Ixxiii. 



THIRD SUMMER MEETING. 

 POETESHAM AND BRIDEHEAD DISTRICT. 



THE THIRD SUMMER MEETING was held on Thursday, August 

 2oth. The party numbered about 70. 



Dr. H. Colley March, F.S.A., a Vice- President and ex-Secretary 

 of the Club, acted as conductor during the day, and prepared the 

 following " Notes " as an outline of the programme. 



All among the Barrows. Who would not be there ! Nevertheless, at this 

 time of the year the path often lies through nettles and thistles. 



The highway from Dorchester is left by the cemetery, and the route passes 

 then, between Maiden Castle and the large tumulus on Hog Hill, and ascends 

 towards Upwey as far as four cross-roads. Here, in the north-east angle, is a 

 very fine example of a ringed or dished barrow. The diameter of the tumulus 

 itself is about 72 feet, and of the entire structure about 234 feet. It should be 

 noticed that the ground on which it rests has a very decided slope towards the 

 north. 



The route is now along the summit of the ridge, towards Blackdown, and for 

 more than half the distance runs on the short grass of the chalk, between 

 barrows on either hand, twenty in number, with near views of multitudes more, 

 including two rows of seven and four, respectively, at right angles to the ridge. 



It should be noticed that close to one of the adjacent tumuli is its correlative 

 pit, the place from which its component earth was excavated ; and that not far 

 from the seventeenth tumulus is a simple grave, its mound extending north and 

 south. 



On leaving the twentieth barrow, one soon leaves the chalk, and for nearly 

 half-a-mile no other barrow is passed until well on upon the Tertiary gravel, the 

 so-called Bagshot Beds, with its characteristic vegetation of gorse and heather. 

 The first barrow reached is bell -shaped and encircled by a mound, but its contour 

 is greatly obscured by surface growth. That it has been opened is sufficiently 

 obvious. From this point to Hardy's Monument the route runs by eleven more 

 barrows, but the gorse hides the smaller ones. On the right hand of the road 

 should be noticed a fence of slabs of Bagshot sand-stone, which are beautifully 

 ripple -marked. 



When the Monument is reached, at an altitude of 790 feet [that of Pillesdon 

 Pen is 909 feet] the carriages are left, and a foot-path is followed to the 

 Helstone and a neighbouring barrow, from which was removed a fine urn now in 

 the County Museum. Charles Warne, in his " Ancient Dorset," gives a sketch of 

 the cromlech before it was restored, and a tracing of it is shown, which can be 

 compared with a photograph of a " collapsed dolmen " to be visited later. And 



