er 
— ae 
On the Excavations at Rotherley, Woodcuts, and Bokerly Dyke. 307 
But further discoveries had yet to be made. The Cross Drain, 
which runs parallel to the Roman Road, and which is on that account 
assumed to be more recent than it, was found to cut across the ditch 
of the dyke at a higher level than the bottom of it,and must, therefore, 
have been constructed before the ditch of the dyke, unless it was 
construeted after the latter had silted up, which is improbable. This 
Cross Drain can only be shown by a very fine line on the accom- 
panying map, this part of the evidence, therefore, cannot be well 
understood except by reference to the larger map, which will ac- 
company my third volume of excavations. On following the Cross 
Drain further south it was found to run into a deep hole, no trace 
of which was seen on the surface. This, being cleared out, was found 
to be the section of another ditch in rear of, and of about the same 
size, as the one in front of it, and it now appeared very probable 
that this must have been a second and older dyke, in rear of the 
first. I therefore had sections cut east and west,.and by this means 
traced the Rear Dyke to its junction with what I now call the Fore 
Dyke, just beneath the Salisbury Road. It was now found that 
the ditch of the Rear Dyke crossed that of the Fore Dyke at this 
spot, at a slightly higher level, and went on to form the outer ditch 
of Section 1. The Fore Dyke was the most recent, as it crossed 
the Rear Dyke at a lower level, and went on to form the inner ditch 
in Section 1. This accounted for the double ditch, which had so 
puzzled us when it was first discovered. It was evident the Rear 
Dyke, for some reason, had been filled in from the point of junction, 
and the Fore Dyke made at the same time, and that when this 
occurred the makers of the Fore Dyke ran their ditch on in rear of 
the other, along the whole face of the left centre dyke. This may 
have been owing to the old escarp of the first ditch having become 
rotten and unsuitable for a defence, and to its being found necessary 
to form another fresh escarp of solid chalk by cutting another ditch 
in rear. The probability is that the outer ditch was filled up at this 
time, so that there never was more than one ditch open at the same 
time. The whole of the defence, in fact, must have been renewed 
at the time the Fore Dyke was made. 
This discovery increased the importance of Section 1, as that 
