WORLE CAMP, 67 
of this country ; and even where, as in the case of Ham 
Hill, in this county, the later invaders made use of the 
fortifications of those who had preceded them, the part 
which the Roman camp oceupied is frequently to be 
discerned with considerable accuracy ; while the rapid 
movements of the Danish pirates, and the astonishing 
rapidity with which they transferred their armies from one 
‚part of the country to another, render it improbable that 
the fortifications with which they surrounded their tem- 
porary camps, should have been of any very substantial 
character. Indeed I believe it will generally be found 
that those which are undoubtedly of Danish origin, consist 
- of little more than a trench and rampart hastily thrown 
up, usually taking the form of the hill on which they are 
commonly placed, and apparently constructed without 
much attention to any fixed rules either of fortification or 
castrametation. When therefore we find, as in the case 
before us, works of great importance and strength, evi- 
dently intended for the permanent accommodation of a 
large force, and constructed on a plan essentially different 
from what we know to have been that in use with the 
Romans, we are compelled to conclude that the original 
constructors of those works were neither Romans nor 
Danes; and as it can hardly be that a place of such 
importance, if of Saxon date, should not be mentioned 
either in the Saxon Chronicle, or by Asser, or indeed I 
believe by any other author, it follows that we must date 
its origin before the Roman invasion, and seek for its 
founders among the British tribes, whether Belg® or 
Hxdui, who inhabited this distriet while Britain was as 
yet altogether divided from the Roman world. 
The first inhabitants of this island were undoubtedly a 
branch of the great Celtic family which appears to/have 
13 
