10 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



to the illustrions dead, or men slain in battle, and were formerly 

 very numerous ; but many of them have been mutilated, or carried 

 away for agricultural and other purposes. 



There are many Saxon Camps in this county : these are easily 

 distinguished from those of the Romans. The Romans always 

 took care to have a good supply of water, and placed their camps 

 Tiear a road, that the men might always be in readiness to march; 

 but the Saxons generally fixed upon high hills, with a steep pre- 

 cipice in front, preferring 1 security to convenience: the former ge- 

 nerally chose a square spot of ground, the latter gave themselves 

 no trouble about the form, but had recourse to ditches. There is 

 one of their camps on Kinver-edge, and another on the top of 

 Berry-bank, near Darlaston-bridge (both occupied by KingWulfer;) 

 and the camp on the top of a hill called Bunbury, near Alveton, in 

 tiie Moorlands, and referred to King Coelred, about 716, is also 

 Saxon. The Roman camps, and those supposed to have belonged 

 to the ancient Britons, have already been noticed. 



The Saxons brought into this island a kind of fortification which 

 they called a Casth : this was placed on a high hill, rendered dif- 

 ficult of approach, and was sometimes surrounded by a moat or 

 ditch : it served as a residence for the chief, and a constant garri- 

 son being kept, such places were considered, before the use of gun- 

 powder, a good security to their occupiers. Considerable remains 

 of this description of fortification yet exist, as at Dudley, Tarn- 

 worth, Tutbury, Stafford, &c. At this latter place a castle is said 

 to have been built on the north side the river, by Elfleda, queen of 

 Mercia, about the year 918, hesides the one erected long after that 

 time l>y Ranulph, the first Earl of Stafford, about a mile west of 

 the town; though some accounts say, that castle was of older date, 

 and that Ranulph merely re-edified it. 



oil the Watling-street, near Hints, now a rock of stone, which, with two others 

 at Kingswinford, Dr. Plot thinks Roman petrified barrows j one at Catshill, 

 two on Calf-heath, and one on inclosed grounds east of Great Saredon. The' 

 same writer wotices a Low near Bushbury, three on Mori-edge, others near 

 Okeo-ver and Malhfield, one near Colwich Common, and another larger one 

 at the other end of this common called Row-low, probably the place of 

 sepulture of some petty king, Row-low importing rcyale sepulchrnm ; one in. 

 Arbour -close, north-west of Okeover Chapel ; three on the Wevcr-hills, and 

 three others called Queen-low, Gallows-knoll, ami Astlow Cross. To these 

 ma) be added, the Lows on Ribden, Reeden, and Cauldon-hills, also Cock-low, 

 and some others on the hills near Warslow, on Ecton-hill, on a hilly pasture 

 betwixt that and Oncott, those near the town of Leek, and many others in diffe- 

 rent parts of the county : there were also Lows on Wombourn Common. 



