ancient earthworks of cranborne chase. 37 



Roman Works. 



Roman Road, from Sarum to Badburj^ where one branch 

 goes on to Dorchester and another to Poole ; another road 

 turns off to the north-west from Badbury, through Eastbury 

 Park to Ashmore, pomting for Donhead, and the Groveley 

 Ridge ; the inner camp on Hod Hill ; Hem&worth Villa ; 

 Barton Hill Villa ; Iwerne Minster Villa. 



The sequence of such a long list of varied earthworks 

 bristles Avith debatable points, and demands a book rather 

 than a short paper ; but the clock compels me merely to give 

 general conclusions — tentative conclusions — for considera- 

 tion. 



I think that the Hilltop camps probably represent the 

 actual sites of the pre-Roman Tribal habitations on Cranborne 

 Chase, at a period when wealth consisted in flocks and herds, 

 and when Tribal hostility was frequent ; and that the great 

 scale of their banks and ditches is mainly original, though in 

 several instances the defences seem to have been enlarged or 

 raised. 



That the open British village sites represent a later -and a 

 different phase of Tribal life ; when there were planters of 

 corn on a considerable scale, as well as tenders of cattle, and 

 when men counted on reaping where they had sown. 



That the lovs^ Boundary Banks and Ditches represent a 

 period A^hen areas of occupation were decided by mutual 

 agreement, and that their parallel duplication and triplica- 

 tion, which happens near British village sites, may represent 

 defence. 



That here, in this district of Cranborne Chase, the Roman 

 occupation represents a period of peace and prosperity, and 

 that the British villages \\'ere Romanized. 



And finally, that the great defensive Banks and Ditches, 

 such as Bokerly, Half-Mile Ditch, Charlton Down, &c., 

 represent the period of the oncoming West Saxon — A.D. 552 

 to 577, when imminent danger came from one direction — 

 from the East, as their banks testify. And to this period 



