By the Rev. W. E. E. Mc. Knight. 



197 



earthworks with which we are so familiar were the dwelling-places of the tribe 

 or clan which had settled or grown up in the district, and that they were the 

 earliest and rudest form of town which the people could make for themselves, 

 who knew not how to build and had no tools for work— but such rough means 

 as would enable them to throw up the earthen mound. 



Then, holding the opinion that these primitive people were housed in the earth, 

 as the instinct of the animal had taught them, we can understand why, by the 

 same instinct, they chose the site of their town on the highest points to secure 

 them against drainage from the heights above. The supply of water would be 

 of no consideration compared with the dryness of their homes, and indeed would 

 not be necessary, for they were more harbours or refuges for the night than 

 dwelling-places for the day. And again, placed high above the surrounding 

 country, they could command the view of the land below, to be ready against 

 danger from an enemy or the raid of wild animals upon their flocks. 



And the usual formation of these " camps " bears out this idea of them. They 

 are almost all formed with an inner mound— a foss or ditch— and an outer 

 mound dying away into the natural level of the ground. For protection against 

 a human enemy the higher elevation of the earth by being thrown up into one 

 mound or vallum would have been more effective. But we find the thrown-out 

 earth distributed into two mounds, a higher and a lower, with a considerable 

 space often intervening in the foss or ditch. This was not without a purpose. 

 The double mound, though necessarily lower by the distribution of the excavated 

 earth, and therefore weaker as a defence, afforded a two-fold shelter from the 

 wind and weather. If, therefore, we regard these " camps " as the dwelling- 

 places of the tribe or family, the inner and larger space would contain the earth 

 burrows of the people, and be sheltered from the wind by the elevated mound. 

 And this I myself proved to be effective on an early day in March, when I was 

 glad of its shelter from a bitter north-east wind. And whilst the people dwelt 

 sheltered in their rude homes within, their flocks were equally sheltered in the 

 folds or foss between the mounds. And, if we will allow an equal sagacity to 

 our far distant forefathers with the Maoris of New Zealand, a stockade planted 

 round the outer mound and a wicket-gate to close the entrance at night would 

 supply, with the shelter of the mound, the necessary protection also against the 

 wild beasts, which, as at Kingsbury, were in the impenetrable forest of Ordes- 

 wold-wod (Braden) and which, in the distant times we refer to, would have 

 waged a hard struggle with man for the possession of the land. 



With this idea of these camps, Bingsbury, about which you ask me, would 

 be the dwelling of a small tribe, or family, in possession of the surroundiug 

 country— placed on the high brow of the land above the ancient forest for the 

 usual security as to dryness. 



There was the home of a still smaller tribe at Bury Hill, which the plough has 

 almost levelled out of sight, and this was the most remote of all those which I 

 regard as, in some way or other to have had relations with the religious centre at 

 Abury. 



Then, as to the historic evidence in support of this view. The earliest written 

 records we can go to must be what the Romans have left us, and all that history 

 has long been familiar to us. It gives, however, no direct reference to these 

 camps, and this I regard as one point in my favour. Had they been important 



