ancient Terraffed Works. 423 
works, which is the moft extenfive I remember 
to have obferved. 
That fuch terraces were intended for mili- 
tary purpofes, can hardly be doubted ; but in 
what age, or with what particular view they 
were formed, has never yet been determined. 
Mr. Wallis, in his Antiquities of Northum- 
berland, fuppofes them to have been ftations 
for parading the militia; but it is improbable, 
that in rude times, fo much exertion fhould 
have been employed, in places not eafily acces= 
‘fible, for a purpofe, to which a level furface was 
much better adapted. On the contrary, their 
pofition, on commanding fituations, fecured by 
precipices, or difficult eminences on both flanks, 
or covered by advanced works of the fame kind, 
but of fmaller fize, points them out as lines of 
defence. I believe they are chiefly to be traced 
on the moft acceffible parts of a high country, 
or rifing from the brink of a river, to defend 
the paflage. By what people they were raifed, 
it is very difficult to conjefture. They differ in 
every particular from the Britifh works, defcribed 
_ by Cefar, and are probably of more recent date, 
for they indicate the accefs of the invaders to 
the interior, and ftronger part of the country. 
And no traces of the Britifh dry walls appear 
in them, although ftone is plentiful on the very 
ground where they are formed. They refem- 
ble, 
