ANCIENT EARTHWORKS On part of the west side, a steep natural slope to the valley of the Stort rendered much ramparting unnecessary, though even here we find traces of the outer rampart in places. The camp seems to have been made in the later period of pre- Roman days, when men had learned to dispense with tortuous entrances, and required forts not for defence alone but rather as places in which a body of fighting men could be protected and rapidly issue thence to attack an opposing force in strength. Cultivation has destroyed all trace of huts or houses, but probably this and other of these late level- surfaced enclosures had many such. It is not improbable that this great earthwork, which stands on the high ground overlooking the valley of the Stort, was an oppidum of the Trinobantes, as a defence against the Catuvellauni, their neighbours on the west. Though likely, if already in existence, to have been occupied by the imperial soldiers, no Roman antiquities are recorded as having been found within the camp, but this may be due to the fact that very little excavation has been made within its area. 1 It should be noted that Sir James H. Ramsay* suggests the identi- fication of Wallbury with the position ' established ' by Hasten the Dane in A.D. 894 (? 895). This shows the need for keeping an open mind upon the question of the date of the creation of such earthworks. 8 Of one thing we may be sure : whensoever made, this was one of the largest and most important fortresses of these eastern lands. SOUTH WEALD CAMP. The camp occupies an elevated position partly within the bounds of Weald Hall Park, and partly on cultivated land to the east. The area enclosed was about 7 acres. It is difficult to trace the lines of the work excepting the bank within the confines of the park, all have been mutilated or destroyed ; but it is still possible by careful examination of the ground east of the road which adjoins the park to ascertain where the rampart and fosse were carried. There is nothing in its form inconsistent with Celtic work, but Salmon* thought this of Roman origin ' too small to contain an army and fit only for castra exploratorum? Of the majority of the following ' camps ' but faint traces exist, while some have disappeared since their mention by our old historians. In form they approximate to the class of works under consideration. ASHDON. An ancient entrenchment is to be seen parallel with the Bourne stream near the Bartlow Hills, consisting of bank and ditch over 300 feet long measuring about 30 feet across. The bank is now about 4 or 5 feet in height and the ditch which is V-shaped is of corre- sponding depth, but was originally 5 feet deeper. There is a rectangular 1 Mr. G. E. Pritchett, F.S.A., about the year 1876 reported the discovery of at least seven ossuary urns and ampulla: in a gravel-pit near the encampment.
- Foundations of England (1898).
3 It may be that the Danish work was on the south bank of the Lea at Hertford. Vallans wrote in the sixteenth century : ' There remayneth yet the ruines of an old castel or fort bctweene Hartford Castel and the Mill, which I doe undoubtedly beleeve was the verie selfe same fort that the Danes builded ' (see Lcland, Hearne's ed. 1744, v. zz). * History ofEsiex, p. z6j. 283
