11 
two years before, and they had arrived at the conclusion that 
this was unquestionably a spot of some considerable importance 
immediately after the Roman invasion of Britain, and while 
the Severn, with Gloucester, was the western boundary of the 
province afterwards known as Britannia Prima. This “bury” 
would be the first fort with which the Romans would meet 
when they crossed into the country of the Silures, and conversely 
would be the most advanced of the strongholds from whence those 
untameable tribes would harry the Cotteswold folk and their 
masters. It isa prominent spot from many of the Roman Camps 
on the Cotteswold range, as may readily be seen by anyone who 
scans the prospect carefully. The name is remarkable, for it 
shows that the Britons held the Forest of Dean until long after 
the Saxons had possession of the opposite bank of the Severn; 
just as Welsh Bicknor, some miles to the north, marks a second 
stand made by the native tribes on the banks of the Wye. If 
the Saxon conquest had swept over this part simultaneously 
with the taking of Gloucester by Crawuin in 577, or had even 
followed it speedily, such a name would not have been given to 
the hill; for the fact of its having once or formerly been a 
British Camp would have been nothing distinctive in a country 
where, until the Saxons came, all the Camps were alike British, 
inasmuch as the Britons alone had occupation of them after the 
Romans left the island. Clearly therefore what took place at 
the Saxon invasion of this district is an exact recurrence of 
what happened at the Roman invasion, viz., that Gloucester, 
with the Severn, remained for some time the limit of the 
conquered territory westward; and that the sons of the Silures 
gave to the Saxon invaders as much trouble in their further 
advance as their fathers had given to the legions of Ciaupius 
and his successors. 
On resuming the drive the members noticed the now dry beds 
of the former ponds belonging to Flaxley Abbey, which served 
the double purpose of reservoirs for fish, and of mill-ponds for 
water-power required in the iron-works. The Flaxley iron- 
works were in use to a late period, probably later than the 
commencement of the present century; but the ponds near 
