THE ROMAN OCCUPATION OF WAREHAM. 149 



probably unequalled in the kingdom, whose magnificent scale 

 and solidity of construction excite so much admiration, should 

 be continually disfigured by deliberate and deplorable demoli- 

 tions. At the time I write there is, in the highest part of the 

 west wall, a cutting made by the children sliding down, which 

 measures 37 feet from top to bottom; at one part the width is 

 above 8 feet, the depth varying till it reaches a depth of 6 feet. 

 On the 8th of August, 1899, I discovered among the gravel 

 6 feet deep in that cutting a rib and portions of a leg bone, 

 with a large petrified tooth. It will be noticed that a large 

 portion of the west wall is considerably lower than the rest ; and 

 it may be as well to mention that about the middle of the 

 present century a large portion of this wall, with the outer 

 rampart which Hutchins mentions, was thrown down to fill up 

 the remarkable ditch at the base of the wall. The importance 

 of Weregrote Hill as an outpost and outer gate to fortified 

 Wareham are facts too much ignored. The evidences that the 

 sea formerly existed as far as Portham, north of that outpost ; 

 and that the perfect handle of a Roman vessel was discovered 

 12 feet deep in the old bed of the Frome, where that river is 

 crossed by the railway bridge south of Weregrote Hill, are facts 

 worth consideration. Amongst the relics of a far distant past 

 deserving attention are the remains of an early Celtic location, 

 three round barrows, the British trackway and Roman roads at 

 Weregrote and on Wareham Common. When a barrow on 

 Weregrote Hill was demolished about 1830, between 20 and 

 30 urns were discovered, which, from some specimens still 

 preserved, appear to have belonged to the earliest era of barrow 

 burial. It is worthy of mention that the largest British urn 

 hitherto discovered in Dorset, and now in the County Museum, 

 was unearthed at \Veregrote: 



That no effort has ever been made to ascertain the extent of 

 the ancient fortifications of Wareham is to be deplored. The 

 Roman roads west, north, and south of Wareham, West Port, 

 North Port, and the Roman outpost of Stowborough, are objects 

 and places to which I trust some day those interested in Roman 



