TYPES OF ANCIENT BRITISH EARTHWORKS. 65 



It is hardly possible that any one can pass an earthwork 

 disturbing the regulär beauty of the velvet turf of a cbalk 

 down, with its apparently shapeless masses, without wish- 

 ing to know by whom, and for what purpose, it was 

 constructed, and stopping to take a closer view of it. 

 When be observes marks of a rüde engineering science, 

 the entrance covered by flanking defences and commanding 

 courses of platfonns, he must wish to know its general 

 plan, and speculates upon the use of its different enclo- 

 sures ; when he finds hut-circles in sheltered recesses, and 

 sepulchral barrows on open downs, and observes the differ- 

 ence between the domestic pottery of the one and the 

 cinerary urns of the other ; when he observes the connec- 

 tion and means of communication establishecl through long 

 lines of country, by forts and beacons placed within sight 

 of each other, and traces the roads leading frorn one Station 

 to another, still visible on the smooth surface of the down, 

 it is impossible to resist the temptation to search for some 

 clue to the habits of those whose vestiges these things are, 

 and if he discovers in works apparently of the same period, 

 and evidently of rnilitary origin, types so completely dis- 

 tinct as clearly to indicate 'some difference either in the 

 intention or the nation of the constructors, to me at least 

 he would need no excuse for devoting some portion of bis 

 time to the attempt to elucidate the mystery of so extraor- 

 dinary a phenomenon. 



That this is the case, and that there are at least two 

 perfectly distinct types of military works to be found 

 among those commonly supposed to be British camps, will, 

 I think, be allowed by any one who will take the trouble of 

 inspecting the accompanying ground-plans. 



One, which I suppose to be that used in the construction 

 of purely military works, is usually found occupying isolated 



