DIKES. 215 



for the enclosure of cattle, and perhaps for the separation of 

 districts. Such are the dike at Flamborough, the great mounds 

 between the Swale and the Tees, and the numerous banks and 

 trenches on the Wolds. If it be asked for what reason these 

 are regarded as British rather than Saxon works, we must reply 

 that wherever the system of these earth-works can be studied, so 

 as to bring into one point of view the probable abode, way of 

 life, and mode of burial, the result is in favour of the British 

 claim. This may be exemplified on Acklam Wold, where double 

 and even triple dikes extend widely over the Wolds, embrace the 

 springs, and enclose many large and small sepulchral tumuli, 

 which contain only British remains. 



Of British cities in Yorkshire, using the word in its modern 

 sense, the dikes to which we have referred are not evidence, 

 though local groups of population seem to be indicated by them. 

 Nor do they mark at all clearly any large British camps, if we 

 mean by this term complete defensive enclosures. But if in 

 a large sense we accept the definition of Csesar, British ' oppida' 

 may be claimed. 



The British fortified places, if we may in this case so translate 

 Oppida, are described by Caesar as places of refuge ; points 

 naturally strong by difficult ground, marshes or wood, and still 

 further secured by mounds and ditches. To the ample area 

 thus protected, cattle and men retreated from hostile incur- 

 sions*. They were a sort of expanded encampment, cutting off 

 large promontories of hill, or fronting long valleys, not neces- 

 sarily completed like a Roman or Danish camp, though it often 

 was so in limited areas, as at Gadbury, Wall Hills, and the 

 Herefordshire Beacon. The banks and ditches were often 

 double, or even triple, as on Acklam Wold, at Garraby Hill, and 

 Ampleforth Common, in Yorkshire. It is singular that many 

 of these enclosures contain no spring or other obvious source of 

 water, such, however, being not unfrequently near to them (as 

 Walm's Well, under the Herefordshire Beacon). The Acklam 

 * Bell. Gall. v. 21. 



