Dodgson 1970, 26), which has been retained by a large parish and village. Although the origin of the latter name is generally sought in the post-Roman politics of the region (Bu’Lock 1972, 24), it is probable that the River Gowy was the eastern boundary of the prata legionis of the fortress at Chester. Could a similar origin be suggested for this name, at the western boundary of the prata legionis of the early fortress at Exeter or the territorium of the later capital of the Civitas Dumnoniorum?

16

Group 3: Somerset ?  Milidunum Sidford ? 1064=1062/1069/10619

 Apaunaris Bath ? 1064

 Masona Camerton? 1065

 Alouergium Shepton Mallett 1065

The Cosmographer returns to Moridunum, with the same peculiar -l- for -r- as in the previous group, and a similarly logical ordering of names (this time jumping north-eastward and then working back to the starting-point). Rivet & Smith (1979, 255) identify Apaunaris with Aquae Sulis, Bath, perhaps correctly, so the two remaining names may relate to sites between Bath and Sidford. <Masona> suggests a name derived from that of a river, although which cannot now be ascertained; it perhaps refers to the small town at Camerton. The name is corrupt. *Alobergium should be in a hilly location, probably near the Mendip Hills at Shepton Mallett, where parts of a Romano-British small town have recently been identified.

 The successors of Caesar and Augustus were persuaded to follow the example of the former, rather than the precept of the latter.

The proximity of its situation to the coast of Caul seemed to invite their arms ; the pleasing, though doubtful, intelligence of a pearl fishery, attracted their avarice ;  and as Britain was viewed in the light of a distinct and insulated world, the conquest scarcely formed any exception to the general system of continental measures. After a war of about forty years,
undertaken by the most stupid,3 maintained by the most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the
emperors, the far greater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke.The various tribes of Britons possessed Germanicus, Suetonius, Paulinus, and Agricola were checked and recalled in the course of their victories. Corbulo was put to death.
Military merit, as it is admirably expressed by Tacitus, was, in the strictest sense of the word, imperatoria virtus.

Caesar himself conceals that ignoble motive; but it is mentioned by Suetonius, c. 47. The British pearls proved, however, of little value, my account of their dark and livid colour. Tacitus observes, with reason (in Agricola, c. 12), that it was an inherent defect. “ Ego facilius crediderim, naturam margaritis deesse quam nobis avaritiam.”
 Claudius, Nero, and Domitian. A hope is expressed by Pomponius Mela, he wrote under Claudius, that, by the success of
the roman arms, the island and its savage inhabitants would soon be better known. It is amusing enough to peruse such passages in the midst of London.

 Bee the admirable abridgment given by Tacitus, in the life of Agricola, and copiously , though perhaps not completely, illustrated by our own antiquarians, Camden and Horsley.
valour without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union.
They took up arms with savage fierceness ; they laid them down, or turned them against each other, with wild inconstancy ; and while they fought singly, they were successively subdued.
Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of the Druids, could avert the slavery of their country, or resist the steady progress of the Imperial generals, who maintained the national glory, when the throne was disgraced by the weakest, or the most vicious of mankind. A t the very time when Domitian,
confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired, his legions, under the command of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force of the
Caledonians, at the foot of the Grampian hills; and his fleets, venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous navigation displayed the Roman arms round every part of the island. The conquest of Britain was considered as already achieved; and it was the design of Agricola to complete and ensure his success, by the easy reduction of Ireland, for which, in his opinion, one
legion and a few auxiliaries were sufficient. The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession, and the Britons would wear their chains with the less reluctance, if the prospect and example of freedom were on every side removed from before their eyes. But the superior merit of Agricola soon occasioned his removal from the
government of Britain ; and for ever disappointed this rational , though extensive, scheme of conquest. Before his departure, the prudent general had provided for security as well as for dominion. He had observed that the island is almost divided into two unequal parts by the opposite gulfs, or, as they
are now called, the Friths of Scotland. Across the narrow interval of about forty miles, he had drawn a line of military stations, which was afterwards fortified in the reign of Antoninus Ptus, by a turf rampart, erected on founda1 The Irish writers, jealous of their national honour, 

Rivers and navigable creeks, p. 36. Tamar, Lynher, p. 38. Tide, or Tidi, p. 40. Seaton, ib.
Loo, or Eaft-Loo, ibid. ProfpoCt of Loo Bridge," ib. Duloo, or Weft Loo river, p. 41. fawy, ib.
Fal, 42, and it’s harbour. Hel, or Heyl river in Kerricr, p. 43. Lo or Low river in Kerrier, p 44.
A1
Heyl in Penwith, ibid. Ganal creek, p. 45. River Alan, al Lamel, ibid. Wade navigable rivers in
may be made notbeneficial, p. 47. Subject: to obftrudtions, p. 49.