Journal of Proceedwgs. xxxi 



scenes of the latest struggles of the British against invasion and outrage. 

 The best account of it, previous to Mr. Cowper's papers referred to below, 

 was given by Gough in his edition of Camden's 'Britannia' (1781)), 

 vol. ii., 49, he deriving his information mainly from a local antiquary, 

 Mr. Lethieullier (of Wanstead?). Speaking of Copt Hall, he says: — 

 " Just without the park, on the south-east side of the London Eoad, is an 

 oval Camp called Ambresbury Banks, and probably British. — See plan of 

 it, Plate I., fig. 4." He then quotes an interesting MS. letter from 

 Lethieullier, as follows: — " This intrenchment is now entirely overgrown 

 with old oaks and hornbeams. It was formerly in the very heart of the 

 Forest, and no road near it, till the present turnpike road from London 

 to Epping was made almost within the memory of man, which now runs 

 within a hundred yards of it ; but the intrenchment cannot be perceived 

 from thence by reason of the wood that covers it. It is of an irregular 

 figure, rather longest from east to west, and on a gentle declivity to the 

 south-east. It contains near twelve acres, and is surrounded by a ditch 

 and a high bank much worn down by time, though where there are angles 

 they are very bold and high. There are no regular openings, like gate- 

 ways or entrances, only two places where the bank has been cut through, 

 and the ditch filled up very lately in order to make a straight road from 

 Debden Green to Epping Market. The boundary between the parishes 

 of Waltham and Epping runs exactly through the middle of this intrench- 

 ment, whether carried so casually by the first setters-out of those 

 boundaries, or on purpose, as it was then a remarkable spot of ground, 

 I leave to better judgments to conjecture. As I can find no reason to 

 attribute this intrenchment either to the Komans, Saxons, or Danes, 

 I cannot help concluding it to have been a British Oppidum, and perhaps 

 it has some relation to other remains of that people which are discoverable 

 in our Forest." 



The above account of Mr. Lethieullier's is probably the basis of all that 

 has been said about the Camp by local historians. A rough plan of the 

 Camp is given in Mrs. Ogborne's ' History of Essex ' (1814), apparently a 

 copy from the one in the ' Britannia ' ; and Morant, although his history 

 was published in 1768, appears to have derived his information also from 

 Lethieullier. Mr. Cowper's papers were called forth by his lighting upon 

 the " Loughton Camp " in the year 1872. His first paper entitled ' Notes on 

 an Entrenched Camp in Epping Forest ' was read at the Meeting of the 

 Eoyal Archaeological Institute, November 5th, 1875 (Ai'ch. Journal, 

 vol. xxxiii.) ; a second paper was read at the Colchester Meeting of the 

 Institute in 1876, and is published in the same volume. Subsequently 

 another paper was published for Mr. Cowper by the Committee of the 

 Epping Forest Fund (1876), with lithographed plans by Mr. D'Oyley ; 

 and in ' Cassell's Family Magazine,' vol. iii. (1877), page 153, the same 

 writer gives a very interesting resume of his observations. These papers 

 are well worthy of attention, and contain almost all the reliable inform- 

 ation about the Forest Camps extant previous to the Club's explorations. 



