■giBc '^voHcm of c?t?ttcBct^. 



By HY. COLLEY MARCH, M.D., F.S.A. 



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jyniROUGHOUT many parts of Dorset these curious 

 terraces arrest the attention of strangers and 

 defy the explanation of natives. The inquirer 

 asks — Are lynchets of natural origin ? Were 

 they produced, without direct intention, by 

 continual ploughing along a slope ? Were 

 they made on purpose, the work of laborious 

 design, like the built-up vineyards of Italy ? 

 Were they wrought by modern or media3val 

 farmers, by Anglo-Saxon settlers, by Belgic 

 invaders, by our friends the Phoenicians, or by the Durotriges ? 

 By any or by all of them in succession .'' 



I. As regards a natural origin, apart from the question of old 

 river-beds and raised sea beaches, which cannot now be dis- 

 cussed, it should be noticed that in this county the underlying 

 geological structure lends itself to the formation of terraces by 

 differential hardness and solubility. In the chalk insoluble 

 bands of flint will retain their position longer than cretaceous 

 material. Mr. Mansel-Pleydcll affirmed ("Proc." D.F.C., 



