815 



mux Jarnkwra, tytxh. 



By Professor T. L. Donaldson, Architect, Ph. D. 



(|JjF||HOSE, who are accustomed to travel along the line of the 

 Great Western Railway, will remember a range of downs, 

 which on the south skirts the vale beyond the Steventon station. 

 Near the Shrivenham station is the White Horse Hill. A series 

 of downs runs from east to west for 30 miles or more, covering a 

 breadth of some 12 or 15 miles. These downs rise to a considerable 

 height, and have a series of undulations and valleys, which diversify 

 the face of the country and give it a varied character. The geolo- 

 gist, the architect, and the antiquary, have here full scope for their 

 respective pursuits. The summit of the White Horse Hill is 

 crowned by a regularly formed fortification, by some called the 

 Camp of Alfred, by others considered a Roman encampment. Ash- 

 down Park, the seat of Lord Craven, and the production of Inigo 

 Jones, lies in the very heart of the downs, about three or four miles 

 from Lambourn. On these wild expanses, unbroken by divisions 

 of fields, undivided by roads, are scattered in some parts a profusion 

 of Boulders, while other spaces close by are quite free from them. 

 These masses of rocks sometimes contain three or four tons of stone 

 each, but others are round and smaller. These are used by the 

 farmers to form walls, and are broken in pieces for that purpose by 

 having a fire lighted under them, so that they become quite hot ; 

 cold water is then thrown upon them, and they split and fall to 

 pieces. In the times of the Early Britons, the Druids constructed 

 of such blocks their Dolmens, the Cairns, the Triliths, the Cromlechs 

 and Rocking-stones, which abound in this country, and are found 

 as well in Gaul, Germany, and even Spain. These rude constructions 

 owed their origin to such regions as this range of down, where 



