Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/495

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ANCIENT EARTHWORKS on this spot, but, as the late Roach Smith, referring to the earthwork, said, ' there can, in my opinion at least, be no doubt of its British origin." PosTLiNG : ToLSFORD HiLL. — At about a mile south-east of the village of Postling are some traces of a camp, mentioned in Petrie's list of Kentish earthworks/ Selling : Shottenden Hill. — Hasted gives a plan of a camp containing about an acre and three-quarters of high ground and states that ' the top is a flat, which seems levelled by art. . . . The form of the entrenchments vary according to the rounding of the hill ; the north-east, north-west, and south-east angles are pretty near right angles, but that to the south-west is rounding." He states that the position commands the country on all sides and is well supplied with water. An examination of the spot shows that, though the traces are difficult to follow, Hasted's description was fairly correct. The wind- mill hill, which he also mentions as being prominent within the area, appears to be a truncated cone, possibly an ancient fort. The entrench- ment shown in Hasted's plan is mainly a fosse, cut on the slope of the hill-sides. SwANScoMBE : MouNTs WooD. — Mr. Spurrell found here the disturbed outline of a defensive enclosure of no great importance." SwANScoMBE : Park. — On either side of what is considered to have been the ancient course of Watling Street, where it crosses the steep hill a mile south of Swanscombe, some 300 ft. above sea-level, are traces of banks and ditches which have been thought to indicate a camp, but the outlines are too vague and indefinite to warrant the assumption. Teynham : Newlands. — Close to the north of Watling Street, at an elevation of 100 ft. above sea-level, is the hill known by this name, once believed to be the site of the Roman station, Durolevum. Of earthwork, rampart and fosse, such as we associate with early defensive enclosures, it possesses none, but the commanding summit has been steeply scarped on all but the southern side, and the upper portion levelled to form a plateau. The scarping forms a glacis, in places of 15 ft., but on the south the camp seems not to have been similarly treated ; possibly the natural slope there was sufficient protection. Though, as stated, no rampart now exists, it is likely that one extended along the top of the scarping, and has been thrown down and spread over the plateau to obtain a better level for agricultural purposes. Westerham : Squerrys. — The late Canon Scott Robertson thus described the interesting earthwork in the park attached to Squerrys Court : — In the Park, upon very high ground about three-quarters of a mile from the man- sion, there is an ancient British Ofpidtim, an earthwork of oval form, which has often been called a Roman Camp. » Coll. Cant. (1893) 94. 2 Jrch. Cant. (1880) xiii. 3 Hist. Kent (1790), iii. 24. ■• ' Dartford Antiquities,' in Jrch. Cant, xviii. I 401 51