34 ANCIENT EARTHWORKS OF CRANBORNE CHASE. 



round ; camps of defence ; boundary banks and ditches ; 

 pastoral enclosures ; cultivation banks ; Roman roads ; and 

 dykes of defence, all testify to the former habitation and 

 desirability of this now solitary land. On the East it was 

 bounded by the New Forest. On the South by the Holt 

 Forest and the heathland of Dorset. On the West by the 

 Forest of Blackmore ; and on the North by the forests and 

 swamps of the valley of the Nadder. Amid such surroundings 

 the rolling downs of Cranborne Chase must have emerged 

 as desirable land. Its chalk soil suited the requirements of 

 the early camp makers, and it was well watered ; for the 

 rainfall we believe to have been greater then than now, and 

 the evidence of General Pitt Rivers' Roman well at Woodcuts 

 shows that the water level in the chalk has sunk since this 

 well was in use 1,600 years ago. Think of the Tarrant, the 

 Allen, the Long Crichel, and Gussage brooks, the Crane, 

 the Martin Allen, the Rockbourne brook, the Ebble, the 

 Donhead, the Iwerne, and PimjDerne brooks. Think of all 

 these streams flowing constantly from 50 to 100 feet above 

 their present rise, and we get a very different conception of 

 the prehistoric pastoral and agricultural value of this tract 

 of country. A truly desirable land when contrasted with its 

 surroundings. 



These natural conditions may account for the large number 

 of great hill-top camps within the area of this survey, that 

 are probably among the most ancient as they are certainly 

 the most conspicuous earthworks on Cranborne Chase. 

 They also account for the later pastoral and agricultural 

 earthworks, and for the numerous British village sites, which 

 are specially frequent in the centre of the Chase. 



The following list will give an idea of the number and 

 variety of these earthworks. 



Hill-top Camps. 



Hod Hill, 50 acres ; Hambledon Hill, 25 acres ; Castle 

 Ditches, near Tisbury, 23 acres ; Badbury Rings, 18 acres ; 

 Whitsbury Castle Ditches, 16 acres ; Winkel-bury, 12| acres ; 



