Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/192

 loS PRE-IIBTORIC ARCII.EOLOGY OF EAST DEVON. same barrow, wc sliall probably not err if wo refer the one as nuich as the other to times long anterior to the era of the first Ciesar. The workmanship, no less than the circum- stanees attendant on this discovery, nuist determine the age of the relics of shale, as well as that of ornaments on other objects of clay, of bronze, and of gold, I pass on from the investigation of the srpulchralia of East Devon, revealing the evidence of the dead, to give a short description of the results obtained from the examination of an aboriginal stronghold, and which has furnished no less conclusive evidence of the more frequent presence of the living. It will be remembered that the locality of which T speak is peculiarly rich in the number of its " hill-lbrts " or "castles," as they are locally called. This circular "hill- fort " is the expression of a simple idea, which would natu- rally commend itself to a people who felt the want of defence against sudden attacks ; and the modification of a second or third concentric (uifjrr or rampart is but the progressive development of the original idea to provide security against an active and aggressive eneni}'. Takimr Broad Down as the centre, and describing a circle of a few miles' radius, there woidd be included within its compass the following forts or strongholds: — 1. Farway Castle, situate on the summit of Farwa}" Hill, a circular entrenchment, 70 feet in diameter, and enclosed b}' a single line of circumvallation of low elevation. 2. Blackbury Castle, oval in form, enclosed by a single agger and fosse, 'Mj feet deep on the south-west, measuring about l20S paces from oast to west, and about K^O paces from north to south. The gateway is flankcil by a ditch and rampart on either side which extends diagonally to a distance of f^O paces from the principal vallum — the device of some X'auhan of those early d.ay.s. 3. IIocksat treasure was found here by a sailor called Coiu'd. -1. jMusliury Castle, of a long and irregular form, enclosing an aica of ahout six acres, and sun-oumled by a single nimi r nnd fosse ; hero, again, the gateways an; defended l)y outworks, r>. Ax- ininstcr (/.'wtlc, now entirely destroyed. (I. .Meiilmry Castle,