ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



circular mound in the middle, with a shallow ditch i ft. deep on its south side. The northern 

 bank, 5 ft. high, has no ditch. 



Within the area, Polwhele says, are two praetoria in each division, but such a statement 

 would not hold good even if it were a Roman camp ; mounds such as he evidently referred 

 to are nowhere visible in the northern part ; but in the southern division, about the centre, is a 

 circular platform 3 ft. high with a shallow ditch on the east side, which may possibly have been the 

 site of the chieftain's hut. At the extreme south a low rampart encloses an almost circular area, 

 about 100 ft. in diameter, which may have been for a beacon fire as suggested by Mr. Hutchinson, 

 but was more probably for the watch. 



Polwhele makes a plausible statement when he says that one division was for the accommo- 

 dation of the foot and the other for the horse ; certainly that branch of the entrance road into 



iiiii»& 





'* ft! till ,''/?."// "" . 



o 



L. 



SCALE OF FEET 



100 100 a 90 





' < < 1 1 1 1 ^ t 



SiDBURY Castle. 



the northern partition is both straight and broad, while that into the southern is narrow and 



curved. 



The discovery of Roman coins, and in 1801 of a lar or household god, of iron,* within 

 this stronghold has been thought sufficient evidence by certain learned antiquaries to call Hembury 

 a Roman camp ; but while admitting a Roman occupation we plead for an ante-Roman origin 

 for this most remarkable work. About 1850 a well-preserved looped palstave was found withm 

 two miles of this fort, and in 1867 some long tapering blades of fine bronze were found m the 



vicinity. , . , , . . • 



SiDBURY (O.S. Ixxxii, 10, 11).— Sidbury Castle, a large kite-shaped camp, with the pomt 

 towards the north-west, is situated on the summit of one of the many lofty hills on the west 

 bank of the Sid, 2^ miles north of Sidmouth. 



' Figured in Anheeoh^a, xiv, 279. 



587 



