Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers papers Box 2

Transcriptions of correspondence held in Box 2, Pitt-Rivers papers, Pitt Rivers Museum

See here for introduction

Pitt-Rivers Box 2 transcriptions

Not all of the letters have been transcribed. A full listing is available here. The decision about which letters were ‘worth’ transcribing was taken by the transcriber (Alison Petch) alone based upon her research into Pitt-Rivers’ life and career and also her catalogue of the Pitt-Rivers papers and therefore reflects (to some degree) her personal bias. All notes about aspects of the letters were also prepared by the transcriber. Note that unlike the catalogue order (or the order they were kept in by Pitt-Rivers), these transcriptions are listed together in on-going communication order so that a conversation about a site or set of sites can be followed. The relevant sites are shown below as titles in bold

Transcriptions and notes were prepared between November and December 2014.

Box 2 / P2

Copy

Ancient Monuments Department Office of Works

6 Nov. 1883

Secretary,

During the last fortnight I have been engaged in making excavations in the Collection of Pits commonly known as the pits near Stourton on the borders of Wilts, Dorset, and Somerset.

These pits ever since the time of Camden who mentions them in his Brittannia [sic] (?) have formed a subject of warm dispute amongst Antiquaries up to the present time, S [insert] s [end insert] ome [ie some] affirming that they were only merely quarries for obtaining stone for millstones (querns), others believing them to be the remains of habitations. Learned papers have been written in favour of the latter hypothesis. [insert] and it has been suggested that a portion of the mound be placed under the protection of Government [end insert]

As the collection of pits has been estimated at 20,000 implying a population of something like 100,000 people, the collec existence of a prehistoric town of such a size would completely revolutionize our [insert] naturally alter irreconciled ideas as to the social condition of the Britons previous to the time of the Romans. The pits are being rapidly destroyed for obtaining stones for roadmaking, and before all trace of them is obliterated, it appeared to me desirable that an attempt should be made to ascertain by means of excavations which of these hypotheses is the correct one.

A committee of the Somersetshire Archaeological Society with which I was connected made some excavations a few years ago which resulted in their reporting that the evidence was in favour of quarries, but several of the Committee appended riders to the Report expressing their dissent from this view, and it was not favourably generally accepted in the locality.

Under these circumstances, I decided to make a complete section through the hill laying bare the undisturbed rock and cutting through the pits to ascertain whether any sufficiently reliable evidence could be obtained to set at rest the [insert] a [end insert] question which has so long been regarded as the crux of antiquaries.

The result has been to confirm fully the report of the Committee of the Somerset Archaeological Society and shew that the pits were undoubtedly made to obtain stone for querns, six of which unfinished and cast aside as useless were found in one of the pits. Not a fragment of pottery or any signs of human habitation have ben found in any of the excavations made by me.

I am therefore of opinion that there is no evidence which would justify me in recommending that any portion of these pits should be placed under the protection of the Ancient Monuments Act.

My object is now in bringing the subject to your notice is to request a decision from the First Commissioner of Works as to whether I may consider my time officially employed whilst making these investigations.

As regards the expense of the excavations I consider my salary with any addition from my private purse that I may think it desirable to make is amply sufficient to cover the cost of such excavations.

But as my time is in a great measure under the control of the Government I would ask to be informed whether an inquiry of this nature bearing on the nature [insert] selection [end insert] of the monuments to be recommended for the protection of Government, is to be considered part of my duty duties.

I would observe that my reason for postponing reference to you until after the investigation had been completed, was in order that I might be able to state whether or not the inquiry had been conclusive. Excavations of this kind are often inconclusive, and I did not think it advisable to refer a question relating to my duties as the Inspector of Ancient Monuments until practical results had been obtained.

I have the honour to be

Sir

Your obedient servant

A. Pitt Rivers

Lieut General

Inspector of Ancient Monuments

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Copy

Office of Works

A8977

7 Nov. 1883

Ancient Monuments Protection

General Pitt Rivers

Duties of the Inspector of Ancient Monuments

Memoranda

First Comments

I am certainly of opinion that the Excavations of such pits and other similar work is distinctly such as would come under the head of the official Duties of the Inspector of Ancient Monuments.

There is a point raised by General Pitt Rivers which may be of some importance in the future viz: the defraying of the expense of such excavations by the Inspector himself.

General Pitt Rivers’s successor may be a poor man and unable to so such work at his own expense. I think therefore that in future such examinations as are made should be paid for out of public money. But in that case the Inspector would have to seek the authority of the Board before commencing operations as to the cost of which he would have to furnish an estimate.

A.B.M. [1]

Commr.

But if the work should be such as the Board could not authorize, it will still be open to General Pitt Rivers to conduct the investigations at his own cost in which case although the investigation would be private as far as cost is concerned the time as employed would be distinctly reckoned as devoted to official work.

G.S.L. [2] Nov. 30. 83

General Pitt Rivers

to see

A.BM.

Nov 30. 83

Seen and returned to the Secretary

Dec 11 1883

A. Pitt Rivers

Notes

[1] Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford (1837-1916) see here. Note, the two men were distantly related through Pitt-Rivers' wife. Secretary at the Office of Works from 1874 to 1886.

[2] George Shaw Lefevre (1831-1928) see here.

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Box 2 / R1

Newcastle upon Tyne 2 Dec 1887

My dear General,

Excuse my delay in replying to your letter respecting the bringing of the Roman Wall or some portions of it under the protection of the Ancient Monuments Act. There will be considerable difficulty in doing so, and before writing to you at length upon the subject I am consulting those who are interested in it. I have already spoken to the Duke of Northumberland and Lord Percy upon the matter and I am now in communication with Mr Clayton. [1] I think it is of the utmost importance that you should visit us as you propose in the Spring and see for yourself the existing state of things. You would meet with a very warm reception from the legates and pro-prietors of the day.

I am my dear General

Yours faithfully

J. Collingwood Bruce [2]

General Pitt-Rivers F.R.S., F.S.A.

Rushmore

Salisbury

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Roman Wall Antonine

Hadrian’s

Durham  13 Sept 1889

My dear Pitt Rivers

I see you are at Newcastle for the Brit. Assoc. Meeting. I shall not be over, having had a long, though not a severe attack of gout, which still hangs about me & makes me completely useless. Now that you [sic – missing word are?] in the Northern parts it will be most desirable that you should make an examination of the Roman Wall from the engineering point of view. This has never been undertaken and no one is so competent as yourself to handle it. The controversy as to the builder of the wall & the relative date of the Earth work & stone work has been revived in the Sep. number of the Archaeological Review I confess I have always entertained the belief that the two were quite distinct systems, built at different times, though for the same purpose. At one of our local archaeological meetings this year, I mentioned my dissent from the at present received view & this being reported I shortly drew attention to the matter & I show in the Athenaeum that Mr Clayton had invited you to Chesters with a view to your examining with the question. I hope you will be able to do this, for the question is one of very great importance and which ought to have the most competent [illegible] available

Yours sincerely

W Greenwell

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Roman Wall Antonine

Hadrian’s

15 Sep 1889

My dear Pitt Rivers

I hear you have two surveyors with you and are therefore in the best position to examine the wall & earthwork satisfactorily. I had hoped to have seen you today when I could have talked this matter over with you. You should see the district near Hum... [name illegible] (Italian Chesters) and then that between Chesters and Greenhead. The great question is whether the wall and Earthworks are parts of one system made by the same hands, or two separate systems of defence.

It will be a thousand pities if, now that you are in the district, you should not get this work done, which would go a long way to settle the question. I hear you were at Chesters, but were not able to see anything except the camp there

Believe me

Sincerely yours

W Greenwell

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Roman Wall Antonine

Hadrian’s

17 Sep 1889

My dear Pitt Rivers

I am extremely sorry to have missed seeing you today. I got a telegram yesterday, without  any name, to say “I will come to Durham tomorrow morning” I had an engagement to meet a man at Jarrow in the afternoon & left by the 2.55 train, having then come to the conclusion that my unknown telegrapher was not coming. Had I been certain that it was you & that you would be over if not in the morning then sometime during the day I would have broken my engagement, but under the circumstances I kept it & so lost the opportunity of seeing you. I should like to know what you propose as regards the Roman Wall, for if you are going to be at work on it I would come and have a look at you & have some talk about it.

How long do you propose to stay in the north?

Yours sincerely

W Greenwell

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[The Grand Hotel Trafalgar Square London]

Roman Wall Northumberland

Hadrian’s

Sep 25th 1889

Dear Gen: Pitt-Rivers

Yours was forwarded to me in Town & before leaving today for Bath I write to thank you for the same & to express regret that we did not meet at Chollerford the examination of the Roman Wall & Vallum requires us you say some care and time before arriving at any sound conclusion as to the relative dates We drove from Chollerford to Housesteads & saw sufficient at the different points we examined to puzzle us at the place ie Black Carts Farm the Vallum seemed to be commanded by superior heights on the South but then a possible attack from the south possibly at a date when the danger of an enemy from the north for which the murus was built was lessened so that both murus and aggers [?] might have been built within a few years of each other but I should like to hear some matured opinion on the subject. Did you see that magnificent work on the left bank of the Tyne had we walked sufficiently far to the South we may have found a camp or some fortification on that height as an outwork in other places The vallum appears to be quite subsiduary to the murus. It appears to me as an ignoramus in military matters that the vallum aggers [?] were certainly raised against an attack the foundations of the bridge for what purpose could the covered way have been made a subsequent work clearly

Let me know when you purpose digging again at Wansdyke & I shall try and keep myself for a visit

Very [illegible] yours

HH Winwood [3]

Winwood Roman Wall

Notes

[1] John Clayton (1792-1890) Antiquarian and town clerk for Newcastle, see here

[2] John Collingwood Bruce (1805-1892) see here

[3] Reverend Henry Hoyte Winwood (1831-1920) Geologist see here.

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Box 2 / R2

The Precinct

Rochester

8.3.90

To Lt Gen’l Pitt Rivers F.R.S. &c

Sir

On my return I found your letter & cheque enclosed, for which I am obliged, & rejoice to hear that you are none the worse for your accident. I have received percussion to excavate at Richboro’.

I am

Sir

Yours obed’y

George Payne

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The Precinct

Rochester

15.3.90

To Lt Gen’l Pitt Rivers F.R.S. &c

Sir

I was at Richborough yesterday making arrangements with the owner & tenant about the proposed excavations & am pleased to say had no difficulty in settling the matter. To my surprise the owner informed me that he would sell the castrum with the five acres contained within it & that if necessary he would set apart a certain strip of land all round it for a cart track. As you told me, when I had the pleasure of writing you, that you had some idea of buying the property when last put up to auction, I pressed him to ascertain if he were in earnest, and found that it was so. Now as he is willing to divide the castrum from the farm I hasten to let you know before it gets to other persons ears. The owner is rather a second-rate farmer type of man and cares naught for the ruin & does not seem grasping for a fancy price. I should think something might be done in the matter & forward his address

Mr W. Wilson

Little Slatenborough

Eastry

Kent.

I shall be only too glad to do anything for you in interviewing or writing if desired.

I am

Sir

Yours obed’y

George Payne

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The Precinct

Rochester

 20 Mch 1890

To Lt Gen’l Pitt Rivers F.R.S. &c

Sir

I am very sorry to hear that you are indisposed but trust that you may speedily recover. My dear Father’s wonderful life was brought to a close yesterday morning. I have written to Mr Willson [sic] agreeably to your kind request.

Yours obed’y

George Payne

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G. Payne on Richborough

The Precinct

Rochester

27 Mch 90

To Lt Gen’l Pitt Rivers F.R.S. &c

Sir

I forward the enclosed for your consideration. It would be necessary for anyone buying the place to take the slope of the bank down to the Railway fence, therefore this with the track all round the walls makes an extra two acres. I should mention that Mr Wilson has no idea who is in treaty for the property. Trusting you have recovered from your recent indisposition.

Believe me

Yours obed’y

George Payne

----------------

Little Slatenborough

Eastry

Nr Dover

March 26, 1890.

Dear Sir,

I have delayed answering your letter in consequence of my Solicitor looking of the Deeds of the Farm. He now informs me that I can sell the ground as freehold with the Castle Walls standing thereon and with out any restriction as to digging for minerals &c &c ---

Your proposal to take the Balk in down to the Railway fence on the East side and round the outside of the Walls where it is not cropped with Corn would take I estimate about 7 acres of land—

I now propose to offer to sell it for £1000 the purchaser to pay all legal expences [sic] attending the transfer of the said property: and for any compensation if required to the Tenant Mr G. Solley who holds on a yearly Tenantcy.

I remain

Yours faithfully

W. Wilson

--------------

Ansd

[Kent Archaeological Society

The Precinct

Rochester

Kent]

3 Apr 1891

To Lt Gen’l Pitt Rivers F.R.S. &c

I should be very glad to know your final decision about Richboro’, as if you do not purchase it I should try and arrange a plan for excavations to be commenced in the autumn. I find that the brushwood around the Megalithic Remains at Coldrum has been cut down this winter so that the monument may be seen to advantage. Do you think you could spare time to see it with me shortly? Your best way would be to come by the L. C. & D.R [1] to Meopham station I would meet you there & have a landau in readiness. Your train would leave Victoria 9.13 a.m and that would enable you to return early in the afternoon.

I am

Yours obed’y

George Payne

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The Precinct

Rochester

3 May 1890

To Lt Gen’l Pitt Rivers F.R.S. &c

Sir

I will attend to the form next week. The delay concerning Richboro’ is not due to me. I am promised the information required in a few days. A Surveyor in that district to whom I have spoken, in confidence, says the value of the land would be about £700 & he thinks that, taking into consideration the parting with a ruin of especial interest & the chance of antiquities being found that the £1000 asked for not unreasonable

Mr Leveson Gower [2] & Mr Roach Smith [3] are of the same opinion.

I am

Yrs obediently

George Payne

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Anc Mons

The Precinct

Rochester

2 July 1890

To Lt Gen’l Pitt Rivers F.R.S. &c

Sir

I went to Trottiscliffe yesterday and paved the way for the protection of the Megalithic Remains at Coldrum. The parson rejoiced at what I proposed to do in the matter, and as he is an old friend of the owner, he has promised to intercede. I have written twice for particulars as to the price paid by Mr Willson for Richborough Farm, but the information does not come to hand. I hope you will purchase the “castrum” nevertheless. I have received notice of the Arch’l Congress at the Antiquaries & observe that the County Survey is again on the Agenda papers. My opinion is, the only way to bring that matter to a head is for the Council of the Antiquaries to select a certain man in each County and officially invite him to undertake the work. If some decline, try others & so on until all have promised. Unless something of this kind is done discussion after discussion is useless. If you attend will you propose this, providing it accords with your views! Should you not be present shall I make the proposition? I am shortly going with Col Trench to look into the discoveries at Shoeburyness. It seems to have been a neglected corner. He has shewn me your letters in reference thereto—

I remain

Sir

Yours obed’y

George Payne

Notes

[1] London, Chatham and Dover Railway

[2] Granville Leveson Gower, possibly (1815-1891) here or Granville William Gresham Leveson-Gower, (1838–1895) see here

[3] Charles Roach Smith (1807-1890) see here

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Box 2 / R4

Ansd Oct. 24/ 93

Xthwaite

Keswick

Oct 15 [1]

Dear Sir

Will you kindly tell me what is the actual position of the Department of which you are Head for the Protection of Ancient Monuments.

Am I right in thinking that you are not a corporation, and have really no power to hold land – nor acquire it –

(2) That you are a sub department of the Works & Forests

I ask because many of us are of opinion that the time has come for forming a Trust to be incorporated under the Companies Act that shall be all to acquire & hold lands for the nations use

We are really interested either because of their natural beauty or of their historic worth & we are anxious in no way to touch upon ground laready covered Indeed it has been suggested that it would be possible perhaps to throw in our lot with yourself & strengthen your hands.

This I suppose could not be done except by your assent & assent of Parliament. And I write tentatively to you to ask if you think it could be so arranged

Yrs obediently

HD Rawnsley [2]

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Ansd Oct. 24/ 93

Xthwaite Vicarage

Keswick

[Tyn-y-Ffynon

Barmouth

North Wales]

Oct 22 [3]

Dear Sir

I write again fearing my letter may have been misaddressed, to ask if it would in your judgement be possible for the Ant Monuments Protection Department to continue with a National Scenery & Historic Site Trust which we are about to form. This Trust will be incorporated under the Companies Act & will be c...ed [illegible] to hold any land bequeathed for the National use & enjoyment and to obtain by purchase any Historic House or site that ought to be preserved.

Lord Rosebery [4] is anxious to know if your Department would [insert] or could [end insert] cooperate with such a Trust. I cannot say – My one idea is that you are not a corporation & cannot hold land.

Yrs truly

HD Rawnsley

we are anxious not to multiply organisations

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[There are 3 copies of the following letter, one in Pitt-Rivers’ handwriting and 2 typed copy letters]

Rushmore

Salisbury

Oct, 24th, 1893

Dear Sir,

In reply to your letters of the 15th and 22nd Oct., which press of business has prevented my answering sooner, I enclose a copy of the Ancient Monuments Act, which will show you what the powers of the Act are. The question of enlarging the scope of the Act has been frequently suggested, but it is quite out of my power to say what the intention of the Government, if any, might be on the subject. I may, however, say that our experience has been that, in so far as prehistoric Monuments are concerned, it has been found, that the owners of them, when they take an interest in them, as most do, are by far the best protectors of them, being generally on the spot, and having as a rule the means of doing so.

A good deal was done during the first 7 years of the Act, which resulted in drawing public attention to the interest that is taken in the matter. This had a salutary effect, and I think that very little damage is being done to Ancient Monuments now. My department is under the Office of Works.

As to the question of including Historical and picturesque sites under the Act, or any other Act, that is a large question, which I am not competent to deal with. It is possible there might be special cases to which such powers might be advantageous, but as a rule, my own opinion is that private owners are the best protectors of such places. They are nearly always accessible to the public, and that is better to give them every encouragement, than to attempt to take them out of their hands, which would entail an enormous expense on Government; and there is no reason to suppose any Government would be willing to incur such an outlay, and it would probably be very badly administered.

Yours obediently

Notes

[1] Presumably 15 October 1893

[2] Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley (1851-1920) see here

[3] Presumably also 1893

[4] Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery see here

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Box 2 / S3

The Dell, Llanelly

Oct’r 28/ 86

My dear Herbert

If you can spare the time kindly give me your opinion on the following Archaeological matters. At Balgreggan I found among the Land [?] Hills (where the flint arrow heads have been discovered) a small water worn heart shaped stone about 5” x 3” with a hollow in the centre about an inch deep, as if worn by human agency, say possibly in sharpening tools of some sort. The nature of the stone is gritty and suitable I should say for grinding purposes. I found it embedded in a bed of peat among the Land hills. The stone is now in the Balgreggan Smoking room, where you can get it, if it sounds worthy [Drawing][Red line dividing the above text from the following] In Breconshire, while inspecting some drainage, I came across three large mounds, about 20 yards apart in a ploughed field, formed of quarried stones, grown over with grass, then bushes &c. They were pointed out as supposed burying places. On examining them, I found that one of them had apparently been examined and opened up, as in the top there were very large slabs of stone lying about – and five of six of them stuck in an upright position so as to form a tomb apparently – One of the mounds had been partially removed by the tenant for making roads – This was stopped some years ago.

On examining the part quarried I noticed two large slabs underneath the mass of loose stones – in an upright position & at right angles to each other, apparently forming a tomb such as had already been opened up & which I have referred to. I will be visiting this neighbourhood in about a fortnight & have given directions to have this tomb opened when there.

Can you throw any light on these mounds? What are they? If burying places, did the inhabitants simply add to the heap as they died or are they burying places for the privileged party? It seems as if they were for many, as my tomb which I intend opening is on the edge of the mound and the [illegible] already opened in the centre.

The mounds vary in size The largest about 30 by 20 yards and 4 yds high.

With love to Mary

Yours affect’aly

W.M. Stewart

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Box 2 / S5

Sueno’s Stone

Earlsmill, Forres

2 Sep., 1884

Sir,

I am favoured with your Letter of 31st ult.. I am sorry I had not the pleasure of seeing you when you were north.

I will submit your proposal about the t..ing [illegible] of the “Sueno Stone” to the Earl of Moray [1] and let you know the result. His Lordship, as you would see, has put a substantial fence around the Stone and keeps it nicely

I am, Sir,

Your obed’t Serv’t

William Brown [2]

Lieut Genl Pitt-Rivers

Rushmore

Salisbury

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Sueno’s Stone

Earlsmill, Forres

12 Sep., 1884

Sir,

With reference to your Letter of 31st ult. and my reply of 2nd Inst. I have now to mention that I submitted your Letter about placing the “Suenos Stone” under the protection of the Ancient Monuments Act to the Earl of Moray, and I am desired by his Lordship to say that he prefers not to take advantage of the Act. The Earl of Moray, as you saw, has erected a very substantial fence around the “Suenos Stone”, and it will be very carefully protected by his Lordship. Lord Moray would be glad to consider any suggestions you may be pleased to give as to the preservation of the Stone.

I am, Sir,

Your obed’t Serv’t

William Brown

Lt. Genl. A. Pitt-Rivers

Inspector of Ancient Monuments

Rushmore

Salisbury

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Clava (continued) [3]

It evidently is a cemetery, and with the knowledge we have acquired from the examination of them in Ireland, there cannot be much hesitation in ascribing it to that dynasty which was represented by KING BRUDE, when St Columba, in the 6th century, visited him in his “Mumitis,” on the banks of the Ness.

SUENO’S STONE [insert in red] done [end insert] The Forres Pillar, commonly called Sueno’s Stone, is situated about half a mile to the east of Forres, in the parish of Rafford, on the north side of the highway, and occupies the position in which in all probability it originally was placed. The stone steps round the base (which conceal part of the sculpture) are modern, and were placed as supports to the Pillar, by a late Countess of Moray, Lady Ann Campbell. [4] It is a hard sand stone, 23 ft in height above ground, and said to be 12 ft more under ground, although this point may well be doubted. The breadth of the base is four feet, the thickness about 15 inches. .. [there appear to be dashes in ink here in the handwritten copy, and part of the original text has been omitted] Popular tradition as in the case of the Mortlach Stone, has connected this pillar with a supposed defeat of the Danes under their General Sueno; & it has been called a Runic & Scandinavian Monument, on the very unlikely assumption that the Northmen erected this monument to commemorate their own defeat. It is worthy of being noted, that in 1813, when digging into a mound close to the pillar, 8 human skeletons were found. In the Parish of Rafford several ancient coffins, formed of slabs of undressed free-stone, have been found at various times. In one of these were discovered several ornaments of jet. None of these graves were covered by cairns, although, of these, many are to be found in the parish. Near Blervie Castle there is a Druidical Circle, known as “The Temple Stones”. “Sculptured Stones of Scotland” [5]

Wigton [insert in red] not done [end insert] The fragment of [insert] at [end insert] Wigton is in the churchyard of the burgh, and seems to have formed the lower part a pillar or cross, having on one end a tenon, as if for putting into a stone pedestal. It is of freestone, and is now used as the headstone to a grave. No other fragments of it could be discovered.

“Sculptured Stones” p. 35 pl. 102

Vigeans St. near Arbroath [underlined in red] (Scheduled) [insert in red] done [end insert] This broken Cross stands in the Churchyard of St Vigeans, near Arbroath. A few years ago it formed, along with the fragment of another Cross (represented in Plate 71, No: 3, part of the pavement at the bottom of the a stair in the church. In the panel, on one edge of the Cross, is an incised inscription, which appears to resemble the inscribed characters on many Irish monuments. The panel on the opposite edge is filled with scroll ornament. A part of one of these Crosses forms the footstep in which the [text ends here]

Notes

[1] George Philip Stuart, 14th Earl of Moray

[2] William Brown was a factor and JP.

[3] This obviously originally formed part of a larger document, though it is not clear what that document was—it is written in Pitt-Rivers’ handwriting—it is possibly part of a report to the Office of Works or else his library notes before an Inspector’s tour?

[4] Lady Anne Campbell, daughter of Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, her second marriage was to Charles Stuart, 6th Earl of Moray. She died in 1734.

[5] This appears to be a reference to Sculptured Stones of Scotland by John Stuart, published in 1856. This section of text appears on page 9, see https://ia600402.us.archive.org/24/items/sculpturedstones01stua/sculpturedstones01stua.pdf. Pitt-Rivers’ transcription is accurate (but not complete as he omitted a section about representations of the stone).

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Box 2 / S8

Ansd June 8/ 98

[Tintinhull,

Bowler’s Road Hill,

Salisbury.]

7 June 1898

Dear Sir,

Permit me to draw your attention to the great danger to Stonehenge calling for immediate consideration. This month encampments will be near, navvies will soon be at work upon the three lines of Railway: two of the G.W. Ry [1] and one of the S.W. Ry [2] – there will be two, if not three, Stations in close vicinity. For thirty years past I have visited “The Stones”—including the three years at the Sunrise of Midsummer Day—that of 1887 was, fortunately, in a bright & absolutely cloudless atmosphere—even equal to the experience I had of a sunrise over Etna in 1878—Of Stonehenge – on the first view of its Sunrise, I took sketches and drawings—The Late Rev. Ed. Duke, of Lake House [3] told me I had been exceptionally fortunate—To show the interest I have long taken, I may allude to my many visits; I have consulted the Literature of the subject by reading the book, in the Brit. Museum, & elsewhere hence, I feel apprehensive of the risk incurred by the influx of civilians “—in their thousands”, on bicycles & carriages, and the 80,000 troops in the District – since visitors have wilfully damaged & carried away chippings.

Provision for the Refreshments of Visitors, and space for horses & carriages should be provided.

Why should not the English Government do for Stonehenge, what the Italian Government does for Italy: viz: purchase the site, surround it with a Wall or fence; appoint an Army Pensioner to [insert] keep [end insert] grass?

Sir John Lubbock promised me every help in his power & said you could give us the most effective assistance.

Can I give you any help?

My Town address is:--

The Royal Societies Club, St James St., W.

I am, Sir,

Yours truly

J. Lardner Green [4]

F.R.Met.Soc

General Pitt Rivers

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Copy

Rushmore

Salisbury

June 8th, 1898.

Dear Sir,

In reply to your letter of the 7th inst., Can you give or obtain for me any authoritative information upon the following two points.

1st. What is the nearest distance to which any of the three lines you speak of will run to Stonehenge. This affects the question whether the trains could shake the ground on which the stones stand.

2nd. What is the distance to the nearest station. This affects the question of the accession of visitors. I do not think there will be any accession of visitors that cannot be met by the posting of one or if necessary two extra policemen or an army pensioner if desirable. The visitors could not overturn the stones if they wished to do so; and as to the chippings I doubt whether even now that is carried on to any extent.

The owner, Sir Edmund Antrobus, is of no use. He will not listen to any representation that is made to him on the subject, and the existing Act of Parliament cannot deal with the matter in any way.

If you can give me any reliable information upon these points it would be of use. Hitherto I have not been able to obtain any authoritative information on the subject, and I am not certain whether the points have even been settled as yet.

Yours truly,

A. Pitt-Rivers

J. Lardner Green Esq.,

Salisbury.

Notes

[1] Great Western Railway

[2] London and South Western Railway

[3] Edward Duke (1779-1852) see here

[4] James Lardner Green, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Fellow of the Royal Medical or Microscopical Societies (or possibly the Meteorological Society as per his signature?)

Note: http://www.savestonehenge.org.uk/byrail.html states, ‘In 1902 a branch railway line opened from a junction with the main Salisbury to London line near Newton Tony to Amesbury and Bulford. ...  The branch line to Bulford continued to be extensively used but following the end of the second world war the passenger service was withdrawn due to intense bus competition in 1952. However, the line continued for freight until 1963.’ This may have been one of the lines mentioned by Lardner Green. It is not clear how close it came to Stonehenge. See here for more information about this branch line which was constructed under a light railway order dated 24 September 1898 (ie just after the correspondence above).  The same page also says, ‘No more schemes were proposed until the passing of the Light Railways Act in 1896. The Great Western Railway swiftly saw the advantages of this scheme and proposed a route which was very similar to their failed scheme of 1883. This light railway was to run up the Avon Valley, Bristol to Amesbury from Bemerton via Stratford, Woodford, Dunford and Wilsford. From Amesbury, the line was to run to Pewsey via Durrington, Netheravon, Upavon and Manningford. The line was authorised on 6th August 1898. These are likely to be the lines discussed by Lardner Green. The webpage concludes, ‘In the meantime, the War Office had been purchasing large areas of the Salisbury Plain, and had already commenced negotiations with the LSWR for a light railway (very similar to the 1882 scheme) which would run from Grateley station and over the plain to Newton Tony to Amesbury to a terminus just east of Shrewton, making the line 10 miles and 62 chains long. It was intended to serve both the new military camps and the agricultural community. This line was authorised as the Amesbury & Military Camp Light Railway. Of the two proposals, this scheme won out because the Great Western Railway's proposal involved crossing over four miles of land owned by the War Department, (and because the War Department was siding with the LSWR) forcing that company to abandon the idea.^’

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Box 2 / T1

Memoranda on Thornborough Camps near Tanfield

These are three circular entrenchments lying very nearly in a line with [insert] one [end insert] another from NW to SE. A line drawn through the centres of the two most distant does not pass quite through the centre of the middle entrenchment but as the country was probably wooded when they were constructed this slight deviation from the straight line is probably unintentional. The two to S are much injured by ploughing but evidently were all built on the same plan. In the centre is a circular plateau on the level of the ground outside; this is surrounded by a ditch, except at the NW and SE when the ditch is discontinued so as to serve as entrance to the central plateau from NW & SE. Then comes a [illegible looks like berin]; and then the earth from the ditch is formed into a vallum concentric from [insert] with [end insert] the berin and ditch, except at the NW and SE when the vallum is broken off, leaving passages in continuation of the passages across the ditch.

What is the object of these entrenchments? Clearly they were not built for defence, the fact of the ditch being inside of the vallum is conclusive on this point.

Had there been only one it might be considered as a place for judicial duels the central plateau being the “ring” in wh. the combatants would engage, the ditch, with a palisade round serving to separate the combatants from the spectators, the berin & inner slope of the vallum serving for the spectators. But there are three in number. Now ‘Arthur’s Round table” near Penrith is similarly constructed; this is a rough section not to scale [Drawing] It is described in Fergusson’s Rude Stone Monuments but not having the book at hand I am obliged to rely on memory. Here we see central plateaus (only slightly raised in the centre, which is not the case in Thornborough.) ditch berin, and vallum outside of ditch. So too the vallum and ditch are broken off to NW, thus leaving access to the central plateau, and may or may not have been also to SE, but it is injured by the construction of a road. To the north west, some 200 yards off, i.e. in a line through the break in the vallum, is Mayborough camp. This is a circle formed by a simple vallum without a ditch, the materials being stones from the neighbouring river Eden, with an entrance to SE. through a break in the vallum i.e. looking straight to north west entrance of the Round Table. A dolmen and menhir stood in the centre of the circle, two large stones on either side of the entrance, and apparently an avenue of stones led from the one to the other entrenchment.

At the great temple of Abury [sic] near Marlborough the vallum is outside, and the ditch inside, with a narrow berin between.

It seems to me tolerably certain that these circles at Thornborough and Maborough [sic] were meant for some religious ceremony, part of which consisted in a procession from one to the other. We may conceive the priests entering by the north west entrance of the most northern circle at Thornborough at daybreak on some day when the sun rises in the SE & sacrificing in the central ring, the ditch keeping the profane lacity at a respectful distance, Or the berin may have been eats [?] for the chiefs, while the under-scrubbery, or perhaps the women, stood around or sat on the slopes of the vallum. The sacrifice ended, the procession would move to the second and thence to the third of the circles. The dolmen in the centre of Mayborough camp points to a burial, and so to burial rites. The circle at Abury [sic], with it’s [sic] row of Sarsen stones inside the ditch, and it’s [sic] system of double stone circles in the centre of the great circle, the flat plain to the South with Silbury Hill and it’s [sic] ditch to the South cut in this form [Drawing] All point to some religious motive, and the flat plain between Silbury Hill and the circle, with downs rising on either side suggest solemn processions from one to the other.

It may be observed that according to the ordinance map 6 scale sheet 102 the most southern of the Thornborough circles is shown as being entered only from the NW It’s [sic] plan is accordingly somewhat in this form X [link to Drawing] A very common form of these circles on incised stones, found in so many districts is very similar to this, such as this [Drawing] can this throw any light on the meaning of the incised stones

Walter Morrison [1]

Jan 31 1878

-----------------

[Bradfield Rectory

Sheffield)

11 October 1887

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I enclose a paper on the Camps near Tanfield and I wish it contained more information. You will gather from it, I hope, some idea of these wonderful places, and I hope if you are in this part of Yorks next summer you will go there. I could arrange for your reception by Mr G. Clarke of Tanfield House [2] and I would meet you there myself. If these so called camps were now and then called temples I think it would be a more probable explanation of their construction. Miss Gordon Cumming in her book of the Hebrides compares the old earthworks and serpent mounds there with the exactly similar sun temples in the Himalaya mountains, and she compares the customs of the highlanders with the Indians who do everything “sunwise” down to passing the bottle and dealing cards! It would be interesting to know some day from statistics taken by you how many mounds like Bradfield are found in close juxtaposition to a church. There are 3 mounds so situated in this part of the country and I have no doubt many more could be found. Please do not trouble to return the paper on Thornborough.

Believe me

Yours truly

Reginald A. Gatty [3]

----------------

[Ancient Monuments]

Durham 5 Sep 1887

Answered

My dear Pitt-Rivers

I have just returned home to find your very handsome & valuable book, which I will read carefully. Many thanks for it. The subject is a very interesting and curious one and it is well it has fallen into the hands of one so able to illustrate in more ways than one. It is a remarkable fact this very small stature of those people, and one not easy to account for, but there cannot be a doubt that this extraordinary almost dwarfishness was normal in the district. We may look forward to your account of the examination of the barrows, I hope before long. The stature of the people buried in them I understand does not vary from the ordinary one of the round barrow people. Chester, [4] who came this evening talks [illegible] he has seen you & that you are on a tour of inspection. You did not appear to know of this three circular structures, similar to Arthurs Round Table, near Tanfield, there is one or more on a moor, Halton I think is its name, near Ripon. A letter to the Rev. W.C. Lukis [5] Wath Rectory, Ripon would give you all the requisite information Have you seen Arbor Low in Derbyshire, it is a structure of the same nature.

You went, I understand, to see a mound fortification near Sheffield. There is one of [illegible] very [illegible] of that type at Elsdon in Northumberland, which ought to be put in the schedule. There is another not so fine but a large and remarkable one at Bishopton in this county.

I am going to finish up some barrows in the East Riding this autumn, I start work about the 20th. If you are coming north could you not pay me a visit here, you have never, I think, seen Durham

Yours [illegible]

W Greenwell

[All with large envelop marked ‘Memoranda on Thornborough Camps near Tanfield with Mr Gatty's letter (of Bradfield Rectory) and Canon Greenwell's Owner:- G. Clarke Esq Tanfield House Ripon’

[1] Possibly the Walter Morrison described here

[2] George R. John Clarke, see here.

[3] Reginald A. [Alfred?] Gatty (1845-?) Landowner

[4] Presumably Greville John Chester (1830-1892) see here

[5] William Collings Lukis (1817-1892) Antiquary see here

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Box 2 / T6

1 [in blue]

Private

ansd

Boraston Rectory

Tenbury

Ap. 23. 1888

Dear Sir

Sir John Lubbock has referred me to you with respect to a matter on which I wrote to him. He says he is sure you will do anything you can in the matter.

One of the most conspicuous features in this part of the country is the (Blue) Clee Hill. The top of it, called Titterstone, overlooks Ludlow, and on that side is very sharp and precipitous. Round the top are the remains of ancient walls. Some people think they are Druidical remains. Others think that they are the relics of an old British encampment. [insert] X [end insert]

[Added note] X There was a battle just below fought by Ostorius in a valley which is now called Horse Ditch – but the proper name of it is said to be Ost’s Ditch]

In either case the site is a most interesting one, and ought to be jealously guarded by all lovers of antiquities.

Quite recently one of the Stone Companies in the Clee has begun to push its operations towards the top. They have now actually reached the old walls, and are, I believe, carting away the loose stones which lie easy to their hand.

If you could do anything under the new act to check this vandalism you would be conferring a great boon on many people in this neighbourhood who from an antiquarian as well as from a picturesque point of view look on Titterstone as a very sacred spot.

I am told that it would in no way prejudice the workmen’s interest that operations should be confined to the lower parts of the hill. There is plenty of stone unworked there. But it [insert] pays the company better to work the stone where it [end insert] lies loose on the top.

Faithfully yours

F. Wayland Joyce [1]

-----------------

2 [in blue]

ansd

Boraston Rectory

Tenbury

Ap. 28. 1888

Dear Sir

Thank you for your letter and information. I am writing to day to a person who I think may have influence with the Lord of the Manor in which Titterstone is situated.

I am afraid I am not draughtsman enough to give you any plan or section of the spot. But you might be able to examine it on the ordinance map at Stanford’s (?) or some other geographer when you are next in town.

Ludlow is the nearest railway station to Titterstone, but that means a 5 miles drive at least, or more, up a steep hill.

My house is a mile from Tenbury Station. If ever you are in this neighbourhood I would gladly drive you from there.

Yours truly

F. Wayland Joyce

------------

3 [in blue]

Ansd

7 Eaton Place

May 3rd

Dear Gen’l Pitt Rivers

A letter has been forwarded to me from you, about some supposed old remains on the Clee Hill. If you would like to see them we shall be very happy to see you at Kyre Park [2] any time after this month and take you there – I have also been asked to write to the owner Sir Charles Boughton [3] as you suggest

truly yrs

Frances C Baldwyn-Childe [4]

My sister Mrs Seymour [5] has returned to Knoyle for a few days previous to leaving England for several months

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4 [in blue]

[Cartrefle

Menai Bridge,

N. Wales]

8 May 88

My dear Mrs Baldwyn Childe

I am very sorry that we are not going to be in London just directly so that we might have taken the advantage we should have liked to have done of the knowledge of your whereabouts – There is however unfortunately a dairy conference coming off in Ludlow on the 17th, at which we have promised to assist, & to house people who the managers want to have put up, a matter that is less easy for them at a time when the owners of most of the large houses are away.

With regard to the work of the stone companies, I do not think there has been or will be much done to make even an antiquarian uncomfortable. There are as you know several remains of stone circles on the platform of the top which are supposed to have been places of burial, & the whole of these are surrounded with what has been no doubt at one time a loose stone wall, but long beyond the memory of man there has been nothing but a pile of stones, in some place entirely gone, but in most others to be still traced. The total length of the wall may measure a mile. You will see a perfectly good map of the whole in the square of the 6 inch ordinance map (sheet 72 S.E.) which shows also the position of the quarries who may be before long the offenders.

I am afraid it would be difficult for me to interfere in the working [insert] of the latter [end insert] as the managers have spent several thousand pounds in developing the work, & of course can only secure [?] themselves by following the stone wherever it is of good quality, but there is this satisfaction that for every foot of surface ground they take they must to attain the level of their works, take it from 80 to 100 feet in depth, so that practically it would be impossible to fix the distant age when their work would prevent [?] the course of the vallum being traced, & this is absolutely the only feature of interest about it.

I shall be delighted if I am able at the time General Pitt Rivers comes to Kyre, to accept your kind invitation to meet him. I think however it might be that the easiest approach to the spot on [insert] the hill [end insert] would be by the tramway from Bitterley the end of which is shown on the map I have mentioned. If this shd be so we should be delighted to make Downton of use to you & Baldwyn Childe & your guest. To approach the place from Kyre would involve a walk from the inn on Ludlow & Cleobury Road of nearly two miles – A very delightful run however, it is a little rough.

Lady Boughton wishes me to give you her best & say how much she will like my plan if it is decided upon.

Believe me

very sincerely

CH Rouse-Boughton

We go home on Friday

-----------------

5 [in blue]

7 Eaton Place

May 11th

Dear Gen’l Pitt Rivers

I think I had better send you Sir Charles Boughton’s letter to me in answer to mine – carrying out your suggestion of writing to the owner when any doubt or difficulty arose with regard to “ancient monuments” –

If it is not very difficult for you to visit the West of England in June or July I still think it would be a great satisfaction to those who think mischief is being done to have your verdict—and I think the neighbourhood is interesting and would repay the trouble of coming—

We shall be very happy to see you and I think it would be best to go as Sir Charles suggests from Downton (if you come) to the Clee Hill –

truly yrs

Frances Baldwyn-Childe

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6 [in blue][NB the whole front page of the letter is crossed out]

Boraston Rectory Tenbury

Sept. 20. 1888

Dear Mrs Baldwyn Childe,

I am sorry none of us will be able to avail ourselves of your kind invitation to the missions to Seamen Gathering next Wednesday.

Some of us were at Titterstone two days ago. They were taking away the South face of the top part. Miss Hope Edwardes [6] was with us.

A man who works there told me lately that they had come across some of the most perfect building he had ever seen in the course of their demolition. Do you not think that at all events something might be done to get them to leave a certain portion where the work is peculiarly perfect, there at all events a portion of the wall might be left as a relic

Yours very truly

F.W. Joyce

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7 [in blue]

[Kyre Park

Tenbury

Worcestershire]

Sep 21st

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I have received the enclosed this morning I think if you could manage to pay a visit here and see the Titterstone Clee Hill – it would be a great satisfaction to the people and not uninteresting to yourself.

truly yrs

Frances Baldwyn Childe

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8 [in blue]

Copy sent off Sep. 30th/ 88

Cheltenham Sept 30

Dear Mrs Childe

As the quarrying is going on rapidly at Titterstone I think I had better send you a letter at once about it at once without waiting for the drawing of the masonry which we could not see on account of the fog [insert] mist [end insert]. Certainly a dense fog with rain in which we could not see twenty yards was not a condition of atmosphere that one would have selected for examining a camp on the top of a hill and I doubt whether we should have attempted it if you had not boldly led the way, but I think we saw enough in feeling our way along the line of loose stones and small earthen bank which marked the rampart to make sure that it was a British camp of the usual type following the natural defensive brow of the top of the hill in such a way as to command its slopes in the best manner. We could see also that like all British camps the size of the wall was proportioned or rather in an inverse proportion to the strength natural strength of the ground being large [insert] larger [end insert] where the slope is more gentle on the outside & smaller where it is steeper. On the west side where it is precipitous there was no wall & on the east where the slope is least and there must originally have been the higher rampart it appears to have been removed probably for building [insert] modern [end insert] walls [insert] round fields [end insert] or for the same purposes for which the hill is now being quarried, but Mr Joyce’s information who knows the hills so well seems to leave little doubt that it formerly encircled the whole hill and was probably a well built wall of dry masonry [insert] all round [end insert] altho now to all external appearance it is only a bank of loose stones. Unfortunately the quarry men in digging into the hill have selected the very part [?] on the South Side where the wall is not preserved & where I was able to take a section of it. In so doing they have cut up, by the accounts of the workmen, 80 feet + to [insert] old [end insert] well, to which must be added at least 50 feet more which has already begun to crack & fall down & which is railed off from [insert] on account of [end insert] being dangerous, in doing this In cutting through the wall they have exposed a section of it on each side of the quarry and we are informed that beneath the loose stones on the surface at the base a well built portion of the foundation of dry masonry [insert] has been found at the base [end insert] which the work [insert] man [end insert] described to Mr Joyce as being the best built wall he ever saw and if it resembles other British walls of the same kind it may well be so, but we must take thus upon hearsay as the fog did not enable us to see the section across from the other side, and on the same side, we could not get at it, being flush with the face of the quarry. Sir Charles Broughton is [several words illegible] in a letter which I saw of his, in thinking that it will be some time before they do serious damage to the camp. They are actually at the present moment cutting away the past of the whole wall which is best worth preserving and if anything could be done to turn the direction of the quarry so as to leave the remaining portion of this more perfect part of the wall it would be well worth the attention of those concerned about it. If I am asked which [sic] Government would interfere in the matter, I may say at once that I don’t think they would because it would probably involve compensation and it would not be right to tax the county [insert] for that extent [end insert] for such a purpose. But I think that locally, as Sir Charles Broughton seems desirous of meeting the wishes of the archaeologists some arrangement might be made that would [insert] save [end insert] the next portion of the rampart. I may mention that at the “Danes Camp” near Northampton this is one of the monuments scheduled in the act a nearly similar case occurred where the ground had been let to us and was mined carefully. The company having worked up to the rampart were going to destroy it Since the archaeologists & others interested in the camp agitated & the result in this the company very liberally determined to take only a small cutting through the rampart to admit their railway & carts & then worked all the ground inside & out leaving the ramparts untouched except at the spot where they had cut through. Of course this [illegible] the camp a good deal as it destroyed the slopes of the ground inside & out which had determined the position of the rampart but it was better than destroying it altogether and if something of the same kind could be done at Titterstone it might be the means of preserving a good part of the wall, altho I wish very much the quarry had been in any other part of the hill. I think that if the lock stones [?] on the top were removed from a piece of the wall say 20 feet or so to the wall up to the top of the quarry where I took the section it would probably shew the built foundations and enable [insert] you [end insert] to ascertain the original thickness of the wall. If this was done it would be necessary to fence it round to preserve it. Perhaps a high wire fence with fiched [?] wires would be best as it would enable visitors to see the foundation through it and at the same time keep them from injuring it. If you think this letter would be of any service in promoting this object of your wishes pray make any use of it you think best. Again thanking you for a pleasant visit and for the opportunity of seeing Titterstone and your beautiful place

I am

Yours faithfully

A Pitt Rivers

------------------

9 [in blue]

Childe

Kyre Park,

Tenbury,

Worcestershire.

Oct 2nd. / 88

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I think we are all very much indebted to you for such an exhaustive and interesting account of the Titterstone I will forward it to Sir Charles Broughton and let you hear what he says – I wish he could have met us there. The elements certainly were not kind—and I am afraid your recollections of Shropshire will not be bright ones. I hope however that you were none the worse for the long walk in the fog—which certainly proved to be much more of an undertaking than any of us bargained for!—

I enclose the “omelet” my cook is vague as to the quantities  and seems to have manufactured it by a happy rule of thumb—I hope yours will be as successful in making one you like. With our united kind remembrances

Sin yrs

Frances Baldwyn Childe

Mr Childe has just discovered when he wanted to pay for our waggonette that the bill had been mixed up with yours – and desires me to send you this cheque which he believes is the amount you paid.

-----------------

10 [in blue]

Ansd

Boraston Rectory, Tenbury

Oct 2. 1888

My dear Sir,

I fear this sketch is useless. The man is an educated man, tho’ a great sot, and I thought he would be able to turn out something more finished.

Faithfully yours

F.W. Joyce

I trust you were not the worse for your long day here.

[Inside the letter a drawing and

Clee Hill

Ludlow

1st Oct 1888.

Revd Sir,

I trust the accompanying sketch will prove to be what you require. I took it from the top left hand corner of the quarry, and traced the foundation of the all as far as I could see. I have endeavoured to show the formation of the stone and the position in which they are laid as correctly as I can

Your obedient servant

C. Renacre

Rev F. Joyce

Boraston.

-------------------

Titterstone Clee Hill

[Kyre Park,

Tenbury,

Worcestershire]

Aug’st 9th

Dear Gen’l Pitt Rivers

Will it suit you to come and pay us a visit and the Clee Hill – sometime this month – next week or the week after? I shall certainly (both for your sake and mine) try to make the ascent a little easier this time than it was last – and I hope that sun will shine upon us.

I enclose an Extract from a Shrewsbury paper – which I think may interest you. I should like to have it back

truly yrs

Frances Baldwyn Childe

“Craven Place” is the Inn we stopped at

----------------------

Anc Mons

Baldwyn Childe

Kyre Park

Tenbury

March 7

My dear General

I have received the enclosed from the President of the Shropshire Archaeological Society – Do you think it would be possible for you to pay us a visit again this next summer? if so the Club could arrange their visit doubtless to suit you You certainly did not visit our country under very favourable conditions and I think you would find much that you might care to see if you had a few days leisure. With Mr. Childe’s kind remembrances truly yrs. Frances C. Baldwyn Childe

You shall have another Omelet! and some tea!

--------------------

Stokesay

Craven Arms

5 March 90

Dear Mr Childe

I am very much obliged by your sending me Gen’l Pitt Rivers’s letter & have submitted it to one of our most active members & he fully coincides with me that the matter should be specially taken up by the club, & good photographs secured before any further injury has been done to the camp.

Is it at all likely that the General could be induced to pay it another visit, &, possibly, under more favourable circumstances than the last. If this could be brought about, there would be little difficulty in arranging for the club to meet him, & they would be thankful for any suggestion he might make.

I take the liberty, if you will allow me, to keep Genl Pitt Rivers letter until our annual meeting, which will take place shortly, as I have no doubt it would greatly interest several of our members

Believe me

Yrs sincerely

JD La Touche [7]

Notes

[1] Frederick Wayland Joyce (1852-?)

[2] Kyre Park see here

[3] Sir Charles Henry Rouse-Boughton (1825-1906) he lived at Downhall Hall near Ludlow Shropshire

[4] Frances Christina Baldwyn-Childe nee Leighton (1832 or 1833-1930)

[5] Isabella Leighton (1834-1911) she was married twice, the second time to Alfred Seymour in 1866. See here. Knoyle is near Salisbury so presumably Pitt-Rivers knew Isabella and Frances socially.

[6] Ellen Charlotte Hope-Edwardes, author of a book about her travels in Egypt (Eau du Nil) in 1882 and transcriber of Shropshire parish records.

[7] James Digues La Touche see here

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Box 2 / U1

[Athenaeum Club

Pall Mall S.W.]

18/1/84

Dear Sir

Sir John Lubbock refers me to you as the Inspector under his Ancient Monuments Act.

My object is to call attention to the fact that the White Horse on the Hill below Uffington Castle, Berks, has fallen into such a state that it is not visible from the Railway (about a mile 1/2 distant) except to those who like myself know precisely where to look for it & scarcely at all even to them. If the turf is once allowed to grow on it it will be lost like the others which once existed in England (13 I believe) & which have entirely disappeared. I trust you may be able to avert this & am yours very truly

Thos Hughes [2]

Notes

[1] The Athenaeum was also Pitt-Rivers’ club

[2] see here

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Box 2 / W3

Crown Hotel

Wetheral

Carlisle

Ap. 12/ 83

Dear Gen: Pitt Rivers

Yours has been forwarded to me here where I am looking out for a change of wind for some salmon fishing so that I fear my answer will not be so satisfactory as I could wish owing to absence from notes &c. The Uffington White Horse is in easy reach of us by team to Uff: station & I would meet you there when I return home unless you could run down to Bath accept a bed at my house & then we both go on together the next day—when I last saw it a “scouring was much wanted. The owner thereof I cannot just now remember but fancy it belongs to a Peer beginning with the letter C (rather vague information you will think) not Carnarvon. As to any other prehistoric monuments in the neighbourhood there is a Cromlech near Tracey Park [1] on the northern slopes of Lansdown of which only two stones remain, one [insert] of the three original ones [end insert] has disappeared already & I am not clear whether the second has not followed the same fate [illegible]? C.R. Davy of Tracy Park is the owner. [2] Then there is the Wansdyke [2 words illegible] I was lucky enough to get the last traces of it in a field in in Claverton Down plotted down by the Ordinance Survey just before leaving Bath last week. then again there is the chambered tumulus at Stoney Littleton [3] which when I saw it last year had the day light let in at the upper end. Lord Hilton [sic] of Ammerdown  Park [4] is the possessor to whom I wrote a letter about its present state to which letter no reply was vouchsafed. But if you will fix any day after next week for a visit to Bath I will make homeward tracks & meet you. There is much to see in our parts the Roman bath you ought to see certainly.

A line will reach me here up to the beginning of next week. Do you know these parts Corby Castle seat of the Howards is opp: these windows & the Priory of Wetheral close & believe me

Very truly yours

HH Winwood [5]

----------------

[11 Cavendish Crescent, Bath]

April 26/ 83

Dear Gen: Pitt-Rivers

Wednesday or Thursday next week will be quite convenient for me & we shall be happy to offer you a bed on either or both of those days.

Very truly yours

HH Winwood

I will make enquiries respecting the proprietors

-------------------

[11 Cavendish Crescent, Bath]

Unless I hear to the contrary I meet you on Thursday at the Swindon platform at 1.0.50 am

Ap. 29

Dear Gen: Pitt-Rivers

Your proposed plan received this morning will suit me so long as I can get to the Swindon Station on Friday in time for the 4.12 train to Bath. this I can we [insert] can [end insert] do or at least I can do after seeing the White Horse by driving on to Swindon instead of returning to Uffington station I think.

The Thursday excursion to Marlboro will do very well & I will meet you at the Swindon Station at the time [illegible] in time for the 11.10 to Marlboro: but I would suggest that instead of returning to Swindon we go on to Devizes & catch the 4.50 pm train for Bath arriving at the latter place 6.35 pm. It is only some 4 or 5 miles from Silbury Hill to Devizes and we can either take a trap on from Marlboro or have a trap to meet up from Devizes at the foot of the hill. We shall pass thro Wansdyke & see a lot of “tumps” if the plough has not obliterated them. But I fear by the present arrangement you wont be able to see over Roman Bath which is really worth seeing unless you make a little longer stay with us

Very truly yours

H H Winwood

--------------

[11 Cavendish Crescent, Bath]

Dear Gen: Pitt Rivers

I return to Bath this day (Friday) somewhat earlier than I expected & shall be happy to join you in an expedition to Stanton Drew or any where else whenever you like but it must be some time before the last fortnight in July & believe me

Very truly yours

HH Winwood

London

June 29/ 83

----------------

[11 Cavendish Crescent, Bath]

July 10/ 83

Dear Gen: Pitt-Rivers

I shall be glad to go with you on Thursday & will try & find out to whom it belongs

Yours

HH Winwood

---------------

[11 Cavendish Crescent, Bath]

July 16/ 83

Dear Gen: Pitt-Rivers

Lord Hylton with “y” not “i” hope you did not experience that vicious thunderstorm on the heights of Uley Bury – if so shall expect to find some of your remains there tomorrow as I go there with Cotteswold Club

HHW

----------------

[Winwood]

[Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute]

Ap 18/ 89

Dear General Pitt-Rivers

I congratulate you on the Samian ware finds but I wish you had not found that iron knife below the original surface line had you found it above that line it would have been much more in accordance with preconceived notions! I have been pondering on that find and the following thoughts came up. If the iron knife was found below the surface it was not contemporary with the peoples who threw up the rampart it must have been older and from its position very much older sufficiently old to have seen all the rubble debris above the solid chalk and several inches of turf to form before covered by the material thrown up by the folk who were making the rampart so that if the knife be Roman (it can’t be earlier) then you must make the rampart considerably younger and throw the people who made it back into post Roman times. Can those noble earthworks be made by any peoples subsequent to the Roman period? impossible therefore I must be an agnostic on the knife or else a “cowardly infidel”, I simply write you my thoughts which of course are all worthless. Congratulate you on the fact that your diggings have not been altogether profitless & remain

Very truly yours

HH Winwood

[on reverse in black Oct 6 17

July 25 pp]

Notes

[1] Tracey Park is presumably Tracy Park near Wick, Avon. I can find a drawing of a cromlech there in Nottinghamshire Archives, but not a reference to the site except to standing stones nearby on page 808 of Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean By David Verey, Alan Brook.

[2] Reverend Charles Raikes Davy

[3] Stone Littleton long barrow see here

[4] Actually Lord Hylton, probably Hedworth Jolliffe, 2nd Baron Hylton see here.

[5] Reverend Henry Hoyte Winwood (1831-1921), amateur geologist see here

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Box 2 / W5

3 Gloucester Row

Weymouth

17 Ap. 1883

My dear Sir,

I am not sure that you will remember me as a Lover of Geology and Archaeology at the meetings of the British Association. The last time I had the pleasure of seeing you was at the meeting at Dublin. Since then I have been an invalid and unable to attend public meetings of any kind. You know, however, my daughter, Lady Hooker, [1] for some time ago she told me she had been visiting you.

My object in now writing to you will be explained by the enclosed newspaper slips. “An Old Visitor” is myself and I wrote upon the subject to Sir John Lubbock who refers me to you as the “Inspector of Ancient Monuments” Perhaps if you could give poor Worle you attention you might be the means of saving future desecrations. Believe me to remain

Yours faithfully

W.S. Symonds

I am very much interested here is some remarkable Drifts which indicate some extensive earth movement since the Mammoth period and Cavern History in England.

------------

[Newspaper clipping]

THE ENCAMPMENT

We can boast of a British encampment which even that celebrated and clever antiquary, the Rev. F. Warre acknowledged was “one of the most remarkable and mysterious relics of antiquity that he had anywhere seen,” and yet ten uot of every dozen Westonians disregard it, and are ignorant of and careless about it. Encroachments, horrible encroachments, have already been made upon it; loads upon loads of the stone of which its walls were formed have been carted away for ornamental rockeries or for building purposes, and have even been used for the degrading purpose of patching the Kewstone road. The loose stone outworks facing Cardiff are now condemned we hear, and the sight of the ominous surveyor’s pegs makes our heart ache, and sorrowfully we think that what we have heard must be only too true. The Birkett-road, a good enough scheme, however, cannot be made unless some of the hill is scarped away, so everything must give way to the improvement craze, the road must be formed, and a snap of the fingers for the old British camp. Before long we do hope that the excellent provisions of Sir John Lubbock’s Ancient Monuments Preservation Act will be made to extend to Worlebury, and so effectually save what remains of it from wanton destruction and preserve, for the benefit of antiquarians yet to be born, that which the Westonians now despise and ignore. E.B.

--------------------

[Newspaper clipping]

WORLEBURY AND ITS CLAIM UPON WESTONIANS

SIR,-- I have read with great interest the remarks of “E.B.” in the Weston-super-Mare Gazette for March 24th, on the British Camp, on Worle Hill, called Worlebury. I have, in my time, travelled far and wide in search of Archaeological and Natural History lore wherever I could find it. I visited Weston well nigh forty years ago, when it was a very different place from the present fashionable town, and I can recall the delight with which antiquarian friends, now dead and gone, first looked upon “the mysterious relic of antiquity,” as Mr. Warre calls Worlebury. It was then far more perfect, especially on the western side, than it is now. I visited Weston later on for the purpose of investigating the history of the Banwell bone caves, and knew “old Beard” right well, and the “test bone” with which he declared he puzzled Professor Owen. He was in possession of a fine skull of Bos longifrons somebody gave him, which was found at Worlebury, and the lower jaw of an ancient Celt, with the teeth worn down to the gums. I was again at Weston-super-Mare some twelve or fifteen years ago, and it appears to me that more stone has been carted away from the western rampart since that period. As a mere visitor from time to time I am altogether ignorant respecting the proprietorship of Worlebury, or whether the inhabitants of Weston-super-Mare have it in their power to prevent the reckless demolition of the encampment “for ornamental rockeries, or for building purposes, or for patching the Kewstoke road.” But if they have let me implore them with “E.B.” to save one the grandest relics of antiquity in the British Isles from further desecration. What would the Romans say if road surveyors quarried the Coliseum? What would Malvernians say if they caught a fellow carting away at the entrenchments of the Herefordshire Beacon and Camp Hill?  Surely the Westonians of the 19th century, who can find money to build such streets, villas, institutes, and churches, I see have arisen as if by magic, should shield themselves from those anathemas of a future generation which will assuredly await the destroyers of Worlebury.

An Old Visitor

-------------------

Park Lodge, Weston super Mare

Sep, 4. 1883

Dear Sir

In conjunction with my friend Mr C.W. Dymond [3] C.E., F.S.A. I am occupied in writing a Memoir on Worlebury to accompany be illustrated by a very careful plan and plates &c. I have long wished to have some conference iwth you on the matter & should be very glad, if you can visit Weston during this autumn, to shew you all the relics from Worlebury here and at Taunton, & the information which I have written, with some letters from my friend the late Rev. F. Warre, Mr Martin Atkins & others. [4]

I believe I am the only survivor in Weston of those engaged in the exploration in 1851-4. The late Prof’r Rolleston [5] would have come to visit me & inspect this tump, but his lamented death prevented it.

I have been deeply interested in your paper on Caburn Camp in the Archaeologia.

If you can visit Weston in October or November I will ask Mr Dymond (who now lives in Bath) to meet you here. We are very desirous of losing no time in preparing for the press. Believe me

Yours faithfully

Henry George Tomkins

(late Victor of Branscombe)

Hon Local Secy Somerset Archaeol Socy

Major Gen. Pitt Rivers

-------------

Park Lodge, Weston super Mare

Sep, 10. 1883

Dear Sir

I beg to thank you for your letter just received & the copy of the Ancient Mon’ts Act which you have been so good as to send me.

Will you oblige me by accepting a printed paper on Worlebury which I enclose.

It is of earlier date than the last work done by Mr Dymond & myself in examination of the ramparts, pits, & trenches & we can now add much information in detail.

I shall have to be at Reading during the week of the Church Congress which begins on the 2nd Oct’r & trust it will be convenient to you to visit Weston after that week. October is generally a fine & pleasant month here.

Two or three years ago I corresponded with Sir J. Lubbock as to the protection of Worlebury under the contemplated act, but it did not seem practicable to include it in the Schedule.

I cannot but think that Mr Cecil Smyth Pigott [6] the present owner may be found willing to agree to the protection of the ramparts & perhaps one special pit lined with dry masonry, which his grandfather provided with good fencing for a time for its preservation. (see p. 7 of my paper & drawing at the end.)

The protection of the ramparts is earnestly desired by all who take any interest in this important stronghold. I trust you will be able to visit Dolbury on the Mendips when you are in this neighbourhood. [7] There you will see on the ramparts a face of dry masonry in the style of the work at Worlebury.

I am Dear Sir

yours sincerely

Henry George Tomkins

Major Genl Pitt Rivers

I shall be very much obliged by a long notice of your visit as you can conveniently give me that I may communicate with Mr Dymond at Bath.

[The copy of the paper which Tomkins sent still survives with the letter, a scan can be found at http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/pittrivers_pdf/PRBox2_W_5.pdf

---------------

[Park Lodge,

Weston-super-Mare]

5 Larkstone Road

Ilfracombe

July 7. 1884

Dear Sir

Your letter has found me here. We are staying at Ilfracombe till (probably) th end of this month & I am sorry for the delay. But I will write today to Mr Cecil Smyth Pigott the Lord of the Manor of Weston to whom Worlebury belongs. He is quite a young man & is much interested in archaeological matters & lately invited me to help him in unearthing a Roman villa near Yatton on land of his.[8]

Will you be so good as to send a copy of the act to Mr Pigott (Cecil Smyth Pigott Esq The Grove Weston super Mare) as I have not my copy here, & I will tell him I have requested this. And I will write to you as soon as I hear from him, or probably he may write to you himself. His father in law Mr Ruscombe Poole [9] is a solicitor & acts as his steward. He is an educated & enlightened man in such things, & I hope the right thing may be done to preserve the ramparts & some pits as specimens.

By the way, some very interesting pits (dwellings, with hearths &c) have been carefully opened by Mr Henry Cunnington of Devizes on Beckhampton Down within the last 3 or 4 weeks. [10]

Also Prof’r Sayce wrote to me a little while ago that he had hit upon a palaeolithic settlement [insert] I think he said [end insert] on the hill above Banwell Castle.

Possibly you may be glad to hear of these discoveries.

I should be particularly glad to have an opportunity of meeting you at Weston if it were possible.

Believe me

Dear Sir

Sincerely yours

Henry George Tomkins

I trust you received my letter & printed paper at Rushmore.

Notes

[1] Hyacinth Hooker, (1842-1921) Her second marriage (and his) was to Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) the English botanist, and explorer and Director of Kew Gardens

[] Reverend William Samuel Symonds (1818-1887), English geologist, see here.

[3] Charles William Dymond (1832-1915) see here.

[4] Rev. Francis Warre, Rector of Cheddon Fitzpaine in Somerset, Edwin Martin Atkins (1808-1859) J.P. F.S.A. from Kingston Lisle, Berkshire see here.

[5] George Rolleston (1829-1881) see here

[6] Cecil Hugh Smyth Pigott (1860-1893) lived at Brockley Hall, Somerset

[7] Dolbury Hillfort, see here

[8] Roman villa at Wemberham, Somerset Levels, see here

[9] Joseph Ruscombe Poole, Bridgwater, Somerset.

[10] See here, he was an amateur archaeologist and, presumably, the wine merchant father of Edward Benjamin Howard Cunnington?

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Box 2 / W9

[in red crayon] Ansd Wansdyke

[Cherhill Rectory

Calne, Wilts]

Sept: 8th 1888

Dear Sir,

I have been over to Calstone to see about lodgings for your two clerks, & have found what I think ought to do very well for them at the village shop-keeper’s. She (Mrs Bowsher) [1] & her daughter are rather better-class sort of people, & can let the men have one good well-furnished sitting room, and one bedroom about 17 x 14 ft. This contains one large bed, & one folding bed, of good size, both quite clean & well-found. The house is attached to the village “Free Library” & has a large reading rom belonging to it which the men could also have to themselves until Oct. 1, when it reopens for the winter. In case they objected to the double-bedded room I dare say that I could find another bedroom in the village close by. Mrs Bowsher would undertake to wait upon & board the men, & would I am sure do it well. The house is within an easy mile of the furthest point on the Wansdyke to which we walked the other day.

I have been reading with great interest the paper of which you kindly gave me a copy & especially that part of it in which you unfold your scheme for an anthropological museum arranged in concentric rings. [2] It has always seemed to me so very curious to trace the way in which nations at a similar point of civilization has a tendency to develope [sic] nearly similar types of workmanship -- & that not only as to plan & use but quite as remarkably in both forms & ornamentation. This would be – I hope I may say, will be – brought before the eyes of students more clearly than it has ever been before, & may perhaps enable them to evolve a law in such matters which has hitherto escaped formalization.

Would you very kindly tell me where & when your paper on the distribution of the Bow was published? It is a subject in which I have always been much interested & which I did my best to work up some 14 or 15 years ago, though taking a considerably less wide scope than that of your enquiries. I should like very much to learn more on the subject.

In case I can be of any further use in the matter of the lodgings, I hope that you will command me. Mrs Bowsher has never before let her rooms, & was not prepared to say what she would charge for them until she knew exactly what amount of board & waiting upon, &c, the men would want.

Believe me to be, Dear Sir,

yours faithfully

W.C. Plenderleath [3]

-----------------

[Cherhill Rectory

Calne, Wilts]

March 27th 1889

Dear Sir,

I am very much obliged by your letter of yesterday. I shall hope to come up & see the work, & need scarcely say that if I can be of any use to you or to your men, I should be most glad.

Yours faithfully,

W.C. Plenderleath

-----------------

Plenderleath

[Cherhill Rectory

Calne, Wilts]

April 12th 1889

Dear Sir,

I took leave to call upon you yesterday afternoon at Devizes I live too far off to ask you to be at the trouble of returning my visit, but if you should be inclined to inspect Oldbury Camp [4] which is just above my house & in some respects a very remarkable earthwork, I should be sincerely pleased if you would come & take lunch here on any day in next week except Monday or Friday & then allow me to shew you the way to it. I trust that you may by this time have another find upon the Wansdyke.

Yours faithfully

W.C. Plenderleath

Notes

[1] Sarah Bowsher, (?1827-1896) who ran the village shop in Calstone and was married to William Bowsher, see here

[2] Reference to Pitt-Rivers, A.H.L.F. 1888. [c]. 'Address as President of the Anthropological Section of the British Association, Bath, September 6, 1888', Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1888), pp. 825-835. see here.

[3] William Charles Plenderleath (1831-1906) see here.

[4] This appears to be a reference to the earthwork called Oldbury Castle, see here

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Box 2 / W10

[Skrine]

Claverton Manor

Bath

Sept 21

My dear Sir

We were sorry not to see you today & to have your opinion of the Hampton Camp & the excavations I have [illegible] especially as it was a very fine day. Mr Sayce tells me you could come on Tuesday next and that we could meet you there – If this is the case I shall be happy to send my carriage for you to the train – which I believe you named 10.5 from Salisbury 12.2 in Bath. This would give you time to see the camp & what is said to be the Wansdyke on this side of the river—but not to trace it on the other side at Warleigh, if you are returning the same evening to your home.

Indeed I think you would find a good deal to interest you in the Camp and the remains of foundations of old walls outside it.

Should you desire to prosecute your inquiries further we can offer you a bed here & should be very pleased to see you. Believe me

Yours truly

HD Skrine [2]

---------------

Skrine

[British Association

Bath Meeting

Sept, 1888

Reception Room

Alfred Street

H.D. Skrine  of Claverton Manor Bath has a piece of Wans Dyke on his property at Hampton Down and in the valy [sic] of the Avon between Claverton Down & the opposite side [3]

Notes

[1] This might be Bathampton Camp, see here

[2] Henry Duncan Skrine (1815-1901)

[3] This appears to be a note on BAAS notepaper, perhaps made after discussion with Professor Sayce about Skrine, in Pitt-Rivers’ handwriting.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Box 2 / W11 [1]

[Ansdwrd]

4 Barnard Villas

Bath

Sept. 16/ 88

Dear Genl. Pitt-Rivers,

I have been in correspondence with Mr Skrine about the excavations you proposed to make on his estate: as we have both been laid up with severe colds, we have been obliged unable to have a talk together on the subject. He tells me that he would be very glad to see you next Friday, or, should that day be wet, on Wednesday week. Bradshaw [1] informs me that your train from Salisbury reaches the Great Western Station at Bath at 12.5. I would meet you there [insert] if either of the datres named were convenient to you [end insert] & take you at once to Claverton Manor, & after lunch we could examine the ground. Mr Skrine is delighted with your idea, & is now studying your book wh. I have lent him.

What a very successful meeting we have had, at all events so far as “Section H” is concerned!

Yours faithfully

A.H. Sayce

[on reverse Mr Sayce’s letters Claverton]

--------------

[Ansdwrd]

4 Barnard Villas

Bath

Sept. 19/ 88

Dear General Pitt-Rivers,

Mr Skrine tells me that he will be engaged the greater part of next Wednesday, so that if Friday prove wet or inconvenient to you, he would be glad to see you next Tuesday. But I hope you will be able to come here next Friday: I will meet you at the Great Western Station at 12.5 in Mr Skrine’s carriage, as one of my father’s horses happens to be laid up, & we will drive at once to Claverton Manor where you will find lunch awaiting you. There will be plenty of time afterwards to examine the ground to be excavated & to arrange a plan of operations.

Please let me have a post-card to say if you can come next Friday.

Yours faithfully

A.H. Sayce [3]

[on reverse Sayce]

----------------

[Re Wansdyke

Sayce]

4 Barnard Villas

Bath

Sept. 23/ 88

Dear General Pitt-Rivers,

Mr Skrine tells me that he has written to you about your visit to Bathampton Down. He does not seem to think that you will be able to examine the old settlement on the Down & the piece of the Wansdyke at Warleigh on the same day. If you come on Tuesday, I will meet you at the Station.

I find that Mr Skrine has been excavating a little this summer on the Down, & has laid bare the foundations of curvilinear walls of unhewn stone. All he has discovered has been a fragment of black pottery, [insert] along with [end insert] some flint flakes & chips including a scraper, but neither he nor his workmen have been accustomed to excavations.

yours [illegible]

A.H. Sayce

---------------

[Sayce]

[Queen’s College,

Oxford]

Oct. 11/ 88

Dear Genl. Pitt-Rivers

I have just had a letter from Mr Skrine in wh. he tells me that he is about to begin trenching the ground that we visited. It is a good thing to have stirred him up to undertake the work. But I doubt whether he will do anything with the socalled bit of the Wansdyke, & after our visit to it I can hardly persuade him to so do.

The so-called piece of the Wansdyke at Stantonbury Hill is similar to that on Hampton Down, forming part of the enclosure of a camp. I have never seen the fragment at Englishcombe wh. is said to be large, & have failed to discover the piece described as being in Prior Park. But is it certain that the name of Wansdyke is properly applied to [insert] all [end insert] these scattered fragments? We learned the other day that the fragment at Bathford received the name from Mr Scarth. Have the fragments, moreover, really anything to do with another?

I am horrified to hear what you tell me about Llantwhit. [?] It really is a case for Government interference.

I have just returned from Brighton where I have been paying a couple of visits to Cissbury. In the rampart of the Devil’s Dyke I found a fine flint scraper.

If the Wansdyke really ran over Hampton Down it can have had nothing to do with the Belgae. Ptolemy says that one of their towns was “Ydara Ieppia” & the hot springs of Bath lay [insert] lie [end insert] to the north of it

Yours very truly

A.H. Sayce

-------------

[Sayce][Ansd]

[Queen’s College,

Oxford]

Oct. 14/ 88

Dear Genl. Pitt-Rivers,

I am very glad to find that your examination of the Wansdyke goes to confirm the current statements about its course. Scarth’s map indicates a fragment of it between English Combe & the old Turn-pike running from north to south, & another fragment at the back of Prior Park, running from south to north towards the camp on Hampton Down. Your researches seem to show that the first fragment is now destroyed, & more that the second fragment is destroyed. If the fragments really existed, they would indicate that the dyke was pushed forward so as to include the Camp, wh. we may then infer was already in evidence, But against whom could the Dyke have been raised?

English Combe is called “Ingeliscuma in Domesday, proving that a Saxon camp or settlement must have been formed there in the middle of British population. The same fact may be gathered from the name of English Batch. The “Batch” now [insert] in [end insert] Somersetshire usually means a piece of w.. [illegible] common land attached to a village.

In Domesday Bathwich & its manor are called Wica, i.e. vicus. It would therefore appear  that after the destruction of Bath, a body of Romanised Britons continued to live in the suburbs, [insert] there [end insert] preserving the Latin word vicus as the name of their settlement.

Yours very truly

A.H. Sayce

---------------

[Sayce]

4 Barnard Villas

Bath

April 26th/ 89

Dear General Pitt-Rivers,

Let me congratulate you upon your success, you have solved at last the mystery of the Wansdyke. I should very much have liked to see the section, but I did not get back from Egypt until the day before yesterday when I found my father dying. I hope to be at Oxford again towards the middle of next week.

Yours very truly

A.H. Sayce

------------

[Sayce]

Queen’s Coll.

Oxford

May 8 /89

Dear Genl. Pitt-Rivers,

Very many thanks for the photographs. The section is most satisfactory. So far as the results bear out your expedition & show that this portion of the Wansdyke at all events is later than the Roman occupation & the Roman Road.

The name of Wansdyke or Woden’s dyke is curious, as it seems to imply that the name-fixers did not know the origin of the dyke. Can the name have been primarily given to an older portion of the dyke only or to another dyke altogether, & transferred in later days to its present significance?

I have not heard whether Mr. Skrine’s excavations have been successful.

Yours very truly

A.H. Sayce

Notes

[1] This letter prefigures Skrine’s of 3 days later, see W10 above

[2]Train guide

[3] Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933) see here

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Box 2 / W12

[Medlicott]

[Sandfield

Potterne

Devizes.]

23 Feby 89

Dear General Pitt-Rivers

The first volume of The Excavations in Cranborne Chase which you gave me is bound in purple cloth gilt.

There is one point in connection with Wans Dyke which may have some bearing on its date. To the west of the spot on which we stood, where the Dyke and the Roman Road converge, the Dyke is for a very great part of its length to the Somersetshire border of the County the boundary of the Hundreds and old parishes of Melksham and Bradford. To the East of that spot it does not appear to have been a boundary either of Hundred or Parish.

I may mention to you as a possibility that our Wiltshire Archaeological Society’s next meeting will be at Cirencester about the 13 & 14 August.

I am

Yours very faithfully

Henry E. Medlicott [1]

[on reverse Medlicott]

--------------

Potterne

Devizes

22nd March 1889

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I saw yesterday the son of the Combes of Bishops Cannings Manor Farm, on which you propose to cut Wans Dyke.

He has an empty, but unfurnished, cottage on the Downs, near the Rifle range. But Mr Plenderleath, whom I have also seen, told me he thought he could make an arrangement for your Assistants at Calstone on the North side of the Downs – a village below the point where you propose to go to work.

Mr. Combes has no spare van at present, but he thinks he could put me in the way of borrowing one in Bishop’s Cannings—which he he would haul up to the Dyke.

I think we can get 8 or 10 strong pick & shovel men such as you require.

I will go to Bishops Cannings one day next week and will find out more particulars – and cost – wages &c and will write to you again.

Allow me to give you my best thanks for your handsome and valuable and interesting addition to my Wiltshire volumes.

I scarcely know how you can find time for such exhaustive work.

I am Yours very truly

Henry E. Medlicott

P.S. The present landlord of the Bear Hotel is a young fellow named Reynolds very civil and obliging.

[At right angles to the text is a pencil drawing of a ?section]

Notes

[1] Henry Edmonstone Medlicott (1840 or 1841-1916)

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Box 2 / W15

[Smith]

[Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Yatesbury Rectory, Calne]

Aug: 28. 1883

Dear General Pitt Rivers

In my big book on the “British and Roman Antiquities of North Wiltshire” [1] I pointed out a spot near Wans Dyke where I thought were indications of British dwellings [B VII d and C vii k pages 63 and 65] But I shall be very sorry to mislead you by any conjectures of mine which have not sufficient basis to support them.

I shall like to visit the spot again and make another careful examination of it, and I am writing today to my Co-Secretary Mr Medlicott, to ask him to meet me there on Thursday next, if fine, that together we may carefully examine the ground

Unhappily I am obliged to be dependent on the weather, as I dare not go out in the damp: but in a very few days I hope to write to you again more fully.

Your letter addressed Old Park has only just reached me as we are spending the summer months here

Believe me

Yours sincerely

A.C. Smith [2]

I ought to have said how much the Society was interested at the meeting at Calne, when I read the story of Bokerley Dyke from your letters

---------------

[Smith]

Old Park

Devizes

April 4/ 89

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I have delayed writing to you for a day or so, as I hoped to have been able to call, but I have been so terribly laid up this winter and especially within the last few days with neuralgia that I am obliged to be extra careful of exposure.

It is also for me a source of much vexation that I could not ask you to take up your quarters here instead of at the Bear, but Mrs Smith has been so very unwell last week and is now obliged to be so quiet that I am obliged to be this inhospitable. She is however so much better that I venture to ask if you will come and dine here in our quiet way at the early hour of seven on Monday next (8th inst) in which case I will ask Mr Medlicott and Mr Pennie to meet you: and we shall then be able to talk over all you have done and are doing.

It is a source of quiet regret to me that I cannot get out to Wans Dyke and witness the excavations, but that I know is out of the question. I most sincerely hope your labours will be crowned with success.

While you are on the Downs above Calstone, I should like you to examine the ground to the South of Wans Dyke, in the L.. [illegible, see below]. Your practised eye will judge whether (as I conjecture) there are traces of early occupation, in addition to the many pits made by flint diggers. I have spent hours together in wandering near three Lills [?possibly hills], and I always come away with a strong impression that some sort of British occupation had been there.

Believe me

Yours very sincerely

A.C. Smith

------------------

[Smith]

Old Park

Devizes

April 5/ 89

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I write a line to thank you for so kindly telling me of your progress at the Dyke.

It would be an impertinence on my part to venture an opinion where you know 50 times as well as I do what is likely to be the truth of the date of origin of the new Dyke, but I cannot help the conviction that your suggestion as to its dating from Roman times will prove to be correct. I am very sanguine that you will find more yet, and I have little doubt but that before you have finished with it you will have settled the question of date as you did at Bokerley.

How I wish I could get on the Downs to see you at work!

The nail and the knife together are facts not be gainsaid.

Believe me

Yours very sincerely

A.C. Smith

------------------

[Smith]

Old Park

Devizes

April 16/ 89

Dear General Pitt Rivers

It is most tantalizing for me to think that you have been at work at Wans Dyke for a good fortnight and that I am shut up here in the house, at home no chance of seeing you at work, unless the wind and weather very much change for the better. At present I dare not put my nose out of doors.

Your excavations are certainly not without results. This fresh find of Samian pottery, added to that of the knife & nail, is very telling: and I congratulate you on having found something which wears a recognized date.

I forgot to ask you what you propose in regard to the record of this excavation I dare say you intend to give it in detail in your next volume, if you publish one, corresponding to those on the Excavation of Cranborne Chase: but if not, I need hardly say that I shall rejoice to print in our Magazine anything you like to give me for the purpose.

Believe me

Yours very sincerely

A.C. Smith

------------------

[Smith]

[Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Yatesbury Rectory, Calne]

Old Park Devizes April 26 89

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I thank you most heartedly for the admirable plans and the full account of your most interesting work at Wansdyke which you have been so good as to send me. I have been studying it all the morning, and speculating on it – and can scarcely put down the sketch.

I feel it would be presumptuous in me to offer any opionion, when you know so very much more than I do of these matters, but so far as I can form a judgement, it appears to me that you have proved beyond doubt that Wans Dyke is certainly not earlier than Roman times, but how much later that is as yet no evidence to show.

What you say of the animal bones found is very interesting, and they seem to point to a period not much later than Roman.

I sincerely hope you will make another cutting, and carry it out in the thorough manner you have dug in the sections. It has never been my good fortune to see anything so systematically and thoroughly carried out. I am still unable to get out, but as soon as I can go, I shall certainly visit the Section.

May I keep the two plans drawn for scale for a little time? my colleague Mr Medlcott will be  very pleased to study with me, and perhaps he will accompany me to the spot.

I will write to you again as soon as I have been there.

[illegible, possibly I am still] Believe me

Yours very sincerely

A.C. Smith

------------------

[Smith]

[Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Yatesbury Rectory, Calne]

Old Park Devizes May 8 89

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I thank you very much for the Photographs which are most interesting, and which will be viewed with pleasure by many of our friends here who take an interest in the work.

As to the Ancient Monuments, we will not (if I can help it) be behind here in Wiltshire, as soon as I can have another Committee, I will bring the matter before them: and then, fueled by their authority, I can write with much more force than if I was acting alone, when people say “tis only some fad of the Secretary.”

In regard to another Section, I would say by all means as soon as convenient for yourself: for (1) the days are long and bright now, and (2) Labourers can be had but in a very short time, every man will be engaged in haymaking or mowing, or boling.

As to myself I am such a poor creature that I dare not make any engagements but I should think I could go on the Down soon, if ever. I have to be in Norfolk (if possible) in the first week in June: and towards the latter end of that month, I expect to be returning to Yatesbury for part of the summer to bid a final Adieu to my parish: So that from now to the end of May seems to be my best chance of seeing something of the work: but my attendance is so uncertain that I have no right to ask you to consider me.

Believe me

Yours very sincerely

A.C. Smith

------------------

[Smith]

Old Park

Devizes

May 18 89

Dear General Pitt Rivers

At last I have been up to the Section, and when I sent there it seemed like visiting an old friend with all the details of which I was furnished: for I had so carefully studied your most accurate Plans that I took it all in at once. Most interesting is the line which marks the original Rampart. I am not quite sure that I found the horizontal marks which you bid me observe. There wer some lines but to me they looked like simple strata in the undisturbed ground: perhaps however I was looking in the wrong place.

Though I sauntered up to the Section very slowly and alone on a beautiful day, I paid the penalty of walking there by bring on a sharp attack of asthma which kept me awake all night. I only mention this to show you how utterly useless I am in any work that is going on, and I must not be relied on for anything.

May I beg to congratulate you on the happy event which I see by the papers has taken place in your family. [3]

Believe me

Yours very sincerely

A.C. Smith

------------------

[Smith A.C.]

[Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Yatesbury Rectory, Calne]

Old Park Devizes June 21 89

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I am just preparing my “Report” to read at the Annual meeting of the above society which will this year be held at Westbury at the every end of July and beginning of August.

The great Archaeological news of the year in Wiltshire is most certainly the results of your excavations at Wansdyke, and I must say something about it in the Report, but it will come very much better, as well as at first hand, from your pen. Would not you (to obviate all chances of misstatements on my part) like to send me a short account of your Sections and the results? That will be most satisfactory to all of us.

Believe me

Yours very sincerely

A.C. Smith

Your account might be read (not necessarily in the Report) at the Westbury meeting, to the great interest of the members.

------------------

[Wansdyke

Answered]

[Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Yatesbury Rectory, Calne]

Old Park Devizes Aug. 9 89

Dear General Pitt Rivers

I intended to have taken advantage of your offer of looking over that part of my Report which dealt with the Wans Dyke excavation, but I was driven into a corner at last and had no time to send it you.

So I contented myself with the very baldest description, only observing that the work was now no longer to be pronounced pre-Roman. You have perhaps by this time seen the Report in some county newspaper.

Our President the Bishop was not present when the Report was read, but I explained to him all you had to me. And at the Evening Conversazione he proposed a special vote of thanks for you from the Society, which I had the honour of seconding, and which I need not say was carried by acclimation.

I think I may say that the Society is keenly sensible of the very interesting work you have done.

I should have written this before but that I have been away at Yatesbury making preparations to resign my living in October.

Believe me

Yours very sincerely

A.C. Smith

------------------

[Wansdyke]

[Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Yatesbury Rectory, Calne]

Old Park Devizes Aug. 31 89

Dear General Pitt Rivers

Your letter find me again laid up with a sharp attack of bronchitis, and a prisoner to the house, which at this time of year is as unexpected as it is disheartening. I don’t know whether I shall be able to get on to the Downs this autumn, but I shall be vexed if I am again hindered from doing so when you come.

At the last Committee meeting I brought forward your suggestion as to the Committee urging owners to place their monuments under the protection of Government, and I moved that the Committee should instruct me to write to Major Heneage [4] with reference to Oldbury Camp. Knowing Major Heneage he will decline, but I took special pains to point out that it was only the rampart of the Camp and not the area that we wished to be protected.

You would be amused at his answer wherein he told me that he declined altogether: and thought it most extraordinary that the Society, far from “mutilating” Wans Dyke should wish to protect Oldbury Camp, and he suggested that the first thing we should do would be to put Wansdyke under the protection of Government, which would not then be defaced and injured as it has been of late!

Such is the result of our attempt on Oldbury, but I am not easily snubbed, and am ready to go on again with some other owner.

Believe me

Yours very sincerely

A.C. Smith

Notes

[1] ‘Guide to the British and Roman Antiquities of the North Wiltshire Downs in a hundred square miles round Abury ...” Published by Marlborough College Natural History Society 1884

[2] Reverend Alfred Charles Smith (1822-1898), see here

[3] This is probably a reference to the marriage of Pitt-Rivers’ oldest son, Alexander, on 25 April 1889, at St Peters, Eaton Square, London reported in the Morning Post (and presumably other papers) on 26 April.

[4] Probably Clement Walker Heneage (1831-1901) see here

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Box 2 / W16

April 26 1889

Calstone

Sir,

in respect of the filling up of the wansdyke section that has recently been removed by you as i meet Mr joseph maundreel and he began to talk about it and he asked me what i gave in foe [?] and he told me that you had let me the work and i told [insert] him [end insert] that i had not an answer from you to begin the work so that i should not begin till i had as i did not do business in that way so that an answer will oblige from yours [illegible]

Edwin Green

Calstone

Calne

to Mr James

63 Chancery Lane

London

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Box 2 / W17

[Copy re Wansdyke]

May 7 ‘89

Dear Sir

I am much obliged to you for sending the iron objects. the only two that can I think be identified as nails are the two largest the other four might or might not be nails but none of them have the flat heads of a Norman nail. then the question arises at what depth were they found because in so large an area such a thing as an iron nail might very probably be dropped at some time or other during the 19 or 20 centuries since the occupation of the place by the late Celtic people. [insert] and may have worked down a few inches [end insert] and also Do these objects, supposing them all to be nails, bear any such proportion to the number of other objects discovered us to lead to the supposition that nails were commonly in use at the time. I should think not from what I saw and from what been told me about the number of objects not exhibited at the antiquities reference to my books [insert] (page 127 vol 2) [end insert] [two words illegible] that in “the two Romano British villages 283 nails were found in Rotherley and 2579 in Woodcuts this number is fully sufficient to [illegible] the nails seen in common use in both these villages on the other hand the finding of my 5 nails in all the excavations in H... [illegible] considering the number of other objects found there and assuming that every object was kept & recorded seems to be almost sufficient to prove that nails could not have been in common use there and leads naturally to the suspicion that the only thing that can with certainty be identified as nails they have been found in surface soils. I doubt how r... [illegible] the diggers have been watched with sufficient care to determine this point. It was to me always important [illegible] as I am not aware that any one can with certainty rate the period at which such nails for woodwork were first introduced into England. If you are disposed to [illegible] in the scales [?] here I will do my best with them it is very important if they are without doubt associated with the late Celtic [illegible] in H... [illegible] that they should be [2 words illegible]

Yours very truly

A Pitt Rivers

[NB as often with Pitt-Rivers’ draft letters this is virtually illegible in parts as it is very scrawled]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Box 2 / W19

[Press cutting from Romeike & Curtice’s Press Cutting Agency, relevant extract below]

[From Devizes Advertiser Aug 1 1889]

Wilts Archaeological Society

Yesterday the annual meetings were commenced at Westbury ... Afield the committee had to report a very important work, and again carried out by the munificence as well as the personal superintendence of General Pitt Rivers, whose excavations at Bothely [sic] Dyke in the south of the county were mentioned in the reports last year. This year the General, according to the request of the secretaries, made a large section through Wans Dyke, a little to the north of Old Shepherd’s Shore. This section was scientifically cut, under the eye of the General, by a body of men. Though nothing was found to indicate the exact date of the throwing up of Wans Dyke, the discovery of some fragments of Samian ware on the original surface of the Down, beneath the rampart, in addition to the finding of an iron knife and an iron nail in the position in which these relics were respectively found proved to the satisfaction of all who examined them that the work was not pre-Roman, as had generally been supposed. But whether Roman or post Roman (possibly even Saxon) there was no evidence as yet to show. They rejoiced, however, to add that General Pitt Rivers was not satisfied that the evidence had been exhausted, and proposed shortly to make further examination into this interesting earthwork. ....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Box 2 / Misc 1

[NB this is a printed pamphlet]

British Archaeological Association

32 Sackville Street,

Piccadilly, W.

June 21st, 1886.

At the Council meeting of the British Archaeological Association, held on June 2nd, a communication from Lieutenant-General Pitt-Rivers, F.R.S., Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Great Britain, was discussed, relating to the advantages afforded by the Ancient Monuments Act for the permanent preservation of any ancient work which may be scheduled.

The Council considered that these advantages are not generally known, and for the purpose of drawing your attention to them, we beg to send you overleaf an extract of the clauses bearing on the subject. No surrender of ownership takes place, but the present proprietor pledges himself and his successors not to damage or destroy.

By this wise provision, the Act ensures the preservation for all time; the repairs, if needed, being effected by the Government.

We shall be much obliged if you will make known these advantages of the Act as much as possible; and if you can induce the owner of any monument to place it under the care of the State in the way indicated, the last of the undersigned will be happy to be put in communication with the owner. He will gladly render all preliminary information for its accomplishment free of any charge.

All the monuments at present scheduled are of the class known as Prehistoric, and consist of tumuli, stone circles, camps and earthworks. For the present at least, any other to be added to the existing schedule must be of similar class.

We take this opportunity of calling your attention to the date for holding the Congress at Darlington, under the presidency of the Lord Bishop of Durham. It will begin on July 22nd, and last the whole of the week, and a portion of the following one.

We shall be glad if you will favour the Council with a paper on some local subject. This need be no longer than can be read in twenty minutes, but it can be enlarged to some extent for the Journal, should it be accepted for printing.

The Meeting promises to be one of unusual interest.

We are,

Yours faithfully,

W. de Gray Birch } Hon. Secs.

E.P. Loftus Brock }

Please address any reply to Mr. E.P. Loftus Brock, 36, Great Russell Street, W.C.

The Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1882.

Extract, Paragraph 2

“That the owner of any ancient monument to which this Act applies may, by deed under his hand, constitute the Commissioners of works in this Act mentioned the guardians of such monument.

“Where the Commissioners of works have been constituted guardians of a monument they shall thenceforth, until they shall receive notice in writing to the contrary from any succeeding owner not bound by such deed as aforesaid, maintain such monument; and shall, for the purpose of such maintenance, at all reasonable times, by themselves and their workmen, have access to such monument for the purpose of inspecting it, and of bringing such materials and doing such acts and things as may be required in the maintenance thereof.

“The owner of an ancient monument of which the Commissioners of Works are guardians shall, save as in this Act expressly provided, have the same estate, right, title, and interest in and to such monument in all respects as if the Commissioners had not been constituted guardians thereof.

“The expressions ‘maintain’ and ‘maintenance’ include the fencing, repairing, cleansing, covering in, or doing any other act or thing which may be required for the purpose of repairing any monument or protecting the same from decay or injury. The cost of maintenance shall, subject to the approval of Her Majesty’s Treasury, be defrayed from moneys to be provided by Parliament.”

Extract, Paragraph 10.

“Her Majesty may, from time to time, by Order in Council, declare that any monument of a like character to the monuments described in the Schedule hereto shall be deemed to be an ancient monument to which this Act applies, and thereupon this Act shall apply to such monument in the same manner in all respects as if it had been described in the Schedule hereto.”

---------------

[British Archaeological Association]

36, Great Russell Street WC

May 31st 1886

Sir

I have read with much interest your note containing copy of Ancient Monuments Act.

I think the various Antiquarian Societies ought to be able to render material help towards making the provisions of the act better known & particularly as regards the placing of ancient monuments by their owners, under the benefits of clause 2 for preservation.

I will have the gratification of bringing your note before our next Council meeting, and will then suggest that its purport be communicated to our various Local members of Council. The organization of our Society may be no better than that of others, but it will be a matter of great interest to me should it prove of service in this respect.

With regard to your enquiry as to monuments to be scheduled. these are three that I would specially refer to, since the present [insert] time [end insert] is so remarkably favourable for their acquisition. 1 The Roman Pavements at Bignor. These are slowly deteriorating. The Freeholder -- a farmer of small means – does his best to preserve them, but the buildings erected long ago for their safety are inadequate to resist damp & pest & the income now derived is not encouraging for their improvement. I understand that he would sell for a moderate sum, & the purchase money would [2 words illegible] the ration the whole of these valuable works

2. Richborough Castle The owner of the freehold, part of a small farm, is suffering, I hear from the Agricultural depression, & would be willing to sell. This opportunity has just arisen & it has only been reported to me within the last 48 hours.

I shall be happy to obtain definite particulars as to entree or look of these if you consider that their purchase would be likely to be considered.

Our meeting will be at 4.30 on Wednesday & if you can favour me with any suggestions I shall be happy to hear from you or I could call on you if more convenient or desirable.

I could do so abt 3 on Wednesday but I shall be absent all tomorrow.

I am Yours Faithfully

EP Loftus Brock

Hony Secretary

Lieut General

A Pitt-Rivers

Inspector of Ancient Monuments

4 Grosvenor Gardens

S.W.

-----------------

[Anc. Mons]

[British Archaeological Association

Darlington and Bishop Auckland Congress.

President—The Bishop of Durham

From Monday, July 26th, to Monday, August 2nd, and Extra days to follow]

June 22nd [1886]

36, Great Russell Street WC

Dear General

I beg to enclose a copy of a circular which has been sent to the Local Members of Council of this Ass’n relativce to the Ancient Monuments Act in the hope that it may bring forth some response from certain owners.

A notice of similar effect will also appear in our Journal.

I would gladly have asked you with respect to the most judicious mode of putting this matter forward with that it was considered from your official position, it would be better not to do so, but to report it to you after the event.

Should anything occur to you on any improvement I shall be glad to hear from you with respect to it with a view to carrying it out in any second issue.

I am Yours Faithfully

EP Loftus Brock

Lieut General

Pitt-Rivers

etc etc etc

Richborough Castle is to be sold by auction at Canterbury on July 3rd. It will go very cheaply it is expected.

--------------------

[Anc. Mons]

[British Archaeological Association

Darlington and Bishop Auckland Congress.

President—The Bishop of Durham

From Monday, July 26th, to Monday, August 2nd, and Extra days to follow]

June 29th [1886]

36, Great Russell Street WC

Dear Sir

I thought I had better bring the particulars of Richborough in any case since I had received them.

I called to speak, however, of another matter. A lady, the owner of an ancient Norman keep, a friend of mine [illegible] is likely to be willing to place it under the care of the Ancient Monuments Act

Since it is of a different nature to those at present in the schedule, would it be of any service for this matter to be prosecuted? The time ought to be soon upon us when an extension is made to the Shedule [sic], & this might be of service as a step in this direction

I shall be glad to know your thoughts on the subject. The keep is Gundolph’s Tower in Gt Malling [1]

I am Yours Faithfully

EP Loftus Brock

Lieut General

A. Pitt-Rivers

etc etc etc

Notes

[1] Now known as St Leonard’s Tower, West Malling, see here (it was constructed by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester). See also Box 2/ Misc 7

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Box 2 / Misc 5

[Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society

Taunton Castle]

June 14 1886

Dear Sir

Your communication respecting the Ancient Monuments was laid before the Committee of this Society on Friday.

I am desired to inform you that the Committee [illegible] a copy of it to all their local Secretaries requesting them to report upon any Monuments worthy of protection in their neighbourhood.

I have the honor [sic] to remain

Yours faithfully

Charles J. Turner

Hon Sec

Lieut Gen Pitt Rivers

Inspector of Ancient Monuments

------------

[Printed]

Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society

Taunton Castle, June, 1886.

Dear Sir,

The Committee beg to call your attention to the appended letter, and will be obliged if you will report to them if there are any Monuments of the description in your neighbourhood, which it is desirable to place under Government protection. Stanton Drew, Stoney Littleton Tumulus, and Cadbury Castle are already included in the Act.

I remain, yours faithfully,

C.J. Turner, Hon. Sec.

4 Grosvenor Gardens

May 27, 1886.

Sir,

Clause 10 of the Ancient Monuments Act, 1882, makes provision that any Monument of like character to these Scheduled, may, by order in Council, be deemed to be an Ancient Monument to which the Act applies.

Should the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society desire to recommend any Monuments to be added to the Schedule, I write to inform you that on receiving a list of such Monuments from the Council of the Society, I will lay it before the Commissioners of Works with a view to obtain their consideration of the matter. It would greatly facilitate the object in view if the names of the owners of the Monuments could be appended to the list, and still more so if the Council, through their members, could obtain the consent of the owners to having the Monuments placed under the guardianship of the Commissioners of Works.

I am, yours obediently,

A. Pitt Rivers, Lt.-General,

Inspector of Ancient Monuments

in Great Britain.

The Secretaries,

Somerset Archaeological Society.

-----------------

Somerleaze, Wells, Somerset

July 1st, 1886

Dear General Pitt: Rivers,

I found this circular on coming home yesterday evening. I don’t know whether the Council has done anything but it seemed more straightforward to write at once to you. The nuisance is endless which comes of the tendency of mankind to send everything to the place where you are not at the time—I daresay I am doing so by putting your London address; but I have no other.

Worlebury, just above Weston=super=Mare, the great entrenchment which we believe that C... [illegible] stormed in 577 of all things needs to be under protection. There is no grander work of the kind, and none in greater danger, owing to the constant growth of the town of Weston uphill. In my Saturday Review days I wrote an article about it almost every year, whereas Sir John Lubbock bill appeared; but, for what reason I cannot guess, it never was put on the list. I fancy Mr Pigott is the owner.

There is a small but choice bit of early defensive work called Castle near here, a good bit of scarping and ditching on a small scale, & a small long oval tumulus known as Battleborough not very far off. [1] The Celts I, [sic] who chose to try on Ben Kirk as the site of the battle at Pesnnar [?], wish to connect with it. There are only small objects, & I don’t know how far down the Commissioners go in point of scale. But a small thing may be as well worth keeping as a big one. Any way Worlebury is the first choice in all ways of looking at things.

I am sorry I could not be at your [illegible] and that of other [illegible] I was driven out by the sudden coming of the Chief Justice

Believe me very truly yours

Edward Freeman

---------------

[Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society

Taunton Castle]

16 Aug- 1886

Sir

In response to the circulars calling attention of the Local Secretaries of this Society to the question of the Ancient Monuments in the County.

The following have been recommended as worthy of being placed under the protection of the Act.

By direction of the Committee of the Society I have the honour of sending you the following list

I remain

Yours faithfully

Charles J. Turner

Hon Sec

A Pitt Rivers Lieut Genl

Inspector of Ancient Monuments

Worlbury Camp Weston-super-Mare

(Owner – Cecil Smith Pigott Esq. The Grove, Weston-s-M)

Dolbury [sic] [2] Camp. on the Mendips [2]

(Owner – B.E. Somers, Esq Mendip Lodge. Layford Bristol)

Maesbury Camp on the Mendips [3]

Tarr Steps over the River Barle, Exmoor. [4]

(Dulverton Highway Board)

Wansdyke in a field west of Englishcombe Church.

(Owner H.R.H. the Prince of Wales)

Two upright stones, in the parish of Beech, opposite Tracey Park [5]

(Owner Mrs Davey of Tracey Park, Gloucestershire)

A Cromlech in the parish of Castle Combe [6]

(Owner E.C. Lowndes, Esq.)

Notes

[1] Possibly now known as Brent Knoll?

[2] Dolebury Warren, north Somerset see here

[3] Maesbury see here

[4] Tarr Steps see here

[5] Cannot be identified, but see previous letters about Tracy Park

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Box 2 / Misc 7

[Gundulph’s Tower Malling] [1]

[Boxley Abbey,

|Sandling nr Maidstone,

Kent]

August 11 1886

Dear General Pitt Rivers

Kindly permit me to request that should you find it desirable to visit this part of England with reference to your inspection of “Ancient Monuments” you will do me the pleasure of putting up at this this unp... [illegible] but curious old [illegible] when I should feel honoured and grateful by your visit, but it would be necessary to give me a week or six days notice, as I am often away from home.

My late wife (daughter of Mr H & Mrs Thacks [?] Douglas] who was  first cousin of yours, and I had the honor [sic] formerly of being very well acquainted with teh late Lady Caroline Lane Fox.

Not far from here at Malling is a Norman keep which my late friend Mr Parker of Oxford termed the oldest Norman keep in England. it belongs to two maiden ladies the Misses Savoys, which if you have never seen would be worth your inspecting. it is believed to be [illegible] work, used there as [2 words illegible] for thinking that it is so in [2 words illegible] of “Tufa” a material he much affected and M... [illegible]

I will venture to send you a copy of a letter of mine upon it some time ago

Apologizing for this intrusion

I am very faithfully yours

Frederic R. Surtees [2]

Lieut Genl A Pitt Rivers

Rushmore

Salisbury

[Newspaper clipping]

Ancient Monuments

To the Editor of the Maidstone and Kentish Journal

Sir,-- May I request you to be so good as to publish in your columns the enclosed letter to me, written under the direction of the Council of the British Archaeological Association, with reference to “The Ancient Monuments Protection Act,” (1882):--

The subject speaks for itself, but it is to be regretted that the Act should not have contained in its own clauses those more extended powers of operation which can be obtained by Order in Council. The Act, however, when it passed was novel in its character and tentative, while its object from being misapprehended was at one time viewed with needless distrust.

Archaeologists will rejoice that Kits Coity [sic] has been placed under its protection.

Yours truly,

F.R. Surtees

Boxley Abbey

June 1886

P.S.—When I state that the Act at the time of passing was novel in character, it should be remembered that so far back as the time of Queen Elizabeth (anno 1568) a proclamation was issued prohibiting the defacing of ancient monuments &c.

British Archaeological Association

32 Sackville Street, Piccadilly, W.

June 21st, 1886

Dear Mr. Surtees,

At the Council Meeting of the British Archaeological Association, held on June 2nd, a communication from Lieutenant-General Pitt Rivers, F.R.S., Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Great Britain, was discussed, relating to the advantages afforded by the Ancient Monuments Act for the permanent preservation of any ancient work which may be scheduled.

The Council considered that these advantages are not generally known, and for the purpose of drawing your attention to them, we beg to send you overleaf an extract of the clauses bearing on the subject. No surrender of ownership takes place, but the present proprietor pledges himself and his successors not to damage or destroy.

By this wise provision, the Act ensures the preservation for all time; the repairs, if needed, being effected by the Government.

We shall be much obliged if you will make known these advantages of the Act as much as possible; and, if you can induce the owner of any monument to place it under the care of the State in the way indicated, the last of the undersigned will be happy to put in communication with the owner. He will gladly render any preliminary information for its accomplishment free of any charge.

All the monuments are present scheduled are of the class known as Prehistoric, and consist of tumuli, stone circles, camps, and earthworks. For the present at least, any others to be added to the existing schedule must be of similar class.

We are, yours faithfully,

W. De Gray Birch } Hon Secs

E.P. Loftus Brock}

Please address any reply to Mr. E.P. Loftus Brock, 36, Great Russell Street, W.C.

Fred R. Surtees, Esq.

Local Member of Council for Kent.

The Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1882.

Extract, Paragraph 2

The owner of any ancient monument to which this Act applies may, by deed under his hand, constitute the Commissioners of works in this Act mentioned the guardians of such monument.

“Where the Commissioners of works have been constituted guardians of a monument they shall thenceforth, until they shall receive notice in writing to the contrary from any succeeding owner not bound by such deed as aforesaid, maintain such monument; and shall, for the purpose of such maintenance, at all reasonable times, by themselves and their workmen, have access to such monument for the purpose of inspecting it, and of bringing such materials and doing such acts and things as may be required in the maintenance thereof.

“The owner of an ancient monument of which the Commissioners of Works are guardians shall, save as in this Act expressly provided, have the same estate, right, title, and interest in and to such monument in all respects as if the Commissioners had not been constituted guardians thereof.

“The expressions ‘maintain’ and ‘maintenance’ include the fencing, repairing, cleansing, covering in, or doing any other act or thing which may be required for the purpose of repairing any monument or protecting the same from decay or injury. The cost of maintenance shall, subject to the approval of Her Majesty’s Treasury, be defrayed from moneys to be provided by Parliament.”

Extract, Paragraph 10.

“Her Majesty may, from time to time, by Order in Council, declare that any monument of a like character to the monuments described in the Schedule hereto shall be deemed to be an ancient monument to which this Act applies, and thereupon this Act shall apply to such monument in the same manner in all respects as if it had been described in the Schedule hereto.”

Notes

[1] See also See also Box 2/ Misc 1

[2] Frederic R. Surtees, Commissioner at Cape of Good Hope? and author

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