146 NOTES ON ANCIENT DEFENSIVE EARTHWORKS.
A curious point with regard to the distribution of 'these
defensive earthworks on the Chalk is the extreme irregularity of
the interval between each camp and its nearest neighbour. And
this point is the more noteworthy, as whether they stand on the
North or South Downs, on Marlborough Downs, or on Salisbury
Plain, there can have been little, if any, diminution of their
original number. Whatever may have been the case in other
districts, man has been under no temptation to level the ramparts
and fill up the ditches of the primitive fortifications on the Chalk
of the Southern Counties. Sheep now feed in and around them
as did those of the camp constructors many centuries ago. Last
year, at the end of May, I walked round Yarnbury Castle, on
Salisbury Plain. A shepherd came up and led his flock into the
deep fosse of the old hill-fort, as the only place, in that very dry
season, where the grass was both green and fairly long. And
the ramparts now, as formerly, afford most welcome shelter
from sun and wind both to sheep and shepherd. It is extremely
satisfactory, therefore, to be able to note their distribution with-
out feeling that the camps now existing are but accidental
survivors of a large number which have been destroyed in the
name of agricultural improvement, and which, did they now
exist, would entirely alter our views as to their distribution in
prehistoric times.
As an example of the irregularity of their distribution, I
cannot do better than note that prevailing on the north and
north-western edges of Salisbury Plain. From Devizes eastward,
for about 18 miles, the Chalk of Salisbury Plain is separated
from that of Marlborough Downs by the Vale of Pewsey, the
Upper Greensand forming the surface in the Vale, which is well-
populated and well-wooded, and contrasts in every way with the
bleak, bare Chalk downs to the north and south. Looking along
the escarpment for ancient camps on the southern, or Salisbury
Plain, edge of the Chalk, we find none between the eastern end
of the Vale of Pewsey and Upavon, a distance of 10 miles. But
a mile-and-a-haif S.W. of Upavon is Casterly Camp. Then,
west of Casterly Camp, Bratton Castle appears, about 14 miles
from Casterly, and two from the town of Westbury. Turning
southward from Bratton Castle, we find on the Chalk escarpment
east of Warminster, and within four miles from Bratton, two
large camps, Battlesbury and Scratchbury, only a mile apart
from each other, overlooking the Upper Greensand vale. Many
other examples might be given, but any one interested in the