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importance ; it is 12 miles from the camp at Backbury Hill, in the direction of 

 Ariconium (at Weston-under-Penyard, near Ross) ; 13 miles from the camp at 

 Fownhope; 15 from Caplar; and 15 miles from Wall Hills, near Ledbury. 

 Moreover, the protection of a fortified post would be required here for the town of 

 Blackwardine, which seems to have been unfortified, or more probably was simply 

 stockaded. 



Lastly, 12. It may be stated that the absence of any tumuli, or other signs 

 of warfare in the immediate neighbourhood, leads to the inference that it was too 

 strong to be attacked, and eventually was quietly deserted. 



For all these reasons there seems but little doubt that the camp at Risbury is 

 of Roman origin and construction. The loss of its Roman name it shares with 

 the town close by at Blackwardine, with Wall Hills, and many other places. The 

 fact that Roman remains have never been found within the camp seems at first 

 sight to militate strongly against the supposition of its being Roman ; but this, 

 however, is remarkably the case at Credenhill Camp, and also at Brandon, an 

 undoubted camp of Roman construction and occupation. It would almost seem 

 as if the soldiers' rations were prepared in the adjoining towns, and that the men 

 received and spent their pay there also. It is, however, more probable that they 

 were only occupied as a temporary refuge when circumstances rendered it 

 necessary or politic to do so. 



The Woolhope Club visited the camp at Risbury in 1868. The entrenchments 

 at that time were covered with a dense growth of trees and underwood ; and the 

 inner camp was a hop-yard, planted also with young orchard trees. The camp then 

 seemed to be what it is represented on the old Ordnance map — a simple elongated 

 oval — and was considered to be British in structure. Now that the embankments 

 have been happily cleared, it is evident that its form is a parallelogram somewhat 

 irregular in outline, as you will see clearly represented in the tracing now shown 

 of the new Ordnance Survey. The great strength and scientific construction of the 

 earthworks is now well shown, and it has become one of the most interesting 

 camps in the county to visit and study. Belonging to the Silurian series are many 

 British camps unaltered by the occupation of others, as the Bache Camp, Croft 

 Ambery, Thornbury, Herefordshire Beacon, Coxwall Knoll, Gaer Camp, Caplar 

 Camp. British camps afterwards occupied and altered by the Roman troops are 

 not rare, as at Ivington Camp, Sutton Walls, Wall Hills, Wapley Camp, Creden- 

 hill Camp, and probably others also. But of camps originally constructed by 

 Romans in Herefordshire, Brandon Camp, opposite Coxwall Knoll, and Risbury 

 Camp, are the best examples, with Dinedor, Backbury, Haffield, Fownhope, and 

 some other smaller posts for temporary occupation. 



Some little discussion then took place on the papers, for this camp has always 

 been considered before to be British, and admitting it to be Roman, it was thought 

 it could not have been used as a garrison station, but only as a temporary refuge, 

 since if it had been permanently occupied, some traces of a residence there must 

 have appeared during its cultivation. 



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