OBJECTS OF INTEREST
concealed by a dense growth of beeches dwarfed
by pollarding. There is even less symmetry of
outline; and the constructors seem to have been
guided solely by the desire to take advantage of
every inequality for purposes of defence. To this
the commanding nature of the site—a promontory
projecting from a level ridge, and overlooking the
marshy valley of Debden Slade, more than 100 feet
below it—lends itself. Rabbits and foxes have
taken advantage of the bank, and their operations
have added to the destructive effects of time.
In the course of the investigation of the camp
by the Essex Field Club, similar sections as in
the case of Ambresbury were cut through the
rampart and ditch, so as to expose the old
surface-line, or the original floor of earth upon
which the bank was piled. Here were found
many flint " chips," and it is probable that these
camp-makers used stone implements. Fragments
of a primitive kind of hand-made pottery, pointing
to an early British origin, were also found. The
excavation showed that the section of the ditch
in both camps was V-shaped, instead of the more
common flat-bottomed form. General Pitt-Rivers
says that the evidence before him is " sufficient to
identify the camp as pre-Roman, and probably of
a very early period."
The view from this point towards the south
is one of the most extensive and beautiful in the
Forest.
Greensted Church.—Although five miles from
the nearest part of the Forest, the interest which
attaches to this church, both from an antiquarian
point of view, and for the lover of the picturesque,
perhaps justifies its mention here. Situated near
Ongar, the terminus of the Woodford railway, it is
best approached on foot from that town by a wide
and straight grass avenue about a mile in length,
which is terminated by the red-brick gables of
Greensted Hall, close to which the church stands.
The structural curiosity of the church lies in the
walls of the nave, which are built of solid stems
of oak-trees, or, as some say, of sweet chestnut, set
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