OLD HILL FO^RSSS 175 



the valley, and entering the fortress at its western end, 

 is commanded by a triple row of mounds and ditches. 

 There is a double line of earthworks along three sides of 

 the hill-top. On the south the camp is bounded by a 

 ravine so steep that the defences in that direction con- 

 sist merely of a single rampart with a broad terrace like 

 a road carried outside it along the brink of the descent. 

 The eastern end, which from the level nature of the 

 ground beyond is especially open to assault, is further 

 supported by an outwork, and is, like the northern 

 front, guarded by defences of great height and strength. 

 The northern rampart is still nearly twenty-five feet 

 high, and, in addition to the mingled stones and earth 

 of its main portion, was strengthened by a rude un- 

 mortared wall, which, although now a heap of ruin, 

 shows clear traces of its original construction. The 

 ramparts are little short of a mile in circuit, and enclose 

 an area of more than twenty acres. 



Standing on the highest ground within the walls, near 

 the massive ruins of a keeper's cottage, it is easy to see 

 how well the camp is placed for purposes of outlook and 

 defence. The eastern view is bounded at no great dis- 

 tance by the higher elevation of Black Down, beyond 

 whose bare brown slopes extends, to the far end of the 

 hills, an upland broken only by Cheddar gorge and the 

 rocky glen of Ebbor. On the northward lies the Vale 

 of Wrington, with its rich meadows, white-walled 

 villages, and stately elms. At the foot of the far slope 

 is the hamlet of Wrington, where Locke was born, and 

 whose churchyard holds the dust of Hannah More. 



