COUKSE OF TIIK WANSDYKE. 23 



Knoll and Stantonbury can easily be watched from a large 

 camp formed at the extremity of Lansdown, overlooking 

 North Stoke ; and Hampton Down again is checked by an 

 earthwork on little Salisbury. It is instructive therefore 

 to see how carefully each frontier was guai'ded, and from 

 observing this we have a more exalted idea of tke System 

 of warfare and defence, in those early times. 



In conclusion a word or two should be said about the 

 probable period of the first formation of Wansdyke. It is 

 uncertain at what precise period, as Sir R. C. Hoarc 

 observes, the ßelgaj first invaded Britain, but it is sup- 

 posed to have been four or five centuries before Christ. 

 " After forciug the barrier of the Rinne, they over-ran and 

 concpiered the Netherlands, and all that part of Gaul 

 north of the Seine, and from Gessoriacum (Bologne) and 

 Portus Iccius (Wissan) crossed the Channel into Britain, 

 and drove the Celts successively from the county of Kent, 

 the greater part of Hants, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, 

 Devon, and Cornwall, and from a part of Berks, where 

 the Thamcs and Wansdyke formed their native boundary. 

 But under their general, Divitiacus, they crossed the 

 Thames, and concpiered Essex, part of Herts, and made 

 inroads into Berks and Buckinghamshire." Wansdyke is 

 supposed to mark the last of their concpiests, before Diviti- 

 acus crossed the Thames. With respect to Divitiacus, I 

 have noticed in another place, that Caesar informs us he 

 had been King of the Suessiones, and even in bis time 

 (nosträ etiam memoria) the most powerful chief in Gaul, 

 and that he had obtained supremacy not only over a great 

 portion of Belgic Gaul, but of Britain also. These were 

 the lattcr Belgic concpiests, but anterior to the date of 

 Crcsar's invasion, 55 b.c., and after Divitiacus crossed the 

 Thames, hcncc the date of Wansdyke must have been 



