CLEARBURY RING is a mean earthen work when compared to the very fine specimens which our county has afforded, but it stands pre-eminent in point of extensive prospect, and is seen at a very considerable distance. Its form presents an oblong square, and it has one narrow entrance to the south-west: the area is encumbered with heath, and planted with trees, to which it owes its very distinguished appearance from distant parts; it contains within the ramparts 5 1/4 acres, the circuit of the ditch is 3 furlong 55 yards, and the depth of the vallum is 43 feet. I think it probable that this camp was occupied, or perhaps constructed by the West Saxon Kings Cerdic and Cynric, who fought with the Britons in this neighbourhood at Charford in the year 519, and the latter of whom afterwards, in the year 552, defeated the same people at Salisbury.
from The Ancient History of Wiltshire, by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, p232 (1812).
