xxxii Journal of Proceedings. 



In the attempt to connect the Ambresbury earthwork with the last 

 exploits of Queen Boadicea, our authors have been much puzzled by the 

 well-known story in ' Tacitus,' which locates the battle between Seutonius 

 and the British in an open plain, closed in the rear by a forest — a station 

 wisely chosen by the Roman General to guard against ambuscades. In a 

 note by Gough on the passage in the Roman historian, he says (Gough's 

 'Camden,' vol. i., xxxviii., ?iofe) :— " Mr. Morant, upon comparing all 

 accounts and circumstances, persuades himself that this battle was fought 

 near Epping, by the side of Copthall Park, where is now a fine bank called 

 Ambresbank, enclosing about eleven acres (' Hist, of Essex,' i., 46 — ' Col- 

 chester,' p. 23, note z). But this obvious circumstance of the action being 

 in a, plain, and all tliis part of the country at this time most probably 

 forest, seems to make directly against him. At the same time it must be 

 owned that the name of the Camp gives it to the Britains. It might have 

 been an oppidiun ; but Tacitus's account gives no reason to think they 

 threw up any work at this juncture. The want of barrows is an argument 

 that so great a slaughter could hardly have happened here." Recalling 

 this opinion of the last century antiquary, it is a curious fact that our 

 excavations afforded not the slightest evidence of the site, at the period of 

 the construction of the Camp, having been woodland. The old "surface- 

 line," which was so carefully watched and studied, was composed of a 

 light-coloured and very sandy clay, such as may be met with on the 

 surface of the open heathy ground in the forest. We met with no 

 indications of decayed stumps of trees or vegetable humus. Our workmen 

 at once noticed the similarity of the soil at the base-line and the surface- 

 soil of the open forest. The woodland at and around the Camp is 

 evidently very modern, and, without giving too-ready credence to the 

 theories of Morant and others which connect the spot with "the last stern 

 battle-plain" of the despairing Queen, it may be allowable to suggest that 

 the side and surroundings of the Camp in the Roman era were probably 

 an open expanse of moor or heathland. Moreover, it seems unlikely that 

 a Camp would have been thrown up in a dense forest, which, by affording 

 cover to an approaching foe, would vitiate in great measure the main end 

 in view — the security and isolation of the defenders. 



Bearing in mind the results of our explorations, it is hardly necessary 

 to throw another stone at the exploded hypothesis that Ambresbury was a 

 Roman station ; but it should be noted that the high road which at 

 present runs by the Camp to Epping is comparatively a very modern one. 

 It was possibly originally a mere forest track leading to the little hamlet 

 of Epping Street, the main "ancient way from Harlow to London being 

 from the corner of Wintry Wood, where the turnpike stands, across the 

 forest to Abridge." The road as it at present exists is certainly not older 

 than the beginning of the 16th century, for in 1.518 Master John Baker, a 

 worthy mercer of Epping, bequeathed a charge upon certain of his estates 

 for the repairing of the way. " This," says Morant, "seems to have been 

 for the sake of Epping Street, to induce travellers to go that way, and 



