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APPENDIX ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OP SIGWELL. 449 



simply an enlargement from the Ordnance one-inch map. Past 

 this tumulus an ancient British roadway runs northward, and turn- 

 ing to the west descends the hill by the steep ravine between the 

 round barrow opened* afterwards and Sigwell, and then running 

 along the north-east of the Whitcomb Valley, below the hill and 

 beneath Chamwell, takes the direction of South Cadbury. My 

 attention was first directed to the little spur of Sigwell between 

 the two steep ravines which unite at the six wells or springs from 

 which Sigwell derives its name. 



This spur, it soon appeared evident, had been converted into a 

 camp by means of a ditch about 60 feet wide uniting the two 

 ravines. The artificial character of this ditch is shown by its 

 direction forming with the two ravines the base of an equilateral 

 triangle, and therefore being in a position in which it would be 

 impossible that it could have been excavated by water flowing 

 along the ravines from the high ground. The rampart, if it ever 

 had one, has been destroyed, but it is possible the earth from the 

 ditch may have been used to form an interior mound. It would 

 appear that the ditch, as at first drawn, formed too oblique an angle 

 with the northern ravine, and that in order to prevent the position 

 from being taken in reverse by missiles from the high ground on 

 the opposite side, the ditch was afterwards thrown back on that 

 side ; this, at least, appears to me the best way of accounting for 

 the mound, composed of undisturbed soil, which has been left in 

 the ditch on the line of the old escarp, and another smaller ditch 

 cut at the back of it ; the structure however is peculiar, and may 

 bear a different interpretation. The ditch throughout its length is 

 shallower than the two ravines which form the north and south 

 defences of the triangular interspace ; but as the soil is yielding, it 

 is probable that the ravines may have deepened considerably since 

 the place was used for defence, and the enclosed space has probably, 

 by the widening of the ravines at their summit, been much reduced, 

 whereas the ditch not being liable to denudation by water has 

 retained its original depth. 



The section running through the tumulus and across the camp 

 shows that the interior of the camp is commanded, at the short bow- 

 shot range of about 120 feet, by the summit of the tumulus. I 

 assume, therefore, that it is unlikely the defenders of the place 

 should have allowed such an erection to be made outside their 



