296 The Vale of Warminster. 
by the plough or spade, for agricultural purposes, the greater part 
of them were, in the first instance, the result of the action of water, 
in the manner and under the circumstances above described. I 
lately noticed, near Chaddleworth, in Berkshire, ranning along the 
side of a down, for half-a-mile, a whole series of such banks ; ¢erraces, 
if I may so speak, in embryo—not yet meddled with by the plough 
or spade, but their lines perfectly brought out by light and shadow : 
and quite capable of being made into terraces, if it were worth the 
while. I have also seen others, now under plough, but so narrow 
towards the end that the plough could no longer turn, leaving the 
ends accordingly under turf. 
The best way is, as I have already said, to study these things 
on a large scale, and with our own eyes. In the course of the ex- 
cursions, you will have the opportunity perhaps of noticing some of 
the features described. Near Mere, more particularly, there is one 
of the most extraordinary and curious assemblage of these terraces 
that I have ever seen. It is worth while, to those who care about 
such matters, to make a journey thither on purpose. There is a 
complete amphitheatre, certainly not less than two miles in cir- 
cumference, in which the sides of the downs that form it are abso- 
lutely scored with these banks: some of them divided one from 
another by a steep slope of twenty feet or more. To have made 
all these from the very beginning for the sake of recovering a few 
acres of arable ground would have required simply an enormous 
outlay of money: which alone seems to say that they are, in the 
main, the handiwork of Nature. 
In the northernmost parts of Wilts, where we have no such a 
thing as chalk, but hills of oolite or building stone of various quality, 
there are also to be seen dedges like those about the downs. In one 
or two cases where they immediately adjoin an old castle gate, as at 
Farleigh Castle, they have no doubt been formed by some proprietor 
on the side of a very steep rocky hill as ornamental walks for a 
pleasure ground or orchard. But I also know of valleys where the 
bottom is as nearly flat as possible, and yet there are, running on 
each side, and projecting a foot or two above the lowest level of the 
ground, long ledges, which it is impossible to imagine that anybody in 
et. See A ee 
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