852 EEPORT — 1888. 



following account will take principal notice of the rarer features. _ 



1. Situation. — On the seaward end of a mountain-limestone ridge running east 

 and west above the town of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, which lies south of the 

 hill. The ridge, precipitous on the north, slopes away to the south, where many 

 British traces — earthworks, interments, &c. — have been found. Tlie whole hill ia 

 about three miles long. 



2. Approaches. — A gradually ascending oblique way on the south side, entering 

 near the east, and highest, end of the works. An ancient ascent of stone steps 

 leads up on the north side of the hill above Kewstoke, a mile east of the external 

 cattle-enclosure of the camp. Thence the approach is level. 



3. Defensive Works. — Of very unusual construction. The principal ramparts of 

 dry limestone masonry, complex in structure. A wall built with heart of dry 

 rubble ; then on each side lower walls in contact with the central one, tlie section 

 showing steps or terraces ; at the thickest part five or six such walls, forming one 

 very massive work of solid stonework, without mortar and without tool-marks. 



Subordinate works, and dry ditches. 

 Suggestion of stockades considered. 

 Mr. Dymond's inquiry into analogous works in Wales. 



4. Entrances. — West, south, north-east. 



5. Pits, their formation and contents. Some analogous examples. Pottery, 

 weapons, ^nd other relics: stores of corn, &c. Skeletons and detached bones, 

 llemains of animals used for food. 



6. Professor Macalister's report on the skulls. 



7. General results of hiquiry, and inferences as to the ■works and the relics. 



6. Celtic Eartliivorhs in Hampshire, in reference to the Density of tlie Celtie 

 Poprdation. Bij T. W. Shore, F.G.S., F.C.S. 



The remains of Celtic earthworks in Hampshire, as in some other English 

 counties, are numerous, as many as forty remaining in a state of preservation more 

 or less complete, and others formerly existed. They are of various kinds and 

 shapes, and where they enclose areas and form the so-called camps they are of very 

 different dimensions. Most of them are hill fortresses, but there are also marsh and 

 peninsular fortresses, and one example exists of a small former insular refuge. The 

 present surroundings of these earthworks are of service in assisting to determine 

 their original uses, for although the woodland features may be changed, the varia- 

 tions in hill and dale, and the geological conditions connected with the dry 

 chalk hills, the chalk streams, and the alluvial meadow-land through which they 

 flow, are the same as in Celtic time. 



The camps could scarcely have been permanently inhabited sites, for in Hamp- 

 shire at least few traces of dwellings, or of articles of domestic use, have been found 

 within them, from which and other circumstances it appears that these untrenched 

 areas were strongholds for defence in case of attack. If this is allowed, then these 

 areas must have had a distinct relationship to the number of people required for 

 their defence and to the population, and their capital or head of cattle, they were 

 intended to shelter. No Celtic or other village community or aggregation of such 

 communities would be likely to construct defensive earthworks larger than their 

 powers of defence ; otherwise these works would be a source of weakness. If these 

 considerations are allowed, some approximately accurate inferences concerning the 

 relative density, and perhaps concerning the absolute density, of the Celtic popula- 

 tion within reach of the shelter of these camps, may be drawn from their positions 

 and the extent of their intrenchment and areas. 



The largest Hampshire camps are placed where large open areas must have 

 existed, and the smallest are forest forts at the present day. 



The water supply of the hill fortresses would probably be by dew or cloud 



