22 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1908 
and that these ‘‘ older” Measures have been removed), and that 
if any coal-seams do exist they belong not to the “‘ older,” but to 
the less-productive Upper Coal-Measures ? 
MEON HILL 
From Ebrington Hill the Members passed on to Meon Hill. 
Meon Hill is an outlier of Marlstone, the flat-topped summit being 
due to the presence of this rock-bed. There may be a trace of 
Upper-Lias clay on top of the Marlstone; but there is certainly 
no Oolite as Strickland thought there was." All the rock-specimens 
submitted to Mr Richardson for examination by Mr J. M. Dixon, were 
Marlstone, containing characteristic fossils such as Pseudopecten egut- 
valuis (Sow.), Volsella scalprum (Sow.), and Rhynchonella tetrahedra 
(Sow.); while Mr Richardson has observed in the wall running east 
and west across the hill, Grxyph@a depressa, Phillips, Gryphea gigantea, 
Sowerby, Ditrupa sp., Pentacrinus-ossicles, etc. 
The climb up the hill proved rather exhausting to some, but the 
summit once reached, a magnificent view opened out. 
While the Members rested, Mr J. M. Dixon, in the regretted 
absence of Mr T. R. Hodges, who has written a paper on ‘‘ Meon 
Hill and its Treasures,” * communicated some interesting notes. 
The ancient camp by which the hill is crowned is one of the 
series which Ostorius Scapula constructed in the middle of the first 
century along the brow of the Cotteswolds to prevent the warlike 
Silures from invading the Roman territory. Round it a cloud of 
controversy has gathered from the time of Camden onwards. Tacitus, 
who is our authority for the work of Ostorius, tells us that the camps 
extended from the lower Severn to a river which may be Aufona 
or Antona. Antona is the Avon; Aufona is the Nen. If the northern 
end of the chain was near the Avon, Meon Hill is its termination ; if 
the chain extends to the Nen, Meon Hill is but midway in the chain. 
The earthworks conform to the contour of the hill, and are irregular 
in shape. Below the edge of the hill the slope has been artificially 
scarped, giving a very steep bank 18 feet high from the bottom of the 
ditch; then follows a steep-sided mound 8 feet high; and then 
a third mound 5 feet high. Nearly a hundred years ago, about four 
hundred sword-like blades of iron, each nearly a yard long, arranged 
socket and point, were found in the camp. It was once thought they 
were swords in the course of manufacture; but the latest theory 
is that they were part of the ‘ coinage” of the Celto-Britons, 
and Mr Dixon adduced some weighty evidence in its support. Several 
years ago, a number of similar pieces of metal were found at Salmons- 
bury Camp, near Bourton-on-the- Water. 
Besides placing his valuable knowledge and services at the dis- 
posal of the party, Mr Dixon also hospitably entertained them at tea 
at his residence in Mickleton, whence the members drove to Honey- 
bourne Station. [L.R.] 
t “Memoirs of Hugh Edwin Strickland” (1858), by Sir W. Jardine, p. 81. 
2 Trans. Birmingham Archzeological Society, vol. xxxii (1907), pp. 112-125. 
