e Crenel? near ie 

 Ancient SSrifisI? 



(A DISCLAIMER.) 



By W. MILES BARNES. 



H ROUGH some inadvertence, my name was given 

 by Mr. Pope as favouring the opinion that the 

 trench cut through at the Brewery buildings 

 (see p. no of last year's Transactions) was a 

 Roman road from Dorchester to the Amphi- 

 theatre. 



I do not think the trench existed in Roman 

 times. 



The roads leading to Roman amphitheatres which are known 

 to me are all paved roads of the ordinary type, and I have never 

 heard of a Roman road cut deep into the earth and left unpaved. 

 Such a road on a slope, as here, would be a watercourse in wet 

 weather ; and after frost, if in the chalk, would be impassable ; 

 even in dry weather a chalk road is distinctly uncomfortable 

 to walk upon. Was the trench a road for ordinary traffic at all ? 

 A reference to the very excellent illustration to Mr. Pope's 

 paper, opposite page 105 in last year's Transactions, will make it 

 as clear to readers as it was to me from observation on the 



