$0 NOTES ON MAJOR COATES' DISCOVERY. 



chalk sides of the channel were perfect, but at Combe Bottom, 

 about nine inches of the top of the sides were a little broken 

 down, which was to be expected in an open field frequented by 

 cattle. 



The filling of the trench at Poundbury (A, see map), was 

 wholly of fine earth, and amongst it, at about two feet from the 

 surface, a horseshoe of mediaeval or Roman form was dug up 

 with two nails still in it. The horseshoe is now in the Museum. 



At Combe Bottom (B) the filling of the trench was at the 

 bottom fine earth, containing what appeared to be clay. At the 

 top flints, which abound in the valley, were intermingled with the 

 soil. 



At Bradford (C) the channel was not dug out ; it would have 

 required too much labour to remove the large quantity of earth 

 which now buries it, but the outer bank was cut through, show- 

 ing, as in the section dug out a little beyond it by the road 

 surveyor, the original slope of the hill, and the chalk thrown out 

 of the channel upon the top of it by the Roman excavators. 



At Poundbury the channel was lined with a material which 

 might have been cement. I think there had been the same 

 lining at Combe Bottom, but there it was more broken up. The 

 material was of a very tough and tenacious nature, and was with 

 difficulty removed with a spade ; it hardened on exposure to the 

 air. 



The survey showed that the gradient was exceedingly low, for 

 which reason it now seems possible that the stream may have 

 run down its natural channel, or not far from it, from Compton 

 to Littlemore ; this channel might have been paved, or pipes 

 may have been used. The reservoir into which it emptied, and 

 which would be the head of the gradient aqueduct, should be 

 looked for at Littlemore. The artificial tanks near the Rectory 

 may have been constructed to serve as the spring head. But 

 these are conjectures ; the one fact which seems clear and 

 indisputable is that there was an aqueduct which conveyed water 

 to Dorchester in ancient times, and that the excavations have 

 disclosed it. 



