Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Combe. 135 



adjoining to Gloucestershire, and chiefly built in the bottom of one 

 of those narrow, crack-like vallies which drain the western ridge 

 of the Cotswold. A rapid stream runs through it, which joins the 

 Avon just below Box, a mile above Bath. Formerly two or 

 three clothing-mills were worked in the parish by help of this 

 brook, but they have now disappeared, or been replaced by corn- 

 mills; and the clothing trade, once its staple business and the 

 source of great prosperity to its inhabitants, has, at last after a 

 lengthened and painful process of decay, wholly ceased. The place 

 is at present chiefly noted only for its romantic natural scenery, 

 the steep sides of the winding valley being clothed with a pleasing 

 intermixture of grass and wood ; the hill on which stood the castle, 

 now reduced to mere mounds of rubbish, forming a conspicuous 

 object, and with the very handsome church- tower and picturesque 

 manor-house, composing an agreeable scene, to which the old 

 market-cross adds another interesting feature. 



The indications of Pre-Norman inhabitancy are here, as usual, 

 scanty, though sufficiently conclusive. The earthworks of the castle, 

 surrounding a space of near nine acres with strong ditches and 

 mounds, on the summit of a hill to the north-west of the village, 

 seem to prove that a British camp existed on this spot before the 

 erection of the Norman fortress in the twelfth century. 



PLAIT OF THE CASTLE-HILL. 



The great Roman road called the Foss-way, leading from Bath 

 to Cirencester and Lincoln, skirts the north-western limit of the 



t2 



