SILCHESTER, a parish in the hundred of HOLDSHOTT,
Basingstoke division of the county of SOUTHAMPTON,
7 miles (N.) from Basingstoke, containing
407 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Winchester, rated in the king's
books at £9. 6. 0., and in the patronage of the Bishop
of Winchester. The church, dedicated to St. Mary,
is partly in the early, and partly in the later, style
of English architecture. There is an endowed school
for five children. This place, situated near the borders
of Berkshire, was the Caer Seiont, or Segont, of the
Britons, and the Vindonum of the Romans, having been
one of the principal stations of the latter in the south of
England. The usurper Constantine was invested with
the purple in this city, in the year 407- About 493, it
was destroyed by the Saxon chief, JElla, on his march
to Bath, from the coast of Sussex, where he had made
his landing. The enclosed area is in the form of an
irregular octagon, nearly a mile and a half in circumference.
The walls are most perfect on the south side,
being in some places nearly twenty feet high. About,
one hundred and fifty yards from the north-east angle
of the walls is a Roman amphitheatre, now covered
with trees; and about a mile and a half to the northwest,
near a village called the Soak, are some remains
of a camp. Silchester confers the title of baron upon
the family of Pakenham, Earls of Longford.