EARTHWORKS NEAR BRUTON. 51 



mind, the difficulties and puzzles of the attempt, at all 

 tiines necessarily sufficiently numerous, will be very much 

 increased without any reason, and false inferences may be 

 drawn from apparently conclusive data, which, however, 

 may not really mean wbat they at first sigbt seem to indi- 

 cate. Loegri, Beigas, Romans, Saxons, and Danes have 

 all been here, and all no doubt occupied the works they 

 found ready constructed to their hands, when it suited 

 their convenience so to do. And the finding Roman coins 

 at Cadbury, no more invalidates its claim to have been a 

 British fortress before their days, than it disproves the 

 tradition that it was occupied by Arthur after they had 

 left this Island. The same may be said with regard to 

 the probably Romano-British pottery, found by Sir R. 

 Hoare, at Pen Pits; in the same way the extreme anti- 

 quity of the fortifications at Worle Hill, is not made 

 doubtful by my having found a Saxon dagger, and the 

 ferule of a Saxon spear, in one of the hut circles ; nor the 

 claims of the Norman Walklyn to having built the tran- 

 septs of Winchester, by the existence of Wyckham's and 

 Edington's work in the same cathedral. 



Having said thus much, I will now call your attention 

 to three very important remains of primeval antiquity, all 

 situated near this place. Pen Pits, the crux of antiqua- 

 ries, Cadbury Castle, known as the Palace of King Arthur, 

 and what I confess is to nie a greater crux than either, the 

 very curious earthwork in the neighbourhood of Milbourne 

 Wick. And first with regard to Pen Pits. A plan is 

 given by Sir R. Hoare, in his work on Ancient Wilt- 

 shire, and perhaps I cannot do better than use his 

 words, and then make my own comments upon them. 

 " It will be perceived," he says, " that the village of Pen 

 Stands at the South-west extremity of a large piain, sur- 



