Journal of Proceedings.
xxxi
scenes of the latest struggles of the British against invasion and outrage.
The best account of it, previous to Mr. Cowper's papers referred to below,
was given by Gough in his edition of Camden's 'Britannia' (1789),
vol. ii., 49, he deriving his information mainly from a local antiquary,
Mr. Lethieullier (of Wanstead?). Speaking of Copt Hall, he says:—
"Just without the park, on the south-east side of the London Road, is an
oval Camp called Ambresbury Banks, and probably British.—See plan of
it, Plate I., fig. 4." He then quotes an interesting MS. letter from
Lethieullier, as follows:—" This intrenchment is now entirely overgrown
with old oaks and hornbeams. It was formerly in the very heart of the
Forest, and no road near it, till the present turnpike road from London
to Epping was made almost within the memory of man, which now runs
within a hundred yards of it; but the intrenchment cannot be perceived
from thence by reason of the wood that covers it. It is of an irregular
figure, rather longest from east to west, and on a gentle declivity to the
south-east. It contains near twelve acres, and is surrounded by a ditch
and a high bank much worn down by time, though where there are angles
they are very bold and high. There are no regular openings, like gate-
ways or entrances, only two places where the bank has been cut through,
and the ditch filled up very lately in order to make a straight road from
Debden Green to Epping Market. The boundary between the parishes
of Waltham and Epping runs exactly through the middle of this intrench-
ment, whether carried so casually by the first setters-out of those
boundaries, or on purpose, as it was then a remarkable spot of ground,
I leave to better judgments to conjecture. As I can find no reason to
attribute this intrenchment either to the Romans, Saxons, or Danes,
I cannot help concluding it to have been a British Oppidum, and perhaps
it has some relation to other remains of that people which are discoverable
in our Forest."
The above account of Mr. Lethieullier's is probably the basis of all that
has been said about the Camp by local historians. A rough plan of the
Camp is given in Mrs. Ogborne's ' History of Essex ' (1814), apparently a
copy from the one in the ' Britannia'; and Morant, although his history
was published in 17(58, appears to have derived his information also from
Lethieullier. Mr. Cowper's papers were called forth by his lighting upon
the '' Loughton Camp'' in the year 1872. His first paper entitled' Notes on
an Entrenched Camp in Epping Forest' was read at the Meeting of the
Royal Archaeological Institute, November 5th, 1875 (Arch. Journal,
vol. xxxiii.); a second paper was read at the Colchester Meeting of the
Institute in 1876, and is published in the same volume. Subsequently
another paper was published for Mr. Cowper by the Committee of the
Epping Forest Fund (1876), with lithographed plans by Mr. D'Oyley;
and in ' Cassell's Family Magazine,' vol. iii. (1877), page 153, the same
writer gives a very interesting resume of his observations. These papers
are well worthy of attention, and contain almost all the reliable inform-
ation about the Forest Camps extant previous to the Club's explorations.