Historic Hertfordshire
The ardent archaeologists who have been digging into the Roman town of Verulamium have made a discovery of wide and general interest at the edge of a village some four miles away. There is a deep fosse such as is called in various parts of the country the Devil's Dyke or Grimm's Dyke. It is over twenty yards across on the average and still some fifteen feet in depth. It is a lovely place ; well-treed and because of the slope a favourite with animals. There is more than one fox's earth in it. After a special study an able archaeologist dated it round about 2,000 B.C. These present- day diggers have as good as proved it to be a defence against Northern aggressors dug by Belgic tribes a century or two before the arrival of the Romans. The pottery found there seems to be proof enough. One of the oddities of the finds at Verulamium has been the astounding number of coins. Over 3,000 were, I believe, unearthed from a rubbish heap. What careless persons these Romans were ! but what good domestic architects ! The central air-heating, as revealed at St. Albans, has never been approached since.
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