16 PAPEBS, ETC. 



retains its ancieat British ramparts vvith a Roman camp 

 within it.* 



We may conjecture these camps ou the opposite side of 

 the Avon, to be fortresses of tvvo indepeudent and rival 

 tribes, the Belga? and Dobuni, and posts of Observation. 



These then are the vestiges which exist in Somersetshire 

 of this very extraordinary earthwork, which must ever be 

 an object of the greatest interest to the lover of antiquity. 



The name Wansdyke has been derived from two inde- 

 pendent sources. 



1. By Dr. Stukeley from the Ancient Celtic-British 

 word, guahanu, seperare, and denoting a line of demark- 

 ation, separating the Belgas from the Dobuni, the Atrebatii 

 and the Regni, and marking, according to Dr. Guest, the 

 "last frontier of the Belgic province," the "district which 

 the Roman Geographers assigned to the Belgce proper." 



2. By Mr. Leman and others from Woden the Saxon 

 Mercury, being formed from his name in the same way as 

 Wednesday, the day of the week. 



It is curious that this dyke is said by Sir R. C. Hoare 

 to exhibit marks of having been ased by the Saxons, as well 

 as the Belgse, and having been made a boundary between 

 two of their petty kingdoms, the West Saxon and Mercian. 

 " As to the antiquity," says he, " of this grand and ex- 

 tensive boundary, the Wansdyke. (which some writers 

 derive from the Saxon deity Woden, and Dr. Stukeley 

 from the British word "guahan," distinctio, seperatio), my 

 friend Mr. Leman had often stated his opinion to ine, that 

 the first bank and ditch were constructed by the Belga, 

 before the Roman scra, and that the said bank and ditch 



* See an account or these camps, with a drawiug, in the number of 

 the Proceedings of the Archaeological Association for July, 1857. 



