288 South Wilts in Romano-British Times. 



Thus, the system of defence in the hill settlements is an illustration 

 of the " activity of organized villages " ^ and of the remark 

 that the " process of Romanizing municipalisation not only 

 slackened, especially in the third and fourth centuries, but even gave 

 vpay to a movement of recoil created by the grovv'ing importance of 

 rural life." ' And we shall probably not be wrong in thinking, 

 although each place must be considered on its own merits, and 

 the spade must come before the pen, that the " camps" and" castles " 

 illustrate the native^ "strong under-current of Celtic life" which 

 grew into " the powerful Celtic revival of tlie fifth and sixth 

 centuries," when the people had to rely upon themselves.* 



Similarly, the roads which we have endeavoured to trace, illus- 

 trate the conclusions at which Professor Boyd Dawkins ^ has 

 arrived as to native pre-Eoman work in local roads. 



If these sites were investigated, Battlesbury Camp, the Eoman 

 Road and the ditch in Groveley, and Yarnbury Castle, more light 

 might be thrown upon the dark ages of early history. Perhaps 

 their turn will come when Crete, Egypt, and Rhodesia have been 

 dug up. South Wilts is yielding up her secrets, but these are 

 some which she is still keeping. 



III. — Additional Notes on the Eahly History of the 

 Upper Wylye Valley. 



A few corrections and additions to the previous paper ^ on the 

 early history of the Upper Wylye Valley may be permitted 

 here. And just one more word on that puzzle, the derivation of 



' Prof. Vinogradoff, " The Grotvth of the Manor " (1905), p. 49. 



- The Grotvth of the Manor, p. 47. 



^ The Growth of the Manor, p. 42. See the whole of his chapter " Eoman 



Influence," a summing up of the work of preceding writers; and Haverfield, 



Romanhation of Roman Britain; (Frowde, 1906), valuable, and criticising 



Vinogradoff. 



^ But on the Romanization of Rushmore, Woodcuts, and Silchester, see 

 Haverfield, Romanization of Roman Britain, pp. 14, 18, 19. 

 '" Manchester Guardian, May 30th, 1904. 

 * Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. xxxiii., p. 109, 



