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even probable, that the main buildings of the garrison would be situated here ; and 
a trench, three or four feet deep, would detect any foundation that might remain. 
One circumstance is very remarkable with reference to this Camp, which is, 
that neither history, nor tradition, nor the existence of any tumuli in the vicinity, 
lead to the belief that it was ever attacked, or that any great struggle ever took 
place in its vicinity. This may possibly be due to its size being too large for a 
small body of men to attempt to hold, and its entrenchments too strong to be 
attacked when the Camp was fully garrisoned. The town of Magna Castra, we 
know, was burnt and utterly destroyed, but it is probable that its inhabitants had 
fled, or at any rate, offered but little resistance, and so all trace of the event is lost. 
In the narrow valley of Brinsop, between Credenhill and Merryhill, is a por- 
tion of ground, under two acres in extent, which has formerly been a Camp, or 
fortified inclosure. It is considerably higher than the surrounding ground, and is 
protected on the north and western sides by an embankment from eight to ten feet 
high, and by deep watercourses on the east and southern sides. The church and 
churchyard occupy the southern portion of the inclosure. On the western side is 
an orchard, and on the north side a portion of the field, which are both surrounded 
by a deep ditch, and might readily be further protected by a stockade. An 
embankment runs directly from this traditionally called Camp across the 
valley, which seems to have been made to form a mill-dam, and this is borne out 
by the nature of the ground, and the fact that in the parish map the field is called 
“¢The Lower Stank Field.” The entrenched Camp may have been a Roman out- 
post from Magna Castra, but there is no actual proof that it was so. It seems 
more probable that it formed a Saxon inclosure at a much later period. 
It isas a Roman Camp and Roman town that the chief interest attaches to 
Credenhill and Magna. Britain was the latest of Rome’s conquests in the west, 
and it was governed from first to last by Roman military and financial adminis- 
trators, whose power was comparatively unlimited. It wasa despotic government, 
but it secured peace and good order. Commerce sprang up; harvests were abun- 
dant ; tin, lead, and iron mines were worked; roads were extended in all directions; 
and the towns which sprang up during the nearly four hundred years of their rule 
prove how rapidly Britain become incorporated into the general empire. Before 
the invasion of the Romans, the British had begun to leave the more barren 
downs, and clear away the woodlands to get richer soil for cultivation, and the 
Romans naturally took advantage of their clearances. The situations of the Roman 
towns, however, were chiefly regulated by military considerations. They were 
governed by their own municipal officers, and, in all dangerous localities, were 
guarded by massive walls. The Roman station and town population existed as a 
thing apart from the Britons. Their laws, their language, their political and 
social life, were all of Rome. The Latin language was spoken in them, and such 
Britons as resided there had to accommodate themselves to it. The Britons, on 
their side, remained also quite apart, with their own language, their own chiefs, 
and, as was proved on the departure of the Romans, their own laws. It was thus 
a military occupation. The chief monuments found relate to military life, and 
