21 8 EXCAVATIONS AT MAUMBCRY RINGS. 



Roman city owing to difficulties of ownership. The present 

 year, however, has seen not only a continuation of operations at 

 Maumbury Rings (from August 3oth to September 2ist, exclusive 

 of filling in), but also some notable work at the amphitheatre, 

 known as " King Arthur's Round Table," at Caerleon, by the 

 Liverpool Committee for Research in Wales excavations which 

 have already produced several features of interest, including a 

 centurial stone built into the arena wall ; and the writer has had 

 the privilege of excavating the so-called "amphitheatre" at 

 Charterhouse-on-Mendip on behalf of the Somersetshire Archae- 

 ological and Natural History Society.* 



Before proceeding to give a summary of the work completed 

 at Maumbury this year I wish to point out, as director of the 

 excavations, that without the assistance, support, and counsel of 

 the chairman and members of the sub-committee and others, the 

 amount of work completed its thorough record, the supervision 

 of an increased number of workmen, and the general organisa- 

 tion such detailed work involves would have been an impossible 

 task for me, considering the space of time at our disposal for 

 the carrying out of this, the second series of excavations. It will 

 not, I am sure, be regarded as invidious if the names of Captain 

 Acland and Mr. C. S. Prideaux are mentioned here. My 

 personal thanks are due to both of them, not only for their 

 untiring energy and assiduity, but for the time and enthusiasm 

 which so clearly marked their keen interest in the daily develop- 

 ment of the work. 



Many antiquaries and others have expressed a wish that the 

 excavations might be left open for some time, as at Avebury, so 

 that they might afford an object lesson to the many visitors 

 anxious to study the structure of the place. The committee, 

 however, was under a promise to disfigure the grass-clad slopes 

 as little as possible a stipulation which will be better understood 

 when it is stated that the Corporation of Dorchester rents the 



* Described in the Tfocccdbujn of that Society, Vol. LV., 1909, with contoured 

 plan, sectional diagrams, aud other illustrations. 



