51 THE TRENCH NEAR THE AMPHITHEATRE. 



spot, that the trench has been cut in the chalk, and not worn 

 down in it by use, and that very little traffic has passed over it, 

 for the bottom is level and the angles are sharp. This seems to 

 dispose of the theory that the channel is a British trackway or a 

 mediaeval pack-horse road, both of which, like the sunken track 

 at Came, would be worn hollow. Besides, if it was either, it 

 would have been carried past the Amphitheatre, and this trench 

 did not go beyond it, for it does not appear in the slope of the 

 railway cutting just beyond it on the south side ; it clearly had 

 something to do with the Amphitheatre, but what that some- 

 thing was is not so apparent. Let us try to find out by an 

 examination of the trench and its contents. 



I would first of all point out that the filling in was inten- 

 tionally done ; the trench was not gradually filled up by drifting 

 sand and dust, or by the sides being trodden down into it by 

 beasts, because the sides are sharply cut, and the filling in is not 

 of fine earth, but of earth mingled with lumps of chalk. The 

 character and sharpness of the cutting, and its filling, suggest 

 that it was made for a temporary purpose. It is also apparent that 

 the earth and chalk thrown out from the trench were thrown up 

 on both sides ; that the channel was not open for long not long 

 enough for time to disintegrate the chalk sides of it and that, 

 when its purpose was served, the earth and chalk thrown out of 

 it were thrown back again mingled, the workers commencing on 

 the west bank and completing the filling with the material 

 thrown out on the east bank. 



We must now look back over the history of Dorchester to find 

 some incident in that history which would suit these conditions. 

 The only incident I can think of which might account for it 

 was one which occurred in the course of the Civil Wars. 

 Dorchester on one occasion was threatened by the Royalists, 

 and the Parliamentarians converted the Amphitheatre into a 

 fort. 



Was the trench a protected and defensible way from Dor- 

 chester to this fort, to be used in the event of an assault being 

 made upon the town ? 



