215 



that at a spot a little way from this Camp, " there was, in old 

 times, a town :" at the spot indicated the soil is rather darker 

 than around it, but this is all that can be seen. May not this 

 tradition have been handed down some sixty generations, and 

 be founded on a fact, namely, that a British " town " occupied 

 this place, having the neighbouring Camp as a Refuge ? 



No. 33. — Trewsbury, from its proximity to the Roman road, 

 which ran south-west from Corinium, has been generally con- 

 sidered a Roman Camp. It occupies a slightly elevated spot, 

 bounded on its west side by the shallow valley where formerly 

 rose the fine spring of water known as Thames-head, but which 

 has been diverted, and supplies, by the aid of a pumping-engine, 

 the Thames and Severn Canal. The spring of water was doubt- 

 less of much importance in that otherwise waterless district, 

 and may have led to the choice of this site for the Camp. The 

 artificial defences of Trewsbury consist of two mounds, with 

 wide ditches protecting the east and south sides, (see Plate II, 

 fig. 10.) At the north end these embankments are only twenty 

 yards apart, but this space gradually increases to thirty-three 

 yards where they curve towards the south-west, and to forty- 

 seven yards where they reach the escarpment. The mounds 

 vary much in height in different places. There are no earth- 

 works on the west side, the escarpment there having a steep 

 bank ; on the north the land has only a gentle slope, and, 

 judging from the Ordnance Map, there was formerly an earth- 

 work on it, but in the erection of a fine house and the laying 

 out of gardens and pleasure-grounds within the area of this 

 Camp, its earthworks have been disturbed. 



No. 34. — The British town Caer Ceri, or Caer Cori, on the 

 river Churn (anciently Corin), was doubtless a fortified position, 

 but the succeeding Roman town Corinium obliterated the 

 traces of its earlier occupation. The walls of the Roman town 

 mentioned by Leland have well nigh disappeared also, though 

 their position has been carefully traced by Professor Bitckman 

 and C. H. Newmakch, Esq., and figured and described in 

 their work, " Illustrations of the Remains of Roman Art in 

 Cirencester." 



