DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6910#0029
LAYER MARNEY HOUSE, ESSEX. 13
From the foregoing statements, it appears that Dunstaple was formerly a place
of some importance ; being dignified with the palace of a monarch, and a monastery
of considerable magnitude ; yet the vicissitudes of time have deprived it of these
honours ; and of its architectural adornments the mutilated remnant of the Priory
Church is the only vestige. This, however, is singularly interesting, from com-
bining such various specimens of the progressive styles of architecture. The town
of Dunstaple is seated in a district of country called the Chiltern Hills, at the
intersection of two Roman roads, named the Watling-Street, and Icknield-Way.
About two miles south-west of the town are some entrenchments, which at present
are known by the names of Maiden Bower, f and Tottenhoe Castle. From the
circumstances of distance, intersection of roads, and these encampments, some
antiquaries have fixed the Magiovinium of Richard of Cirencester at this place. X
As this station is not mentioned in the Itinerary of Antoninus, and as so few Roman
vestiges have been found here, I should consider it to have been merely a temporary
post, or Castra /Estiva, and not a permanent station. A great quantity of copper
coins of Antoninus and Constantine, with many small ornaments of bridles and
armour, were found by some labourers in the year 1770, when digging for gravel,
on a down in this neighbourhood. Henry the First issued a proclamation offering
great temptations to those of his subjects who would settle at Dunstaple; among
these, any person was allowed an acre of land for twelve pence per annum, with
the same privileges as were possessed by the citizens of London.
ESSEX.
Of the Domestic Architecture which was peculiar to the Anglo-Romans, Anglo-
Saxons, and Anglo-Normans, there are no specimens remaining; and its character-
istics are only imperfectly noticed in the pages of the historian and the antiquary.
* This consists of a vallum nearly circular, thrown up on a level plain, and incloses about nine acres of land.
Tottenhoe Castle is a castrametation of a different kind, and upon a larger scale. It is encompassed by two fosses,
one round, the other square; and connected with it is an encampment which assumes the parallelogramatic shape.
t See Horsley's Britannia Romana: and Stukeley's Itinerary.
From the foregoing statements, it appears that Dunstaple was formerly a place
of some importance ; being dignified with the palace of a monarch, and a monastery
of considerable magnitude ; yet the vicissitudes of time have deprived it of these
honours ; and of its architectural adornments the mutilated remnant of the Priory
Church is the only vestige. This, however, is singularly interesting, from com-
bining such various specimens of the progressive styles of architecture. The town
of Dunstaple is seated in a district of country called the Chiltern Hills, at the
intersection of two Roman roads, named the Watling-Street, and Icknield-Way.
About two miles south-west of the town are some entrenchments, which at present
are known by the names of Maiden Bower, f and Tottenhoe Castle. From the
circumstances of distance, intersection of roads, and these encampments, some
antiquaries have fixed the Magiovinium of Richard of Cirencester at this place. X
As this station is not mentioned in the Itinerary of Antoninus, and as so few Roman
vestiges have been found here, I should consider it to have been merely a temporary
post, or Castra /Estiva, and not a permanent station. A great quantity of copper
coins of Antoninus and Constantine, with many small ornaments of bridles and
armour, were found by some labourers in the year 1770, when digging for gravel,
on a down in this neighbourhood. Henry the First issued a proclamation offering
great temptations to those of his subjects who would settle at Dunstaple; among
these, any person was allowed an acre of land for twelve pence per annum, with
the same privileges as were possessed by the citizens of London.
ESSEX.
Of the Domestic Architecture which was peculiar to the Anglo-Romans, Anglo-
Saxons, and Anglo-Normans, there are no specimens remaining; and its character-
istics are only imperfectly noticed in the pages of the historian and the antiquary.
* This consists of a vallum nearly circular, thrown up on a level plain, and incloses about nine acres of land.
Tottenhoe Castle is a castrametation of a different kind, and upon a larger scale. It is encompassed by two fosses,
one round, the other square; and connected with it is an encampment which assumes the parallelogramatic shape.
t See Horsley's Britannia Romana: and Stukeley's Itinerary.