96 BT7ZBUEY ENCAMPMENT. 



the latter giving ingress to the trackways approaching 

 from the north and south-west. The central area is strongly 

 marked by disturbances of soil, and many circular depressions 

 denote the site of ancient habitations ; on digging into them 

 firehearths, fragments of coarse pottery, and animal bones are 

 brought to light. No such vestiges are met with in the larger 

 or exterior area, whence it may be inferred that here as at Bad- 

 bury we may recognise a provision intended for the security 

 of the flocks and cattle of a pastoral people, when the shades 

 of night had fallen on their pastures. Within this space there 

 is a small low bank, not of sufficient size to be termed a long 

 barrow ; neither does it appear to be of a sepulchral character. 

 The only remaining object to attract attention is situated without 

 the earthwork on the south-east side, and has certain peculiarities 

 to require special notice. At first sight it bears strong 

 resemblance to a ransacked tumulus, and its concave sides may, 

 with a little effort of the imagination, give it the semblance of a 

 miniature amphitheatre. I should have hesitated about mention- 

 ing this little work had I not seen precisely similar examples 

 elsewhere ; there was only one, for instance, on Camp Down, 

 but it has been destroyed since the land has been brought under 

 cultivation. The Kev. J. H. Austin kindly directed my attention 

 to another of the same kind, called "The Pound," or Church 

 Hayes, adjacent to the ancient British village on Woodcotes 

 Common. It is a counterpart of this at Buzbury, with the 

 exception of being nearly double its size. "With such a resem- 

 blance between them, it is reasonable to conclude that their uses, 

 whatsoever they may have been, were the same. It is not improb- 

 able that they served as places of rustic sports and games in 

 connection with the settlements which they adjoined, but I must 

 be understood as speaking suggestively only on this point. They 

 certainly bear an appearance of antiquity much greater than 

 those mediaeval earthworks which were devoted to popular 

 games of the peasantry, such as cock-fighting, badger-baiting, 

 &c. The entrenchments on Buzbury are by no means strong, 

 which circumstance, coupled with the fact of its site being on an 



