58 EPPING FOREST.
of Epping, and close to the high road (see route N);
the latter on a buttress of the ridge to the north
of Earl's Path (see route P). Antiquarians have
been much exercised about the origin and date of
these earthworks ; but their speculations have been
to a great extent set at rest by the explorations
conducted by the Essex Field Club in 1881 and
1882, under the able guidance of General Pitt-
Rivers, and other experienced members of the
club. Popular tradition attributes the origin of
Ambresbury Banks to Queen Boadicea, and places
the site of her final overthrow by Suetonius in this
neighbourhood; but in the opinion of those best
qualified to give one, there is no reliable evidence
of this. On the other hand the verdict of General
Pitt-Rivers is that this camp is undoubtedly of
British origin, but whether erected before or after
the Roman Conquest there is no sufficient evidence
to show. The data upon which he founds this
conclusion are, first, that the configuration of the
ramparts is adapted to the features of the ground,
instead of being constructed geometrically, which
is the distinguishing feature of Roman camps ; and
secondly, the nature of the fragments of pottery
and flint chips which were discovered in digging a
section through the rampart and ditch. Those
fragments which were discovered under the ram-
part itself, and upon the ancient surface-line, are
necessarily of the same date as, or older than, the
camp itself; and their character indicates a British
origin. If the Romans had had any hand in the
structure, it is all but certain that some remains
indicating a higher civilisation would have been
found in this part of the excavation. The height
of the rampart appears to have been originally 10