124.—Silchester. The North Wall. details

The striking characteristic of Silchester is the ruined wall, with the flourising trees upon it and around it, and the old trees that have grown up around centuries ago, and are now perishing with it. This is the poetry of the place, and the old topographers felt it after their honest fashion. Leland says, “The walls remain in good measure entire, only with some few gaps in those places where the gates have been; and out of those walls there grow oaks of such a vast bigness incorporated as it were with the stones, and their roots and boughs are spread so far around, that they raise admiration in all who behold them.” [Old England Vol I, p. 42]

See also the Silchester Roman Town Insula IX Town Life Project

I used this as the basis for some writing and a picture together called Forgotten Wars.