Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/329

 ANCIENT EARTHWORKS to the east. Faint signs of continuation on the turf of the park seem to suggest that the work may have completed a circuit, either circular + Roman finds here or oval in shape, in that direction. Roman remains have been found in a neighbouring field to the north. (4) ' Cesar's Camp,' Sandy. — At Sandy, which has proved the most fruitful field for the discovery of Roman antiquities in the county, there are two works of great interest, which may usefully be considered together. That it was a site of some importance in Roman days the remains which have been unearthed prove. Two Roman roads pass the spot, and the names Chesterfield and Stratford tell their own story of Roman influence. ' Caesar's Camp,' so called, appears to be an early fortress or refuge station not unlike Mam Tor, except for the double ramparts. It is placed along the highest ridge of a range of sandy hills, with steep lateral slopes, except at the rear to the north, where the heights broaden out and round themselves into the vales with easier descent. On this side therefore there was the more need of strong defensive lines, but un- fortunately this part of the work has been obliterated by the long-standing use of the ground for allotment gardens. The remainder is now occu- pied by the house and grounds of Guy Pym, Esq., M.P., and to that fact owes its better preservation. His boundary crosses the site from north-east to south-west, and along the whole circuit of the ridge within it the remains may be followed. They are strongest at the southern angle of the hill, which here rises some 80 feet or more above the plain. The enclosing rampart makes a sharp bend at this point, in following the line of the ridge, and ends in a small mound rising 3 or 4 feet above it, and about 1 1 feet above the present level of the interior. The rampart is 8 feet high inside and 20 feet outside, where its steep scarp ends in 271