264 The Downs. 



The date of these interments of former inhabitants of this part of 

 England must always be a matter of speculation ; and so far do 

 they date back, that probably when Caesar landed, they presented 

 to him the same appearance as they do to us. Other earthworks 

 of various descriptions break the even surface of the downs, the 

 nature and purpose of which are far more difficult to explain. 

 Some appear to have been small enclosures, which the Eev. 

 A. C. Smith suggests were pens for cattle yards enclosed by high 

 banks, into which the animals were driven for safety from the 

 wolves, or equally rapacious hostile tribes. Those who have occa- 

 sion to travel along the turnpike road leading from Salisbury to 

 Blandford, can hardly fail to notice as they approach Woodyates 

 Inn, one of the most remarkable earthworks in the kingdom — 

 known as Bokerley Dyke. This great earthwork consists of a 

 bank and ditch — with the ditch towards the north — stretching, as 

 far as it remains at present, from the northern end of Cranbourne 

 Chase, across the open down south of the village of Martin, to the 

 wooded heights of Martin Wood and Boveridge. Very great as the 

 labour must have been of throwing up so large a mound, it bears every 

 trace of being the work of a very rude people. Without a plan, and 

 without its proposed course being marked out, it is perpetually alter- 

 ing its direction ; and to a person standing on its highest part 

 towards Cranbourne, it seems to resemble in its course rather that of 

 a river than of a preconcerted work of man. An imaginative mind 

 may picture to itself a barbarian race labouring with savage energy 

 at this great work, but almost without control from any master 

 mind. Some chief, perhaps, whilst urging on his men, might 

 notice that the work was tending somewhat to the right or left of 

 the intended course, and would set the workers right : after some 

 few yards in the proper course, however, the work again diverts, 

 which necessitates another change ; and thus the dyke obtains its 

 somewhat erratic form. The present age justly prides itself upon 

 its eno-ineering triumphs — its railway cuttings and embankments ; 

 and great works they are, but the means of executing them are 

 equally great, owing to the strides which science has made, and 

 the infinite improvement in the manufacture of implements. This 



