ANCIENT EARTHWORKS OF CRANBORNE CHASE. 41 



Grims-Ditch type) starts from this South-Western side and can be 

 traced for some distance over the hill towards Pimperne. 



4. Knowlton— It is doubtful whether Knowlton was within the 

 ancient outbounds of Cranborne Chase. The place names of the 

 Perambulation are dubious here. But we may take the benefit of the 

 doubt, for benefit it is, as it enables us to consider a most remarkable 

 site. Nowhere else on Cranborne Chase, excepting in barrows, and 

 specially in the disc barrows near Woodyates, do we find any earthwork 

 exjaression of what is supposed to be prehistoric formular religion. 

 Circles, either marked by stones or wrought in earth, are signs of the 

 unknown reverence of our forefathers. Here, et Knowlton, we have 

 four circular earthworks, only one of which, however, is still fairly 

 perfect — the others have been destroyed by cultivation. From the 

 remnant that remains we cannot suppose that purposes of defence or 

 of habitation, or of cattle enclosure, were the motives of the makers of 

 these rings. The two apparently original entrances of the one perfect 

 remaining circle are opposite each other. The wide ditch is on the 

 inside. The bank is unusually broad and precise in its circle. There 

 are no other earthworks of similar construction on Cranborne Chase, 

 but in certain particulars they compare with the Rings at Thornborough 

 Moor, near Ripen, and with Figsbury Ring near Salisbury (see " Earth- 

 work of England," by Hadrian Allcroft). Within the area of this 

 earthen circle stands the ivy-clad ruin of a little stone church. With- 

 out, these Knowlton circles are surrounded by barrows ; but this site 

 does not now appear as the barrow centre of the district, as Stonehenge 

 is the barrow centre of Salisbviry Plain. That distinction belongs to 

 Oakley Down, below Pentridge, near Worbarrow, that was excavated 

 by General Pitt Rivers. 



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