beginning of the sixteenth century, and others of more modern and less laudable design.

The windows in the five bays on each side of the chancel ascend from an elevated basement to the parapet in two tiers of triple compartments, divided by a transom. Inter

nally, the wall below the uppermost window on the north side is recessed, and decorated with panelling which terminates upon a stone bench at the height of three feet from the present floor.

The east window is in seven compartments of one height, above an uniform series of niches forming the reredos.

The sedilia, occupying their usual position in the south wall, retain enough of their ancient enrichments to show that they were of equal excellence both in design and execution. Whether the south wall contains a piscina or an ambry to the east of the sedilia, cannot be ascertained without removing the modern wooden panelling by which it is at present concealed.

On the north side, a plain chamfered doorway communicates with a sacristy, which appears to have been introduced at a comparatively late period between the chancel and the old Congregation House. It is now disused and desecrated.5

The nave is of six bays, with aisles of equal width; a construction which in the west front exhibits an elevation of commanding character, and an admirable combination of appropriate architecture. But notwithstanding the admiration which has been justly bestowed upon this portion of the fabric, it must be admitted that, when compared with the chancel, it presents in the depression of the arches, in the management of the tracery in the clerestory windows, and in the treatment of some of the mouldings, some indications of that departure from the leading principles of the earlier styles which mark the progressive decline of mediæval architecture.

The porch which covers the principal entrance to the south aisle, no longer presents an exterior with any claims to admiration. It was erected in 1637, at the cost of Dr. Morgan Owen, chaplain to Archbishop Laud. The expense of its construction was 2007., principally employed in producing ornaments, which do not contrast favourably with

5 It is understood to be the intention of the parishioners to repair and restore this structure to its ancient use.

VOL. VIII.

U

the delicate fan groining of its roof. It cannot be positively stated that this fan groining is of the same age as the part of the Church to which it is attached, but there are indications of contrivance in its adaptation to the present walls of the porch, which serve to show that it was once a portion of an earlier structure, and has been re-applied to the position which it now occupies.

Plan of the Porch, showing the adaptation of the groining.

Notwithstanding some variations in design, there does not appear to be any great difference in point of age between the several roofs of the various parts of the Church. Those of the nave and chancel are constructed with arched timbers, and that in the room over the old Congregation House has been finished in a superior style with moulded ribs and carved bosses.

The ancient monumental remains of interest in the chancel are now limited to some slabs bearing inscriptions in Lombardic characters, the numerous gravestones having, with one exception, been entirely stripped of their brasses.

But in St. Mary's Chapel there is an altar tomb which will never be passed without notice, by those who believe it to cover the honoured remains of Adam de Brome.

OXFORD, June 18, 1850.

R. H.

The Central Committee would gratefully acknowledge the kind liberality of the Author of the foregoing Memoir, in presenting several of the Illustrations by which it is accompanied.

ON THE "BELGIC DITCHES," AND THE PROBABLE DATE OF STONEHENGE.

THE lines of ancient earth-work, which in various parts of England intersect the country, seem to admit of a division into three classes, British roads, Roman roads, and Boundary lines. When tolerably well preserved, these different kinds of earth-work may, in most cases, be distinguished from each other without much difficulty, and the British road appears as a ditch, with a low mound on each side of it, the Roman road as a mound simply, and the Boundary-line as a ditch, with a mound on one side only. As we have no reason to believe that the Britons constructed artificial roads before the arrival of the Romans, and as we know from Cæsar that the country was densely peopled, we might expect to find their lines of communication worn into hollows. The accumulations of filth and refuse, which would necessarily result from a large traffic, when thrown aside for the greater convenience of passage, would soon form continuous mounds, and perhaps the more readily, inasmuch as such mounds might, in certain localities, be usefully employed as fences. There are many bye-ways in the west of England, which, if turfed over, would be no unfair representatives of the British roads that still exist upon the downs of Wiltshire.

Our ancient boundary-lines seem also to admit of a threefold division. There are, first, the boundary-lines, which defined the territories of the British tribes before the Roman Conquest; secondly, those which were made by the Romanised Britons; and thirdly, the march-dikes thrown up by our ancestors, after the English colonisation of the island. The last of these three classes has sometimes attracted the attention of the historian; but the second, though for several reasons particularly interesting, has not, I believe, been hitherto noticed; and, if we except the speculations of Stukeley and Warton with respect to the "Belgic ditches," I am not aware that even the ancient British boundary-lines have as yet been made the subject of critical investigation.

According to Stukeley, the Belgæ, as they gradually expelled the British tribes, who preceded them, constructed four

BELGIC DITCHES,

successive lines of defence'-Combe-bank, Bokerly-ditch, the ditch immediately north of Old Sarum, and Wansditch. Warton supposes there were no less than seven of these ditches. He does not enumerate them, but he probably added to Stukeley's four, the Grims-ditch south of Salisbury, the ditches on Gussage Cow-down, which really appertained to the British post of Vindo-gladia, and the ditch which runs over Salisbury plain to the north of Heytesbury. Neither Warton nor Stukeley point out the districts which they suppose to have been marked out by means of these boundary-lines, and the proximity of the lines to each other, is adduced as a proof of the desperate resistance which the Belgæ had to surmount before they could effect their conquest. The resistance must have been desperate indeed, which contested the possession of a few miles of worthless down-land; and the love of property equally strong, which could think such an acquisition worthy of being secured at the expense of so much labour. of so much labour. There can be little doubt, that the number of these boundary-lines has been exaggerated not only by Warton, but even by Stukeley.

It may be asked, what right have we to assume that the Belgæ overspread the south of Britain, in successive waves of conquest, such as are pre-supposed in the hypothesis we are considering? The only ground for such a hypothesis that I am aware of, is contained in Cæsar's statement, "maritima pars ab iis (incolitur) qui prædæ ac belli causâ ex Belgio transierunt, qui omnes fere iis nominibus civitatum adpellantur quibus orti ex civitatibus eo pervenerunt, et bello inlato ibi remanserunt atque agros colere cœperunt.”—B. G. 1. 4. It may, perhaps, be inferred from this passage, that there was a succession of predatory inroads, some of which were followed by Belgic settlements; and when, in the district which we know to have been colonised by the Belgæ, we find successive lines of boundary evidently made by a people inhabiting the sea-board, to separate themselves from the tribes of the interior, it may, I think, be admitted that the

1 That these ditches might occasionally throw impediments in the way of a party of freebooters is very possible, but that they were military lines of defence, like the Roman Walls in North Britain, or the Great Wall of China, is to the last degree improbable. Such lines of defence

would require an organised body of men to guard them, and the maintenance of such a force would be beyond the means of races only imperfectly civilised. The proper character of these ditches is clearly that of boundary-lines.