184 ON THE BRITISH ANTIQUITIES OF WARWICKSHIRE. 



irregularly shaped outworks. But these are constructed in a difie- 

 rent mode and according to a different rule to that practiced by the 

 Britons in constructing their hill fastnesses^ which, instead of a 

 raised vallum and foss on the outside, consisted of terraces one 

 above the other : perhaps the more ancient fastnesses were of this 

 latter description, and we have two instances, if not more, of this 

 mode of fortification in Warwickshire. 



One of these is Nadbury camp on Edge Hill, near Warmington, 

 and is of an irregular shape, and consists of a double fortifica- 

 tion of ramparts rising one above the other, the area included 

 within which is about fifteen acres. Dugdale mentions a sword of 

 brass, probably the kind of sword, with a leaf-shaped blade, used by 

 the ancient Britons, as having, in his time, been ploughed up here ; 

 but I am not aware of any more recent discovery of British anti- 

 quities at this place. 



At Brailes is a British fortress consisting of a conicaLshaped hill, 

 called Castle Hill, separated, by a small ravine, from a ridge, and 

 fortified with terraces rising one above another, which are strongly 

 developed, especially towards the south. From the summit of this 

 fortress may be seen the British camp at Meon Hill, Gloucester- 

 shire, Nadbury camp on Edge Hill, and Ilmington Hills, on which 

 are earthworks. 



On some high downs about half a mile to the south of this place, 

 is a place called Radnall Bush, where indications of early settle- 

 ment are apparent. Here skeletons have been dug up, and the ves- 

 tiges still exist of a building of hewn stone, five yards square, near 

 to which are the traces of a small polygonal shaped inclosure, simi- 

 lar to many discovered in the ancient British settlements on the 

 Wiltshire downs : and close to this spot are excavations and other 

 signs of former occupancy. About a mile to the east of this spot, 

 by the side of the road leading to Banbury, is a tumulus. 



The two fortresses or strongholds I have last adverted to, I am 

 inclined to think, may have been amongst those occupied by the 

 troops of Ostorius Scapula, who succeeded Plautius as commander 

 of the Roman forces in Britain, and, in the year 51 of the christian 

 era, advanced with his army to the southern banks of the Severn, 

 Avon, and Nen, along which he established a chain of forts, or 

 camps, extending across the country from sea to sea, for the purpose 

 of securing the conquests already effected by the Romans of the 

 southern provinces of Britain. Now, in corroboration of this idea, 

 a chain of fortresses, most of them in character ancient British, situ- 

 ated so as to be capable of communicating with each other by signal. 



