48 Harrow before the Conquest. 



been unable to examine it. The work consists of a fosse and an 

 embankment, and in some places of two fosses — one on each side 

 of the embankment. At the western or nearest extremity the height 

 of the embankment is, as far as I can judge, eight feet, measuring 

 from the level of the bottom of the fosse ; and the breadth, measuring 

 it from the bottom of the ditch, is about twenty feet. As it con- 

 tinues eastward its size greatly increases, and in some places the 

 height is about twenty feet, and the breadth sixty feet. The fosse 

 here becomes filled with water, and the whole as it rises, waving 

 with trees and fern, presents one of the most pleasing sights in our 

 neighbourhood. It is extremely remarkable that the local name 

 given to this earthwork is " Grimes' dykes," a name which has 

 been given to earthworks of this sort all over England, and which 

 signifies in the original Saxon " Mystic dykes." Thus we may 

 gather from the name itself that the embankment is probably 

 British, since even invaders of our island so early as the Saxons 

 looked upon its origin as lost in mystic antiquity, and gave it the 

 name which it still bears ; but, putting aside this curious light 

 which even the present name throws upon its authorship, its 

 gigantic size and shape point undoubtedly to an ancient British 

 origin. It is almost needless to expatiate here on the vast amount 

 of labour which this enormous construction must have required, 

 but when we consider the necessarily imperfect tools which our 

 ancestors must have used, this and similar works must ever remain 

 to us as memorials that our forefathers of British times possessed at 

 least a share of the industry, if not the civilization, of the nineteenth 

 century. The earthwork itself is far too extensive and laborious 

 to have been simply a temporary camp built by some perhaps 

 nomad tribe. On the contrary, the large line of territory which it 

 was intended to defend points to the fact that it must have been 

 the work of some large and settled tribe, and we will probably be 

 not far from the mark if we ascribe it to late British workmanship, 

 possibly belonging to that period which immediately preceded the 

 invasion of Caesar, when at least this portion of our country 

 enjoyed a state of barbarous civilization, and even possessed a 

 regular graduated coinage. On this and no other supposition I 

 will hazard a few remarks as to the individual tribe which it may 

 have belonged to. Assuming my hypothesis about the date to 

 be correct, there were at that time three great tribes of ancient 

 Britons in this neigbourhood, namely, the Cattyeuchlani, the 

 Trinobantes, and the Dobuni, who, however, would hardly come 

 into this district. Of these the Cattyeuchlani seem to have been 

 the most powerful, and to have been settled in Herts and Essex. 

 From the fact that the larger fosse, and in most places the only 

 fosse of the embankment, is on the Middlesex side ; it is evident 



