University of Virginia Library

It is supposed that the ancients signalled from height to height by means of mirrors of bright metal flashed in the sun.

“Those thirteen camps.”—In A.D. 50, the Proprætor Publius Ostorius Scapula was appointed general of the Roman forces in Britain. He subjugated and disarmed the Cangi, a Somersetshire tribe of aborigines, and, to prevent revolt, occupied the British camps on the heights of the Avon—e.g., Stokesleigh, Bowerwall or Rownham, and the Clifton Observatory camps. Tacitus tells us “that he maintained authority over the inhabitants on the banks of the Avon and Severn by surrounding them with camps.” This he virtually did by occupying or constructing a double line of fortified posts which remain to this day. These, roughly stated, are— Sea Mills, Henbury, Almondsbury, Elberton, and Old Abbey, along the Severn; and Lansdown, Old Sodbury, Westridge, The Drakestone, and Uleybury, farther inland on the Cots-wolds. To these latter may be added Wick, Burril, Horton, and Bloodyacre.