KANE—r/?^ Bhck Pig's D)/Jie. 307 



on the Baltic to Hiisum on the North Sea, on which there were enclosures 

 precisely similar to the Dorsey in style, and closely approximating to it in 

 ground-plan.^ In England there are boundary trenches constructed in 

 pre-Christian times by a race of Belgae, who, settling on the south coast, put 

 up a line of demarcation round the territory they had conquered in Wilt- 

 shire and Dorset. Subsequently, when additional tracts had been added, the 

 rampart was further extended ; and lastly, a third, now called the Wansdyke, 

 was made further inland, commencing at a terminal fortified enclosure 

 called Stokesley Camp on the south side of the Avon near Clifton, and 

 running eastward to Berkshire in a direct line, and connected with two other 

 carefully constructed camps called Maesknowe and Stantonbury respectively, 

 and another fortified settlement at Hampton Down, near Bath. A further 

 extension to the east goes by the name of the Devil's Dyke. 



The western frontier ran through Savernake Forest, where the Ditch is 

 well preserved, and on to Marlborough Down and Claverton Down, where 

 was an ancient oppidum like the one at Bath. It was therefore an important 

 and extensive work, of much antiquity. Such parts of the Wansdyke as I 

 have seen run up and down hill straight across the country, except where a 

 hill-site suggested a suitable position for a camp. In such case the line 

 deviates slightly to meet it. Like the Irish Dyke, it has been obliterated 

 for very considerable portions of its length, and only rarely shows anything 

 more than a depression or wide furrow crossing the country. The work 

 consisted of a fosse probably from 8 to 10 feet deep, and about 18 feet wide, 

 with a moderate rampart or vallum about 12 feet wide on the defenders' 

 side, making an extreme width of about 30 to 35 feet. But the whole has 

 been too much defaced to give any certain figures. The camp at Maesknowe 

 consists of a plateau with an area of 10 or 12 acres on the crown of a 

 moderate hill, the edges of which by natural and artificial escarpments 

 present very steep slopes of considerable length to a climber. And at the 

 southern end a narrow neck, formerly connecting it with a neighbouring hill, 

 has been cut through some 30 to 50 feet deep, with a precipitous slope. And 

 dominating this slope is a mound, about 20 feet high, extending along the 

 edge of the gap. The dyke runs along its north face, as it also does at 

 Stantonbury. These camps were therefore appendages. 



Next in point of antiquity comes the Wall of Severus, and Hadrian's 

 wall, built A.D. 121, between the Tyne and Solway Firth. The details of the 

 massiv^e structure by Severus in Scotland are given in Camden's " Britannica," 

 but have no analogy with the Irish Dyke we are considering. The Venerable 

 Bede, however, tells us that an earthen rampart preceded it. For the North 



^ Cf. Blaeu's Map of the district of Gotlorp. Le Giaiid Atlas, Anisterduiu, 16G7, vol. i. 



