On the Excavations at Rotherley, Woodcuts, and Bokerly Dyke. 298 
This also it may be well to pass over for the present. The dyke in 
this part, which I term the right centre, is thrown forward at a very 
obtuse angle. The reason for this does not appear to have been 
noticed by previous writers. It was not, certainly, thrown forward 
in order to secure strong ground, for the apex of the angle is in the 
bottom of a valley. But just in rear of the entrenchment, at its 
most advanced point, in the bottom of the hill, the verdure of the 
grass and crops, marked by a black oval patch in the map, seems to 
denote comparatively rich soil, and it appears probable that a spring 
or wells formerly existed in this place, the water from which, if a 
spring, must have run down hill beyond the dyke to the eastward. 
It was, I apprehend, in order to secure this spot that the dyke was 
thrown forward. The northern or left face of this advanced portion 
of the dyke terminated in a re-entering angle, which I fix upon as 
the centre of the position. From this spot the dyke runs in a 
north-west direction, with a high bank and deep ditch, to Bokerly 
Gap, which is a part of the dyke about 120yds. in length, in 
which the rampart has been, I believe, at some time removed for 
top dressing the soil, but of this 1 have no certain evidence. Con- 
tinuing in the same line beyond the Gap we come to an epaulement, 
which has attracted the notice of archxologists. It is a spur, or 
short branch, of the dyke which turns abruptly westward, with a 
ditch to the north, and runs across a short natural ¢erre-plein of the 
hill, for about 180ft., and terminates in a shallow combe, in the rear 
of the main dyke. It has been conjectured that this epaulement 
was the original termination of the dyke at its north end, at a time 
when the Cranbourne Chase Wood extended thus far from the 
northward, and this is rendered probable from the fact that even 
within the memory of persons now living this spot was occupied 
by a wood or copse. I shall have to return to this epaulement 
hereafter. Leaving the epaulement, Bokerly Dyke runs on con- 
tinuously to the north-west until the part, termed the Shoulder 
Angle on my map, is reached. Here it turns westward for about 
200yds, until it touches the modern Salisbury Road. The old 
Roman Road here cuts the dyke at nearly the same spot, and makes 
here its first and only turn of any importance between Sarum and 
