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life as long as they could pick up a subsistence, or till their stern oppressors in 

 their greed for land finally seized upon the last unapproj^riated acres that 

 remained to the disinherited sons of the soil. This no doubt is the reason that 

 the name given by the Britons themselves to the place is lost, as the Saxons, 

 after occupying the country, would be as indifiFerent to the native appellation 

 as we should be to a spot where a camp of gipsies had taken up their abode, and 

 would only call it Waal, or Welsh hill. 



Mr. Allies, author of the "Antiquities and Folk-Lore of "Worcestershire," 

 has mentioned what he calls "the caynp at "Wall Hills, which contains an area of 

 near thirty acres, and is supposed to have been originally British, and subse- 

 quently occupied as a Roman station." I know of no valid ground for the 

 latter assertion, and it is opposed to the supposition of Mr. Edmunds that it was 

 a camp of late construction, used as a defence against the Anglian invaders, 

 perhaps as late as Athelstan's time. But I would ask, after the great fortress of 

 the Herefordshire Beacon was taken, what defence is it likely the "Wall Hills 

 could make ? It must surrender to an advancing army as a matter of course ; 

 but as a mere collection of huts, and not a military post, it may have been 

 tolerated by the Saxons for some time after the conquest of the country. 



MR. EDMUNDS'S REPLY. 



Being unable to attend the society's meeting at Ledbury, and therefore 

 prevented from answering vivd voce the friendly challenge of my esteemed 

 brother antiquary, of which he had considerately forewarned me, I am obliged 

 to make my rejoinder with the pen. 



To my friend's general remarks I have nothing to except. It is, as I 

 think, perfectly correct to say that the phrase "Wall Hills " brings down the 

 occupation of the place to Saxon times," although it seems to me that it is 

 possible to fix somewhat more closely the period when that occupation com- 

 menced. I think, too, that this more precise knowledge of the time is to be 

 found by pursuing a line of investigation which my friend has treated as Juno 



did Samos : 



Post habita coluisse Samo. 



I would solemnly warn my friend that the Icesa majestas in aU such cases exacts 



its own revenge. If some doughty Romano-Briton, borne down by the hard 



fortune of war nine centuries ago, should rise upon my friend's slumbers angrily 



demanding why his toUs in warfare and his more or less glorious death in 



defending the "Wall HiUs are denied even empty fame — altogether passed over 



by the cruel antiquary who, like the fierce Athelstan, has made a wild raid 



upon us men of the Marches, now as then the most peaceful people under the 



sun when let alone, he knows to what cause to attribute the awful vision. 



He knows, too, why I, as a humble champion of our beautiful Siluria, now 



do not scruple to run tilt at the doughty Paladin of "Wigornia, 



