llV. VALLEY OF PYDEL AND BUCKLAND NEWTON. 



which were certainly not of Roman construction. He was not 

 aware that any Roman remains had been found there to associate 

 the enclosure with the Romans. Possibly it might be Roman, 

 and his reason for admitting as much was that it was of so much 

 more recent date than any of the other earthworks on those 

 downs. The remains were so much bolder and sharper at the 

 corners that it pointed to a comparatively late date. The ditch 

 and bank would, of course, have been considerably higher many 

 years ago, and, with the bank surmounted by a palisade, it 

 would make a formidable entrenchment. Canon RAVENHILL 

 added that the enclosure was marked on the Ordnance map as 

 Church Hill, and it was supposed by the people of the country- 

 side to have been the site of a church ; but most antiquaries 

 considered it to be a Roman camp, and the Rev. William 

 Barnes, the Dorset poet, had laid it down that where a camp 

 was square or oblong it was probably of Roman construction. 

 Mr. C. S. PRIDEAUX observed that, as a rule, the Celtic 

 inhabitants of Britain, when constructing a camp on a hill, 

 followed the natural contour of the hill, so that such camps were 

 of irregular shape; but there was no evidence to show that, if 

 they were throwing up an earthwork on level ground, they would 

 not make it square. 



A little further on Mr. Dicker called attention to a pit from 

 which, probably in the Neolithic age, flints were quarried. 

 Such pits were very common on the downs. He pointed out 

 that the party had now reached the edge of the great rampart 

 and ditch that ran round the whole of that huge hill settlement. 

 They could see the rampart running zigzag along the brow of 

 the hill, and he pointed out one place where there was a double 

 bank and ditch. Almost wherever they found this great double 

 bank they found pits along it, and what these pits were for was a 

 great problem. He had no theory to offer on the subject himself. 

 The whole of the land inside the rampart was divided up into 

 great squares by banks, which were obviously artificial. They 

 were evidently the work of some ancient people who spared no 

 labour, and at a tremendous cost built those great works for 



