History of Dorset by John Hutchins Volume 1 is in History of Dorset by John Hutchins.
DORCHESTER DIVISION
The Liberty of Fordington
Mambury or Maumbury Rings [Map]
This celebrated monument of antiquity, the first discovery of which we owe to sir Christopher Wren's journies to the isle of Portland, has been since examined with great attention by Dr. Stukeley, who, in his Itinerarium Curiosum1 has given us a very large account of it2, with five draughts of it; but he has sometimes indulged his imagination too much.
The geometrical ground plot of it makes plate 50. [See Itinerarium Curiosum 1724 Maumbury Rings]
A view from the entrance, plate 51.
A view from the S. W. plate 52.
The present appearance, with sections of the shortest, and longest diameter, plate 53.
Note 1. Iter VI. p. 155-168.
Note 2. The Doctor's first account of it, read to a society of free-masons at the Fountain in the Strand, 1723, was printed in 4to that year, with a ground plot, but greatly enlarged in his Itinerary
The several etymologies that he offers are from mainge in British a seat, or maun, which in Oxfordshire1 signifies land consisting of a mixture of white clay and chalk, of which this work is chiefly composed; or from mummings or mummeries, our ancient name oft sports and plays, probably derived from mimus. If we derive it from the Saxon Marm, a vessel, from the hollowness or cavity of it; and bury, a corruption of burgh, it may signify the hollow fort or earthwork. But, its use considered, the etymology which expresses that may be most probable.
Note 1. Plot's Nat. His. of Oxfordshire, p. 24.
It is not improbable king Arthur's round table, near Penrith in Cumberland, may have been a similar work, especially as an evident amphitheatre in Wales, without the walls of Caerleon [Map], goes by that name. This last is level with the surface of the field, except to the E. where the bank rises 7 feet higher, 74 yards in diameter from E. to W. and 64 from N. to S. and 7 yards deep in the middle; the bottom and sides covered with grass; the sides have a gentle slope, and the proprietor of the ground remembers to have seen a piece of a wall opened, which he took for part of the seats1. In England there are three more, one at Silchester, in Hampshire, which is of the same dimensions and form as this, and built with the same materials2. Another near Richborough castle [Map], in Kent; and a third near St. Just Penworth in Cornwall, which Dr. Borlase ascribes to the Britons3.
Note 1. Mr. Harris's account of Roman Antiquities &c. in S. Wales, printed in the Archaeologia, II. p. 6. The only instance of such kind of amphitheatres on the Continent, which I recollect, seems to be that at Dove, near Pont du Sey, on the Loire, between Anjou and Poidou, in the latter province, cut out of a hill of stone, and of much smaller dimensions than Maumbury, being only 60 German feet diameter. See a particular description and cuts of it, in Lipsius De Amphitheatris extra Romani, Antv. 1604, 4to c. vi. p. 71. At Rome, and in the provinces, such places were formed of more costly materials, and a different style.
Note 2. Stukeley, ib. p. 16.
Note 3. Hist, of Cornwall, p. 207. second edit.
Whether king Coel's kitchen near Colchester, or a similar cavity at Walbury, near Bishops Stortford, in Essex, were of this fort, is uncertain, being excavations in the earth, whereas these others are formed of mounds raised on its surface.
That in this parish is situated on a plain in the open fields, about a quarter of a mile, or 1500 feet, S. W. from the walls of Dorchefter1, on a gentle ascent all the way to it, close by the Roman road which runs thence to Waymouth. From it you see Poundbury, Maiden castle, and the tops of the S. hills as far as the eye can reach, covered with an incredible number of Celtic barrows. It is raised of s chalk upon a level, without any ditch about it. The jambs at the entrance are somewhat worn away. On the top there is walk of 8 feet broad, gradully ascending from the ends, upon the longest diameter, to its greatest elevation in the middle, upon the short diameter, where it reaches half way up the whole series of seats of the spectators, who thence distributed themselves therein, from all sides, without hurry. On the top is a terrace of 12 feet broad at least, besides the parapet outwardly 5 feet broad, and 4 high, but s injured on the side next the gallows2, by the trampling of men and horses at executions. There are three ways leading up to the terrace; one at the upper end, over the cavea, and one on each side upon the shortest diameter, going from the elevated part of the circular walk. Several horses abreast may go upon this, ascending by the ruins of the cavea. This receptacle of the gladiators, wild beasts, &c. is supposed to have been at the upper end, under the asceent to the terrace, there being vaults under that part of the body of the work. The area is no doubt exceedingly elevated by manuring and plowing for many years: yet it still preferves a concavity; for the descent from the entrance is very great, and you may go down as into a shallow pit. The middle part of it is now probably 10 or 12 feet lower than the level of the field; and that, especially about the entrance, is much lowered by plowing, because the end of the circular walk there, which Ihould be even with the ground, is a good deal above it.
Note 1. Amphitheatres abroad are generally placed without the cities, and upon elevated ground, for the benefit of the air.
Note 2. Removed from thence in the year 1767, to Bradford Down, about a mile and half from the town, in the road to Bridport.
On the outside of the upper end is a large round tumor, a considerable way beyond the exterior verge, and regular in figure, which certainly has been somewhat appertaining to the work. There are two rising square plots on the shortest diameter, four feet above the level of the walk or terrace, capable of holding 24 people each. Their side breadth is 15 feet; their length from N. to S. 20; and they stand somewhat near the upper end, not precisely on the shortest diameter. There is a seeming irregularity of the terrace on both sidesat the lower end, for 'tis higher within than without; yet this produces no ill effect, but rather renders its appearance the more regular; for when you stand in the centre within, the whole circuit of the terrace seems, and is really, of one level; but on the outside, the verge of the North Easterly part is sloped off gradually towards the entrance, where the declivity is conformable with it. Hence the exterior contour also appears of an equal height.
The circular walks cut the whole breadth into two equal parts, upon the shortest diameter; probably making an equal number of seats above- and under it. Dr. Stukeley says, it is computed to consist of about an acre of ground, and was originally about 140 feet diameter the shortest way, and 220 the longest. The famous amphitheatre at Ferona, is but 235 and 136, and the vast Coliseum at Rome but 263 and 105, reckoned by the French foot, a larger meaure. By an accurate admeasurement taken for this works it was found that the
Greatest perpendicular height of the rampart above the level of the arena, was 30ft 0inches.
External longest diameter 343ft 6inches.
External shortest diameter 339ft 6inches.
Internal iongest diameter 218ft 0inches.
Internal shortest diameter 163ft 6inches.
First ascent from the arena to the greatest curve height 30ft 0inches.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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The breadth of the side of the work, or solid, taken upon the ground plot, is equal to one half of longest diameter of the ares, or a fourth of the whole longest diameter. Its perpendicular altitude, from the top of the terrace to the bottom of the area, is a fourth of the longest diameter of the area. In the middle of each side is a cuneus, or parcel of seats, of near 30 feet broad, just over the more elevated part of the circular work, reaching up to the terrace which swells out above the concavity of the whole, and answers to the rising-ground in the middle of the terrace. Dr. Stukeley computes it capable of containing 12960 persons.
At Mrs. Channing's execution1, there were supposed to be 10,000 spectators present, who filled the sides, tops and area of this work, which is the compleatest of this kind in England.
Note 1. Mary, daughter of ... Brookes of Dorchester, was married fo Mr. Richard Channing, a grocer, by compulsion of her parents; but keeping company with some former gallants, she, by her extravagance almost ruined her husband, and then poisoned him, by giving him white mercury, first in rice milk, and twice afterwards in a glass of wine. At the summer assizes, 1705. she was tried before judge Price, made a notable defence, was found guilty and condemned, but pleaded her belly. She was removed, and delivered of a child 18 weeks betore her death. At the Lent assizes following, she was recalled to her former sentence, and was first; strangled, then burnt, in the middle of the area of this work, March 21, 1705 [1706], æt. 19; but persisted in her innocence to the last. Tradition reports, that there was a woman burnt in the same place, for the same crime, 100 years before.
Some years ago a silver coin was ploughed up here, on the face of which was this inscription IMP. M. IVL. PHILIPPVS, AVG. On the reverse LAETIT. FUNDAT. and a genius, or fortune, with a garland in the righthand, and the helm of a ship in the left. This em¬ peror reigned A. D. 240. But this work was probably made under the government of Agricola, who taught and encouraged the Britons to build temples, baths, amphitheatres, &c. in order to introduce luxury, and soften the fierce and rough temper of that people. See a plan of it in the annext plate.