138 Note on Raeburnfoot Camp. 



for the purposes of excavation at a place near Delph, West 

 Riding, and theteupon proceeded to examine two forts crowning 

 the eminence known as Castle Hill, 900 feet above sea-level; 

 and the first interim report, prepared by Mr F. A. Bruton, 

 M.A., of Manchester Grammar School, has been issued. The 

 report is fully descriptive of the works overtaken and the results 

 obtained, and it embraces numerous illustrations. Although 

 the excavations had not reached completion the details already 

 brought to light abundantly testify that the works and occupa- 

 tion are to be referred to the Romans. The ramparts are built 

 of sods like the ramparts of the forts on the wall of Antonine. 

 A small hypocaust, of which three feet in height of the lower 

 part of the walls, twenty pilae, and a flight of five steps leading 

 down to the praefurnum, remain, and of relics, which are not 

 numerous, there are three Roman coins, one illegible, and two, 

 first brasses of Tragin ; a Vespacian was also found on the site 

 at a former time. The pottery include a fragment of Samian 

 ware, pieces of red, buff, \fhite, and black ware, and some of 

 the fragments show the maker's stamp. No inscribed stones 

 have been discovered. 



The importance of all this in relation to the Raeburnfoot 

 Camp consists in the exact similarity of the plan with that of the 

 forts at Castleshaw. One of the illustrations of Mr Bruton's 

 report represents the plan of the Raeburnfoot Camp, and the 

 following quotation explains the reasons for its introduction: — 

 "The excavation of Castleshaw," the report says, "is of special 

 interest because the class of earthworks of which it is an example 

 has not hitherto been properly understood. At first sight the 

 plan suggests two distinct forts, one inside the other. An earth- 

 work of exactly similar plan may be seen at Raeburnfoot, in 

 Dumfriesshire, but the excavations carried out there in 1897 did 

 not yield very definite results. The resemblance is so striking 

 that it has been thought worth while to reproduce the Raeburn- 

 foot plan here." 



I may add that the two plans are so exactly alike as to make 

 it difficult to conceive that they could have been produced other- 

 wise than by the same race of builders. If the one is Roman 

 so is the other. The Romans were methodical. All the 



