66 Report on the excavation of the Earthwork
sea-shore, whereas at Ambresbury they were probably
obtained from Tertiary deposits close by. This independent
observation, however, confirms the impression that slings
were in common use by the defenders of these camps.
In conclusion I have only to add that, although at the
request of the Council I have written the paper from the
materials which have been furnished to me, it is to those
gentlemen who have so diligently conducted the explorations
the credit of this investigation is due: to Mr. Meldola, with
whom the investigation originated; to Mr. W. Cole, the
Honorary Secretary, by whom all the arrangements have
been made; and more particularly to Mr. D'Oyley, the
Honorary Surveyor to the Club—to whose excellent plans
and sections on this no less than on former occasions the
Society is indebted for the means of recording with accuracy
the result of its labours. To these gentlemen my acknow-
ledgments are due, not only as an honorary member of the
Society for their contributions towards the matter in hand,
but in a special manner for their courtesy to me in supplying
the data and correcting the omissions which this paper may
have contained.
If I am asked whether I consider the results of the investi-
gation are conclusive, I can only reply that, within certain
limits, the age of the entrenchment appears to have been
fixed. I have on other occasions found it necessary to make
three or four cuttings into the ramparts before satisfactory
results could be obtained. If it be the wish of the Essex
Field Club to settle the question whether the camp, being a
British one, was erected before or after the Roman Conquest,
further excavations can alone decide the point; but I think
the Committee of Exploration may fairly be congratulated
upon having, with the slender means at their disposal,
achieved so much, having solved by means of a single section
a large portion of the problem which has exercised the best
wits of the neighbourhood from the days of Camden to our
own time.
[As the excavated soil was removed it was carried to a
spot a few yards from the scene of operations, and there