224 



The President, in tendering a vote of thanks to Mr. Broome, 

 alluded to the drawings which Mr. Broome had been at infinite 

 pains in preparing especially for the Club, and said that the fungi 

 were a veiy obscure and curious tribe, and the study of them was, 

 perhaps, very little attended to. It was Mr. Broome's own peculiar 

 subject, and perhaps not more than one or two botanists in this 

 country had done as much in it as he had ; certainly he was the 

 only one who had attended to it in this neighbourhood. 



A paper by Dr. Bird on " Ancient Vitreous and Calcareous Forts" 

 of which the following is an abstract, closed the evening. 



Calcareous forts are not uncommon in Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. 

 The one situated on Leckhampton Hill, near Cheltenham, occupies about four 

 or five acres, and is of an irregular horse-shoe shape. The bank, extending 

 from the ridge of tho rocks on each side about 80 yards to the two entrances, 

 contains no burned stones ; but from tho entrances the bank, extending 

 £. S. and W., is formed of burned stones and lime, and also partially burned 

 stones. There is no ditch or fosse around it, and the burned stones are not 

 covered with earth ; the Roman camp is placed close to the E. side of it, with 

 its vallum, fosse, and pretorium. 



On Crickley Hill, near Cheltenham, a camp containing several acres extends 

 across a projecting angle of that hill from N.E. to S.W. A vallum and fosse 

 exist, and the burned stones and lime are in the centre of the vallum. The 

 earth from the fosse seems as if it had been thrown over the burned stones to 

 raise the vallum. In the centre of the triangular camp a pretorium exist?, 

 but there are no burned stones or lime in it ; this camp commanded a valley 

 running from higher ground to the Severn valley below. 



The camp on Solsbury HiU, near Bath, contaiaing thirty to forty acres of 

 land, has a bank around it fomicd of burned and uuburned stones varying in 

 proportion to each other in different places and parts. It has two entrances, 

 one on the S.E. and the other on the S.W. ; there is no fosse around it except 

 in a small part on the south side, where the banks on each side of the fosse are 

 formed of partially burned and unburned stones. No vallum appears to have 

 been raised over the bank or any artificial fosse, nor is there a pretorium in 

 its centre. 



The camp on the N. side of the Avon, Clifton, where the Suspension Bridge 

 crosses the river, is formed by a curved bank extending from W. to E., cutting 

 ofl a triangular portion of that hill containing several acres, a deep valley 

 being on the E. and S. side of this camp. On the E. end there is a broad and 

 high vallum, the centre containing burned lime and charcoal ; the earth and 

 stones appear to have been acted on by fire. Outside this vallum there is a 

 deep fosse with another smaller vallum and fosse. At the W. end there is 

 only a bank without any fosse, and the limo and burned stones are not 

 covered ; the lime, in somejplaces, is intimately mixed with charcoal. 



