four trenches, and between each of them an earthen wall. On the very top of the hill is an area of twenty acres, (it is really much larger,) where in several places, as Leland observes, may be seen the foundations of walls, and there was much dusky blue stone, which the people of the adjoining village had carried away." At the present time the high walls, and almost all the foundations of walls, have disappeared, as well as all traces of the internal arrangement of the place; but the outer fortifications are sufficiently well preserved to enable us to make out their plan satisfactorily. Whatever outworks may have existed have been obliterated by cultivation, with the exception of some platforms on the south side; but there are the vast trenches with their earthen walls, on some of which the remains of a work of dry masonry may still be observed. Three entrances may also be clearly made out; that on the east side has been so much altered for the convenience of the occupants of the area within the works as to have entirely lost its ancient character; but it seems probable that there was an original entrance at this point. The next is at the south-east angle of the place, and having crossed the outer defences, opens into the moat between the inner agger and the one next to it, the path over the inner agger being steep and narrow, and probably at one time being strongly fortified. This opening of the approach into the trench is not uncommon in British works. At the southwest angle is the main entrance, which leads through all the intrenchments up to the area of the fort, commanded by flanking works, and probably by platforms for slingers; and at the highest point of the ground within the works there are still vestiges of what may have been the foundations of an interior fortification. On the north side the ancient works have been so much disturbed by modern

fences that it is not easy to decide whether there was an entrance in that direction or not.

Now this appears to me to be a purely military work. All the fortifications seem of one plan, and to have reference to each other. That there is no division such as I have mentioned as existing in the other type, nor any appearance of a cattle enclosure, which I believe will always be found in connection with a British city, which, however strongly fortified, was constructed for other purposes besides those of a purely warlike character.

I will now proceed to describe the works on Worle Hill and Castle Neroche, which I have chosen as specimens of the second type; and my excuse for inflicting a description of both upon the meeting is that I believe them, though both of the same type, to be of very different dates.

Of the fortification on Worle Hill, Mr. Rutter gives the following account: "Worle Hill* is an elevated ridge, about three miles long, but not more than a furlong in breadth. The western end projects into the Bristol Channel above the town of Weston, and is formed into one of the most remarkable fortifications in England." The length of the space enclosed from the inner rampart on the east to the point of the hill on the west is about a quarter of a mile, and the medium breadth is about eighty yards, making an area, as supposed, of about eighteen or twenty acres. Before arriving at the outer rampart, seven ditches are sunk across the ridge of the hill. There are two ramparts, about fifteen feet high from the bottom of the ditch, composed entirely of stones. These ramparts, with their corresponding ditches, cross the hill in a part where it is about 100 yards broad, and then, turning west* See Plan of Worle Hill Encampment, Proceedings of Society for 1851,

p. 64.

ward, are continued as far as the security of the station required. Those on the north are soon rendered unnecessary by the rock, which is there precipitous. Those on the south are gradually blended into the natural declivity of the hill, which is nearly as steep as the rampart itself. There can be no doubt but that these ramparts were originally walls of dry masonry erected on the side of the trenches from which the materials were taken. There is, however, no appearance of walls by the trenches to the east of the main rampart, which were probably intended to render the level ground on that side more difficult to an invading force, while the stones taken from them furnished materials for the immense ramparts of that part, which I may be allowed to call the keep of the place, which is a rectangular space, strongly defended on three sides, immediately within the eastern rampart, and divided from the western part of the fortification by a trench cut in the solid limestone. At the south-western angle of this rectangular space was the main entrance, strongly defended by flanking works and platforms, constructed on the outer face of the rampart. There was also a smaller entrance at the north-eastern angle. On the south side the fortification extended from the western rampart to the extremity of the hill. On the north the rock is precipitous. It was artificially fortified wherever the nature of the ground required. At the north-western extremity was a third entrance, defended by an outwork, and several small walls ran along the south side of the hill. From the main entrance a strong rampart extends to the east to the distance of a few hundred yards, and, turning to the north, crosses the ridge of the hill to the east of the trenches before mentioned, dividing, apparently, the main fortification from the outer enclosure, formed by a similar rampart,