Photo Pages: Cley Hill - Hillfort in England in Wiltshire

Further eastward, and nearer Warminster, are two very singular knolls, which form a very conspicuous and beautiful object from every part of the adjacent country. They bear the name of CLEE or CLAY HILLS*. They differ considerably in size, and rise very boldly from the surrounding plain. The larger hill is surrounded by a ditch and rampart, bearing the marks of high antiquity.+ Its form is like that of a cone with an obtuse head; that of the lesser hill is drawn more to a point. On the summit of the larger hill are two barrows, both of which I have caused to be opened. The largest produced no evidence of its having been destined to sepulchral purposes. Near the bottom of it we found some ears of wheat undecayed, and the soil of which the barrow was composed had fragments of pottery, charred wood and ashes intermixed with it, which may be accounted for by supposing that this eminence was inhabited by the Britons previous to the formation of their mound, which, perhaps in later times, was made use of as a beacon. The adjoining barrow was certainly sepulchral, and originally contained an interment of burned human bones, which, upon opening it, we found had been very disturbed.

* I imagine their appellation is derived from the Celtic word Cleis, which signifies Chalk, of which material these hills are formed. There are also in Shropshire hills bearing the name of Clea, and upon them the remains of an ancient camp, and beneath them the village of Cleybury.

+ Bishop Gibson, in his edition of Camden, says that “Clay-hill shews no marks of any trenches,” a proof that he, like many other writers on topography, never visited the place he described; which will be evidently proved by the annexed view of Clay-hill, in which the ramparts are decidedly and correctly marked.