1XX. WAREHAM AND LYTCHETT HEATH. 



abundance of evidence of extensive Roman occupation. There 

 were not only the earthen walls, but also, what was much less 

 conjectural, still standing upon the line of the rampart, a 

 fragment of the core of the Roman stone wall. Many tesselated 

 floors, some of them richly ornate, had been unearthed ; and, as 

 Mr. Warne's map showed, three or four Roman roads 

 converged upon the town, including the important Via Iceniana. 

 At Wareham there was a striking lack of such evidence. On 

 the other hand, proceeded Mr. Pouncy, there was good evidence, 

 both in the appearance of the town itself and in historical 

 records, of Wareham having been a town of some consequence 

 in Saxon days. Asser in 876 spoke of Castellum quod dicitur 

 Werham ; and Ethelwerd, the same year, made mention of 

 Oppidum quod Werham nuncupatur. Although it might be 

 questionable what Saxon work, if any, remained untouched in 

 the church of St. Martin which they had just left, there could be 

 no doubt that on that very spot in Saxon times stood a church ; 

 and in Wareham, on the banks of the Frome, was one of the 

 Saxon mints of Dorset. The geographical^ situation of the 

 town, then on an estuary of the sea, exposed it to attack by the 

 marauding Danes. For instance, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 

 recorded that in 876 the Danish army " stole away to Wareham, 

 a fortress of the West Saxons," and the next year it was stated 

 that " the army came to Exeter from Wareham." As to the 

 light which these historical records threw upon the problem of 

 the walls, good reason was shown why the Saxon inhabitants 

 should fortify the town against the repeated descents of the 

 Danish flotillas, and again why the Danes, when they had once 

 taken the town, which they occupied for a period, should 

 strengthen themselves in the possession of it. Then, expert 

 members of the British Archaeological Association, on their 

 recent visit to Wareham, stated that both the broad, shallow foss 

 outside the walls, so noticeable on the west and on the east, and 

 the clear space inside, between the walls and the buildings, 

 were typical of such earthworks thrown up by Saxons and 

 Danes. As to the so-called Roman "amphitheatre" was it 



