TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION 11. 853 



ponds, similar to those which exist in or near them at the present time, and are 

 sufficient for the daily supply of water even in summer for large tlocks of sheep. 

 Some of these hill camp sites are capped with the Tertiary debris known as clay 

 with flints resting on chalk, so that as many dew-ponds as might be necessary could 

 be formed. 



Walbury, the largest Hampshire earthwork at the north-west corner of the 

 county, is 550 yards from north to south, and 783 yards from east to west, is 

 covered with some clay with flints, and overlooks the Kennet Valley. The people 

 for whom it was a place of refuge must have lived on the northern as well as on the 

 southern side of it. The naturally great open areas of land near it show that a 

 large population could have lived within reach of it, and its great extent shows 

 that it could have afforded shelter for some thousands of people and cattle. From 

 these circumstances and the implements of the later stone period found in and near 

 it, the author thinks that a relatively large population lived round Walbury in 

 Neolithic time. He thinks this population was considerably larger round Walbury 

 than round St. Catherine's Hill, Winchester, because the earthwork at Walbury is 

 much larger than that on St. Catherine's Hill. 



There are in the valley of the Test and of its branch, the Micheldever stream, 

 five earthworks, situated at nearly the same distances apart, all of them of about 

 the same size, and having near them areas of open downland and alluvial meadow 

 land, not very dissimilar in extent. From these circumstances the author of the 

 paper considers that the populations living within reach of these earthworks were 

 numerically about the same, and much smaller than the population round Walbury, 

 which is so much greater in area and the extent of its intrenchment. 



_ The peninsular earthwork of Bransbury, at the junction of the Te.st with the 

 Micheldever stream, is one of much interest, defended by the marshes and by a 

 single line oi intrenchment from marsh to marsh. The author is of opinion that 

 Bransbury must have served. as a stronghold for a population sufficiently numerous 

 at least to have been able to defend the line of the earthwork. 



The author has met with no evidence in Hampshire of the Anglo-Saxon exter- 

 mination of their Celtic predecessors, but, on the contrary, that county contains 

 evidence in support of the opposite view, viz., that a considerable proportion 

 of the Celts was spared and became blended with the AVest Saxons. Some 

 early village communities living within easy reach of hill fortresses of defence 

 appear to have continued in a modified condition in early Anglo-Saxon time, that 

 at Burghclere being one, a place which has undoubtedly derived its name from two 

 Celtic earthworks on high hills, having remains of communal fields close to them, 

 and much black earth from a former inhabited site in a valley near them. These 

 earthworks are not far from the ' Seven Barro ws ' of North Hampshire. A valley 

 which is the only natural pass between the hills for many miles lies between them, 

 and Clere was a tall place as late as the time of the Domesday Survey. A rela- 

 tively large population, sufficient to defend these earthworks, must have lived in 

 the Olere district, a very ancient clearing in forest land. 



The author considers the alodial tax known as Burh-bote in Anglo-Saxon 

 time to be an intelligible tax when considered in reference to such a place as 

 Burghclere. Many such alodial obligations existed in the Isle of Wight as late as 

 the date of the Domesday Survey, and appear to have had as early an origin as the 

 earliest fortification at Carisbrook, by the common defence of which the land in 

 the Isle of Wight was long afterwards held. As land gradually ceased to be held 

 in community and became held in se^eralty, the obligations of local defence would 

 remain as an alodial obligation. 



The author considers the measure of the Celtic earthworks to be a measure of 

 the Celtic populations, and to indicate approximately the density of such popula- 

 tions around these fortresses. 



