There was also a trench which in case of danger could have been
filled with water. But the spoiler has been at work here. In 1870 a
farmer employed his men during a hard winter in digging down the west
side of the rampart and flinging the earth into the fosse. The farmer
intended to perform a charitable act, and charity is said to cover a
multitude of sins; but his action was disastrous to antiquaries and
has almost destroyed a valuable prehistoric monument. There is a
noted camp at Ashbury, erroneously called "Alfred's Castle," on an
elevated part of Swinley Down, in Berkshire, not far from Ashdown
Park, the seat of the Earl of Craven. Lysons tells us that formerly
there were traces of buildings here, and Aubrey says that in his time
the earthworks were "almost quite defaced by digging for sarsden
stones to build my Lord Craven's house in the park." Borough Hill
Camp, in Boxford parish, near Newbury, has little left, so much of the
earth having been removed at various times. Rabbits, too, are great
destroyers, as they disturb the original surface of the ground and
make it difficult for investigators to make out anything with
certainty.
Sometimes local tradition, which is wonderfully long-lived, helps the
archaeologist in his discoveries. An old man told an antiquary that a
certain barrow in his parish was haunted by the ghost of a soldier who
wore golden armour.
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