A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE the absence of any archaeological remains, it is difficult to form a positive opinion as to date, but the theory that it was an interment of the Bronze Age appears to be open to no objection. Early Iron Age The period of prehistoric time during which iron was used does not appear to be well represented among the remains of antiquity hitherto found in Herefordshire. It is quite probable that further research may have the effect of bringing to light definite evidences of what was at once the last and the most interesting period of prehistoric time. The ancient British coins found in Herefordshire include one of Cunobelinus from Weston under Penyard, a gold coin inscribed Eisv from Leominster, and another gold coin found at Kenchester. Sites of Ancient Dwellings There is an important group of depressions, doubtless the floors of ancient hut-dwellings, in the glen which lies between Hollybush Hill and Midsummer Hill, two eminences of the Malvern Range in the parish of Eastnor. Mr. F. G. Hilton Price ' pronounces this the site of a British town about i,iooft. in length. In the interior of the camp which incloses the top of Hollybush Hill there are many more hut hollows, or circles where some sort of habitation probably existed. Excavation of the site, however, as is the usual case with remains of this kind, yielded no proofs of the period when, or the people by whom, the dwellings were occupied. On the east face of Midsummer Hill, which is 958 ft. high, and con- siderably higher than Hollybush Hill, are several lines of hollows, which have been habitations. They are disposed in ten or eleven ranges of terraces, with no less than 214 hut hollows visible, and thirty more under the brush- wood. Within the magnificent fortress known as Herefordshire Beacon there are numerous hut depressions " which unquestionably mark the spots where human dwellings once existed. The age of the dwellings is, however, a point which has not yet been definitely proved. They may be as old as the actual ramparts of the camp, or possibly not quite so ancient, but their general character, their position, and their arrangement, are favourable to the theory that they belong to some time within the limits of the prehistoric past. The discovery of 16th-century pottery in some of the hollows, and of Roman remains in others, points probably to subsequent occupation of the sites, perhaps some centuries after the original dwellings were erected. In the year 1854 an account of certain discoveries at St. Margaret's Park, near Hereford, was communicated to the Archaeological Institute " by Rev. Dr. Jenkins of Hereford. From this it appears that in the year 1854 excavations were carried out at three distinct points with a view of determin- ing the age, character, and purpose of a curious cruciform earthwork in that neighbourhood, situated about thirteen miles south of Hereford. ^'^ Near this ' Joum. Anthrop. Inst. (1881), x, 319. '° Op. cit. 324. " Arch. Joum. xi, 55-6. " Ibid, x, 358. 164
