H 7 
Roman camp, and is much inferior in size to Dolebury. Roman 
remains* have been found in it, as well as in the caverns in the 
Combe below, but still more ancient interments have been found 
in one of these caverns. The hills around are scarred on all 
sides by the ancient workings for lead, which was worked. out by 
the Romans. To the south of these camps runs the Roman road 
which traverses the Mendip Hills from Brean Down, an ancient 
port of the Romans, on the Severn, and where earthworks exist, 
and Roman remains have been found.t This road was surveyed 
and planned for Sir R. C. Hoare, who has given its course and 
the camps that lay on it. The earliest pigs of lead bearing the 
Roman stamp have been found along its course. The first 
in date bears the stamp of Britannicus, carrying us back to the 
reign of the Emperor Claudius.{ It was in that reign that this 
part of Britain was brought under Roman rule, and it seems 
probable that the lead was known to the ancient Britons before 
the coming of the Romans and worked by them. From 
Claudius to the Antonines we have evidence of Roman workings 
in the pigs of lead bearing the imperial stamp, in the coins and 
seals,§ and abundance of other Roman remains, which have been’ 
discovered in the process of uncovering the sward to obtain the 
refuse of the old Roman mining operations. This has been 
re-smelted in modern times and sufficient lead obtained to 
render the labour profitable. 
Dolebury Camp is in the heart of the workings, and was 
probably the stronghold of the people or tribe that tenanted 
these hills and held the valley below, subsisting their flocks and 
herds on the sides of the Mendips, and occupied in collecting the 
lead, which is proved to have been very near the surface. The 
* See Phelps’ Somerset, vol. i., p. 26. 
‘+ See Hoare’s Ancient Wilts, vol. ii, p. 42,.43,- | 
} See Journal of Archeological Association, vol. for 1875, p. 136. 
§ See Reports of Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vols, 1878-30. ve 
