ANCIENT EARTHWORKS IN EPPING FOREST. 5
Though tempted to enlarge on such a theme, I restrain my
pen, and only ask how Ambresbury Bank came by its actual
name. If Ambrosius formed it, Boadicea knew nothing of
it ; though if he only occupied it, she may have known it.
History does not aid us, though curiously enough the name
of Ambresbury in Wiltshire figures once along with that of
Waltham in our national chronicles. Giraldus Cambrensis
(Bk. 1, Ch. 7), and Gervase of Canterbury both tell in con-
secutive sentences, how Henry II. removed the monks of
Waltham, and the nuns of Ambresbury, and put others in
their places. This juxtaposition is curious, because Waltham
is so near the Epping camp or Ambresbury Bank.4
There still remains one subject to be noticed, and that
relates to what lies between the Loughton and Epping
camps. Journeying southwards from Ambresbury Bank to
Theydon Bois road, the ground has been so dug over for
sand, &c, that any ancient work must have been obliterated.
But between the Theydon road and that to Loughton I have
found a few noticeable features. The first is a short straight
embankment running east and west; beyond this is a second
and somewhat longer bank running parallel with it. At
right angles to this second, and almost touching it, is a third
bank lying north and south. Still further south, where the
4 The following are the actual words of
Giraldus Cambrensis, who is speaking of
the way in which Henry fulfilled his vow
to found three monasteries in lieu of a
certain pilgrimage : —"Cauonicos apud
Waltham, ab antiquo singulariter et
Sancte Deo servientes, in conventualem
communemque vitam et regulam regale
potestate redegit. Moniales de Ambre-
shire, hoc est de Ambrosii curia, an-
tiquitus plantatas extirpavit, et alias, id
est transmarinus, de fonte Ebrardi vio-
lenter intrusit." Hereupon the editor of
the London edition of 1846 has these
notes:—''See Hoveden, f. 320. a.d.
1177. It is but fair to give another ver-
sion of these proceedings, such as is put
forth by Gervase of Canterbury, whose
words are these: "King-Henry being at
Windsor, sent Richard, Archbishop of
Canterbury, Gilbert, Bishop of London,
Geoffrey, Bishop of Ely, to Holy Cross
Church, Waltham. He had purposed to
settle there regular canons, because the
seculars who still remained had abandoned
themselves to carnal works and unlawful
pleasures instead of devoting themselves
to God's service. So the dean of the
aforesaid church, whose name was Guido
Ruffus, resigned his deanery into the
hands of the archbishop. Then the king
commanded a new church to be built
there, with its offices, and some months
after ordered canon regulars to take pos-
session, of the ancient church, six from
Cirencester, six from Osney, four from
Chichester. He sent also, Bartholomew,
Bishop of Exeter, and Roger, Bishop of
Worcester, to the Abbey of Ambresbury,
to eject the abbess and her nuns, convicted
for incontinence (de manifesto lenocinio),
and introduced in their room the religious
from St. Evreux."—Twysden, X., Script.
1434. With regard to the spelling of
Ambresbury as Almesbury I say nothing,
as it is a philological question, where-
as our business is with legends and tra-
ditions, and popular stories and besides
I have not found what may be called the
Tennysonian form of the name applied
to our Epping Forest Camp. It may be
well to notice that the country people
near Epping call their encampment, not
only Ambresbury, but Amesbury—''for
short," as an old habitue of the forest
observed.