HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 197 



tion with respect to the adjoining country, the ditch securing it 

 from any attack on the south, and the north side being naturally 

 inaccessible : the glacis from the camp to the village, about a mile, 

 forms an easy and regular descent. 



Bishop Lyttelton says, " the camp on Kinver-edge, which Dr. 

 Plot imagines a work of the Danes, I make no doubt was British. 

 The name Kin and Vaur signifies the great edge or ridge in the 

 old Welsh or Irish. Just below the camp, on the east side, is a 

 tumulus or barrow, environed with a little ditch : the tradition 

 here is that this was the burial-place of an eminent commander." 

 Dr. Stukeley describes a tumulus on Salisbury plain very similar 

 to this, which he supposed to be Celtic. Near it, is also a large 

 stone of a square figure, and tapering towards the top, about two 

 yards in height, and four in circumference, having two notches on 

 the summit: this stone is called Bastone or Boltstone. 



On the north side of this hill is a remarkable cavern, called 

 Meg-6-fox-hole. 



The church is an ancient fabric, dedicated to St. Peter, and con- 

 tains some good monuments to the families of Grey, Hampton, 

 Hodgetts, Foley, Talbot, &c. : it is a perpetual curacy, the pre- 

 sentation being vested in trustees. From the form of a window on 

 the north side, Bishop Lyttelton thinks. that part of the edifice 

 was erected prior to the conquest : the chapel adjoining the chan- 

 cel he refers to the time of Henry the Third, when the Hamptons 

 were lords here, and to whom the building is ascribed. 



The woollen manufacture is here carried on pretty briskly in 

 narrow cloths, both coarse and fine, the latter of which are but 

 little inferior in goodness to the western broads.* 



There are five other villages or hamlets in this parish, viz. 

 Compton, Stourton, Hastcote, Dunsley, and Whittington. 



About a mile above Kinver (says Dr. Wilkes) is a place called 

 the Hyde, where was the first mill for rolling or slitting iron that 

 was erected in England. One Brindley, whose posterity long en- 

 joyed it, went into Germany, and there acted the part of a fool, 

 and by this means obtained this excellent machine, which has been 

 so serviceable, and brought so much money into this country. 



At STOURTON is one of these rod-mills : the village stands on 

 an eminence, having Stourton Castle to the south-east. 



Stourton Castle was anciently the property of the Hamptons, 

 lords of Stourton, one of whom died possessed of it in 1472. The 

 * Wilkes's MSS. 



