Ancient Earthwork in Epping Forest. 213
Forest possesses very considerable interest to the naturalist
and antiquary. Although in the progress of agriculture the
county generally has become highly cultivated, the stringency
of the old forest laws, and the various rights of cattle-feeding
and wood-cutting in more recent times, have effectually com-
bined to check enclosures and clearing, and to preserve to
Epping Forest many of the characteristics of a primitive
woodland. The soil in most of the woods has remained
undisturbed within historic times, except in a few spots
where local gravel-pits have been opened. It is not surprising,
therefore, that relics of former conditions of life should still
exist in the Forest, undefaced except through the action of
natural agencies ; but until very recently the district has not
received from archaeologists the attention it deserves, and it
is more than probable that further traces of prehistoric
occupation will yet reward the persevering explorer. At the
present time the Forest is known to contain two ancient
earthworks or camps, which are of more than ordinary
interest, being perhaps the best-preserved examples of such
structures in the immediate neighbourhood of London. One,
locally called "Ambresbury," "Amesbury," or "Ambers"
Banks, is situated in the Forest about 11/2 miles south-west of
the town or village of Epping Street, and about a hundred
yards to the right of the road to Epping, which was made
early in the sixteenth century. This position rendering it
easy of discovery, the Ambresbury Camp has long been
known, and the meagre and unsatisfactory details usually
given of such remains are to be read in the local histories.
In 1881 the Essex Field Club carried on some explorations
at Ambresbury Banks, a report upon which, drawn up by
General Pitt-Rivers, was read at the York Meeting of the
British Association,2 and published in extenso in the 'Trans-
actions' of the Club (vol. ii., p. 55), with plans of the camp
constructed by Mr. D'Oyley, and coloured figures of the
objects found. These relics, consisting of small fragments
of very rude pottery and a few flint "flakes," determined the
camp, in the opinion of General Pitt-Rivers, to be of British
2 Brit. Assoc. Reports, 1881 p. 697.