236 
CREDENHILL CAMP—MAGNA CASTRA—AND 
THE ROMAN STATIONS AND TOWNS 
IN HEREFORDSHIRE. 
“* Jam seges est ubt Troja fuit.” 
“ For fresh and clear, 
As if its hues were of the passing year, 
Dawns this time-buried pavement. From that mound 
Hoards may come forth of Trajans, Maximins, 
Shrunk into coins with all their warlike toil ; 
Or a fierce impress issues with its foil 
Of tenderness, ‘The wolf whose suckling twins 
The unlettered ploughboy pities when he wins 
The casual treasure from the furrowed soil.” 
Wordsworth, on the Roman Ruins at Kenchester. 
Tus grand Camp, which we have the pleasure of visiting to-day, cannot fail to 
strike you all by its great extent, by the beauty and variety of its scenery, and, 
above all, by the strength of its outworks. The hill rises to a height of nearly 500 
feet above the level of the plain below, and it is 715 feet above the level of the sea. 
The Camp itself is considerably higher than the embankments surrounding it, and 
forms an oblong flattened mound, forty-five acres and one perch in extent. It is 
separated by a ditch, in some places many yards wide, from the first embankment, 
or agger, and the agger thus serves to mark out the Camp very distinctly, although 
it has been broken through here and there to quarry the stone of the hill, or to 
make ways to remove the timber which grows there so well. Upon this agger, a 
walk is made around the Camp, which is a mile and three quarters in length, and 
the views presented from it on every side of the hill, where the trees will let them 
be seen, are rich, extensive, and varied. 
The Camp is well supplied with water. There is a spring on the eastern side 
issuing from the mound, which, from long neglect, has converted the wide ditch 
there into a bog, and formed a small pond. On the western side there is also 
another spring of water, with a pool of some size below it, which thus acts as a 
reservoir of water in dry seasons when the springs themselves might fail. 
Three sides of the agger surrounding the Camp are nearly straight, but on the 
south-eastern side it follows the shape of the hill. The embankments are every- 
where bold and strong, single on the eastern side, where the natural formation of 
the hill is steep, but double on all other sides, where the ascent is less abrupt. 
The agger on the inner Camp side varies from a few feet in height to twenty or 
thirty feet, where the approach is easy and a strong defence required. On the 
outer side the escarpment is steep, and often from sixty to seventy feet high. 
There were, probably, only two entrances to the Camp originally—one on the 
north-west corner, at the far end, and the principal entrance, strongly guarded, on 
the southern side. There is a covered way, a veiled military road, six feet wide, 
and deeply entrenched, which winds up the hill towards the west, and on reaching 
the outer fosse, it seems to divide, one branch passing along it by a gradual ascent 
to the entrance at the far north-west corner of the Camp, and the other turning 
sharply to the south with a much more steep ascent to the main entrance. 
