OGBUKY BAEKOWS 291 



open chalk-downs in any civilised 'period of history until 

 the present century, because the downs are so much more 

 naturally adapted for sheep-walks that the attempt to turn 

 them into waving cornfields would never occur to anybody 

 on earth except a barbarian or an advanced agriculturist. 

 But when Ogbury Downs were originally terraced, I don't 

 doubt that the primitive system of universal tribal warfare 

 still existed everywhere in Britain. This system is aptly 

 summed up in the familiar modern Black Country 

 formula, ' Yon's a stranger. 'Eave 'arf a brick at him.' 

 Each tribe was then perpetually at war with every other 

 tribe on either side of it : a simple plan which rendered 

 foreign tariffs quite unnecessary, and most effectually pro- 

 tected home industries. The consequence was, each dis- 

 trict had to produce for its own tribe all the necessaries 

 of life, however ill-adapted by nature for their due pro- 

 duction : because traffic and barter did not yet exist, and 

 the only form ever assumed by import trade was that of 

 raiding on your neighbours' territories, and bringing back 

 with you whatever you could lay hands on. So the people 

 of the chalky Ogbury valley had perforce to grow corn for 

 themselves, whether nature would or nature wouldn't ; 

 and, in order to grow it under such very unfavourable cir- 

 cumstances of soil and climate, they terraced off the entire 

 hillside, by catching the silt as it washed slowly down, and 

 keeping it in place by artificial barriers. 



On the top of the down, overlooking this curious vale 

 of prehistoric terraces, rise the twin heights of Ogbury 

 Barrows, familiar landmarks to all the country side around 

 for many miles. One of them is a tall, circular mound or 

 tumulus surrounded by a deep and well-marked trench : 

 the other, which stands a little on one side, is long and 

 narrow, shaped exactly like a modern grave, but of com- 

 paratively gigantic and colossal proportions. Even the 



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