Welsh Journals

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hill top camps have been excavated in North and South Wales, they appear to have been constructed, and used, during the first few centuries A.D., and they may be ascribed largely to the immigrant people. The new comers seems to have followed the slopes of the main valleys-Wye, Severn, Vyrnwy, Dee-and to have pushed a wedge across Wales. Montgomeryshire, in the centre of this wedge, is therefore a very important area, and yet not one of our magnificent camps has ever had a trench cut across it. It is only by the excavation of one or more of these that we can hope to learn more about the people, who probably brought a Brythonic language into Wales, and whose blood still flows in the veins of the present people of Montgomeryshire. The Roman occupation does not appear to have meant very much for Wales. Unlike what happened in Gaul, where the population was transferred from the great hill fortresses to cities in the plain, the Welsh tribes were left, largely undisturbed on the hill tops. Though they came to use Roman pottery, just as the mOdern Ama Zulu and Basuto adopt the European match and tin can, their way of life was not greatly affected, and they seem to have retained their language and tribal organisation. Probably one of the few conditions the Romans made was that the tribesmen should not inter- fere with the movement of imperial troops and supplies. Was that condition regarded ? Viroconium was sacked in the 4th century who was responsible for that ? There are other questions which arise in connection with our hill top camps. About the 11th century a new type of fortification was brought into Wales, represented now by the motte and bailey of the Bowling Green, at Welshpool, by Hen Domen, near Montgomery, and by a splendid example on the hill about a mile to the West of Llanfyllin. But what of the period between the 5th and the 11th centuries ? Are our hill camps all of the same