59 



WAPLEY CAMP, AND ITS CONNECTION WITH THE 

 RESISTANCE OF CARACTACUS TO THE ROMANS. 



Wapley Camp, apart from history and tradition, wears every aspect of 

 being a British Camp, and a British Camp of the date of their eventful con- 

 flict with the Romans. It is not one of those circular, small, single-ditched 

 " Rings " which represent defensive works between the Welsh and the Anglo- 

 Saxons.* Its shape, situation, ramparts, outer- works, all bespeak an earlier, 

 a Roman invasion, date. Here is the rocky or stony height, atep of wliich a 

 more or less flat surface of considerable proportions has been enclosed by a 

 formidable agger or rampart of stone and earth, and outside of which on all 

 sides but the north the mounds and ditches are (or have been) five-fold. The 

 shape of this enclosure has been miscalled elliptical, but the map and plan 

 which wiU accompany this paper, and which I owe to the kindness and zeal 

 of Mr. Fuller Craven Fowle, C.E., will satisfy anyone that it might be more 

 accurately defined as " triangrular." A Roman Camp — such as the local talk 

 pronoimced Wapley to be until the spirit of archaeological inquiry made us 

 more precise — would certainly have been square or oblong, more marked by 

 its distinct gates, and most of all in a hostile country like this, it would have 

 been situate rather upon level ground, for fear of entanglement in mountains 

 imperfectly known to the foreign foe. It would also have been fortifi ed with 

 earth-works only, from default of stone. In similar camps on the Welsh 

 border, like Wapley abiding memorials of a severe and supreme struggle 

 (notably at Croft Ambrey, sevfen miles or thereabouts to the east), you will 

 find the three sides which are the most assailable and accessible fortified with 

 manifold lines), the innermost much highest and strongest, whilst on the fourth 

 side (for Wapley has a very slight facing to the west, at the vertex of its 

 triangle) which side is, in both these cases, the north, a single entrenchment 

 only surmounts the sharp, sheer steep, which frowns over the vale below, and 

 enables the camp on this hand to laugh its foes to scorn, in its grand, natural 

 strength. At Wapley the sole ancient entrance, it would seem, is, so far as 

 can be traced, to the south. At Croft Ambrey it is to the north-west. And 

 another Uttle difference betwixt the two is this, that whereas at the Ambrey, 

 soil and stone from the interior have plainly been removed from the now 

 uneven and irregular surface to add greater strength to a naturally strong ram- 

 gart, at Wapley we find an almost flat table land within the inclosure, as well 

 as a perennial reservoir of water to the south, which might encourage the 

 notion that this fortified camp was rather designed for permanent residence 

 than for a place of resort and resistance in case of sudden attacks, or hard- 



* Hartshome, page 42. 



