238 THE EXETER ROAD 



side was being searched for liim, and watchers were 

 stationed on the hills, looking down upon this open 

 country where the movement of a rabbit almost 

 might be noted from afar. So he dou]:>tless skulked 

 along in the shadow of the Dyke from the shelter of 

 Cranborne Chase down to Woodlands, where he 

 was caught, under the shadow of a tree still stand- 

 in Of, called Monmouth Ash. 



Scattered all around are the inevitable barrows. 

 The industry of a byegone generation of anti- 

 quaries has explored them all. Pick and shovel 

 have scattered the ashes and the cinerary urns of 

 the Britons or Saxons who were buried here, and 

 the only relics likely to be found by any other 

 ghouls are the discs of lead deposited by Sir Richard 

 Colt Hoare, or W. Cunnington, with the initials 

 ' R. C. H. 1815,' or some such date; or, ' 023ened by 

 W. Cunnington 1804' on them. 



George the Third always used to change horses at 

 ' Woody ates Inn ' when journeying to or from Wey- 

 mouth, and the room l)uilt for his use on those 

 occasions is still to be seen, with its outside Hight 

 of steps. When the coaches were taken off the 

 road, the inn became for a time the training estab- 

 lishment of William Day. 



The road near this old inn is the real scene of the 

 Ingoldsby legend of the Dead Drummer, and not 

 Salisbury Plain, on ' one of the rises ' where 



An old way-post shewed 

 Where the Lavington road 

 Branched off to the left from the one to Devizes. 



