A HISTORY OF RUTLAND parish church [O.S. Rutland, 25-in. x, 3-4 ; Lincoln, cl. 4]. The camp was probably made before the Roman road, and is thought to have included an area of about twenty-seven acres [/issoc. Arch. Sue. Rep. ix, 160 ; Antig. xxxviii, 315]. The north, south, and east sides with the fosse and vallum, are still visible, the west, and part of the south side are protected by the river, and on the other sides the fosse is deep [Blore, Hist, and Antlq. of Rut. i, pt. 2, pp. 56, 1 12, pi. iv (with plan) ; Rut. Mag. and Hist. Rec. i, 159]. Coins in some quantities are still found in digging or ploughing fields in the vicinity of the village [Wright, Hist, and Antiq. of Rut. 35 ; Antiq. xxxviii, 315]. Cottesmore. — Roman pottery found here [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), xix, 194]. ExTON. — Stukeley says that Lord Gainsborough showed him a ' fair large brass Divo Antonino reverse the Antonine column' dug up in Exton churchyard [Itin. Cur. 85]. Ketton. — In 1902 several square yards of tessellated pavement were found in digging the foundations of new cottages on the north side of the road leading to Stamford. The remains were broken up and covered by the new foundations. There is no previous mention of remains here to be traced, except that Mr. Crowther-Beynon of Edith Weston had several pieces of similar pavement which came from a sale at Ketton Priory [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), xix, 194]. Langham. — The Ordnance Survey map marks the 'site of a supposed Roman settlement' on Ranksborough Hill, a quarter of a mile south-east of ' The Lake ' in Leicestershire and i mile west of Langham [O.S. Rutland, 25-in. iv, 12]. Here was found part of a fine bronze statuette of Jupiter or Neptune, (fig. i), in two portions, one consisting of the head with part of the neck and left shoulder, and richly-curled hair and beard, the other of the lower part of the body with right leg complete and sandal on foot. Height 3!^ in. and 10 in. It was given to the British Museum by Sir A. W. Franks in 1891. LiDDiNGTON. — In a gravel-pit two small jars were found about I 862, containing 150 coins, mostly of gold. They were claimed by the Crown as treasure-trove, and the dates are not known _Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), xix, 20 1]. Market Overton and Thistleton. — Market Overton has been known as a Roman site since the time of Camden, who in his earliest edition identified it with Margidunum (now placed at East Bridgeford, Notts.), and ingeniously derived the name of the town ('Margedoverton ') therefrom I He was followed by Grose, but his view was corrected in a later edition [Camden, Brit. (1586), 296; ibid. (ed. Gough, i8o6),ii, 329; Grose, Antiq. of Engl, and IFiiUs, 'm,s.v. Rut.; see also Wright, Hist, of Rut. 87; Gent. Mag. 1 866, ii, 609 {Rom.-Brit. Retn. i, 262); and a long discussion in Beauties of Engl, and Wales., xii, pt. ii, 76, the writer apparently adopting Camden's original view]. The site is also described by Stukeley, who records finds of coins, in particular a ' brass Alexander.' Gough says coins have been found 'in great abundance,' and mentions a silver Aurelius (a.d. 161-80), and a copper Carausius (a.D. 287-93) [Stukeley, Itin. Cur. 86 (note) ; Gough's Camden, ii, 329 ; Pointer, Brit. Rom. 41]. In 1779 Sir John Clerk reported to the Society of Antiquaries that he went 'to visit a Roman village about five miles {sic) from Stamford, in the way to Grantham. 'Tis upon a fine common between Market Overton and Thistleton, having a good prospect. There were to be seen foundations of the walls of a court, about one hundred feet square, & an ancient well newly scoured up : they call it the Holmes. In the Corn Fields there, after plowing, and a shower of Rain, are found great Quantities of Roman Coins, called by the people Holme Pennies' [Soc. Antiq. MS. Min. xvi, 400, 16 Dec. 1779]- In a letter to Roger Gale the same writer states that the wall seen by him was about one hundred feet square ; he presumably means the earthern wall of the camp in the village [Stukeley, Letters (ii, 272, Surtees Soc.)]. Mr. T. G. Bennett, writing in 1899, gives an unpublished letter of Stukeley, dated August 1740, in which he says that Mr. Wing [Tycho Wing] informed him 'that digging at Thistleton by the Roman road to Newark they found a corpse with an urn by it ' [Grantham Journ. 4 Oct. 1899]. The actual site on which considerable remains have been found at different times, as noted on the Ordnance Survey maps (25-in. ii, 16), is about a mile and a quarter to the east of Market Overton, on the borders of the parish of Thistleton ; see Sketch Plan. In the village of Market Overton itself, and therefore at some distance from the ' settlement,' is a square earthwork or camp, within the circumference of which stands the parish church, as at Great Casterton. No evidence has come to light of the name borne by this settlement in Roman times. Mr. W. H. Wing, to whom we are indebted for the plan of the camp reproduced here, is of opinion that traces of a Roman road may be observed connecting it with the settlement, and it has already been noted (p. 87) that the latter lies on the line of a •supposed road running in a transverse direction [O.S. ii, 15, 16]. 90
