216 PBE-SAXON CIVILIZATION IN DORSET. 



near Steeple church and proceeds to Steeple Leaze. Another 

 branch diverges through Harpstone Lane to Kimmeridge. 

 It appears to have been at one time the principal thorough- 

 fare in that part of Pur beck, but some portions of it are now 

 wholly deserted. 



A boundary line between Egleston to West Tyneham 

 appears to commence at a place called Tyneham Cap on the 

 summit of the South hill, and to extend in a direct course 

 to the top of the opposite hill northwards. 



One of the oldest trackways, according to Canon Bingham, 

 starts from Iwerne, the Ibernio of the Romans. It joins 

 another from Banbury Hill near Ibberton Park, and climbs 

 Bell Hill, passing Bulbarrow and on through Ansty, Hart- 

 footlane to Chesilborne, and from thence through two of the 

 Piddles to Maiden Castle. It was the here path or warpath 

 of Britons and Romans alike, and it is so called in Chesilborne 

 in the enumeration of the Saxon boundaries. The lane is 

 very narrow and bounded by high banks ; and Canon Bingham 

 says further that within his memory the waggoners who came 

 for hurdles blew cows' horns vigorously, so that the way 

 might be cleared before them. The day's march of a Roman 

 soldier was " twenty-four miles in eight hours, neither 

 more nor less," says Kipling : a Roman mile being 1,000 

 paces " Head and spear up, shield on your back, cuirass 

 collar open one hand's breadth and that's how you take the 

 Eagles through Britain ! " The principal camps and fortresses 

 throughout the county are approximately that distance apart, 

 so this herepath must have been trodden by the Durotriges 

 on the war path, armed with flint weapons and terrible to 

 behold in the ferocity of their war paint. After them, by 

 Britons in woven garments brandishing their superior bronze 

 weapons, and subsequently by Roman warriors in their 

 glittering armour inarching with their long slow stride 

 " Rome's Race Rome's Pace." 



From Rawlesbury Rings a deep old trackway leads from 

 the camp by a gentle slope southwards to the valley beneath, 

 used evidently as a cattle drive. After passing through fields 



