ON* TRACING CERTAIN ANTIQUITIES. 171 



of patchy burning of the grass, but not much that could be set 

 down as unmistakably Avitness to building or chalk-work below. 



Of such witness there was, however, one case of each sort. 

 Twenty yards or so north-east of the barrow there was a clear trace 

 of the foundations of a building about 30ft. square, and very 

 strange it looked. But most likely this building was of no great 

 antiquity. Perhaps, it, like the road above noted, had to do with 

 the farming of the land. Lastly, there was a most interesting 

 proof, as we may safely take it, that the barrow is rightly so called, 

 and is not a mere mound for some military purpose, as some have 

 thought. During the drought, at least before all was burnt to a 

 sameness of brown, this was to be perceived clearly. Standing on 

 the top of the barrow you could trace, first faintly and then after- 

 wards entirely, a clearly marked circle of scorching girding the 

 barrow with what looked like mathematical precision. This could 

 show nothing else, it seems, but that originally there was a chalk 

 bank or dwarf vallum 'round it. Now this is almost certain not to 

 have been added to any but a burial-barrow not to a mound for a 

 look-out or any purpose of that kind. 



To these lines about the discovery of ancient remains by the 

 agency of the sun's rays in scorching, perhaps a few words may be 

 added on another way in which those rays may help us in the 

 same research. What is meant is that when the sun is bright but 

 low, and raking a tract of land, the light finds out unevenesses 

 which at another time are quite undiscoverable. Yes, this may 

 happen when not only lost to the eye at a distance, but when, 

 although you are actually walking over the place where the 

 vestiges are, they can neither be seen by sight or felt with feet. 

 It seems not past hope that by this means a certain extremely 

 curious antiquity may yet again be seen after long oblivion. 



Many years ago our friend, Mr. T. B. Groves, clearly perceived a 

 zig-zag line, apparently a line of road, leading up the western slope 

 of Badbury Rings. Since then that slope has been under the 

 plough, and the zig-zag has not been detected. But it is by no 

 means certain that it may not yet be traced. If any of our 



