Mr. Tate ow the Celtic Town at Greaves Ash. 305 



smaller. Excepting on the north side, where the hill is pre- 

 cipitous, there are two concentric ramparts of great strength, 

 one of them being as much as 15 feet in thickness. As at 

 Greaves Ash western Fort, the space between the ramparts is 

 divided by cross walls, the entrance is on the east, and the 

 gateways through the two are diagonal to each other. 



Within the camp are a few traces of hut circles. Excava- 

 tions were made into three of them ; and in all charred wood 

 was found ; in one, pottery was discovered at the depth of 18 

 inches ; and in another, at the depth of 2 feet, an iron knife. 

 Excellent masonry was exposed in the ramparts, of the same 

 character as that at Greaves Ash, but of a greater height — 

 the wall still remains, standing 5 feet high. Here also 

 we find the peculiar method of strengthening the ram- 

 part noticed at Greaves Ash, for on the south side, an addi- 

 tional wall three feet in thickness is built against and runs 

 parallel with the main rampart, which is itself 12 feet in 

 thickness. 



The hut circles are few ; the situation however is exposed 

 and inhospitable ; and like Yeavering Bell and Humble- 

 heugh, it had, I believe, only been used as a place of tempor- 

 ary refuge and defence, by the primitive people whose ordin- 

 ary residences were along the sheltered hill sides and upland 

 valleys, whensoever an attack was threatened by a hostile 

 tribe or foreign foe. 



Chesters. The Chesters camp is on a commanding posi- 

 tion, about 2 miles eastward of Greaves Ash. Misled by its 

 name, some have regarded it as Roman ; but there is no evi- 

 dence, either in or about it, of Roman occupation : it was 

 defended by two rampiers, but the outer one is much broken 

 down and obliterated ; the inner one is nearly circular, with 

 a gatCM^ay or entrance on the east. Hut circles are within 

 this camp, and several rectangular dwellings are ranged along 

 the south rampier. The workmanship of the walls is ruder, 

 than at Greaves Ash. 



An excavation was made on the north side of the gateway, 

 where there appears to have been a small guard-house, and 

 within this, broken pottery, charred wood, and a. flint weapon 

 were discovered at a depth of 3 feet. In a cutting of the 

 same depth near the rampier on the south, the root of a stag's 

 horn was found, and in another part of the camp, bones of a 

 horse. Broken pottery and burnt wood were dug out of most 

 of the rectangular dwellings against the rampier. But the 

 most interesting discoveries were made in a hut circle which 



