TYPES OF ANCIENT BRITISH EARTHWOKKS. 73 



It is a fact generally admittcd by primeval archaeolo- 

 gists that the south and west of this island were in very 

 early days occupied by a people of Celtic origin, commonly 

 known as the Loegri, who are said in the Welsh triads to 

 have sprung from the primeval stock of the Britons, and 

 that these Loegri admitted to their hospitality, and granted a 

 settlement under very stringent conditions, to a tribe called 

 the men of Gal Edin, who are stated in the triads to have 

 arrived in naked ships or boats on the Isle of TVight, when 

 their country, which was probably at the mouth of the 

 Elbe, was overwhelmed by the sea. These men of Gal 

 Edin are supposed to have been the Belga?, who repaid the 

 hospitality of the Loegri by depriving them, by force of 

 arms, of a large portion of their most valuable territory. 

 The contest appears to have raged through the whole 

 extent of Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Dorsetshire, and 

 parts of the adjoining counties, for perhaps two or three 

 centuries, and no long time before the Roman invasion. 

 Their western frontier appears to have extended from the 

 mouth of the Parret to Seaton, or rather Axmouth, follow- 

 ing, as near as might be, the courses of the Parret and the 

 Axe. Now, on the high ground on the west of the Parret 

 exists a Jine of hill forts, which appear to have been con- 

 nected by beacons for the defence of the country beyond, 

 which was still held by the Dumnonii, a tribe of Loegrian 

 descent. Of these the most northerly is the Castle Hill at 

 Stowey, in later days occupied by the mediseval stronghold 

 of the Audley family. The next is Kowborough, in the 

 parish of Broomfield, which is connected by the beacon on 

 Cothelstone with the earthwork at Norton Fitzwarren, 

 commanding the valley of the Tone ; and the very strong 

 fortress on Castle Neroche. The last on this line is on 



