Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/331

ANCIENT EARTHWORKS intersection of the old Cambridge road, which here crosses it at a right angle in the dip below. It is not unlikely that this marks the extent of the encampment at this point, and that the old road turned round its northern end. About half way along the eastern side, where the slope becomes less steep, the lower terrace referred to becomes a fosse, which follows with the rampart up to the boundary, where it is lost. The commencement of this fosse is close to an original entrance, which is commanded by a bend of the rampart on each side of it. A break of the edge of the heights on the west, near the mound, may also mark an entrance, al- though the rampart is here missing. The area of the part which can be defined is about 7 acres, and the interior has been much levelled to form a garden. In digging, small bronze coins of the minimi type, much defaced, are often found, and fragments of a coarse thick pottery, not made on the wheel. There are no springs in the enclosure ; well-water only occurs at a depth of 180 feet ; and the present channel of the Ivel below is a quarter of a mile distant. The slopes of the hill are now thickly covered with firs, but Lyson's drawing 1 shows the whole site bare, a long terraced hill, with rampart well marked, not unlike Old Sarum. Camden says that the Danes during their Tempsford campaign, ' demolished (as 'tis thought) that British fort, the place whereof is now call'd Chesterfield and Salndy, which often gives fresh proof of it's an- tiquity by throwing up Roman money.' 2 On what authority is not stated. The position of the work on this commanding height, its irregu- lar following of the line of the ridge, and the style of its defences, seem to mark it as of native construction, before or about the time of the Roman occupation. (5) The Galley Hill Camp. — On a sister height, covered with well- grown firs, about three-quarters of a mile south from 'Caesar's Camp,' stands the second entrenchment, in the grounds of Lord Peel. It is a smaller work, nearly oblong, and shows strong signs of Roman influence, being nearly rectilinear and rectangular, with rounded angles. It is placed on the south- west end of the ridge, which sharply slopes away from the rampart on three sides to the plain 50 or 60 feet below. On the fourth side to the north-west a single vallum and fosse crosses the flat continuous ridge of the hill. Round the rest of the work the rampart is double, except above the eastern scarp, where all traces of it have disappeared. The lower rampart top is 6 feet below that of the upper, and between them the fosse continues round some 20 feet in width. The double work is strongest at the angles, as in the middle of the flanks it has worn away to little more than a lower terrace on the hillside. The interior measure- ment on the south is 343 feet, and on the east 273 feet ; thus its pro- portions are as [ to l|. There is a gap in the north-west rampart facing the ridge, a little east of the centre, which has the appearance of an 1 Add MS. 9460, f. 25. 2 Camden's Britannia (Gibson's ed. 1695), p. 288. I 273 35