100 PAPERS, ETC. 
should be regarded as spots consecrated to history, and 
should be everywhere carefully preserved from injury. 
They are landmarks denoting the progress of society, 
tracing the gradual growth of anation’s greatness, pointing 
out how it has emerged from darkness into that light of 
eivilization which by the mercy of God it now enjoys. 
By means of these earth-works, it is highly probable that 
we can trace the first settlement of colonists in this 
country. i'he lands most probably first inhabited were 
the Chalk Downs—the high lands running through Sussex, 
Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, 
Derbyshire, and on into Yorkshire, as far as the sea on 
the east—all present traces of early occupation. Along 
the lines of uncultivated down land, you find a series of 
eamps, which could communicate by signal, and at no 
great distance apart, which were no doubt the strongholds 
of the first inhabitants of the island, who used them as 
places of safety and defence for themselves, and for the 
protection of their cattle against the wolves and other 
beasts of prey which swarmed in the forests which then 
covered the low lands. The first occupants of the country 
no doubt seized upon the high lands, where they fed their 
sheep, and by degrees extended their dominion into the 
vales, and brought them into some degree of cultivation. 
I am inclined to think that the line of the chalk formation 
pretty fairly marks out the limit of first civilization. Yet, 
as it is to be feared every year makes these ‚interesting 
reliques more scarce, by reason of the daily improvements 
in agrieulture, and the increase of population—as waste 
lands are now so generally being enclosed, and spots 
bitherto uneultivated afford space to the spread of popu- 
lation—it is well that the pen of history should gather up 
what is left, and place it before the minds of men both as 
