I go CHALBURY RINGS AND RIMBURY. 



and possibly are there now. This spring doubtless supplied the 

 folks of Chalbury Rings, but in time of siege it must have been 

 hard to come at. 



An uncommon, although by no means unique, feature at 

 Chalbury consists of two barrows within the lines, towards the 

 east side. For the most part the Celts, like the Romans, 

 abstained from burying the dead among the dwellings of the 

 living. But the Celts at times broke this rule. In Poundbury 

 Rings, Dorchester, for instance, there is a barrow. One of the 

 much less complete Chalbury barrows was opened by the late 

 Mr. Warne. He found it a hard task, for the barrow is formed 

 " principally of rubble stones of a large size." Two urns were 

 found, both shattered to fragments, with remains of burnt bones. 

 At the bottom of the barrow a large quantity of bones of mice 

 were lying. Such, Mr. Warne says, have been discovered in 

 French barrows, and in Derbyshire barrows Mr. Bateman 

 constantly found rats' bones. 



Besides the barrows within Chalbury Rings certain minor 

 disturbances of the surface there should be noticed " slight 

 shallow depressions and circular banks of earth," as Warne hath 

 it. It must be confessed, however, that to the untrained eye 

 these are not quite convincing as witness to the holding of the 

 site as a place of permanent dwelling. 



Standing on Chalbury we can hardly fail to notice the rough, 

 up-and-down surface of part of Loddon, the hill just to the west. 

 These inequalities are marks of quarries. The tradition is that 

 " all t'wull annshent buildens to Darchester were mead out o' 

 Loddon stwun lovely stwun 'twas, too, come to that." 



Lastly we must say a little about what seems to have been part 

 and parcel of Chalbury, not as a place of defence, but as a 

 permanent settlement. Considering the nearness of Chalbury to 

 the Ridgeway barrows, especially the Culliford Tree group, and 

 the five seen against the sky line on Bincombe Hill, the natural 

 idea is that in them or some of them lie the ashes of the head- 

 men of the Chalbury clan. It is possible. It is, however, made 

 less likely than otherwise it would be by the existence of old of 



