Welsh Journals

violent; in the district Mr. Owen has described so eloquently we find a peaceful combination, in which both stocks contribute to the common good. How far that aloofness, that sense of independence, which remains one of the marked characteristics of Powys, is to be ascribed to this fact, or how far it should be attributed to some racial difference from the rest of Wales in far-off Ordovician days is a fascinating problem, which we prefer to leave to Mr. Owen's abler pen. F.N.P. OFFA'S DYKE: A FIELD SURVEY, By CYRIL Fox, Ph.D., F.S.A. and D. W. Phillips, B.A. FIFTH REPORT Archaeologia Cambrensis, June, 1930. SIXTH REPORT: Archaeologia Cambrensis, June, 1931. In Volume XL. was published a review of the Fourth Report, which dealt with the Montgomeryshire section of Offa's Dyke. Though the two subsequent reports are not directly concerned with Montgomeryshire, they are of interest to members of the Powysland Club on account of the further light, which they throw upon the nature of the dyke, and for the confirmation of the theories, already enunciated, which they contain. The Fifth Report describes the course of the dyke from Main- stone Parish, just south of the Montgomeryshire border, to Rushock Hill in Kington Rural Parish, Herefordshire, a distance along the dyke of nearly twenty-two miles. The earthwork, in this section as elsewhere, is generally sited so as to command wide views to the west. Straight stretches, which are taken as indicating country, that had probably been cleared of forest, occur mostly in the rather limited val- ley portions of this highland region, and to some extent on southward slopes. The sixth report also stresses this preference, which the old Mercian farmers showed for a sunny aspect. Lying sometimes to the east, and sometimes to the west of the main earthwork, are several shorter dykes like those on the Kerry Hills. The ditches are on the western side of the ramparts. These short dykes fall into two classes (a) those, which cross a ridge, and probably lie astride an ancient trackway, and (b) those, which cross