known as Ambresbury lUinks, Epphyj Forest. 59 



wliicli was bare of trees, and which afforded a good section 

 of the earthwork, and the cutting was commenced on May 

 30th, 1881. (See 'Journal of Proceedings.') The excavation 

 occupied about nine working days, and was carefully executed 

 by four or five men in the employ of Mr. Cuthbert, contractor, 

 Loughton. The section was 12 feet wide, extending from 

 the foot of the silting of the interior slope to about 13 

 feet beyond the counterscarp ; it included the removal of the 

 rampart within those bounds down to the old surface line 

 and the excavation of all the silting of the ditch, as well as 

 the small outer rampart beyond the ditch, which at this 

 place is only very slightly marked. The excavations were 

 very carefully watched in relays by members of the Club 

 during the nine days that the work lasted, including the 

 President (Mr. Meldola), Mr. W. Cole (Hon. Secretary), 

 Mr. W. D'Oyley (Hon. Surveyor), Mr. H. A. Cole, Mr. Alfred 

 Lockyer, Mr. H. J. Barnes, Mr. N. F. Kobarts, Mr. T. 

 Fisher Unwin, Mr. W. Hodge, the Eev. Linton Wilson, 

 Mr. F. H. Varley, and myself. 



As it has been thought advisable by the Club that the 

 programme which I drew up for the guidance of the directors 

 of the excavations — being the result of previous diggings, 

 and therefore possibly of use to future explorers — should be 

 recorded, it is here inserted, together with the imaginary 

 section accompanying it : — 



" Let A, B, c, L, Fig. 1, Plate IV., be the original shape of 

 the rampart ; and l, d, e, f the original shape of the ditch. 

 Then by denudation in the course of ages the outline will 

 have assumed the line, g, m, n, i, w, the amount of denudation 

 depending of course on the nature of the soil, the time, and 

 various other causes. You will not have the advantage of a 

 chalk soil in which the lines of demarcation of the different 

 deposits are much more clearly defined than in most soils, 

 and therefore you will have to look out sharply for them. Li 

 the references to the section I have named the different jjarts 

 which are important in describing the positions in which the 

 relics are found, as the evidence of date entirely depends 

 upon that. A trench should be commenced well behind the 



