[Illustration:  MAIDEN CASTLE.]

On the south-west side of the town, two miles away near the Weymouth road, is the greatest of these prehistoric entrenchments; Mai-dun or “Maiden Castle” is the largest British earthwork in existence.  It is best reached by a footpath continuation of a by-way that leaves the Weymouth road on the right, soon after it crosses the Great Western Railway.  The highest point of the hill that has been converted into this huge fort is 432 feet; the apex being on the east.  The marvellous defences, which follow the lines of the hill, are two miles round and the whole space occupies about 120 acres.  From east to west the camp is 3,000 feet long and about half that measurement in breadth.  On the south side there are no less than five lines of ditch and wall.  On the north the steepness of the hill only allows of three.  Over the entrance to the west ten ramparts overlap and double so that attackers were in a perfect maze of walls and enfiladed so effectually that it is difficult to imagine any storming party being successful.  On the east the opening, without being quite so elaborate owing to the steepness of the hill, is equally well defended.  The steep walls on the north are no less than sixty feet deep and to storm them would be a sheer impossibility.  What makes this splendid monument so interesting is the assertion made by nearly all authorities on the subject that these enormous works must have been excavated without spade or tool other than the puny implement called a “celt.”  Probably wall and ditch were elaborated and improved by the Romans, and while in their occupation the name of the hill became Dunium.  Blocks of stone from Purbeck, used at certain points of the defence, were no doubt additions during this period.

A pleasant journey may be taken through the Winterbourne villages that are strung along the line of that rivulet, which, as its name proclaims, flows only in the winter months.  It is on the south side of Maiden Castle.  The first village with the name of the river as a prefix is Came, two miles from Dorchester.  Here Barnes was rector for the last twenty-five years of his life.  His grave is in the quiet churchyard quite close to the diminutive tower.  Within the church is a fine carved screen and several effigies.  Proceeding westwards we come to Herringstone where there is an old house once the seat of the Herrings and, since early Jacobean days, of the Williams family.  Then comes Monkton, close to Maiden Castle.  The church is Norman, much restored.  St. Martin follows; a picturesque hamlet with a fine church, the last in the west of England to dispense with clarionet, flute and bass-viol in the village choir.  On sign-posts as well as colloquially this hamlet is known as “Martinstown.”  Steepleton boasts a stone spire, rare for Dorset, and a curious and very ancient figure of an angel on the outside wall declared by most authorities to be Saxon.  The last of the villages is Winterbourne Abbas, seven miles from Winterbourne Came.  The whole of the low hillsides around the hamlets of the bourne are covered with barrows, some of which have been explored with good results, though indiscriminate ravishing of these old graves is to be deplored.