46 



On British Stone and Earthworks 



I have yet met with : its environs abound with British antiquities : 

 and (with regard to Roman remains) I know of no situation in our 

 island which can boast of two decided stations, situate so near to 

 each other, the one at Mildenhall, in the vale of the river Kennet, 

 the other at Folly Farm, on an adjoining hill to the south above the 

 river, and which may therefore be respectively called " Upper and 

 Lower Cunetio." 



With this assertion of the richness of this immediate district, I 

 now proceed to point out whereof our relics of the early British 

 population consist : but as within the brief limits of a paper to be 

 read before the Society, I shall have no time to enter into details, I 

 can do little more than adduce samples of the stone and earth- 

 works, many of which we shall see during our two days' excurison, 

 and can only call your attention in the most cursory manner to the 

 great examples around us. 



For the sake of clearness, and in order to proceed on some system, 

 I propose to divide these British remains into two groups, viz, 

 " Stoneworks'''' and " Earthworks/'' 



Of Stoneworks we have : — 



(1) "Temples." 



(2) "Avenues." 



(3) " Cromlechs," or " Kistvaens." 



(4) Smaller " circles of stones." 



Of Earthworks we have : — 



(1) " Camps," (fortresses, strongholds, or castles.) 



(2) " Trackways," or roads of communication. 



(3) " British Villages," or Pit-dwellings. 



(4) " Barrows," Sepulchral or other Mounds. 



(5) " Boundary Ditches." 



(6) " Cattle Pens," or other Earthen Enclosures. 



To begin with the Stoneworks of the Ancient Britons, which 

 remain to us in this neighbourhood. Rude without doubt and 

 shapeless are the ponderous masses of stone as we now see them, but 

 though worn by time and weather of what bulk and weight many 

 of them now are ! how cleverly poised on end ! and what skill those 



