A REPLY BY I. CHALKLEY GOULD. 67
across the valley; if so, the raison d'etre of the earthworks would be
evident.
(3) Tradition long ago appears to have assigned a fort or other
mysterious purpose to the hill. The tradition found voice in the
"Gentleman's Magazine" in 1821, when the mound was spoken ot
as a castellum, "formerly almost surrounded by the waters of the
Stort."
The tradition has its echo to-day in a remark made by an aged
labourer : "I alius heard there was summat in it." Such tradition
can hardly be the work of nature.
(4) In 1821 the foundations of strong walls were referred to.
Mr. Holmes says that "granting their existence," they were probably
farm buildings where the railway is now, or at the S.E. corner of the
inclosure. I need only say that I found them on the summit itself,
and that if Mr. Holmes had conversed with labourers who have taken
horses and carts over the hill, he would probably have heard some-
thing that would have shown that it is not alone by the contour of
the hill that the archaeological question can be judged.
Mr. Holmes says that the earthwork is not referred to in the
"Gentleman's Magazine Library," but as it is in the "Gentleman's
Magazine" (1821, part i., p. 66), surely the reference to the original
was sufficient.
I need not deal with the comparison between the Bishop's Stort-
ford and the Harlow mounds, as (though the "Gentleman's Maga-
zine" article links them together) I did not suggest any connection
between them, and they are distinct in form, site, and physical
conditions.
Perhaps Mr. Holmes's strongest point against the occupation of
the Harlow hill is the (asserted) want of water. In this he is
mistaken.
The next hill, lying N.E. of the mound, is at a short distance,
say 500 ft. That hill contains boulder clay, with brick-earth against
its eastern side and much gravel on its western slope ; the water from
this gravel appears to have found its way to a brooklet which
branches at a point about 375 ft. from our hill. From that point
there is a cut, possibly artificial, which brings the water to the dyke
at the base of the works; in fact, to the place which it would be
easy to defend from the outworks.
Small hill-forts, or fortified sites of residences, had occasionally
to depend upon outside arrangements for water supply. I recall one
instance in Montgomeryshire (between Llanymynech and Llanfyllin),
and another in Radnorshire (between Builth and Llanfihangel),