PRE-SAXON CIVILIZATION IN DORSET. 215 



The Roman Road to Ilchester left Dorchester through the 

 west gate, following a straight course to Bradford Peverel, 

 then crossing the Frome to Stratton and on to the high 

 ground north of .Frampton. It was described in 1796 as a 

 " dor sum broad and high and paved with flints " and it is 

 still plainly to be seen in the fields beyond Stratton and at 

 Grimston Common Field as an elevated ridge. 



At a distance of half a mile from Dorchester, a straight 

 Roman road runs for two miles and a half to a tumulus on 

 Bradford Down a parish boundary follows it in its course 

 to Eggardun Hill in many places it is quite conspicuous. 

 It was the old Exeter road, and traces are found of it 

 beyond Chideock, mounting Chardown Hill, passing over 

 Stonebarrow Hill, through Cold Harbour, and on to 

 Charmouth. There it divided, one branch continuing along 

 the coast, the other going by Axminster to Honiton. 



The plough discovered a vicinal way from Eggardun to 

 Abbotsbury by unearthing the paving stones. It is also 

 known that a vicinal way went from Dorchester to Monkton 

 at a right angle with the Icening Way. It appears to have 

 led to Weymouth, as there seem to be a few traces of it on 

 Ridge way Hill. 



Beside the road from Bindon to Weymouth there runs 

 for several miles a ditch like Wansdike. It is found at the 

 west end of Moigne Down. It runs parallel with the road, 

 crosses it, and disappears at a short distance beyond Pokeswell. 

 It w r as probably an ancient roadway for wheel and cart 

 traffic. The Rev. W. Barnes thought that the old hollow- 

 road near Came rectory was a branch of this road, and that 

 an ancient trackway on Whitcombe farm might also be part 

 of it, as traces of a very old Celtic road have been found in 

 two places in Dorchester leading in the direction of the 

 Ware ham road. 



A whiteway of great antiquity with formidable banks on 

 each side has given its name to a farm in the parish of Knoll, 

 in the Isle of Purbeck. It leads northward across the heath 

 nearly to Wareham, and in a south-west direction it crosses 



