2 24 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1914 



MAIDEN CASTLE AND DORCHESTER. 



On the Thursday morning the Members left Weymouth by the 9.20 a.m. 

 for Dorchester ; here a brake was in readiness to convey the party to Maiden 

 Castle — the greatest prc-historic hill-camp in Britain. 



On the outward journey Poundbury Camp (Plate XXVIII., fig. 2) was 

 pointed out. It is doubtful by whom it was thrown up — whether by Romans, 

 Saxons or Danes. 



A short drive over well-cultivated country and chalk downs — close 

 cropped by large flocks of sheep — Dorset " horns " and " downs " — brought 

 the Members to the ancient hill-camp called "Maiden Castle." The camp 

 is an irregular oval in shape, being about 900 yards long and 400 yards at the 

 broadest place. A triple line of ramparts and ditches defend the north 

 front, with an extra line on the south, while the flanks are protected by a 

 maze of bastions and half-moon earthworks, through which the approaches 

 wind. The ditches vary in depth from 60 to 90 feet and the sides of the 

 ramparts are steep. The total area within the outer lip of the outermost ditch 

 is 115 acres. It was doubtless constructed in Neolithic times, and is probably 

 the Dunium of Ptolemy — the hill-fort of the Durotriges (Plate XXVII. figs. 

 I & 2). 



In the spring of 191 3 Maiden Castle was acquired by the Duchy of Corn- 

 wall, who already owned Maumbury Rings and Poundbury, and placed under 

 the care of the Commissioners of Works. 



Tumuli cover the chalk downs to the south of Maiden Castle. 



Maumbury Rings were next visited (Plate XXVIII., fig. i).> They con- 

 stituted the amphitheatre of the Romano-British Dumovaria, and were 

 constructed probably about or during the time of Agricola. The name is 

 connected by some with the Latin " momus," the Greek " mimos " and the 

 English " mummer " and " mummery," and is said to indicate the theatrical 

 exhibitions probably held here. General notice was first drawn to it by 

 Sir Christopher Wren, once M.P. for Weymouth. It is the finest relic of its 

 kind in the kingdom, and although differing from the amphitheatres of Italy, 

 it resembles, although it surpasses, the amphitheatres at Cirencester, Rich- 

 borough and Silchester. It is an oval or elliptical earthwork, the long diameter 

 being north-east to south-west, and was formed by excavating the chalk 

 and banking it up to a height of about 35 feet. There was an entrance to the 

 east and another opposite, but the opening has been filled in, probably in the 

 great Civil War, when the Roundhead garrison converted it into a fort to with- 

 stand the advance of the Royalists from Weymouth under Lord Carnarvon. 

 The dimensions were : long diameter. 345 feet ; shorter diameter, 340 feet. 

 The terrace on the top of the bank was 12 feet wide, and the original dimen- 

 sions of the area were about 220 feet by 140 feet. In 1706 the accommodation 

 of the amphitheatre was tested to its utmost capacity, for when Mary 

 Channing, the girl- wife of a Dorchester tradesman, was strangled and burnt 

 for the alleged murder of her husband, ten thousand people are said to have 

 thronged the place to gaze on the ghastly spectacle ! 



In Roman times Dorchester (" Dumovaria ") was a large and important 

 town. It stood on the great Via Iceniana, and roads radiated from it to Wey- 

 mouth (Clavinio), to Ilchester, and to Badbury Rings. The town is on the 

 usual Roman plan and was contained by a vallum with a thick stone wall 

 on the top. Unfortunately, practically all the wall has been pulled down and 

 cleared away ; but the members saw a piece in the West Walk — a small 

 portion of the core : grouted flint, rock chalk, and unshapen stone, rudely 

 arranged in courses of herringbone formation. Several handsome Roman 

 pavements have been found and the best removed and relaid in cement in 



I H. St. John Gray, " Interim Report on the Excavations at Maumbury Rings. Dorchester. 

 Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist, and Antiqu. F.C., vol. xxx. (igoq), pp. 215-235. 



