292 [Inaugural Address by the President of the Society, 



defences, and applying this piece of information to the elucidation 

 of our old lines of entrenchment I think that, in cases in which 

 short lines of ditch and bank are often found to terminate en I' air, 

 in a way that, as Mr. Barnes has truly observed, would serve no 

 defensive purpose, but which would resemble an attempt to stop a 

 flock of sheep by means of a single hurdle, placed in the centre of a 

 road ; if we suppose the intervals between the flanks of these short 

 entrenchments to have been occupied by inaccessible forests, that 

 have now disappeared, we shall then understand how they might, 

 at the time they were constructed, have served as effective barriers 

 against an invading force. It is also to be observed that even large 

 dykes have been so completely effaced by cultivation as to show no 

 trace upon the surface. 



But to return to Bokerly. It may be convenient for the sake of 

 clearness to separate the whole line into four principal divisions. 

 The part which I shall call the right flank extended from its 

 termination in Martin Wood to the summit of Blagdon Hill, and 

 was everywhere drawn along the brow of a steep hill having a deep 

 valley in its front. Blagdon Hill is the highest part of the line, 

 and might, perhaps, be called the key of the position. The hill runs 

 forward to the eastward at right angles to the dyke. The dyke 

 crosses it in the middle of the ridge. Viewed from the Salisbury 

 Road, the point at which the dyke crosses the hill — called Pick's 

 Corner by the natives — can be seen in the centre of the ridge, in a 

 position that does not, from this point of view, appear well chosen, 

 and it is not evident for what reason this spot was selected, but on 

 examining* the hill it is at once seen that its course was determined 

 by the lay of the land beyond the hill, which is not seen from the 

 Salisbury Road. At Blagdon Hill another dyke of small relief 

 joins or cuts across it, coming from the east along the ridge of 

 Blagdon Hill from the direction of Whichbury Camp. I shall not 

 speak of this small dyke now, as it would require excavation to 

 ascertain its significance. 



Leaving Blagdon Hill, Bokerly Dyke runs down the northern 

 slope of it, and a small bank, described in the Ordnance Map as a 

 British trackway, runs behind it in a general line parallel to it. 



