220 



convinced me that this mound, and the so-called long barrow on Hollybush Hill, 

 about which local poets and writers of the guide books had written so much senti- 

 mental nonsense upon the remains of ancient British warriors therein interred, had 

 been raised as an artificial rabbit burrow, perhaps a few hundred years ago, I 

 ordered the men to fill up the trenches at once. Notwithstanding two or three 

 days had been occupied in opening these mounds, it was satisfactory to prove 

 that they wei-e of the same character as those which had so puzzled Professor 

 KoUeston, Canon Greenwell, and General Pitt Rivers, until the latter discovered 

 their origin. 



I am, however, reminded by Mr. John E. Price, F.S.A., that some signi- 

 ficance must be attached to the strange deposit of relics in the long barrow. He 

 remarks that the mound and its contents may be Roman after all, and be an 

 illustration of a Botontinus,* or one of the terminal marks which it was the 

 practice of the surveyors of old to construct at the confines of territory or estates. 

 In defining the boundaries of land, the agriincnsors, or land surveyors, selected 

 various signs, the future discovery of which would make the lines of demarcation 

 clearly significant. At such limits they would deposit not only charcoal, but 

 broken pottery, the latter of various kinds, and often purposely fractured, gravel, 

 pebbles, pieces of metal, coins, pitched stakes, ashes, and lime, over such a depo.sit 

 they would erect a mound or hillock of earth. Such an elevation of earth might 

 in course of time become destroyed, but the objects so protected would remain, 

 and indicate plainly to the professed surveyor their meaning and intention. It is 

 certainly a coincidence, as my friend suggests, that we should have met with such 

 a deposit in the so-called barrow, and that it should be so closely associated in its 

 situation with the respective boundaries of territoria, or, in other words, adjoining 

 counties. 



HEREFORDSHIRE BEACON CAMP. 



This is one of the largest and strongest earthworks in the country, and has 

 usually been looked upon as of British origin, and I see no particular reason for 

 doubting it at present. 



Some archaeologists assign it to Caractacus, and suppose it was constructed 

 after the Britons, or Cymri, had obtained some knowledge of the Roman method 

 of castrametation, to oppose the legions under Ostorius Scapula. Another goes 

 so far as to say that the camp was constructed some 400 years before Julius Caesar 

 landed. 



The fortifications enclose the highest hill and the two adjoining spurs, 

 which is well known as the "Herefordshire Beacon." This was carefully surveyed 



* Consult the text books of the surveyors in Lachman's edition of the "Gromatici Veteres," 

 2 vols., 8vo., Berlin, 1848-52, for example — " In limitibus vero ubi rariores terminos constituimus, 

 monticellos plantavimus de terra quos Botontinus appellavimus.'' " Faustus et Valerius," p, 308 : 

 also " Et intra ipsis (the Botontoni) carbones et cinus et testa tusa coopernimus, Trifinium quam 

 maxime quando constituimus cum signis, id est cinus aut carbones et calce ibidem construximus 

 et super duxiraus et super toxam monticellum constituimus." The author of this treatise remarks 

 that even in his day ignorant people often confused such limitary Botontoni with sepulchral 

 barrows ! 



