40 EARLY MAN IN DORSET. 



Many other dykes whose remains we can now trace may 

 have been thrown up merely as a protection against the 

 wind ; and the desire to secure such shelter will account for 

 the universal tendency to dig which has left such enduring 

 traces all over the Chase. " Grims Ditch " is thought to be 

 a tribal boundary, and other dykes and ditches represent 

 cattle enclosures. 



The Romans were not generous in their treatment of their 

 British subjects ; no British names occur among those 

 holding office or exercising power. Little was done to train 

 them for self-defence. The Roman Legions were finally 

 withdrawn, in 418 A.D. according to Bede, to stem the tide 

 of Teutonic invasion, and soon the Britons were engaged in 

 a desperate struggle with these same invaders. That 

 struggle has left an indelible scar across Cranborne Chase 

 in Bokerly Dyke. This is a great intrenchment which rambles 

 in a most irregular and perplexing manner over the downs, 

 showing the sort of thing the Britons would do when deprived 

 of Roman supervision. No doubt it served its purpose as 

 a defence for a while. We hear of a great battle fought at 

 Mons Badonicus, which is almost certainly Badbury Rings. 

 This held back the Saxon from 520 till 552 A.D. But then 

 the tide of Saxon conquest rolled on, and with this I must 

 close my sketch of " Early Man in Dorset." 



