3S4 



with critical scrutiny, and attention was called to its more interesting features— its 

 entrances, and the construction of the great inner vallum. The rain still continued, 

 and it was thought advisable to adjourn to the Court Farm, where Mr. Lambert 

 very kindly received the visitors, and where the following paper was read : — 



RISBURY CAMP. 



This Camp is one of the strongest and most perfect fortifications in Hereford- 

 shire, and yet, from its remote situation, it is very seldom visited, and it is the 

 one about which perhaps the least is known. History is absolutely silent about 

 it, and tradition even fails to give any clue towards the discovery of its makers, 

 or its occupants. The sole source of information is to be gained therefore from the 

 plan and structure of the camp itself. A careful examination gave the following 

 results : the inner space, or the camp proper, is usually called oblong, but it is 

 rather an irregular parallelogram, with the corners rounded off. It is 342 yards 

 long, and 134 yards across the middle, and measures fully 8^ acres in extent. It 

 is nearly, but not quite north and south, though it may be spoken of as such for 

 convenience. This inner space is level, and enclosed by a very remarkable 

 vallum. From the inside it presents a rampart from 12 to 15 feet high, where it 

 has not been opened for stone, and an external escarpment of 55 feet, at the steep 

 angle of about 60.° This embankment, when last opened on the west side, 

 was found to have a dry built stone wall, faced externally. From some 20 yards 

 in extent " hundreds of loads of stone " have been taken. This high vallum 

 contains very much more material than could have been taken from the wide 

 trench that surrounds it, which leads to the inference that the earth and stones 

 were obtained by levelling the inside space. 



There are two entrances to the inner camp, one on the eastern and the other 

 on the western side, not quite in the middle but at a distance of about 151 yards 

 from the southern end. These are simply cut straight through the foss and embank- 

 ment, without any special earthwork protection. They are not quite opposite 

 each other, the western end being about 10 yards nearer to the south than the 

 other. 



The outer area incloses a ground space of some 25 acres. It presents a triple 

 entrenchment on the east and south side, and double on the north and west, 

 where the Holywell brook and Humber brook form the outer defence. The 

 entrenchments without the great vallum— now much levelled down— enclose a 

 space 80 yards wide. It is less wide on the south side, and still less on the west 

 and north sides. The outer escarpment is about 40 feet deep, the present road- 

 way occupying the trench on the south and eastern sides. There is an entrance 

 from this roadway on the eastern side through the outer escarpment, but it is not 

 quite opposite the eastern entrance to the camp, being further to the south. This 

 also is a simple direct entrance without any earthwork protection. There is no 

 water supply within the camp at the present time, but there is a guarded approach 

 to the brook which flows at the foot of the entrenchments at the north-east corner. 

 There may very readily have been a well within it for the trouble of sinking some 

 30 or 40 feet. Tliere is a depression of the ground towards the southern end of 



