Licldinglon Castle (Camp). 577 



The site of the diggings is in the N.E. corner of the encampment 

 and a compass bearing taken from the centre of the entrance 1 

 shows the excavation to be 75° W. of N. from that point and 122 

 yards distant. Standing on the site and looking N. the inside 

 bank is 55 yards distant, while a line drawn from the W. end of 

 Ooate Eeservoir to the entrance would pass through the eastern 

 part of it. (This observation was taken by sight only.) This part 

 of the camp is remarkable for the great depth of mould and black 

 ■earth overlying the chalk. Whereas outside on the open down 

 the surface soil is only a few inches thick, here it is in some places 

 nearly two feet in depth. This fact, together with the quantity 

 of black earth, bones, and pottery, would seem to prove the long 

 and continuous occupation of the site and to modify somewhat the 

 ■current theory of hill forts being only occupied in times of danger. 

 It is certainly contradictory that the continued occupation of hut 

 •circles and village sites on the high downs should be allowed, but 

 not that of the camps, purely on the ground of defective water 

 supply, a reason which affects both equally. 



The excavation was carried on by removing the turf, then ir- 

 regular trenches were cut, in which process the flints were removed 

 {for the roads) from above the chalk, and lastly the remaining earth 

 was replaced under the original turf. Archseologically this digging 

 was far from what could be desired, as it is quite probable that 

 many pits still exist on the site and were overlooked by the work- 

 men, whose chief aim was flints at so much a yard. Again it 

 should be always understood that in a situation such as this, where 

 many different classes of relics are associated, there can be no 

 absolute proof of their being contemporaneous. It is well known 

 that if a coin, say of the seventeenth century, had been dropped and 

 ■left lying on this surface, it would through the action of earthworms, 2 

 be found to-day at the same level as the ancient relics about to be 



1 This entrance is at the S.E. corner and is said by old people to have 

 been made when flints were first dug here for the roads. It is shown on 

 Hoare's plan, but my informant said that it was made by his father when a 

 young man. This would be just before Hoare saw it, i.e., at the end of the 

 18th century. 



2 See Darwin's Vegetable Mould and Earthworms. 

 VOL. XXXVIII. — NO. CXXII. 2 Q 



