293 



grew there in abundance, and so also the curious tway-blade, some beautiful 

 vetches, the woodruff, and many other wild flowers. In remembrance of youthful 

 days one gentleman set to work to dig up the tubers of the common Earth nut, 

 Bunium flexuosum, which were very fine there. Pigs are very fond of them ; and 

 it is said to be in searching for these nuts by their scent that they root up the grass 

 so freely, and have to be " ringed " to prevent them from doing so. 



The outer camp was soon reached, and, passing through its rush-grown damp 

 woods, the entrenchments of the camp proper, which are of a much more decided 

 character, were crossed. It required some energy to get through the masses 

 of underwood to examine the agger properly, and truth to say very few did it. 

 They preferred admiring the splendid views between the trees of the distant 

 hills, or gathering some of the many flowers around them, the masses of deep red 

 Campion, Lychnis diurna ; the splendid tufts of Aira ecespitosa, Hassocks, or Rough 

 caps, as country people call them ; or the fine growth of Wood Spurge, Euphorbia 

 amygdaloides, with whose acrid 5nilky juice one or two "bit their tongues." 

 The botanists who did go to the northern agger were charmed with the masses of 

 the beautiful Wood vetch, Vicia sylvatica, with its elegant thickly clustered 

 spikes of faint purplish white, with darker veins. Scott says of it — 



And where profuse the Wood vetch clings 

 Round ash and elm in verdant rings, 

 Its pale and azure-pencilled flower 

 Should canopy Titania's bower. 



The wild Raspberry, Ruhus idccus, was ^ery luxuriant in both the inner and 

 outer camp ; and a ripe Strawberry, Fragaria vesca, was presented to the 

 President, of a size almost worthy of a garden. A tall Hawthorn bush was a 

 picture from its masses of beautiful blossom ; the Moneywort, the Wood rushes, 

 and other wild flowers grow in abundance. 



Long work it were. 

 Here to account the endlesse progeny 

 Of all the Weeds that bud, a blossom there ; 

 But so much as doth need must needs be counted here. 



Spenser. 



The trysting point was the tall pole of the Ordnance Survey, raised on the 

 summit of the camp ; and after examining the bold entrenchment, at tlie eastern 

 end of the camp nearly straight, here at half-past twelve the members clustered 

 around to listen to the following paper : — 



ACONBURY CAMP. 



Aconbury, or Acornbury as it is spelt in old maps and deeds, by facile 

 philology means the Acorn Camp, an entrenched hill camp surrounded by oak 

 forests, a very natural description of this camp. It occupies the summit of the 

 hill, and its height above sea level Mr. Isbell found to be 916 feet — Woolhope 

 Transactions, 1871. The camp is very large. Mr. Robert Clarke has been kind 

 enough to measure it roughly for the Club. He reports it as about 660 yards long, 

 with a width varying from 130 to 220 yards broad — a long oval containing about 



