124 PAPEK.S, ETC. 



apiiEuiiix tn tjje p^n m %Xmk Camf 



In the Proceedings of the Somersetshire ArchcBological and 

 Natural Histonj Sociefi/, 1851, p. 64. 



THE results of my investigatlons on Worle Hill 

 cluring the year 1852 have been, to my own mind, 

 highly confirmatory of my original theory : — That the 

 place was destroyed by Ostoriiis in the reign of the 

 Emperor Claudius, and deserted during the period of 

 the Roman occupation ; that the black earth and bumt 

 wood which are usually found a few inches above the 

 solid rock, in most of the hut circles, are the remains 

 of the roofs destroyed at that time ; and the burnt com 

 and other objects found below the layer of black earth, are 

 leavings of the inhabitants of the place at the time of Osto- 

 rius's attack ; and that the pottery is almost all of British 

 manufacture, some of extreme antiquity, some probably 

 Belgic, the work of the last two or three centuries be- 

 fore the Eoman invasion. That at the time of the West 

 Saxon irruption, under Ceawlin, in the year 577, some of 

 the Romanized Britons took refuge within these ramparts, 

 and that the skeletons, and the iron weapons found with 

 them, are to be referred to the desperate band to band 

 coutest which took place aftcr the Saxons liad stormed the 

 defenders of the furtress. 



