340 Excavations in Wansdyke, 1889—91. 
classical scholar, and he has done so much by his researches into the 
ancient authors, that his topography has been accepted with too 
much readiness, The Bokerly entrenchment, dating beyond doubt 
as late as the departure of the Romans from Britain, cannot have 
been erected much earlier than the year A.D. 520, when the West 
Saxons, under Cerdic and Cynrie, after having taken Sorbiodunum, 
advanced westwards to the capture of Mons Badonicus, supposed, 
but not proved, by Dr. Guest to be Badbury. Speaking of this 
district and period, Mr. Green, in his “ Making of England,” says :— 
** How roughly the march of the West Saxons was checked at this 
point by the dense forests, we see by the fact that these woodlands 
remained in British hands for more than a hundred years, and the 
significant name of ‘ Mere” preserves for us the memory of the 
border-bound which the Gewissas were forced to draw along the 
western steep of their new conquest.” There are many spots in the 
neighbourhood which originally terminated in “mere.” My own 
house—Rushmore—was originally spelt Rushmere, and Bridmore, 
close by, formerly written Bridmere or Britmere, was no doubt the 
boundary of the Britons, in the same way that Britford, near 
Salisbury, is recognised as the ford of the Britons. If anyone will 
read all that part of Mr. Green’s history, keeping in view the ex- 
istence of this defensive work of Bokerly, I think he will see how 
important a part it might have played in influencing the vourse 
taken by the Saxons at this time. In the 3rd 4to volume of my 
*‘ Excavations in Cranborne Chase,” in which the plans, sections, 
and drawings of the objects are given in great detail, I have 
suggested another possible use for Bokerly Dyke, and I have given 
some reasons for the supposition that the Bokerly Dyke and the 
Grim’s Dyke might have been thrown up for the purpose of driving 
deer and other animals into the Cranborne Chase forest ; but this is 
only an alternative suggestion, and not one to which I adhere in 
the present state of our evidence in the matter. 
As regards Wansdyke, the evidence leaves open a wider field for 
conjecture. The first period to which it can reasonably be assigned 
is that which followed the expedition of Aulus Plautius in A.D. 43. 
Tacitus (Annals, xii., 31), in describing the action of his successor, 
