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away to the North in the direction of Alfred's Tower. At the 

 Southern edge of this ridge nestles the little village and ancient 

 Church of Penselwood; and below to the East and North-East are 

 seen the richlj^-wooded valley and grounds of Stourhead, whence 

 are the sources of the little stream called the Stour. Several 

 promontories reach out into the valley from the rising ground on 

 each side, and on almost all of these and wherever indeed the 

 Greensand formation exists, the ground has been riddled with 

 excavations. Several, many thousand perhaps, have already 

 been levelled and partly obliterated by the exigencies of 

 civilisation. Especially is this the case in the neighbourhood of 

 Penselwood and that of Zeals on the opposite rising ground to 

 the East of the Stour. To give an idea of the great extent of 

 these pits, Sir H. Colt Hoare in his " Ancient Wilts" considers 

 that they once covered an area of 700 acres. It is only, however, 

 with a portion of them that we are at present concerned, i.e., 

 with tliose that are situated to the East and North-East of the 

 Church of Penselwood, and are to be found on a narrow spur of 

 Greensand running in a half-moon shape towards the Stour, called 

 " Caspar Pits." The end of this spur as it approaches the stream 

 has been fortified, and now bears the name of the " Castle." 

 Roughly speaking, these earthAvorks consist of an outer mound 

 immediately overlooking the stream, separated from the more 

 lofty and dominant " keep" by the modern path leading from a 

 small hamlet on the South called " Castle Orchard." This " keep" 

 is of an oval form, separated from an oblong outer " bailey" by a 

 deep ditch. This again is cut off from the main spur by another 

 ditch, and away to the right are seen traces of earthworks 

 extending towards the stream on the East, Well, as I said, the 

 whole of this spur has been literally honeycoombed with pits ; 

 so tliickly scattered are they, that in some cases there is scarcely 

 standing room between them. They are mostly of an inverted 

 cone shape and of very irregular size, some quite shallow and 

 small, others large and deep ; others again running one into the 



