On the Excavations at Rotherley, Woodcuts, and Boherly Dyke. 307 



But further discoveries had yet to be made. The Cross Drain, 

 which runs parallel to the Roman Road, and which is on that account 

 assumed to be more recent than it, was found to cut across the ditch 

 of the dyke at a higher level than the bottom of it, and must, therefore 7 

 have been constructed before the ditch of the dyke, unless it was 

 constructed after the latter had silted up, which is improbable. This 

 Cross Drain can only be shown by a very fine line on the accom- 

 panying" map, this part of the evidence, therefore, cannot be well 

 understood except by reference to the larger map, which will ac- 

 company my third volume of excavations. On following* the Cross 

 Drain further south it was found to run into a deep hole, no trace 

 of which was seen on the surface. This, being cleared out, was found 

 to be the section of another ditch in rear of, and of about the same 

 size, as the one in front of it, and it now appeared very probable 

 that this must have been a second and older dyke, in rear of the 

 first. I therefore had sections cut east and west, and by this means 

 traced the Rear Dyke to its junction with what I now call the Fore 

 Dyke, just beneath the Salisbury Road. It was now found that 

 the ditch of the Rear Dyke crossed that of the Fore Dyke at this 

 spot, at a slightly higher level, and went on to form the outer ditch 

 of Section 1. The Fore Dyke was the most recent, as it crossed 

 the Rear Dyke at a lower level, and went on to form the inner ditch, 

 in Section 1. This accounted for the double ditch, which had so 

 puzzled us when it was first discovered. It was evident the Rear 

 Dyke, for some reason, had been filled in from the point of junction, 

 and the Fore Dyke made at the same time, and that when this 

 occurred the makers of the Fore Dyke ran their ditch on in rear of 

 the other, along the whole face of the left centre dyke. This may 

 have been owing to the old escarp of the first ditch having become 

 rotten and unsuitable for a defence, and to its being found necessary 

 to form another fresh escarp of solid chalk by cutting another ditch 

 in rear. The probability is that the outer ditch was filled up at this 

 time, so that there never was more than one ditch open at the same 

 time. The whole of the defence, in fact, must have been renewed 

 at the time the Fore Dyke was made. 



This discovery increased the importance of Section 1, as that 



