ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



assist the artificial construction, a simple description is made still more 

 difficult. 



In the hill side above Hardwell Farm several springs break out of 

 the chalk, which have carved deep gullies for their courses into the 

 valley below. Five or six of these have joined together to form one 

 gully, and about three hundred yards farther north have met another 

 gully of a similar type. Between these remains a chalk plateau with 

 steep escarpments on nearly every side, and very suitable as a place of 

 temporary defence, though its position immediately beneath the steep 

 hill must have rendered its position untenable for any considerable 

 period. 



Around the upper and broader part of this plateau a vallum has 

 been thrown up, following for the most part its very irregular outline, 

 though it omits to include all the spurs between the minor gullies. 

 Across the neck at the south, between the heads of the two main 

 gullies, two extra valla have' been thrown up to defend this, the weakest 

 part of the construction. Here was the entrance, further defended by 

 another vallum on the east, at right-angles to the others. 1 



BOUNDARY DITCHES 



Like most of the southern counties of England, Berkshire contains 

 many ditches or dykes, some of them running for miles along the 

 Downs, while others are to be seen crossing the valleys from ridge to 

 ridge. These have been considered to mark the boundaries of tribes 

 at some former date, and have been attributed by some to the Belgic 

 peoples and by others to the West-Saxons. No satisfactory evidence 

 has, however, been produced which will enable us to fix their date 

 with any certainty, nor need it be taken for granted that these lines 

 were thrown up by one people at one date. 



The usual form of construction is a vallum with a fosse on one 

 side, but sometimes there are traces of a ditch on both sides, as if 

 the vallum alone were the important feature. Their height is such 

 that in most cases they can have had but little value as works of defence, 

 unless a stockade had been erected upon them, while their great length 

 makes it unlikely that such an addition could have been made. That 

 they were boundaries of kingdoms or tribal lands seems to be a more 

 probable explanation, but when and by whom they were erected it 

 would be hazardous to suggest. 



Three of these lines, running parallel from east to west, are known 

 as Grim's ditch, a name found in association with similar banks in other 

 parts of the country. There are two of these on the Downs, formerly 

 known as Ashdown, lying about three or four miles apart, while the 

 remains of the third are to be seen south of the Kennet, not far from 

 the county boundary. 



i Cough's Camden, i. 222. Lysons, Mag. Brit. i. 214. 

 i 273 35 



