Anangural Address by the President of the 
Society, 
Lr.-Gen. Prrt-Rivers, F.R.S., F.S.A., 
On the Greadations at Rotherley, Woodents, and Hokerly Dyke. 
SN two copiously illustrated and privately-printed quarto 
volumes I have described the excavations that I have 
made in the neighbourhood of Rushmore, Wilts, during the last 
ten years, the chief part of which relates to the two Romano-British 
villages of Woodcuts and Rotherley, just outside the Park. They 
were proved by the coins found in them to be of the Roman age, 
though probably occupied chiefly by Britons, one or two British 
coins having been found with the Roman ones in both villages. 
Both villages were alike in their general arrangement, and their 
chief feature consisted of pits, 8ft. Gin. to 10ft. in diameter, and 
Sft. 6in. to 9ft. deep, filled up to the top with earth and refuse, so 
that no trace of them could be seen on the surface. Of these ag 
many as ninety-five were found in Woodcuts, and ninety-two in 
Rotherley. The area occupied by the pits was drained by deep 
trenches, 3ft. to 8ft. deep, also filled up to the top with earth and 
: refuse, and laid out in such a manner as to carry the water down 
the hill; the different drains branching out of each other like the 
| Be ninrice of a stream or river, the main streams of which, in both 
villages, ran along the two sides of a road leading from the village 
towards lower ground, and showing that one of the chief concerns 
of the inhabitants, in those days, was to carry off the heavy rain, 
of the prevalence of which certain passages in the ancient writings 
appear to hint, and geological and other researches confirm the 
impression that there must have been a much larger supply of 
‘water in early times than now. A well 188ft. deep was also re- 
‘excavated, and the Roman bucket found at the bottom, but no 
‘VOL. XXV.—NO. LXXY. x 
