By William Long, Esq. 1U5 



the road from Bindon to Weymouth a great ditch, like Wansdike, 

 for several miles/ Hutchins' 'Dorset/ i., 217. No such ditch 

 is now visible on this line of road, but, after a long day's search, I 

 succeeded by an accident in finding its mutilated remains between 

 the Frome and Owre-brook. The bank was to the eastward, and I 

 have little hesitation in regarding this dike as a portion of the 

 western boundary of the first Belgic conquest. What course it took 

 to join Combe-bank, is, at present, only matter for conjecture; but 

 there are reasons for believing, that fragments of it still exist in the 

 neighbourhood of the Piddle river and ils tributaries.''' ^ 



" The second Belgic conquest,^' continues Dr. Guest, " may have 

 included the downs of Hants and South Wiltshire. The narrow 

 valleys that intersect the latter meet in the neighbourhood of Old 

 Sarum (Sorbiodunum) which must always have been, what in military 

 language might be termed, the Jcei/ of the district. 



" North of Heytesbury I found an ancient boundary-line — one 

 clearly of British origin, awAjierltaps anterior to the Roman conquest. 

 I traced it from the west of ' Knook Castle ' to within a couple of 



I Mr. C. Warne, F.S.A., in his " Ancient Dorset," (p. 4,) says . " Of the 

 many great works of early ages in Dorset, none can be said to have retained a 

 more tenacious hold of the surface than this great barrier called Bockley (or 

 Bokerley Dyke) ; for, while other Celtic works, as Woodbury and similarly 

 entrenched hills, are almost obliterated, this fine old Dyke still stands out in 

 all the freshness of its pristine grandeur, — a wonder of the precent, and a monu- 

 ment of a past age, untouched by the hand of time, and but slightly by that 

 of man. This work is so stupendous, and of such a bold aspect as to challenge 

 a parallel in any of the great Dykes which intersect other parts of this kingdom, 

 or exist in other countries. 



" Some idea of the magnitude and strength of Bockley may be understood 

 from the fact, that it measures 43, and in in some places 50, feet from the base 

 of the fosse on the Wiltshire side to the apex of the rampart, and from 24 to 

 30 feet thence to the level of the ground on the Dorset side." (p. 7.) 



Mr. Warne, in his valuable work, gives the following extract from Aubrey's 

 •' Monumenta Britannica," p. ii., p. 64: " Over Blagdon Hill, west of Merton 

 [Martin] there runnes a great crooked ditch, which comes from Cranborne Chase. 

 J. Golden told me it is called Grimsditch, qutcre, how far it runnes ? It parts 

 Dorsetshire from Wiltshire." "Aubrey's informant. Golden, confounded Bockley 

 Dyke with Grimsditch, the former being the one here described." 



£ee also the interesting paper on the ancient Wiltshire Dykes, by the Rev. 

 Prebendary W. H. Jones, in the fourteenth vol. of the Wiltshire Archajological 

 and Natural Kistory Society's Magazine. 



