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20th September. A section 16 feet long by 4 four feet wide was made 

 through the outer rampart on the south side of the camp facing the Thorn Tree. I 

 was obliged to leave before it was completed, but General Pitt Rivers reported 

 that^the result was the finding of two pieces of pottery, the one hard and red, and 

 the other soft and black, which was insufficient to prove anything. 



In a ravine to the south-east of the Beacon Camp and a little below Clutter's 

 Cave, against the roots of an old crab tree, lies a huge block of syenite. This 

 stone is called the " Divination " Stone, and has been described in ancient manu- 

 scripts as the show stone, suggesting that at one time singular religious rites were 

 performed upon it. 



The exact dimensions of the stone I did not take, but simply measured the 

 part that bore the appearance of having being hollowed out by man. The hollow 

 portion of the stone faces south and is 4 feet wide from east to west, and 3^ feet 

 from north to south ; the centre of the depression is 4 inches in depth. 



A little beyond is a British trackway still visible in places, leading from the 

 top of the hill to an old spring called " VVaums " Well. 



A ditch extends all along the top of the Malvern Range, which is said to 

 have been constructed by Gilbert de Clare, the (red) Earl of Gloucester, who 

 married Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward the 1st. The Earl resided at Hanley 

 Castle and received the rights of Malvern Chase as his wife's dower, so, wishing 

 to separate this from the lands of the Bishop of Hereford, he constructed a 

 ditch. It is hardly possible that a ditch alone without a fence or palisading 

 could keep deer and other game from straying. He swore his usual oath, "By the 

 Splendour of God, if I catch any man trespassing upon my manor I will cut off 

 his hands." 



This ditch, which starts from the Worcestershire Beacon, is cut upon the 

 Worcestershire side of the range, and is in some places very sharp and deep, notably 

 on the high peak over Malvern Wells, where are also two large tumuli, the centres 

 of which are broken in and measure respectively 12 and 10 feet in diameter across 

 the hollow (they do not appear to have been opened). The dyke may be traced 

 on to the Winds Point (before reaching which, not far from the pig-path, on a 

 level side of the hill, is another tumulus), it then apparently makes use of the 

 outer ditch of the Beacon camp past the place of assembly, and at the south end 

 goes off at right angles above the valley by the Thorn Tree, keeping along the top 

 of the hills, crosses the Silurian Pass (where many old British roads or trackways 

 may be clearly traced, the principal of which runs into the Ridgway) over the 

 Swinyard Hill up the side of Midsummer and HoUybush Hills, through the north 

 side of the ditch of Hollybush Camp, down the declivity on the south out of the 

 Camp, over the Hollybush Pass, and top of Ragged Stone Hill. 



This dyke or ditch must 'oe of greater antiquity than that usually assigned 

 to it, and I am inclined to think that it was originally formed by the Silures, or by 

 whatever tribe held these hills as a line of defence and covered way from one end to 



