Camille Adams (nee Love-Grove)

These are the memories of Camille, who grew up near Stonehenge at Avebury Circle. Camille Adams, a 71 year old astrologer here in Maryland, represents our own connection to Witches old and new in England's New Forest. Camille was born in England into a family of astrologers and Witches, and demonstrated psychic abilities when she was still a young girl. Her family knew the family of Sybil Leek, another family of astrologers and Witches, as well as Dorothy Clutterbuck. The Buckland family lived in the area, and Camille remembers Ray Buckland's father as a real Gypsy who raised horses.

Camille was born Camillia Mordecai Love-Grove to John and Rose Love-Grove in Gorse Hill, Wiltshire, between the Vale of the White Horse and Marlborough Downs. This is just north of the New Forest, in the Cotswolds. The Savernake Forest ran nearby, and the Avon River there ran south through the New Forest. The "cottage" was actually quite large by American standards, with an area where barrels of wine were stored, as well as stables for the family horses. This was the home of her Grandmother of the Love-Grove Clan. Camille's mother, a Pisces with Scorpio rising, periodically disappeared into the Savernake Forest, and she was known throughout the area as a Wise Woman. People often came to Camille's mother or grandmother for help, from neighbors whose babies had the colic to young relatives who needed help with their love life. Here, Camille became familiar with the visiting ghosts of past relatives, such as Polly Iles.

At Avebury Village, which is located inside Avebury Stone Circle, Camille's Grandfather Turner lived in a cottage, and Camille often stayed there. Camomile and gorse grew everywhere, and amethyst stone was abundant in the area. The thatched roof was woven in a special design and the cottage was built around one of the standing stones. Camille often sat on the three foot high stone in the entrance hall to take off her riding boots. Many of her relatives spent time at both cottages, especially at Summer Solstice, and they included herbalists, tarot readers, astrologers, phrenologists, numerologists, psychics and Witches. Both cottages were built on Roman roads; the Romans had a habit of building their roads on top of old straight tracks (ley lines), and one of the cottages was built at the intersection of two Roman roads. According to Camille, hereditary Witchcraft families were actually quite common in out of the ways places such as the Cotwolds, but they were very serious about keeping their activities secret from outsiders. Today, the changing nature of families and the expansion of outsiders into the 'scenic' countryside have greatly reduced the number of hereditary Witches.

Just as Sybil Leek reported was done in her family, Camille's Grandmother Love-Grove attended every birth in the family and cast a natal chart for the newborn. From the attic at Avebury, Camille and her grandmother often gazed out at the Great White Horse and the mound that her psychic grandmother was sure was the real tomb of Queen Boudicea. Camille describes her family's Witchcraft as being Druidic and they celebrated the Sabbats when the Sun was in the 15th degree of a sign, but any Witch would recognize them as kin if they saw Camille's grandmother burning red pepper on the stove after a visit by someone unpleasant. In 1943, the National Trust of the United Kingdom started taking over the village in Avebury Circle, and when Camille's grandmother died, the National Trust confiscated the 170 year old cottage, which is now a tourist spot.

Camille came to the US during World War II, after she married an American serviceman, who was later killed.

The New Forest The New Forest, located in Hampshire County in southern England, was originally created as the King's Preserve by William the Conqueror. The New Forest has suffered many assaults by man, but remains one of the best wild preserves in England. Its diminished 90,000 acre size contains forests, heaths, meadows, bogs, ponds and swamps. In 1923, the New Forest became a State Forest and put under the control of a Forest Committee. For centuries, ponies and Gypsies had been allowed to roam freely through the New Forest, but in 1926 the government started herding the Gypsies into seven compounds. World War II saw the building of twelve airfields and a bombing range in the New Forest. Today, most of the New Forest is still government owned land, where Commoners have retained rights granted by William the Conqueror to graze their animals and collect firewood -- and where Witches still cast their Circles.

Avon River in New Forest

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