xxxii Journal of Proceedings.
In the attempt to connect the Ambresbury earthwork with the last
exploits of Queen Boadicea, our authors have been much puzzled by the
well-known story in ' Tacitus,' which locates the battle between Seutonius
and the British in an open plain, closed in the rear by a forest—a station
wisely chosen by the Roman General to guard against ambuscades. In a
note by Gough on the passage in the Roman historian, he says (Gough's
' Camden,' vol. i., xxxviii., note):—" Mr. Morant, upon comparing all
accounts and circumstances, persuades himself that this battle was fought
near Epping, by the side of Copthall Park, where is now a fine bank called
Ambresbank, enclosing about eleven acres (' Hist, of Essex,' i., 46—' Col-
chester,' p. 23, note z). But this obvious circumstance of the action being
in a plain, and all this part of the country at this time most probably
forest, seems to make directly against him. At the same time it must be
owned that the name of the Camp gives it to the Britains. It might have
been an oppidm ; but Tacitus's account gives no reason to think they
threw up any work at this juncture. The want of barrows is an argument
that so great a slaughter could hardly have happened here." Recalling
this opinion of the last century antiquary, it is a curious fact that our
excavations afforded not the slightest evidence of the site, at the period of
the construction of the Camp, having been woodland. The old "surface-
line," which was so carefully watched and studied, was composed of a
light-coloured and very sandy clay, such as may be met with on the
surface of the open heathy ground in the forest. We met with no
indications of decayed stumps of trees or vegetable humus. Our workmen
at once noticed the similarity of the soil at the base-line and the surface-
soil of the open forest. The woodland at and around the Camp is
evidently very modern, and, without giving too-ready credence to the
theories of Morant and others which connect the spot with "the last stern
battle-plain" of the despairing Queen, it may be allowable to suggest that
the side and surroundings of the Camp in the Roman era were probably
an open expanse of moor or heathland. Moreover, it seems unlikely that
a Camp would have been thrown up in a dense forest, which, by affording
cover to an approaching foe, would vitiate in great measure the main end
in view—the security and isolation of the defenders.
Bearing in mind the results of our explorations, it is hardly necessary
to throw another stone at the exploded hypothesis that Ambresbury was a
Roman station ; but it should be noted that the high road which at
present runs by the Camp to Epping is comparatively a very modern one.
It was possibly originally a mere forest track leading to the little hamlet
of Epping Street, the main "ancient way from Harlow to London being
from the corner of Wintry Wood, where the turnpike stands, across the
forest to Abridge." The road as it at present exists is certainly not older
than the beginning of the 16th century, for in 1518 Master John Baker, a
worthy mercer of Epping, bequeathed a charge upon certain of his estates
for the repairing of the way. "This," says Morant, "seems to have been
for the sake of Epping Street, to induce travellers to go that way, and