SOME ANCIENT BRITISH REMAINS. 101 



dwelling?, and to make it thus more valuable as pasture for 

 cattle, etc. ; but as to the intentions with which cromlechs, 

 " sacred " circles, stone avenues, and menhirs were erected, 

 there has been, and still is, so much difference of opinion 

 that it would take a long time merely to state briefly the 

 various theories which have been brought forward ; and 

 time so occupied %vould on this occasion be misused. - 



What groups of the foregoing antiquities are there repre- 

 sented on Clifton Down ? Those which have hitherto been 

 described by antiquaries are : (a) Clifton Camp above St. 

 Vincent's Rocks, and (&) Pit-dw^ellings within its area ; to 

 which are added (c) guards-pits for archers, and (c?) plat- 

 forms and defensive banks for slingers, on the sides of the 

 sloping approaches to the camp up Bridge Valley and in 

 Walcombe Slade. 



But in addition to these, which I do not intend to men- 

 tion further, there are the following remains, which, Vvdth my 

 brother's help, I have lately been mapping out, and which 

 are shown on the plan which accompanies this : — Track- 

 lines or Boundary-banks ; portions of two Enclosures 

 or Pounds ; bases of two Tumuli ; two lines of defensive 

 Pits running across the top of the down — one from near 

 the Pembroke Road quarry in a N.V/. direction towards the 

 slope this side of AValcombe Slade, and a second shorter one 

 a few yards distant on the south-west of the former. 



The wonder is there is so much still left to observe in 

 these days; for the proximity of a large city means that 

 every square yard of the downs, where not overgrown with 

 thick bushes, is trampled yearly by thousands of feet ; and 

 this, of course, causes much wearing away of any object 

 rising above the general surface. Then, again, the indis- 

 criminating ravages of wall-builders, road-menders, and 



