Handbook to Bath. 



ETHNOLOGICAL HISTORY. 



Dr. Beddoe, F.R.S. 



'T'HE ethnological history of the district surrounding Bath 

 is not without interest. The City lies not far from the 

 Wansdyke, an ancient earthwork which runs to the south of 

 it, and is conspicuous near the village of Englishcombe, and 

 which is generally believed to have been a frontier between 

 the Celtic Belgse and the (possibly Iberian or at least Celti- 

 berian) Boduni or-Dobuni. To the south and south-east, 

 and along the Cotswolds to the north, is a land of dykes, 

 camps, and primeval fortifications : much learning and keen 

 observation have been expended* on attempts to attribute 

 these earthworks to their right owners among the successive 

 -waves of Celtic colonization; but the subject must remain 

 full of doubt. At a later date, the Roman occupation of Bath 

 must have brought together a mixed population, of whom 

 some may have been of genuine Roman or at least Italian 

 blood. The skull of a man whose remains were lately found 



* By Dr. Guest, for example, and by Dr. Bryan Walker (Camb. Antiq, 

 Soc. Rep.) 



