ON THE AGE OF STONE CIRCLES. 981 
at 33°5 feet another step to a depth of 4 feet from the surface ; then a level 
floor for about 5°5 feet, followed by a gradual slope downwards to a depth 
of 4°5 feet. Having almost reached the hedge we could go no further. 
But we had struck the causeway and what appeared to be steps down to 
the brink of the ancient fosse at its termination on the west of the entrance. 
A large number of shards, glazed and unglazed, were found between 
the turf and a depth of 18 inches in the middle parts of the cutting; 
all of which appeared to be medieval and later ware. In the deeper part 
on the west a few pieces of brown pottery, which we regarded as medieval, 
were found in or on a distinctly blackish-brown seam of mould, the result 
probably of disturbance at such a time as the modern bank and hedge 
were made. 
(b) Cutting V.—The next cutting made was close to the fence on 
Captain Jenner’s property. The western half was cut 5 feet wide, the 
eastern 3 feet. It was begun close to the road-fencing and continued 
in an easterly direction for a distance of 54 feet. At 29 feet from the 
eastern end the solid chalk was reached at a depth of 1°4 foot from the 
surface—the level of the ancient causeway. From this point east- 
wards the surface of the ground sloped towards the eastern fosse ; 
likewise the solid chalk sloped downwards gradually, not evenly, but 
in rough shallow steps. At 50 feet from the western end of the cut- 
ting the solid chalk shot down suddenly at an angle of 46°, at which 
point the brink of the eastern fosse was undoubtedly reached. The 
western end of the cutting is more difficult to describe, because we met 
with a modern earthenware drain-pipe, for draining the surface-water 
from the modern road into the eastern fosse, the placing of which had 
destroyed the contour of the solid chalk as left by the constructors of 
the causeway. (The sectional diagram of this cutting shows the line 
of the chalk as it exists at present.) 
(c) Cutting VI.—Another cutting (length 56 feet, width 2°5 feet) 
was made close to and parallel with the barbed-wire fence, and on Lord 
Avebury’s side. This revealed the solid chalk running level for a 
length of 26 feet, the nearest part of the surface of the turf being 
at a depth of 1°6 foot. At 19°5 feet from the west end of the cutting 
the solid chalk dropped in two steps towards the western fosse, in the 
same manner as described in Cutting IV. At the east end of the cut- 
ting the chalk sloped off very gradually. 
(d) Cutting VII.—This narrow cutting was dug amongst the beech 
trees on the Jenner property. The length examined was 50 feet, but 
a part in the middle had to be left untouched on account of the large 
roots of the trees. This cutting gave clear evidence that the causeway 
was 24 feet wide at the top in this part, and at a minimum depth of 
1'8 foot from the surface. From the margins of this ancient road of 
solid chalk, rough steps downwards were traced in both directions. In 
the eastern half the brink of the fosse was reached at a distance of 
14 feet from the eastern margin of the top of the causeway, from 
which point the solid chalk had been cut abruptly downwards at an 
angle of 519°, into the depths of the fosse below. . 
No relics of datable importance were found in any of these cut- 
tings. 
