XXX. 



found some remarkably old wood carving, originally used for beds 

 by the natives of Brittany. The ancient and modern work in 

 this handicraft was well exhibited by these specimens. Another case was 

 arranged to illustrate the implements in use during the stone, bronze, and 

 iron ages. General Pitt Rivers then proceeded to describe the various 

 models which he had prepared during the progress of the excavations 

 at Rotherly Woodcuts and Bokerley. One difficulty which these ancient 

 inhabitants met with was illustrated viz., that of obtaining suitable 

 flints for purposes of digging, and this they overcame by sinking deep 

 shafts or mines to obtain the kind of flints they required. At Cissbury 

 Camp there were numerous shafts, which went down 40 feet beneath 

 the surface. The model of the village found on Woodyates Common was 

 viewed. In another room of the Museum the models of the excavations 

 at Bokerly Dyke were exhibited. General Pitt Rivers said the work here 

 was more interesting than elsewhere as it gave larger evidence of the 

 life of the people of that time, and because the Dyke was a defensive 

 work, covering a large tract for the defence of the West of England. 

 Near the Dyke was to be seen a portion of the Old Roman Road, 

 which ran from Sarum to Badbury and which the President had 

 traced much further towards the Estuary of Poole. At a curve 

 of the Dyke was an important entrenchment which cut across the 

 Roman Road. A great deal had been written about this Dyke ; 

 the chief point was to discover the date of it, and this was 

 to be done by cutting through the rampart to find the surface lying 

 beneath. One day the bandmaster, Mr. Laws, the leader of General 

 Pitt Rivers private band, noticed a man taking soil from the top 

 of the rampart, and whilst doing so, several Roman coins were 

 found. Having obtained the consent of the landowner, Sir Edmund 

 Hulse, to commence the search, he found several coins of Claudius 

 Gothicus on the other side of the Dyke, nearly on the surface, 

 and on the old surface as many as 600 coins of Honorius and 

 Octavius were found. Honorius having left this country about 

 A.D 404, we have an approximate date for the age of the work. 

 In the corner a skeleton was found tying so near the old surface that it 

 had been evidently buried before the Dyke was made ; therefore a 

 settlement must have existed here anterior to that date. Relics of fires 

 and skeletons were found, as at the village of Woodyates, and Roman 

 coins were scattered about, proving the settlement to be older than the 

 Dyke. Why the Romans scattered coins about in this way was not certain. 

 It was evident that the people, who came after the Romans, dug into the 

 foundation of their houses, and threw up the earth for the ramparts 



