Continuing our ride in an eastern direction over this rich down, we meet with a ditch and bank traversing it, and leading on each side directly into a British village. I have before started the new idea that these banks and ditches, of which there are so many in different parts of our county, were not boundaries, like Wansdyke, &c.¹ but roads of communication from one village to another, in which the passenger could walk both sheltered, and almost unperceived: and here we have a convincing proof that this my supposition has solid grounds of support, for we find one of these ditches issuing from one village, and leading across the valley immediately into another; and as far as we could trace them, we perceive by the map, that the ditch and bank which are visible on Wilsford and Lake downs, pointed directly to these British villages, and still further northward we find another bank and ditch proceeding towards the great British village on Elston down. The general character of these towns is so similar, and their produce so uniform, that a repeated description of each of them would be tedious to my readers. Those on Stoke downs are interesting specimens, and the southern village presents a greater degree of regularity than usual: for in it we may trace the favourite square form of the Romans, which they almost universally adopted in the formation of their camps: the northern village bears a more decided British character.

Note 1. Whoever views these banks and ditches with an attentive and unprejudiced eye, will easily perceive a decided distinction between them, and those evidently formed for boundaries; the valla or the former being thrown up with a great deal of symmetry, and equally on both sides, with a wide and flat surface left between them at bottom; the latter having an elevated vallum on one side only, with a deep and narrow ditch on the other. Of these the districts comprehended within my work will afford striking examples in Wansdyke, North Wiltshire, and in Bokerley ditch, near Woodyates in Dorsetshire.

No. 3 [Map] is a long, or rather triangular barrow, standing nearly east and west, the broad end towards the former point; it measures 104 teet in length, 64 feet in width at the large end, 45 feet at the small end, and does not exceed three or four feet in elevation, This tumulus has been much mutilated, partly by former antiquaries, and partly by cowherds or shepherds, who had excavated the eastern end, by making huts for shelter. Our first section was made at the western end, but produced nothing. On making a second, we perceived the earth had been disturbed, and pursuing the section, found two or three fragments of burned bones. We next observed a rude conical pile of large flints, imbedded in a kind of mortar made of the martyr chalk dug near the spot. This rude pile was not more than four or five feet in the base, and about two feet high on the highest part, and was raised upon a floor, on which had been an intense fire, so as to make it red like brick. At first we conceived that this pile might have been raised over an interment, but after much labour in removing the greater part of it, we very unexpectedly found the remains of the Briton below, and were much astonished at seeing several pieces of burned bones intermixed with the great masses of mortar, a circumstance extremely curious, and so novel, that we know not how to decide upon the original intent of this barrow. The primary interment might have been disturbed before, or we might have missed the Britons might perhaps have burned the body by an intense fire on the spot, where the earth was made red; and the calcined bones might then have been collected together, and mixed in the mortar, which, with flints, formed the rude cone over the fire-place. If this opinion is right, the Britons in this case adopted a very singular method for preserving the dead. We have left some of the mortar containing the burned bones, near the top of the barrow, to satisfy the curiosity of any person who might wish to examine it. Though nearly the whole of the bones had slight tinge of green, we could not discover any articles of brass. On exploring this barrow further to the east, we found two deep cists containing an immense quantity of wood ashes, and large pieces of charred wood, but no other signs of interment.

No. 10 [Map]. In this small tumulus, which appears to have been partially opened before, found an oblong cist, which was arched over with the chalk that had been thrown out of it; and in the further part of it, a few fragments of burned bones, and a large glass bead, of the same imperfect vitrification as the pully beads so often before mentioned, and resembling also in matter, the little figures that are found with the mummies in Egypt, and are to be seen in the British Museum. This very curious bead has two circular lines of opaque sky blue and white, which seem to represent a serpent intwined round a centre, which is perforated. This was certainly one of the Glain Neidyr of the Britons, derived from glain, what is pure and holy, and neidyr, a snake. Under the word glain, Mr. Owen, in his Welsh Dictionary, has given the following article: "The main glain, transparent stones, or adder-stones, were worn by the different orders of the Bards, each having its appropriate colour. There is no certainty that they were worn from superstition originally; perhaps that was the circumstance which gave rise to it. Whatever might have been the cause, the notion of their rare virtues was universal in all places where the Bardic religion was taught. It may still be questioned whether they are the production of nature or art." Mr. Mason, the poet, thus alludes to these stones,

.... But tell me yet

From the grot of charms and spells,

Where our matron sister dwells,

Brennus, has thy holy hand

Safely brought the Druid wand,

And the potent adder-stone,

Gender'd fore th' autumnal moon?

When in undulating twine

The foaming snakes prolific join;

When they hiss, and when they bear

Their wond'rous egg aloof in air;

Thence, before to earth it fall,

The Druid in his holy pall,

Receives the prize,

And instant flies,

Follow 'd by the envenom'd brood,

Till he cross the silver flood.