By T. H. Baker. 227 
19,806 acres. Therefore a considerable area of down land, wastes, — 
and woods could not have been included, and, as we shall see 
hereafter in mentioning the account given in the “Exchequer 
Domesday,” only a very small portion of the parish of Mere is 
included in that return. 
British ANTIQUITIES. 
That a considerable population inhabited this district in remote 
ages is evident from the numerous works of British origin still 
existing. The Pen Pits extended far into the parish of Mere till 
within the memory of man, and for whatever purpose they were 
excavated their antiquity is undoubted. The downs still retain 
traces of ancient cultivation; banks, ditches, covered ways, and 
barrows abound, in addition to the camp on Whitesheet Hill, 
locally called “Old Castles,” which is partly within this parish and 
partly in Stourton. Sir R. C. Hoare has minutely described most 
of these works in “Ancient Wiltshire,” and he also is of opinion 
that the old trackway over the downs from Chadenwyche Hill to 
Long Lane—now almost disused, but till within the last few years 
the high road from Sarum to the West of England—is of British 
origin. A gold British coin of the type Fig. 6, Pl. I., in “ The 
Coins of the Ancient Britons,” by John Evans, F.S.A., was found 
about thirty years ago at Brewham Forest, near Stourton Tower, 
and came into the possession of the late Mrs. Mathews, of Mere. — 
Roman ANTIQUITIES. 
Although no indications of a Roman settlement have been dis- 
covered in the parish, yet the number of coins found testify to the 
occupation of the district in that period. In 1856 an urn was dug 
up by men engaged in draining a piece of land immediately ad- 
joining the town for the purpose of forming a new cemetery. It 
contained about two hundred and seventy denarii, ranging from 
A.D. 65 to A.D. 166 (see Wilts Arch. Mag., xxvii., 177). Most 
of the coins found in this locality are of the Constantine age, and a 
large percentage are of Carausius. 
