iv. EOLLRIGH STONES. 55 



of the other stations look more like posts of temporary occupation, 

 fitted only to resist a marauding party from the Vale. The Silurian 

 power, if not the Silurian people, was active in the Vale of Glou- 

 cester, while the Dobuni were masters of the hills. Hill-men and 

 Dale-men were terms of defiance and watchwords of fight at the 

 merry-makings in the Cotswolds, as late as the last century. 



A very ancient track runs from the Evenlode up the Chastleton 

 Hills, among camps and * barrows/ to B/ollrich Stones and the 

 tumuli about Traitor's Ford and Brailes ; and then continues along 

 Edgehill to the Cherwell Valley. A westward continuation of this 

 road may be marked to Stow; from which high probably very 

 old settlement on the Fosse Way several roads pass toward the 

 Vale of Gloucester. These roads from Stow, and others on the 

 Cotswolds, often climb (as if by intention) to ridges of elevated 

 country, and ascend to the highest points of land, from which 

 the largest views could be had ; often, at these high points, the 

 roads cross, guarded by a turnpike. One reason may have been, 

 a feeling of more security on the open wold than in the shaded 

 valley; but the main cause of this peculiarity is probably the 

 desire to travel on dry ground an advantage rather too frequent 

 on the oolitic terraces between the branches of the Thames. 



' Rollrich" 7 Stones, the most remarkable megalithic monument 

 in the district, have suffered injury since they were described by 

 Cam den and Plot; but, till within the last few years, the three 

 parts of which they consist were all fairly preserved. The ( Old 

 King/ the ' Whispering Ring/ and the ' Five Knights,' appear in 

 the annexed cut (p. 56), reduced from the representation in Plot's 

 Oxfordshire (Plate XVI. figs. I, 2, 3). The situation is on the line 

 of ancient hill-road between Chastleton Barrow and Traitor's Ford 

 a road which may have served for the soldiers of Ostorius as they 

 marched along the frontier of the Dobuni * inter Aufonas.' On 

 the north of this road, close by an old quarry, stands the * Old 

 King,' a mass of stone, nine feet above the ground, which may 

 be the remains of the rude effigy of a warrior looking downward. 

 South of the road is the circle of unequal stones (fig. 2), about 

 thirty in number at present. In the drawing of Plot twice as 

 many appear. In the opinion of the country-folk, no man can 

 count them truly the same tradition as at Stonehenge. The ring 

 was supposed to be bewitched : the witch lived at Long 1 Compton. 



