4 ANCIENT EARTHWORKS IN EPPING FOREST.
Those portions of Ambresbury Bank which are almost
perfect, exhibit a deep and broad moat, with a strong inner
embankment, and a slighter external one. Two of the
angles point very nearly north and south. The plan is not
a regular square, but an irregular quadrangle, the shorter
sides being those between the north and east, the east and
south, and the south and west; the remaining and longer
side has an obvious outward curve. There are various
entrances, and there have been, I think, two at least on
every side. The southern angle is least perfect, and was
probably never closed, and all the other angles are slightly
rounded. At what we may term the southern angle (towards
the west), the work is so arranged as to inclose part of a
low-lying strip of ground adjacent to a water-course, the
intention probably being to ensure a water-supply on the
inside, and a ditch on the outside. The whole of the inte-
terior, and part of the exterior is more or less wooded,—
densely so on the south-west and south, where an ordinary
visitor will be very likely to overlook the bank, which is
carried through the swamp. The entire area comprises about
twelve acres, according to Mr. D'Oyley, who has been good
enough to survey it, and it is as nearly as possible of the
same extent as the camp at Loughton.
It is to be regretted that very recently as well as formerly,
the Ambresbury Camp has been greatly disfigured by Essex
Vandals, and in some parts almost obliterated by seekers
for sand and other materials. The timber also has suffered
considerably. But still we have a well-defined and strongly
defended entrenchment. Outside the enclosure on the east
the surface is irregular, but I have not explored it enough
to say more than that the irregularity seems not wholly due
to common gravel and sand diggers, whose doings are for
the most part easily identified.
We may now refer to the common local name of this
camp, which is Ambresbury or Amesbury, and is exactly
identical with that of a well-known town in Wiltshire, with
its neighbouring Stonehenge and Vespasian's Camp. They
say that Ambresbury is named after Ambrosius Aurelius, a
celebrated opposer of the Saxons. If this is right, the
Epping Camp is associated with the most romantic period
of our history, and may conjure up visions of Vortigern and
Arthur, and Merlin, and a host of other legendary heroes.