AN ANCIENT BRITISH TRACKWAY. IOQ 



have mentioned as being struck here at Dorchester seem to 

 belong. 



I think it may be fairly assumed that the wider and more 

 important British roadways were chiefly for wheel and cart 

 traffic, whereas the minor trackways which were sunk and 

 afforded considerable shelter, were used for horse and foot traffic. 

 That they were the roads or ways of the ancient Britons there can 

 be little doubt, as in almost every case they are found leading direct 

 to some well-known British settlement or town, and are invariably 

 found in connection with the earthwork of their own period, and 

 it is in the vicinity of these that they are more easily examined. 



I am sorry I have not been able to throw more light upon this 

 subject, which I fear has been but very indifferently brought 

 before you. It is one which, although interesting, appears to 

 have been little studied, and upon which it is somewhat difficult 

 to find reliable information. If, however, by ventilating the 

 subject the views of those members of the Club of greater 

 experience and better able to judge of the use of these dykes or 

 trackways than myself can be elicited, I shall feel that my time 

 and yours has not been altogether lost in its discussion. 



NOTE. Since writing this paper I have, on the suggestion of 

 the Rev. W. M. Barnes, made a more careful survey of the direc- 

 tion of the supposed trackway and marked its exact course, so far 

 as I have been able to follow it on the Ordnance Survey map, and 

 noted the places where it was cut through thereon. It appears 

 to have been first struck at the point E in the year 1879 at the 

 northern entrance of the Amphitheatre, as already stated ; next a 

 year later at the points A and B on the building of the Brewery 

 offices. Then it was cut through again about the year 1890 on 

 the extension of the police barracks, when the Rev. W. M. 

 Barnes made a careful examination of the excavations there and 

 a section to scale, which I understand from him is deposited in 

 the County Museum, and lastly it was struck during the present 

 year at the point C, where the photograph of the section above 

 referred to was taken. 



