Cranford and Syon Parks. In limitibus vero, ubi rariores terminos constituimus, monticellos quos botontinos appelavimus. Et intra ipsis carbones et cinus et testa fusa coopervimus. A tothill or Botontinus until tempo Henry VIII known as the Hermit's Hill, occupied the site where now stands St. Ermins Hotel, Westminster, and marked the southern end of the outer survey line from Hampstead. Until 1808 another stood opposite the gate into Bushey Park, and Tolynton (Teddington) took its place name from this tothill which governed the outside line from the Syon mound. From Hillingdon Heath, from the south-west side of Primrose Hill, and from Hadley Common, surveyors' mounds have recently been removed, while in several other instances, names indicating their former existence have alone survived. All these marks, including those mentioned below, are included in the list of Roman remains at the end of the next chapter.

There are four stones still in situ showing the run of the ancient lines, viz., London stone; Whetstone or Whitestone; Wealdstone; while Tottenham Cross possibly marks an earlier stone. Those known as Oswulf's and Sudbury stones were removed during the last century, while twelve others are remembered only by name, such as Bordestone, Headstone, Herulvestane, Hochestane, Stone Farm, Stone Grove, etc.

Holes or shafts in the ground, which for identification contained miscellaneous articles, were known as arcae. These buried terminals appear to have been used to mark the bounds of town plots, for several have been found within the city of London. Marks by means of trenches or ditches on the surface of the ground are at this date of time obviously difficult to identify. Two have been found cut across the slope west of Hanwell Church, one having its continuation on the bridle way near Greenford Bridge. The original boundary trees were blazed or otherwise distinguished, but these disappeared centuries ago, though their descendants mark in some instances the spots where the picturesque Ambarvalia or the subsequent Rogation-tide processions halted on their perambulations. In 1 "Grom. Vet.," 308. When the mound at Hampstead was opened, charcoal (carbo) was found there in a hole in the centre. "Middx. and Herts, Notes and Queries," i, 4. These terminal mounds have received various names, c.g., Tothill, Greenhill, Salthill, Hlaw, bury, Fairymount, Coldharbour.

4

Small.

2 Article by the writer in "The Builder," Dec. 22nd, 1911. In a charter of K. Ethelred giving the boundaries of St. Peters this Tothill is twice mentioned. "First from the mound to Tyburne, north along Tyburne to Cuford (Cowford in St. James's Park). . . westward along the street (Akeman) to Cyrringe (Charing Cross) thence back to the mound." Westminster Domesday, f. 80.b.

* See "Roman Antiquities," Price. As to those at Chesterford, see Journal," xii, 109, 126.

"Notae per arcadias felici robore silvas

"The Archaeological

Quercus erat, triviae quam de sacraverat ipsa."
Statius, "Theb.," 9, v, 585.

Instances within the Londinium Canton, but now part of Herts., are-Goff's Oak; Tried Oak; Cross Oak; Cobb's Ash; and Elstree (Edwinstree). Whatever their use in medieval times it

Middlesex there are five boundary trees, viz., three "Gospel" and two "Burnt " Oaks. Of the former, one descendant exists at Hanwell by the Boston Road Station, another at Fray's Farm, one mile north of Uxbridge on the Harefield Road. The remaining three trees survive only in name, viz., at Hampstead, Edgware, and Harrow Weald.'

Places of Pagan Worship and Middlesex Churches.-Much help is afforded when tracing the extent of the Roman settlements in Middlesex (and in several other Romanized portions of Britain) from the situation of the compitum, or little chapel, which stood by the village ways. It will be seen from the map that the sites of over forty-seven out of fifty-six mother churches of ancient parishes in Middlesex, are situated on the quintarial lines defined by the Roman surveyors' landmarks just described, and the inference prima facie is, that such churches occupy the sites of compita, or other sacred places existing in RomanoBritish times. This occupancy is further borne out by the particular direction set out below, which Pope Gregory gave to the Missionary priests going into England, viz., to utilize the sacred places of the Pagans for the service of the true God. We will now describe these wayside chapels and sacred groves which the missionaries adapted to Christian uses.

After Augustus Caesar had assumed the purple he re-organized the ancient religious sites and sacrificial priesthoods of the Romans which had fallen into decay. He astutely pressed them into the service of the State by combining with them the cult of the Imperial Supremacy. Hence also arose the new quasipolitical worship of the deified Caesars, which, as part of the public worship maintained by the State, spread through the provinces of the Empire, including that of Britain, and so the dedication Numinibus Augusti is a common inscription on altars found in different places in Northumberland. Here within the Canton an inscription found in London was "to the divinity of the Emperor and to the Province of Britain," which seems to belong to the early second century.*

must be remembered that trees were used as landmarks by the Roman surveyors. Vet.," 5, 41, etc. See Index thereto.

"Grom.

For further references to other survey marks see pp. 401-6, and index to "Grom. Vet." 2 Mr. Johnson in his "Byways in British Archaeology," 1912, p. 1, says: "Much personal investigation together with a review of many fragments of archaeological literature, led to the conclusion, almost irrefutable as it now appears, that many of our churches stand on Pagan sites. A secondary deduction from the observed facts was the probability that in some cases there has been almost continuous site occupancy since the first Christian church was reared." To this interesting subject one hundred pages are devoted. If Mr. Johnson had known when he penned these lines, about the rural land survey and the resultants therefrom, it would have been valuable corroborative evidence in support of his conclusions.

3 "Celt, Roman and Saxon," Wright, 335-cf. "Companion to Roman Studies," ch. iv, Religion, Sandys.

4

"Jour. Roman Studies," i, 151,

Compitalia. Among the ordinary rural festivals was that of the Compitalia celebrated during May and August in honour of the two Lares Compitales, with whom had been associated the Genius of Augustus.' These ceremonies took place at the village compitum, situated, as it appears in Middlesex, by a quintarial way (via) near where it was often crossed by a by-way (devia), in which sacellum the two Lares or spirits presiding over the surrounding fields had their shrine.2 These little chapels had several sides, each with a doorway and an altar, apparently for the rites connected with the fertility of the several kinds of land holdings in the settlement-such as presumably the allotments in the village farm (agri dati assignati); the Imperial demesne land (in manu Caesaris); and the common pasturage (compascua).3

"Compita are places in crossways, a kind of tower where rustics perform sacrifices when the labour of the fields is completed. They are not only places in a city, but also on public roads, and are houses of refreshment for the inhabitants of adjoining lands, where little chapels open on all sides are consecrated. In these chapels broken yokes are placed by the cultivators as evidence of their task being duly served and finished."4

"From this passage we gather," says Mr. Fowler, "that where country cross roads met, or where in the parcelling out of agricultural allotments one way crossed another, some kind of altar was erected and the spot held sacred." It is also clear that the Romano-British compitum, like its successor the early English village church, held an important position in the simple and self-contained life of a rural community."

Paganalia. This was a general countryside festival held at the end of May when offerings were made to Ceres invoking blessings on the crops and the fruits of the cultivated fields, accompanied with rustic songs and merriment. It took place during the holding of the Ambarvalia or ceremonies held in connection with

Much in the same way the Royal Arms displayed in churches indicated the Royal Supremacy in the State Ecclesiastical, "N. and Q.," 10th S., vi, 53, and 11th S., ii, 429. 2 The village compitum is thus mentioned amongst other boundary landmarks: “... versus ad locum illum et inde ad compitum illius. . . ." "Grom. Vet.," 114.

"Fines templares sic quaeri debent: ut si in quadrifinio est positus et quattuor possessionibus finem faciet: quattuor aras quaeris, et aedes quattuor ingressus habet, ideo ut ad sacrificium quisquis per agrum suum intraret,' ," "Grom. Vet.," 302.

'Compitalia dies attributus Laribus Compitalibus ideo ut viae competunt tum in competis sacrificatur," Varro, L. L., vi, 25.

5

Translated from Scholiast on Persius, 4, 28.

"Roman Festivals," Fowler-cf. “Religious Experiences of the Roman People,” Idem. As regards "refreshments" in the compita, the early English churches were also used for non-religious purposes, and were as Mr. Addey states "the centrepieces of the old social life." He instances some secular uses which in various places lingered on until the Middle Ages, such as banqueting, drinking, dancing, the holding of councils, courts, markets and inquisitions. "The Evolution of the English House," ch. x.