of the vallum may perhaps be explained on the supposition that this was a very early Roman establishment, perhaps one of the earliest on the Welsh border. Indeed if, as supposed, it be the same town as that mentioned by Ptolemy, who wrote about the year 120, by the name of Brannogenium (Bpavvoyévov), it must have dated from the first establishment of the Romans in these parts. The position of Brandon camp is remarkably fine, commanding, from its slight elevation, an extraordinary view in all directions, and looking down immediately upon the river Teme. The accompanying sketch is taken from the outside of the southern vallum, the western extremity of which forms the foreground. The hill to the left forms part of Brampton Brian park, between which, and the hills of the distance, the valley of the Teme runs up into Wales. The dark wooded hill in front is Coxwall Knoll, on which the line of the ancient intrenchments may be traced from this distance. Coxwall Knoll is about two miles westward from Brandon camp, and the valley between is rather thickly scattered with ancient tumuli. The intrenchment on this hill is a mere rudelyformed foss, surrounding the upper part of the hill in a very irregular line, and its principal celebrity arises from its having been taken, on very slight grounds indeed, for the scene of the last battle of Caractacus.

Coxwall Knoll lies a little to the

the north of the river Teme, and of a bye-road which leads to the village of Bucknall, which is situated on a small stream that falls into the Clun about a mile above Leintwardine. This stream runs down from the hills of Radnorshire, and pursues its course along a narrow valley which opens out at Bucknall. A pleasant country lane runs along the banks of this stream up into the hills, with picturesque hill scenery on each side. As we advance, the country becomes gradually very wild, and at a distance of between three and four miles from the village of Bucknall, we reach a lofty hill-we may almost call it a mountain-with a gradual slope towards the west, but on the other sides, and especially towards the east, very steep. This and the hills around are barren of everything but heath and bilberry-bushes, which in the summer and autumn give them a rich purple tint. The eastern brow of this hill, commanding the extensive prospect down the valley through which we have approached it, is crowned with a very extensive intrenched area, of an irregular oval form, surrounded by two deep fosses and high embankments. The latter are built, not of earth, but of the small flat stones of the locality, thrown loosely together. These intrenchments are known as the Gaer Ditches, and the spot itself is called Caer Caradoc, but we must not confound it with the more celebrated Shropshire Caer

Caradoc, near Church Stretton. It has latterly been assumed that this is the real site of the last battle of Caractacus against the victorious arms of the Romans, and ingenious attempts have been made, I think quite unsuccessfully, to reconcile the appearance of the country around with the description given by the historian Tacitus. I will not throw away time in examining what appears to me so futile a question. The description of Tacitus is given merely from hearsay; it is so extremely indefinite that we might find twenty portions that would answer to it in any hilly country, and it does not appear to me to apply at all, at least without very great stretches of the imagination. It is, at the best, one of those fruitless discussions which antiquaries would do better to avoid.

Our excursion has taken us to a considerable distance from Ludlow, and though no country could be more interesting and beautiful than that upon which we have entered, we will pursue it no longer. Having left Ludlow by the same route as that described above, let us proceed to Bromfield, and thence, instead of taking the road to Downton or Leintwardine, we will proceed to the village of Onibury, which is about five miles from Ludlow. The road proceeds thence through the beautiful valley watered by the river Oney, at the further end of which stand the interesting ruins of Stokesay Castle, a castellated mansion of the thirteenth century. We are now pursuing a northern course, and are nearly upon the line of the Roman Watling Street; but rather less than a mile beyond Stoke Castle, at a celebrated old posting inn called the Craven Arms, where there is now a railway station, we turn off towards the west. The road hence to Clun forms one of the most beautiful rides that can easily be imagined, a succession of lofty and often thickly wooded hills rising on each side, and bounding a narrow and rich valley, through the middle of which flows the picturesque river Clun. The first bold eminence that presents itself to our view is a wooded hill some three miles to the west of the Craven Arms, which rises into two knolls, the more northerly elevation being called Burrow Hill, and that to the south Oker Hill. On the GENT. MAG. VOL. XXXIX.

top of Burrow Hill there is a very fine oval intrenchment, surrounded by a double vallum, and I believe there is another intrenchment on Oker Hill. The country northward abounds with small intrenchments and barrows. After passing Burrow Hill, the lofty swell of Clunbury Hill presents a bold object on the left, while at a greater distance to the right we have a mass of picturesque hills, the loftiest of which has on its summit the finest of the socalled camps that are found in this neighbourhood. It is known by the name of Bury Ditches, and is in form nearly circular, and inclosed by three very lofty valla, composed, like many of the other similar works in this part of the country, of loose stones. The extensive area in the interior is covered with heath intermixed with bilberries, which are here very luxuriant, but the intrenchments and a part of the slope of the hill are covered with large firtrees. The hill itself is a large and lofty knoll, very steep on all sides but the north-east, where the approach is more gradual. The entrance to the inclosure is on the western side, and it is, I believe, the only original entrance, for that on the opposite side seems to me, from the rather hasty examination I gave it, to be a mere road broken through the intrenchments at a later period. The prospect from these intrenchments, looking towards the south, is magnificent in the extreme. There are several tumuli in the country behind.

The access to this interesting spot is by a rural lane which leaves the high road at the village of Clunton, and which ascends the greater part of the way a distance of a full mile and a half. The pedestrian who would prefer a delightful country walk may proceed over the hills to the south-west to Clun; but, if on horseback, the visitor must return to Clunton, whence, if so inclined, he may turn off to visit Hopton Castle, a small fortress celebrated in the civil wars of the seventeenth century. The road to Clun continues to present the same picturesque character. Immediately below it is the river, winding its way through pastures and copses, and overhung on the other side by a near range of steep hills; while high grounds, though more broken and rather more distant, also

G

limit the view to the north. Clun itself occupies a spot where the country is rather more open towards the north, but toward the south it is surrounded by a semicircle of high irregular hills. It is a large village, remarkable for a church which possesses some architectural interest, and for the remains of a fine Norman castle, built soon after the Conquest by the Fitz Alans. The castle, the remains of which consist chiefly of the ruined keep, in itself a fine object, is situated on irregularly elevated ground on the west of the village, and commands the river, of which it affords us several picturesque views, especially that which looks over the ancient bridge.

The country round Clun offers innumerable attractions to the antiquarian wanderer in the shape of intrenchments, barrows, old houses, and other such objects, which are too many to allow me to include them in a cursory notice; but there is one remain which no antiquary who comes thus far ought to return without visiting. This is the celebrated earthwork called Offa's Dyke the ancient boundary between Mercia and Wales-extending over hill and valley from the mouth of the Severn to that of the Dee. It is seen in a state of excellent preservation on the hills to the west of Clun. Passing over Clun bridge we turn to the right and soon enter a rather wild country lane. At a distance of somewhat more than a mile from Clun, in a field to the right, near the hamlet of Whitcott Keysett, stands one of those extraordinary stones which are usually classed under the title of Druidical monuments. It is a flat broad stone, of very irregular shape, placed upright in the ground, in which it is evidently inserted to a considerable depth. Above ground it measures eight feet three inches in height by seven feet broad. It is impossible to conjecture the object for which single stones like this were raised, or the exact age to which they belong; in fact, they are, perhaps, not all of the same antiquity, but a general resemblance in character has caused them to be classed with the cromlechs. Rather more than a mile beyond this spot, and about two miles and a half from Clun. we reach the village of Lower Spoad, where Offa's Dyke, or, as it is here called, Off's Ditch, crosses

the deep narrow valley through which the river Clun flows. To see this wonderful earthwork to advantage, the visitor should follow its course up to the top of Spoad hill, where its appearance is most imposing. It consists of a regular vallum, about twelve feet high, and of a considerable breadth, with a broad foss on the Welsh side. We may hence see this immense earthwork pursuing its course southward over the elevated ground on which we are standing; and northward it is seen rising up the hill on the opposite side of the valley. It is composed of loose stones and earth. The whole extent of Offa's Dyke cannot be short of a hundred miles. Within a very small circuit round the point at which we are now standing, there are several interesting hill-camps. Two of these are situated on steep eminences on opposite sides of the valley, a little beyond Offa's Dyke, and are remarkable for the beautiful views which are obtained from the two summits. There is at least one tumulus in the valley below. I have before intimated that very interesting mediæval remains are scattered over this part of the border. In the village of Lower Spoad there is a very ancient and primitive looking farm house, which has a remarkably fine old fireplace. A large carved oak beam, covering the opening of the fireplace, and representing a stag-hunt, appears to be of the fifteenth century, and is well worth a visit. The house is said formerly to have possessed other carvings, which have disappeared.

As we wander over this beautiful country, and find ourselves arrested continually by the intrenchments on the hill-tops, we naturally ask what can have been the purpose or purposes for which they were made? People have been in the habit of calling them all camps, and, imagining that they must have been connected with the movements of armies, they have discovered wars and campaigns where they probably never existed. Such is the case with all the theories on the marches and battles of Caractacus, which have been ingeniously put together by persons who imagined that they had only to say this is a Roman camp, and that is a British camp, and that the matter was settled. But it is evident that we ought to have some

better means of discrimination than this, and it is indeed very necessary that some more careful examination of this class of monuments should be made to enable us to form a more accurate notion of their different dates and objects, for it is not probable either that they all belong to the same period, or that they were all made for the same purpose. Let us begin with the simple and selfevident principle that a certain number of men, with spades or other implements, could, in a certain space of time, make an intrenchment of any form which might occur to them, or that might be required by circumstances; when they had left their work, and carried away their tools, what is there left to show who were the workmen? A mound of earth, or a ditch, whatever be its shape, will not tell this. We must therefore look for some other evidence, and that must be sought in excavations. The archæology of this, early period must indeed depend chiefly on the pick and the spade. It was so natural to form an inclosure for any purpose by surrounding it with a bank, that we are not justified in considering every inclosure as being necessarily a camp. Thus, among what are considered as British remains, we find a barrow or sepulchral mound frequently surrounded by an intrenchment, which sometimes inclosed two or three barrows, and at others a whole cemetery. Barrows are sometimes found within the intrenchments on hill-tops; and, as we know that such elevated spots were favourite places of benden þær wunað On heáh-stede húsa sélest.

Bri

The buildings within these residences were probably mostly built of timber, and even if of masonry they soon disappeared, and the intrenchment alone remained, with nothing in outward appearance to identify it as Saxon rather than as British or Roman. I feel convinced that many of the supposed tish or Roman camps in this country are nothing more than the intrenchments of the mansions of Saxon chiefs. In our attempt to ascertain the true date of such intrenchments, we must not altogether overlook their distinctive names. We know that the Anglo

burial, we are justified in supposing that some of the so-called camps are nothing more than cemeteries. Again, what right have we to suppose that the Romans did not make intrenched inclosures for other purposes than camps? The notion that Roman intrenchments must be square is but a vulgar error, and we can have no reason to judge that any intrenchment is Roman, or that it is not Roman, but circumstances extraneous to its mere form. Moreover, there is another people whom we must not overlook in a question like this, and whose capability of erecting earthworks will be understood by every one who has seen Offa's Dyke-the Anglo-Saxons. The residence of the earlier Anglo-Saxon chiefs, as we know it from their poetry and romance, as well as from history, consisted of a hall, surrounded by chambers and other buildings, the whole inclosed by an earthen wall, or intrenchment of defence. It was called a beorg, or burg, from the Anglo-Saxon verb beorgan, to defend. Its site was usually selected on an elevated spot, whence the chief could see as much as possible of his broad lands. In the Ramsey Chronicle we read of one of the Saxon benefactors of the abbey, who was standing at the entrance of his residence, and, casting his eyes over his lands around, fixed on one piece which he determined to give to the abbey. Beowulf, alluding to the residence of Hosthgar, says that chief will endure care and trouble

as long as remaineth there
on the lofty place
the best of houses.

Beowulf, 1.566.

Saxons applied the name caster or chester, a word derived from the Latin castrum, to Roman fortifications; and I believe that not a single instance is known in which a name having that word in its composition has not been discovered to belong to a Roman site. The reason is a plain one: the Saxons knew these buildings not as their own erections, but as the works of their predecessors, and therefore they did not give them the name which they gave to their own fortified residences, which were different sorts of things, but a name which they learned from the

people who made them. This is a mode of proceeding which prevails among all people and at all times. When we bring a new fashion over from France, we generally give it a French name, not the name which we ourselves have been used to apply to a similar thing, but of a different fashion. The Welsh used the word caer, corrupted into gaer (derived similarly from the Latin castrum) in the same way; thus we have Caerleon (castrum Legionis), Caerwent (castrum Ventæ), &c.; but I am not aware how far inquiries have been made to show whether the Welsh caer refers as uniformly to Roman sites as the Saxon castrum. It is curious, however, that of three Caer Caradocs we know, Roman remains are stated to have been found about one of them (Caer Caradoc, near Bridgend, in Glamorganshire), and that the celebrated Caer Caradoc, near Church Stretton, overlooks the great Roman road, the Watling Street. Are we not therefore justified in presuming that the Caer Caradoc of the Gaer Ditches, which we have been visiting, may possibly have been a Roman work. Again, when we find the word borough, or burrow, or bury, in the names of such intrenchments, it seems to me that we have a primary presumption that it may have been a Saxon mansion. Places called Kingsbury, were mansions belonging to the king-we have an instance in Kingsbury near Verulam, the intrenchments of which are still visible. In Caynham, we have the more ordinary Saxon term of a man's

mansion, ham, or home, in the name; but I think from what has been before said that the ham from which it took its name was the mansion within the intrenchments, and that these are Saxon. I confess that when I stood within the Bury Ditches in the neighbourhood of Clun, and beheld the vast prospect of hill and valley and wood and field below, the descriptions I had read in Anglo-Saxon poetry flashed upon my mind, and I thought I stood within the weallas (or intrenchments) of some powerful Saxon border chieftain who here held the wide estates he had conquered in defiance of the Welshmen. Singularly enough, as I walked across the middle of the vast area, I observed to a friend who was at my side that I suspected if a trench were dug there traces of buildings might be found; and within a week after I learned accidentally that Lord Powis's keeper, digging into a rabbit burrow on that very spot, had come to a wall of rude masonry, to his own no small surprise. In conclusion, I would remark that there are reasons why the Saxon word bury or burrow may have been much more generally applied than caster or chester. The Anglo-Saxons, in giving the name, knew no doubt in general to what they were giving it; but they might, at a later period of their history, meet here and there with old intrenchments for which they had no special name, and supposing them to be the remains of an old beorg or mansion, they would name them accordingly.

THE long-expected Report of this Commission has been published, and forms with its appendix a bulky volume. The reforms recommended are less sweeping than those proposed by the Oxford Commission, the Cambridge system having been for some years in course of gradual changes, and the Commissioners remark that the report of the Syndicate appointed in 1849, which awaits the approval of the Senate and confirmation of the Crown, is a gratifying proof of the desire of the University for its own improvement. The Commissioners have not to complain of any general unwillingness to furnish information either on the part of individuals or public bodies,

most of the heads of colleges, &c. having replied to their inquiries.

The first observable recommendation is for the rearrangement and consolidation of the orders of the Senate which form the Bye-laws. As to the exclusive jurisdiction of the University, by statute of Elizabeth, to hear and decide all controversies of its members and officers in a summary man. ner, to punish transgressors of the statutes or of good order and discipline, &c.; and its further powers, by charter of Elizabeth, to take exclusive cognizance of all personal pleas, debts, accounts, contracts, wrongs, and breaches of the peace in the university precincts, where one of the parties is a