213 



" The central part of this camp has been called the Citadel and Praetorium, 

 but erroneously, for it has none of the attributes of a praetorium, or the defensive 

 capacity of a citadel. Its oval rampart is 415 feet in circumference on the crest ; 

 there is barely room for 12 tents on the Polybian system of 25 feet by 12 to each 

 tent, containing in all 87 men. If 200 men were placed shoulder to shoulder, 

 they would form a solid human wall, without space for action, along its rampart, 

 and even if the ramparts had been surrounded by a strong high stockade, an 

 assault with fire-balls would easily have carried it, so that as a strong place of 

 defence it was useless. I cannot entertain the idea that it was ever capable of 

 resisting a resolute assault. I believe we ought to look to a period when it was 

 customary to establish high places of judicature ; when the sun, the moon, the 

 wandering stars or planets, and nature-worship was the invariable rule ; when an 

 egg was a symbol of creation and the morning of Kfe ; else why was this place 

 constructed so weak in defensive power, and yet so significantly constructed in 

 that symbolic shape we now perceive it to be ? A line drawn along its centre 

 lies due east and west. 178 feet ; the base of the oval is at the west end, and at 30 

 feet along the central Une it is 100 feet wde, and at 30 feet from the eastern end 

 it is 80 feet wide. There can be no mistake as to its syniboUc shape, which is 

 entirely different from the mathematic— or rather geometric oblate era of the 

 Romans. I do not think that this is all mere accident, but the manifestation of 

 some occult mystery of an early i^eriod, the nature of which is no longer retained 

 by the uninitiated." 



Mr. Lines considered the orig^inal fortification here to be the work of pre- 

 Ruman times, though afterwards much enlarged by the different forces that occu- 

 pied it as warring circumstances required. The unremitting valuable personal 

 efforts of Mr. Piper, the President of the Malvern Club, had last autumn initiated 

 a course of research, which should be thoroughly carried out by digging the whole 

 citadel from end to end down to its rock base. 



Mr. G. H. Pipee, President of the Malvern Club, then read a learned and 

 exhaustive paper on the grand castrametation before the view of his friends, and 

 mentioned the various opinions of antiquaries on the subject. As his paper will 

 doubtless be printed in extenso, when the Club publishes a full account of the re- 

 sult of the diggings made within the camp, it is sufficient here to say that Mr. 

 Piper was of opinion that the fortification of the hill was the work of the early 

 Britons, and that it was occupied and defended in Roman times, and against the 

 Roman power. Afterwards the Romano-Britons may have garrisoned it. 



Mr. E. Lees, in proceeding to speak on the subject, said he had done 

 battle here upon several occasions, and he had now to fight again. The late Dr. 

 Card had viTitten a learned dissertation to prove that Caractacus had formed this 

 defensive fortress, and had actually fought here against Ostorius Scapula, the 

 Roman General. But not a single Roman relic had ever been found within the 

 trenches here, though wherever the Romans had been, they left evident traces of 

 their occupation. The name of Caractacus was very tempting for writers to lay 

 hold of, but there was no evidence of his encampment here, and when the Romans 



