28 The Eleventh General Meeting. 
of the lines of the old Roman roads; thus showing the foresight 
displayed by the ancient conquerors of England in taking the same 
routes as were now required by the necessities of modern commer- 
cial enterprise. He then observed that portions of the Bokerly 
Dyke and Grimsditch passed throngh this district. Vern Ditch 
was next referred to, aa forming part of Cranborne Chace, and 
some particulars connected with its disforesting were related. The 
owners of Cranborne Chace contended that it was in length from 
20 to 25 miles, and in breadth from 15 to 20 miles, making a 
circuit of nearly 100 miles, extending from Harnham Bridge, by 
the edge of Wilton, westward, by the river Nadder, thence south- 
ward to Shaftesbury, and to the banks of the Stour, near Stur- 
minster, thence to Blandford, following the Stour near Wimborne, 
then by Ringwood Bridge, Fordingbridge, and Downton, to 
Harnham Bridge, including a very large portion of the county of 
Dorset, no inconsiderable portion of the counties of Wilts and 
Hants, and the whole of the land within the Hundred ef Chalk. 
On the other hand it was contended by those who thought that 
these extensive boundaries were usurpations on the rights of the 
owners and occupiers of lands in Wiltshire and Hampshire, that 
the utmost extent of the Chase could not exceed the bounds of the 
county of Dorset. Throughout a long period of history the 
extensive rights claimed by the owners of Cranborne Chase, were 
objected to. In the 7th year of Edward I., an inquisition was 
taken, when it was found that the Chase did not belong to Wilts. 
Other instances were mentioned as showing the struggles which 
had been made in former days to prevent the operation of the 
forest laws in this part of Wiltshire. Somewhere about the years 
1813 or 1814, Lord Rivers, the owner of the Chase, attempted to 
put the ancient forest laws in force. It was asserted that Cran- 
borne Chase, though called a chase, was in truth a forest, and that 
it had all the rights that could belong to a forest attached to it; 
in consequence of which, in one part of the chase the inclosures 
which had been made on Pimperne Down, with fences no higher 
than those which a rabbit could easily have leapt over, were broken 
down. In the neighbourhood of Chalk, too, notices were given to 
