NOTES DESCRIPTIVE OF THE FOREGOING PLANS.

(Respecting the plan conventions. The shading lines that indicate earthwork banks show the top of the bank by the thick end of the line, the bottom by the thin end. Dotted spaces indicate the bottoms of ditches and depressions. Numbers and contour lines indicate the height of the land above the sea.)

1. Badbury Rings-Of the five principal Hill-top camps within the district of my survey-Hod, Hambledon, Castle Ditches, Tisbury, Whitsbury Castle Ditches, and Badbury Rings—the last stands lowest above the sea; yet Badbury Rings are so isolated, and are situated in such a spacious tract of lowland, that their pine-crowned summit of 327 feet tells as a landmark for miles around-a distinction that Castle Ditches, Tisbury, miss, though this latter camp area rises to 630 feet— 7 feet higher than Hambledon.

Badbury Rings may serve as a fine specimen of a Hill-top Camp. They have been described in the Dorset Field Club Proceedings, Vol. XXVII., and in Ancient Dorset," by Charles Warne. So far as I know, their varied occupation has not been proved by excavation, but their origin is generally accepted as Celtic. They are surrounded by a triple ring of great banks and ditches. There is a wide space

between the outer and middle earthworks. The Eastern entrance is a straight-forward passage through the three lines of defence. There are two entrances on the Western side. One, like the Eastern, straightforward, the other winding through the berm defence of the middle bank. It seems possible, in view of Mr. and Mrs. Cunnington's excavations on Knapp Hill, that the straight-forward Western entrance may be original, used for driving cattle in times of danger, and the entrance gaps then stockaded. The earthworks of the Rings do not show any signs of Roman adaptation, though the site must have been occupied by the Romans, for three of their roads converge here. Probably this was the site of "Mons Badonicus," see Origines Celticæ," Vol. II., p. 147, by Dr. Guest. The wasted earthwork outside the Rings on the Western side do not seem to have any intelligible connection with the camp defences.

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2. Buzbury Rings are about two miles distant from Blandford and the Upland road, thence to Wimborne, passes through the outer part of the camp. The inner camp appears to have been the place of habitation, and here you may pick up in half an hour more pottery shards than your pockets will hold. The outer camp extends on the Northern and Eastern sides of this inner camp, and shows no sign of habitation, but was probably used for pastoral purposes. Buzbury Rings have been cut about by road-makers and by cultivators, but their general disposition are still fairly discernible. The camp shows no signs

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of having been strengthened, and its broad-topped low banks (six foot average height) and shallow ditches give us an idea of an Early British Tribal camp that combined safety with pastoral requirements. Many of the pottery shards to be found in the inner area are of the Early British type, hand-made, imperfectly baked, and made of clay mixed with siliceous granules. Banks and ditches of the Grims-Ditch type branch out from Buzbury Rings. The O.S. marks one that approaches the Rings from Langton Long as supposed British Trackway; " but its superficial measurements compare with Grims-Ditch, through which I have cut sections on Damerham Knoll and on Gallows Hill, and in both these cases the bottom of the ditch was 4 feet 6 inches below the surface and only a foot wide, with steep sides, showing no signs of use; indeed, it would be impossible to use such a ditch as a way. These Banks and Ditches appear to be boundary divisions for pastoral purposes. Similar branching of such earthworks from a centre of habitation may be noted on Blandford Race Down, South Tarrant Hinton Down, Gussage Down, Middle Chase Farm, and Whitsbury Castle Ditches.

3. The British Settlement on South Tarrant Hinton Down is specially interesting. Here are two oval enclosures, surrounded by low earthworks-the outside banks never rise above 4 feet-that are separated from each other by a shallow down valley in which presumably the water came out when these enclosures were made.

The upper enclosure shows no superficial signs of ancient habitation, but there is a sunken way leading down to the little valley that suggests cattle usage. It should be noted that outside the entrance on the Eastern side are the wasted remains of two detached banks that appear to be defences covering the opening, and that the Northern enclosure bank (the Southern has been destroyed) widens into a pear shape at the entrance-a form that often occurs at camp entrances. The all-over measurements of the bank and ditch show, however, that this can never have been a camp of much account, and I am inclined to regard it as a pastoral enclosure with slight defences.

The lower enclosure is the larger of the two, and the area is covered with humps and hollows that suggest habitation. The entrance is on the South-Eastern side. On the North-Eastern side there is a semicircular depression strongly banked, and approached from the area by a sunken way. This compares with somewhat similar earthwork forms on Tarrant Hinton Down (near Eastbury Park), Chettle Down, and Swallow-Cliffe Down. Their purpose could only be conjectured by excavation. Two large mounds may be barrows. The duplication of the single bank and ditch-which for the most part surround their enclosure on the South-Western and lowest side of the site is another puzzle that needs solution. A ditch between double banks (of the