6 

 REMARKS ON THE HEREFORDSHIRE BEACON, 



By EDWIN LEES, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. 



Mr, Lees commenced by saying that, next to stones of memorial, the 

 earthworks of any country may justly be looked upon as permanent monuments 

 of antiquity, and these indeed have subsisted after the proudest efforts of archi- 

 tecture have been laid low. No Roman buildings remain entire in this country, 

 but the roads and camps of that warlike people still attest the skill and 

 labour they applied to all their enterprises. Man has ever been a quarrelsome 

 animal, and no doubt ditches and entrenchments were first formed as boundaries 

 to possessions, and to prevent disputes ; but when tribes became hostile to each 

 other, and wars ensued, then it became necessary to raise regular defences, and 

 this was done in the easiest manner by digging entrenchments and raising 

 mounds of earth. In case of an invasion, these entrenchments were defended 

 with the utmost obstinacy. King has remarked. In his " Munimenta Antiqua," 

 that among the various castrametations in Britain there is not a stronger or 

 more remarkable one than that on the Herefordshire Beacon. It defends the 

 principal natural pass through the Malvern Hills, and from its situation and the 

 labour that attended its const)uction, must evidently have been of a permanent 

 character. And now I may say with Shakspere — 



Come, noble gentlemen, 



Let us survey the 'vantage of the ground. 



This grand Castrametation extends rather more than half a mile from end to 

 end, but is very irregular in its form, the vallum accommodating itself to the 

 inequalities of the Beacon, and forming a double oval by its extending wings. 

 It is about three hundred yards in width at the broadest part, and its whole 

 circumference is 2970 yards. A single fossa and vallum encompasses the whole 

 camp, the fossa being about 30 feet in width, but on the eastern side several 

 terraces appear one above the other within the external vallum. In the centre 

 and surrounding the summit of the beacon is an inner fort or prsetorium, 

 having a ditch from 12 to 18 feet deep, excavated out of the solid rock, and 

 across this is a narrow neck southwards, forming the entrance, and sufficient 

 only for the passage of a single person. The original entrance to the camp was 

 from the south-west, by a very easy ascent, which communicated with a natural 

 road, called to this day the Ridgeway. The extent and resources of this castra- 

 metation make it exceedingly probable that it was not constructed for temporary 

 purposes, but intended for permanent occupation, like the hill fortresses of 

 India. It has been calculated that an army of 20,000 men might easily be 

 ranged and posted within these trenches, and there is besides area sufficient for 

 the stowage and pasturage of horses, flocks of sheep, and store of cattle. 

 Water is also close at hand on several sides. The question then arises, who 

 were the people who constructed this extensive fortress, and on what particular 

 occasion might it be considered probable that it was occupied and defended ? 



