ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



west and south-east sides are probably larger now than they originally were 

 owing to damage or subsequent modification of the earthen banks. When 



Lipscomb wrote' the camp was 

 disfigured by some large oak-trees 

 growing on the ramparts, a blemish 

 which still remains. 



MONKS RISBOROUGH : PULPIT 

 WOOD. This hill-top camp may 

 be described as consisting of an 

 irregular and interrupted circle of 

 rampart strengthened by a fosse, 

 which is more complete than the 

 bank, a circumstance which may 

 be explained, at least in part, by 

 the subsequent degradation, by rain- 

 wash and other forces, of the ram- 

 parts. The double line of ramparts 

 on the north-east, east, and south- 

 east sides was necessary, in order to 

 cut off the camp from a small area 

 of flat ground to the north-east. 



The manner in which the 

 natural features have been utilized, 

 and the extent to which these 



"'.iMimimmiiniiMKii' 



JCALlOf fttT 



190 too .0 



features have affected the shape of 

 BULSTRODE PARK, HEDCIRLET the camp, are points which strike 



the observer at once, and clearly 



testify to the skill of the people who made the earthwork. On the north- 

 western side of the camp the natural slope of the earth is so great as to render 

 a built-up rampart hardly necessary. A fosse, therefore, has been constructed 

 with a small expenditure of 

 effort by throwing the moved 

 soil down the hill, in the 

 manner indicated in the sec- 

 tion C D in the accompany- 



ing plan. This s a speces 

 of labour-saving fortification, 

 of which there are numerous 

 other pre-historic instances. 

 In this county there is an 

 even finer example of its use 

 on the south-west side of 

 the very interesting series of 

 earthworks surrounding the 

 upper part of the hill on 

 which stands the church of 

 West Wycombe. On the 

 north, north-east, east, and 



$! *- 



MJ > SECTIONS. 



SCALE Or 

 100 zoo 



300 



PULPIT WOOD, MONKS RISBOROUGH 

 * Hut. and Antiq. of Bucki. (1847), iv, 507. 

 25 



