The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1917-12-20

A BOUT six miles southeast of
~ the ancient town of C~irences-
~ ter, with its Roman memories
and, perhaps, the fiEest church
porch that England can show, and
some three miles north of the quaint
townlet of C~ricklade, redolent Of An
glo-Saxon history, and boasting q CEN
trail lantern tower to its church I'M
matched in all Wiltshire, lies the
charming village of Down Ampney-
n of four Ampney villages that clus-
ter to the east of Cirencester. The viii
iage is right away from the church and
the manor house. The trusting strang-
or visiting it from either of tho above
mentioned towns should be warned
that he is coming to an inn-less Eden,
where the "good entertainment for
Nj and beast" that used to be the
boast of our village hostelries is not
TO be had; nor will he find it in the
neighboring village Of Latton, just
across the Wiltshire border. 1t is fair
10 say that both villages seem to get
along very comfortably without inns;
only the stranger within their gates
suffers for the austere virtue of the ma
tivcs, writes Henry Martin Gibbs in
Country Life.
The beauty of the surrounding coun-
try, the limestone SOLVE are here on
the border of the Cotswolds-and the
keenly bracing air must be taken as
c~ompensating natural advantages. 1t
is a country of rich pasturelands, trout
strccms and water meadows, where
"the willows by the brooks" arc a IA
nlliar feature; and far away stretch
out blue distances, ranges Of hills,
copseS and church spires q strangely
peaceful country, i'm which hardly q
sound seems to break the stiffness, and
in this wartime, bereft of It's male
population, it seems doubly deserted.
Yet the broad high roads are there, the
roads that were made near two thou
sand years ago by the Roman con-
querors. They stretch out across he
fat foreground into the dim perspec-
tive of the horizon-the Ermine Way
and the Fosse Way crossing each 9TH
CT ut Cirencester like the arms Of q
st. Andrews cross.
Where the Romans camped.
Naturally, such n country is rich in
legends of titanic conflicts between Ro-
man and Briton, Briton and Saxon,
Saxon and Dane. Cirencester, as Its
name tells us, was a Roman castrum
of some Importance, and the town
abounds In relics of the Roman occu-
natien, which took place about the
year 80 A. ID. At Chedworth, close TO
the Posse Way, some II miles north of
Down Ampney, the remains of a Ro-
man villa-one of the four first-rate
ones found in this country-were dis
covered In 1864. The fact hat four
crosses were found here-one OF the
few positive evidences of Romano-Brit-
ish Christianity in Gloucestershire-
lends additional interest to this discov-
cry.
~Cirencester, with the other Ro-
mano-British cities of Bath and Glou-'
cester, fell to the Saxon c%onquerors in
JI7, but it was the best part of q GEN.
fury later before Christianity, crushed
out by this Hun invasion of old time,
"a relntroduced lnder the auspices of
Wulphere, king of Mercia. A later
wave of invasion-this time by the
Danes-took place in Dos, when Crick-
lade was pillaged, and the same town
was taken and plundered by the fol-
lowers Of Cnut a century later. The
Norman invasion seems to have been
q more gradual affair-more like the
peaceful penetration" Of our own
times. No doubt the Saxon thane and
eori ave place to intruding Normans,
but the bulk of the population, serfs
and freemen. were probably but little
disturbed by the new order.
One other event Of more than local
importance occurred in those far-orf
times, which must not be left unre-
corded. At the northern end Of the
bridge or ford of the River Thames,
which takes its rise not far from here
ct a place called Aust, in COS st. Au-
gustine of Canterbury held his cele-
brated conference with the bishops
and doctors Of the British church.
The House and Church.
Down Ampney is near enough to this
famous spot to be permitted to share
Its fame. Trough has been said to in
dictate the historical interest as well
IS the natural charms of the setting.
Let us turn to the house and church.
Doubtless both occupy the sites of
Ear older buildings. We may take it
That there was a settlement here under
the Saxon sway. and probably during
the Roman occupation how fur earlier
the church has nothing to show Of car
Her date than the charming. late
twelfth century arcades OF its make.
We Esay assume that theso wore pierced