ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



On part of the west side, a steep natural slope to the valley of the 

 Stort rendered much ramparting unnecessary, though even here we find 

 traces of the outer rampart in places. 



The camp seems to have been made in the later period of pre- 

 Roman days, when men had learned to dispense with tortuous entrances, 

 and required forts not for defence alone but rather as places in which a 

 body of fighting men could be protected and rapidly issue thence to 

 attack an opposing force in strength. Cultivation has destroyed all 

 trace of huts or houses, but probably this and other of these late level- 

 surfaced enclosures had many such. 



It is not improbable that this great earthwork, which stands on the 

 high ground overlooking the valley of the Stort, was an oppidum of the 

 Trinobantes, as a defence against the Catuvellauni, their neighbours on 

 the west. Though likely, if already in existence, to have been occupied 

 by the imperial soldiers, no Roman antiquities are recorded as having 

 been found within the camp, but this may be due to the fact that very 

 little excavation has been made within its area. 1 



It should be noted that Sir James H. Ramsay* suggests the identi- 

 fication of Wallbury with the position ' established ' by Hasten the Dane 

 in A.D. 894 (? 895). This shows the need for keeping an open mind 

 upon the question of the date of the creation of such earthworks. 8 Of 

 one thing we may be sure : whensoever made, this was one of the largest 

 and most important fortresses of these eastern lands. 



SOUTH WEALD CAMP. The camp occupies an elevated position 

 partly within the bounds of Weald Hall Park, and partly on cultivated 

 land to the east. The area enclosed was about 7 acres. 



It is difficult to trace the lines of the work excepting the bank 

 within the confines of the park, all have been mutilated or destroyed ; 

 but it is still possible by careful examination of the ground east of the 

 road which adjoins the park to ascertain where the rampart and fosse 

 were carried. There is nothing in its form inconsistent with Celtic 

 work, but Salmon* thought this of Roman origin ' too small to contain 

 an army and fit only for castra exploratorum? 



Of the majority of the following ' camps ' but faint traces exist, 

 while some have disappeared since their mention by our old historians. 

 In form they approximate to the class of works under consideration. 



ASHDON. An ancient entrenchment is to be seen parallel with the 

 Bourne stream near the Bartlow Hills, consisting of bank and ditch over 

 300 feet long measuring about 30 feet across. The bank is now about 

 4 or 5 feet in height and the ditch which is V-shaped is of corre- 

 sponding depth, but was originally 5 feet deeper. There is a rectangular 



1 Mr. G. E. Pritchett, F.S.A., about the year 1876 reported the discovery of at least seven ossuary 

 urns and ampulla: in a gravel-pit near the encampment. 



* Foundations of England (1898). 



3 It may be that the Danish work was on the south bank of the Lea at Hertford. Vallans wrote 

 in the sixteenth century : ' There remayneth yet the ruines of an old castel or fort bctweene Hartford 

 Castel and the Mill, which I doe undoubtedly beleeve was the verie selfe same fort that the Danes 

 builded ' (see Lcland, Hearne's ed. 1744, v. zz). * History ofEsiex, p. z6j. 



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