MORTIMER: A SUPPOSED ROMAN CAMP AT OCTON. 
459 
Tliroiigl) tlie kindness of Mr. F. Barugli, the occupier of the land, 
1 am able to show you (fig. 2) a section of tlie ditch and two ram- 
parts, taken on the northern side of the camp at the point marked 
" A " on tlie plan. From this section we gather that the material 
now partly fiUing the trench is sufficient to have raised the two 
rampartg 2 feet higher than their present lowered condition, and that 
originally the distance from the bottom of the foss to the summit of 
the two ramparts was not less than 11 feet, whilst this formidable 
barrier may have been still further strengthened by palisades fixed 
along the top of one or both ramparts. 
By its covered entry, which differs entirely from the level entrance 
observed iu the well-recognised Roman camps, such as those at Caw- 
thorn, near Pickering, and others formed on the strict plan of " Poly- 
bius," this camp is admirably ada])ted for resisting any attack from an 
enemy. Its main purpose would not be aggressive, but to preserve 
communication between Eboracum and Filey, the well-havened bay 
of Ptolemy, hence the probable advantage of its somewhat hidden 
position. 
The camp may have been constructed and occupied by a detach- 
ment of Romano-Britons, who were allowed to ammge the entrance 
to the camp somewhat after their own ideas, copied from some of the 
numerous old hollow-ways of the Britons then in existence. This 
would account for the entrance differing in this case from the general 
Roman plan. 
