Colomeæ.
Camalet is a noted place, situate on the highest ground in this county, on the edge of Dorsetshire. TAB. XLIII.The country people are ignorant of this name, which has generally obtained among the learned: they call it Cadbury castle, from the village of North-Cadbury, in which it is: this caution is useful to those that go to enquire for it. Hereabouts rise the rivers of Somersetshire, which run into the Severn sea westward; and that in Dorset, which goes eastward, through Sturminster, into the southern ocean. It is a noble fortification of the Romans, placed on the north end of a ridge of hills separated from the rest by nature; and for the most part solid rock, very steep and high: there are three or four ditches quite round, sometimes more: the area within is twenty acres at least, rising in the middle: its figure is squarish, but conforms to the shape of the hill. There is a higher angle of ground within, ditched about, where they say was king Arthur’s palace: it was probably the prætorium and might be king Arthur’s too. who lived in this place: the country people refer all stories to him. The whole has been ploughed over since the memory of man, and much stone has been taken from the surface, which has altered it. The rampart is large and high, made chiefly of great stones covered with earth, and perhaps, in some parts where it was necessary, laid with mortar: here is only one entrance from the east. It is not unlikely there were buildings erected in the later British times, being of so great strength, and a perfect watch-tower, surveying the country round to an incredible distance. The prospect is woody, and very pleasant; here and there little hills, lofty and steep, peeping up with their naked heads: you reach all the Mendip hills and Black-down in Devonshire. In this camp they find many pebble-stones exactly round, half a peck at a time; whereas there are none such in the country: they suppose them stones to sling withal, fetched from the sea, or perhaps shot in cross-bows. Roman coin in great plenty has been found here, and all the country round: I saw vast numbers of Antoninus and Faustina, about that time and after. The entrance here is guarded with six or seven ditches: on the north side, in the fourth ditch, is a never-failing spring, called King Arthur’s well: over it they have dug up square stones, door-jambs with hinges, and say there are subterraneous vaults thereabouts. Selden, in his notes on Polyolbion, writes it was full of ruins and reliques of old buildings. At top they told me many pavements, and arches have been dug up, hand-grindstones, and other domestic or camp utensils. They say there is a road across the fields, that bears very rank corn, called King Arthur’s Hunting-causeway.
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Prospect From St. Roc’s hill Sept. 15. 1723.
Stukeley del.
Prospect of Camalet Castle. 15. Aug. 1723.
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