48
EPPING FOREST
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 experi-
enced 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
implying a primitive condition of the art, 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 feet, and the ditch of correspond-
ing depth. Both height and depth are much
diminished by the denudation of ages. Some
think it unlikely that a camp would have been
constructed in the midst of a wood, and it is
inferred that the land must have been open at
that time.
The Loughton Camp, which is distant about 2
miles south-east of Ambresbury Banks, is a smaller
intrenchment containing 11 or 12 acres, but not
so well defined ; and is besides covered and partly