A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE slope of hill has a scarped inside vallum. The north-east side is edged by precipitous slopes. This side of the ramparts may have been scarped, and its irregularity of form exaggerated thereby. The non-conformity of the general shape here would seem to suggest that the following of a hard and fast rule as to form is not always to be looked for, and that the advantages of site govern the shape to some extent. The extreme internal length is 300 yds., and width 180 yds., with an internal area of 7^ acres. Its most striking feature is perhaps its apparent cornered safety of position, more than half its boundary being defended by natural means. The nearest given level is 463*2 ft., and it lies within about half a mile of the parish church. LONGDON, see CANNOCK. MAER. BERTH HILL, formerly called BrufF or Burgh Hill, is situated less than two miles from Whitmore railway station on the London and North Western line between Stafford and Crewe. The nearest contour level on the 6-in. Ordnance map is 394 ft. To the south-west runs a road between Hill Chorlton and Blackbrook. Within a short distance to the north-east is the road between Whitmore and Market Drayton, and within this and the fort is ' Warhill,' and to the east ' Berry Hill ' and ' Sandy Low.' There is an au- spicious sound about these names, as also in ' Camp Hill,' about three-quarters of a mile to the north-west, about which the early histories indulge in pleasant theories. The form of the fort is very irregular, being governed largely by the outline of the hill-top. It may be described as an irregular triangle with its base northward and apex southward. The north-west angle runs out to a sharp projecting promontory. The main entrance has been on the north- west side, with another entrance on the north-east side, the former at a high and the latter at a low level, both secluded and specially defended. The present site is wooded. The extreme length within the inner vallum is 355 yds., and the extreme width 225 yds., the area being 9 acres. The inner banks are all formed of a mixture of earth and rubble stone, and there is nothing in the nature of building stone now to be seen here. The acute-angled promontory on the north-west side, which is mounded, suggests a special military provision, commanding as it does long lengths of rampart, the two entrances, and a clear view of the immediate surround- ings. Dr. Stebbing Shaw, quoting Plot, has this quaint description of the fort : An old fortification in the Parish of Mere, commonly called the BrufF, probably a corruption of Burgh, fenced in some places with a double trench and rampire, the agger above the trench being partly made of stone and the whole of a very irregular form according as the figure of the hill would admit. The water supply is from a spring within the boundaries of the fort, and its waters serve the present hall and village of Maer in bountiful measure. The little stream known by the name of ' Blackbrook ' has its rise within about a mile of the fort, near the ' Wellings,' and with the River Tern delivers its waters into the River Severn, reversing the general flow of the rivers of this county, which is into the River Trent. 340
