EARLY WORKS 



OF 



EMBANKING AND BRAISING 



CHAPTEK I. 



KOMNEY MARSH AND THE EMBANKMENT OF THE THAMES. 



THE numerous ancient earthworks existing in various 

 parts of Britain show that the Navvy is by no means 

 a modern character. The mounds of Old Sarum and 

 Si 1 bury Hill, in Wiltshire, by whatever means and for 

 whatever purpose raised, testify to a large amount of 

 patient industry on the part of those who heaped them 

 together. In Wales, Yorkshire, Devonshire, and the 

 more hilly parts of England, the remains of the formid- 

 able ditches and embankments constructed for purposes 

 of defence, afford abundant proof that the former people 

 of this country must have been familiar with the use of 

 the spade and mattock. But it would appear, from the 

 remains of ancient British dwellings still extant in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, that the early inhabitants 

 lived in mere wigwams, and that engineering skill was 

 scarcely to be expected of them. Their houses seem 

 to have been formed by digging so many round holes 

 in the earth, and covering them over with the branches 

 of trees. Dr. Young, of Whitby, examined the remains 

 of upwards of forty ancient British villages on the 

 Yorkshire Wolds, from which he inferred that the abori- 

 gines, especially the more northern tribes, were no 

 further advanced in civilization than the Caffres or 



B 2 



