By Mr. and Mrs. B. H. Cunnington. 57 



The Outee Entrenchment. 



The great outer enclosure consists of a single vallum and ditch, 

 enclosing sixty-eight acres of land, and measuring one mile and a 

 quarter round. The entrenchment, whicli is on the whole well 

 preserved, is for the greater part of quite feeble proportions, but 

 notably stronger on the south and east, from B to H on Key Plan 

 PI. X. There is no obvious reason for the strengthening of this 

 part of the entrenchment, and it has been suggested that for some 

 reason it was strengthened after its original construction, but 

 cuttings made through the rampart on the eastern side (C — C, 

 Ca — Ca, D — D) showed no sign of any such addition, and there is no 

 evidence that points to the entrenchment having been made at 

 different dates. It is only left to conjecture that the weaker part 

 may originally have been reinforced by more formidable stockading, 

 or some such additional defence, or the explanation may be con- 

 nected with the arrangement of the interior works, that seem to 

 turn their backs to the area bounded by the weaker entrenchment. 

 It will be seen that two long ditches stretching out from the inner 

 works meet the outer work in both cases just at the point where 

 the stronger merges into the weaker entrenchment (B and H on 

 Key Plan, PL X.) the fact of their ending as they do at these 

 points must be taken to have an important significance in relation 

 to the stronger and weaker parts of the entrenchment. 



The camp stands on a plateau with higher ground to the north, 

 with the inclusion in the north-eastern corner of a portion of the 

 sloping side of a combe. At first sight it seems curious that this 

 piece of sloping ground should have been included in the defence. 

 But it has been suggested by more than one military authority 

 that this part was in fact thrown out to cover the head of the 

 combe, for had the entrenchment been carried along on the level, 

 approximately on the line marked on Key Plan, PI. X. " Old cultiva- 

 tion bank " x troops could arrive up the combe unseen within rushing 



1 Appearances on the spot are deceptive from the fact that along the line 

 marked " old cultivation bank " a strip of land has been left as a rough 

 headland and gives to it the appearance that might be expected to result 

 from a roughly levelled rampart. When Sir R. Colt Hoare made his map 

 there was no break in the rampart at this corner, " B," and no doubt the 



