A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



Thames Valley in the extreme south, occupies practically the whole of 

 the southern half of the county. 



Compared with the earthworks of some other counties the works of 

 Buckinghamshire are of small extent, and, owing to the wooded character of 

 the hills, they are less easily seen than they are in such a district as the 

 South Downs of Sussex, for instance, where the ramparts and fosses are 

 prominent features, sometimes visible from considerable distances. 



In any attempt to take a general survey of the ancient camps of Buck- 

 inghamshire, it is desirable to bear in mind the important natural features of 

 the Chiltern Hills, which run across the county in a practically-east-and-west 

 direction, the hilly ground of the chalk being to the south, and the low-lying 

 pasturage ground of the Vale of Aylesbury stretching away to the north. The 



hills of Buckinghamshire 



N. never afforded such an 



essentially grazing dis- 

 trict as the South Downs, 

 and there was no reason 

 to construct camps of 

 large size capable of in- 

 closing and defending 

 vast flocks of sheep or 

 herds of cattle. The 

 fertile plains of Bucking- 

 hamshire were appa- 

 rently brought into cul- 

 tivation at a time when 

 this system of protective 

 inclosure was no longer 

 in vogue nor necessary. 



SCALE Or FEET 

 O IOO tOO 2>OO 



HILL FORTS 



(CLASS B) 



' DANESBOROUGH,* Bow BRICKHILL 



A number of the 

 Buckinghamshire earth- 

 works come under this heading owing to the fact that the lines of artificial 

 defence follow the natural contour of the ground, and are placed at the point 

 where tolerably level ground or table-land develops into inconvenient or 

 dangerous declivity. 



Bow BRICKHILL : DANESBOROUGH. This is a rather irregular oval earth- 

 work consisting of a single rampart, broken by a considerable space on the 

 north, and damaged from the north-east side by the construction of a modern 

 road. 



CHOLESBURY CAMP. The form of this camp, as will be seen from the 

 accompanying plan, is fairly oval, slight irregularities being discernible on 

 the west and north-west sides. 



The camp, locally known as ' the Bury,' occupies a piece of level ground 

 on the summit of a range of the Chiltern Hills which marks the junction of 

 the eastern part of Buckinghamshire and the western part of Hertfordshire. 



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