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THE TOPOGRAPHER.

No.  XXIV.

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HIGH CROSS.

A Roman Station—­the Camp of Claudius—­Manners, Customs, and Dialects of the people of the District.

About two miles to the west of Little Claybrook, in the hundred of Luthlaxton, in Leicestershire, is a place called High Cross, which, according to some antiquarians, was the Benonce or Vennones of the Romans.  Dr. Stukely describes this station as situated at the intersection of the two great Roman roads, “which traverse the kingdom obliquely, and seem to be the centre, as well as the highest ground in England; for from hence rivers run every way.  The foss road went on the backside of an inn standing here, and so towards Bath.  The ground hereabout is very rich, and much ebulus (a herb much sought after for the cure of dropsies,) grows here.  Claybrooklane has a piece of quickset hedge left across it, betokening one side of the Foss; which road in this place bears exactly north-east and south-west as it does upon the moor on this side of Lincoln.  In the garden before the inn abovementioned, a tumulus was removed about the year 1720, under which the body of a man was found upon the plain surface; as likewise hath been under several others hereabout; and foundations of buildings have been frequently dug up along the street here, all the way to Cleycestre, through which went the great street-way, called Watling-street; for on both sides of the way have been ploughed and dug up many ancient coins, great square stones and bricks, and other rubbish, of that ancient Roman building, not far from a beacon, standing upon the way now called High Cross, of a cross which stood there some time, upon the meeting of another great way.”

At the intersection of the roads is the pedestal, &c. of a cross which was erected here in the year 1712; on which are the two following Latin inscriptions.  On one side is—­

Vicinarum provinciarum, Vervicensis scilicet et Leicestrensis, ornamenta, proceres patritiique, auspiciis, illustrissimi Basili Comitis de Denbeigh, hanc columnam statuendam curaverunt, in gratam pariter et perpetuam memoriam Jani tandem a Serenissima Anna clausi A.D.  MDCCXII.

Which is thus translated,

The noblemen and gentry, ornaments of the neighbouring counties of Warwick and Leicester, at the instances of the Right Honourable Basil Earl of Denbeigh, have caused this pillar to be erected in grateful as well as perpetual remembrance of Peace at last restored by her Majesty Queen Anne, in the year of our Lord, 1712.

The inscription on the other side runs thus—­

Si Veterum Romanorum vestigia quaeras, hic cernas viator.  Hic enim celeberrimae illorum viae militares sese mutuo secantes ad extremes usque Britanniae limites procurent:  hic stativa sua habuerunt Vennones; et ad primum ad hinc lapidem castra sua ad Stratam, et ad Fossam tumulum, Claudius quidam cohortis praefectus habuisse videtur.

Which may be thus rendered,