18 PAPERS, ETC. 



All this is evidence ol' the r/real antiquity of Wansdyke. 



We have it first thrown up by the Belgas as their 

 boundary, then adapted to the purposes of a Roman road 

 during part of its course through Wiltshire, and aftemoards 

 heightened and strengthened as a barrier in Saxon times. 

 Thus the cxamination of it, brings before our rainds three 

 distinct perioda of history. Its Belgic foundation, its 

 Roman adaptation, and its Saxon completion. 



Surely it is a monumcnt well worthy of preservation, but 

 how ruthlcssly has it been treated, and how little is the 

 interest with which this most curious relic of antiquity is 

 regarded? May we not hope that what little is still 

 left of it may be most carefully prcserved ! Surely if 

 Soeicties like ours call attention to the preservation of such 

 historic records, and aftbrd acenrate aecounts of them as 

 existing in our own and preceding times, they confer a 

 very great benefit not only on the present, but upon un- 

 born generations. 



Any notice of Wansdyke would be incomplete without 

 examining what has been said by former writers re- 

 specting it, and correcting errors into which they have 

 fallen. Thus R. C. Iloare in bis Ancicnt Wilts has stated 

 the points upon which he considers Collinson in bis History 

 of Somerset to have erred. As the work of Sir Richard 

 is not very accessible, and as few are acquainted with the 

 survey of Wansdyke which he has recorded, and the 

 minuteness and care bestowed by him upon it, I feel that I 



way, i.e. Roman Way Hill, he says "Soon after it ineets with the Wansdyke 

 deseeudiug the liill just by the gibbet, here it enters füll into it, and very 

 dexterously niakes use of it all along to the bottom, on a very convenient 

 shelf, or spurn of the hill, at the place of the union is a ftexure of the 

 Wandsyke, so that the Roman road eoineides with it directly, and in order to 

 raise it from the ditch into the road, the Roman workmen have thrown in 

 most part of the rampire, still preserving it as a terrace to prevent the 

 (langer, and (he terror of the descent on the other side." 



