Ancient Earthwork in Epping Eorest. 
213 
Forest possesses very considerable interest to the naturalist 
and antiquary. Although in the progress of agriculture the 
county generally has become highly cultivated, the stringency 
of the old forest laws, and the various rights of cattle-feeding 
and wood-cutting in more recent times, have effectually com¬ 
bined to check enclosures and clearing, and to preserve to 
Epping Forest many of the characteristics of a primitive 
woodland. The soil in most of the woods has remained 
undisturbed within historic times, except in a few spots 
where local gravel-pits have been opened. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that relics of former conditions of life should still 
exist in the Forest, undefaced except through the action of 
natural agencies ; but until very recently the district has not 
received from archaeologists the attention it deserves, and it 
is more than probable that further traces of prehistoric 
occupation will yet reward the persevering explorer. At the 
present time the Forest is known to contain two ancient 
earthworks or camps, which are of more than ordinary 
interest, being perhaps the best-preserved examples of such 
structures in the immediate neighbourhood of London. One, 
locally called “Ambresbury,” “Amesbury,” or “Ambers” 
Banks, is situated in the Forest about 1£ miles south-west of 
the town or village of Epping Street, and about a hundred 
yards to the right of the road to Epping, which was made 
early in the sixteenth century. This position rendering it 
easy of discovery, the Ambresbury Camp has long been 
known, and the meagre and unsatisfactory details usually 
given of such remains are to be read in the local histories. 
In 1881 the Essex Field Club carried on some explorations 
at Ambresbury Banks, a report upon which, drawn up by 
General Pitt-Bivers, was read at the York Meeting of the 
British Association, 2 and published in extenso in the ‘ Trans¬ 
actions ’ of the Club (vol. ii., p. 55), with plans of the camp 
constructed by Mr. D’Oyley, and coloured figures of the 
objects found. These relics, consisting of small fragments 
of very rude pottery and a few flint “ flakes,” determined the 
camp, in the opinion of General Pitt-Bivers, to be of British 
2 Brit. Assoc. Reports, 1881 p. 697. 
