By T. IT. Baker. 



227 



19,806 acres. Therefore a considerable area of down land, wastes, 

 and woods could not have been included, and, as we shall see 

 hereafter in mentioning the account given in the "Exchequer 

 Domesday,' ' only a very small portion of the parish of Mere is 

 included in that return. 



British Antiquities. 



That a considerable population inhabited this district in remote 

 ages is evident from the numerous works of British origin still 

 existing. The Pen Pits extended far into the parish of Mere till 

 within the memory of man, and for whatever purpose they were 

 excavated their antiquity is undoubted. The downs still retain 

 traces of ancient cultivation ; banks, ditches, covered ways, and 

 barrows abound, in addition to the camp on Whitesheet Hill, 

 locally called " Old Castles," which is partly within this parish and 

 partly in Stourton. Sir K. C. Hoare has minutely described most 

 of these works in " Ancient Wiltshire" and he also is of opinion 

 that the old trackway over the downs from Chadenwyohe Hill to 

 Long Lane — now almost disused, but till within the last few years 

 the high road from Sarum to the West of England — is of British 

 origin. A gold British coin of the type Fig. 6, PL I., in " The 

 Coins of the Ancient Britons" by John Evans, F.S.A., was found 

 about thirty years ago at Brewham Forest, near Stourton Tower, 

 and came into the possession of the late Mrs. Mathews, of Mere. 



Roman Antiquities. 



Although no indications of a Roman settlement have been dis- 

 covered in the parish, yet the number of coins found testify to the 

 occupation of the district in that period. In 1856 an urn was dug 

 up by men engaged in draining a piece of land immediately ad- 

 joining the town for the purpose of forming a new cemetery. It 

 contained about two hundred and seventy denarii, ranging from 

 A J). 65 to A.D. 166 (see Wilts Arch. Mag., xxvii., 177). Most 

 of the coins found in this locality are of the Constantino age, and a 

 large percentage are of Carausius. 



