ANCIENT DEFENSIVE EARTHWORKS 



an enemy at bay. Near these great strongholds the dwellings of the 

 people, consisting of circular huts half buried in the ground, are fre- 

 quently found grouped together in some secluded hollow. As among 

 savage races at the present day, the population in Britain in these early 

 times was split up into numerous small tribal communities, which were 

 perpetually at strife with one another ; whenever danger approached, the 

 whole tribe, with all their flocks and herds, would leave their dwellings 

 in the vales and take refuge in their stronghold on the hill above. The 

 frequent absence of water within the area of these ' camps of refuge ' 

 has been remarked upon ; but there is little doubt that, as was formerly 

 the custom among the aborigines of New Zealand, the women of the 

 tribe carried up a supply in earthen vessels, in anticipation of the tem- 

 porary occupation of the fortress. 



Many of the camps of this description have been proved to belong 

 to the Bronze age, and some apparently date still further back ; but as 

 successive peoples have so often made use of a previously existing design 

 in the construction of their fortresses, careful excavation in any particular 

 earthwork is the only method of arriving at its age with even approxi- 

 mate accuracy. 



Well-known examples showing the features usually associated with 

 this class of hill fortress are the earthworks on Mam Tor in Derbyshire 

 and at Maiden Castle in Dorset. Camps of this type on a large and 

 imposing scale are found upon many of the highlands surrounding the 

 Avon valley, though beyond the actual confines of Warwickshire ; such 

 are the deep entrenched strongholds upon the Malvern Hills, the great 

 camp with ramparts nearly three miles in circumference at Burrow Hill, 

 Daventry, the enormous earthworks on Meon Hill on the Gloucester- 

 shire border, and the lesser camp on Burrow Hill near Leicester. As 

 far as one can judge by appearance in the absence of excavation, War- 

 wickshire can show somewhat similar remains, but upon a smaller scale and 

 much worn, on the Edge Hill at Ratley. All traces of the circular hut 

 village, which was once doubtless associated with such a fortress, have 

 long ago disappeared in this highly cultivated county. In Worcester- 

 shire, on the contrary, where the surface of the ground on Malvern 

 Chace has never been disturbed by the plough, large numbers of such 

 ancient dwellings may still be seen, hidden away among the brushwood, 

 below the great camp on Midsummer Hill. 



(B n ) As a subdivision to this class we have earthworks somewhat 

 resembling the last, but smaller in size and differing in various details. 

 These camps are not found upon the high tops of hills, but usually upon 

 some ridge or slight eminence on lower ground ; they are frequently near 

 a river, and often in the triangular space above the junction of two 

 streams ; here the swamps and morasses which in former days were wont 

 to stretch far and wide on either side of every watercourse, formed an 

 admirable natural defence. The ramparts of these camps do not follow 

 the natural contours of the ground so much as those previously described, 

 but are more artificial in form ; they are often oval or round, or some- 



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