50 A STUDY ON BOCKLEY DYKE, AND OTHERS IN DOUSET. 



These earthworks are most probably of later date than Bockley 

 dyke. 



Having now crossed the Avon and passed the strong oppidum 

 of Old Sarum, which originally commanded the ancient fords of 

 the river below, we soon enter on that magnificent Plain, or 

 Pasture land, which extends thirty miles in almost unbroken 

 continuity to the North of Wiltshire ; an expanse of country 

 dear to every true Archaeological student. Here wo find again 

 the Long-barrow ; in fact is said, " in no county of England are 

 Long-barrows so numerous as in Wiltshire : * and here are 

 also innumerable round-barrows of the Bronze Age; and 

 here too are earthworks ; notably that one extending between 

 Groveley Wood and Woodsford, which Stukeley reckoned in the 

 same category with Coombs Ditch, Bockley, and Wansdyke.f I 

 fully accept the worthy doctor's systematic arrangement, but not 

 the theory by which he attempts to explain it. Nevertheless I 

 believe that the same expulsive process directed against the 

 Aborigines, was carried on here by the Belgae, as by the Duro- 

 triges on the other side of Bockley, forcing the Aborigines fur- 

 ther and further towards the North, where the Belgse raised 

 against them that great boundary line and barrier, the Wans_ 

 dyke, which runs from the border of Wilts and Berks to the 

 Severn, and is so similar to Bockley Dyke that one might 

 imagine the latter to have been taken for its model ! We cross 

 it; and four miles beyond its border we find ourselves in the 

 presence of the great Circles of Avebury, with attendant Crom- 

 lechs, Monoliths, Long and Chambered Tumuli crowding around, 

 indicative of a long period of repose and unmolested occupancy ; 

 and bearing testimony at this distant day to the high and 

 mysterious antiquity of these Aboriginal races! This is the 

 territory of the Dobuni. 



I might enlarge on this interesting subject, but refrain ; the 

 object I have in view being simply to suggest a theoretical 



* Mr. Stevens. Jottings, p. 106. 

 t Iter Curiosum. Iter VI. and vii. 



