OLD HILL FOT^TRSSS 177 



conjectured that these were Danes, whose primitive 

 costume may have earned them such a title. 



In Leland's "Itinerary," compiled about 1540, occurs 

 the following passage : " There is upon the Tope of one 

 of Mendipe Hills a Place encampyd caulyd Dolbyri, 

 famous to the People, thus saynge : 



" 'If Dolbyri dyggyd ware 



Of Golde should be the share.'" 



This may refer to legendary money-hoards concealed 

 upon the hill, or may point to quite another page of its 

 history. The lead mines of Charterhouse lay four miles 

 to the eastward. The road by which the metal was 

 carried to the sea passed, it is true, a mile to the south 

 of Dolbury, but it is not impossible that the fortress 

 may have been a place of store for the leaden ingots. 



Roman coins are said to have been found here, but 

 these are met with far and wide among the hills, and 

 are, after all, no definite proof of Roman occupation. 



The discovery of Saxon coins and weapons is alluded 

 to by earlier writers, but these, if not entirely lost, are 

 scattered now in unknown hands. 



The ancient Britons have left but scanty traces any- 

 where from which we may judge of their manners and 

 their way of life. In their burial mounds we find little 

 more than implements and weapons, pottery and bar- 

 baric ornaments. There are none of those minute and 

 graphic records which enable us to read so well the 

 story of the Roman conquest of our island. 



The Roman, indeed, wrote his history as he marched 



