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789 
E1A4 Allcroft- 



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WAY 1 9 1938 



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EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited 

LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO 
ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



EARTHWORK OF 
ENGLAND 



PREHISTORIC, ROMAN, SAXON, DANISH, 
NORMAN, AND MEDIEVAL 



A. HADRIAN ALLCROFT, M.A, 



Illustrated with Plans, Sections, i^e. 



RELIOUIAS VETERUMOUE VIDES MOMMENIA VIRORL'M 

Vekgil, .£■«. viii. 356 



MACMILLAN AND CO., FIMITI-:!) 
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 

1908 

6402 1 



Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, 
, < li«au<sti;bet HkLL,' fcjc.', 'and ' 

I'.UVlCAV,' GUFFOLK. ' 






f- 



GrH 

6 ih^ 



" Tifur^ ivhii/i antiquatcs antiquitia^ and luith an 
art to make duit of all thingi^ hath \rt sparrd their 
^ minor inonunirntsy 

^ Sir Thos. Browne, 

^. " Hvdrintaphia." 

" History has been ivritten with quipo-threads^ with 
i feather-pictures^ with tvampu/n-helts ; still often er ivith 

r\ earth-mounds and monumental stone-heaps, zvhet/ier as 

pyramid or cairn : for the Celt and the Copt, the Red 
Man as tuell as the li^hite, lives hetiueen two 
eternities, and ivarring against Ohlivion, he would 
fain unite himself in clear conscious relation, as in 
dim unconscious relation he is already united, with the 
whole Future and the whole Past.'" 

T. CARf.^â– r.K, 
Essa\' ("in Histoi'N. 



PREFACE 

In the general (|uickening of interest in nil things 
savouring of antiquity, earthworks have had a certain 
share, if a small one ; so that while there are a few persons 
who have some knowledge of the suV)ject, there are very 
many more who wish to know. To the former few the 
writer tenders his apologies for having essayed to perform 
a task for which any one of them had doubtless been 
better qualified ; to the latter many he apologizes for the 
task's being no better done. 

His purpose has l)een to stimulate a more general 
interest in the most neolected branch of Britisli Archaio- 
logy b)' suggesting something of the variety and many- 
sided interest of the sul)ject. the abundance of the 
material, the need of intellioent observation. lie has 
tried to show that, in spite of neglect, the subject has 
already attained to some measure of systematization and 
certitude, and to point out in what directions further 
research is mOst desirable. He has tried to clear the 
subject of certain hoary preconceptions, to point out 
those details which re(|uire to be sought for, and to warn 
the inexperienced against some of the more olivious pit- 
falls which lie in the path. 

For the earthworks of Scotland much has been done 
already, especially l)y Dr. David Christison, whose work 
on Karly Furtijicatious of Scotland is an admirable 



viii PREFACE 

collection of varied observations and well-ordered details. 
It is, however, of necessity somewhat too scientific in 
style and method for those readers who are as yet unac- 
quainted with the rudiments of the subject. So far as 
the writer knows there is no work of the like scope, 
whether popular or scientific, dealing with the earthworks 
of England, and those who would have some knowledge 
of them must search painfully through interminable 
volumes in a few scattered libraries, amongst the pub- 
lislied Proceedings of scores of Societies, some famous and 
some scarce heard of, Ijut all more or less alike in beino- 
difiicidt of access and inadequately indexed. The results 
of such a search must too often be nothino- but a 
congeries of facts or theories, mostly disconnected and 
often contradictory. To hunt up such information, to 
weed out some of the contradictions, to piece the whole 
together into intelligible continuity — these, so far as he 
could adhere to them, have been the author's aims. 

For some years past a limited number of enthusiasts — 
the Committee on Ancient Earthworks and Fortified 
Enclosures — has been working to educate the nation in 
the value and significance of its earthworks, to obtain 
complete lists and authoritative plans of all, and to 
preserve them where possible from the destruction which 
daily threatens them ; and the enterprise of the publishers 
of the Victoria County History in including the earth- 
works of each county within their syllabus is deserving of 
the gratitude of all archaeologists, as is also the scheme 
which aims at compiling an accurate Archaeological Survey 
of each county. These latter must, however, of necessity 
remain little more than lists of the materials available. 
The Committee has achieved much, but the writer 
has always felt that its objects might be furthered 
in some degree if there were provided some sort of 
elementary text-book of the subject. This he set 
liimsclf to provide, entirely upon his own initiative and 



PREFACE ix 

responsil)ilit3\ AVlioii the volume was all Imt ready for 
tlie press, the Committee paid him the unexpected com- 
pliment of admitting him to membership ; hut he wishes 
it to he distinctly understood that while his hook is hased 
upon the recommendations of the Committee as published 
in their annual Reports, and written expressly to further 
the Committee's aims, it has no claim to be an authorized 
representation of the Committee's views. Its author is 
alone responsible for what he has written. 

There is probaldy nothing at all in the book which has 
not been said before, and better said, but mostly in 
publications not accessible to the average reader. 'J'lic 
writer has tried to confine himself to the simple state- 
ment of facts, with no more of theory than is needed to 
array those facts in orderly and readable sequence. So 
little has as yet been done in this field tliat there is 
scarcely a single statement which might not be ques- 
tioned, qualified, or flatly contradicted by some one or 
other, but he has endeavoured to avoid all dogmatism. 
If the reservations " probably," " possibly," and 
" perhaps," figure too frequently in the text, the fault 
may be cited as but another justification for the writing 
of the book at all, inasmuch as it suggests how very 
much remains to be done, and how great is the oppor- 
tunity for active helpers. 

In making use of the labours of other men in the 
subject, the writer has endeavoured to acknowledge his 
debt to each as occasion has arisen. Lest he shall have 
failed at all in this meed of courtesy, he would here make 
one general acknowledgment to them all, both those 
whose writino-s he has made use of and those others 
who have otherwise aided him with information, encour- 
agement, and advice. His thanks are due in a special 
degree to C. Angell Bradford, Esq., F.S.A., for much 
valuable help in the compilation of the book and in the 
correction of the proofs. He has also to acknowledge 



X PREFACE 

grcitefull}' the kindness of Dr. David Christison in allowing 
him to make use of a number of illustrations given in his 
Early Fortifications of Scotland, and for the loan of the 
actual blocks of Figs. 102 and 109. Finally he owes 
a large debt to the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office, 
for the permission, readily accorded, to make use of the 
Ordnance Maps in the preparation of the plans, many of 
which are directly taken from those maps. 

So far as might be he has restricted himself to the 
discussion of earthworks with which he is personally 
familiar. This will explain the somewhat limited range of 
the examples, and how limited is that range no one is 
more painfidly aware than himself; but experience has 
taught liim that there are few more fertile sources of 
error than a tacit acceptance of the descriptions of others. 
No matter how excellent and accurate those descriptions 
may be, to attempt to make use of them at second hand 
is to do injustice to them and to betra}^ one's own lack 
of thoroughness. 

The last three chapters will perhaps be considered 
unnecessary. The writer has added them to the book 
with some hesitation, in the hope that they will serve 
in some measure to illustrate the matter of the earlier 
chapters, and also possibly to awaken a more vivid reali- 
zation of the interest which belongs to the subject. He 
selected the South Downs as the scene of one elemen- 
tary lesson in applied archaeology, for the reason that 
there is to be found the last approach to unspoilt Nature 
that is easily reached from the Metropolis ; as the scene of 
the other he selected Dolebury upon the Mendips, because 
of its total contrast to the former. 

London, 1908. 



CONTENTS 

PREFACE 'vH 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY 1 

CHAPTER II 

CLIMATE AND CULTURE 2(> 

CHAPTER III 

PROMONTORY FORTS 49 

CHAPTER IV 

CONTOUR FORTS 74 

CHAPTER V 

I'LATKAU FORTS AND sniRLK ENCLOSURES 1-"' 

CHAPTER VI 

SOME PRINCIPLES OF I'REHISTORIC FORTI Kl< ATION l"ilt 

CHAPTER VII 

TIIK, PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD -14 

CHAPTER VI 11 

DEWPONDS -'■'•"> 

CHAPTER IX 

ROAIAN CAMPS -^7 

CHAPTER X 

ROMAN STATIONS .'•'_'<> 

CHAPTER XI 

I'lIK TP>ANSITION ... •"'•'" 



xii CONTENTS 

CITAPTEli XII 

r » (;K 
SAXOX AN'I> KANISIl KA KTH WOK KS , . "79 

CHAPTER XTir 

Nt>HMAX CASTLES 400 

CHAPTER XIV 

THK MOATKK HOMESTEAD 4o3 

CHAPTER XV 

DYKES AND DITCHES 494 

CHAPTER XVI 

MISCELLANEOUS EAHTHWORKS 523 

CHAPTER XVII 

MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS {runthviPll) 559 

CHAPTER XVIII 

THE SOUTH DOWNS 615 

CHAPTER XIX 

THE SOUTH DOWNS (continued) . 639 

CHAPTER XX 

DOLEBURY • 682 

INDEX 699 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



KIG. 

1. Camp on Trevalgey Head, Newquay, Cornwall 

2. Camp at Earnsheugh, St. Al)b's Head (aflcr Dr. Christ iaon) 

3. Camp on Embury Beacon, Welcomlie, Devon 

4. Blacker's Hill Camp, Downside, Somerset 

5. Camps at Clifton, Bristol 

6. Carl's Wark Camp, Hathersage Moor, Derbyshiie 

7. Dyke Hills, Dorchester, Oxon 

8. Ponter's Ball, Glastonbury 

9. Castle Hill Camp, Clatworthy, Somerset . 

10. Pulpit Hill Camp, Great Kimble, Bucks . 

11. Winkelbury Camp, Tisbury, Wilts 

12. Hembury Fort, Honiton, Devon 

13. Castle Neroche, Somerset 

14. Caesar's Camp, Eastliampstead, Berks 

15. Ham Hill Camp, Montacute, Somerset 

16. South Cadbury Camp, Sutton Montis, Somerset 

17. Camp, Old Oswestry, Salop 

18. Maiden Castle, Dorchester 

19. Eggardon Camp, Bridport, Dorset 

20. Camp on Pillesdon Pen, Beaminster, Dorset 

21. Badbury Kings, Wimborne, Dorset 

22. Cadbury Castle, Tiverton 

23. l^.ury Castle, Selwortliy, Somerset 

24. Shoulsbury Castle, Exmoor 

25. Cranbrook Castle, Moreton Hampstead 



I'AOK 

52 

53 

54 

59 

63 

66 

<)7 

69 

76 

78 

82 

85 

87 

90 

92 

95 

9(5 

101 

105 

1<»7 

J0!» 

111 

113 

114 

116 



XIV 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FIG. 

26. 

27. 
28. 
29. 
;30. 

:u. 

â– .VI. 

^x^. 

34. 

35. 

36. 

37. 

38. 

39. 

40. 

41. 

42. 

43. 

44. 

45. 

46. 

47. 

48. 

49. 

50. 

51. 

52. 

53. 

54. 

55. 

56. 

57. 

58. 

59. 

60. 

61. 

62. 

63. 



Old BiuTOW, Countisbuiy, Devon 

Old Sarum, Wilts 

The Herefordshire Beacon, Great Mahern 
Powerstock Castle, Doi'set ..... 
Yarnhiiry Caiuj>, Winterbourne Stoke, W'ilts . 
Hunsbury Camp, Northants .... 

Anibresbury Banks, E2)ping Forest . 
Enclosure on Roomer Common, Masham, Yorks 
Camp on Hawsett Moor, Dallowgill, Yorks 
Cholesbury Camp, Chesham, Bucks . 
Ring-work in Hod Hill Camp, Blandford . 
Enclosure on Martin Down, Cranborne 
Enclosure in Loose Bottom, Falmer, Sussex . 
Enclosure, Wilts {after Merewether) . 



Soldier's Ring, South Damerham, Wilts 

Siege-lines (? Roman) at Birrenswark, Annandale . 

Diagram to illustrate [iroportion of height to mass in a 

Diagram of Valla on Slopes of 10^ and 20° 

Camp on Brent Knoll, Somerset .... 

Sections of various Terraces and Parapets 

Camp at Ringknowes, Peeblesshire .... 

Section of Vallum, West Wycombe, Bucks 

Sections of pre-Roman Ditches . 

Sections of various Berms 

A. — E. Sections of dry -built Walls 

Grim's Pound, Moreton Hamp.stead . 

Worlebury Camp, Weston-super-Mare 

Camp in Eynsham Park, Oxon. . 

Caynham Camp, Ludlow 

East Gateway, Dumpton Great Camp, Lup})itt, Devon 

Holne Chase Castle, Ashburton, Devon 

South-west Gate, Burrough-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire 

Grimsbury Castle, Hampstead Norris, Berks . 

Dudsbury Camp, Wimborne (after Wai-ne) 



Valh 



PAGE 

117 
119 
122 
123 
126 
127 
129 
131 
133 
135 
140 
144 
146 
148 
149 
150 
150 
151 
152 
1()1 
1(53 
163 
164 
165 
166 
167 
170 
172 
174-176 
178 
181 
184 
185 
189 
190 
191 
192 
193 



LIST OK ILLUSTRATIONS 



XV 



FIG. 

64. Muzbiuy Camp, Axininster, Devon 

65. Noitli-East Gate, Hod Hill, Blaiulfoid . . 

66. Cani|) at Biicklaiid iirewer, Groat Toiriiigtoii, Devon 

67. South Ditch and Mound, I'attleshui'y Caiiip, NN aiiiiinstei 

Wilts 

()8. Kast, Gate, Hattlesbury 

6!>. liat's Castle, and Gallox Hill, Dunster, Somerset 

70. Blackhury C;istle, Southleigh, Devon 

71. (iateway, Rink Hill, Selkirk («//(/;■ Dr. Childlson) 
7'2. Pitfall at Mend)ury Camp, Axminster, Devon 
7.S. ]^>lind Entry at Berry Castle, Huntshaw, Devon 

74. Bu/J)ury Camj), Blandford (inset (tfti/r Wanie) 

75. Camp at Cockburn Law, Berwickshire {(tffcr Dr. (Jhri>ifi.si»i) 

76. The Bei-th, Baschurch, Salo}) 

77a. Ground plan of Hut, Dartmoor 

77b. Ground plan of Hut with dais, Dartmoor . 

78. Ground plan of Hut, .\nglesey 

79. Group of Huts, Tre'r Ceiri, Caernarvonshire . 

80. Castell Caer Seion, Conway Mountain 

81. Group of ruined Huts, Llanfairfechan, Caernarvonshire 

82. A modern Sheepfold, Dallowgill Moor, Ripon 

83. Baghan Galldair, Inverness {dfter Dr. Christviun) . 

84. Baghan Burlach, Inverness (after Dr. Ghristison) . 

85. Bodennar Ci-ellas, Chun Castle, Cornwall (after Borla.-ic) 

86. Chun Castle, Cornwall (after Borlase) 

87. Castell-an-Dinas, Cornwall (after Cotttai) . 

88. Sections of various Huts (restored) .... 

89. British Village on Hampton Down, Bath . 

90. Section of Dewpond 

91. Ponds and Earthworks, Chanetonhury Ring, Sussex 

92. Sections of Roman Ditches ...... 

93. Roman Works, Kirkbuddo, Strathearn (after Umi) 

94. Roman Works, Rae Dykes, Ury (after Ran) 

95. Roman Works, Kreiginthorpe, Kirk1)y Thore (after iu< 

96. Roman Works, Rey Cross, Stanmoor (after Roii) 

97. Cavvthorn Camps, Pickering, Yorks ... 

98. Roman Works at Pigwn, Merionethshire . 

99. Roman Works at Dealgin Ross, Strathearn (ttfter Roij) 



PACE 

193 
194 
195 

I'.m; 
I '.17 
19H 
I'.l'.t 
L'(MI 
•JMl 
201 
202 
203 
2<»4 
223 
224 
225 
227 
228 
230 
231 
232 
233 
235 
237 
239 
245 
262 
273 
280 
296 
297 
298 
29; t 
290 
3(12 
303 
303 



XVI 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



KIO. 

100. Earthwork at Bossens, St. Erth, Cornwall 

101. Roman Camp, Grewelthorpe, Yorks 

102. Circular Work.s, Strageath (from Dr. Chridison) 

103. Earthwork un Muswell Hill, Brill, Bucks 

104. Castlo Hill Camj), Great Missenden, Bucks . 

105. King Arthur's Hall, Leazc, Cornwall 
lOH. Burgh Castle (Gariunouuni), Great Yarmouth 

107. IMelanclra, Derbyshire 

108. Castle Dykes, Ripon 

101). Roman Lines, Arcloch, Perthshire {from Dr. Christison) 

110. The Same: Plan of N.E. and N.W. Angles, and Enlar 

Sections of E., N., and W. Sides (after Dr. Christison) 

111. Silchester (Calleva Attrebatum), Berks . 

112. Hod Hill and Lyd.sbury Rings, Blandford 

113. Gannock's Castle, Tempsford, Beds . 

114. Danes' (L'amp, Willington, Beds 

115. Hasten's Camp, Shoebury, Essex 
1 U>. Kenwith's Castle, Bideford, Devon . 

117. The Burh, Witham, Essex .... 

118. The Old Pale, Eddisbury, Cheshii-e . 

119. Clifford's Hill, Northants .... 

120. Norman Earthwork, Bridestow, Devon . 

121. Durpley Castle, Shebbear, Devon 

122. Cranmer's Mount, Aslockton, Notts 

123. Norman Work at Wembworthy, Chumleigh, 

124. Another 

125. Mexborough Castle, Yorks 

126. Builth Castle, Bi-econshire 

127. Ongar Castle, Essex 

128. The Rings (Blackdown Camp), Loddiswell, Devon 

129. Cymbeline's Mount, Little Kimble, Bucks 

130. Porchester Castle, Hants .... 

131. Defences of York, Roman, Norman, and Mediaeval 

132. Hembury Castle, Buckfastleigh, Devon 

133. Totternhoe, Beds 

134. Cje.sar's Camp, Folkestone 

135. Castle Toll, Newenden, Kent . 

136. Ailcy Hill, Ripon .... 



Devon 



LIST OK ILLUSTRATIONS 



xvn 



KIO. 

137. Richard's Castle, Ilerefi)nlshiio 

138. .John ()' (jraunt's Castle, Fevvston, Harro^^ate . 

1.'}1>. liianiljer Castle, Sussex 

J4(». Skenfrith Castle, MuiiiiHuithsliire . 

141. Arundel Castle, Sussex 

142. Eaton Socon, Beds 

14;!. ]>olhec Castle, Whitehuich, liueks 

144. Beaumaris Castle, Anglesey .... 

145. Harlech Castle 

14(>. Nunney Castle, Somerset 

147. Castle of Arques, Normandy .... 

148. Burvvell Castle, Cambs 

149. Desborough Castle, High Wycoml)e, Bucks 

150. William's Hill, Middleham, Yorks . 

151. Cock Lodge and Maiden Bovver, Topclitle, York 

152. Earthworks in Magdalen Field, West Tantield, Yorks 

153. Moat at Grove Farm, Terrick's Cross, Bucks 

154. Moat at Little Pednor, Chesham, Bucks 

155. Moated Site, Givendale, Ripon 

156. Moated Site, Nash Lee, Wendover, Bucks 

157. Moats, Apsley, Wendover, Bucks 

158. Moated Site, Great Kimble, Bucks . 

159. ,, ,, Stoke Mandeville, Bucks . 
1(»0. ,. ,. North Lees, Ripon 

1(51 Mar.sh, Little Kiml)le, Bucks 

102. Moat and Earthworks, Reddiugwick Wood, (ireat Missei 

Bucks 

163. Moat and Earthworks, Bray's Wood, Great Missenden 

164. Norman and later Earthworks at Little Kimble, Bucks 
1G5. Moated Sites at Saunderton, Bucks 

166. Fortified Manor Site, Sibthorpe, Notts .... 

167. Moated Sites, Walkingham Hall, Knaresborough, Yorks 

168. Moated Sites, Shenley Church End, IJletchley 

1()9. Double Moat, Grove Farm, Ashley Green, Chesham, Buck 

170. ,, ,, Bushmead Priory, St. Neot.s, Beds 

171. ,, ,, Share Farm, Horsmonden, Kent 

172. Fish-] muds, Langley Marish, Bucks 

173. Fish-[)(>nils at Kl,unl)iir<)u;j;li, ^'l•^ks . 



den. 



i'AOE 

430 
432 
433 
434 
434 
436 
437 
439 
439 
440 
441 
441 
442 
445 
44(j 
448 
4()0 
461 
462 
463 
464 
465 
465 
466 
468 

472 
473 
476 
477 
478 
481 
482 
484 
485 
486 
489 
490 



XVlll 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FIO. 

174. Moated Sites and J'isli-]K)iids, Rolleston, Notts 

175. Fish-ponds at Sibthorpe, Notts 

176. The Cambridgeshire Dykes 

177. Disc-Barrow, Hunter's Rest, Priddy, Houierset 

178. Disc-Barrows on Lewes Down, Sussex .... 

179. Disc-Barrow on Haddon Hill, Exmoor 

180. Site of old Windmill, Mount Cal)urn, Sussex 

181. „ ,, „ Firle Hill 

182. ,, ,, ,, Lewes Down ... 

183. MedijBval Village-site (" Crow Close"), Bingliam, Notts 

184. Earthworks : A, at Uftculme, Devon ; B, on Brow D^ 

Dorset 

185. Cruciform Earthwork at Banwell, Somerset 

186. Earthworks near Cottenham, Cambs 

187. Earthworks of Avebury, Wilts . 

188. Earthworks of Stonehenge .... 

189. Ringworks at Priddy, Mendip Hills 

190. Earthworks at Knowlton, Dorset 

191. Thornbrough, Ripon : plan of the Northern Ring 

192. Thornbrough : section of original and present-day fosses 

193. Figsbury Ring (Chlorus' Camp), Salisbury 

194. Ar))or Low, Youlgrave, Derl)yshire . 

195. Castle Dyke, Aysgarth, Yorks . 
19(j. Voley Castle, Parracombe, Devon 

197. Rectangular Earthwork at Plashetts, Northumbei'land 

198. Studfold Ring, Ampleforth, Yorks . 

199. The Stripple Stones, Blisland, Cornwall . 

200. Burrington Camp, Somerset 

201. Maumbury Rings, Dorchester . 

202. The AmphMieatre, Silcliester . 

203. So-called Amphitlieatre, Charterhouse-on-Mendi] 

204. The Castell, Llanidan, Anglesey 

205. The Cockpit, Chislehurst, Kent 

206. The Queen's Sconce, Newark, Notts 

207. The Bulwark, Earith, Caml)s . 

208. Various Siege-works l)efore Newark, Notts 

209. Siege-work of the Scots, Newark 

210. Caml)ridge Castle in 1043 .... 



PAGE 

490 
491 
507 
528 
529 
530 
535 
536 
537 
552 

554 

555 

557 

560 

561 

563 

565 

568 

570 

575 

576 

578 

579 

580 

580 

581 

583 

585 

587 

590 

594 

599 

605 

()()() 

607 

(1(18 

009 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



XIX 



FIO. 

211. Duck-pond (Eighteenth Century) on Hutton Moor, Kipon 

212. Burphani Cunip, Arundel, Sussex 

213. Highdown C.unp, Worthing .... 

214. Cissbury, Worthing 

215. "The Roman Ditches," Steep Down, WOrthin; 
21(5. Edburton Castle, near Brighton 

217. The Devil's Dyke Camp, near Brighton 

218. " The Giants' Graves," Devil's Dyke, Brighton 

219. Ditchling Beacon Camp 

220. Seaford Camj) .... 

221. Camp on East Hill, Hastings . 

222. Camp on Combe Hill, Willingdon 

223. Mount Cal)urn, Lewes 

224. Dolebury, Axbridge, Somerset 



I-AOE 

«il3 
»;42 

('>4(; 

f.47 
(555 
(i(iO 

t;()3 
am 

(i(i8 
073 
(i74 
070 
077 
O.S() 



Outline Map of the South Downs from Arundel to Beachy Head 

to fiici' p. 040 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 

CHAPTER 1 

INTRODUCTORY 

" Darkness surrounds us : seeking, ice are lost 

On Snonrlen's toilds, amidst Brif/antian coves, 
Or ivhere the solitary shepherd roves 
Along the jylain of Saruni, bi/ the yJiost â–  
Of time and shadows of tradition cro.st.'' 

Thk ('onstnictioii of I'aitli works ^ ooes l);>ck to the davs 
of neolithic man, possil)!}' to tlie days of the very earliest 
of neolithic men. It lie^an. tlioi-efore. in the prehistoiic 
age, to define which by any numerical date is at present 
impossible. It has continued without intermission from 
that age to the present time, but in these pages it will 
l)e considei'ed as liaving ended in the seventeentli 
century. 

Before neolithic man had arrived in Britain his pah^io- 
lithic fore-runner had seemingly come and gone. With 

* The term "earthworks" i.s used throughout in a wide sense to include 
all and any mound.s, hanks, ditches, walls, pits, Szc, whether built of earth 
or of stone or of Imtli, so long as these sliow no trace of mortar. It indutles 
such works as tlie great enclosing hanks and fo.sses of Aveluuy ami 
Stonehenge, while it excludes the megaliths within them and all similar 
monuments, menhirs and dolmens, circles of standing stones, stone avenues, 
&c. Primarily concerned witli remains wliich ai)()ear to l)e of defensive 
character, this volume includes many others — seemingly domestic, religious, 
funereal, S:c.- wlierever these may serve to point an analogy or a difl'eriMue, 
or to convey a warning. 

it 



2 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the latter and his times this l)ook has no concern. So 
far as we know him at all ^ palaiolithic man was a 
dweller in caves and rock-shelters, or in dug-outs upon 
the banks of the rivers, if he had any place of residence 
at all ; Iniilding for himself, at any rate, nothing that 
merits the name of a dwelling, ignorant perhaps even 
of fire — an animal of a type as low as that of the 
low^est savage, who has left to us, of all that was his, 
little beyond his rude stone implements and 1)}^ rarer 
accident his bones. ^ It is not known whence or when he 
came hither, nor how or why he departed. The curtain, 
barely lifted upon his dim stage, was immediately dropped 
again, to rise presently upon a new type of man living 
in an altered climate. The interval — no one knows how 
long —is an almost absolute blank : whatever may be the 
case elsewhere,^ in England it is at present imjDossible to 
show proof that the change from palaeolithic to neolithic 
was the result of continuous development only, whether 
quicker or slower ; — that the Neolith was merely the lineal 
descendant of the Palaeolith ; — that there had occurred 
evolution rather than revolution. Inasmuch as the 
interval — the Mesolithic Age so called — had sufficed for, 
the disappearance of the most characteristic fauna of the 
earlier time and the appearance of wholly new varieties, 
it is possible the animal homo was likewise of a new^ species. 
The contemporaries of the Palaeolithic race — of the cave- 
men and the river-drift-men — were the cave-bear, the 

1 Whoso desires it may find a sufficiently vivid and uninviting sketch of 
the man and his manners in Worthington (J. Smith's Man, The Primeral 
Savage. 

^ Nothing that is indisputably palieolithic has thus far been found north 
of the Humber. He has left a whole series of pictures of the principal 
animals of his time, notably the mastodon, bison, and reindeer. Most of 
the known examples of this earliest phase of art are of French provenance : 
Englisli specimens are extremely x'are. They are of interest here only as 
confirming the view that early man was a hunter and nothing more. Ho 
drew the inspiration of his pictui'es from the forms with which he was most 
familiar. 



I INIRODUCTORY 3 

mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and tin' saluc-tootln'd 
tiger; those of the very earliest Neolithic time were 
pretty much what they are to-day, with the cxce|)ti<in 
of a few species — wild l»ull, wolf, and heaver,' and one 
or two others — since eliminated l»\- the spread <»!' iiilti- 
vation and civilization. 

The written history" of this island l>e_oins oidy as late 
as 55 B.C., when Julius Caesar made his first landinii; here. 
There are indeed scattered references to Britain made !)>' 
writers of earlier date, notably by one Pytheas of 
Marseilles, who, area 330 B.C., sailed thus far north an«l 
remarked upon -the character of the cliniate and the 
inhabitants. -The gist of his remarks, as preserved in the 
quotations of other authors, is that the climate was damp 
and foggy ,^ the inhabitants an agricultural people or 
peoples who raised consideral)le quantities of coin. Here 
are two facts which have not greatly altere<l in some two- 
and-twenty centuries. 

Caesar's"* evidence is more lengtli\' aiiil more iiiist- 
worthy, albeit, like other travellers, lie was. perhaps, oc- 
casionally mistaken or possibly nnsinformed. 



' The wild l)ull,Iuink'd lieie in Koinan times, now survives perliiips in the 
famoiLS wild cattle of Chilliiij^liani Park, l)ut according to another view these 
are tlieniselves of Roman importation. Tiie last wolf is said to have ht-en 
killed in Ireland al)out 1700 : it disappeared earlier in (ireat liritain. 'Pile 
heaver liad gone long liefore, leaving only its name (so it is said ' in smh 
forms as Beverlej'. 

- The hest summary of the documentary evidence for the condition of 
Early Britain i.s to he found in Elton's Oritiins of EnijUsh Hiahirij. For tlie 
evidence, documentary or archseological, of things as they were in ( ".•i'.s;u 's 
time, see Dr. T. Rice Holmes' latest puldication, Anrli'tit liiltniii nud lln- 
Invasions of Jiilhis (Jtisdr, where most that is known, and nearly all that has 
been conjectured, is sunnnarized and sifted. 

•' This evil ciiaracter of the climate became a coinmon[ilace witli later 
writers. Strabo (§ 2t)l) asserts that the sun was visible for l)ut three or four 
hours at noon, and Tacitus (Aijilcohi 12) .says that "the climate is disgusting 
because of the constant rain and cloud," adding, however, the luiioiis i|ualiti- 
cation that '• tlie nights are clear." 

^ De Hrllo (UiHiro, V. 12-14. 

i; '2 



4 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

The ovd iiiaritima, i.e. the southern part of the ishiiid/ 
was inhabited l)y various tribes, immigrants from Belgium 
(Northern Gaul), who mostly retained tlie tribal names" 
by wliich their Gallic kinsmen were known. Tliey had 
seized by conquest the lands of earlier inhabitants, who 
claimed to be indigenous {i.e. had been settled there so 
long as to have no tradition of their origin), and who 
retained possession of the interior parts of the island (tlie 
parts further to the north, west, and north-west). The 
Belgic immigrants were "a numberless population"; 
their buildings — the word used includes houses and towns 
alike — were very like those of the Belgic Gauls, and as 
thick as thick could be ; and they owmed large quantities 
of cattle and sheep. Trade had taught them to use a 
currency : it was either bronze — a rare commodity, not 
produced in the island, l)ut imported — or bars of iron 
of standardized weights.^ There was workable iron in the 
coast-<listricts, liut not much of it ; and there was 
plumhurii alhum elsewhere.* Of timber the island ])ro- 



^ The expression certainly inuludes all southern Britain as far as the 
Thames, and probably all the southern Midlands as well. 

- E.(j., Attrebates, BelgiB. It is to be observed, however, that C;esar does 
not speak of the men of Kent as Cantii, but as those qiii CiDitiiim inrolvnt, 
which suggests tliat they were of so mixed a race as not easily to be brought 
into relation with any single tribe of the Gallic mainland. All the others he 
speaks of by tribal names only. 

•' Some of these bars are to l)e seen in the British Museum. Their 
identification is due to Mr. Reginald Smith, for they had previously been 
mistaken for iron swords, &c. See Proc. Soc. Antiq., Vol. xx. (1904-5). 
There was also a gold coinage as early as Cajsar's time, but he does not 
mention it, unless the words ant ntimmo aereo in V. 12 should be read aut 
niunhw aureo, as is probable. Perhaps the Roman copyist was loth to 
believe that the jjicfi Britaiini jiossessed a gold currency at a date when such 
a thing was still unknown to Rome. 

^ Plnvibum album (or candidina) is the usual term for tin, as plnmhum 
(nufrutn) is for lead. Mr. Emmanuel Green, F.S.A., has examined in a very 
able paper (Bedford Press, 1906) the growth of the legend that Britain was 
from far earlier times the seat of a vigorous tin-mining industry, and declares 
it baseless. Ctesar does not say that the tin was regularly mined, still less 
that it was exported. Strabo (§ 199) omits it from his list of British 
products, albeit he mentions gold, silver, and iron. Nevertheless it is 
not easy t<j understand how C.iesar could come to state the fact of its 



INTRODUCTORY 



5 



duced the same varieties as Gaul, excepting the Ijecrh and 
the fir. The natives would not eat the hare, the h«.'n. or 
the goose, ^ but they bred these (i.e. geese and poultrv) 
for pleasure. The climate was milder and more equal )le 
than that of Gaul. 

The most civilized were those inliabiting Caiitiiini 
(Kent)," who differed little from the continental Gauls. 
The more northerly natives for the most part were not 
agriculturists, but lived on milk and fiesli,"^ and dressed 
in skins. All alike practised the habit of dyeing them- 
selves with woad. They wore moustaches, allowed their 
hair to grow long, and practised polyandry."* 



existence, unless the natives had to some extent exploited it ; for those were 
not the days of mining experts and mining concessions. Perhaps he wrote 
simply plumbum, "lead," and his copyist again amended the text in 
accordance with the legend already inveterate in the 1st centui-y h.c As 
Mr. Green remarks, inasmuch as the Britons are exjiressly said by Ciesar to 
import their bronze, they cannot at any rate have understood how to use tin 
as an alloy ; and in its pure form it is useless and scarcely workalile. As a 
matter of fact the Britons possessed a coinage of tin, which may explain liow 
Ciesar came to speak of it as a native product. 

Most of what has been said or guessed about these matters — t lie where- 
abouts of the Cassiterides and of Ictis, the traditional point of exportation — 
will be found discussed by Dr. Rice Holmes in Atirirnt Hrltaiit uml Ihi- 
Invadonts of Julius Ccesar (pp. 483-514). 

' The prejudice against hare's tlesh is a well-known Celtic trait. 'I'Uat 
against fowls and geese is probably an error on Csesar's part, as is uu- 
((uestionably his statement a])out the beech and the fir. These trees cer- 
tainly grew in the island, but they may possil)ly not have been growing at 
his time in tlie districts whicli he visited. A similar reservation, (»f course, 
applies to his remarks about the geese and fowls. But why did the natives 
breed these birds, if it Wcis not for the table i' It must have been for sport. 
Certain Gallic coins bear the figure of a cock, unmistakably of the game type ; 
the continental Gauls were addicted to this form of sport when Ciesiir tirst 
l)egan their conquest ; and amongst the relics discovered in the Lake- 
Village of Glastonbury (p. 25".)) is the spur of a game-iock. .\s for tlic 
other l)ird, the Russians have a special breed of tiglitiug gee.se. 

- Celtic, (ju-ent, "plain." 

•' They were therefore still in the ])astoral stage, and owned cattU-. 

* The national pride has stro)igly resented this a.ssertion, but (";i'.s;ii h.i<l a 
better chance of finding out than have we. He may have bi'i'ii inislid liy 
some custom of inheritance which he did not understand, i>r lie ni.iy ha\i' 
stated of all what in truth ap])lied only to .some of the more l>arl).iii>iis trilies 
of the interior. 



6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

The important points in this brief summary are these : 
the popuhition of the southern counties differed from that 
of the rest of the ishmd ; it was Gaulish in origin and in 
culture, a highly civilized and very numerous population, 
whose settlements were very thickly scattered over the 
land. It was agricultural and commercial. On the other 
hand, the population of the more northern counties was 
of different blood and much lower in civilization, only just 
beginning in part to pass out of the pastoral into the 
agricultural stage. ^ All that he says of the ova mavitiuia 
goes to prove that it enjoyed a fairly permanent condition 
of peace. 

Inferentially it may further ]>c gleaned from Caisar 
that the people of the ora inaritima still retained their 
tribal organization for the most part, under the govern- 
ance of chiefs or kino's, althouoh on emergencv or under 
constraint they might for a time coalesce to soyie extent. 
There was, however, as yet no national sense. The social 
order seems to have been l)ased upon nothing more 
abiding than personal attachment to a distinguished 
leader, and the priesthood was a highly honoured pro- 
fession making vast pretensions to learning,^ and showing 
at any rate so much appreciation of the value of memor}' 
as to discountenance l)ooks and the making of books. 
The principal fighting arm was the car-fighters. They 
were therefore a horse-breeding people, and capable iron- 
smiths. Later writers tell us that they had a famous 
breed or breeds of sporting dogs, powerful enough to 



1 So Strabo : " Some of the tribes re.senil)le the Celtfe, while others are so 
much more uncivilized that some of them do not know how to make cheese, 
though they have milk in plenty, and have no kncjwledge of garden-crops or 
other forms of husbandry " (§ 200). 

- It might take as much as twenty years to learn the whole lore of tlie 
Druids, who taught, besides the doctrine of transmigration of souls, "a 
great deal about the heavenly bodies and their movements, about the size of 
the universe and of the world, about natural philosophy, and about the 
influence and power of the gods" {B.G. VI., 13). 



I INTRODUCTORY 7 

pull (lown u hull ; ' that their artistic sense made them 
amongst the best of all workers in mosaie, and their 
stature and their capacity for hard work made tln-m 
desirable slaves. That they could tight is confessed by 
Caesar's speedy abandonment of any schemes of conquest. 
The invasion of 55 B.C. was a mere scouting ex]jedition ; 
that of 54 B.C., if it 1)rought the Romans a little wax- 
north of the Thames, sent them back again upon the Hrsi 
plausible excuse. They did not return until 4o a.i>., all 
but a century later, and history during the interval tells 
us next to nothing which bears upon the state and 
progress of civilization in Britain. AVe only know that, 
as in much more recent days, its people fell into l)ad 
odour with the continental power as a people who 
harboured political refugees and preachers of sedition. 

If history is silent prior to CjBsar's coming, tradition 
tells us little more. In the Welsh Triads it is asserted 
that there came into the island three successive swarms of 
invaders from the mainland, viz., Lloegrians, Goidels, and 
Brythons. It has been maintained that the name of the 
Lloegrians answers to that of the Ligurians, and denotes 
a short, dark race who came from the south of France, 
akin to the Auvergnats. The Goidels must be the true 
Celta'," whom Cgesar carefully distinguishes from the 
Belgic Gauls. To the last-named would correspond the 



' These, says Strabo (§ 2(X)), were exported to Gaul for use in war. 
presumably as watch-dogs. 

- Goidel is nowadays more familiar in the form Gael. According to 
Macbain (Vdtir Dicfionary), Gael is identical with Gwyddel, which is the 
modern Welsh for "Irishman," l)ut in earlier times meant "woodman." 
The Irish are Gaelic, the Welsh (Cynuai) Brythonic Celts. Tlie tempting 
identification of the Latin CvU'w, the Greek ruXnTdt, and the Welsli 
Givyddel, is traversed by the philologists, who, however, cannot agree upon 
any alternative explHnati(m. Prof. Rhys tliinks Celt akhi to Hild, "war," 
and would render it " the Smiters '' ; Macbain refers it to the same root as 
Gelsm, "lofty." Gwyddd he refers to a root meaning "good," wliile 
Stokes would coiuiect it either with a root signifying a "he-goat," or with 
t>ue meaninn " a cock." 



8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Biythoiis, whose name means "the tattooed men," and 
alludes to their habit of woad-painting. The name of 
the Picts seems to have the same meaning, and modern 
research tends to show that they too were of Brythonic 
rather than of Gaelic stock. ^ If so, then, from their 
geographical position in the north of Britain, either they 
must have been an earlier swarm of immigrants sub- 
sequently driven northward l)y the intruding Goidels, or 
they must have made their entry into the island at a more 
northerly point than the other invaders. In old Welsh 
Lloegria was the accepted name for what is now England. 
From the name of the Brythons is said to be derived that 
of Britain — Ynys Prydain — and of the Britons. Tradition, 
therefore, appears to acknowledge precisely the same blend 
of precisely the same elements in the populations of Britain 
and of Gaul alike. Tradition is not proof, but it has an 
obstinate trick of proving itself true. 

There remains to fall back on only Comparative 
Archaeology. This is the Autolycus of the sciences, 
whose business is the picking up of unconsidered trifles, 
whose solitary instrument is the spade. It has recon- 
structed an Empire out of a shoe, rewritten the history 
of the Mediterranean nations by the help of potsherds, 
and reduced to relative modernity even the Sphinx itself; 
but characteristically the English, who have done so 
much for the Hittite, the Minoan, and the Egyptian, have 
as yet scarcely concerned themselves to apply the same 
methods to the secrets of their own soil. Yet Comparative 
Archaeology is the one and only key which can unlock 
those secrets, and in the few cases where the test has been 
applied the results have been so abundant and startling 
that only the national disregard of everything national 
can explain the lack of a host of scientific diggers at 
home. Our enthusiasms, in this as in other matters, are 

1 So Macbain, who identifies them with tlie Gallic Piotavi, who have left 
their name in Poictieis, 



I INTRODUCTORY 9 

nil for the wider world beyond the .seas, and nio.stly tbi- 
other peoples than our own kindred. 

Nevertheless something has been done even for England 
since first the science was developed some forty years 
ago ; ' and if it be true that cest le 2y)'emier pas qui codtc, 
then the worst is already done. The Comparative 
Archaeologist has established his (-laim to speak with 
authority even at home. His text is simple enough : Out 
of the earth must the secrets of the earth be dug. The 
task may be costly ; it demands an infinity of patience 
and laborious detail ; but its compensation is that its 
conclusions, wisely drawn, are irrefragable, and even when 
rashly made are still something more than mere guesses 
at truth. It is based, as all science must l)e, upon 
evidence. It has discredited the whole leoion of irre- 
sponsible theorists who were wont to make one's Hesh 
creep with horrid tales of Druidism, and to blind us with 
the olamour of Phcenician Argosies and Phoenician P)aal- 
worship. Its treasures are Hints and pebbles, its most 
valued premisses are shards ; and as the biggest of all 
birds was by comparative anatomy recreated from a single 
bone, so Comparative Arclueology is laboriously recon- 
structing the history of the civilization of Britain out 
of the litter of the centuries — litter whicli even tlic 
prehistoric savage of the earliest neolithic dawn tlimu 
away as valueless. 

The culture of the earliest neolithic peoples was 
different from that of the pahieolithic time : man was si ill 



' The pioneer of sciontiric work in this direction upon English soil wiis (he 
late Major-(Je;ieriil Pitt-Rivers. The results of his labours, to wiiich 
reftirence must repeatedly be made by any other impiirer in this tield, arc 
published in a number of sumptuous volumes, unhappily too eostly to be 
•generally accessible. It is very much to be wished that some epitome of his 
methods and conclusions may speedily be put within reach of the general 
public. This ought to be one of the tirst, as it would certaiidy he one of 
the most useful, tasks of those who seek to awaken aii intelligent interest in 
the subject of prehistoric arch;eology in general. 



lo EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

low down upon the ladder of progress, but lie had at any 
rate commenced to climb it. He knew the use of fire, 
and he had domesticated the ox/ and for himself and his 
cattle he built shelters. His weapons and implements 
were still of stone, but the types and the workmanship 
were alike greatly improved. He still clothed himself in 
skins, l)ut he had learnt how to stitch these with needles 
of bone. How he dealt with his dead is not known ; he 
may have left them where they fell, or l)urned or buried 
them in or near his hut, or even eaten them occasionally. 
His ideas about religion are equally uncertain, if they had 
any existence, and of his social system we know oidy that 
he was a shepherd. This fact implies that there were 
pasture-grounds to Ije found, and that he frequented 
them. England, therefore, was not altogether covered by 
forests. The lower ground was still certainly forest and 
fen, l)ut some at any rate of the uplands were open 
ground. Here, then, the pastoral men must have gathered, 
and if there were any population of the lower levels 
those must have been hunters and tishers only. In the 
choice of a dwelling-place the shepherd-folk had two 
tilings to consider, good pasturage for their flocks, and a 
supply of suitable stone for their weapons. Of all stone 
the most suitable was flint, and flint is a product of the 
chalk ; and the chalk hills were probably nowhere very 
densely wooded, in many places entirely treeless. Upon 
the chalk hills, therefore, neolithic man found the best 
aids to his advancement, i.e. upon the high ground of the 
southern and south-eastern counties, from Dorsetshire to 
Norfolk, from Wiltshire to Kent. Here, because the 
advantages were the greatest, his progress would be most 
marked ; here, because of the contiguity of this part of 
Britain to the Continent, we should expect to meet him 



' The date of the domestication of the sheep was apparently later than that 
of the ox ; that of the horse latest of all. The dog was early domesticated, 
but at what date is difficult to say. 



I INTRODUCTORY n 

first, most treqiieutly, or in the t'ulle.st measure of his 
development. Here in the ora maritima Csesar found 
the Britons of the Iron Age most progressive, and liere 
archfeology shows tlieir predecessors also to have attaine<l 
their highest culture. Here was centred the wealth and 
luxury of Roman Britain, and here to this day tlie 
standard of Enolish life is hiohest. The facts are niereh' 
the expression of a geographical law ; the nearer to the 
Continent the higlier the culture, and, conv^ersely, tlie 
further from the Continent the greater the barl)arism. 

Comparative anatomy has established the fact tliat tliere 
were two distinct physical types in Neolitliie Britain, 
a long-headed and a round-headed race. Of tliese, the 
long-headed, or I])erian, was the earlier. Before it was 
supplanted by the later round-headed race, it liad, at any 
rate, so far advanced in culture as to bury its dead — some- 
times — and often at the cost of considerable troul)le. The 
dead were Ijuried in barrows, which, by a happy accident, 
were likewise long, whereas the round-lieaded race built 
barrows which were round. ^ It is usual to see in this 
care for the dead the expression of some sort of i-eligious 
belief. 

The introduction of pottery marked a inure iii;ilcri;il 
advance of the very first importance. At first hand-ma«h' 
of extremely coarse clay, full of accidental ini})urities, and 
carelessly l)aked, it was gradually improved upon. Tlie 
firing was more thorough, the material was more carefully 
selected and prepared, the workmanship became more 

' This statement must not be strained, for long-headed skulls have been 
found within round l);inows. That long barrows are as a type earlier than 
round barrows is the fact established, but there nuist have been considurabh' 
over-lap. Similarly the long-headed race [u-eceded the round-headed, but 
there was very considerable mixture of the two. For the whole t|Uestion of 
the ethnology of the pre-historic time, see T. Rice Holmes' Anr'n nl Jirifnin. 
Craniology and anthropometry have not achieved so much as was claime«l bir 
them a generation ago in this or in any other country, and possibly the task- 
was exceptionally ditticult in regard ttt an ishmd which appears to have l»een 
the dumping-ground of the nations from the very beginning of things. 



12 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

skilful, greater variety of form was introduced, and 
various styles of decoration of increasing complexity and 
finish were successively elaborated. The invention of the 
potter's wheel came late. 

The fragments of pottery which strew the ground on 
almost every spot where there has been a human 
settlement are of extreme value to the archseoloo-ist. 
Being to all intents indestructible, their record remains 
where every trace of greater works, or even of metal, has 
vanished. Certain definite forms, certain characteristics 
of the paste, firing, and ornamentation, have been so far 
determined that the exj^ert can assign to each fairly 
narrow limits of date. This evidence, however, requires to 
be used with the greatest caution, for everything depends 
upon a reliable record of the circumstances under which a 
fragment is found — the character of the soil in which it 
lies, the depth at which it is discovered, and the characterand 
relative position of other objects, if any, associated with it. 
Allowance has further to be made in particular for the two 
factors of trade- importation and local peculiarities. At the 
present day, when practically the entire output of a 
particular class of goods may be produced at and 
distri])uted from one or two centres, by workmen all 
trained in one method and furnished with the same 
appliances, there is little or no difference to be observed 
in the articles used in widely different localities. In 
earlier times the case was different, and the difference 
becomes greater as the date goes further back. An accurate 
knowledge is required not merely of ancient pottery in 
general, but of the varieties usually found in the particular 
district, before any reliable conclusion can be arrived at ; 
and it must never be taken for granted that specimens 
found, e.g. in Somersetshire, because they resemble others 
from the East Coast, are therefore necessarily of the same 
date, of the same provenance, or the work of the same 
people. The most they actually prove is similarity of 



1 INTRODUCTORY 13 

culture, hut it is certain that the culture of «lirtereiit areas 
at any one date in ancient times varied very widely indeed, 
even within tlie narrow^ limits of l)ritain. On the other 
liand, due allowance has to he made jnr the fact thai 
certain types of earthenware remained in use, either in the 
same or in difierent localities, for (centuries. (,)uautities(jf 
])lack pottery, closely resemhlino- tlu- welld<iiown L'pchureli 
ware of Roman times, were made and used tlirouohout the 
earlier Middle Ages. 

The art of weaving was another great advanee. With 
it came the spindle-wdiorls of hurnt clay and of stone, 
which are constantly found in excavations, and the condis 
of wood or bone for carding the wt)o1. But here again 
there is need of caution. Whorls of stone, if not of 
earthenware, were made and used for many centuiie^ 
later in England.^ 

There is no evidence that the earlier ueolithie peo[)les 
knew anything of agriculture. This also was a later 
development, and may he regarded as tlie final step 
towards settled civilization. Nationalit}' is a thing 
unthinkable apart from locality, and the soil is still the 
sheet-anchor of all permanent governments. The nu-n 
of the Bronze time had become familiar witli oats, beans, 
and wheat, as cultivable crops. In the Iron Age the 
farmers' horizon was wider still. But as in other respects, 
in agriculture too the various parts of tlie island developed 
with varying rapidity. Caesar is authority for the assertion 
that, in his time, there was little agriculture in the /xas 
interior. A century later the British Isles were knowi\ 
as a source of the world's corn-supply, and IMiny says ilic 
natives were sutHciently advanced to use marl as a 
scientific manure. While manv of the liill-teiraces are ol 

' These wlituls, their i)iirpi>.se entirely forgotten, are commonly reganU'il 
with something like superstition liy the peasantry who tlig them up, ami are 
known in some districts as " adder stones.'' Mitchell says (77i<' Past In //"' 
Present) that he a.'tually saw them in use in the Sottish Isles as late 
as 1864. 



14 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

other formation, it is scarcely questionable that some of 
them were the work of agriculturists of the Iron Age, 
if not of the Age of Bronze or even of that of Stone. 
Primitive J\Ian was a nomad until his flocks and his fields 
brought him to a standstill. He built himself a permanent 
stronghold l)ecause his flocks or his crops demanded that 
he should be a nomad no more. To think of him as first 
building such a stronghold, and subsequently developing 
the culture of flocks and crops, and the other elements 
of civilization, is to think the wrong way round. 

Stone and bone were the materials of which were made 
most tools and weapons. Wood was also used, but has 
mostly perished. In certain soils even bone is rapidly 
dissolved, but stone defies everything except purposed 
destruction. The study of stone implements is a science 
in itself, but the most amateur of excavators requires to 
have some slight acquaintance with it, so as to be al)le to 
discriminate l)etween worked and unworked stones, and 
to recognize at sight not only such unmistakable pieces 
of handiwork as celts and arrowheads, saws and knives, 
but the less obvious types of scrapers, strike-a-lights, 
borers, and fabricators, and the still less obvious hammer- 
stones, whet-stones, sling-stones, mealing-stones, and pot- 
boilers. The use of stone for various purposes continued 
long years after the introduction of bronze, and even of 
iron, but in ever decreasing proportion as the metals 
supplanted the cheaper but less tractable material. There 
were parts of Scotland, for example, whose inhabitants 
remained to a oreat extent men of the Stone Ao-e until 
the Middle Ages were elderly. 

The introduction of bronze into northern Europe is 
thought to have occurred al)Out 1800 B.C., that of iron 
al)out 500 B.c.^ Relics of antiquity, which belong to a 

' The dates are those accepted by the autliorities of the British Museum 
(1902). Other authorities prefer other dates, fixing the first introduction of 
bronze at various periods from 2000 u.c. t<> J200 b.c. 



INTRODUCTORY 



M 



state of culture ignorant of the uses of metal, aiv said to 
he of the Stone Age. Sucli as are associated witli hronzc, 
liut not with iron, are chiinied as of the Bronze Age. 
Last of all, and speedily merging into the historical 
period, come those of the Iron Age. ^ With tlie earlier part 
of the 8tone Age — the Pah^olithic Time — eartliworks, as 
has l)een already said, have nothing to <lo ; they ))elong to 
the succeeding periods — the Neolithic, the Bronze, 
and the Iron Ages, and the historical period thereafter. 
But it must be clearly understood that these expressions 
have reference not to dates l)ut to certain standards of 
culture. The use of bronze or of iron was certaiidy 
familiar to some tribes of southern Britain long before 
it became common to those of the interior, not to speak 
of the remote parts of the island or of Ireland ; so that 
even within the small area of Great Britain there existed 
contemporaneously communities of all tliree Ages, an<l 
there is no definite date at which any one of tlic three 
can l)e said to l)egin or to end. Despite the levelling 
influence of modern intercourse and rapid communication 
there are still in the world tribes wlio liave not yet 
emerged from tlie Stone Age. In pre-liistoi-ic times, 
when intercourse was very limited and communication 
extremely slow, the ine(jualities of culture weie far more 
marked. It must l)e remembered also that tlie Stone Age 
was of a duration quite undeterminal)le by chronology, but 
immensely long. The interval between the first 
appearance even of Neolithic Man and the introduction 
of Bronze must, at any rate in England, be thought of 
as expressible only in thousands of years. 

Iron is believed to have been introduced into l)rii;iin b\- 



' Accurate discriniinatiim l)etween relics of the Ages of Hronzi- ami of 
Iron is made the more diflicnlt because of the liahility of iron to disa|t]iear 
completely throuc^h rust. Its total absence from any site is not in itself 
proof that it was unknown at the date when tliat site was occupied. Tlu^ 
((riiin)ii>)ifiiii) ex siUnilio is s])eeially dan<^ero)is in this case. 



i6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

a Celtic race. Whether the introduction of bronze can 
likewise be attributed to any one race is not yet clear. 
All the evidence goes to show that there was a constant 
succession of fresh peoples moving from the Continent 
westward to tlie island, and each would bring with it new 
elements of culture gathered upon the way. As they 
successively entered the island tliey drove liefore them its 
previous occupants, who, falling back to remoter districts, 
in turn ousted the earlier settlers there. Thus, the new- 
comers landing usually upon the south, south-eastern, and 
eastern coasts, it is in those parts that the more advanced 
culture is found, the standard of civilization falling; as 
one passes further to the north and the west. The tribes 
of the ora maritirtia in C?esar's time were in much the 
same phase of culture as w^ere the Gauls, but probably at 
the same date a portion at least of the inhabitants of 
Strathclyde and Wales were unqualified savages ; ^ and 
when the Romans left the island the tril)es of Scotland 
were savages still, while those of Britain generally were 
fairly advanced in civilization. Even to-day the same 
fact is recognizable. The standard of life in the Orkneys, 
in Lewis, in Connemara, is relatively as far below that of 
the home-counties now as it was 2,000 years ago.^ 

There is no doubt that in the Bronze and L^on Aoes the 
more vigorous and progressive part of the population was 



' Dioclorus Siculus (v. 32) asserts that some of the British tri})es were 
reputed to be cannibals ev^en in his clay, and he was later than Ctesar ; and 
Strabo, writing at much the same date, describes the Irish as living in most 
degraded savagery. 

2 See on this matter especially A. Mitchell's The Past in the Present, an 
elaborate study of survivals, and perhaps the best commentary upon Pitt- 
Rivers' Essays which could be desired. There is a constantly increasing 
mass of evidence to show the inequality of culture throughout ancient 
Britain, and it is more than possible that many of the inhabitants of the 
country north of Trent were still in the Bronze Age, cave-dwellers and 
nomads, far into the days of the Roman occupation. The degree of 
culture discoverable amongst the remains of the four northern counties is 
extremely small. 



I INTRODUCrOin' 17 

of Celtic and Belgic stook. The inif ('dts wnr the 
round-headed race wlio succeeded tlir litHLj-licaded 
Iberians ; tlie Belgte were more closely related to tlie 
Teutonic stock. There is some evidence tliat tlie im- 
migration of tril)es of more or less purely Teutonic bhjod 
began at a very remote period, and continued without 
cessation until the final settlement of England by Saxons, 
Jutes, Angles, and others. In all probaljility tliere were 
settlers from the Baltic and Frisian coasts ' estal)lished 
here before the Roman conquest, and. it is generally 
admitted that others continued to make good tlieii- entry 
during the period of the Roman occupation ; long before 
the legendary coming of Hengist and Horsa anil the final 
flood-wave of Saxon conquest. The analogues and afiinities 
of the peoples and the culture of early Britain are therefore 
to be looked for anywhere in the wide area lying between 
Scandinavia and Spain, and eastward to Plallstadt in the 
Tyrol. And if the majority of such foreign contacts were 
made by conquest and force, peace also liad its victories 
and trade was never at a stand-still. Trade-relations 
existed from very early times witli the Baltic, with tlie 
whole area of Gaul, and so with the great markets ot' 
the Mediterranean, and in another direction by \va\' of 
Spain with the " Phcenicians," i.e. the Carthaginians of 
Northern Africa. One of the most fascinating and most 
intricate branches of comparative archeology is concerned 
to trace out the gradual passage of new forms of industry, 
new types of art, from one country to another, and thus 
reconstruct the culture-chart of i)reliistoric times. 

That Neolithic Alan very early developed some sort of 
religion is undoulited, but exactly what was its character 



1 Roman writers tlcclare that the Cyimu themselves came ori<^inally from 
the shores of the Baltic, whence some wandered to Britain, to leave their 
name in Cambria and Cumberland. It would be nothing extraordinary if 
those who replaced them on the Baltic- prt-sfiitly follDWod westward al<>n<j; 
the path of their migration to Britain. 

C 



1 8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

is as yet unknown. That some of our survi^^ing earth- 
works were originally constructed for religious purposes, 
incidentally that is, is universally admitted ; ' l)ut 
precisely what that religion was in any particular case 
is mostly matter of conjecture. Probably the oldest was 
nothing but the fear of ghosts, later dignified with, the 
name of ancestor-w^orship ; and ancestor-worship may 
take forms as widely different as tlie rituals of Rome, of 
Egypt, and of China, to s'ay nothing of less-developed 
peoples. Vastly later in the history of culture comes 
anything more exalted, and in particular astronomical 
religion, that is, the w^orship of sun, moon, and stars ; for 
such worship implies the development of some sort of 
astronomical science and observation, be it never so 
empirical.' The religion of the Celts and the Belgpe of 
Caesar's time, appears to have })een, in part at least, 
astronomical, but there is as yet no proof that they learnt 
this cult from the Phoenicians, still less from Chald?ea, 
and the theory which would attribute to all their 
earthworks a religious purpose requires no refutation. 
The most, and the most impressive, of those monuments 
which are believed to be of religious character, belong to 
the Bronze Age. Sir Norman Lockyer endeavours from 
astronomical data to determine the approximate age of such 
monuments as Stonehenge, and to show that the differences 
noticeable in monuments of this class are to be explained 
by differences of cult and therefore of date. He brings 
forward evidence to show that there have existed in 



' In a certain sense, all burial was, perhaps, originally due to religious 
feelings, and if so, the long barrows, which are commonly supposed to be 
our very oldest specimen^ of earthwork, are due to religion. 

^ The question whether primitive astronomy was necesmrilii intermixed 
with religion cannot be discussed here. Probably it was so in fact, l)ut it is 
at least possible that some earthworks which are usually called religious were 
in reality astronomical only — observatories, that is. There are still 
people to be found who, though they have forgotten or forsworn other 
forms of religion, l)elieve in the influence of the stars. 



I INTRODUCTORY 19 

Britain two (listiiict systems of astroiioiiiical \\<)r.s|ii|». nuc 
l)ase<l upon the May-Noveiulxr year, tlic otlitT upon the 
June-December year. Accordinn to rln- usual view, so 
great a difference in a matter ho important as relioion, 
points very decicledly to a corresponding' difference of race. 
This is <|uite possilJe, and even likely, ))ut it is at present 
impossi])le to establish the point. Considering that 
Britain has seemingly aJ> initio l)een the meeting-place 
and asylum of each and every nation drifting westward, 
it is not wonderful that even in the earliest times its 
population should present a most perplexing and 
composite character. It may be doubted whether any 
area of the same size can offer a more varied series of 
problems ethnological and archaeological. Yet the 
Englishman, as a rule, prefers to devote his labours, 
means, and imagination to the solution of the problems, 
not a whit more interesting, of countries much more 
remote and fre({uently offering far less material to work 
upon.' 

The extent and variety of the field awaiting exploration 
in England is only to be realized at the cost of some effort. 
IM'ofessor Windle ''' has made a tentative list of upwards of 
900 cam})S, prcsuma])ly pre-Roman, in England alone, and 
the actual nund)er may very likely l)e as many again. 
To these are to be added Roman works in scores, Norman 
works by huixb-eds, while of the tale of moats and moated 
sites, and the almost endless variety of miscellaneous 

' The organization in the cniTcnt year (1908) of a powerful connnittee under 
the auspices of Liverpool University to investigate the autiijuities of Wales, 
Roman and prehistoric, is a liopeful sign of l)etter things to come. Many of 
the local Societies are doing what they can, hut tlieir work would he greatly 
facilitated by closer co-operation and — what is of still greater iiiiport.iiice — 
the more lively interest and more sympathetic support of all, 

- See the various lists given in his Rfmains of thi' /'rf/i/.s/oc/c Atf in 
Knijland. In his Endii Fortijintfions of ScoHand Dr. Christison mentions in 
that country a grand total of 1,07*.) "forts" on the Scottisli mainland, 
excluding the Isles, and taking no account of works riglitly or wronyly caUed 
Roman, of dykes, or of other niisrellrmi'a. 

c 2 



20 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

earthworks — dykes, moot-hills, l)ai'rows and other mounds, 
village-sites, enolosnres, pits, and what not — tliere is 
literally no end. And of all these, saving only the 
barrows, which have received a proper meed of attention, 
barely a few scores have been examined. For practical 
purposes only enough has been done to show how the 
task ought to be done. Tlie tools and the method have 
been determined : well nigh the entire field lies open to 
all who care to peg out a claim. 

If it be the hope of making new discoveries that draws 
men into new fields of thought, the study of earthworks 
should prove an attractive one, and it is as broad as it is 
attractive. Of all the many thousands of earthworks of 
various kinds to be found in England, those about which 
anything is known are very few, those of which there 
remains nothing more to be known scarcely exist. Each 
individual example is in itself a new problem in history, 
clironology, ethnology, and anthropology ; within every 
one lie the hidden possibilities of a revolution in know- 
ledge. We are proud of a history of nearly twenty 
centuries : we have the materials for a history which goes 
back l)eyond that time to centuries as yet undated. The 
testimony of records ca.rries the tale ])ack to a certain 
point : beyond tliat point is only the testimony of 
archaeology, and of all the manifold l)ranches of archaeology 
none is so practicable, so promising, yet so little explored, 
as that which is concerned with earthworks. Witliin 
them lie hidden all the secrets of time before history 
begins, and by their means only can that history be put 
into writing : they are the back numbers of the island's 
story, as yet unread, much less indexed. Heretofore the 
alphabet has been regarded as the key of knowledge ; 
to-day it is the spade. 

Subjoined is the classification of defensive earthworks 
recommended by the Committee on Ancient Earthworks 
and Fortified Enclosures. So far as possible the arrange- 



I INTRODUCTORY 21 

iiieiit of the subse(|ueiit chapters is based upon that 
classification : with such motlifications and additions as 
the scope of the work demands. 

A. Fortresses partly inaccessible, l)y reason of pivcipircs. 

cliffs, or water, additionally defended by artificial 
works, usually known as promontory fortresses. 

B. Fortresses on hill-tops with artificial defences, folluw- 

ing the natural line of the hill. 
Or, thouoh usually on Ingh ground, less dependent 
on natural slopes for })rotection. 

C. Rectangular or other simple enclosures, including forts 

and towns of the Romano-British period. 
I). F'orts consisting only of a mount with cncinling 
moat or fosse. 

E. Fortified mounts, either artificial or [)artl\' natural. 

with traces of an attached court or l)ailey, or of 
two or more such courts. 

F. Homestead moats, such as abound in some lowland 

districts, consisting of simple enclosures formed 
into artificial islands by water moats. 

G. Enclosures, mostly rectangular, partaking of the foini 

of F, l)ut protected by stronger defensive works, 

raui})arted and fossed, and in some instances 

proN'ided with outworks. 
H. Ancient Village sites protected by walls, ram pa its or 

fosses. 
X. Defensive works which fall under n»>nc of iIk-m- 

headings. 

Persons otherwise regarded as men of brains have asked 
tlic writer "What can you see in things of this sort:* 
They are all alike to us." LiteUi(jihiH'(, mm infellecl ma 
wJfero: to the blind the universe is pretty much all alike. 
There is probably no branch of iuipiiry in which it may 
be said with more literal truth that e\ery example is 
unlike all others. To detect the d.ifferenecs, to metlio- 



22 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

dize thciu, to hunt the map over in the splendid 
uncertainty that here, or there, or on the next hill-top, 
we may happen upon .some inditterent ditierence which 
may give the clue to a brainful of problems — it is a 
fascinating chase, and though one's hopes elude one still, 
they lead one out into the high places of the earth, the 
untrodden ways, the wind and the sunlight. 

And one never knows where or when one may make 
a fresh discovery. Earthworks, it might l)e supposed, 
are so obvious that they must long since have been all 
noticed, recorded, and mapped, at least in this over- 
populous island of ours. Not at all. Generations of 
men have walked over scores of such things without 
ever noticing their existence. It requires genius to notice 
what is obvious. Not a year passes without tlie discovery 
of new earthworks which have waited for hundreds, nay, 
for thousands of years, for mere recognition. In such a 
case as that of Wallington Camp, long since l)uried out 
of sight, later generations may stand excused ; l)ut there 
are other instances in plenty to prove that human 
intelligence so-called is mostly an intinite capacity for 
shutting one's eyes. It is barely a dozen years since 
the works at Grassington in Wharfedale, covering over 
200 acres of ground and rich in all kinds of relics, were first 
noticed ; some three years only since another group — 
fosses and banks and mound comj^lete — were for the first 
time remarked within five miles of Cambridge ; and only 
last year attention was drawn to some earthworks in 
valleys of Sussex, up and down which men have 
wandered heedlessly for centuries. The erection of a new 
factory near Allendale -Town, causing the heather upon 
the adjacent moors to perish, revealed the perfectly 
preserved outlines of a great camp ; and there may well 
be a hundred such things still lost among the deep heather 
and the woods of the remoter nortliern fells and valleys. 
In scores of villages and towns the mounds and trenches. 



I INTRODUCTORY 23 

Ijigger or smaller, which alone mark the .sites of Liritish 
forts and Roman stations and Norman castles, still retain 
fragmentary existence, but they are so obvious, so much 
a part of the recognized features of the spot, that they 
excite no remark. Year by year they are being slowly 
levelled down, and in the end they mostly perish utterly 
without ever having been remarked at all. Yet a score 
of agencies are for ever thrusting before unseeing eyes 
the evidence of their presence, perhaps the clue to their 
purpose and their history, and in vain. The moles and 
the rabbits, as well as the plough, are daily turning up 
the shards and coins, the implements and bones and 
tesserae, which are the disjecta lyiemhra of history. 
The moles and the rabbits have betrayed the secrets of 
a dozen cities ; and from mole-heaps and rabbit-casts 
the antiquary who has no licence to dig may yet fill 
his pockets with specimens of antir|uity on any one of 
a thousand sites. The botanist holds other keys to the 
past. Where he finds Henbane or Black Horehound. or 
even the caustic Greater Celandine, was once in all 
likelihood some mediaeval gai'den-ground, some forg(jttcn 
mansion or lost village. Finding a plant of vervain 
{Verbena officinalis) by the road-side at Well in the 
North Riding, a local botanist told the writer that h(> 
had at once conchided there must have been some 
Roman settlement at hand ; and two years later were 
brought to light, not fifty yards away, the ruins ot a 
villa. Chives, which orow wild alonu' tlic Wall, arc 
said to have been introduced b\' the Romans, not less 
than the purple-Howered Eriuus Hlspaiucus, which is 
alleged to be found in England only upon tlie site of 
Roman Cilurnum. In popular belief the Dwarf Kldcr. 
or Dane's Wort, grows only on spots once watered l»y 
the Northmen's blood. On some of these spots it 
certainly grows; as certainly it may l)e found on others 
where no other record or relic of Danish presence is 



24 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

discoverable. To aiiotlier class in nature belongs the 
large tawny Roman Snail {Helix Fomatia), common ujjon 
many spots which have been shown to be Roman sites, 
and perhaps in some cases a survival from Roman 
vivaria.^ 

But of all auxiliaries none is so valual)le to the student 
of earthworks as the sun and the sunshine. Slioht 

o 

inecjualities of the surface, invisible to the keenest ol)server 
as he walks over the ground, show up from a distance in 
the sunlight as in a photograph, and take once more their 
proper shape as the outlines of forgotten enclosures, 
camps, dykes, individual buildings and settlements. 
They will still be invisible unless one happens to be in the 
right place, the sun at the right point in the heavens ; 
and one may walk over the same field, scrutinize the same 
hill-side, for months and even years, without chancing 
upon the necessary hour and aspect. So faint and 
elusive sometimes are these shadows that they vanish as 
one approaches : they can be located and inapped only by 
the help of some coadjutor stationed it may be hnlf a mile 
away, and signalling to the would-l)e surveyor as lie 
moves from point to point. Vanished mounds and 
trenches may be rediscovered sometimes only by the help 
of a growing crop : glancing along the straight-drilled 
rows of corn one may detect the faint heave or dip of the 
surface where once ran vallum or fosse, things otherwise 
too faint to throw even a shadow on the land. In hot 
seasons tlie sun wnll himself execute upon the green turf 
the very ground-plan of things hidden beneath it, for 
where there are foundations of stone the grass becomes 
parched and brown along the lines of building, and 
churches, castles, villas, and villages are revealed in out- 

' But it was probably indigenous in some parts of the island. As 
another curious instance of survival may be mentioned the following. 
The crayfish is not indigenous to England north of the Thames, but it has 
been found in a remote beck on the Yorkshire moors, a feeder of the Skell. 
Undoubtedly it was introduced there by the monks of Fountains Abbey. 



INTRODUCTORY 



25 



line upon the grass. The Roman villa at Blatcliinoton, 
near Brighton, was discovered by the fact that the cr(j[» 
had l)ut a stunted growth above the foundations. 
Similarly the mere colour of the soil will l)etray the 
presence of such things even upon ploughed fields : wlnn-e 
ran a fosse the soil will be deeper and 1 thicker, and 
black earth may itself be a sign of human habitation.' 

It will hardly be maintained that it is but a narrow- 
minded hobby which calls for so much alertness, sudi 
varied observation, such ready receptivity, as are needful 
to the student of earthworks. The history of his country 
at large, and specifically an intimate acquaintance with 
that of his particular portion of it, some knowledge of 
anthropology and ethnology, of military science and 
agriculture ancient and modern, of primitive custcmi 
and mediseval manners and methods, of priinitixc 
belief, relioion, astronomical science and necroloi>y, of 
numismatics and osteology, of the arts of the pottci- 
and the smith and the worker in flint, a little ]M)tany. 
a. little geology — all these, and more, arc useful to 
him if they be not all actually needful ; and these 
manifold acquirements he should possess in addition to 
other gifts which are more essential, viz., a close observa- 
tion, an indefatigable patience, extreme caution, and sound 
common sense. At once concrete enough to give an interest 
to everything, yet sufficiently abstract to satisfy an}' sane 
imagination, the arclueologist of earthworks niiglit not 
unreasonably claim that his is the sclent ia scicntiannii to 
wliicli all others are l)ut the handmaids. One power at 
least it has which belongs to no other, that of briugin.i;- 
the dead to life. in his hands alone lies the jtowcr wliicli 
can re-create the past. 

' This fact is confessed occasioiijilly in ])i>|mlar imiuenclatme. "'rin' I'.lark 
Fields" is tlie name of the site of a Roman settlement at .\Kliester ; ami 
"Best-leas," the name of a Held lyin<,^ along the line of (he Uiiekiiii^li-H'i 
shire Grim's Dyke, alludes to the siipciioi- (Hialily of the soil which once 
formed the dyke. 



CHAPTER II 



CLIMATE AND (.'ULTUllE 



" Of old sat Freedom on the heiglits." 

" Well said, old mole. Canst work i the earth so fast / 
A worthy ixioneer ! " 

Palaeolithic man was a hunter. His movements there- 
fore were determined by those of the animals wliich formed 
liis quarry, and those again were in the ultimate deter- 
mined by climate. The earliest authenticated traces of 
Palaeolithic Man are found in deposits belonging to the 
later portion of the Pleistocene period. That period was 
characterized in Britain by extreme variations of tempera- 
ture, and great alterations of the land-levels. During its 
earlier half the climate was seldom, if ever, other than 
arctic, and the land-level rose, fell, and again rose, until 
Britain was once more united with the Continent. There- 
after the climatic conditions became less and less severe, 
albeit the variations of heat and cold continued to be so 
considerable that the fauna of the period was representa- 
tive alike of arctic and of southern types. Contem- 
poraneous with these are the earliest known traces of man 
in Britain, and it is believed that they are the reliquiae 
of hunters who followed one or other species of animal to 
and from the mainland. There supervened, however, 
another period of glacial character, accompanied by fresh 
subsidence of the land-levels, until at the close of the 



CH. 11 CLIMATE AND CULTURE 27 

Pleistocene period Britain was once again an islan<l, and 
probably much of what i.s now dry land was l»cneatli tlic 
sea. 

By the geologist all subsequent times arc includ(Ml 
under the name of the Recent period. In this the earlier 
changes were to a great extent repeated; the island 
gradually rose until it was again continental, and thus 
tlie now existing fauna found its way into the ((MiiitrN', 
which, as the climate was simultaneouslv modified, bccanu' 
densely forested. With the new fauna came Homo again 
— Neolithic Man, whose presence is thenceforward unin- 
terrupted. The connexion of Britain witli the mainland 
was not, however, of long duration : once more, and this 
time finally, it became an island, and the remains of the 
forests which were submerged in this final subsidence are 
to be seen at many points about the coast, e.g. in Lan- 
cashire, in Bridgwater Bay in â–ºSomersetshire, and ah)ng 
the south coast. Partly as a result of this renewed 
insularity came further diminution in the range of tem- 
perature, and the climate became more humid. At the 
same time the forests of the interior began to shrink, and 
very gradually their disappearance tended to render the 
climate drier. In this direction the change has been pro- 
ceeding slowly to the ])resent time, and although the 
gradual alteration of coast-levels has not altogether ceased, 
it has not been sufficient to make any material difference 
in the map of the island from the geologist's point of 
view. 

Within narrower limits there have nevertheless been 
very considerable modifications, due partly to another 
and extremely gradual process of elevation, partly to 
erosion by the sea. Thus in Ca3sar's time the sea came 
up to Lymne, and the alteration of the coastdinc all 
ah)ng the south-cast of h^nglaiitl is illustrated liy the 
present position of the once prosperous Cin([ue-[)orts, 
many of which ha\e long ceased to have any " business 



28 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

in the great waters." A precisely similar change has 
reclaimed to cultivation the whole of the lowlands of 
Somersetshire westward of Glastonbury, from the Menclips 
on the one side to the foot of the Blackdowns on the 
other, A yet more extensive change has been effected 
in the Fen-districts of the east coast, although man has 
here had a laro-er share in the result. Similar alterations 

o 

have occurred along the coasts of Essex and Kent on 
either bank of the lower Thames, and on the shores of 
the Humber, where such names as Holland (i.e. Hollow- 
land) and Sunk Island explain themselves. On the other 
hand, erosion has very materially altered and still con- 
tinues to alter the coast-line, on the east especially, 
evidence of which is to be seen in the Godwin Sands, and 
in the fate which has overtaken the Roman fortress of 
Otliona (Bradwell), in Essex, and those at Walton-on-the- 
Naze and Felixstowe, and the mediaeval port of Dunvvich. 
But speaking generally, it may be said that no consider- 
able portion of the island is now under water which was 
terra Jlrina in the days of the Roman occupation, nearly 
2000 years ago.^ 

Of the deforestation of the country there is evidence 
in plenty ; the process has been going forward, whether 
by reason of climatic change or by dint of human agency, 
ever since the commencement of the Recent period, but 
to a very great extent it is actually matter of documentary 
proof. The traditional names of forests long since vanished 
still linger in their several districts, e.g. Inglewood, Wyre, 
Elmet, Arden, Charnwood, and Hainault ; while in many 
cases there still remain isolated patches and fragments of 
the old woodlands, as in the New Forest, Cranborne Cliase, 
Ashdown Forest, Epping, Sherwood, Savernake, and Dean. 

^ The tradition of a submei'ged Kingdom of Lyonesse, which once stretched 
from the Land's End to the Scillies, has no support in geohjgical facts, for 
the subsidence of that area dates from a period immeasurably eai'lier than the 
legend requires. The Lyonesse of mediasval romance was in Brittany. 



II CLIMATE AND CULTURE 29 

In all these instances, and in many more, the forests were 
properly so called, and no account is here taken of man}- 
otlier " forests," or " chases," in the Norman sense of 
royal hunting-demesnes, not necessarily wooded to any 
great extent or indeed at all, such as were the P'orests 
of Dartmoor and Exmoor, Neroche and Mendip, and the 
weary swamps aljout the Don and the Trent known as 
Hatfield Chase. But in many cases every trace is lost 
of forests far more extensive and more ancient. Thus 
the vast Andredesweald, wliich covered the whole of the 
Weald of Sussex and much of Surrey, has passed com- 
pletely out of memory, and so have those which covered 
most of the counties of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire 
and Berkshire,^ Cuml)erland and Westmorland. Writing 
a few years before the Christian Era, Strabo could still 
say that " the island was mostly jinigle " even on the 
lower levels. A map of Britain at any date antecedent 
to the Romans' coming would present only isolated areas 
of cultiva])le land of greater or less extent scattered 
amongst vast stretches of unbroken forest and fi-ii : .ind 
the more remote the date, the less would be the extent 
of open country." 

The climate of a country and its trees are iiitiiiiatcly 
connected the one with the other. Dense vegetation 
itself promotes humidity, and humidity when excessive 
destroys the trees which aggravate it ; and these as they 
jlecay form peat-beds, and give place to the semi-a(piatic 
vegetation of fens. But the very decay of the forests 



^ Buckinghamshire and Berkshire are named from their forests, of lieech 
and of birch respectively. At the present time the sole remnant of the 
Berkshire forests is to be found in and near Windsor Groat Park anil 
Bagshot Heath. Of the forests of Bucks — anciently inckuknl in Bernwood 
Chase — there are renuiants to be seen in the beech-woods of the Chilterns 
between Ti-ing and Wendover, and aljout Great Hampden ; but most of the 
wood on the Cliilterns, at any rate, is of modern planting. 

- In J. R. Green's Makiiuj of Enyland are a number of majis to illn>trati' 
the condition of the country in the fifth and following centurie> 



30 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

tends to diminisli the humidity which aided it, while if 
allowed to go too far it may result, not in the recovery 
of fresh acres to the plough, but in the formation of 
pestilential swamps or arid deserts. The outstanding fact 
is that forests properly so called imply a very moist 
climate, and there is every reason to believe that the 
climate of Early Britain was very moist. The forests 
filled the whole of the lowlands and climbed far up the 
slopes of the hills. The low-lying areas were entirely 
covered with jungle, and were for the most part im- 
passable swamps ; what are now mere streamlets were 
then wide and unbanked rivers, broadening out at short 
intervals into lagunes, tidal or otherwise ; and as a 
consequence partly of the sodden state of the lowlands, 
partly of the humidity induced by the forests, the 
rainfall was far greater than it now is, and the levels 
at which Howed the springs were far higher. It may 
indeed be stated as a general truth that all over England 
the water-levels were very much higher than they now 
are, and the streams more numerous and more copious ; 
so that areas at the present time almost waterless were 
once abundantly supplied with that necessary of life, 
if not actually swampy, and that too at no very remote 
period. 

The bearing of these facts upon ancient earthworks is 
easily made ol)vious. Earthworks are the signs of human 
occupation. Where they abound they imply either a 
numerous contemporaneous population or long periods of 
occupancy, and vice versa. But in no part of the world 
have forests ever maintained a large population. It is 
true that there may have been, and probably was, even 
to the latest part of the prehistoric age, a considerable 
population of hunters, who contrived to find a subsistence 
in the forests and the fens, remaining perhaps, in extreme 
cases, in a condition of savagery very little removed from 
that of their palaeolithic forerunners. But such a popula- 



11 CLIMATE AND CITLT[TRF. 31 

tioii, liowever large in the aogregate, could iie\er lie very 
dense at any particular spot. The life of tlie Imiiter does 
not admit of dense population, because the supply of game 
will not suffice for many mouths. Nor does it allow such 
permanence of settlement as might lead to the construction 
of earthworks of any great extent, for the game is soon 
scared off from one locality, and the hunter must needs 
up and follow it elsewhither. Nor can hunting com- 
munities amass wealth : they must either al)and()n rlifir 
lower civilization for a higher, or they must witlidiaw 
before more civilized peoples possessed of greatei" wealth 
and better weapons. The regular path of advance is from 
liunter to shepherd, from shepherd to agriculturist Ijur 
a pastoral life is impracticable in the forest, if not 
altogether so in the fen, because of the lack of aderjuate 
pasturage, and because wild beasts make impossible the 
safe keeping of herds in such localities. Pastoral peoples 
must of necessity seek open ground, and those tribes which 
refuse to do so condemn themselves to continue in the 
lowest grade of civilization. Progress l)egan with those 
who first abandoned the traditional life of the hunter, 
and, coming into the open, devoted themselves to the 
shepherd's life. It will be found that of all our in- 
numerable earthworks of even the oldest types, the most 
and the finest stand in what was probably open country. 
Such exceptions as occur for the most part admit of some 
explanation. On the other hand, those areas which arc 
known to have been more densely afforested in earlier 
times are markedly lacking in earthworks, and particularly 
in earthworks of great size ; ^ and the same remark applies 
to those tracts which are known to have been fen. 



' Thus Ruv. S. Baring-Gould has remarked that there are no camps on 
Dartmoor, although iniiuodiately outside the Moor lie tliirteen of various 
types. Exmoor again, while it can sliow a considerable number df camps of 
various types, has not a single really fine one. Yet Exmoor probaldy had a 
large population in primitive times, and Dartmoor nn((uestiona))ly siisfaiued 
a very large oiu-. 



32 EARTHWORK OK ENGLAND chap. 

As compared witli the life of a hunter, that of a 
.shepherd is a settled one. Where the conditions allow 
of it, he may move hither and thither within strictly 
narrow limits, from the hill to the plain and from the plain 
back to the hill according to the seasons, or where the 
area of open ground is wide enough he may wander as 
freely as the Turcoman. But in Britain there was no 
such scope for his wandering. The open country was 
of very limited extent, dense forest separating one stretch 
of pasture land from the next, and the natural growth of 
population must have speedily occupied such areas as 
were available, the more so as pastoral communities 
require for their maintenance a relatively large extent of 
ground, and that ground of a certain quality and 
character. The tendency would lie from a very early 
date for the pastoral tribes to make permanent settle- 
ments. Moreover, this would be done the sooner because 
of new dangers begotten of new facts : the herds of the 
tribe would be a constant temptation to wild beasts, and 
the forest, nowhere very remote, harboured numbers of 
wolves as well as other predatory animals. Common 
sense would speedily lead to the construction of folds 
adequate for the protection of the herds at night-time, 
and these would naturally be constructed at the points 
furthest removed from the forest, i.e. upon the tops of the 
open hills. But the herds would be equally a temptation 
to the hunter tribes of the lowlands, as well as to other 
sliepherd tribes of the hills, and the practice of cattle- 
lifting would increase as the population became more 
numerous. It was therefore the more desirable to select 
permanent sites which could be fortified alike against 
wild beasts and against man. If there are many earth- 
works of a character so slight, that they might be thought 
to have been erected simply as a defence from wolves, 
there are many more which were as obviously 
constructed aaainst adversaries far more formidable. 



II ClJMArJ'. AM) CULTl'KK 33 

A mere .stockiuU,' niiglit, with leusoiiaMe xigilaiiee (jii 
the [)art of the owners, suttice to safeguard the liords 
from the most venturous of wolves, hut never yet were 
wolves so dangerous and so desperate as to call for the 
erection of such elaborate works, doubly and tre1)ly and 
even (|uadru[)ly entrenched, us are the great hill-forts of 
Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. These must, without any 
(question, have been built to meet the attacks of man, and 
must be, therefore, military works. To supi)0se that 
primitive men dug fosses and raised valla ' where a mere 
hedge woulil luu'e sutiicod to keep the wolf out and iiis 
oxen in. is to credit him with a degree of energy which 
his species has never developed from that day to this, 
^lan never does, and never did, more work than he must, 
albeit he frequently does less than he ought. 

There is no question that the hill-to[) camps are, as a 
class, the finest and the most elaborate of all. From 
what has been said it would follow that some of them are 
also amongst the oldest, and so far' as they have been 
examined this appears to be the fact. It would, indeed, be 
quite reasonal>le to argue that their very size, strength, 
and elaboration are rather proofs of their having been 
built at a later date, wdien the builders had become 
numerous, wealthy, and experienced ; Ijut in view of the 
evidence it must rather be maintained that these charac- 
teristics are the result of the continued labours of many 
generations, or even of many centuries. In the slow 
process whereby wader and yet wider tribal conibiiiations 
took the place of the older and smaller units, the tendency 
would be for certain positions to grow in importance as 
others dwindled ; and as its importance increased, more 
and more effort would l)e expended upon strengthening 
the central fortress. Nevertheless, it is a curious fact that 



' If this imcliis.sical form re((uire.s apology, the writor lieivby apologises 
Its convoniunce must lio its excuso. 



34 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

few, if any, of the greatest camps show any traces of 
enlargement, although the original defences may very 
likely have been improved and strengthened, the vallum 
raised and the ditch deepened, new valla and new ditches 
perhaps added. One thing is certain ; so long as the 
same conditions of life continued, the same forms of 
fortification would be employed, quite irrespective of race ; 
so that new tribes may have fought their way into the 
desirable areas, and dispossessed the older occupants, 
w^ithout any material modification of the earthworks there 
found. They would naturally occupy the camps of the 
conquered very much as they found them. So long as 
the uplands remained the desirable areas, so long would 
the old type of earthwork subsist. This would alter 
only when the conditions of life altered, that is, when the 
forests began to be cleared and the lowlands began to be 
reclaimed. And this would not l)e done until advancing 
civilization brought witli it the practice of agriculture. 

It is necessary to -emphasize the fact that, so far as our 
knowledge at present goes, it is not possible to estal^lish 
any connexion whatever between differences of race and 
differences of type amongst the hill-fortresses, or indeed 
amongst any earthworks prior to those of the Romans. 
Endless harm has been done to genuine archaeology by 
fanciful theories of this kind, as, for example, by that 
which would airily divide all " camps " whatever, irre- 
spective of other considerations, into round, rectangular, 
and oval, and would maintain all round ones to be British, 
all rectangular to be Roman, and all oval to be Danish. 
It is not needful to say more against so baseless a theory 
than that it does not agree with the evidence, and if it 
did, it is not exhaustive either of the camps or of the 
races of the land — makes, for example, no provision At 
all for the poor Saxon, who has nevertheless outlived 
Briton and Roman and Dane alike. So far as we know, 
the first people in this island to adopt even theoretic- 



II CLIMATE AND CULTURE 35 

ally a uniform and distinctive type of fortitieatiun were 
the Romans, but even the Romans' work was neither so 
uniform nor so distin('tive as to eliminate all chance of 
error. Thereafter it is possible to make a like predication 
of the Normans, and the mediaeval moat is likewise a well- 
defined type of fortification characterizing a determinate 
civilization. But of the peoples who inhabited the island 
before the Romans' time no such determination can at 
present be made, nor is it likely that any existed. If the 
question should be raised whether, for example, the Iberian 
Longheads did not practise a different system of fortifica- 
tion from their Round-headed successors, the answer is 
that we do not know. Possibly some of their earthworks 
are incorporated in camps reconstructed by the later 
races, and possibly some of these camps may even be 
practically unaltered specimens of Iberian work. It rests 
with the spade to add anything further to this bare 
statement. 

The fact that the camps of what CaBsar calls the ova 
raaritima are as a class so much finer in plan, and so much 
better preserved, than those of other parts of England is 
capable of explanation. The hills of this part of England 
are almost entirely chalk, and while chalk is much more 
easily worked than liarder rocks, it is also a peculiarly 
adhesive material, resisting with great obstinacy the forces 
which make for denudation and wastage ; and as through- 
out a very large part of the country the chalk lies so near 
the surface as to offer few attractions to the plouglmian. 
there has not been l)rought to bear upon these earthworks 
the same amount of purposeful destruction as has else- 
where wrought so much havoc. These considerations, 
inte7' alia, account for the 1 tetter preservation oi" tlic 
camps of the chalk-country. Their finer plan is due, in 
the first place, to the fact that upon these chalk-hills were 
collected the first and the most of the pastoral tribes, ami 
the wealthiest. There is reason to think that the dialk- 

u '1 



36 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

downs were very early clear of forest ; indeed, it lias never 
been proved that they were ever afforested at all to any 
great extent, except where, as in Buckinghamshire, there 
was a considerable capping of more fertile soil above the 
chalk. In the second place, those hills furnished better 
pasturage than is to be found on most uplands, as the 
modern sheep-farmer can testify. At the present day it 
is remarkable how rarely one sees cattle grazing upon the 
uplands of Exmoor, Wales, or Yorkshire, and not even 
the wide chalk-ridges of the Wolds can compare with the 
South Downs as grazing ground. In the third place the 
ova maritima was most conveniently situated to enjoy 
the benefits of trade with the Continent, and that such 
trade existed, and was even considerable, there is no 
question. Communities grew in prehistoric times, as 
they now" grow, by trade, and there can be no reasonable 
doubt that such great fortresses as Cissbury, Maiden 
Castle, and Dolebury owed their grandeur largely to 
their advantages in the way of trade. The comparatively 
small size of other camps of the South Downs as compared 
with Cissbury may seem inconsistent with this statement, 
seeing that they lie nearer to the Gallic coast than do 
those of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire; 1)ut the explanation 
is that the narrow configuration of the South Downs 
prevented any great increase of population or of cattle, and 
that such wants as the population felt were adequately 
provided for hj the central mart of Cissbury. While 
therefore fortresses like Maiden Castle, Badbury, Sarum, 
and Dolebury enjoyed each a central position and- com- 
manded the trade in all directions equally, the geographical 
character of the Sussex Downs — a mere bank of chalk run- 
ning from east to west, and completely shut in between the 
sea and the impassable Andredesweald — compelled all 
overland trade to follow one route, the route which Cissbury 
commanded; and a single trade-route can make opulent but 
one settlement, unless its benefits are to be distributed 



II CLIMATE AND CULTURE 



37 



amongst all that line it without special a(haiit;it;«'s to 
any one of them. 

No date can be given for the change from the pastoral 
to the agricultural stage. Great changes are not (piickly 
effected in the life of a people even in these dsixs of 
startling innovations and systematized education. There 
is no reason to think that matters moved more (ini<kl\- in 
prehistoric times, but rather the reverse ; so that the 
chain whereby the first accidental experience of the 
possibility of plant-culture was linked to the fullv 
developed practice of corn-farming may well have l)een 
infinitely long. At the one end is the probability 
that neolithic man knew, on his first appearance here, 
nothing of these things ; at the other end is the 
assertion of Pytheas that in the fourth century B.C. 
considerable areas of land were under corn. The Jhitons 
had in the interim travelled a long way up the road 
of progress, and it is likely that the journey was ;i slow- 
one. 

Pytheas expressly declares that the corn-lands which he 
saw were near the coast. Thus by the fourth century B.v. 
the lowlands had come under cultivation, at least in some 
places. Of the people who formed these agricultural 
communities he tells us nothing, and there are two 
possible alternatives : either they were the descendants 
of the peoples who had built the hill-forts, and had moved 
down from the hills in search of more desirable soil ; or 
they were new immigrants from the Continent. Perhaps 
Csesar's words, quoted above, ^ may be taken as favouring 
the latter view, for he expressly says that the inhabitants 
of the interior, who presumably represented the older 
tribes, practised little or no agriculture. On the other 
hand, he admits that some of them knew sometliing ^i' it. 
Very possibly the majority of the farmer-population were 

' Seo pp. 4, 0. 

64021 



38 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Gallic or Belgic immigrants, who would find along the 
east coast and in Kent exactly the land they required, 
and would therefore settle there at once, only later 
extending westward along the south coast and into the 
southern Midlands. The previous occupants of these 
areas, whether they withdrew before the new-comers or 
remained to amalgamate with them, would in either case 
learn something of the new method of life, and would 
gradually as opportunity offered put it into practice. The 
process of reclaiming the lowlands from the forest must, 
however, have been extremely slow at first, and can have 
made but little headway at all until the introduction of 
iron. The stubborn persistence of genuine forest is well 
illustrated by the slowness with which the Saxons made 
good their conquest of the Sussex Weald ; yet the Saxons 
were a farmer-folk long familiar with the use (jf iron. 
Earlier and feebler folk must have been content to 
cultivate mostly the open uplands, only by the very 
slowest steps making their way down the combes towards 
the lowlands. 

Traces of this cultivation of the hills are recognizable 
in the terraced formation of many hill-sides in every part 
of the island. These terraces (variously called linces, 
lynches, hjnchets, or lanchardes ^) are in some instances 
unquestionably due to artificial means such as ploughing, 
and there are instances known in which are still 
traceable the retaining- walls constructed to uphold them ; 
but in other cases it is by no means certain that they 
are the result of agriculture, or even artificial at all. 
In every case their date is a matter of the greatest 
uncertainty. They are abundantly scattered over most of 



' Of the various names and spellings, laneharde seems to be the most 
correct, if the derivation from land-sceay (land-shear) is the true one. This 
etymology admits tlieni to be the result of ploughing, and something is said 
of this in a later chapter (p. 634). An alternative derivation is from A.-S. 
hlinc, "-bank," scearcl, "share" or "portion." 



II CLIMATE AND CULTURE 



39 



the chalk counties, one of the most striking examples 
being under the great earthworks of Battleshurv Camp, 
near Warminster, where a series of thirteen holdU- defined 
terraces covers the whole of the northern side of the hill. 
Less remarkable examples occur in the South Downs near 
Mt. Caburn and Cissbury and Telscombe, in Buckingham- 
shire on the Chilterns and at Cheddington, and ah)ng the 
downs about Hitchin, Dunstable and Royston. Amono'st 
the Northumbrian hills and in Wales the}' are verv 
common, and in the Scottish Lowlands more abundant stilL 
xAt Romanno, Peel)lessliire, is the remnant of a series which 
originally extended for a distance of a mile and a half 
continuously. On Heale Hill, AVilts, on certain Welsh 
hills, and peihaps elsewhere, are to l)e seen plough- 
marks of similar orioin, runnino-, not horizontally as 
in most cases, but ^-ertically from the valley to the 
hill-toi). 

There are undouljted cases where the deliberate scarping 
of a steep liill-side by way of fortifying its summit has 
resulted in the formation of such terraces, e.g. at Brent 
Knoll, Somersetshire ; and in other instances it may be 
that the terraces were formed simply to provide level space 
for the huts of the community.^ But in very many cases 
there is discoverable no trace of any settlement or canij) in 
the vicinity, so that it is impossible to be sure they were 
always constructed for defensive purposes ; and although 
some of them may be purely natural effects, the results of 
the action of water in very remote periods, it is impossible 
to explain all of them in this way. Many, if not most, of 
them are certainly the result of man's agency, but often 
perhaps rather accidentally than with intention. Some of 
them may ])e of high antiquity, but prol)ably the greater 
number are not of a great ao^e. As late as the 17th. and 



^ Dr. Christison describes the ternices which ccjvor tlio sides of the 
Herefordshire Beacon as " resenibliii}' the streets of a town. " 



40 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chaf. 

even the 18th century, the Scottish farmers ' preferred to 
cultivate the hill-sides rather than the valleys, and though 
the practice was then so little known in England as to 
excite the astonishment of southern visitors, yet it had 
certainly been practised there too at an earlier date. The 
Saxon preferred it for the very same j-eason as did the 
Scot, because of the labour involved in clearing the more 
inveterate forests of the lower ground, and because of the 
swampy character of the valleys. There is no doubt that 
all but the very summits of the highest Downs ^ were early 
ploughed, and the lynchets must in many cases l)e of 
mediaeval, if not of Saxon date. Still there is no proving 
that the earlier Britons did not do the same, albeit on a 
less extensive scale. If the thin soil of the chalk-hills was 
sufficient for such superficial cultivation as the Saxon 
used, it must have sufficed for the Britons, especially 
when the water-levels were so 'much higher than now ; and 
if the hill-tribes cultivated the chalk uplands at all, 
natural forces would bring about the same residts as they 
now produce wherever a chalk slope is ploughed. For 
various reasons the plough has mostly abandoned the 



1 "It was because of the numerous mosses and waters of the flat country 
that the slopes of the hills were so generally cultivated by the Scots, a 
custom which Southern visitors regarded as one of the peculiarities of our 
remarkable country. Long after the time of Mary an Englishman thus refers 
to the custom : ' 'Tis almost incredible how much of the mountains they 
plough, where the declensions, I had almost said precipices, are such that 
to our thinking it puts them to greater difficulty and charge to carry out 
their work than they need be at in draining the valleys.' " The quotation is 
from Scotland in the Days of Queen Mary, by Prof. P. Hume Brown, p. 13, 
and the Englishman referred to is one Thomas Morer, who visited Scotland 
in 1689. 

- Every one is familiar with the marvellous terracing of the hills of the 
Riviera for the cultivation of vines and olives. But the same terraces, no 
longer cultivated, are traceable upon mountain slopes far higher than any 
now in use. They date from a time (not so very remote) when the lower 
slopes and the valleys were still thickly wo(xled, and the upper slopes were in 
consequence less arid. The deforestation of the country has now gone 
so far as to make the question of water-supply increasingly serious, and the 
drier the soil becomes, the less high can terrace-cultivation be carried. 



11 CLIMATE AND CULTURE 41 

Downs at the present time : modern farming, taxinu; the 
land more heavily, requires a deeper soil, and finds tlie 
uplands more profitable as grazing-ground than as arahle ; 
the increasing dryness of the climate and the exhaustion 
of the springs have diminished their fertility ; and the 
transference of the population from the hill-tops to tlie 
lowlands, a transference which was completed l»y tlie 
Saxons if beoun lon<>' before, has left the hioher urouiid in 
many cases too remote from the homestead.^ 

The practice of agriculture would entail a certain 
amount of fencing, but the enclosures w(juld Ije of very 
small size, mere patches of ground no larger than those to 
be seen to this day in the wilder and poorer parts of the 
country. Whether the pasturage was likewise fenced is 
doubtful, for the areas to be enclosed would be very much 
more extensive, and the lal)our correspondingly greater. 
Such fences as were constructed would l)e of slight 
character, mostly mere low banks of earth and stone 
crowned with stakes or thorn-fencing, but without the 
great fosses which accompany the valla of fortresses. 
They would therefore rapidly disappear. Such banks 
are traceable over many parts of the Downs where 
modern methods call for no fencing, and must therefore 
be of some antiquity, but how old it is seldom possible 
to suggest, and there is mostly no means of determining 
the question. Large areas of Exmoor, again, now given 
over entirely to the forest and the red-deer, or parcelled 

^ The origin, and the wide prevalence, of hill-farming are discussed in 
G. L. Gonniie's VlUiuir (Jommioiiti/, ch. iv., where are collected a great 
number of examples, analogies, and authorities. The point insisted upon 
here is that, while some lynchets may be very old, most of them are probably 
very recent. Even where, as at Battlesbury and at Cissbury, they are found 
in immediate connection with earthworks of unciuestiouably prehistoric date, 
it cannot be assumed as i)r()ved that they are coeval. At Battlesbury the 
great fosses of the camp are in part under plough at the present time, and 
other parts have obviously been ploughed in times past. Not a few lynchets 
so-called are merely the vestiges of old cartways about the Downs. See 
further, ch. XMII. 



42 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

out by enclosures coverino- hundreds of acres, are seamed 
in all directions by the shrunken remains of older fences 
marking enclosures upon a much less ambitious scale. At 
Old Burrow, North Devon, these banks radiate from the 
actual vallum of the camp, and speak of a time when the 
whole hill was diligently cultivated or grazed, although 
to-day all signs of such cultivation have long ceased, and 
the only flocks are those of unfenced sheep. There is no 
doubt, however, that these remains are of quite late date, 
and the same is probably true of similar remains else- 
where. That they seem in many instances to be actually 
connected with earthworks of admittedly prehistoric age 
merely follows from the habit of taking such well-recognized 
land-marks as starting-points in the partition of the 
ground. Camps and barrows have served this purpose 
throughout the centuries, and the existence of the 
smaller field-l)anks in such localities rather proves the 
antiquity of barrow or camp than vice versa. The same 
is probably true, with greater reservations, of the more im- 
posing earthworks such as Wansdyke and Bokerley Dyke, 
where these are found in connexion with camps. Upon 
the bare, treeless, and otherwise featureless surface of 
wide uplands, old mounds and fortresses, from their 
permanent and conspicuous character, were the obvious 
and the only landmarks to select.^ Many of the smaller 
banks also which now divide the areas of large camps 
are doubtless of relatively modern date. 

The converse practice of utilizing part of an ancient 
earthwork as a modern fence has been responsible for 
much destruction. Of the fine circular hill-camp at 

^ Amongst scores of instances of the utilisation of barrows as landmarks 
may be cited that of Money Hill, in the parish of Goodmanham, E. Riding, 
which derived its name "from the fact that, forming a conspicuous object 
as the boundary-line of two estates, when the boundaries were perambulated, 
money was scrambled for on the spot, in order to impress the better upon 
the memory of the persons assembled the limits of the manor." (Green well 
and Rolleston, British. Barroics, p. 329.) 



Ti CLIMATE AND CULTURE 43 

Batliealtoii, Sonierset, scarcely fifty yards of the perimeter 
remain in fair preservation, while for some hundreds of 
yards the vallum has l)een incorporated in a modern fence, 
trimmed, pared and altered to suit the taste of the farmer, 
until it bears no resemblance to its original shape. 
Occasionally this modern utilization is thus far a thing to 
be thankful for, in that it has preserved the outlines of 
works which must otherwise have vanished complete!}'. 
This is said to be the case with many of the Devonshire 
pounds, which have been adopted unaltered as " new-takes " 
from the surrounding waste of Dartmoor, and simply 
passed under the plough.^ But as a rule the ])assi()n for 
severely rectangular fields (piarrels with the less regular 
shape of the ancient fortress, and the svorks are deliberately 
levelled to be replaced by hedges and ditches of the 
regulation pattern. The ring-work at Heathfield, Sussex, 
is an instance. A few camps, Roman or otherwise, have 
been saved by their rectangular plan, surviving as fields 
and orchards, with perhaps no further modification than 
the construction of cross-fences if their area be large. 
Camps of less regular construction have, however, very 
often been planted and turned into game-coverts. The 
trees are a nuisance to the archseologist : they prevent any 
satisfactory view of the whole work, often even any accurate 
measureinents, their roots play havoc with the ramparts, 
and their falling leafage fills up the ditches ; but all the 

' Occasionally the lines of a camp, like those of a Grim's Dyke or a Roman 
road, liave been taken to mark parts of the boundaries of a parish or a 
county. Principally upon evidence of this kind —the peculiar i)lan remain- 
ing, of course, long after all trace of fosse and vallum lias disappeared- - 
Mr. Montagu Sharpe has quite recently endeavoured to reconstruct what he 
believes to be a lost Roman camp at Brentford. The so-called " Roman 
camp" on Muswell Hill, near Brill, is another instance (p. 'M'.^). Near 
Hampstead Norris, Berkshire, is a hill with the significant name of 
Oareborougli. " No signs of earthworks a{)|)ear to be visil)le now on tlie 
hill, nor have any been described in earlier works, but .... tlie parish 
boundary makes a very marked detour to include a s(juare piece, wiiich is 
known by this name (Oareborough)." (H. T. E. Peake in Mrt. Co. Hi4. 
Berkshire.) 



44 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

same they serve to protect from the plough old sites which 
would otherwise receive worse treatment. 

The camps and earthworks of the lowlands are for the 
most part of types different from those of the hills. To the 
lowlands belong most Roman camps, the moated mounds 
and mount-and-bailey fortresses of the Norman type, and 
the domestic moat ; and less commonly do they show^ 
works of the types usually referred to pre-Roman times. 
Considering hoW' rapidly and completely the last traces of 
an earthwork may disappear from a surface under cultiva- 
tion, it is not wise to lay too much stress upon this : the 
camps may conceivably have been there once, if not there 
at the present time ; but when such lost earthworks are 
by happy accident brought to light again they usually 
prove to be ring-w^orks of the very simplest type, as, e.g. 
at War Ditches and at Wallington. It is, how^ever, 
scarcely credible that works upon such a scale as those of 
the Wiltshire and Dorsetshire Dowms could have in every 
case so totally vanished as to leave not a wrack behind, had 
they ever existed upon the lowlands. The same good 
fortune which has spared so many of the moated mounds 
and so many of the dykes, must likewise have spared at 
least a few of the more elaborate works of even earlier date. 
But it is a fact that those which are to be found at the 
lower levels or which may be traced even by rumour and 
tradition only, are relatively few, small, and weak.^ 

Probably few of the southern counties of England have 
suffered less alteration of their general condition and map 
during the lapse of centuries than has Sussex. At the 
time of the Norman conquest Sussex was still almost 
wholly covered by the prehistoric forest of Andredes weald, 
which is known to have persisted for long centuries later, 
and which has not altogether vanished at the present day. 



^ The view that the great earthworks of e.g. Norwich Castle, Castle 
Acre, and Castle Rising were originally British constructions subsequently 
occupied by the Normans, is not capable of proof. 



II CLIMATE AND CULTURE 45 

The only portion of the county — its total area is 14G4 
square miles — wliich was not forest was that lying south 
of the northern scarp of the South Downs. The forest 
was therefore upwards of. five times as extensive as was 
the open country ; yet whereas the Downs can show the 
remains of at least twenty-iive camps of preTioman 
character, in the w^hole of the forest area there are to be 
found only two camps attri1)utable to the same date, and 
this too althouoh the ridi»e of liio-h oTound which traverses 
the middle of the county from east to west, attaining in 
several places a height of more than 500 feet, was exactly 
such as the ancient jjopulation would have occupied if the 
forest had allowed it. The two exceptions are the feeble 
camp at Saxonbury near Rotherfield, and the merest 
vestiges of another at Heathfield.^ Yet this was an area 
close to the thickly populated Downs, abounding in iron 
which was already worked in Ca3sar's time, and only less 
well placed than Kent for communication with the Con- 
tinent. It is to be noticed also that both the existing 
camps are of the ^^ery simplest type, mere ring-works of 
no great area, defended only by a single vallum and a 
sinole ditch of small dimensions. It seems a fjiir inference 
that the more formidable types of fortresses found upon 
the hills were not as a rule transferred to the lowlands, 
and that the lowland forts are of a date later than those 
of the hills. It will be found further that such cani))s of 
pre-Roman date as are to be found in tlic lowlands are 
almost all of the simplest circular type, frequently no 
more than large cattle-rings ; and that this is the prevail- 
ing type to be found in all areas wliich are known to have 
been persistent forest. Yet if, as Caesar declares, this was 
the principal iron-mining region of the island, and its 
population was very dense, it is obvious that the condi- 



' It h;is not been actually proven tliat either of these is a pre-Hmiian 
work, but for the sake of the argument let us allow that butli are such. 
Lingtiekl Mark Camp, certainly pre-Roman, is in Surre}'. 



46 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

tions in his time were no longer those which had called 
for the tremendous defensive works of the hills : in other 
words, that the primitive state of war w^as past, at any 
rate in south-eastern Britain, which was inhabited by a 
people or peoples who had less need of elaborate defences, 
and enjoyed in general a peaceful and settled life of 
commerce, industry, and agriculture.^ And there is very 
good reason to suppose that they had enjoyed such a 
life for a long period. Such a construction as Stonehenge, 
for example, not to mention the yet older and in some 
ways finer work at Avebury, implies a very considerable 
population living in a settled condition of peace, united 
in the observance of one widely recognized cult, and 
accustomed to combine for common action under the 
direction of some recognized authority. It is not mere 
accident that these two o-reat monuments of the Britons 
stand upon Salisbury plain, the widest area of unforested 
upland which the ora maritima could show even as ftir 
back as the Bronze Aoe. 

It is not suggested that in no case are simple circular 
camps of any great age. There are some upon the hills 
which may very well be amongst the oldest, but in the 
case of hill-forts the circular shape is usually an accident 
due to the contour of the hills which they occupy. But 
even on the hills the round camp is sometimes de- 
monstrably later than others of less regular design. Ciss- 
bury, for instance, which is probably one of the very oldest 
of the Sussex camps, as it is the largest, is not circular. 
Mt. Caburn camp, on the other hand, which Pitt-Rivers 
proved to be Late-Celtic, is strictly circular and very 
small, whereas the almost obliterated camp on Ranscombe 
Hill, only half a mile away, which the same explorer 
observed to be far earlier, was neither circular nor small. 



1 So DioJorus Siculus (v. 21) : "for the most part they live at peace one 
with another.'' 



II CLIMATE AND CULTURE 47 

Pitt-Rivers, indeed, after examining certain rectangular 
camps in Cranborne Chase, went so far as to suggest that 
perhaps all camps of the Bronze Age were of that type, 
a proposition which is cjuite untenable. The case of Mt. 
Caburn proves that the hills did not altogether cease to 
be occupied when the lowlands came under cultivation. 
but it suggests that iienceforward the populati(jn of the 
hills was relatively small and poor, requiring l)ut small 
earthworks to accommodate it. 

That war shouLl occasionally, even frequently, disturb 
this otherwise peaceful population, was of course inevitable, 
and Csesar tells us that they provided for such an 
emergency by the construction of fastnesses in the forests. 
One of these he describes as " situated in the woods, in 
a spot naturally strong, and further strengthened arti- 
ficially by the felling of large numbers of trees so as to 
block all the approaches " ; ^ and he adds that it was 
" seemingly constructed with a view to triljal wars " 
before his invasion, and not expressly to meet that 
menace. The fact that his legionaries were compelled to 
employ for its reduction the laborious method of the 
agger, "^ shows that it was a. formidable fortress, and 
probably implies the existence of a large ditch. Else- 
where^ he says, speaking of what he calls the oppidum 
Cassivellauni, commonly identified with the modern 
St. Albans, that " an oppidum with the Britons is a place 
amidst dense forest, fortified by a rampart and a ditch. 
whither it is their habit to assemble to escape an enemys 
raid." He lays stress upon the manner in which this 
oppidum of Cassivellaunus was protected not less by 
artificial defences than by the surrounding swamps .nid 
forests. It was big enough to shelter a great numl)cr of 
people and of cattle, too big to be surrounded by his 
force of four legions only, so that most of the occupants 

1 B. G. V. 9. - See Infni, ]>. 159, ni.te. 

â– ' B. G. V. 21. 



48 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND ch. ii 

made good their escape when the legionaries finally 
rushed it at two points.^ 

Both Caesar's descriptions refer to one type of strong- 
hold, which was obviously a purely military work not 
used for permanent occupation,- at least by any large 
portion of the tribe. The occasional appropriation of the 
term oppidum to signify a fortified town in permanent 
occupation, as distinct from a camp of refuge, is not 
therefore warranted by Csesar's language,^ which points 
to a people who, under normal conditions, lived in the 
open "in huts precisely like those of the Gauls." The 
camps at Aml)resbury Banks and Wallbury in Essex, at 
Cholesbury in Buckinghamshire, and at Lingfield in 
Surrey, are possibly such ojjpida. To walled towns in 
Britain, Cj3esar makes nowhere any allusion, neither those 
" shapeless buildings of undressed stone" such as Tacitus"* 
speaks of as characteristic of the hill-country of the 
west, nor those much more ingenious works of timber 
and stone which gave to Caesar'^ so much trouble in 
Gaul. 

1 If Mr. Montagu Sharpe is right in his attempted restoration of the 
original plan of the lines at St. Albans {Archneolocjia, vol. xxii.), they enclosed 
a very large area indeed, with a circuit of several miles. Some of the 
defences to the west of the river are apparently incorporated in those of the 
Roman Verulamium, but at the north-ea.st extremity remains an enormous 
fosse nearly a mile in length, now utilised for a rifle-range, and apparently 
part of the original defences. The lines at Lexden, immediately west of 
Colchester, cut off a peninsula lying between the Colne and the Roman 
River, upwards of 20 square miles in area. There were originally three 
parallel lines of vallum and fosse, but the existing remains are mere 
fragments of perhaps Ij miles in length from north-east to south-west. 

2 Op. Strabo (§ 200) : "Their only towns are the woods. In these they 
ring about a spacious circular area with felled trees, and therein build their 
huts and stall their cattle, but for no long period." 

3 Dr. T. Rice Holmes (Ancient Britain, p. 258) attempts to show that 
Cfesar distinguishes the ojyjnda from camps of refuge, using castella for the 
latter ; but his i-eferences apply not to Britain but to Gaul, as he admits, 
and even so it is doubtful whether the distinction can be maintained. 

â– * Rmhs et informes saxorum comjmge-s, Ann. xii. 35. 
^ See below, p. 176, note. 



CHAPTKR III 

PROMONTORY FORTS 

". . . . Men yet scarcely conscious of a cure 
For other monuments than those of earth ; 
Who, as the fields and ivoods have given them birth, 
Will build their savage fortunes only there ; 
Content if fosse and barrow and the girth 
Of long-drawn rampart icitness irhat they were." 

Promontory forts constitute the first class in the 
Schedule of the Committee.' From tlie detinitioii it 
might be thought that they must present hut small 
variations of position or of plan, and that one or two 
examples might serve as types of all. No mistake 
could })e greater. Earthworks of this, as of all other 
classes, display the endless variety and indivi(hiality whirh 
are emongst the first charms of the stud\- of earthwork. 
Even if the general plan he frequently much the same — 
and from the definition this is bound to be the case — 
yet each new instance presents its own special features 
of interest, its own peculiar problems, its own particular 
topography and scenery. The trite ex imo discc 
ow.iies does not apply to camps, for every one is unlike 
every other. 

Promontory forts are all alike in occupying the ex- 
tremities of headlands, spurs, or peninsulas, and 

* For their definition, see p. 21. 



50 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

in relying for defence chiefly upon the natural features 
of their position. That part of them which is artificial, 
be it larger or smaller, is always subsidiary to that 
which is natural ; Ijut tlie artificial additions may l)e 
only a few yards in extent, or may form more than 
half the entire circuit of the fortress. Built of any sort 
of material, the artificial defences may vary from the 
slightest vallum to the most formidable, and from one 
vallum only to as many as half-a-dozen. Such camps 
differ in area, in shape, in the disposition and the 
defences of their approaches. Even their natural features 
admit of wide variations. Sometimes these are merely 
steep slopes or more abrupt precipices. Sometimes 
there is neither precipice nor slope, and the only pro- 
tection is that afforded by sea, river, marsh, or bog. 
There are instances in which the promontory fort 
becomes, or used to become, an actual island, at least 
for certain hours or seasons ; others where it never sees, 
and apparently never did see, standing water. All that 
was essential was a space of ground of sufficient size, 
protected as far as possible by its own natural features. 
The less the labour needed to supplement these natural 
defences the more nearly the fortress approa(died the 
ideal. 

The ideal, therefore, is a spacious level area of land 
standing up sheer and harbour less out of deep water, 
and accessible only along a narrow isthmus. Such 
positions, rarely to be found except upon very ir- 
regular coasts, are numerous in Cornwall, along the 
coasts of Wales, in Scotland, and in Ireland. The term 
" cliff-castles " exactly describes them. Tintagel, rising 
abrupt as a wall some 300 ft. out of the Atlantic on 
one of the most dangerous of all our coasts, answers the 
requirements perfectly ; and so also in a less degree 
does Portland Bill ; but any earlier fortress which stood 
on either of these points has been obliterated by sub- 



in PROMONTORY FORTS 51 

sequent occupation. The oldest portion of tlie ruins of 
King Arthur's Castle of Tintagel is a Norman kee}), 
while the whole appearance of Portland has been 
altered by modern fortification and by incessant quarry- 
ing. The Cornish coast can, however, show numljers 
of such "cliff-castles" in more or less good preservation.^ 
Black Head near St. Austell, The Dodman, Cuddaii INtint, 
liame Head, Trevarrian, Bedruthan and Parkhead are 
amongst them, the finest of all Ijeing Treryn Castle and 
the most elaborate Trevalgey. 

Treryn Castle, or Dinas Treryn, " the Fortress of the 
town on the Headland," some eight miles from St. Buryan, 
is a tumbled pile of granite jutting out into the sea 
between Treryn Cove and Penberth Cove. The head- 
land, which reaches a height of some 250 ft., and boasts 
the famous Logan Stone of Treryn, is cut off from the 
mainland to the north by a triple line of entrenchments 
of very irregular disposition, still rising in places to a 
height of 15 ft. The place has no history, but the 
neighbourhood abounds in remains of the prehistoric 
time, such as the Fougou of Trewoofe, The Pi[)ers, and 
The Merry Maidens, which suggest that to the same period 
belonged the people who made their stronghold here. 

Trevalgey Plead (Fig. 1), 2 miles east of Newquay, Corn- 
wall, is in reality an island, severed from the mainland by 
a chasm some 20 feet or more in width, througli which the 
tides of the Atlantic at times come spouting up as through a 
"blow-hole." The approach to this chasm is covered by no 
less than four successive lines of banks and ditches, three 
lying closely parallel at the very edge of the cliti", while the 
fourth and outermost makes a wide sweep so as to include 
a considerable area. This outer bank was not more than 8 
feet in height, but the three inner valla reached the height 
of 10, and in one case 20 feet, and the dividing ditches 

' J. B. Covnisli enumerates twenty in J^ictorid Co. Hist. Vi>inif<ilL 

E 2 



52 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



were 10 — 12 feet across. Beyond the chasm, which 
measures perhaps 50 paces from end to end, lie three 
other lines of defence : that at the edge of the cliff was 
a vallum 20 feet in height and 30 feet in thickness ; the 
next, some 40 yards behind it, is still 12 feet high on the 
outer side.^ The irregular space within the third and last 
line, measuring 250 by 200 yards at its extreme points, is 
littered with flint chips, but bears no traces of occupation 
of any later ag-e. Within it is a considerable mound, and 



-r-. — — »^-- ^- 




- 


^ ' -■ '■ ^ ''"*tUi4.JU-^-^w— 


— : — 


_ _ „ —z. 


— ■ — - ■ — 




— . 










—j^ff ''/^^ 


"^ Sr ,-, r^nr j 


''*^->&i^ 


^^^taj^^M. 




^^f Mound, 


— ^=iffllu2teia^^ 






%VllM 


. 


--== 


^r^*trM-?Li^'"'- ' 


— 





^ ^^^^'^^ 




100 iOO 


— 


o 


300 


Fig. 


yardiS 

1. — Trevalgey. 





there used to be another within the outer precinct on the 
mainland. 

In a position little less defensible may l)e mentioned, 
amongst Welsh examples, the camp on St. David's Head, 
known as Clawdd y Milwyr, i.e. The Warriors Dyke. 
Here a small rocky peninsular is cut off by one great wall 
of dry-built stone, estimated to have stood as much as 15 
feet high, and to have been 10 — 12 feet broad at the base. 
In front of this is a shallow fosse, the ground being 
too rocky for much quarrying ; and beyond this again a 
second and a third sangar of loose stone, each covered by 



^ The figures given are those of W. C. Borlase in Archneologia, xliv (1871). 
The works are less impressive now than they then Avere. 



Ill PROMONTORY FORTS ^^ 

another very shallow trench. The single ontraiice-way 
was a sort of causeway 12 feet in width, narrowing to 
little more than 7 feet where it passed the walls. The 
Hat slabs of rock which lined the passage are still in 
place. The whole length of the fortifications is barely 
250 feet. AVithin the area are the ruins of some half- 
dozen circular huts, and upon the mainland without are 
the scattered traces of enclosures, circular and rectan- 
o-ular, which would seem to indicate that the inhabitants 




!!'"'ii.n.u 'it'.Vi'"^ 



Fig. 2. — Eaknsheugh. 



practised some rude sort of agriculture besides keeping- 
cattle. Exploration showed them to belong to the Iron 
Age, but whether pre-Roman or post-Roman is indeter- 
minable.^ Other Welsh examples are Great Castle Point. 
iJale, with a tine double vallum ; Dinas, 4 miles from Fish- 
guard, where a sufficient defence was obtained by simply 
scarping a kind of natural fosse across the neck of the 
headland ; Old Castle Head, Manorbier ; Wooltack Point ; 
and two near St. Govan's Head. Amongst many Scottish 
examples Dr. Christison^ describes an unusual double for- 
tress at Earnsheugh, west of St. Abb's Head (Fig. 2), 



' 8ce a report by Rev. S. Baring-Gould in ArcJuieolufjia Cdmhrenais, 
vol. xvi., 5th Series (1899). 

^ Early Fortifications of Scotland, p. 130. 



54 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP, 



further interesting because of the presence of a number of 
hut-circles within the principal area. The Irish examples, 
which are very numerous, have been dealt with by 
T J. Westropp.^ 

Such advantageous positions as those of Trevalgey and 
Clawdd y Milwyr are the exception ; the majority of 
coast-castles more resemble the fort at Earnsheugh, where 
the sea defends only one side of the whole work. In very 
many cases the forts of this type have so suffered from 
the crumbling of the cliffs that it is impossible to recover 






.^1&:(.. 







-^'iiifi 






O 20 40 6o 80 100 

I 1 1 1 1 1— 



Fig 



yards. 
3. — Embury Beacon, Welcombe, Devon. 



their original plan. At Embury Beacon (Fig. 3), for 
example, on the north Devon coast, 5 miles south of 
Hartland Point, it is evident that some portion of the 
works has been demolished by the sea, for there remains 
no visible means of access to the inner enclosure. As to 
the age of this fort there is little evidence ; the wide inter- 
space between the inner and outer ceintures is a feature 
not uncommon in hill-forts of the West Country of 
undoubted British age, but it is found also in many much 
later works. In the cases of the south-coast camps such 
as Beltout (p. 673), Seaford (Fig. 220), and Abbotsbury 



1 Ancient Forts of Ireland, in Pror. Royal Irish Academy, xxiv, etc. 



Ill PROMONTORY FORTS 55 

C'cistle, there is no questiuii that tlie works are pie-Roman, 
and tliat they were once much more extensive than now ; 
but whether they were originally promontory forts, or are 
only the remains of contour-eam[)s once fortified all round, 
is a question which can never Ije decided. The camp at 
Shoebury (Fig. 115) seems not to have suffered from 
erosion at all. 

The history of all tliese cliff-castles is unwritten. It 
needed no special genius to see the fitness of sucli positions 
for defence, and it is in no way remarkable that they 
sliould therefore have been fortified. The same quickness 
to seize upon suitable sites is to be seen in countries as 
far afield as Greece and the mountains of south-eastern 
Russia. In Brittany there are many and some very 
fine examples. In themselves they convey no hint 
whatever of their age ; they merely bespeak a popula- 
tion to whom, at wdiatever date, the more low-lying 
and inland portions of the country offered no sufficient 
security. 

Caesar describes ^ the difficulty he found in dealing with 
the cliff-castles of the Armorici, that Celtic population 
Avhich subsequently gave shelter to their refugee kinsmen 
who fled from Britain to escape the Saxons, and brought 
with them to Armorica its present name of Brittany. 
Some €>f these forts, of Brittany at any rate, are therefore 
older than the British exodus, and it is probable that 
some of the English examples are equally old. Tiie 
actual site of which Caesar speaks has been conjectural ly 
fixed at Mont St. Michel ; this is doubtful, but it was 
obviously a fortress to which the receding tide left very 
practicable means of access, and therefore not upon a very 
rocky and unapproachable coast. Such a fortress as 
Trevalgey, and still more so Treryn Diiias, can scarcely at 
any time have been accessible by sea, so that the theory 

» B. G. 111. 12, iltc. 



56 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

which attril)utes the cliff-castles to invaders from the sea, 
with due allowance for the reckless hardihood of Saxon and 
Dane, can hardly apply to all of them, though it may pos- 
sibly be true of some. G. T. Clark attributed to the Danes 
many of those found upon the Welsh coast, and it is 
certain that the Danes did upon occasion build promontory- 
forts,' l)ut they were not more likely than a modern 
mariner to court the perils of the terrible coast of western 
Cornwall. In many instances these fortresses must have 
been the work of native islanders, Cornubii, who practised 
under the same conditions the same methods as did their 
kinsmen the Armorici. Where there is any evidence at 
all, the flint flakes, implements, and pottery bear out this 
view. Again, all such strongholds, situated as they are 
upon the very edge of the land, and mostly uj^on the 
extreme western edo-e, are suo;o;estive of builders who, 
metaphorically speaking, " had their backs to the wall " ; 
and the only population of this island whom history 
knows to have found itself in that position for any length 
of time — and such forts could not be built in a day — were 
the Britons." There is no record, for instance, that either 
Saxon or Dane ever maintained a hopeless resistance in 
Cornwall or in Dyfed against some overwhelming force, 
whereas we know that this was for generations the plight 
of the Britons. In certain cases, e.g. at Tintagel, a 
convenient point has been seized l)y the Normans, who 
had ever an eye for strategic positions ; but the great 
majority of cliff-castles show no sign of any such later 



' The name of Diiiorwig, Caernarvonshire, is said to embody the name of 
the iV^o y.seman. Llys Dinorwig and Dinas Dinorwig are two camps to the 
north-west of Llanberis. Another view would connect the name with that 
of the Ordovices, the British tribe occupying North Wales in Roman times. 

^ There was a great deal of fighting in Cornwall from the fifth century 
onwards owing to the repeated landings and settlements of Irish on that 
coast. These may have built, or at least occupied, one or other of the c((stells, 
but their national type of fortress is said rather to have been the dun, the 
stone-built hill-fort of circular plan described in Chap. VII. 



Ill PROMONTORY FORTS 57 

occupancy, aiul this discounted, .such evidence as we have 
goes to show that they are the work of an older race. 
The simihirit}' between the cliff-castles of Briton and 
Breton seems to decide the question, at least as a general 
principle. The cliff-castles of the south-west and west 
coasts were probably the last strongholds of a race 
beaten in war, degraded and impoverished l)y defeat, pent 
up in a barren and unprofitable land, yet loth to take the 
last step and depart overseas to join their kindred in the 
newer Cornwall — Cornouaille — in Brittany. The very 
reasons which prompted the Britons to seek asylum in 
Cornwall and Wales, — i.e. the unattractive poverty of 
barren hills and moors— left them there for centuries un- 
disturbed by any great influx of Saxons, Danes, or 
Normans. The whole of those western lands teem with 
monuments — cromlechs, circles, avenues, &c. — admittedly 
of British origin, and it seems to be a legitimate con- 
clusion that the cliff-castles also are in most cases 
British. 

Of a different type is the so-called " Roman Camp " on 
Wind Hill, Lynmouth. Between the Bristol Channel on 
the north and the Watersmeet Valley on the south lies a 
tongue-like mass of rock, less than half a mile wide at the 
base by Countisbury, where it rises to 855 feet, and slowly 
trending^ downwards for a full mile to its apex at Lynmouth. 
Right and left the drop to the level of the river and of the 
Channel is as abrupt and rugged as can l)e, and the native 
rock juts up naked through the thin turf in the true 
fashion of a Devonshire tor, so that little of the whole 
area can ever have l)een habitable, let alone cultival)h^ 
ground. Across the base runs a single immense vallum, 
35 — 40 feet in height, with the usual ditch upon the 
outer (E.) side ; and the peculiarity of the design is that 
this vallum does not take, as usually happens, the shortest 
line from precipice to precipice, but runs diagonally down 
the northern slope in a direction S.E. — N.W. Its total 



58 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

length is about 1250 feet.' Travelling along the coach- 
road fi'om Minehead to Lynmouth, one passes the defences 
just where they abut upon the edge of the cliff some 
300 feet above the sea, full in face of the splendid pink 
and red wall of Countisbury Head. Where the vallum 
mounts the actual crest of the hill, just l)eliind the few 
cottages which make up the village of Countisbury, there 
is a gap — the original entrance — through which leads a 
cart-way from the village to nowhere. It would be hard 
to find a position for a camp more inhospitable, more 
defensible, and more l)eautiful in its surroundings, unless 
indeed the perfect little work of Old Burrow, 2 miles 
further to the east, surpasses it in the last-named 
respect. 

This, the most elementary method of fortification, 
would be adequate only in spots begirt on all other sides 
by precipices of a height and steepness sufficient to 
preclude attack ; and amongst the tame highlands of 
England such spots are rare, in southern England and 
amongst the chalk hills especially,^ where abrupt slopes are 
the exception and precipices are unknown. Amongst the 
harder limestone and other rock systems of the west 
country they are of less rare occurrence, and in the 
Welsh, Derbyshire, and Northumbrian hills they are not 
infrequent. Along the valley of the Esk between 
Guisboro' and AVhitby is a whole series of promontory 
forts ranging in plan from the simplest to the most 
elaborate. Durham itself was once such a stronghold.^ 

ilmongst the finest examples of its class is Blacker's "* 

^ There is a much smaller but very typical example of this method of 
fortification at East Hill, Hastings (Fig. 221). 

- The best example to be seen in the South Downs is at Burpham, near 
Arundel (see p. 641). There may have been promontory forts on the sites 
of the castles of Arundel and Hastings. 

^ Cp. the earlier form of the name, Dunholm, "fort-island." 

* The suggested derivation from Bwlch-y-Gaer ("Pass of the Camp above 
the Defile ") does not sound convincing. 



Ill 



PROMONTORY FORTS 



59 



Hill (723 feet), Downside, a mile south of Chilcompton 
Station. The area of the camp (some 15 acres, now 
grass land divided up by ancient hedges) occupies the 
summit of a hill to which the approach from the north is 
to all intents level (Fig. 4) : south and west the ground 
breaks away in small precipices, densely clothed with wood 
and tangled with honeysuckle and wild clematis, and so 
descends abruptly some 200 feet to a valley, through whi 



ell 



FARM 




Fi(i. 4. Bi,voKi;K's iliLL. 



runs eastward a small stream to join the Frome. The 
defences, which cover half tlie circuit, consisted originally 
of two valla and two fosses. Though they are ploughed out 
in places, and elsewhere greatly denuded, the outer vallum 
is on the north-west an enormous work of quite extraordi- 
nary steepness, rising fully 40 feet above the bottom (^f tlu' 
fosse without, along which runs the accommodation-road to 
an ancient farmhouse of Tudor date. On the north-east, 
where both valla and fosses still remain in fairpreservatiou, 



6o EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the inner rampart has a height of 6 to 8 feet, the 
•outer 10 to 12 feet, and the interspace, measured . 
from crest to crest, is 40 feet across. On this side was 
the entrance, a simple gap without accessory works. 
The foot-hill on the east is littered with the refuse- 
mounds, pits and kilns, now abandoned and ivy-grown, of 
old manganese mineries, and immediately outside the 
defences on the north is a great mound of manganese waste 
which masquerades as a barrow. Further away to the 
north-east, and overgrown with turf, is another depressed 
circular mound, probably of the same origin. Long years 
of cultivation have completely eflfaced any vestigia which 
may have marked the area. 

The locality has an interest for geologists, as illustrating 
the manner in which the seemingly hard limestone of the 
Mendips will develop fissures and faults. At the southern 
extremity of the area a solid mass of rock forming the 
angle has broken completely away, and hangs above the 
steep slope, mantled with ivy and other overgrowth, like 
a ruined tower ; and the area itself is seamed with several 
other fissures of much greater length, now mostly filled up 
and grass-grown, and resembling nothing so much as the 
tortuous beds of ancient water-courses. These fissures are 
locally known as " Fairy Slats " ( = slits), and there are still 
alive people who can remember them deep enough and wdde 
enough to furnish hiding-places for the children at play. 
This is the origin of the absurd notion, endorsed by 
Phelps and so made current, that they were " intended 
as places of concealment." ' 

Maesbury, a fine contour-fort, crowns a height of 
958 feet some 2|- miles to the south-west, the Roman 
Road from Old Sarum to Uphill and Bridgwater Bay 
passing immediately beneath its northern slope. Five and 



^ Some empirical excavations made within one of these "slats" have 
apparently produced only negative results. 



Ill PROMONTORY FORTS 6i 

ci hall" miles south-east, overliani;iiig tlie same aiieieiit road, 
is Merehead camp, in shape an isosceles triangle of 
6 acres, defended on the east by a doul)le vallum and 
corresponding fosses. Due east from Blaeker's Plill, near 
Mells, is Tedbury Camp, exactly similar to ]\Ierehead in 
shape, position, and construction, save that the area is very 
much larger. Almost immediately contiguous to the 
north-west, beyond a narrow defile, is Wadbury, which 
more resembles Blaeker's Hill in the relatively large extent 
of its artificial defences. The area is given as 7 acres. 
Immediately north of these, on an isolated knoll thickly 
planted with wood, is a small square entrenchment 
known as Newbury. 

Of Little Down Camp (700 feet), upon an outlying 
angle of Lansdown Hill, S^ miles west of Bath, little 
is left but the single fosse, which was of very great 
width. Within its area (16 acres) are several mounds, 
possibly barrows.^ A few yards away from it, upon the 
level top of the hill to the west of the racecourse, is 
a fairly well-preserved earthwork of rectangular plan, and 
therefore attributed to the Romans, but without proof. 
The Roman Via Julia from Bath to the Severn runs 
at the foot-hills just below the diminutive cliffs which 
form the only defences of Little Down Camp u])()n two 
sides. A mile to the north-east the high road cuts 
through a small circular camp ; a mile north again, on 
Freezing Hill, are the remains of another of irregular 
plan and great size ; and yet another mile west by north, 
close to Wick, are the site of a Roman villa and some 
" Druidical Stones." 

Three camps (Fig. 5) of this class lie almost within a 
stone's throw of one another on either side of the Avon at 
Clifton, one at the eastern (Gloucestershire) end of the 
Suspension Bridge, the other two at its western (Somerset- 



• One of them, opened lately, revealed "nothing of interest.'" 



62 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

shire) end. The road which now crosses tlie deep gorge of 
the Avon by the bridge is the later-day representative of a 
far older trackway which, descending from the Cotswolds 
and crossing the river by a ford ^ a few yards below the 
bridge, climlied up the opposite bank by way of the 
Nightingale Valley or Stokeleigh Blade, to continue 
onwards by Dolebury to Axbridge, whence it branched 
eastward along the Mendips to Wiltshire, westward by 
Bleadon Hill to Uphill and Worlebury, and southward 
to the Parrett, Exmoor, Devon, and Corn walk The cliffs 
on either side of the gorge rise to a height of 250 feet. 
On the eastern side the bend of the stream forms a single 
l)lunt-nosed promontory. On the western side the Nightin- 
gale Valley, cutting deeply into the face of the cliif, has 
formed two separate promontories of somewhat squarer 
plan. Each of the three promontories has been fortified 
in the same fashion. That to the east is known as Clifton 
Down Camp (between 3 and 4 acres) ; of those on the 
west, the southern"" (7 acres) is known as Burgh Walls, 
Borough Walls, Bower Walls, or Burwalls, and the 
northern (about 6^ acres) as Stokeleigh Camp. 

The general plan of all three fortresses was the same. 
With the apex of the promontory as centre, there has 
been drawn across the open ground a series of concentric 
banks and ditches. Clifton Down and Burgh Walls had 
each three valla and two ditches ; Stokeleigh has two 
valla in the normal position, with a third outlying bank 
covering the northern portion of its front, while the edge 
of the area on the side overlooking the Nightingale Valley 
is further provided with a vallum roughly pitched with 
stone, the slope here being insufficient for safety. Of the 
two concentric valla, the inner had in places an ele- 
vation of 30 feet, while the outer is of unusual width. 

' Phelps says it was distinctly traceable in his time (1839), 18 feet wide 
and raised .3 feet in height. 
^ It is now all but destroyed. 



Ill 



PROMONTORY FORTS 



63 



111 Clifton Down (amp a low vallum of turf luii.s along 
one edge of the area where the precipice is steepest, 
terminatiiio' at the extreme western corner in an enclosure 
of similar construction about 40 yards S(|uare. These 
are probably modern. 'I'he other two camps seem to have 




Fio. 5. — Clifton Camps. 



had no such interior woi'ks. 'i'hc main gate of ("Idtoii 
Down Camp was near the eastern end of the defences, 
but tjiere was also a narrow entrance at the \('r}' edge 
of the cliff to the west, wdience a steep pathway 1('<1 d(>wn 
the face of the precipice to a perpetual spring near its 
foot, and so on to the ford. The [)ositioir> ol the gates 



64 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

ill Bui'gii Walls are so ditt'ereiitly described, by different 
authorities that they cannot now be determined. Stoke- 
leigh Camp had one entrance only, corresponding in 
position to the main gate of Clifton Down Camp. In 
Stokeleigh Camp, close to the cliff's edge at the northern 
corner of the area, is a low mound. There was a similar 
but smaller one at the apex of the area of Burgh Walls, 
and another just within one of the gateways, while a 
rectangular depression inside the middle gate has l)een 
supposed to mark an old spring or well. According to 
Phelps, 'the wdiole area of this camp was intersected by 
low banks indicative of ancient buildings, and there were 
traces of buildings, " Roman or Saxon," at the entrance 
of Stokeleigh Camp also. If these ever existed they have 
now vanished. There appears to l)e no authoritative 
proof of any Roman occupation of any of the three 
camps. 

There is no reasonable doubt that all these works are 
pretty much of one date, of British construction, and 
intended to secure the ancient road which passes between 
them.^ If their position can be taken as proof that 
different tribes occupied the two banks of the stream, 
then it would follow that the two tril)es practised exactly 
the same method of fortification. 

Burgh Walls furnishes a wholesome warning against 
over-hasty conclusions. During the process of demolishing 
the great inner vallum, which rose to a height of 18 feet, 
there were broug-ht to lio;ht masses of what seemed to 
be a "core of burnt limestone mixed with cement.'' 
Prebendary Scarth ^ was led to believe that when the 
vallum was first built, "fires had been lit at intervals of 



^ There is a similar group of three forts apparently defending the passage 
of the Teign near Moreton Haxnpstead, viz. Cranbrooke Castle, Wooston 
Castle, and Prestonbury ; but these are all contour foris, and each is different 
from the others in plan. 

'^ In Aichaeuloyia, xliv. 



Ill PROMONTORY FORTS 65 

from 9 feet to 15 feet, covered over with liiiicsiunr. and 
banked up, holes being left for the admission of air": 
with the result that the action of the tianics liad 
"vitrified" the mass, rendering it to all intents one solid 
piece of stone. This theory had for some years passed 
unchallenged when Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan showed ' tliat 
the supposed jnirposed and complete calcination was 
neither complete nor purposed, but merely tlie fortuitous 
result of the lighting of fires upon the top of tlie vallum. 
The heat reduced the limestone to lime, whicli was in the 
natural course of things slaked by rain and carried down 
between the interstices of the stones below, thus forming 
isolated lumps of what appears to be " stone set in cement." 
Traces of similar causes and efifects were apparent in the 
vallum of Clifton Down Camp also. For what purpose 
the fires were lib does not appear ; they may have been 
beacon fires of very late date, but they certainlv were 
not intended to make a vitrified fort.' 

The great majority of promontory forts stand in positions 
such that their safety can never have depended in any 
measure upon streams and swamps. Others, and especially 
those at lower levels, doubtless depended wholly upon the 
impassable character of their surroundings, although at 
the present day there may remain no trace of watei-. The 
fortress (Fig. 6) known as Carl's Wark,'^ near Hathersage, 
Derbyshire, will serve as an example. Thougli small in 
area {(300 feet by 150 — 200 feet), it is eminently defensible, 
being protected on three sides not merely by the steej) 
fall of the ground, but l)y the boggy soil at the foot of 



* See Proceedings of the Somerset Archaological Societij, xlvii. (1901). 

- Something is said of the " Vitrilied Forts" of Scotland ainl (.'Isru hiTO 
in Ch. VI., IX 180. 

•' " Carlwark " on the O.M. It may not be a mere accident that this i.s a 
Norse name, but nothing is known of the date of the fort. " Wark," ,v 
common element in place-names, usually refers to the existence of a fortress 
on the spot, e.g. Aldwark, Southwark, Newark, ttc. One oxiJanation makes 
Carl to be the equivalent of Grim, i.e. the Devil. 

F 



66 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the slopes. On the western side, where the fall of the 
ground is slight, the approach is barred by a ditch and an 
earthen rampart, 17 feet or 18 feet thick and 150 feet in 
length, which was originally faced throughout with un- 
mortared stone, and the slope without is further increased 
by scarping. The single entrance was at the soutli-west 
corner, where the path entered l)etween massive recurving 
walls, built up of stones which in some cases measured as 
much as 14 feet by 3 feet 4 inches, the w^all on the left 







J^6S.t. 



Fig. 0. — Carl'8 Wark. 

hand projecting like a bold round tower and raking all 
the southern side of the fortress.^ 

If the ground surrounding the camp is boggy at the 
present time, there is good reason to think that, when the 
fortress was built, it must have been an impracticable 



* Reliqiiary, vol. i. (I860). The stone-work of wall and gate has been 
greatly damaged in recent years. The camp lies amidst wild moorland 
immediately east of Hathersage. Close by Hathersage church are the remains 
of a small circular entrenchment enclosed within a single vallum and ditch, 
which local belief asserts to be Danish, for no sufhcient reason. 



Ill 



PROMONTORY KORTS 



67 



swamp. The induljitahle fact that the .soil of Enghiiid 
has been growing drier during many centuries must l»c 
borne constantly in mind when the strategy of ancient 
earthworks is under consideration. Thus the camp at 
Burpham/ nowfeel)le enough, must, when first constructed, 
have l)een a true peninsula, surrounded on three sides bv 
deep water or even deeper peat-bogs. Tlie alteration has, 
of course, varied with different localities, but, speaking 
broadly, there has been a constant and very great fall of 



■■''''==^'§§|!;?;i5,,. 




Fio. 7. — DvKE Hills, Dorchester, Oxux. 

the water-levels. The banking of rivers, the construction 
of locks and weirs, and other operations collectively styled 
conservation, have made dry land of large areas which 
were until a late period riverine marshes, so that such 
earth w^orks as the Dyke Hills by Dorchester (Oxfordshire), 
although at the present day seeming to be incomplete or 
purposeless, must originally have been very complete and 
purposeful indeed. These works (Fig. 7) — two parallel 
valla rising to a height of IG feet above the floor of the 
great intervening fosse, itself some 55 feet in width — form 



1 See p. 641. 



F 2 



68 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

one side of a rough rectangle, of which the curving 
Thames and the Thame bound the other sides. The total 
length of the works was originally some 1,000 yards, 
exclusive of the recurve at the eastern end ; and despite 
years of assiduous ploughing, their course is still plainly 
traceable across the fields, while for 200 yards or so they 
remain to all intents as they were built, save that the 
second (outer) fosse is all Imt obliterated. To-day the 
fields adjacent, cultivated to the uttermost margin or 
deep ill such meadow-grass as only the fat Thames 
valley can produce, show no token of their swampy past, 
but a casual o;lance over them will show that the area 
(114 acres) enclosed within the lines is very considerably 
hiorher than the o-round without — that, in fact, the valla 
follow the edge of what must have been actually an 
island in earlier days, the flood- water probably filling the 
great inner fosse as well as the smaller one without.' 
Although there are plenty of earthworks of greater height, 
breadth, and length than these of Dorchester, yet from 
the seeming level of the adjacent fields, and still more 
from the rigid parallelism of the great walls of earth, they 
acquire an added dignity which might impress the dullest 
imagination, without the further associations which 
attach to one of the sacred spots of English soil. We 
need not believe, with Richard of Cirencester so-called, 
that here stood once the Roman town of Dorocina, though 
certainly there was here a Roman castrum of some 
importance ; and older than the castrum, upon the hill 
beyond the river still stands the contour fort of Sinodun 
Hill (500 feet), only a mile away ; but here St. Birinus 
beo;an his evansfelization of Wessex in 634, and within the 
queerly barn-like frame of the present abbey-church are 
embodied stones that were first laid in the days of Saxon 

^ An analogous work is that known as the King's Ditch at Bedford, which 
is still flooded occasionally. This is known to have been constructed by the 
orders of the Ensj;lish King Eadward the Elder in 919. 



Ill 



PROMONTORY FORTS 



69 



Cynegils for tlie mother (.'liureli of a diocose wliicli ivarlieil 
from Salisbury to Liclifiokl, from the cnnst of rjmnhishire 
to that of Devon/ 

By simihir changes in the soil are to he explained 
a number of dykes, larger or smaller, of which the type 
may be found in that known as I'onter's Ball," in 




Fn;. 8. — Pontkk's Ball. 



Someisetshire, between (xlastonbury and the village of West 
Pennard further to the east. This work (Fig. 8), "a huge 



' From the river 1)ed adjoining this " camjj " of the Dyke Hills have ])een 
recovered at vari<nis times shields of British type, bronze daggers ami spear- 
heads, Sec; hut these may as well have belonged to the people who l)uilt 
Sinodun Camp as to those who built the Dyke Hills. Within tiie substance 
of the latter earthworks, when demolished by the plough, have been found 
coins and other remains of British, Roman, and Saxon dates, whicli would 
seem to suggest that the valla were thrown up at a late date. On tlie otiier 
hand. Hint Hakes and stone implements have been found within the area, and 
Prof. Havcrheld believes that he has ol)served within it the Indiriit of a 
village of Romano- liritish or [)re-Roiiian date. 

- Otherwise Pouter's Wall, Fouter's Tiall, and Fonler's Wall. 'I'lu' nlivii.us 
derivation of the latter part of the name from ndltdii is as old as Plielps. 
The origin of Pouter's or Fonter's is unknown. 



JO EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

rampart consisting of a fosse and <i(jgcy, crossing the road 
at right angles and extending on each side of the ridge 
down to the moors," seems at first sight to have no 
purpose, l)ut unquestionably it was constructed at a time 
when the moors in question were impassable swamps, 
periodically drowned by the sea, and rendering the rising 
ground of Avalon actually an " island-valley," or at 
any rate a peninsula, approachable only along the narrow 
rido;e of hioher around. This rido-e indeed, nowhere risinsj 
to the 100 feet level, falls below the 50-feet line at one 
point l)etween the Ball and the neighbouring tor. Along 
it ran a very ancient way eastward by Merehead Camp at 
East Cranmore to Wiltshire, and the "island" was 
otherwise inaccessible until the Romans engineered a road 
from the extremity of Weary-all ^ Hill across the fens 
of the Brue to Street, and so to Ilchester and Exeter, The 
well-known lake-village by Meare (another tell-tale name) 
lay but a little further to the west in the fen, whose peat 
reaches in places a depth of over 20 feet. Whether the 
lake-dwellers had anything to do with the building of 
Ponter's Ball is, of course, indeterminable, but it was 
clearly built by a people who desired to bar the one 
approach to the " island " from the east." The tor itself 
bears unmistakable traces of terraces, lynchets, &c., which 
may have been military or may have been agricultural, 
but are unquestionably artificial. 

Exactly analogous in their plan, albeit on a far more 
impressive scale, are the great Cambridgeshire dykes 
discussed elsewhere,^ and the elaborate series of entrench- 



1 Explained as a corruption of Yr AUt, " The Steep." The name of Street 
preserves the memory of the Roman via strata. 

- An obvious theory attributes it to the Britons, who maintained them- 
selves in Ynys Witryn until Kenwalch in 658 drove them westward of the 
Parrett. Thenceforward the place was known as Glaestinga-l)urh, Glaston- 
bury. The name of the Saxon King is preserved in that of Kenny Wilkins' 
Barrow on the eastern borders of Somersetshire. 

^ Page 505, 



Ill PROMONTORY FORTS 71 

ineiits lying west of Flamborough Hetid, Tlic* most 
important of these, locally known as the Danes' Dyke, 
encloses an area of 5 square miles to which attaches the 
name of Little Denmark. It extends across the base of 
the head for a distance of 2| miles, and is throughout 
most of the distance doul)le. Pitt-Rivers Ijelieved these 
entrenchments to l)e the work of invaders coming from 
over sea and seeking to secure their foothold upon new 
soil, and unquestionably the tradition embodied in 
popular names supports this conclusion. Tradition 
however is a dubious guide, and the terror of the Danes led 
to their being associated in later times with many works 
with which they had little or nothing to clo.^ That the 
Danes did upon occasion practise such a form of defence 
we know from the Anglo-Saxon Chro7iicle,^ and sometimes 
upon a considerable scale ; and if they did so, it is 
permissible to suppose that similar works were in vogue 
amongst other related Baltic tribes. It is, again, (juite 
conceivable that the Danes' Dyke was erected by native 
islanders fallino- back before some unrecorded attack. 
" Nothing," says Canon Greenwell,^ " has ever been found in 
connection with the entrenchments of the wolds, enaljling 
us to attribute them with certainty to any time or people." 
All that can be said is that the probabilities rather go to 
support Pitt-Rivers' conclusions. It is not known that 
the native Britons, at a date previous to their contact 
with the Romans, ever employed the system of dyke- 
building on any great scale, and when the 8axon tribes 



' The constant lucurrence of such names as Daneshf)rough, Danes' Hill, 
Danejohn, illustrates this. It has been suggested that in some cases these 
names conceal the old Celtic dinas "fort," or dun " hill." 

- See p. .384. 

•' BriUsh />'((/•/ ((jc.s, ]). 12."). On the other hand thei'e is some evidence, saj's 
Canon Atkinson {Forh/ Years in n Mooiitind Farish, p. 15(3), to suggest that 
the Danes' Dyke was the work of men who " not only used Hint implements, 
hut made them and moreover made them on the spot. " He i)oints out that 
this is not inconsistent with their havintc also the knowledge and use of metal. 



72 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

employed it, it was rather for boundary lines than for 
strictly military purposes. 

There are numerous cases where a vallum and ditch 
have been drawn across inland promontories by the 
Normans, e.g. atTopcliffe on the Ure nearThirsk (Fig. 151), 
and at West Tantield (Fig. 152), on the same river. In these 
cases, however, such works are always subordinate to the 
larger and more elaborate works which they cover. 
There may be instances in which the Norman has merely 
availed himself of some vallum and fosse of older date, 
but, failing proof to the contrary, it is wise to suppose that 
the outer and inner works in such cases are of one age, and 
that Norman. 

As compared with fortresses of other classes, the 
promontory fort, when really ancient, is generally 
distinguished by simplicity of plan, economy of labour, and 
the absence of any discernible provision for the herding of 
cattle. With very rare exceptions, it shows a single 
undivided area. Its position is expressly chosen so as to 
throw upon the hands of nature as much as possible of the 
task of its defence, and such works as are added are, as a 
rule, of a very simple kind. Vallum and fosse are in many 
cases single only, frequently double, but only rarely are 
there three or more lines. The entrances in almost all 
cases are quite without elaboration or complication. Most 
remarkable of all, inherent indeed in the definition of this 
class of camps, is the entire absence of any containing wall ^ 
which might safeguard the cattle ; and this suggests at 
once that such camps were not the work of peoples who 
shared their fortress with their flocks, as the builders of 
other camps almost certainly did.^ If this inference be 

1 In certain of the " clifl'-castles " rude containing walls are to be traced, 
but rarely of any size, or running continuously round the area ; e.g. The 
Towans, Gunwalloe, and Kenidjack Castle, St. Just in Penwith. 

^ It is possible that in some cases there may lia\e been originally some sort 
of timber or wattled fence surrounding the unbanked portions of the art^a, 



Ill PROMONTORY FORTS 73 

correct, it follows, since man never voluntarily abandons 
his possessions, that sucli works must have been Iniilt 
either by a people who had ne^'er owned cattle, or b\' a 
people who had lost their cattle, or finally by a people who 
had no cattle with them — built, that is, either by a very early 
race indeed, or by refugees w^ho had lost their only form of 
wealth, or by invaders who came not to settle, but to 
plunder. The first alternative is improbable, and the 
attribution to refugees and to invaders is more likely ; but 
it is conceivable that amongst them are examples which 
were actually the work of each of the three possible classes 
of builders. If some were constructed by refugee Britons, 
and others by invading Saxons and Danes or Irish, yet 
others may have been the work of tribes who did not as 
yet own cattle, at least in any appreciable numbers. 
That such tribes there must have been is certain. There 
is no necessity to think that the pala3olitliic hunter was 
directly superseded, at however long an interval, by the 
neolithic flock-master, and it must l)e remembered that 
the presence of a pastoral population in one part of the 
island is no proof that the contemporary populations of 
other parts were equally advanced in civilization. But, 
putting aside such speculations as too theoretical, there 
remains the fact that very many peninsular forts do not 
appear to otfer any provision for the herding of cattle, 
the only wealth of primitive man. They must therefore 
have been built to protect the man rather than his beasts. 
They were not the work of settled pastoral or agiicuhur.il 
peoples concerned to construct permanent homesteads tor 
themselves and their possessions. 

Such an arrangement, however, though it might have suflicud for tlie lienliug 
of sheep, could not have served for horned cattle, unless it were of such 
strength that some trace of it must certainly have been discoverable. More- 
over, the evidence of archfcology tends to show that man was a neatliei-d 
tirst, a shcplierd afterwards. 



CHAPTER IV 

CONTOUR FORTS 

" So silent is the place and cold, 

So far from human hen, 

It hath a look that makes me old, 

And spectres time again^ 

The double-barrelled definition of Contour Forts, as set 
forth in the Committee's Schedule (Class B), hardly brings 
out with sufficient clearness the essential difference between 
these and the camps of the first (Promontory) class, viz., 
that whereas promontory forts, properly so called, find 
part at any rate, and often the major part, of their 
defences in the natural features of their position, camps of 
the second class, which are found alike on the hill-tops 
and on the levels, are provided with artificial defences on 
every side. For the first subdivision (hill-top forts) the 
name of "Contour Camps" is a convenient one; for the 
second subdivision that of " Plateau Forts " is sometimes 
used. There is no convenient and brief style wdiich 
includes both. 

It is a necessary consequence of the geological character 
of the high grounds of England that forts of the second 
class are far more numerous than those of the first class. 
Constructed for the most part according to the contour of 
the ground, the variety of their plans is endless, and even 
when these happen to be similar they vnry infinitely in 
every other point. Amongst them are included at once 



CH. IV CONTOUR FORTS 75 

the most extensive, the most ehihorate, ami tlie most 
formiclnble of all English entrenchments. 

The transition from the one class to the other is seen in 
the numerous cases in which a fort, otherwise of the 
])romontory type, is additionally defended l)y artificial 
works covering those parts of the circuit which might well 
have been left to nature. It is, as a rule, quite impossible 
to guess whether these additional works are of the same 
age as those defending the neck, or of later date, but it is 
at least possible that in some cases they were thrown up 
by later occupants who brought with them new ideas of 
fortification. Just as the Normans occasionally made 
partial use of pre-existing promontory fortresses, so earlier 
races might as naturally avail themselves of the labours of 
their predecessors. It is obvious that the precipitous open 
sides of a true promontory fort, while they might serve 
adequately to keep out one's foes, would be Init an ill 
means to keep in one's cattle, and it is quite likely 
that the addition of a vallum upon the e<lge of tlie 
precipice was sometimes suggested by the need of safe- 
guarding the flocks. Conceivably this might point in 
some cases to a later date, or even to a difierence of race. 
in others merely to a more advanced state of culture and 
greater wealth, while it would still allow of a relatively 
late date for the construction of, e.g., the clifl'-castles of the 
coast, whether these were the last strongholds of a [)e<)ph' 
defeated, robbed of their wealth, and retreating, but still 
contesting obstinately the last foot of their old land, or 
were the first bases of a yet later race of invaders from 
the sea, who brouo;lit with them no flocks or otlici' wealth 
than their weapons. 

Castle Plill (Fig. 9), Clatworthy, Somerset, marked on the 
Ordnance Map as a " Roman Camp," is a good specimen 
of the simplest form of these transitional camps, its remote 
situation and strong natural position having very largely 
preserved it from destruction, it occupies the level 



76 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAF. 



triangular top (800 feet) of a hill running out westward 
into the valley of the Tone, here a diminutive burn, its 
sources but some four miles away in a fold of the Brendon 
Hills, which face the camp beyond the valley. Across the 
neck of the hill runs a straio-ht vallum of considerable size 
with an exterior fosse, the entrance— a simple gap — being- 
near its middle point. On the remaining sides the area — 






/ 



/ /^ 



\ 









Cha ins 






\ 



\ 





\ 



Fig. 9. — Clatworthy. 



now a rabbit-warren of some 14 acres — is defended by 
a slight breastwork following the edge of the hill, and 
the slope beneath is scarped very steeply so as to form a 
formidable fosse and parapet. For a short space on the 
south side these defences have been destroyed ; elsewhere 
they are so densely overgrown with trees and ]>rambles as 
to have escaped injury indeed, ))ut to lie very ditticult to 
examine. For the surmise that this was a Roman work, 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 



77 



iiiteiKled for the protection of certain irun mines at 
Syndercombe, 2 miles further west, there is no evidence 
at all. The camp, as it stands, shows none of the recog- 
nized signs of Eoman construction, nor any trace of Roman 
occupation ; and its position was ill ch(jsen for the defence 
of mines quite out of sight behind the next ridge of 
hills. The assertion ^ that there used to be traces of an 
old trackway leading from it to Ehvorthy Barrows is 
inherently probable, if only because past Ehvorthy Barrows 
ran the ancient highway from mid-Somerset into North 
Devon and on to Cornwall.^ 

On Pulpit Hill (813 feet), overhanging the singularly 
misnamed Buckinghamshire village of "Great" Kimble, 
is (Fig. 10) a strong camp of different plan, and of much 
smaller size ; indeed, the smallness of many of these transi- 
tional camps suggests that they were probably little more 
than watch-posts. Here the entire area, about 100 yards 
across, is girdled by a vallum which, though rising l)ut 
little above the floor, has on every side a l)old outward 
fall, especially on the north, where the face of the hill has 
been made very nearly inaccessible by scarping. The 
eastern side, on which alone approach is easy, is further 
covered by a second vallum of considerable size, with a 
continuous berm from 14 to 17 feet wide in its rear and a 
shallow ditch in front. The breadth of these defences over 
all averages as much as 100 feet, the scarp of the inner 
vallum measuring from 30 feet to 35 feet. The second 
vallum disappears on the steep slopes of the northern and 
southern sides. The main entrance, now a mere gap in the 
defences, lies on the east ; it is 15 paces wide, and 
shows no trace of any protective works. There is a second 
and smaller entrance at the western angle of the cam[). 
The area is strewn with flints, and immediately without 

^ Phelps, History of Somemetshire. ' 

'^ Amongst transitional camps the best known, perhaps, is that called the 
Devil's Dyke Camp, near Brighton. See Ch. XIX. 



78 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



the western vallum, where the hill forms a small triangular 
platform, are to be picked up flakes innumerable, fragments 
of pottery, and by rare accident an implement. 

Enveloped in beech trees the camp is completely con- 
cealed from sight, but whoso takes the trouble to climb to 



20 30 40 



,'/ 






liliVXU^" ,v,,. 







Sections m feet. 






Fig. 10.— Pulpit Hill. 



it will, at the worst, be rewarded by one of the finest 
views in the Midlands — a view stretching for miles across 
the intervening levels to the distant landmark of Sinodun 
Camp and Wittenham Clumps overhanging the Thames, to 
Uffington Castle and the Berkshire Downs, to Oxford, to 
the island-hill of Brill, and to Bledlow Ridge — the Bloody 
Hill — closing the view to the south. With its roof of 
clean beechen foliage, its close-bitten slopes studded with 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 



79 



scented juiiiijer, and its utter remoteness, this is one of 
the most beautiful spots in all the length of the Chilterns, 
and moreover a centre of exceptional interest to those 
who care for earthwork. 

Less than 3 miles to the north-east lies WV-ndovcr,' in 
the gap between Bacombe and Boddington Hills, two 
headlands of the chalk. Hidden in the thick woods on 
Boddington Hill (800 O.D.) is a pear-shaped earthwork of 
consideral)le strength, which ordinary maps do not mark ; -' 
but on the other hand they mark as a " camp " the mound 
on Bacombe Hill, which may have been originallv a 
tumulus, and has certainly been used as a l)eacon, but as 
certainly was never a camp, albeit the ground about it is 
much broken by pits, trenches, and trackways of dul)ious 
origin. Between the two hills passes a very old trackway 
leading towards Cholesbury. Wendover itself stands 
upon one of the old roads to which the name of the 
Icknield Way is given. Coming out of Norfolk, and 
rambling along the chalk-ridges towards the Thames at 
AVallingford, it skirts the western foot of the hills from 



* Query, the "White Water" ? There is still a copious spring near the 
church, although it has sorely shrunk since the making of reservoirs depleted 
it. Popular etymology insists that the place was named from the obvious 
fact that here the roads out of the Vale of Aylesbury begin to irend orer the 
hills : 

- This, a strictly contour fort of some 20 acres, is the largest in the count}'. 
Its defences consist of a single vallum and exterior fosse, without berm or 
parapet, and the original entrance seems to have been where now stands 
Galloways (or Peacock) Farm. The vallum is greatly shrunk at most points, 
but at one part of the eastern side still stands 5 feet above the area. It is 
15 — 18 feet wide throughout, and the height of its crest above the Hoor of 
the fosse varies from 10 feet on the west to 20 feet on the east, according as 
the slope of the hill allows of more or less scarping. The camp seems to liave 
no name ; to the natives who are aware of its existence it is merely "the 
old ditch." The world wags in very leisurely fasliion up liere on the heiglits 
of Affjoed Calchfijmtdd, the Forest of the Clialk-hills. When the writer in- 
quired of a farmer what might be the area of the camp, the reply was, 
"seventeen acres, they do say; but I've been told as there's scores of 
thousands of acres of I<t)id hereabotits." And presently he added, "But I 
never measured 'em." 



8o EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Triiig to Risborougli. Through Wendover and Elle.s- 
))orough, by Little and Great Kimble, under Pulpit Hill 
and Whiteleaf Cross, then across the valley and up again 
along the slopes behind Chinnor, it winds deviously, some- 
times embodied in a modern highway, more often a deeply- 
rutted field-way, but mostly a silent and deserted ribbon 
of ojreenest turf drawn out lietween hedojes of hawthorn, 
precisely as it may be seen by Mildenhall and L;klingham, 
long miles away towards Norfolk. Overlooking the Way, 
within a mile of Pulpit Hill, is the fortress known as 
Cymbeline's Mount, a very perfect little specimen of the 
Norman type. Two miles to the south is Great Hampden, 
where the Buckinghamshire Grim's Dyke is to be seen at 
its best, and close beside it a series of barrow-like mounds 
of unusual size, one of them marked on the maps as 
" Danes' Camp." Adjoining the church of Great Kimble 
is another tumulus, which local wisdom declares to have 
been "made in the (Civil) wars"; and in the grass field 
to the west are vestiges of vanished buildings, a grass- 
grown moated site, fishponds, and some curious and 
inexplicable trenches of olndously military character. 
Only a quarter of a mile away to the north, in the field 
adjoining Little Kimlile Church, are other mounds and 
trenches locally attributed to the Civil Wars, but almost 
certainly of much greater age. The memory of the Lord 
Protector ^ flourishes green amongst the peasantry of this 
part of England, and they do not doubt that he built the 
Grim's Dyke too. All along the foothills, and everywhere 
over the Hat Plain of Aylesbury, are the moated sites of 
the houses of the knights and yeomen who stood for 
Hampden or for King. On the green slope of Whiteleaf^ 
Hill, a mile south of Pulpit Hill, carved out of the turf 
is the great white Cross, said to have been cut in memory 



1 At Chequers Court they maintain that he resided, and there is still 
preserved his baby linen. 
^ I.e., White Cliff. 



IV CONTOUR KORTS 8i 

of some great fioht with the Danes. If so, it has failed 
of its purpose, for no man knows wiien or where was the 
" sw^ord-phiy." Perhaps it was the same affray as that 
which gave a name to the Bloody Hill beyond the valley, 
which likewise boasts its own but smaller Cross. Every 
age and every civilization has left its mark upon the soil 
within a two-mile radius of Pulpit Hill. The beauty of 
the spot appealed even to the Roman, and under the sod 
by Little Kimble Church lie the foundations of Roman 
buildings. 

Standing upon a spur of the chalk (851 feet), 13 miles 
west-south-west of Salisbury and 5 miles due south of 
Tisbury station, is Winkelbury ^ (A.-S., ivincelburh, 
"the corner fort"). It embraces (Fig. 11) an area of 12|- 
acres. As usual, the lines which cover the neck of the 
position are much stronger than the rest of the enceinte, 
and moreover they are trebled, not in immediate sequence, 
but so as to leave considerable interspaces. Of the three 
lines the midmost is the strongest, the vallum having 
originally been 7 feet high, with an outer ditcli 1 if feet 
in depth and 5 feet wide. A gap 90 feet in width 
divides these works at the centre, the two halves of tlic 
entrenchment lying not in a direct line to right and 
left, but en echelon, and with a slight overlap. At either 
end were other entrances, respectively 55 feet (east) and 
115 feet (west) in width. The great size of these three 
openings, which were proved by excavation to be original, 
is very remarkable, and Pitt-Rivers suggested that they 
were expressly made to facilitate the driving in and 
out of large herds of cattle. Equall}' remarkable is the 
great depth of the fosse as compared with its width. 



1 The particulars of this camp are taken from Major-General Pitt-Kivers' 
account, Excavations In Cninhorne Chase, Vol. II, There is another camp of 
the same name near Basingstoke, and at Bicknoll, on the northern l)or(ler 
of Wilts, near Clyffe Pypard, there would seem to have boon one of the 
same plan. 

G 



82 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



The inner vallum (originally 9 feet higli, with a fosse of 
the same depth, but only 2 feet 2 inches in width) sweeps 
across the neck in a semi-circular course, with an 
entrance in the centre ; whence was traceable north- 



^^,)iillll 






\ > 

\ 




Fig. 11. — WiNKELBUKY. 



wards across tlie inner area a shallow depression like a 
roadway, suggesting that this was " the middle street 
of the camp." The soil hereabouts showed traces of pit- 
dwellings. Through a small entrance in the northern 
rampart opening upon the steep face of the hill, an old 
track runs downs to a spring half a mile to the west. 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 8^, 



J 



Other tracks score the liillside upwards from the spriiio- 
to the open ground soutli of the camp, where are 
traceable sliglit Ijut definite remains of a third vallum, 
arranged echelon-wise across the neck some 5GG yards to 
the south of the middle vallum. Excavation proved the 
camp to be of pre- Roman time, with very few traces 
of later occupation until Saxon days. The Saxons had 
used the outer area of the camp as a cemetery, and ;') I 
skeletons were here unearthed. 

The plan of the whole work is interestino-, she win o- 
a triple division which is iiot uncommon in camps of 
a certain magnitude.' The inner camp was apparently 
the residential area and the citadel ; the second area 
served probably as a corral for the cattle at night or 
in time of danger ; while the nmcli more extensive area 
of the outer camj) would provide sufficient })asturage 
whenever it was deemed unwise to take the herd 
further afield. The general disposition is ^H'cciselv that 
of the mount-and-bailey fortress of a fsir later date, i.e. 
the Norman Castle with its keep and inner and outer 
wards. 

On two l)old spurs standing out north and south from 
the Blackdown Hills are the two splendid fortresses known 
as Hembury Fort and Castle Neroche. 

Hembury Fort (880 feet), 4 miles west of Honiton, has 
l)een called "the grandest monument of the military skill 
and strategy of the Britons in the county of Devon." -' 
In length 360 yards, in l)readth at its wider (northern) 
end 110 yards, it contains (Fig. 12) approximately 8 acres. 
Round the whole of this area run two valla with corresj)ond- 
ing fosses. The inner vallum is strongest towards the north, 
where it rises 10 feet al)Ove the area ; and while through- 
out most of its lenofth it is 40 feet al)Ove the fosse, at the 

' For a much smaller example of similar plan. cp. Bury Castle, Sehvoi-tliv 
(Fig. 23). 

- J. C. Willi, in I'idori'i ('». Ifisl. nf l>,>rn,i.shln>. 

(J 2 



84 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

northern end it rises to as much as 60 feet. The steep 
slope of the hill on every side l)ut tlie north renders the 
second vallum little less formidable. A third great vallum 
envelops all l)ut the eastern side, wliich must indeed 
always have l^een unassailable. At the north-west corner, 
the weakest point of all, this third vallum is broadened 
out to form a platform 50 yards in length, with breast- 
works in front and rear ; and the whole is here covered by 
yet a fourth vallum passing round the north-western angle. 
The area is divided into two parts by two parallel 
traverses from 3 to 5 feet in height, running east and 
west about 60 feet apart, that to the south being further 
protected by a fosse on that side The northern traverse 
bends at the western end in such a manner as all Init to 
close the narrow interspace. 

Just at this point is the main entrance, the path climlv 
ing diagonally up the steep side of the hill past the outer 
lines of defences, overhung throughout by the enormous 
ramparts and Hanked on either hand -by lower banks 
which traverse the fosses. The gap in the inner vallum 
gives access alike to the two divisions of the area and to 
the interspace between them. At the north-east is 
another and smaller entrance, which, although it opens 
upon a slope almost too steep to climb, is defended by a cir- 
cular mount without the rampart, and enfiladed for a length 
of 50 feet by the recurve of the vallum. A third path, 
approaching from the southern base of the hill, passes 
alono; a level berm between the two eastern valla, and 
bifurcating, climbs up to the southern area at two points 
near its north-eastern corner. This portion of the area 
shows in the centre the vestiges of a laro;e mound encircled 
by a shallow fosse, and at its extreme southern end a kind 
of circular enclosure of very small size, with some signs 
that there has once been a l)uilding here, or possibly a 
beacon -hearth. 

This magnificent work has never been explored, and 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 



85 



unhappily its area, now aoaiu .surrendered to the lioather 
was for some years under the phjugh, so that there remaii'i 
on Its surface no vestiges save the all l.ut ohliterated 




Fi<;. 12. -Hk.miu Kv Four, Homton. 



'^'•"iii.l ahove nieiitioii.'d. Aiin.imsi I )..v.)iii;iii -.nrhiv- 
"logists of the f-ist century it was a pd aiiil.iiicii 1,, 
identify it with the Moridununi of the Itiiwran/, and it is 
said that the high road from Honiton to Cullompton, 



86 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

which runs immediately below the fort, represents an 
older Roman road. There is no visible reason to think 
that the Romans had anything to do with the building of 
the fortress, which may very well be in the main a 
British work. On the other hand the double traverses 
dividing the area, and still more the central mound with 
its fosse, are dubious features suggestive of later methods 
of defence, as also is the small enclosure at the southern 
end. It is quite possible that all these are later modifica- 
tions of the original plan. The double area and the 
mound together are certainly suggestive of Norman 
work.^ 

Of Castle Neroche it must be said at the outset that, 
as it stands, it is not a British work. What in the case of 
Heml;)ury Fort is merely a doubt is in that of Castle Neroche 
a certainty, for excavations^ have shown conclusively 
that, in part at any rate, it is a Norman fortress, and 
nothino; whatever was found either of Roman or of earlier 
date. Nevertheless, the very partial character of the 

' This is in some sense corroborated by certain earthworks on the narrow 
ridge of high ground wliich runs south-east from the foot of Hembury Hill 
towards the Otter. It is ' ' a long tongue of land, well fortified naturally, 
but evidently in addition scarped all round. The mound at the south end 
is evidently artificial. It has been trenched round, is about 13 feet above 
the natural surface, with a diameter of 230 feet. . . . At the narrowest part 
of the ridge a ditch has been cut right through. There is then a rhom- 
boidal mound, say 130 feet, trenched about, and at the extreme point towards 
Hembury another, larger and higher, say 200 feet, of somewhat oval shape, 
also trenched round. . . . All these mounds have depressions in the 
centre "—the hills upon which they stand are known respectively as Bushy 
Knap (S.) and Buckerell Knap (N.). There is a plan of the works in the 
Journal British Arch. Assoc, vol. xviii. If the descripti(m is correct, they 
are certainly of the class usually supposed to be Norman ; and the 
builders of these may have had some hand in tampering with the older 
works at Hembury. 

- See Prnrcnllhijs of tlw Sontersft Archaeological Society, vol. xlix. (1903). 
Tlie origin of the name of Neroche is unknown. It was in use in the days of 
Edward I., and even of Henry III. Locally the camp is said to l)e styled 
Castle Rache, but more usually it is referred to simply as "The Castle." 
Prof. Boyd Dawkins would derive the name from Brythonic rhac, 
" spine." 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 



87 



investigations tiius far made leaves in doubt the original 
date of the main portion of the works, and there is at 
any rate the evidence of surface-finds to show that the 
site had its occupants in far earlier times.' 









^^-":\\'^ 







S:;^ 





X '/,'<:, (ill'' .:>_..- -^ 'â– .,. 4, ^vj 



Fig. 13. — C.vstle Neroche. 



The plan of the fortress (Fig. 13) will give more informa- 
tion than a lengthy description. It occupies a tongue ot 
the hill jutting out northwards over the valley-land known 
as Taunton Dene, the detached mount at the extremity — 

' Worked flint and chert are to be picked up just outside the southern 
enceinte. 



88 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the Beacon — reaching the height of 838 feet. The phxii 
shows the peculiar triple division seen at Winkelbury, 
and characteristic also, as will be seen later, of many 
Norman castles. The inner fortress, now occupied by 
the Castle Farm, is surrounded by a circular earthen 
vallum of very great strength. The manner in which 
the outermost vallum ends abruptly upon the edge of 
the hill to the east, and the absence of any discoverable 
defences along the eastern edge of the outer area, are 
characteristic of early castrametation ; but, on the other 
hand, the mount — the isolation of which is possibly in 
part natural, but has certainly been much increased by 
human agency — is a feature commonly associated with 
works of post- Roman time. On the mount itself have 
been exposed foundations of rough masonry, and the 
numerous terraces, walls, and trenches traceable under its 
northern slope are almost certainly of late date. Under 
the slope to the north-west is a spring. The planting of 
the castle with trees has greatly interfered with the 
regular plan of the works, and makes it difficult to see 
their correct form, while it completely blocks out the view 
from the Beacon southward, previously almost as completely 
dominated as the rest of the surrounding country. Even 
so the outlook is immense, embracing the whole plain of 
Somersetshire as far as the Downs of Wiltshire, the Men- 
dips, Worlebury, Brent Knoll, and Exmoor. 

If the whole of this rremendous series of works was 
really the creation of a builder or builders of the Norman 
time, it is certainly remarkable that there should be 
discoverable no record either of their construction or of 
any castle at all upon the site, the more so as the district 
was for generations a royal forest ; and dangerous as is 
the argmnentum ex silentio, it must be admitted that 
the works are unusually extensive and ambitious for a 
Norman fortress which has no history whatever. It is 
quite possible that this is one of many examples of the 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 89 



adaptation of a pre-existing British work to tlie retpiii-e- 
ments of a Norman builder, ])nt wlietlier that builder was 
one of the unlicensed castle-makers of King Stephen's 
time, or otherwise, it is at present impossible to say. 

In the examples thus far descriljed, the situation chosen 
is always a promontory. Such forts are transitional 
between the promontory fort proper and the contour fort 
strictly so called. The latter stands upon a more or less 
elevated hill-top, wholly or almost wholly isolated, but 
in no sense of peninsular form ; and its defences following 
horizontally the curves of the hill, the resultant plan 
is roughly that of a horizontal section of the ground at 
that level. Such a section may show every variety of 
outline from an almost perfect circle or an approximate 
square to the most irregular figure. As always, topo- 
graphy and geology are the ultimate determinants ; the 
smooth, rounded chalk downs show forts of more regular 
plan, whereas the opposite extreme is to be found upon the 
broken rock-summits of the limestone and other rock- 
formations, or upon the less lofty but equally irregular 
sandy hills. Typical of the one is the camp upon the 
Herefordshire Beacon (Fig. 28), of the other that at 
Easthampstead (Fig. 14). Even upon sandy soils the 
earthworks frequently attain very formidable proportions ; 
Caesar's Camp, Sandy, has a vallum of which the scarp 
in places rises 40 feet from the ditch ; and Danesborough, 
buried amongst the pine-woods of Bow Brickhill, Bucks, 
has a scarp of 35 feet and a fosse still 10 feet deep. 

Caesar's Camp, Easthampstead (c. 400 feet), occupies the 
summit of a sandy hill upon Easthampstead Plain, 
equidistant from Sunninghill, Wokingham and Sandhurst. 
The irregular contour of the hill gives to the cam}) 
perhaps the most eccentric plan of any British ranip 
remaining, and the happy idea of comparing it to an oak- 
leaf has l)een adopted generally. The area, which 
measures 600 yards in total length, is sunouiidcd by 



90 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



•d continuous vallum and fosse, and so steep and loose is the 
slope of the hill at the north-west corner that no further 
defence was there needed. Elsewhere a second vallum 
follows the outer edge of the fosse, and at the southern end, 







"■■"■•.VS, 



c^^^" 



100 20O 300 

J-eet' ' 



l^ ''"'ti 









^ 



â– â– â– â–  .'"'""oj ^" : v;.' 







Fig. 14. — Cesar's Camp, Easthampstead. 



where the ground rises gently and the approach to the 
camp is easy, this is supplemented by a second fosse and 
a third vallum. This, the " only camp of any importance 
in the eastern part " of Berkshire, is perhaps as formid- 
able a specimen of military fortification as can be found 
upon a soil of this sandy character, although at the 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 91 

present time the tliiek growth of piiie.s unci other ever- 
greens conceals its real proportions. There are entrances 
at either end : by the southern and original gate enters a 
road said to l)e Roman, which traverses the length of the 
camp and passes out at the north end by a later opening 
just to the right of the older gate. Immediately within 
the ramparts at this end is a small mound. The road, 
projected southward for half a mile, falls into the Devil's 
Highway, the old Roman main road from London by 
Staines and Sunningdale to Silchester, 14 miles to the 
west. Surface finds of Roman character — pottery, coins, 
&c. — have been found along its course. 

Ham Hill is justly famous amongst ancient fortresses. 
It lies in the south-eastern corner of Somersetshire, 
between Cadbury, 10 miles to the north-east — one of the 
few works which can challenge comparison with it — and 
Castle Neroche, 12 miles due west. Nothing but an 
illustration (Fig. 15) can give any idea of the irregularity 
of its plan, which conforms rigidly to that of a rocky mass 
detached from the main body of the hills to tlie south- 
east. The area embraced is some 210 acres, and its 
circuit, which follows the 400-foot contour line, amounts 
to 2j- miles. The defences consist in most parts of 
two enormous valla and an intervening fosse, but on 
the north-eastern side, where the fall of the ground is 
less rapid, there are three valla and two fosses. The 
finest portion of the works encloses the irregular extension 
of the area northwards towards the village of West Stoke. 
The tremendous labour involved in the construction of 
the fortress can be dimly realized if one scales the hill 
from that side, bearing in mind that the hill is itself solid 
rock of a hardness and durability which give it a high 
value for building purposes. The surrounding villages 
are mostly built of Ham stone; so are the churches for 
miles about ; and hundreds of tons of the stone are }'early 
sent away to greater distances. Tough as the rock is, it 



92 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



seems almost impossible to believe that these great 
trenches can have been excavated before the introduction 
of metal tools. Yet there is ample proof of the continuous 
occupation of the hill from Neolithic to Roman times.^ 



â– '(.'â– Ill 















'~So^Ca/tat(. 






^fil^z^t 



o roo :loo zoo 






a. 



S>fr^ 







V \ 



o- 



^f^^-^_ ^ ^ •Spring . V ■> . , \ \^\^,^ 






Fig. 15. — Ham Hill Camp, Northern Portion. 

At the present time two-thirds of the area are under 
plough, the remainder cut up l)y quarries old or new, 
and the wdiole of the western side of the camp has been 
so much disfigured that it is impossible to say what may 
have been the previous appearance of its Moor. The one 



1 It has been compared in this respect with Hod Hill, Dorset, and 
BiuTough Hill, Northants. 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 93 

portion spared to its native genius is that contained 
within the northern angle about the so-called " Frying- 
pan." This is an anomalous shallow depression 
immediately within the angle of the ramparts, perfectly 
circular, and some 20 paces in diameter at the floor. 
From it runs a l)road and perfectly level depression south- 
ward, forming, as it were, the entrance-way. Rustic 
imagination has seen in these works the semblance of the 
bowl and handle of a frying-pan, and infinite is the 
contempt for the stranger who confesses never to have 
heard of it. They will tell you with gravity that 
" hundreds of thousands of folks " come there to dance 
on holidays ; and soothly the turf is smooth enough and 
firm enough to make a capital dancing fioor, if the l)ank- 
holiday lads and lasses of to-day are 1)ut sorry substitutes 
for the fauns and the nymphs. 

What the " Frying-pan " really was is unknown ; not 
yet has Gallio found the energy to open its diminutive 
fioor and set the question once for all at rest at the cost of 
a wreck's digging. Sir R. Colt Hoare, who described the 
camp,^ was content to say merely that it " resembled an 
amphitheatre in miniature," and was " not much larger 
than an English cockpit." Near it, he was told, had at" 
one time been some " low stones fixed in the ground at 
certain intervals and perforated," which were " supposed 
to have served as picquets for cavalry." ^ He mentions 
also the finding of " stone cisterns," and in a crevice of 

^ Atrhaeolofiia, xxi. 

- Query : Was the " Frying-pan " indeed a cockpit, or a hadger-pit '. or 
even a prize-ring ? And had the " low stones perforated " anything to do witli 
roping off the ring ? Or was it perhaps a mediieval maze ? An aniphitheatre in 
the common acceptance of that term it certainly was not, unless Ham Hill 
were the Land of Lilliput I Prof. Haverfield (in Vict. Co. Hist. Sotm-r.-o't) 
pnmounces against its Roman origin. In Archaeal. Journal, vol. x.\xi.. 
No. 124, p. ."^20 (1874), the dimensions of this " amphitlieatre " are given as 
follows : — " Diameter of circus or area, (57 feet ; diameter over all, /.c. from 
top to top, for spectatoi-s, 104 feet ; length of entrance existing, about 20 feet, 
cut through the base of the embankment forming tlie soutliern l)ounilary ; 
angle of inclination of sIojh' finm level, about 30 . Tlie ontr.mco is ncitrly 
south." 



94 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the rock " numbers of fragments of skulls, bones, lance- 
and spear-heads, articles of brass and iron, and many 
fragments of chariot wheels." He appears to have thought 
that the position was garrisoned by the Romans, and 
according to one view there is Roman work in parts of the 
existing defences. Within the last few months a Roman 
villa has been discovered close to the eastern entrance, 
and surface finds of Roman character are common. Mr. 
St. George Gray has given ^ a summary of these finds, 
including a large portion of an extremely fine Roman 
peytrel of scale mail. The finds cover the whole period 
from the Neolithic Age down to Saxon times, and 
many of them bear a close resemblance to articles of the 
Bronze and Early Iron Ages found at Hod Hill, Dorset, 
and in the Lake-Village at Meare, Glastonbury. There is 
nothing to show that the place was ever a permanent 
Roman post ; rather, says Mr. Gray, the evidence " would 
seem to imply that the inhal)itants during the Roman 
occupation w^ere not a rich community." 

Lnmediately under the north face of the hill, below the 
" Frying-pan," is a water-hole known as the Holy Lake, 
and in the combe to the right of it rises the Hambury ^ 
'Spring. The conical hill of St. Michael, overhanging 
Montacute, was once a formidable Norman fortification. 
Less than three-quarters of a mile to the north-west runs 
the Roman Road^ — the Fosse Way — from Ilchester to 
Exeter, and under the south-east slopes of the camp the 
Ordnance Alap lays down traces of another following an 
almost parallel course, but this is perhaps not Roman. 
The camp is in sight of Neroche and Cadbury, and com- 
mands a view of many miles over the level plain of 
Somersetshire to the north-east, north, and west. 



' Froc. Soc. Antiq., vol. xxi., 128, sqq. The Roman " finds " seem to 
have come chiefly from the northward extension of the camp and the 
vicinity of the "Frying-pan." 

- Called "Wanibury" on 2.5-inch O.M. 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 



95 



The tremendous fortress at Soutli Cadhury ^ (East Somer- 
set), some five miles north of Sherborne and six miles east 
of the Roman station on the Fosse Way at Ilchester, has 
a double claim to notice. In point of strength it is 
one of the most fornii(labl(^ r)f contonr-oainps, })oastini{ 







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Fig. 16. — South Cadbuky. 

(Fig, 16) no less than four'" successive lines of i-ain])arts 
and scarps, carried entirely round the isolated and sonie- 

' The name of Cadbury seems to be almost confined ti) the south-west of 
England. It occurs three times in Somersetshire, and three times in 
Devonshire. There is a "Gadbury Banks," a camp near Eldersfield, 
Worcestershire. 

^ Tremendous as is this series of rings, it is surpassed by otliers. Tlit- 
fortress known as Hen Dinas, or Old Oswestry, Salop (Fig. 17), H miles 
from the ])Vosent town, has no less than five successive lines of valla and 
fosses ringing an isolated hill and enclosing an inner area of l."> acres, an 
outer area of upwards of .")0 acres. — Hartshorne's Salopia Antlqnn (1841). 



96 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 



what square hill which gives a name to Sutton Montis, 
the village at its foot. When seen from a distance the 
four lines rise one above the other like so many terraces. 

I/, 







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Fig. 17. — Old Oswestry. 



The hill (400 feet), extremely steep on all but the east 
side, is of oolitic formation, and the trenches are in 
many places excavated in the actual rock. The area, 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 



97 



which rises considerH])ly ahove the inmost ring of defences, 
extends to 30 acres. Of the four entrances now existino-, 
those to the north-east and the south-west are orioinal, and 
the recurve of the ramparts right and left of the former 
(principal) gateway is very marked. 

Tliere is a quaint description of the spot as Leland saw 
it in the first half of the 16th century. "At the very 
south ende of the chirche of South Cadbyri standith 
Camallate, sumtyme a famose toun or castelle, upon a 
very torre or liille, wunderfuUy enstrengthened of nature ; 
to the which there be two enteringes up by very stepe 
wayes, one by north-est, another by south-west. The 
very roote of the hille whereon this forteres stode is more 
than a mile in cunipace. In the upper parte of the coppe 
of the hille be four diches or trenches, and a balky wauUe 
of yerth betwixt every one of them. In the very toppe 
of tlie hille, al)ove all the trenchis, is inayna area or 
campus, of a 20 acres or more by estimation, wher yn 
dyverse places men may see fundations and rudera of 
walles. Tlier was much dusky blew-stone that peple 
of the villages therby had caryid away. . . . Much gold, 
sylver, and coper of the Koniain coynes hath been found 
ther in plowing, and likewise in the feldes in the rootes of 
this hille, with many other antique things, and especially 
by este. Ther was found in Jiominum memoria a horse- 
shoe of sylver at Camallate. The people can telle nothing 
ther, but that they have liard say that Arture much 
resorted to Camalat." ' 

It has been sug-oested that the fortress was " tlie head 
and front " of the British resistance against the South and 
West Saxons during the long century which elapsed 
between the storm of Sarum (552) and the ultimate 
conquest of Somersetshire to the banks of the Parrett by 



^ Leland's /f(/ie/a/|/, Vol. II., fol. 4(5. Upon umps of 1575 <iiul KilU tlio 
spot is m;irked " CaniHllek." 

H 



98 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Kenwalch of Wessex (658). About it would gather 

traditions of that splendid, if hopeless, struggle ; and 

as tradition faded into legend, here were localized the 

great deeds of the national hero and his " high-souled 

heroes of the Table Round." Here Arthur held his court, 

hence he rode forth to his twelve great fights, and hence 

he was carried dying to the " island -valley of Avilion," 

there to be laid upon the magic ship and piloted by 

the Three Queens into spaces of faerie and legend. It 

may be that the association of the Good King with 

Cadbury has no l)etter foundation than the immediate 

neighbourhood of the villages of Queen's Camel, East 

Camel, and West Camel, in reality deriving their names 

from the little river Cam or Camel, an affiuent of the 

Yeo or Ivel, under " the very rootes of this hille," where 

amongst several other ancient springs is one still known 

as Arthur's Well. Camel suggested Camelot, and no 

further evidence was desired. In whatever way the seed 

of the legend was borne hither, it has flourished so greenly 

upon the spot that "if Arthur's Hunting Causeway in the 

field below, Arthur's Round Table, and Arthur's Palace 

within the camp cannot still, as of old, be pointed out to 

the visitor, the peasant girl will still tell him that within 

that charmed circle they who look may see through golden 

orates a kino; sittino- in the midst of his court." ^ It is of 

no moment that no man knows the truth. Arthur may 

have been, as Dr. Guest thought, a creature of fiesh and 

blood, the son of parents half British and half Roman. 

He may be but a forgotten god-name incarnated in human 

guise. He may have no better title to existence than any 

other figment of the poet's brain. AVhen the Antiquary 

has paced and measured these old trenches, sought for 

any faint traces of their builders, and learnt all that is to 

be learnt of " gold and sylver and coper of the Romain 

^ Sir E. Strachey, Introduction to Le Moriv Darthnr. 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 



99 



coynes" and such things, he may legitimately indulge the 
Poet with an hour's dreaming. 

The hills lying between the western borders of Wilt- 
shire and Dorsetshire and the east coast are mostly 
of chalk formation, characterized by gentle curves and 
smooth rounded contours. Hence the hill-forts of this 
wide area show mostly mere repetitions of two general 
types, the oval and the circular. The types of course 
occur elsewhere, but not with the same predominance. 

Of all camps in Britain, be their plan what it ma v. the 
oval fortress of Maiden Castle^ on Fordington Ilill (430 
feet), 2 miles south-west of Dorchester, deservedly stands 
first. Its ramparts may Ije seen to the right of the high 
road as one travels southward to Weymouth, but only 
when actually standing upon them can one appreciate 
their colossal size and their amazing complexity of plan. 
The camp (Fig. 18) lies east and west, covering the entire 
summit of a somewhat kidney-shaped hill, with entrances 
at either end, each masked by overlapping banks and 
detached mounds to such an extent that even now, when 
the wastage of centuries has minished them and no hostile 
force opposes the visitor's entry, their mazes are scarcely 
to l)e threaded without hesitation. The peculiar plan 
of the bastion-like projection at the eastern entrance 
is especially noteworthy and will be met with in one 
or two other fortresses of the first rank. The camp 
measures 1,000 yards in length and 500 yards in width, 
the inner area amounting to as much as 45 acres, while 



' The niiiuo i« a cduiiuoii one : it occurs e.<j. at Bickorton Ilill, Cliesliiie, 
llnice ill ('uml)eilan(l, iie;ii- Woolei', Northunibeiland, ami near Durliain ; 
while tlie synonymous *' Maiden Bower" is found in < )xfordsliire (near 
Steeple Barton), at Dunstable, and attaching to the big series of works, in 
their present shape of Norman type, at Topclifle near Thirsk. " Maiden " 
is said to be the Celtic mai-dun, "big hill," and " bower," though from 
another root, has become merely a dialectic equivalent of "bury."' An 
alternative theory would derive "maiden" from lufif/Zi, "level expanse," and 
'/"/I, "hill"; " bower " from /"(/•/■, "sununit." 

H 2 



100 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the entire space occupied l)y the area and the defences 
together is more than 115 acres, and the circuit, measured 
along the crest of the outermost vallum, is 2,500 yards, or 
little less than 1^ miles. Along the northern side, where 
the approach is less steep than elsewhere, there are three 
valla and three fosses, still so huge that from crest to base 
the banks in places measure more than GO feet. To 
the south and south-ea^t the number of lines is five, and 
round the south-western face as many as six, rising finally 
about the western entrance to the astonishing number 
of eight. The lines on the south are, on the whole, 
less immense, if more numerous, than those on the north, 
but they attain nevertheless to prodigious proportions, 
while the rapid fall of the hill on this side adds enormously 
to their strength. Many of the larger valla show a kind 
of broad platform running behind the crest, as if to 
provide standing-room for the defenders. The highest 
part of the area is that towards the east, and a slighter 
vallum with a fosse on the west side, crossing the area 
from north to south, divides this higher part from the 
lower and larger western portion. Warne fancied that 
this traverse represented the original western limit of the 
fortress, which he believed to have been sul)sequently 
enlarged.^ Another theory is that it was constructed 
to keep the cattle apart from the human occupants of 
the camp. Within the area is a pond of modern 
construction. It was made in 1868, and in digging it 
there were l)rought to light the undisturbed refuse-pits of 
the ancient inhabitants in considerable numbers — as many 

1 In July, 1907, during the meeting of the British Archaeological Associa- 
tion at Weymouth, some small diggings were made with the express purpose 
of testing this theory. The results, and the evidence upon which those 
results are based, were not available when this note was written, but it 
was stated that the excavations showed this transverse fosse and vallum to 
have been always single, and suggested, further, that the camp belongs to 
three different dates. It is admitted that these conclusions rest upon evidence 
of a very delicate character, and until that evidence is made public any 
discussion is idle. 



IV 



CONIOUR FORTS 



lOI 



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I02 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

as seven within an area of 16 square yards — containing 
fragments of handmade pottery, bronze rings, and other 
relics of an early date.^ 

Whoso can turn away from Maiden Castle without 
feeling some small appreciation of its grandeur may as 
well waste no time over any further earthworks, for the 
country has nothing more impressive to show him in that 
kind. It is a very labyrinth — - 

Hie labor iUe do?niis, ct inextricabilis error. 

The ruins of the great rock fortress of Penmaenmawr are 
Titanic ; gigantic, as the name confesses, are the remains 
of Tre'r Ceiri, the Giant's Town, on Yr EiH ; Ham Hill 
covers a larger area, an'd Cadbury presents a more striking- 
picture when seen from l)elow, with the added glamour of 
baseless associations with King Arthur ; Old Sarum's 
ditches are deeper, its ramparts loftier, its plan more com- 
pact and regular, its history more determinable ; but 
neither these nor any fortress of the prehistoric time in 
Britain can rival the claims of Maiden Castle to its pride 
of place. Yet the fortress has no history whatev^er ; it is 
as much a mystery as any of the least amongst its fellows. 
Lying in the very heart of the territories of the 
Durotriges, it may perhaps be "the Dunium of Ptolemy." 
It was certainly a permanent settlement in the Bronze Age, 
and as certainly it was superseded " in the first century of 
our era by the Roman fortress of Durnovaria, now Dor- 

' The facts, cited from Warne, dispose at once of the unwarranted theory 
that this pond was the source of supply in prehistoric times. There can 
have been no water-hole on the spot when the refuse-pits were formed, nor 
subsequently until 1868, for in that case the pits would not have been found 
undisturbed. Aubrey says there was a spring "at" the camp, but does not 
specify the exact spot. 

2 The customary Roman coins have been found within the camp, and only 
prove that it was there in Romano-British times. In Dorchester Museum, 
however, are some Roman roof-tiles also found within it, Avhich may mean 
merely that some Roman built a villa here, as another did at Ham Hill. 
Permanent occupation of Maiden Castle by the Romans, in the military 
sense of the expression, is unlikely, and has not, so far, been demonstrated. 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 103 

Chester, whose broad boulevards, unique in Enghind. still 
speak their Roman origin. But to what remoter date tlie 
first beginnings of Maiden Castle may go back no man 
knows. Its extent, the strength of its ramparts and 
trenches, the laborious piling of mound upon mound, ditch 
upon ditch, proclaim it the stronghold of a people of lar<>e 
numbers and large resources. 'J'he actual length of the 
valla amounts to more than 5 miles in all, and if it Ite 
true, as has been maintained, that it was built before the 
introduction of any better trenching tools than the stone 
celt and the pick of deer's horn, it must represent the toil of 
long years, of generations, possibly of centuries. Thanks 
to the enormous scale on which the works were planned, 
denudation has done but little to diminish their propor- 
tions. Judged, indeed, by modern standards, the fortress 
seems to l)e too large to have been defended by any force 
which it could shelter. To such objections it need only l)e 
retorted that warfare then was not what it now is, and that 
the most primitive of savages can be relied upon to judge 
best of what is necessary for the security of his own 
person and his own property. Palisaded as they doul)tless 
were, its maze of valla, still too steep to be clind)e(l with 
ease, must have made it impregnable to anything but 
starvation, and until the Romans came we know of no 
people in Britain able to undertake the task of re- 
ducing by such means a fortress only to be leaguered by 
thousands of men disci])lined to the tedious operations 
of blockade. It is said that at one point ''on the soutluMii 
side of the eastern section a deep hole may be seen in the 
ground within the Castle ; and beneath a stone lintel in 
the outermost Ring there appears to be the entrance to a 

subterranean passage Local tradition lias it that 

beneath this stone lintel was found a stairway, and that 
after so much had Iteon discovered, the st;nrway was filled 
up with earth." ^ The same authorities assert that there is 

' Messrs. Hubbard, Nroh'thic Dcwponds and CatUewa]is, p. 30. 



I04 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

" evidence of apparent subsidence in all the Rings along 
an imaginary line between " the hole within and the hole 
without. Subterranean passages are so universally provided 
by popular imagination that a tradition of this sort must 
count for little.^ 

This land of the Durotriges, whose name yet survives in 
that of Dorsetshire, is so rich in fortresses of the most 
elaborate kind as to make it almost a necessary inference 
that this tribe, if not the original builders, were at any rate 
responsible for the existing shape of many of the finest 
camps. Two others which deserve more than passing 
mention are those of Eggardon and Pillesdon Pen. They 
lie each upon a lofty hill in a right line west-north-west of 
Maiden Castle at intervals of 9 miles. Eggardon (Fig. 19), 
4 miles north-east of Bridport, covers 4:7^ acres, with an 
inner area of 20 acres. Its defences, sadly mutilated in 
places, consist of double and triple valla and fosses. The 
two entrances, at the south-east and the north-west, both 
traverse the defences diagonally, so as to be enfiladed 
throughout their passage, the valla l)eing in addition 
strongly recurved about the south-eastern entrance 
Warne observed traces of a further line of defence round 
the base of the hill, especially to the south-west, and the 
ancient trackway leading from Eggardon Camp to- 
wards Powerstock, little more than 1 mile to the north- 
west, is still plainly traceable. Within the area are many 
tumuli, and a series of low banks which mark the site of 
a plantation intended to serve as a sea-mark. The sites of 

' Such passages were actually constructed by the Norman engineers, but 
scarcely earlier ; and those subterranean passages which the popular imagina- 
tion persists in seeing wherever the visual eye iinds earthworks are mostly 
distorted recollections of cellars, drains, the culverts of moats, or the familiar 
underground chambers found in Irish raths, and in Scotland known as 
" Picts' Houses." Questions of utility, date, and possibility never trouble 
the imaginative eye, which insists, e.;/., that there is an underground passage 
leading all the hjng mile from the well-nigh obliterated (British I) ring-work 
at Whelpley Hill, near Berkhanipstead, to the late medifeval moated site at 
Grove Farm (Fig. 1(>9). 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 



105 



two British villages are to be seen to the south-east, one 
close to the camp, the other two miles away, on the line 
of the Roman road leaclino; to Dorchester. 

The entire Hoor of the camp is strewn with pit-dwellings 
which revealed no trace of metal, their onlv yield being 






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characteristic neolithic implements and Hakes of Hint, and 
fragments of coeval pottery ; but inasmuch as the lines 
of the defences do not cross or otherwise interfere 
with the pits, and as no similar pits are to be 
found either between the valla or on the adjacent high 
ground to east and west of the camp, the conclusion that 
the pits were rnacle after the construction of the fortress 



io6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

appears to he irresistible.' Ami as the pits reveal only 
the very rudest civilization, it follows that the camp 
of Eggardon was constructed at a very early date 
indeed. 

Pillesdon Pen (907 feet), four miles west of Beaminster, 
is the highest hill in Dorsetshire, and commands one of the 
finest outlooks in southern England. The camp (Eig. 20), 
much like Eggardon in general plan, l)ut smaller, has a 
triple line of defences ringing an area of between 8 and 9 
acres. The inner vallum is weak except upon the northern 
and more accessible face. The principal entrance, to the 
south-west, has unfortunately been a good deal defaced, 
but apparently the valla to right and left of it were 
originally broadened out into platforms flanking the 
passage. The area of the camp is marked by several 
distinct groups of earthwork. In the centre is a rect- 
angular enclosure, some 200 yards by 120 yards, wdiich has, 
of course, been attributed to the Romans merely because of 
its shape. At the southern end of the area are several 
mounds or liarrows which Warne believed perhaps to mark 
the sight of a beacon ; and he quotes from Coker's 
Survey of Dorsetshire (1732) the statement that " this 
verie high hill hath a Lodge on the toppe, which serveth 
for a Marke both by Sea and Lande." Without question 
Coker's remark applies, not to the mounds, but to the 
rectangular enclosure above mentioned." Einally, at the 
north-west end of the camp, says Warne, are " two large 

1 Dr. H. Colley March, in Proc. Sue. Antiquai-ies, 2nd Series, xviii., p. 258. 
It is jjermissible to point out that we cannot be sure that all the fortifica- 
tions of the camp are of one date, and that it is quite conceivable that, e.g., 
a weaker early camp with but one vallum may liave been improved and 
strengthened at a subsequent period. 

^ The name of Lodge Hill is of constant occurrence (there are as many as 
three examples in Buckinghamshire alone), and seems usually to refer to the 
existence upon the hill-top of some kind of enclosure or building. Some- 
times, perhaps, this was a beacon tower, more often probably a hunter's 
lodge, such as that which once stood on Creech Barrow, in Parbeck Forest, 
and that at High Lodge, Wychwood Forest. 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 



lo: 



hollows, which I think were ancient reservoirs fe«l 1»\- 
natural springs." These he describes as " Ijotnided hv a low- 
hank, and two sliglitly raised and paraUel liducs [jioceed 
thence some way into the interior." His deserijjtion 
recalls the " depression " which Pitt-Rivers considered 
to mark the main street of the inner camp at Winkelhnrv. 
A much smaller camp of this type is that known as 
Smalldown, on a spur of the Meiidips i mile south- 








o zs Jo js ti> 
yanfs 

Fio. 20. — PiLLESDON Pen. 

east of Chesterblade. In shape an elongated oval lying- 
east and west, and rather broader towards the east, where 
it connects with the higher ground, it measures over all 
1115 feet by 500 feet, with an inner area of 5 acres. 
The defences are a double vallum with intervening fosse, 
on all sides but the east, where the valla are three and the 
fosses two. On this side there are two entrances, the 
larger near the centre, the smaller at the north-east corner, 
both original. Excavation went to show that the cam]) 
was occupied in the Bronze Age. No iron was found. 
From the number of interments which were discovered 



io8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

within it, the excavator, Mr. St. George Gray,' declared it 
to be "a combination of camp and cemetery," and 
suggested that it was perhaps only used as a summer 
camp by its builders, who probably took their flocks 
hither from the lowlands during the hot weather. 
Neither conclusion seems convincing, and whatever may 
have been the builders' attitude towards their dead, it 
seems improbable that so much labour should have been 
spent upon a mere cattle-ring, which might have been 
sufficiently secured by a single vallum. It is perhaps not 
conclusively show^n that the camp is of the same date as 
the interments. 

Contour forts reach the perfection of symmetry when 
constructed upon isolated hills of conical shape. In such 
cases the plan frequently 1)ecomes to all intents a circle, 
or so little eccentric as to pass for a circle unless very 
carefully measured. Again, the chalk hills furnish the 
finest examples, and especially the AViltshire and Dorset- 
shire Downs. 

Bad])ury Rings (Fig. 21), 3f mile north-west of Wim- 
borne, is an elliptical fortress defended by three valla and 
three ditches completely girdling a detached chalk hill 
(327 O.D.). The area, 400 yards in diameter at its 
widest, embraces 18 acres. The second or middle vallum 
runs closely parallel with the inmost rampart, but the 
third and outermost, a mile in circuit, is separated from 
the second by an interspace from 20 to 30 yards in 
breadth. This work Warne lielieved to be of later date 
than the others, l)ut gives no reason. The banks rise 
from 30 to 40 feet above their ditches. The two entrances 
are to the east and the west. The former is a narrow 
opening cut direct through the three rings ; the other was 
apparently in its original form analogous to the eastern 
gate of Maiden Castle, the middle vallum being thrown 

* See his report in Proc. Somersetshire Arch. Soc,, vol. i. (1904). 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 109 

forward in a kind of rectangular l)astion 30 yards in depth 
and 140 yards in length, in front of the passage-way 
through the inmost ring, the path emerging at its southern 
corner to reach the outermost line of defence. At the 
present time gaps have been formed in the l)astion and 
the third vallum immediately opposite that in the inmost 
vallum, but there can be no doubt that these openings are 




^^.^V^ IV- 



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Fig. 21. — Badbury Rings. 

not original. In the interspace before the bastion is a 
solitary mound. Within the area is a pond, and Aubrey 
declares that " at " this camp, as at Maiden Castle, there 
was a spring. Antiquities of Celtic and of Roman make 
have ])een found within the enceinte. Outside the north- 
western ramparts is the detached fragment of a valluin, of 
which the purpose is not evident, and Warne adds that 
there were " not far from the western entrance the re- 
mains of a circle of earth and other ancient vestio;es." 



no EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

The camp, which commands a magnificent outlook as 
far as the Needles on the one hand and on the other up 
the valley of the Stour, stands upon the line of a Roman 
road running from Old Sarum to Poole Harbour, and from 
it radiated other such roads to Dorchester and towards 
Bath and Hod Hill. Dr. Guest identified it with the 
Mons Badonicus of Gildas, the scene of King Arthur's last 
and fatal victory over the Saxons under Cerdic in 520, but 
this view is traversed by Warne on the ground that 
Gildas explicitly declares Mount Badon to have been 
situate " near the Severn's mouth." ^ None the less, the 
Arthurian tradition lingers obstinately on the spot, and in 
view of the ancient superstition that the dead hero's soul 
passed into a raven until in the fulness of time it shall be 
re-eml:)odied in human shape and " Arthur shall come 
again," it is curious to read^that the solitary clump of trees 
which now crowns the hill was the haunt of the last pair 
of ravens to linger in Wessex. Legend apart, a certain 
amount of history attaches to the fortress. Here, on 
Alfred's death, iEthelwald the ^theling mustered (901) 
his men to an abortive rebellion against the rightful heir, 
his cousin Eadward ; and here in 1645 the " Clubmen " of 
Wiltshire and Dorsetshire, 4,000 strong, issued their 
proclamation against the Cromwellians. Badbury also 
gave its name to one of the thirty-nine ancient Hundreds 
of Dorsetshire, 

The peculiarly wide berm observable at Badbury Rings 
is a feature of certain other camps of the west country, 
e.g. Cadbury Castle near Tiverton, Bury Castle above Sel- 



' The passage is, however, declared to be of doubtful authenticity. The 
name of Badbury is not uncommon. It is an alternative name, inter alia, 
for Liddington Castle, near Chiseldon, 7 miles south-east of Swindon. This 
camp, circular, with an area of 7i acres and a rampart 40 feet high, has 
likewise been identified with Mons Badonicus. But Badonicus certainly 
seems to be related to Badon, i.e. Bath, and the Mons should seemingly 
be sought for somewhere in that vicinity, which is, in fact, "near Severn's 
mouth." 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 



1 1 1 



worthy, Shoulsbiuy Castle on Exmoor, and Old Bunow on 
Countisbury Head. 

Cadbury Castle (Fig. 22), DevonsJiire, half-way between 
Crediton and Tiverton, is a strictly contour fort crownino- 
a solitary hill of some 829 feet, unusually precipitous on 
every side except the east. The oval inner area is level, 
defended by a continuous rampart, exceptino- on the 
southern side, where there is no vallum, the ground fallino- 
in a sudden scarp of 25 feet to the level of a berm, a 



VX^X 



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lOO 200 300 

Fig. 22. — Cadbury Castle, Tiverton. 

terrace 50 feet in width, beyond which lies a tremendous 
vallum rising 20 feet above the ])erm. Bcnn .iiid 
vallum together have a width of more than 100 feet. At 
either eud this vallum is linked up with the containing 
wall of the inner area, which, owing to the nature of the 
ground, shows on the inward side a very slight relief 
(2 feet), but on the outer side has a slope of from 20 feet to 
35 feet. At the north-eastern corner of the area a narrow 
passage-way communicates with the berm, and there are 



112 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

larger entrances to the area on the north, and to tlie berm 
on the south-east. The whole plan is somewhat suggestive 
of an original promontory fort which has l)een subsequently 
improved into a contour fort. Within the area is a 
depression marking the mouth of a deep shaft. ^ 

Upon the flattened brow of a hill (700 feet) whose 
steep sides to the east and the south are covered by 
the famous Holnicote Woods overhanging the model 
village of Selworthy — the Hamlet in the Willows — once 
the domain of Harold's Queen Edith of the Swan's Neck, 
lies Bury Castle {Fig. 23). At the very extremity of the 
hill a vallum of earth and stone, perhaps 15 feet in height, 
with an outer fosse of proportionate width, runs round 
two-thirds of a circle, ending upon the abrupt edge of 
the slope. The area thus contained is less than 200 feet 
in diameter, and for a third of its circuit it has no 
defence beyond a slight additional scarping of the slope. 
The ditch has no parapet except for a few yards at the 
southern termination. Some 40 paces further to the 
west a second vallum, loftier than the first and 
furnished with a formidable outer fosse, covers the 
first-named work, though with less regularity of curve, 
disappearing in the same fashion at either end upon the 
slope. The second fosse seems to have had a parapet of 
small size, now defaced and altered to serve as a fence. 
The entrance seems to have been alons^ the ed^e of the 
slope to the north, where there is still a hunters' path. 
At some considerable distance to the west may be made 
out the traces of yet a third vallum and fosse, of very 
much smaller proportions, curving in similar fashion 
across the saddle of the hill. This also has been much 
tampered with, and in part embodied in a now abandoned 
fence ; but from its peculiar sweep, and other features, 
there can be small doubt of its being part of the original 

1 See further, p. 283. 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 



I J3 



works, altliougli the ground hereabouts is much scarred 
with the remains of otlier fences unquestionahly mo(hn-n. 
AHowing for the difference in size, tliis camp hears a 
general reseml)lan(;e to Winkelbury (Fig. 11). 

At Shoulsbury Castle (Fig. 24) there is no trace of a 
third line of defence, but the plan of a doul)le ceinture 
with a wide berni is adapted to the contour of a more 
or less rectangular hill-top rising 1528 feet above 




Fits. 23. — BuiiY Castlk, Sklvvorthv. 



sea-level, and well known to stag-hunters as one of the 
most dreary and boggy parts of all Exmoor. Even in 
mid-August of exceptionally dry summers the immediate 
vicinity of the camp to north and east is a wet and 
unpleasant bog, densely grown witli rushes and tlrckcd 
with tell-tale cotton-grass. The area, a uniform level of 
something less than 5 acres, measuring about 160 yards 
by 145 yards, is enclosed to east and west by a recti- 
Hneal vallum, which is continued round the northern 
side in a depressed curve with rounded angles. Its 
height is greatest to the east, where the slope of the 

I 



114 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP, 



approach is least difficult ; elsewhere it varies in height 
from 4 feet to 7 feet only. On the southern side, which 
is again rectilineal, the fall of the hill makes needful no 
defence heyond a very consideral)le scarp, below which is 
a flat terrace ; hut on all other sides the vallum is 
covered by a shallow fosse, beyond which is a continuous 
berm varying in width from 12 paces on the north to 



4^^^ 
.<#' 



.:«;<^ 












.-^ro 




Fig. 24. — Shoulsbury Ca.stle. 



18 on the west, and as much as 25 paces on the east. 
Beyond this again is a second slight vallum, not more 
than 3 feet or 4 feet in height, and a second fos.se, both 
sweeping round the whole camp and ending upon the steep 
slope to the south. The measure of the defences over 
all varies from 60 feet to 150 feet. 

There are entrances through the inner vallum near each 
of the southern angles, besides a gap at the north-east 
angle which is probably not original. The outer vallum 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 115 



;iii(l fosse are continuous throughout, the only passage 
l)eing along the edge of the slope. In the north-oast 
corner of the area is a low mound which is said to have 
been opened. Mr. Page/ carried away by the local belief 
that this is a Roman camp — " the only undoubted Roman 
camp in the neighbourhood," as he was given to think — 
fancied the mound to mark the site of the prfBtorium. 
He records the tradition of the finding of " Roman " 
swords within the camp, but admits that the only one 
which he had seen was a cavalier's rapier. Like 
almost all camps of the west country, this reveals no 
vestige of pottery or other debris which might give a clue 
to its occupants, its builders, or its date. 

The only reason for attributing Shoulsbury Castle to the 
Romans appears to be the partial rectangularity of the 
area, and the rectilineal plan of portions of the containing 
lines. Neither fact, however, has any bearing upon the 
(juestion of its date, for even the pre-Roman population 
could, and constantly did, use right lines in their fortifica- 
tions, and where the ground was quite open occasionall}- 
constructed camps almost perfectly rectangular.^ There 
is no indication whatever of Roman work in the camp 
as it stands, in spite of the persistent belief of the 
neighbouring population. It may quite possibly have 
been constructed by Romanized Britons under Roman 
influence, but that is another matter. In point of fact, it 
does not appear that there is in the whole of North Devon 
or West Somerset a single camp which can be unhesita- 
tiugly declared to be a Roman work. Mr. Page, whose 
book contains a e:ood deal of interestino^ information about 
the fortresses of Exmoor, likewise attributes to the 
Romans the fragmentary work called Road Castle, near 
Exford, but with even less reason, descril)ing it as scjuare, 
which it most certainly is not and never was. 

' All Exploration of Exmoor, p. 101. 
2 Below, pp. 143, foil. 

I 2 



ii6 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



The camp called Crai] brook Castle (Fig. 25), near Moreton 
Hampstead, was somewhat similar in plan to Shoulsbury 
Castle, with the important diiference that the inner fosse 
here runs more or less midway between the two valla, so 
as to leave a considerable berm in front and rear, the 
measure of the defences over all being ICO feet. On 
the north, where the ground falls aw^ay steeply, the works 



r.'-'y^''"'" 



n // 

i CJ 



// 

at 



y^eef 



a 
I 

3O0 3C j 

—I -,c I 






â– 'Ann, "^"nnnnnnnnn^' ^<^ 0^ 



%<r.. "'"'-^^^u-'P.n 



-^ Li J; •?, '7' . fTi, r'. ri , ^ i1^ *-- 






Fig. 25. — Cranbeook Castle. 



appear never to have been finished, but there remains 
a line of loose stone which seems to have been the com- 
mencement of an intended vallum. 

In Old Burrow (1,100 feet) this design attains its 
perfect development, unspoiled by any obstructive natural 
features. The camp (Fig. 26) — if it really be a camp — crests 
a gently rounded hill overlooking the Riviera-like combe 
of Glenthorne and the Channel Sea. Entering from the 
seaward side (north), by the original entrance, one passes 
an outer fosse 4 feet wide and 4 feet deep, and a 9-foot 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 



117 



vallum, to an interspace some 16 yards in widths in 
the centre of which lies another enclosure. This, in shape 
approximateh' square with boldly rounded angles, and 
having an area only some 30 yards across, is defended by 
two valla and two ditches immediately contiguous. The 
inmost vallum rises in places 10 feet to 12 feet above the 







t-ii; 'y;'' 



V-,. 


















''/'it'' 






--S-JS? 






^00 



200 



3 00 



Fig 26. — Old Burrow. 

area, with a fosse 15 feet wide from lip to lip. The second 
fosse has a wddth of 9 feet only from lip to lip, and 
the intervening vallum is nothing but a narrow bank of 
soil left in situ, its crest only 4 feet above the bottom 
of the fosse on either side. The whole work has a 
diameter of no more than 100 yards, and the measure 
of the defences over all is only about 100 feet.^ 

* There is a gap in the outer ceinture at the south which is, perhaps, 

not an original entrance. J. C. Wall says (in Victoria Co. Hist. Deron- 
shire) that "exactly in the centre of the camp is a small mound.'' If so, 
the deep growth of heather effectually conceals it in the summer. 



ii8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

It is not merely the exquisite view that gives to 
this camp its charm, although that ranges from the bare, 
rolling hills of Exmoor on the south to the mountains 
of South Wales on the north, from the Hangman in the 
west, eastward over Porlock Bay to Minehead, Brent 
Knoll, and the Mendips in the furthest distance, with the 
Severn Sea spread out at one's feet below. The camp 
itself is so perfect, so regular, so mignon, that it is 
positively a thing of l)eauty in its very design, and seen 
in high summer-time, when valla, fosses, and floor are alike 
covered with closest-grown heather and dwarf, wind-bitten 
gorse as with some gorgeous oriental carpet, the effect 
is nothing less than charming, and quite unlike that 
afforded by any other camp. The regular curve of the 
diminutive middle vallum, a very toy wall, nestling close 
to the foot of the inmost rampart, suggests in its glow of 
purple heather and golden gorse some exquisite effect 
of the gardener's art. True, this closely matted growth is 
more pleasant to look upon than to walk amongst, and is 
haunted, moreover, by overgrown humble-bees who resent 
most piquantly — experto crede — the wanderer's intrusion 
upon their fragrant preserves ; but as a thing to gaze upon 
Old Burrow would be delightful anywhere, and set amidst 
such surroundings it is a revelation. What secrets it may 
conceal is matter of speculation,^ but even the cold- 
blooded curiosity of an antiquary might hesitate before 
lifting one sod and scoring one wound upon the face 
of a thing so dainty in its beauty. 

Old Sarum (Fig. 27) is perhaps the most perfect exemjjlar 
of the circular contour-fortress, as it is unquestionably the 

1 Very possibly Old Burrow is rather sepulchral than military in character, 
as the alleged central mound would suggest. That it is of consider-ible age 
is shown by the manner in which it has been used as the central point of 
a whole series of enclosures, with the remains of which the hill is seamed. 
When the writer saw it, a large area of ground immediately adjoining it to 
the south-east had been recently stripped by peat-diggers, but the soil showed 
not the smiUest trace of human handiwork, whether in stone or in pottery. 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 



119 










'^"•'''!i:y 



'Wi!!-; 










Pi 

O 

O 



6 



I20 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

most impressive. It is not, however, an original work of 
any one date. The site was occupied in succession by Celt, 
Roman, Saxon, and Norman. It was the centre of the 
Roman Road System of the west of Britain, and from it 
radiated roads to Silchester, Winchester, Badbury, 
Marlborough, and the Severn Sea, if not also directly to 
Bath. Held by the Romano-Britons for upwards of a 
century and a half, it fell in 552 to Cynric the Saxon, 
and was one of Alfred's strongest fortresses in his long 
struggle with the Danes. Beneath its walls in 1070 the 
Conqueror reviewed his troops, and hither in 1075 Bishop 
Herman transferred from Sherborne the see of Wessex. 
Seventeen years later was completed his cathedral. But 
within 150 years there had grown up a new Sarum, the 
modern Salisbury, and the older fortress passed quietly 
but quickly into the silence which mostly haunts it still. 
But it gathers from its desolation only an added 
grandeur. Pepys ^ the inquisitive saw the " great fortifica- 
tion" as he rode by, " and there light and to it and in it, 
and find it prodigious, so as to frighten one to be in it 
all alone at that time of night." 

The fortress is literally carved out of a small conical 
hill overhanging the valley of the Avon, 2 miles north 
of Salisbury. The outer ditch, encircling the top of the 
hill, encloses an almost perfect oval of 27^ acres. From 
the bottom of this ditch, which has a small parapet, the 
vallum springs up with baffling steepness to the amazing 
height of 106 feet. The area has long been given over to 
the plough, with the exception of the central portion, 
which is ringed about by a second ditch and a second 
vallum too immense for the keenest land-hunger to attack, 
for the bank here rises full 100 feet above the floor of the 
fosse. This inner vallum was once crested with a wall 1 2 



1 Diary, June lObh, 1668. The name vSarum originated in a misunderstood 
abbreviation of the Latin form Sorbiodunum. 



IV CONTOUR FORTS 121 

feet in thickness, of flint laid in mortar and faced with 
stone, and within it was the Norman citadel. The 
entrances lie east and west. The former, as at Badlniry, 
was of small dimensions ; the latter, more important, 
opening upon the river-valley, is still protected by a horn- 
work. 

Though successive occupations have obliterated all 
certain traces of the original Celtic works, there is no 
question that their plan also was oval, and that the 
outer ceinture now stands where the Celt first traced it. 
As to the age of the inner works, there is no certainty. 
From the analogy of similar camps elsewhere, e.g. the 
great fortress known as the Herefordshire Beacon, near 
Malvern (Fig. 28), it is commonly thought that they are 
of much later date, in fact post-Roman and probably 
Norman.^ Yet the same plan, on a scale very little 
smaller, is to be seen at Weatherbury Castle (otherwise 
Milborne Rings), 7 miles south-west of Blandford, usually 
regarded as an original British work. Of actual Roman 
work at Old Sarum there is no vestige. 

There is to be bought in Salisbury a most wonderful sheet 

' To the adjacent work of Figsbury Ring (Fig. 193) the works at Sarum 
bear little or no analogy. Nor is there any reason to supjjose the inner 
fosse to be a Saxon Avork : until proof to the contrary is forthcoming, it 
must be regarded as far too ambitious a piece of spade-work for the Saxon. 
Warne {Ancient Dorset) imagined that there was indeed a sjjecimen of Saxon 
work almost as formidable in Castle Hill, Powerstock, immediately west of 
Eggardon. Here (Fig. 29) there is a spacious area of 12 — 13 acres enclosed 
within a steep scarp or a fosse, and a strong rampart. Witliin tliis, upon 
its northern side, was a continuous circular vallum of great strength cm- 
bracing 4 acres, and within this again a circular dry moat, 30 feet wide and 
7 — 10 feet deep. Local tradition asserts that Aethelstan had a palace there ; 
and Warne believed the outer works to be of Celtic date, the inner Saxon. 
There is very little doubt that the inner works are in reality Norman, and very 
possibly the outer works as well. Tiie entire plan tallies exactly with the 
recognised scheme of a Norman mount-and-bailey fortress, notably in the 
eccentric position of the inner stronghold. A Norman castle actually did 
occupy the site, and fragments cf masonry remain there ; while it is known 
that King John several times stayed there, and there is record of tlie removal 
of inuch m isonry from ab )ve and below the surface. 



122 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



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^ v^ 



^r^/^ T'\ '-%. 









^:fe\ 



3^> 



'^\%\^\ 










w 



IV 



CONTOUR FORTS 



123 



entitled " An Exact Plan and Section of Old Sarum, also 
the Eastern View of that Ancient City as it then stood 
[i.e. before its reduction by the Saxons in 552)," all 
purporting to be " taken from the best authorities." The 
"plan" is that of a wheel drawn with mathematical 
precision, the citadel I'cpresenting the hub, and lailiating 
therefrom across the outer area ten rectilineal streets, 




FlO. 29. — POWERSTOCK. 



themselves in turn linked up by a perfectly circular street 
which cuts each at the middle. The positions of the 
gates and towers, the cathedral, the " palace of the 
clergy," the market-place, four wells, and — let it not be 
overlooked — an ice-house, are all carefully indicated, and 
a key-note kindly adds the names of the various thorough- 
fares : — Mary Street, Nicholas Street, Fish Row, Port 
Lane, Morsel Walk, Kingsbury Street, Queensgate Row, 
and so on. Finally, the four-sided spaces between street 



124 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap, iv 

and street were, it would seem, kept sacred from the 
builder and preserved as meadows. It was in fact a 
" Garden City" actualized 1400 years ago ! It is greatly 
to be reo;retted that the " best authorities " did not take 
equal pains to perpetuate the details of other towns 
of the period. 

With a]l its advantages of garden-ground, orderliness, 
and defensibility, and despite its four wells, Old Sarum 
did not prosper. It was, like Avignon, cum vento 
fastidiosa, sine vento venenosa ; and its population lusted 
after the lush green meads and plenteous waters of the 
valley.^ So the new Sarum grew apace and was chartered 
by Henry III as early as 1218, and the sealing of that 
charter sealed likewise the death-warrant of the older city. 
There remained to it of all its glories only the right to 
send two representatives to Parliament, a right which it 
asserted until the Reform Bill, lopping it of its members, 
left it as it is now — 

Corpus vile suis et niagni nominis umbra. 



* The more immediate cause of its lack of prosperity was the rivalry 
between the clergy of the cathedi'al and the laity of the castle. They were 
too near neighbours to maintain even the pretence of friendliness. 



CHAPTER V 
Plateau Forts and Simple Enclosures 

" On the solitary pastures ivhere our sheep 

Half asleep 
Tinkle homeward through the titnlight, stray or stop 

As they crop — 
Was the site once of a city great and gay. 

So they say." 

The strength of the camps thus far described is hirgely 
due to their positions. In the case of promontory forts 
and hill-top forts this was indeed the primary consideration 
of the builders. In other cases, however, natural ad vantaoes 
of situation became of less importance, and one arrives 
finally at a series of earthworks in no apprecial)le degree 
depending upon their position as a factor in their 
defensibility. 

Works of this class — they have been styled plateau 
forts for distinction — are of very various degrees of 
strength and dignity. Some of them, as tlieir elaborate 
defences show, were certainly military works, and very 
formidable ones to boot. Others are so feeble, simple of 
plan, and small of area as to make it certain tliat they 
were intended less to defend man against his fellow man 
than to shelter his cattle and family from wild beasts — 
mere cattle-rings scarcely more defensible than a village 



126 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



pound. And yet others are so small and weak that they 
would seem scarcely to have been defensive, in the usual 
sense of that word, at all. Some few of them have been 
proven to belong to the Bronze Age ; others, and those 
among the finest of them, to the Late-Celtic time ; and 
without doul)t excavation would show some of them to 
belong actually to the historic period.^ 










- It? % 






v'f- 



^"^A 






Fi(i. 30. — Yarnbury. 



Yarn})ury (Fig. 30), two and a half miles west of Win- 
terbourne Stoke, Wilts, one of the strongest and best 
preserved examples of its class, covers an area of twenty 
acres. It is defended by three valla, and by two, or in 



• For example, the Bavvns de.scribed on p. 232, some of the Daitiuoor 
lioumls (p. 221), and similar enclosures elsewhere. Needless to say, not a 
few moated sites of mediaeval date pass for "camps," British or Roman or 
otherwise, and there are cases in which the resemV)lance is considerable, e.f/. 
the oval site at Walkingham Hall (Fig. 168), and that near Checkendon 
mentioned on p. 460. Cp. also the " Round Moat " at Fowlmere(p. 456, n.). 



PLATEAU FORTS 



127 



c^''!i' 






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^<^/^; 



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-%. 



places three ditohes, tlie inner vallum rising at some points 
as much as 50 feet ahove the fosse })elo\v. At the present 
time there are no less than six entrances, of whicli those to 
the east and the west are certainly original. Each is 
provided with outworks, of which those to the east are of 
the peculiar bastion-like plan already seen at Maiden 
Castle and at Badl)ury Rings. The western entrance cuts 
the lines of defence diagonally so as to l)e entiladed 
throughout. The spot is the scene of a great horse-fair in 
October, and this doul»tless 
explains there being now so 
many entrances to the area. 
It may possibly explain also, 
at least in part, the multi- 
tudinous trackways leading 
to the camp, though some 
of these are unquestion- 
a])ly ancient, coeval with 
the village-sites and pit- 
dwellings which al)onnd on 
this bleak and lonely part 
of Salisbury Plain. 

Vandlebury, or Wandle- 
bury, on the flat summit 
of the Gogmagog Hills, 

five miles south-east of Cambridge, is "rudely circular," 
with a diameter of 1,000 feet, and the defences, though 
far less imjjressive, are very similar to those of Yarn- 
bury, viz. three valla and two fosses. Within the 
area, now occupied by a residence of the J^ukc of 
Leeds, have been found coins l)oth British and IJoni.in. 
The camp at Hunsbury, Northants, is oval in plan, with an 
extreme length of 550 feet and extreme breadth of 410 
feet; there is but one vallum, and a very large outer 
fosse upwards of 80 feet in width from lip to li[i. 
Exploration has shown this camp to have been occupied in 






"^^y^;;;;;; #1 



100 
— *— 



aoo 

— »- 



Fig. 31. — HrNsurRV, 



600 



128 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chaf. 

the Late-Celtic period/ Jilthoiigli locally known as the 
" Danes' Camp." 

Anibresbury Banks — the derivation is supposed to he 
the Celtic emrys, " an enclosure," seen in more than one 
Caer Emrys and Castell Emiys in Wales, in Croft Ambrey 
(Herefordshire), and probably in Amesbury (Wiltshire) ^ — 
is more irregular in shape, with an extreme length of 
800 feet, and a width of 520 feet. Its defences were never 
very formidable, and the single vallum, 36-40 feet wide at 
the base, is now reduced to as little as 9 feet in height. 
The ditch, which had a V-shaped section, was originally 
10 feet deep and as much as 22 feet wide in places. Beyond 
the ditch was a parapet, or rather a second vallum, running 
round three sides of the camp wdiere the fall of the ground 
was but slight. The works are now broken by as many 
as seven entrances. The camp has been explored by the 
Essex Field Clul), and shown to be pre-Roman. Sur- 
rounded as it was until a late age by dense forest, of 
which Epping Forest is but the shrunken remnant, and 
by marshy ground, it occupies just such a position as 
Caesar declares that the Britons selected for their oppida, 
and the comparative weakness of the earthworks suggest 
that the builders depended largely upon the natural 
features of fen and forest for their security. Tlie wide- 
spread notion that Ambresl)ury Banks was the scene of 



1 It need hardly be said that the names of Hunsbury and Vandlebury have 
been solemnly derived from imaginary gai-risons of Huns and Vandals supijosed 
to have been there stationed by the Romans. Etymology was a delightfully 
simple matter half a century ago ! 

- At Hunton, Kent, is an earthwork known as Amsbury. The word 
Emrys early became confused with the name Ambrosius, and one or all of 
these fortresses came to be associated with the more or less dubious Aurelius 
Ambrosius, a British king of the Sixth Century, connected with the Arthurian 
Legend. The Anglo-Saxon form of Amesbury was Ambres-burh, which 
exactly represents the Celtic Caer Emrys. It is possible that Hcmbury, a 
very common name for camps in the West Country especially (there are at 
least three of the name in Devonshire), and Embury may embody the same 
Celtic original. 



PLATEAU FORTS 



129 



Boadicea's last fight is incapable of either proof or disproof 
At any rate the camp was here in the imliu-ky queen's 
time. 

Before deforestation and cultivation had destroyed them, 
there were several important works of this class in the 
south-eastern counties. The oppidum of Lingfield Mark 
is still recognizalile ; that known as Caesar's Camp on 
Wimbledon Common has only lately been destroyed by 









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O.D.370 



7r 



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Fi(i. 32. — Ambresbury. 

the modern l)uil(ler. The grandest earthwork in Kent, 
perhaps, is the fragment of the great oval camp in Ho] wood 
Park, Keston, which once covered 100 acres of ground,' 
and must have been a truly formidable fortl'css.- ' There 
would seem to have been a single fosse surrounding the 
whole, with a massive inner vallum and slighter parapet ; 



' Even larger (123 acres in extent and two miles round) was the Bronze 
Age camp called Oklbury, near Ightham, in the same county. This is of 
interest because the spot was occupied in yet earlier times. It has yielded 
quantities of palieolithic implements, amongst the finest of tlieir kind. 

K 



I30 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

and at the present clay the vallum is in places 45 feet wide at 
the base, the fosse 30 feet wide. But at the north-eastern 
angle these defences are reinforced by a second fosse and 
parapet, which sweep round the whole of the northern 
face and rise to grand proportions at the entry, which 
fronts almost due north over Hayes Common, once the 
home of a teeming population whose dwellings are still 
traceable in the multitudinous pits that cover the ground. 
Here the triple ramparts show the customary inward 
curve ; and while the floor of the second (outer) fosse is 
perhaps 20 feet below the crest of the parapet, and that 
of the inner fosse fully 30 feet below the crest of the 
inmost vallum, the banks appear to reach a still greater 
height owing to the rapid fall of the deeply-cut entrance- 
way. If this be really such an oppidum as Caesar had to 
deal with when he traversed Cantium, it is easy to under- 
stand that only by the laborious method of the agger 
could his men cross the fosses and reach the last line 
of defence, crowned presumal)ly by a stockade of pro- 
portionate strength. The local name for Holwood Camp 
is still The Bulwark, 

It is remarkaljle that there are few camps of whatever 
type upon the higher elevations of the wet uplands of 
Yorkshire, and that iav the greater number of the forts 
of the northern counties are built at elevations relatively 
slight, or even upon the lower slopes of the hills, defended 
less by their altitude than by the bogs which to this day 
are sufficient obstacle to deter most people from visiting 
them, and which a few centuries ag;o must have been all 
but impassable the year round. Two examples are here 
described. 

On Roomer Common (350 O.D.), a mile south of 
Masham,^ is a peculiar little camp (Fig. 33), about 80 paces 

^ This district was under the control of the powerful and restless Mow- 
brays, whose principal stronghold was at Kirkby Malzeard, only three miles to 
the south. It has been suggested, therefore, that this camp (locally, of course. 



V PLATEAU FORTS ,3, 

long 65 paces wide, and 6 1 feet in circuit. It lies upon a 
gentle slope facing to the north-east, on a sandy peat, a„ 



\ 









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^Idwatemnu-seOiow dry) covering its western Hank. Tlic 

otne, h.iiKl, tlicie appears t„ have been a Roman i-nad cl..se at li-,„,l .n.l ti, . 



K L' 



1^1 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

defences consist of a slight vallum, nowhere more than 
2 feet above the area, a very regular 1 5 feet clitch with 
V-shaped section, and a parapet. These lines are best 
preserved on the north side, where the vallum is, at its 
highest, some 5 feet above the floor of the ditch, and the 
parapet is well defined. On the western side there is no 
parapet, and vallum and fosse are both very slight. On 
the southern side the parapet is continued tangentially 
beyond the south-west angle for a distance of 40 paces to 
the edge of the watercourse, and parallel with it at a 
distance of 27 feet runs a second vallum with very slight 
relief, which ends at the same point to the west, but to 
the east is prolonged for 10 paces beyond the angle 
of the camp. Between this second vallum and the 
parapet on this side are traces of what may once have been 
yet another bank, but the ground is too much cut up 
by cart-tracks to allow of certainty. Owing to the gradual 
rise of the ground, these outer works, slight though they are, 
are somewhat higher than the crest of the inner vallum. 
Sixty paces south of the south-eastern angle is a small 
tumulus, but the area and the adjacent ground are 
otherwise apparently undisturbed. The ditch can never 
have held water, and the whole work can never have 
been of any great strength. 

On Hawsett Moor, 500 yards north of the Shooter's 
Inn on the road from Ripon (10 miles) to Ramsgill (4 
miles), and on the edge of the famous Dallowgill grouse- 
moors, is a larger and stronger work (Fig. 34). Like the 
last-named it lies near the foot of a gentle slope [circa 
850 O.D.), between Abbeyshaw Dyke on the north, and a 
smaller stream immediately under its southern defences ; 
while a third watercourse traverses the area from west to 
east. The southern defences follow a regular curve ; 
those to west and north are rectilineal with a curving 
angle ; on the fourth (eastern) side there are discoverable 
only the faintest traces of a rectilineal agger of loose 



V PLATEAU FORTS 1^3 

stone. Till" entire circuit is about 280 puces. The 
defences upon the south side consisted of a vallum of earth 
and stone, covered 1)}' a hroad, clear-cut fosse 25 feet in 
width, and varying from 4 to 10 feet in depth below the 
vallum and the parapet. There was an entrance near 
the middle, through which passes a turf-cutter's track, and 



^v\\\mMn|fin!n;nui(»i«)(VM'- 

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Fig. 34. — Hawsett Mook. 

other such tracks have in part defaced the works al)0ut 
the south-west corner, so that it is imi)ossil)le to say 
whether there was any para})et at this point. On the 
west the ditch would seem to have been once wet, for 
it is filled with rushes. As it approaches the old 
watercourse it disappears, as does the inner vallum also 
for some 20 paces, but reappears on the opposite bank ol 
the stream and runs eastward in a right line to disappear 
on the gradual fall of the ground. The para[)et here 



134 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

is very slight, and the inner vallum is in reality only 
a strip of natural soil left in situ between the watercourse 
and the fosse, which is here quite dry, 21 feet wnde, and 
about 10 feet deep. On the eastern side, about the 
midmost point of the probable line of the stone wall 
which seems to have stood there, are the vestiges of 
a circular enclosure of stone about 9 yards in diameter. 
All over the open ground to the north and north-west lie 
the remains of stone walls and enclosures, distinct enough to 
be obvious, but terribly mutilated by the removal of the 
stones to build grouse-butts, or for other purposes. There is 
no clue to their date, but the stones employed are too large 
to be of modern emplacement. The watercourse which 
traverses the camp still keeps a slight flow of water even 
in summer time ; in winter time the camp must be all but 
inaccessible still, and it is so densely overgrown with 
bracken and heather as to be scarcely discoverable. The 
disposition of the northern defences in relation to the 
watercourse is remarkable : as the fosse lies too near the 
stream to add any appreciable area to the camp, it must 
unquestionably have been designed simply to bring the 
stream within the area.^ 

The so called Danes' Camp- (Fig. 35) at Cholesbury 



' Waulud's (in O.M., Wanlud's) Bank (370 O.D.), near Luton, is another 
example of a camp traversed by a stream (the river Lea) ; but this, now all 
but obliterated, was a far more extensive work than that on Hawsett Moor, 
and shows no such peculiar arrangement of the vallum in regard to the 
stream. It has a parallel rather in the great oppidum Cassivellaiini at 
St. Albans. 

'â– ^ Locally it is known merely as The Bury. Within the area is a good 
pond (the soil is clay over chalk), and a church dedicated to St. Lawrence. 
At West Wycombe in the same county is another church of 8t. Lawrence 
standing within a ring-work crowning the hill, and remarkable for its defences. 
These consist of one fine fosse with a relatively slight vallum on the inner 
side, and on the outer side a much finer vallum. The work is a fragment 
only, having been greatly damaged in the rebuilding of the church (originally 
of the thirteenth century) by Sir F. Dash wood in 1763. The section now 
remaining is curiously regular in its formation, the grass-grown outer vallum 
having a broad flat top as level as a garden-walk. The entire area is occupied 



PLATEAU FORTS 



135 



(anciently Clielwoldsbuiy), in BiK-kinghamshire (600 feet), 
is 290 yards long l)y 210 yards wide, covers upwards of 
12 acres, and is defended by a fine vallum with an outward 
slope of fully 20 feet, a wide ditch, and a parapet of con- 
siderable height in places. Like Ambresl;ury Banks, this 
was perhaps an oppichun, for it stands within an area 









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^/^ ^^/'""^"â– ^ St ^ Laurence i^p'on J ^ .^\o\'^ 




Fig. 35. — Cholesbury. 

which was, until recent years, densely forested. A mih' 
and a half to the south-east, at Hawridge, is another 
camp, an almost perfect c;ircle of very small size, the 
diameter of the area being no more than 150 feet. The 
defences seem to be out of all proportion to the size ot 



by the church and churchyard, so that it may be concluded that these works 
were not raised to protect any residence within them, but antedate the 
church. The spot has great strategic importance, coinmandin'j; three valleys 
which here converge, and for this reason, as also for the characteristic scarping 
of the steep western or southern sides of the camp, it is pr<ibaV)lo that the 
camp is a British work. 



136 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the camp, the fosse reaching a wicltli of over 20 feet, and 
the vallum, 36 feet wide at the base, rising to a height of 
12 feet above the area. • Much of the enceinte has, however, 
been destroyed to fnake room for the buildings of 
Hawridge Court.^ Bronze implements are said to have 
been found at the spot, while peculiarly delicate Hakes 
and needles of flint are abundant at Cholesbury. 

It is quite possible that Hawridge Camp, which over- 
looks the valley leading up to the higher ground about 
Cholesbury, was constructed" as an outpost to the latter 
fortress, ^milar works, showing the same combination 
of great strength witli very limited area, are, however, 
to be found all over the country, in localities where there 
is often no trace of any larger camp. The fort known as 
Maiden Castle, or Caerthannoc, near Dunmallet, has a 
diameter of 82 yards, and is provided with two ramparts, 
the intervening fosse being 18 feet wide. Another example 
in Cumberland, . Hayton Castle Hill, of exactly similar 
plan, measures but 40^ yards across ; while a third, called 
Tower Tye, near Na worth Castle, is 50 yards in diameter, 
with a single vallum of quite exaggerated proportions. 
A Hampshire example, at Wootton St. Lawrence, 
though only 50 yards across, has a rampart approaching 
40 feet up the slope.'^ At Bury Hill, Dulverton, over- 
looking the junction of the valleys of the Exe and the 



1 At the present time water stands in part of the fosse, but it is not clear 
that the ditch was originally intended to be a wet moat. 

2 At Oving, Bucks, is a curious eai'thwork, the remains of a ring-work 
of about 40 paces only in diameter, surrounded by a ditch. The vallum and 
the fosse must have been of very great size before the plough attacked them. 
The crest of the ramp is still 8 feet above the floor of the fosse, and the 
slope measures as much as 23 feet. Apparently there was never either fosse 
or vallum along the western side, where the ground falls with great steepness 
to a spring— the Horse Spring — traditionally associated with Horsa. The 
work seems to be alluded to in a deed temp. Edward I., as being already 
under cultivation. . The .expression used is Les Waives, "tlie walls." It is 
too smg,ll to h,^ve been pai't of the village stockade, and can only have 
enclosed a single rcsidenge. 



V PLATEAU FORTS 137 

Hartford Water, in a position precisely analogous to that 
of AVest Wycombe Camp, is a formidable little fortress of 
very small area, l)ut with a tremendous vallum ; and a 
chain of similar small rin^-works lies, or lay, along the 
northern edge of the Somersetshire highlands overlooking 
the Severn Sea. In Dunster Park is a beautiful little 
example (Fig. 69) in a remarkable state of preservation — 
a perfect circle of a diameter of 210 feet, lying upon the 
open slope of a hill facing towards Exmoor up the valley of 
the Avill. Its vallimi of stone and earth, 10 feet in heioht 
and heavily fossed, is strongly recurved and splayed at 
the only entrance. This fort lies ^ mile west of 
a much larger camp of totally different type, and 
very much would be gained if it could be proved that the 
one and the other were w^orks of the same age. It has 
been suggested that the ring-forts in this locality were 
the work of the Saxons and intended as so many coast- 
guard posts to block the various valleys leading into the 
interior against the invading Danes, and it is likely that 
the Saxons did construct works of this type. A small 
oval fortress \\ miles south-west of Porloek Church 
is traditionally associated either with the Danes 
or with the Saxons, and the tradition gains a certain 
probability from the fact that the spot is thrice recorded 
to have been the scene of fighting in the Saxon time. 
This camp is very deeply entrenched, and shows but one 
entrance (on the south side). In plain truth, simple ring- 
forts do not present any features l)y which their age can 
be even guessed ; the type was perhaps common to Celt, 
Saxon, Dane, and Norman equally. In the dead level 
of the fens, 7 miles north of Caml)ridge, is a circular 
ring-work known as Belsar's (or iJalsar's) Kill, between 
Rampton and Willingham. It is " sup|)oscd to derive its 
name from Belasis, a commander under William 1.. ' and it 
certainly lies at an exceptionally low level (IS fe(>t). 
If it already existed it may have been reoeeupied during 



138 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the Conqueror's operations against the Isle of Ely. But 
what is its original date it is impossible to say.^ 

Simple ring-works, mostly of small area and of much 
slighter construction, are even more abundant. There are 
few counties in which examples are not to be found. Cod- 
ford Circle, or Oldbury Camp, cresting a hill 3^ miles due 
west of Yarnbury, Wilts, an unbroken circle of some 
9 acres, is one of the larger examples. At the present 
time its vallum has to all intents disappeared, ])ut it 
is clear that the work can never have been very strong. 
On Heale Hill, in the same countv, overlookino- the Avon 
valley, is another, smaller (5 acres) and less regular, with 
a British village adjacent. Others are (or were) to be 
found on Whitesheet Hill, Rodmead Down, and Pewsey 
Hill, where there were two close together.'^ They are 
numerous in Cumberland, and especially in the Furness 
district, and mostly of small size. One at Torver Beck 
is but 54 feet in diameter, without discernible fosse 
or entrance. Another on Hare Crag, in the same locality, 
is 100 feet across, with an entrance to the south-east; and 
yet a third, on Kirkby Moor, is 75 feet over, with a vallum 
3 feet high. A round fort on How Hill is but 60 feet 
across, while a "Maiden Castle '" near Burnmoor Tarn is 
said to be only 21 feet in diameter. There were others 
on Greenhalgh Hill near Slack (50 feet over), and near 
Penistone (100 paces across) ; ^ while in Wharfedale occur 



' This camp, like the later work at Earith (Fig. 207), is built upon one 
of the clay islands amidst the peat. Prof. McK. Hughes believes it to be 
British, and thinks that the association with Belasis may have arisen simply 
from the fact that that commander marched by the camp in passing 
towards the Isle of Ely along the old road called Aldreth Causeway. The 
work does not look as if it had ever been very formidable, resembling a 
cattle-ring rather than a camp. 

- These examples are mentioned (amongst others) in Hoare's Ancient 
Wilts. 

^ Viz., at Heath Hall, and at Langsett, 3 miles west. One of these was 
oval. These have been incorrectly cited of late as examples of those com- 
paratively rare enclosures in which the fosse lies vnthin the vallum ; bnt a 



V PLATEAU FORTS 139 

two examples in close proximity, covered by extensive 
outlying banks of small relief. Some of these very pos- 
sibly were originally ])uilt as disc-barrows/ while others 
were probably residential, representing the homesteads of 
little groups of pastoral folk, who built them as foMs 
for their cattle. They thus merge into those small and 
feeble circular enclosures of very slight relief, with areas 
little more than 20 feet in diameter, banks 8 feet to 9 feet 
broad, and shallow fosses 5 feet to 7 feet wide, which are to 
be seen, e.g., within the the great camp on Hod Hill, usually 
surrounding one, two, or three pits (Fig. 36). When 
explored these were found to l)e the sites of huts of the 
Late-Celtic period."^ 

Two camps of this class have quite recently been 
detected and carefully examined, viz. one at Wallington, 
near Croydon, and another known as AVar Ditches, near 
Cherry Hinton, Cambridge. 



few years ago both vallum and countervallum were still quite recognisable 
(Armitaji^e, A Key to English Antiquities, p. 43). Where an earthwork haS 
originally had both vallum and countervallum, it not infrequently hai)i)ens 
that the plough has destroyed the former, while it has spjired the latter, thus 
giving rise to the erroneous idea that no inner bank ever existed, and that 
the countervallum was the only defence. A similar confusion occurs in the 
case of many dykes. 

* E.g. the example cited on Kirkby Moor. It goes by the name of 
"The Kirk," and "a venerable inhabitant" {Aixhaevloijia, liii.) cuuld 
recollect that it had once borne a peristalith. The natives assert that the 
spot was traditionally "a place where their fathers worshipped," and, as a 
matter of fact, games used, until recent times, to be held on the spot by 
the Lord of the Manor at Eastertide — a curious instance of what might 
conceivably be a confused survival of old traditions of some form of 
astronomical worship and of funeral games about a sepulchre. It may, 
however, be nothing but a piece of unconscious tetiology ; it proves nothing, 
although it suggests much. A certain number of facts are known which 
illustrate the possible survival to the present time of beliefs and practice s 
of undateable antiquity, associated with camps and barrows, especially where 
the Celtic element is strong, e.cj. in Cornwall, Wales, and Brittany ; hut 
unhappily they are mostly too vague and jierplexed to be more than 
suggestions. Something further is said l)elow (p. 5H.'5, note) about tlie 
names "Kirk," "Church," itc, in connexion with earthworks. 

2 Aixhaenl. Journal, vol. lix. (1900). 



I40 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Wallington ^ Camp (344 feet), of which every trace had 
so long since disappeared from the surface that the very 
tradition of its existence was lost, was discovered by 
the opening of its fosse in digging for the foundations 
of the new Southern Hospital (1902). It was proved 
to have been a circular fort 500 feet in diameter, en- 
closing something over 4 acres. The ditch, which was 
V-shaped in section, 12 feet in width at the surface, and 



V â–  









< -, 






1 ^ .' I »l \ ^ • 



I 



'^..5-^ \--ZS:o y.-9'--\ 

Fig. 36. — Ring-work, Hod Hill. 

7 feet in depth, had been completely filled in by the 
wastage and the ploughing of centuries, and the vallum 
had of course vanished beyond reconstruction ; but from 
the objects found it was possible to suggest a reconstitu- 
tion of the character and history of the camp. Its 

1 In Domesday, Waleton, %.&. Wall-town, although the name perhaps refers 
to some later walled town which superseded the British camp destroyed 
circa 50 B.C. It is known that there were Roman settlements near, and 
somewhere in this district lay the Roman Noviomagus, the name of which 
declares that it represented an earlier British town, not necessarily the 
camp under discussion, but perhaps its later' representative. 



V PLATEAU FORTS 14 1 

original occupants, and presumably its l)uikler8, were little 
removed from tlie Stone Age. It Iia<l heen occupied, 
whether continuously or not, down to a period syn- 
chronous with Csesar's invasion of Britain, when it seems 
to have been abandoned and destroyed. It yielded the 
usual quantities of pottery, including some four-liandkMl 
vessels of an unusual type. Some of the pottery was 
apparently of foreign origin, as were also a diorite hammer 
and an amber bead. Flint implements, mealing stones, 
spinning whorls, and carbonized grains of wheat and 
barley were found, pieces of copper in the lump, and 
a lance-head of bronze, but no iron whatever. The 
few ol)jects of Roman age discovered were surface deposits 
of later date. A number of cremated interments, and one 
uncremated, were found outside the area, and u})on the 
surface of the area w^ere discovered the traces of two 
hearths, while many more were located in the ditch. 
Accompanying them were a number of flat tiles of much- 
fired clay pierced with irregular holes, evidently griddles 
upon which rested the cooking-pots al)ove the flames.^ 

The camp at Cherry Hinton, albeit long destroyed, had 
nevertheless left a tradition of its existence in the name 
of War Ditches locally attaching to the site. It was 
brought to light in the course of quarrying for chalk, 
which revealed a section of the ditch. Like the camp at 
Wallington it was a circular ring-work, slightly smaller in 
area, but more strongly defended, for the ditch (which 
showed a funnel-shaped section with a flat bottom) was 14 
feet to 15 feet deep and 15 feet wide at the surface. The 
finds were of an extraordinarily perplexing character, l)ut 
such as to establish the date of the orio-inal ditch as 
long prior to the Roman age, the work of a people 
who had little pottery and hardly any other domestic 

^ The camp was explored, so far as was possible, by N. F. Robartes, 
F.G.S., from whose report (printed in the Journul of the Anlhiiii><>l(i<iifiU 
Inditide, 1905) these facts are taken. 



142 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

appliances. To these succeeded a population whose skulls, 
found in the debris which had already partially filled 
up tlie ditch, were " of Anglian type, which may well 
be explained by referring them to the pre- Roman Teutonic 
invaders of Britain." The camp seems to have been 
alternately occupied and abandoned through a long period 
of years onward to a date subsequent to the departure of 
the Romans : " The last occupation of the War Ditches 
seems to be later than the distinctively Roman period, 
but earlier than anything we can refer to the Saxon or the 
Dane, that is to say, we should refer it to the Romanized 
natives, who were in this district largely of Teutonic 
orio;in." ^ 

The circumstances under which these two camps were 
brought to light suggest that there may be many more 
yet awaiting discovery, and prove also that the absence of 
any vestiges of earthworks above the surface is no proof 
that no earthworks ever existed in the locality. Unfor- 
tunately, it needs the eye of a trained scientist to detect the 
slight indications which might betray these long-buried 
secrets ; and scientists of the right kind are few, while 
the operations of the navvy and the quarryman are mani- 
fold. For one that is detected, probably many more 
escape detection altogether, and are irrevocably destroyed. 
The cases of Wallinoton and War Ditches are interestino- 
further, as proving that even in very remote times camps 
of the simplest and less defensible type were constructed ; 
that the original works of such camps sometimes continued 
to do duty, without addition or elaboration, during many 
centuries ; and that a site, once occupied and fortified, 
continued to draw to it successive occupants through 
hundreds of years, in spite of conquest and recon quest, and 
all the ceaseless flux of local populations and conditions. 

* The quotations are from the pen of Prof. T. McKenny Hughes, in his 
report upon the exploration of the camp in Proc. Cambs. Antiq. Society, 
No. xliv., p. 452 sqq. 



V PLATEAU FORTS 143 

So many of the plateau forts conform so closely to the 
circular plan that this can hardly be a matter of accident, 
but must rather Ijc set down to the fact that their l)uilders 
had arrived at the knowledge that, as compared with any 
other form of enclosure, the circular plan is the most 
economical.^ There appears to be reason to liold that, the 
topographical conditions being the same, circular camps 
are presumably later in date than others, the strictly 
rectangular Roman castra of course excepted. Neverthe- 
less, mere shape must always l)e a most unreliable test of 
age. The old conviction that all rectangular camps, 
wherever placed, must necessarily be Roman was com- 
pletely upset by the excavations of Pitt-Rivers, and is now 
entirely discredited in England. In Scotland, according 
to Dr. Christison's view, of a total of more tlian eishtv 
rectilineal and chiefly rectangular works commonly 
described as Roman, only seven have furnished any relics 
to bear out this attribution.^ Admitting that it were true- 
(and it is not) that the Romans never adopted any but a 
strictly rectangular plan, such an admission does not 
justify the fallacious assumption that therefore none but 
Romans ever used such a plan. It was certainly employed 
occasionally hy the Britons and by the Normans, it was 
the common plan in vogue for the domestic and military 
earthworks of the Middle Ages, and it was possibly not 
unknown even to the earliest Saxons. 

Pitt-Rivers excavated three more or less rectangular 
entrenchments at Martin Down, Handle}' Hill. an<l 
Rushmore Park, all situated in or lU'ar (^ranbornc ( 'hnsc 
and within a few miles of one anothei'. .Martin Down 
Camp (Fig. 37) was a rough rectangle of 1)7 by 80 yards 
(— rO acre more or less), enclosed within a single vallum 



' As compared with a rectangular circumvallation, a circular rin<,'-wali of 

precisely the same length encloses an area more tlian oui' thinl as large 
again. 

- Kdiiy FortlJirrttiiDts of Snifl<(ii(l, ]>. HI2. 



144 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

and an outer ditch. The ditch had originally had a depth 
of 9 feet or more, with a width at the surface of 10 feet, 
and a funnel-shaped section ; but, owing to the steepness 
of the sides, the vallum had almost entirely fallen into the 
ditch, so filling it up that the enceinte of the whole camp 
was scarcely noticeable to an untrained eye. Along one 
half of the longest side neither vallum nor ditch had ever 
been constructed. Entrances had been left in two other 






â–  V' 



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i.i.Iiiii'"^ 







Fig. 37.— Martin Down. 

sides, roughly analogous to those characteristic of Roman 
camps. From the evidence of the various objects found 
on the site, this work was shown to have been originally 
of the Bronze Age.^ 

The enclosure in Rushmore Park, known as the South 
Lodge Camp, was three-quarters of an acre in extent only, 

^ "Subsequently occupied by the Homans," adds Pitt-Rivers. But of 
occupation in the proper sense there was no evidence, and the remains of 
Roman character there found were merely "surface-finds," quite as well 
attributed to the post-Roman Britons. See Excavations in Cranburne Chase, 
vol. iv., for this camp, and for those at Handley Hill and Rushmore Park, 
ibid., vols. iv. and ii. 



V PLATEAU FORTS 145 

approximately a square of 60 yards. Here aoaiii denuda- 
tioii had all but ol)literated the works, l)ut excavation 
revealed a ditch, continuous throughout save for an 
entrance in the south-west side, with an average, width at 
the surface of 9j- feet, and a depth of 6j feet, the bottom 
narrowing to a width of 1 foot only, and the sides very 
steep. Systematic examination of the whole area re- 
vealed no traces of pits or other form of habitation, but 
fixed the date of this work ag;ain as of the Bronze Aoe. 

Handley Hill Camp,^ the most regular in plan of all 
three, was still smaller in size, measuring but 33 yards 
square and including only '225 acre. Here again the 
relief of the vallum was very slight. The single entrance 
was in the middle of one side, and the ditch (most 
unusually) was within the vallum. Its width had 
originally been but 2 feet. Within the substance of the 
vallum were found various Romano-British remains, and 
on the original surface beneath it lay a silver denarius 
of Trajan, but the objects found within the area were 
excliTsively British in character. 

Handley Hill Camp is one of a number of small 
rectangular earthworks, of doubtful age and [uir[»ose, 
enumerated by Warne.\ Owing to their small size such 



^ Ancient ^Dorset, p. 334 $([. 


Arranged in 


ord 


[3r of size, 


the others are as 


follows : — 










Gussage Little Down . 


( 9x 8 yard 


s)= 72 s 


juare yards. 


Bookley Down 
Chaldon West 


( 15x15 
( .32x32 


" 


)= 225 
) = 1,024 




Upper Sydling Down . 
Gussage Down 


( 40x30 
( 35x35 


" 


) = 1.200 
) = 1,225 




Eastbury Down . 
Milborne Down 
Bere Heath . 
Bowconibe 


( 44x29 
( 51X.38 
( 45 X 45 
( 45 X 45 


" 


) = l,27(i 
) = 1,9.38 
) = 2,025 
) = 2,025 




Heath llougli Down 


. ( 50x50 


,, 


) = 2,500 




Ower Heath . 


( 55 X 55 


,, 


) = 3,025 




Blandford R<ice Down 


( 75 X 75 


,, 


) = 5,()25 




Steepleton Down . 
The work on Eastbury Down, s 
ditch within the vallum. 


. (112x52 ,, 
ays Warne, like 


) = 5,824 
Handley Hill V uny. had its 

L 



146 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



works have l>oeii very little noticed, though they are 
certainly to l)e found all over the country. Two instances 
from Kent are Castle llouoh and Bayford Castle, on 
opposite hanks of Milton Creek, north of Sittinghourne, 
traditionall)' said to be the work of the Danes and of 
Kins Alfred. Three others on Walton Heatli, Surrey, are 



/ 



^,^lo/>e gentle 



t/e 



, Mr ! ! Ii I ! 




^ntr^n'ci ^^^eZ. yCy^ 



V////M;i!f;;i|j[!||jiillil' 

I'll ii lilt ///7v.'^-':^B:.# 






100 



xoo 



300 



Fig. .38. — Enclosure in Loose Bottom, Falmer. 

noticed on p. 316. There are many in Wiltshire in the 
neighbourhood of Stonehenge, and many in the northern 
counties. Three examples in the vicinity of the great 
Roman camps of Cawthorn measure respectively 200 feet 
by 200 feet, 220 feet by 220 feet, and 220 feet by 180 
feet ; while others on Cumwhitton Common and Penrith 
Common, Cumberland, measure only 60 feet each way. 
Such works as these are wrongly called "camps" : they 



V PLATEAU FORTS 147 

belong rather to tlie class of " simple enclosures." ' for 
while they may possibly have served as pens for cattle 
they can never have been of any importance as military 
works. Mr. H. S. Thonis has very lately described " two 
earthworks near Falmer, Sussex, which he thinks to 
be analogous in purpose, and perhaps of the Bronze Age. 
His name of " valley-entrenchments " sufficiently suggests 
their disposition. Each lies within a combe of the chalk 
Downs, and consists of a single earthen vallum with an 
outer fosse enclosing an area which may by courtesy only 
be described as approaching to rectangular. The area of 
one is some 1,500 feet long with an average width of 700 
feet ; that of the other (Fig. 38), less irregular in shape, is 
about 500 feet by 400 feet at its widest ; and each has an 
entrance facing down the valley. He can give no other 
examples of similar works in Sussex, but cites several in the 
vicinity of the river Puddle about Puddletrenthide, Dorset ; 
and remarks that such valley-entrenchments " all fall into 
three types, as enclosing valley heads, valley sides, and 
the valley proper." ^ From their resemblance to the work 
on Martin Down, he is inclined to think these may be of 
the same age, admitting, however, that such superficial 



' Class C of the Committee's Schedule (p. 21). 

- See Antiquary, November, 1907. 

•'' Warne {Ancient Dorset) describes something very similar uniler tlie 
proposed name of a "Pastoral Camp," near Frome Whitfield, only a little 
distance from the Puddle River. It encloses a small combe running uj) into 
Ihe Downs, the single vallum and fosse following the curve of tlie valley on 
either hand. Cultivation appears to have destroyed the line of the enclosure 
at the mouth of the valley, but the fourth side remains intact, and a small 
opening in it leads to tlie Downs above. It measures about 570 feet in length, 
the width at the lower end being about 450 feet. On the chalk downs of tlie 
Isle of Wight, between Shorwell and Calbourne, Jire abundant traces of 
prehistoric settlements, some of which occupy exactly similar positions to 
these enclosures at Falmer. Thus the huts of the large British village by 
Newbarns Down are arranged along the bottom of three diminutive combes, 
wliich immediately converge u{)()n a large pond, at the head of a larger valley. 
A small combe on Brightstone Down has had its upper end fenced oft" by a 
considerable embankment, very suggestive of tiie work at Loose Bottom. 

L 2 



148 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

eliaracteristics as shape, size, &c., are but feel>le evidence 
upon which to base conclusions. As a matter of fact 
there is no other evidence, and his conjecture remains at 
present a conjecture only, and it may very possibly be 
that these works near Falmer, and others elsewhere, are 
works of relatively modern date. The shepherds of the 
fells construct for their sheep permanent folds of stone, 
naturally selecting spots where there is a convenient 
supply of water, and adequate protection from wind and 

v,4V.;ii»'t>.n.i'it"i*'"\V;,""'- 






II ^:^^ 1|. 

% -'^'^ % 

Fig. .39.1 

weather. In tlie clialk counties, where stone of any kind 
is rare if not unknown, they may well have constructed 
similar folds of earth, running some sort of fence along the 
vallum in the primitive way. The position of some of 
the works described, at the very bottoms of the valleys, 
certainly raises doul)ts wliether they can be of very great 
antiquity.^ 

' This and the four figures next following are after Dean Merewether's 
plans in the Diari/. 

^ Could these works be proved to be really of the Bronze Age it would be 
an interesting hint as to the date at which the bottoms began to be habitable 
for a pastoral folk, owing to the clearing of the forests and the shrinking of 



V PLATEAU FORTS 149 

In Tlie Diary of a Dean (Merewether) are figured five 
of these odd enclosures, wliicli appear to have nothing in 
common but their small size, the feeble character of their 
valla, and their more or loss rectangular plan. The pre- 
sence of three tumuli ' within the first of the series (Fig. 
39) would seem to suggest some analogy with the simple 
circular ringworks enclosing tumuli, which are in effect 
developments of the disc-barrow,"' but the separate quad- 
rangular compartments hardly bear out this resemblance. 

/^ â– ^V'j.i.i.njju.i.o.^i.iiv.^ ^\iiiii i(i.ii..i.i ii'unl;,)/;- 
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Fi(i. 40. 

Dean Merewether remarks that the mounds at the four 
corners of the second work (Fig. 40) have just the 
appearance of tumuli ; but these again have their ana- 
logies in many works of Norman and possibly of Danish 
or Saxon date. The third entrenchment (Fig. 41), which 

the water-springs ; and this would bear upon the theory that the lowland 
earthworks are later than those of the hills. The works near Fahner lie 
between the 300 feet and 400 feet contours. 

1 Two of these were opened and were found to contain merely fragments 
of pottery, bone, and ashes. Tlie third and largest, with its deep hollow in 
the centre, the Dean learnt to have been dug out by an old shei)herd " for a 
shelter." Amateurs, please take notice. 

2 See below, p. 527. 



*!50 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

lies in a hollow, is quite without parallel. It seems 
to have no entrance, and the floor of the oval inner 
enclosure is sunk below the natural level of the soil in 

vv\\Mi.\ii)>i wuiu'ij iMiiiiiu<iiitiniijiiiiii)Uii'iiiuuii'iiiiiiiiiiiiii>r'// 

w jm II 



^//MiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiriVili'iiiiJuitltrrilMiiiiiiiKir.iniiiliiliiiitUViYtV; 
MiiiiMii)<i<i<>>iuiMiiMMniWM<n\<t'.Mniniti i\M iHiD'titin iiimi>x\>? 



Fig. 41. 



the fashion associated with amphitheatres. The fourth 
work (Fig. 42) is more or less conformable to the hill upon 
which it stands. A dyke, about half a mile long, seems 

rr; ■'■•■'i,, ' 1 1 1 " I ■ . 










"'•"••'-!:![rit|'i\N\N 



■'/.■.'.'.•.•inni.'.'iii.'i* 

Fig. 42. 

to connect it with Silbury Hill, and there is a small annexe 
outside the entrance at the north-western corner. The 
last of the series resembles in plan nothing so much as 



V PLATEAU FORTS 151 

some sort of dwelling-house (Fig. 43), l>ut what might be 
called the central room has no entrance-way, and its floor 
is deeply sunk below the surrounding ground. Excava- 
tions in the vallum of this work produced nothing to 
throw any light upon its age. All five works Ijelong to the 
northern part of Wiltshire, and chiefly to the valley of the 
River Kennet.^ 

The work knowm as Soldier's Ring (Fig. 44), near the 

.,\\\\i.\\i .n li, .iiu»riiuuiunim\i( w u ; j;/// 

■^ C.'.V. M \ I '. I • > '. » n» Jln U! III!;;////. •>.\UUl\l!>ll.'.'.'-' i 



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^ ''7/ r. •, i ! i 1 1 1) 1 i : I i 1 i i i Ti i i "1 1 ■» V 1 1 n I' rr. 1 i 1 \ \ w^ - 

•'/{'■WI'MM tl U MUMiivH llUlil llU»'li';ii t U I I t I I IJf U.Vj.'? 

Fig. 43. 

Bokerley Dyke in Cranborne Chase, is an extreme instance 
of exceptional shape, as well as otherwise remarkable. It is 
pentagonal, the enclosing lines curiously regular in design. 

* It is quite likely that very many of such small works, whether rectangular 
or otherwise, represent only the enclosures of domestic homesteads of Saxon 
or later age. This is especially probable when tliey occu[)y luw-lying sites. 
To the present day it is usual, wherever the farmstead occupies a position 
liable to floods, to enclose it within some sort of embanknxent— a simple 
earthen bank, usually of very slight height, and without any sort of ditch or 
moat. The last which the writer .saw surrounded a house and homestead 
not five years old, by the side of a small stream, which looked as if it could 
never be in flood. Cause and eff'ect are as closely related in the twentieth 
century as they were in the beginning of things. 



152 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



When Colt Hoare descril)ed them these lines consisted of 
three separate valla, without any trace (so it is said) of 
fosses ; and the middle vallum was much slighter than 
the others, which reached a height of 8 feet. At the 
present time there are but two valla remaining. The 
single entrance lay near the apex of the figure. wing- 
to the apparent absence of any fosses, it is traditional to 






j*^^>'^ 
•^^ 



V^-^^^v 



I 






«. TV 

^^ 

v.- 

*»■ ■*» 



5ttt. 






.^^ 






^ 












Fig. 44. — Soldier's Ring, South Damerham. 

clas-s this work as non-military, but why three valla were 
considered needful in any but a military work is not 
clear. ^ 



^ There are several other works of very similar plan to be found upon 
Salisbury Plain, to the south and west of Stonehenge. One of these, five 
miles due west of Amesbury, contains a number of tumuli, and goes by the 
name of the Coniger. In one or other of many forms {e.g. Conygar, Conigre, 
Conygaer, Coneygarth) this is a very common appellation of ancient fortified 



PLATEAU FORTS 



^S3 



The great majority of })lateau camps properly so called 
occupy comparatively level and open sites, and are of 
more or less circular plan. With a few notable exceptions 
they are, as a class, less strongly fortified, alike hy art as 
by nature, than are the hill-top forts. They may vary in 
size from less than an acre to almost any dimensions. 
Stan wick Camp, near Forcett, Durham, reputed the largest 
enclosure of its own, or of any class, in England, has 
an area of over 800 acres and a compass of over four 
miles. ^ 

Camps of the plateau type, feeble of defence and small 
of size, were at all periods prior to the Norman conquest 
the commonest of all, and for every one such fortress as 
Maiden Castle or Cissbury, Badbury or Dolebury, there 
were perhaps scores of lesser and more perishable works 
of the type seen at Wallington and War Ditches. The 
comparative slightness of their construction naturally 
hastened their disappearance, but much more fatal to 
their survival was the fact that in so many cases they 
lay upon relatively low-lying sites and in localities soon 
attacked by the plough, while their valla, constructed 
always of the soil upon which they stood, proved an irre- 
sistible attraction to the farmer in quest of good soil, who 



sites. Another work very similar to Soldier's Ring is to be found in 
Mangravel Wood, near Maidstone. It measures 1,1(50 feet by 800 feet at its 
longest and widest, and has but one vallum and one ditch, both very feeble. 
It lies on perfectly level and indefensible ground, and of its present four 
entrances, that at the apex seems to be the original one. 

' The measurements (diameter) of a few ty])ical plateau forts are here 
given as examples : — 

Hawridge (Bucks) .... 150 feet 

Gallox Hill, Duiister ... 210 ,, 

War Ditches (C 'ambs) .... 450 , , 

Wallington (Surrey) .... 500 ,, 

Cholesbury (Bucks) .... 750 ,, 

Maiden Bower (Bedford.shire "•>(» ., 

Vandlebury (Cambs) .... 1,000 ., 

Yarnbury (Wilts) . . . 1,500 „ 



154 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

too frcH|ueiitly carted them deliberately away.' Such 
mounds of pure soil were easily removed, whether to fill 
in the adjoining fosse, to be spread over the fields, or to 
form a new seed-bed in the tenant's garden. The marvel 
is not that so many of them have vanished, but rather that 
so many of them have survived. The forts upon the higher 
hills have escaped more lightly, if only l)ecause the plough 
came thither later, the soil was less deep and attractive, 
the mounds themselves were mostly built of sterile chalk 
or still more unprofitable stone, and also because the great 
forts were constructed, like Old Sarum, upon a scale to 
baffle even the ploughman. 

The contour fort is an advance upon the promontory 
fort. It is the work of peoples who no longer allow the 
stubborn facts of topography entirely to control their 
methods and their movements. They have learnt to 
adapt these facts to some degree to their own pur]30ses, 
although they are still far removed from the masterful 
independence of the Roman strategist. But promontory 
forts may hav^e been occupied, and even Ijuilt, for long 
ages after the introduction of the newer type. It is, for 
example, highly probable that the Britons of the Saxon 
time, retiring into Wales and Cornwall, lapsed again into 
the savagery which is begotten of distress and reverted 
to a type of fortification which entailed relatively little 
labour. 

As the contour fort suggests a certain independence of 
choice in the matter of locality, it suggests also an appre- 
ciation of the value of centrality, and centralization 
implies a decided step towards peaceful and permanent 
occupation of the soil. In keeping with this suggestion 
is the fact that such forts frequently show a studied 



^ Near Linkinhorne in North Cornwall is a circular "camp" which owes 
its preservation, in part at least, to a local belief that whoso tampers with it 
will die. It is greatly to be regretted that a like reverential superstition does 
not safeguard such works generally. 



V PLATEAU FORTS 155 

elaboration of plan, a deliberate provision, in some of the 
more highly developed examples, of a fortress for the 
builders, a fold for their herds, and pasturage for those 
herds. The amount of labour expended upon the larger 
fortresses of this class is too vast to be explained save as 
the deliberate work of a settled (community, with whom 
nomadism is a thing unknown, permanence of abode the 
normal condition of life. It implies not merely long years of 
occupation, but large numbers, and great wealth as wealth 
was then reckoned. There existed indeed other sources of 
wealth, such as the possession of supplies of marketable 
material, whether Hint or other valuable stone or metal, 
and the command of the trade-routes of the time — markets 
and trade are as old as any facts in the history of 
humanity ; but speaking generally proi)erty then meant 
cattle. The cattle of the community would increase pro- 
portionally with the community itself, and the larger the 
community, the greater the space required within the 
camp for fold-room, without it for pasturage. Camps of 
very large size are therefore usually far apart, and because 
of the persistence of fen and forest in the valleys, they 
were almost invariably built upon the higher ground. 

As the conditions of life grew more and more settled, 
various modifications would follow. The forests would be 
gradually cleared, and as the forests fell the swamps 
would shrink. The population would then creep further 
and further away from the central fortress, further (h)\\ n 
the slopes and into tlie valleys. Thus there would grow 
up new settlements, accidental colonies swarming off from 
the parent community. Few in numbers and concerned 
rather with the pursuits of peace than witli those of war. 
these settlers would have neither the means nor the wish 
to fortify their homestt-ads on any great scale ; nor wouhl 
they have the need, the parent-fortress sutticing for their 
protection, oi- at the worst affording a secure asylum 
in time of need. â–  These later settlements, albeit perhaps 



156 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

very very old, would therefore show a simple scheme 
of defence: they were huilt rather to safeguard the cattle 
from wild l)easts than the settlers from armed foes. The 
tremendous lal)our of rearing double, triple, and even quad- 
ruple ramparts of enormous height, the complicated systems 
of entrance-defence, the vast areas, would no longer' he 
affected, and in their place would be constructed camps of 
small size, ringed about with a single fosse and vallum of 
but slight dimensions, but sufficient to prevent the in- 
cursions of wolves and the stampeding of the herds. 
Being built upon lower ground, such camps would show an 
increasing regularity of plan, no longer determined in any 
way by the more irregular contours of the higher ground. 
In the ultimate they would be planted upon the very 
lowest levels, in positions which owed nothing of their 
defensibility to slopes or precipices ; and experience 
having taught the builders that the circular plan was an 
economy of labour, they would in most cases adopt 
the simplest circular form. 

It would seem to be a legitimate inference from such a 
2')riori reasoning that, subject of course to exceptional 
circumstances, a camp is later in date according as it is 
less irregular in plan, less elaborately defended, and 
constructed upon a less elevated and less defensible site. 
And so far as the spade has been brought to elucidate the 
history of ancient earthworks, it does not appear to 
negative this conclusion.^ 

^ The most competent authorities agree that the great hill-forts of the 
south-west counties were occupied in the Bronze Age. This, however, does 
not imply that they were necessarily built after the introduction of bronze. 
The finds at Ham Hill and Eggardon, inter alia, point to the contrary. 
Apparently the men of the Bronze Age were still content to dwell mostly 
upon the hill-tops, and as their predecessors of the Stone Age likewise dwelt 
there (witness Cissbury in particular), it is a reasonable presumption that 
the later race expropriated the earlier, and took over whatever earthworks 
the latter had constructed. Such positions as Ham Hill, Hod Hill, Maiden 
Castle, and Cissbury were in all likelihood strongholds of Neolithic Man 
before the Bronze Age dawned, but his earthworks, whatever they may 



PLATEAU FORTS 



157 



The latest development of all would he reached when, a 
normal condition of peace having quite superseded the 
earlier state of war, and the forests having been cleared over 
large areas, it was no longer necessary within those areas 
to raise any elal)orate defences either for the men or for 
the beasts of the community, which therefore developed 
the haphazard and almost defenceless character to be seen 
in the British villages of AViltshire and Dorsetshire. This 
was the phase in which lived the more pacific and 
progressive natives of Southern Britain, certainly at the 
time of Caesar's coming, and probably for some considerable 
time before it. Caesar himself is witness to the densitv of 
the population of that part of the island, and to its active 
prosecution of the peaceful arts of iron-mining and 
agriculture ; and while the mines in question were almost 
certainly those of the Weald of Sussex, yet the Weald can 
show scarcely any remains of earthworks of this, or indeed 
of any age. It is clear therefore that the ii)Jiiiita multitudo 
hominum had abandoned the habit of building earthworks 
on any great scale, because these were no longer needful. 
Caesar found the Celtic settlements in Southern Britain 
mostly easy to destroy, very unlike those of (xaul, which 
cost him long sieges ; and it is certain that the natives 
raised no new works during the Roman occupation. 
When the disorganization of the country consecpient upon 
the sudden dei)arture of the Romans was further 
aggravated by the ever-increasing incursions of the 
Teutonic invaders, these feeble un walled villages would be 
at once abandoned, and though doubtless in a few cases 
new fortifications would be erected, in most instances the 
natives would again reoccupy, possibly reconstruct, 



have been, were certfiinly improved upon by the later comers. Possilily 
some of them were again remodelled by sappers of the Late-Celtic time. 
The law of continuity seems to have held good in regard to the hill-tops in 
prehistoric times, as in regard to lowland sites througliciit the historic 
period. 



158 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND ch. v 

strengtlieu, or modify, the long-abandoned camps of the 
older time. Thus may have been produced those earth- 
works which are supposed to present features partly 
native, partly Roman, in character.^ 



^ Such have been supposed to be, e.f/., the irregularly quadrilateral works at 
Holmbury Hill, Ockley, and Castle Hill, Hascombe, both in Surrey, and 
close to the Sussex border. 



CHAPTER VI 

SOME PRINCIPLES OF PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 

" All valiant dust that builds on dust." 

All fortresses, irrespective of their builders, belong to the 
passive side of war : they are defensive, not offensive.^ 
The more extensive and elal)orate the fortress, the more 
clearly it testifies to a settled condition of things — that 
condition in which, the era of conquest past, the con- 



^ The Romans employed earthwork as a means of attack in the form of the 
agiier, or siege-mound, for the reduction of walled towns. This was a broad 
bank of brushwood, logs, and earth, running direct towards the enemy's 
wall, and gradually rising until it reached the top of the wall, so as to 
allow of the advance of a storming party. Such a laborious method was 
usually necessary only in dealing with very strongly fortified positions 
protected by walls so sheer as to defy escalade, and by deep fosses. Of 
such positions Caesar found plenty in Gaul, but there were pr(il)ubly none in 
that part of Britain which lie visited. He tells us, however, that he had to 
make use of the <((j(ier in .storming an oppidum in south-east Britain {B. (i., 
V. 9. 7). In the northern and western parts of the island, where stone was 
abundant, the troops approached under cover of the tci^tndo, and tore down 
the "rude and un.squared " dry-walling (Tacitus, Ann. xii. 35). In Roy's 
Military Antiquities is a plan of some elaborate earthworks known as 
Birrenswark, in Annandale, which appear to be the remains of the lines of 
circumval]ati(m drawn (l)y the Romans al)out tiie hill for its reduction. 
They are figured here (Fig. 45) as illustrating a system oi aggressive earth- 
work otherwise very rarely exemplified in Britain. But it must ])e re- 
membered that the Roman.'s' methods of lunjer, sap, and circumvallation 
were adopted and used by their successors in the Western Empire until late 
in the Middle Ages, and nothing that is indubitably Roman appears so far 
to have been found at Birrenswark. 



I bo 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 



querors are concerned chiefly to maintain their acquisi- 
tions. 

As for the offensive side of war, the art of attack, it is 
impossible to say how far the British peoples had pro- 
gressed in it before the Romans' time. When Caesar was 
campaigning in Gaul his difliculties were almost exclu- 
sively with enemies on the defensive. Now and again his 
camps are rushed, his supplies intercepted, a detachment 
cut off; but the Gauls, Belgic and Celtic alike, have not 
yet learnt to use their numbers with advantage. They 
have nothing corresponding to the Roman organization by 
cohorts, or even by legions. They are still in the tribal 
state, mustering by tribal levies, knowing little or nothing 
either of centralization or of decentralization as a reasoned 
system. With the valiant courage of their breed they 
combined an incapacity for grasping w^ide issues, for 
formulating and maintaining a policy of any breadth and 
largeness, for tolerating a single reverse, and for subordi- 
nating to the good of the nation the interests or the 
indolence of the individual tribe. They never, even under 
the most favourable circiumstances, put up a good fight 
against a fortified position. On the other hand, they 
made a magnificent defence within more than one fortress, 
maintaining for months an unequal contest against the 
discipline, the engineering skill, the superior weapons 
and artillery of the Romans. In one passage Caesar ' tells 
us that the Auvergnat Celts had learned " to entrench 
camps in the Roman manner " ; but this need not 
necessarily mean that the camps thus entrenched were 
also of the Roman plan. It may mean no more than that 
the natives, having realized the unwisdom of riskiug 
surprise by bivouacking in the open, now constructed 
some sort of defence, perhaps a mere zareeba. He else- 
where notices the quickness of the Gauls in general 

1 E.G. III. 23, 0. 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



i6i 



to adopt or to meet the various devices employed l)y 
the Romans in bnikling or attacking fortifications/ and 






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u> 


.<-•-'<;■•..• 




I- "V- 


-4 


l\ '^^ 







>0^^ o^""-v 



90- 

/ 5 



/ 



/ 






''..%.'' 



/ / 



}ooy 



1/ 












/ 









t 1 V. 



/oo 



I 



3 00 



yArds 

Fl(i. 45. — BiKRKNSWAKK, ANNANnALE. 



':â– â–  / 



characterizes them as a people of " extreme resourceful- 

1 See especially B.G. V. 42, where the Nervii construct regular siege- 
lines 15 miles in length— a 9-foot vallum and a 15-foot fosse— within 3 hours, 
and employ siege-tt)wers, /aZceis, the testudo, etc., in true Roman fashion. 

M 



1 62 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

ness." The Teutonic invaders who swarmed across the 
Rliine proved, however, quite as formidable to the Gauls 
as did the more scientific Romans. The Gauls never took 
the offensive with any great measure of success, even when 
led by a Vercingetorix ; even on the defensive they fought 
always a losing battle, if an honourable one. 

There is no reason to think that the most advanced of 
the British tribes surpassed their Continental l>rethren 
in the art of war. They had probably the same qualities 
and the same failings as had the tribes against whom 
Caesar fought in Gaul. They were more skilful in defend- 
ing fortresses than in reducing them ; they lacked disci- 
pline, cohesion, and the sense of a national unity. Their 
attack was expended in one rush : if it succeeded, well 
and good ; if not, it was seldom renewed. Their most 
formidable arm was the war-car, which they could 
manoeuvre with surprising skill even on steep slopes. 
But war-cars were useless in attacking entrenched posi- 
tions, and of artillery they knew nothing/^ They had not 
the patience, method, and determination requisite for long- 
sieges. If they achie\'ed a success against a fortress it was 
rather by elayi and surprise, by simple storm and escalade. 
It was against such perils that they designed their for- 
tresses, and vallum, fosse, and palisade were the only 
defences required. 

To construct a vallum or fosse upon level ground 
involves the maximum of labour, since for every foot 
added to the vallum another foot must be excavated from 
the fosse. But if the ground show but a little slope 
the labour is immensely lightened ; and the more pro- 
nounced the slope the less the toil required to make a 



' Csesar, B. G. IV. 25, 2. The normal manner of a Gallic or Belgic 
assault is described in B. G. II. 6, 2 — a combined attack with slings or other 
missiles to clear the defenders from the walls ; then an approach under cover 
of the lestndo, or roof of shields locked together overhead ; and finally the 
breacliing of the walls or demolition of the gates. 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



163 



very formidable entrenchment. The diagram (Fig 4f)) 
shows that, while to raise a vallum of one foot in height 
on level ground requires the digging of a trench one foot 
in depth, to raise a vallum of twice that height involves 
the movinsj of four times as much material, and for a 



Z'ctZIum. 3'. 




Fi(}. 46.— Diagram to illustrate Labour of raising a Vallum. 



Z.eve-C 






%o' 


nmnin^ 


5^'" 


^z. 


ire^C. 



Fig. 47.— Diagram of Valla on Slopes of 10° and 20^ 



vallum of 4 feet it is necessary to move no less than 
sixteen times as much. Thus a rampart of twenty feet m 
height represents 400 times the labour of making a one-foot 
vallum— very much more indeed, because of the increased 
height to which the material must be lifted. These 
simple figures lend a new dignity to such works as the 
plateau-forts, the great dykes, and the colossal mound 

M 2 



164 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 



of Silljuiy Hill, and sliow that the seemingly slight labour 
of making a promontory fort, or the modest ring-wall of 
such a work as Choleshiuy, may have involved vastly 



' >r>'iA 



;\\\^^ 






432 ^.\:^ 



.#-#•♦ 









_^ i^ ^ # ^i 







I 



o 



/ 

100 



W 



00 300 



yett. 

Fig. 48.— Brent Knoll, Somerset. 



more toil than the more showy lines of a Cissbury or even 
of a Maiden (Castle, 

Fio-. 47 shows how rapidly the labour diminishes as the 
angle of the slope increases. AVhile there is still a 
considerable amount of work to be done upon a slope 
of only 10°, when the slope rises to 20° only the merest 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



165 



capping of soil needs to be raised to produce I'orniidaMc 
entrenchments. Upon slopes of any greater steepness no 
ditching was necessary at all : it sufficed to throw the soil 
downward along the line of the enceinte, and there was at 
once obtained a sufficient vallum. At first sight this 
method of construction seems to suggest that there 
was a fosse within the vallum (Fig. 49, C). It 
is frequently seen in the smaller hill-top forts, in 
enclosures lying upon the slopes of hills, and in the 
less expressly military walls of British settlements — e.g., 
at Bigbury Camp, Harbledown, near Canterbury. Car- 




¥u.. W). — TkKKACES ANlt PaKAI'ETS. 



ried a little furtlier this method j)roduces a seiies of scarps 
and terraces (Fig. 49, B), amjjly sufficient when crowned 
with some slight i)alisa(ling. The western ftice of Brent 
Knoll, Somersetshire (Fig. 48), furnishes a good example 
of this kind of work on the gr{indest scale. It is a feature 
of the immense defences of Flambledon Hill, Dorset, and 
of Scrat(^hbury aud Battlesbury Camps near Warminster ; 
and it may l)e seen on a humbler scale at West Wycombe 
aud Pulpit Hill, and along the western side of the camp 
in Bulstrode Park, Gerrard's Cross, Mucks. If oidv the 
smallest parapet was added at the edge of the terrace, the 
results were yet more formidable (Fig. 49, A). Di-. Chris- 
tison cites instances of Scottish hill-forts whidi were 
apparently defended in this fashion only, viz., Ringknowes 



i66 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



(Fig. 50) and The Rings, both in Peeblesshire,^ and 
Eildon Hill. 

Perhaps the most frequent defensive scheme is that in 
vvhicli the excavation of a sino-le fosse has been made to 






^, 







^ 



# # 
# # 



"^ 



po//;;:^ -:# 




wmiA 



jfcale : iin. = /6oft. 
Fig. 50. — Ringknowes, Peeblesshire. 

furnish both vallum and jDarapet. The latter is usually 
small, but there are many cases where the parapet is as 

^ Early Fortifications of Scotland. In an article on the antiquities of 
Furness {Archaeolocjia, vol. liii.) are described certain small terraces "flank- 
ing the western side of a small gorge leading to the south-west entrance of 
the settlement " on Heathwaite Fell. These, it is suggested, may have been 
intended to aflbrd posts for slingers defending the approach. They are very 
small, the largest 12 by 8 feet only, and many much less, and intervals 
appear to have been left between one and another " to allow of the play of 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 167 

large as the vallum, and in rarer instances it is the more 
important of the two — e.g., West Wycombe (Fig. 51). 

Where the valla are multiplied there is no rule to deter- 
mine which shall be the strongest. Most commonly it is 
the inmost line, but in other cases one of the intermediate 
lines will be higher than the rest, and in yet other 
instances the outermost line will l)e the most formid- 
able. 

The camp-builders, and especially those who built the 
hill-forts, were quick to appreciate any and every advan- 
tage of position, and so drew the lines of their entrench- 
ments as to avail themselves to the fullest possil)le extent 




Fig. 51.— Wkst Wycomuk, Section. 

of the varying slopes of the hills.^ The section (Fig. 49, D) 
shows how little labour was really involved in the making 
of the formidable ceinture of Cissbury. Needless to say 
the defences are uniformly stronger upon the more 
assailable side of the position, as at Pulpit Hill. In those 

arm." Some of them appear to have been built up with facings of dry 
stone, and they are characterized by "a peculiar vegetation of small line 
heather." Exiguous as they are, it is questionable whether they are not 
rather lynchets produced by cultivation, such as those described above, 
p. 38. 

' That a people otherwise still in a very primitive state of culture might 
nevertheless be proficients in the science of fortification is shown l)y the 
case of the Maoris of New Zealand. The skill and resource shown in the 
fortification of their ywr/i.s have excited the admiration of all who are capable of 
appreciating such things ; yet these were the work of a people ignorant of all 
metals, ignorant of the art of making ])ottery, unac<juainted with the spindle- 
whorl and the fire-drill, and using in war no more advanced weapons than 
the most primitive of spears and their favourite club of stone or wood. 
They were, in fact, in the Paheolithic stage of culture. See J, Macmillan 
Brown, Maori and Polynesian, 



1 68 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

cases in whicli this rule seems to have been violated — e.g., 
in Desborougli Castle (Fig. 149) and the neighbouring 
fortress of Keep Hill, both near High Wycombe — the 
explanation is that the comparatively level character of 
the ground on the more exposed side has enabled the 
plough to demolish the works, whereas the steeper slope 
of the more w^eakly defended side was less liable to such 
interference. The stronger defences have been ploughed 
out, while the weaker have either escaped altogether, as at 
Keep Hill, or have at least suffered less, as at Desborough 
Castle. 

The making of a fosse usually entails the raising of a 
vallum, and vice versa : what is dug from the fosse must 
be dumped somewhere, and what is piled up in the 
vallum must be dug from the ground.^ Instances occur 
in which the one or the other has so completely dis- 
appeared as to be no longer traceable on the surface. 
Nature, when left to herself, usually obliterates the fosse 
more quickly than the vallum ; l)ut while the latter, once 
lost, leaves no trace whatever, the line of a fosse is almost 
always recoverable by excavation. Those hill-forts which 
are built upon rocky soils commonly show large valla and 
small ditches ; there was plenty of loose stone for building 
the one, whereas to quarry the other was a difficult task. 
Thus in many such localities there is no ditch at all. 
Grim's Pound is one amongst very many Devonshire 
examples, and in Scotland, about St. Abb's Head, Dr. 



' The rule is not invariable. The Roman Avork at Birrens, for example, 
has as many as six fosses on one front, and only two valla ; and a similar 
fact is to be seen at many other Roman sites. At Worlebury, again, the 
materials removed from several fosses have been employed to erect a single 
vallum. Conversely there arc a number of cases of camps, disc-barrows, and 
other anomalous works, in which no trace of any ditch is visible, although 
the valla may be considerable. Such cases are very deceptive, and in all 
likelihood the ditch has disappeared under weathering or cultivation. 
Where the vallum is of stone it is another matter ; but where it is not 
of stone, its materials have usually been dug from somewhere close at hand. 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 169 

Christison has noticed a group of ten fort.s all alike in 
showing no ditehes whatever. 

The normal position of the fosse is at the outer foot of 
the vallum/ its purpose being less to serve as a shelter- 
pit than to break the rush of an attacking force. There 
is, however, very commonly a breastwork or parapet 
upon its outer edge : as this was presumably originally 
stockaded, it was analogous to the blind hurdle- jumps of 
a steeplechasing course."^ If, as was sometimes the case, 
the defenders took the trouble to line the fosse with such 
sharpened stakes as Caesar's men occasionally used, jestingly 
calling them "lilies," or, more grimly, "grave-stones,"^ 
the result was very sufficient for their purpose. At Pen- 
y-Gaer, Llanbedr-y-Cenin, portions of the ground between 
the valla were defended by pointed slivers of limestone, 
some 3 to 4 feet in length, set firmly endwise in the soil at 
very close intervals. Within an area of 35 square feet 
there were no less than 40 of these cippi, the majority 
fallen, but several still erect. Dr. Christison" cites parallel 
instances at West Cademuir and Dreva, both in Peebles- 
shire. There seems to be at present no evidence that 
such methods were followed in the camps of the chalk 
hills, where there was no stone suitable for the purpose. 



' Earthworks in which the positions are reversed, the fosse being loithiii 
the vallum, ai'e usually held to be non-military works, possibly of religious 
or occasionally of sepulchral character. See below, p. 559, «/. 

-' The presence of this breastwork on the outer edge of the fosse is a ditH- 
culty to modern military engineers, whose aim is always to secure absolute 
command by gun-tire of every inch of ground within range. Nevertheless 
it is a constant feature of prehistoric camps, and is found also in many of 
the great dykes, where it is sometimes developed to such ;i height as to 
render it difficult to say which was vallum and which was paraj)et. It nnist, 
therefore, be accepted as the i)urposed work of the prehistoric strategists, 
and designed to meet certain conditions of prehistoric warfare which we do 
not pro])erly understand. It is conceivalde that in the case of c;imps the 
parapet was added to ])r()vide greater shelter to the fosse, in wliich, as ex- 
cax'atiou has shown, nuicli of the cooking of thi> camps' occupants was carried 
on. 

^ Ciesar, />'.(/. VI T. 7'5. The words used are (//>/'/ and liliii. 



lyo 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



There was wood, however, in j)lenty, at no great distance, 
but it would quickly perish. In many cases this plan 
cannot have been practised at all, at least under normal 
conditions, for the ditches were largely used to shelter the 
population, or, at any rate, their cooking apparatus. The 
floors of the Roman trenches at Ardoch were covered with 
cobble-stones ; for what purpose is not clear. In the case 
of yet other hill-forts it has been suggested that loose 




Fig. 52. — Sections of Various Ditches. 



stone was purposely littered over the approaches to obstruct 
a rush, and Dr. Christison cites Doon Castle, Ayrshire, as 
an apparent instance of the same practice in mediaeval 
times. 

The ditches vary greatly in section (Fig. 52). At Ciss- 
bury they had flat floors, and the slopes of scarp and 
counterscarp were comparatively gentle. In other cases, 
while the floor was still flat, the slopes were almost perpen- 
dicular in many places, as at South Lodge Camp, Martin 
Down Camp, Winkelbury, and War Ditches. Yet all these 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 171 

fosses were alike dug in the chalk. In other cases the 
sides sloped uniformly down to meet at an acute angle, as 
in Ambresbury Banks, Wallington Camp, and AVoodcuts 
Villaije, all of which are duo; in softer soils. The same 
formation appears, however, in Cjesar's Camp, Folkestone, 
which is upon the chalk, but is a Norman work. The 
Romans used both forms of fosse. Owing to wastage, and 
the rapid accumulation of vegetable mould in the trenches, 
little can be guessed of their original form without excava- 
tion ; and those which to-day present the least appear- 
ance of depth were often in proportion to their width the 
deepest. Only when excavated in hard rock have they 
had much chance to retain something of the original 
section. Elsewhere they have altered according as their 
slope was steeper, their depth greater, and the soil more 
liable to slip and crumble. 

If more than one line of defences was constructed, the 
several lines were most commonly set as closely parallel 
as the lie of the ground would permit, this arrangement 
being an economy of labour. Cases occur, however, where 
an interspace, or berm, of greater or less width, has 
been left between the lines (Fig. 53). Instances have been 
cited at Badbury Rings and Pulpit Hill, and in tlie West- 
country camps at Shoulsbury Castle, Cranbrook Castle, 
Sel worthy, and Old Burrow. It is reasonable to suppose 
that this arrangement, obviously intended to put a greater 
interspace between the defenders and any attacking force, 
is connected with some improvement in the use and 
range of missiles,^ in which case it must be a later 



1 There have been found on many sites, sometimes in large numbers, 
sling-bolts made of burnt clay. These were unquestionably intended to be 
used red hot, for the purjjose of setting fire to the huts, buildings, or 
stockades of the canip, and possibly of stampeding the cattle. They were 
used etlectively by the Nervii in the siege of the camp of Q. Cicero (C;osar, 
H. (r. V. 35), and they have been found littered over the floor of the timber- 
built encampment at Ardoch. They have been found also at Mt. t'al)urn, 
and in the Lake-Village by Glastonbury, in each case associated with remains 



172 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

innovation. The provision of inner platforms or terraces, 
such as are seen at Maiden Castle and Hembury Fort, is 
perhaps to be explained as a necessary result of the 
colossal size and great steepness of the works in such 
cases, for the defenders would be as little able as the 
assailants to move with rapidity up and down their slopes, 
and equally needed a firm foothold. The reason, in fact, 

6H0ULSBURY CaS 

OLDBURROW ^ oyre^- , 

--â– -rTTTTTTTTTrTr/^T^TTTTTTTTTT^T^/////^^^ 

CADBURY CAS. CLr'ect^ 

'f77777777777777/77777777Am7/. 




^7////. 





CRANBROOK CAS. 



PULP/T HILL _<7-7 > ^gg-*^^ { 

BURY CAS., SELLWOTITHY. 



BURRINGTON COMBE, 



Fig. 53. — Sections of Bekims, ktc. 

was the same which led later builders of stone castles to 
furnish their walls with parapets and passage-ways. 

of pre-Ronian date. This suggests a sufficient reason for the jn-ovision of 
multiple entrenchments, and of wide berms between the inner and outer 
lines of the fortress ; for the huts of the Britons seem to have been mostly 
roofed with highly iniiammable materials. Citjsar mentions that he burned 
them, and Tacitus says the Caledonians tired their own dwellings after the 
defeat at Mons Grauj^ius. Even if there were no great number of such huts 
within the camp, the tiring of the stockade might easily render the place 
untenable, or cause a stampede of the herds, if any, there sheltered, wliich 
were the chief booty to be aimed at. 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 173 

Geological characteristics naturally influenced the cani[)- 
huiklers. Soil properly so-callecl is readily worked, l)ut 
quickly weathered, and does not readily maintain a steep 
anole. Sand is worse. Hard rock, on the other hand, 
was ill dealt with ])y peoples who possessed tools of 
metal, and much more so ])y those who were still in 
the Stone Age ; and in point of fact there is reason to 
doubt whether the hill-forts of our harder hills are of 
any very great anticjuity. The vast majority of them 
would appear to belong to no earlier date than the Age of 
Iron, and many of tliem are certainly post-Roman, if not 
actually mediaeval. Excavated fosses of any great size 
are therefore the exception upon rocky sites, save where, 
as at Worlebury, the rock is easily worked. Such sites, 
however, commonly supply abundance of loose stone 
which can be used, as it is on the moors and fells at the 
present day, for 1)uilding " dry dykes," and the strength 
of camps in such localities lies commonly in their valla 
rather than in their fosses, the walls l)eing piled up to 
any height and thickness, as at Dolebury, at Penmaeiimawr, 
and at Tre'r Ceiri (where the wall is in places 15 feet high 
and IG feet in thickness, without any fosse at all). Some 
considerable skill is required to build a dry dyke which 
will not readily collapse, as anyone knows who has tried 
to scale those of the northern moors and unintentionally 
sent them ruining down for yards together. In most 
cases time has played such havoc with the stone-built 
forts as to leave little or no external trace of the builders' 
methods, but it may be recovered by careful examination. 
The rudest method was simply to pile up the stone without 
coursing, but such a vallum, whetlier subsequently 
covered with earth or not,^ ottered too gentle a slope to 

^ At Cranbrook Castle, Devonsliive (Fig. 2.^), the \vi)rk is to l)eseeii in l)i>tli 
stages. On the south side the valluin consists of a stone core covered over 
with earth ; but on the nortli side, where apparently it was never finished, 
the stone core lies as it was left, with no covering of earth. 



174 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

be any great protection. A better result was gained Ijy 
planting retaining-stones along one or both sides of the 
proposed line of wall, and filling in the interspace with 
smaller stone, at first promiscuously heaped up, but in 
later examples more or less carefully coursed. There 
is a good illustration of this method in Cow (or Cae) 
Castle, a very small contour-fort crowning a solitary 
conical lump of rock overhanging the Barle, two miles 
south-east of Simonsbath, in one of the loneliest parts of 
Exmoor. The defences consist of a single vallum, and 
where the turf has not entirely overgrown it, it is possible 
to see the retaining-stones, some of them of great size, 
which ring the outer face of the wall and serve as jambs 




to the solitary entrance on the east. The plan is 
identically the same as that to be seen in many of the 
barrows of this and other districts, and is only one of 
many analogies between the resting-places of the dead 
and the homes of the living. At Cow Castle, where the 
fall of the ground is very rapid, there seem to have 
been no retainingr-stones on the inner side of the wall, 
but in other instances, and in the Devonshire " pounds," 
they are planted on both sides, and the whole ring- 
wall is merely an exaggerated replica of the method 
followed in building the rudest stone huts. In yet other 
examples there is a footing of rudely coursed stone of 
greater or less depth, upon which is piled up the rest of 
the material with no attempt at coursing ; or again, the 
whole front of the wall is more or less carefully coursed, 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



175 



with a considerable inward batter, ))acked with the usual 
agger of earth and stone. Often the vallum was built 
up exactly as are the broad field-banks still so 
characteristic of Devon and Cornwall, the earth and 




Fig. 54, B. 



stone partly retained by facings of larger stone on either 
side (Fig, 54, B), partly bonded by the use of flat slabs 
at intervals, just as the Romans l)onded their rubble wdth 




wmm 



Fig. 54, C. 

tiles (Fig. 54, C)."^ The double wall of Grim's Pound may 
have been intended to have been finished with a fillino; 
of earth and stone (Fig. 54, D). Professor Lloyd Morgan 

' It may be that the practice of planting the tops of such walls with trees 
(usually beech) is itself inherited from the palisade which probably com- 
pleted the valliun of the prehistoric camp. 



176 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



has remarked that the precise methods followed, even 
in simple dry-walling, are curiously individual, almost 
jdways showing some special difference. In the case of 
World »ury, in Somerset, the walls of which are in places 



7/ 



^^^^ 




Fig. 54, D. 



as much as 38 feet in thickness, there is in reality a 
series of dry dykes constructed one against another 
(Fig. 54, E) : the number varies from three to six ; and 
the successive dykes l^eing of different heights, the whole 




Fig. 54, E. 

wall showed terraces at back and front of the highest 
(central) dyke. It does not appear that there has as yet 
been noticed in England any example of the peculiar 
half-timbered walling which gave Caesar so much trouble 
in Gaul,^ although this, or something very like it, seems 

1 "All Gallic walls are commonly of this fashion: straight beams are 
laid upon the ground at equal intervals of 2 feet, their inner ends braced 
together, while along the outer front the interspaces aie packed with large 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 177 

to luive l)een the metliod followed in at least two Scottish 
forts, viz., Castle Law, Forgandeniiy, Perthshire, and 
Burghead, Moray ; ^ nor is the accurately fitted, but 
mortarless, Cyclopean masonry of the Mediterranean 
countries reproduced either in Gaul or in Britain. The 
use of squared stone and of cement or mortar " in any form, 
is universally held to ])e a mark of Roman or post-Roman 
work, and the construction of the vallum of alternating 
layers of earth and brushwood, as at Birrens and 
Ardocli, is also a Roman metliod, though perhaps not 
exclusively so. 

Stone-built camps rarely show such elaboration of plan 
or such spacious dimensions as other camps. The wall is 



blocks of stone, and tlie whole is covered with earth. Upon these is laid a 
second similar row of l)eanis, so that while the same interval is maintained, 
the beams (of the two rows) are not contiguous. ... In this way the whole 
wall is built up course by course until the full height is maintained." (Csesar, 
B. G. VII. 23.) He adds that the beams in question measured 40 feet in 
length, and that neither ram nor fire could make any impression upon walls 
thus built. There is a representation of such a wall amongst the Dacian 
scenes on the column of Trajan, and one or two examples survive in 
France, notably at Murcens, in Lot, which owes its better preservation to 
the large size of the blocks of stone available. As a rule the stones used 
were small, and this, it has been thought, explains the ruined cliai-acter of 
many stone-built fortresses ; as the timber decayed the small stone filling 
naturally collapsed into shapeless heaps. 

' Eaiiii Furtificatiuns of Sc-otlmtd, p. 155. 

- The use of mortar is usually sup[)()sed to have come in witli tlie 
Romans, and to have gone out with them, until revived in Saxon times 
under Frankish intluence. But if the native Briton learnt ;inything at all 
from his four centuries of contact with Rome, he might be supposed to have 
learnt something of the art of masonry, especially as it was probably the 
Briton who had to do the work of In'icklayer's labourer for the Roman 
builder. In Bat's Castle, Dunster, mortar has been used in the lowest 
foundations of what appear to have been small tourelles flanking the western 
entrance, but to what date it belongs is not evident. The stone is totally 
undressed. Such facts as the finding of some hundred bushels of lime in a 
single pit in a Romano-British village near Abingdon make one question 
whether the natives may not have done more in this directitjn than is 
usually supposed, though that may, of course, have been intended for 
another purijose. There is no masonry at all in the Romano-British villages 
so far explored. 

N 



178 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



commonly single, sometimes double, but rarely are there 
more than two. The camp on AVhit Tor, Dartmoor, 
about 1^ acres in area, is surrounded by two walls, the 




Fig. 55. — Grim's Pound, Dartmook. 



outer only some 4 feet in height, the inner from 6 to 7 feet. 
Each was originally 10 feet or more in thickness, and the 
interspace averaged about as much. The same plan is 
found at Brent Tor, and reappears in some of the 
"pounds" on the moor, e.g., Grim's Pound (Fig. 55). 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 179 



Whit Tor camp is leiiuirkalJe for the inaiiiier in whicli the 
natural upstanding rocks of the site have ])een embodied 
witli, and built into, the walls of the enceinte. 

Tlie oreat fortress of Worleburv, on the liill overlookino- 
Weston-super-Mare, is the only English work of its class 
and dignity which has been thoroughly explored.^ Its 
area (Fig. 56), measuring about 1,500 feet in length by 350 
feet at its widest part, embraces lOj acres, and is divided 
into two unequal parts by a fosse, partly natural, 
partly artificial, and without vallum. The smaller 
(eastern) division was the principal stronghold, defended 
on three sides by an enormous dry-built wall of the 
peculiar construction seen also at Tre'r Ceiri (Fig. 54, E). 
Its original width was no less than 38 feet, and in places 
it still rises 8 feet above the area and 16 feet above the 
base without. It was apparently never provided with a 
stockade. Its debris, spreading on either hand, has 
covered the slopes with broad screes of stone which make 
it difficult to determine accurately the character and form 
of the further defences, and these have been greatly 
damaged also by enclosures, especially along the southern 
side of the hill Along the northern side the steep fall 
of the limestone rock rendered needless any artificial 
works, but the eastern end, l)eing more assailable, was 
covered by a second and smaller dry-built wall, separated 
from the inner wall by a broad fosse hewn in the solid 
rock. The material for the walls was obtained largely 
from this fosse, and from four additional ditches which 
cover the approach from the east. Beyond all these lay 
two valla, running across the ridge of the hill from north 
to south, but apparently intended less for defence than as 
cattle-fences. There were three gates, that in the south 
side being the chief. Its width was 13 feet, and it was 

• See the monograph Worh>hnr\j, by C. W. Dymoiul (seooiul edition, 
enlarged, 1902). The name of Worlebury attaches to another camp, circular, 
about 350 yards across, at Stockbridge, Hampshire. 

N 2 



i8o EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

prol)a])ly originally covered l»y ditches like those to the 
east. The area is pitted with depressions marking the 
sites of ancient dwellings. Upwards of 100 have been 
explored, and the results are a striking example of the 
value of careful examination. The camp has beea shown 
to be the residence of a people of the Prehistoric Iron 
(Late-Celtic) Age, and to have been dismantled al)out the 
date of the advent of the Romans in Claudius' time.^ 
It was evidently taken by storm and its occupants put to 
the sword, for the skulls recovered show unmistakable 
sio;ns of the most violent deaths. The skulls are of the 
long-headed (Iberian) type, and suggest that at the date 
in question the dominant race in south-western Britain 
were the descendants of those Iberians wdio had preceded 
the round-headed Brythonic race, and who had been 
ousted by them from the more easterly parts of the island. 
It will 1)6 observed that the difference in race in nowise 
implies a difference of culture : the reliquice discovered in 
the pits of Worlebury denote a culture exactly similar to 
that of the Late-Celtic and Brythonic camp of Mount 
Caburn and elsewhere ; the pottery, weapons and tools 
are precisely similar, and the same animals were familiar 
to lioth — horse, red-deer, goat, sheep, pig, and ox.^ 

Mention has been made of the curious " vitrifaction " 
alleged to have been observable in the now demolished 
vallum of Burgh Walls Camp, Clifton. The notion that 
the builders deliberately set themselves to construct such 
glass-fortresses seems to have fascinated archaeologists, 
who have concerned themselves to find evidence of the 



' C. VV. Dyniond tliiiiks its destruction may have been due to the Romans, 
po.ssil)ly under Vespasian, circa 47 a.d. Professor Boyd-Dawkins seems to 
think it was more likely due to Belgic invaders whose operations were in- 
terrupted by the advent of the Romans. 

'^ C. W. Dymond insists {op. cit.) further upon the unlikelihood of there 
having prevailed any distinguishable tribal styles, except in so far as locality, 
or the traditions of life in any jiarticular locality, might have influenced its 
inhabitants of the time. 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



i»i 



\<^ 



^^^VV^\^TTT^>^TTTT7TTTTT7 7TrrT 



.^^ 



,iAJ^ 






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^, n~i"'m » (Trnrr 














w 



1 82 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

existence of these in Wales, in Ireland, in Brittany, and 
particularly in Scotland, where no less than fifty-two 
examples have been alleged to exist l)y various writers, 
the Ordnance Survey in twenty-nine cases endorsing the 
assertion without demur. Dr. Christison ^ has been at pains 
to examine the evidence for his own country, and comes to 
the conclusion that of the alleged fifty-two only twelve 
show traces of vitrifaction sufiicient to warrant their l)eing 
recognized as intentional. The solitary Welsh example 
alleged to exist near Corwen he dismisses at once ; of the 
French examples he has grave doubts ; and of the Irish 
examples he points out that we have no sufficient evidence. 
Even in the case of the twelve Scotch examples which may 
deserve to be called ^^roven, it is not easy to see either 
how or why vitrifaction was eftected. As at Burgh 
Walls it is generally very partial, and almost always found 
near tlie top, where it might have been an accidental 
consequence of the lighting of beacon fires. On the other 
hand it appears that those forts which have been thus 
treated are actually built of stone ajjparently expressly 
selected because of its being easily fused, and Dr. Chris- 
tison makes the tentative suggestion that such vitrifaction 
was intended to bind the loose stone into a firm mass 
ca]ja1)le of bearing the weight of the defenders, as well 
as to obtain a more perpendicular front to the wall ; and he 
draws attention to the fact, that so far as his observations 
go, the vitrified walls show no traces of coursing, being mere 
*' rickles " of stone which, unless artificially bonded in 
some way, must have refused to be built up to any con- 
sideral)le height, and must have always presented a very 
slight slope to the assailants and a very loose foothold to 
the defenders. His summary of the evidence is the best 
that is forthcoming at the present time, and, as he points 
out, only excavation, and excavation conducted on strictly 

^ Early Fortifications of Scotland, cli. iv. 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 183 

scientific lines, can solve the problems connectcil with 
these " palaces of glass." ^ 

Chalk, altliough it varies greatly in hardness, proved to 
be the su})stance most amenable to the prehistoric 
builders. This in part explains the elaborate character 
and wide extent of the camps of Dorset and Wiltshire ; 
just as its peculiar adhesiveness, offering exceptional 
resistance to the agencies of denudation and wastage, is in 
part accountable for the almost uniformly good preserva- 
tion of those works. Nevertheless there are curious 
differences even upon tlie chalk areas. The camps of the 
South Downs are mean and poor when compared with 
those of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. Cissbury excepted, 
they were not planned on any extensive scale, and their 
trenches have therefore suffered [)ropoi'ti<)nately greater 
damage under the wear of centuries. Nor are there any 
camps in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Cambridge- 
shire to rival those of the area about Salisbury Plain. 
Norfolk has scarcely any vestiges at all of British 
castrametation, Suffolk very few ; but, on the otlier hand, 
Cambridgeshire boasts the most tremendous of all the 
great dvkes of Britain, and it is certainly curious that the 
people who were energetic enough to rear such works as 
the Devil's Dyke and the Fleam Dyke should apparently 
have constructed no analogous defences in tlie shape of 
camps. The fact suggests that the admitted difference of 
race between the inhabitants of East Anglia and those of 
the rest of the island goes back to very early times 
indeed. 

Incredilde as it must seem to an}'one who tries to 
realize the labour involved in the l)uilding of any great 

1 It has been suggested that the notion of *' palaces of gkss," which 
figures so largely in iuodi«!val romances or in fairy tales, may liavo originated 
from casual observation of such vitrification in ancient forts. It is liardly 
necessary to seek for any such material origin of the idea, ^yhoro are to be 
found the gilded or the silvered fortresses from which (wo may as well 
imagine) arose similar tales of palaces of gold and of silver '. 



184 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



camp, it seems none the less to be tlie fact that many of 
them were planned and constructed according to one 
original design. It is very rare to find a camp which bears 
any obvious signs of enlargement.^ The dimensions seem 
to have been determined upon once and for all, and all 
that later ages could do w^as to alter, improve, or destroy. 















y<^ ^' '^ -^. 






^e^ 



v,\ 






V.v 




'>\»' 


-^ V ' 


V > 


-*;- 


S'.v 


_^- 


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- - 



>< 



.v\W^- 



'^^:.^^v^^S^^^^ 




O 100 200 500 
I 1 1 t 



Fk;. o7. — Eynsham Pakk Camp. 

the defences. Even in such a case as that of Eynsham 
Park Camp, Oxfordshire, where a much larger and feebler 
enclosure (Fig 57), seems to have been added to a smaller 
and stronger, it remains to be proved that thew^orksare of 
different dates. Caynham Camp, on the Titterstone Clee 
Hills, two miles outside Ludlow, has been thought to be an 
instance of enlargement. It is {Fig. 58) an irregular oblong 



For the particular instance of Maiden Castle, see p. 100. 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



'5 



enclosure, nearly 700 yards long and with an average 
width of 140 yards, defended by a single vallum and fosse, 
except on one of the longer sides (8.) where, the approach 
being easy, a second line of defence was added. Across 
the area at the western end runs a fine vallum dividing the 
whole into two parts, respectively 620 by 140 yards, and 
140 by 60 yards. It is of course quite possible that this 
is a genuine instance, the western enclosure having been 
later annexed to the eastern and larger area, but only tlic 










%«lilllP^* 



m^ 



Fig. 58. — Caynham Cami*. 



spade can verify the surmise. To argue that the annexe is 
Roman work simply because it is approximately rectangular 
and rectilineal, is «]uite insufficient. It might as well be 
Norman, and there was a Norman castle somewhere in this 
neighbourhood.' 

Here and there one finds incomplete works which seem 
to throw a little light upon the metliod of construction. 

^ The camp is described in Arch. Cambrensin, vol. xvi., 5th scries (1899). 
Other camps showint; cross-banks wliicli might be argued to be signs of 
enlargement are Bindon Hill, near Lulworth, Dorset ; Hambledon Hill, 
Dorset ; Hembury Fort, Honiton (Fig. 12). 



i86 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

One such is that on Brendon Hill, West Somerset, known 
as Elworthy Barrows (1,300 feet). The designers' intention 
was evidently to construct a circular camp, and the 
completion of one vallum and one fosse was of course the 
first step to this ; though whether they intended to add 
other and further works can never be known. The 
position being almost equally assailal)le on every side, it 
might be supposed that the construction of the first 
enceinte would proceed i^ari passu at every point of its 
periphery. But that was not so at Elworthy. In parts 
the vallum and fosse are developed to formidable 
dimensions, while over long distances elsewhere the 
ground has apparently never been disturbed at all ; and 
more curious still, so far as the position can l)e called less 
defensible at one point than at another, it is at the less 
assailable sides that the work has been pushed forward with 
most energy. There seems no question that, for whatever 
reason, the building of the camp was suddenly interrupted, 
in spite of the advantages ofi"ered by its superb position 
close beside the old trade-route to the mines of Cornwall, 
and with an outlook literally over the whole of the 
county. It is possible that in some other instances the 
fragmentary character of ancient earthworks may be due 
less to subsequent destruction than to original interruption. 
In many cases, probably in almost all, the vallum was 
originally surmounted by a stockade of timber, logs, or 
thorns. The holes in which the large uprights were 
planted have been uncovered in the chalk rampart of 
Uffington Castle, Berkshire, while at Bantham Camp, a 
promontory fort on Bigbury Bay, near Thurleston, have 
been found remains of similar uprights in situ. Heavier 
logs would be used in camps at low levels where there was 
wood in plenty close at hand, as Cfesar mentions was done 
in the British oiypida. The Romans seem to have 
employed stockading to complete the defences of their 
camp at Ardoch, especially about the eastern gate. It 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 187 

was probal)ly employed also in iiiiiioi- foits like Castle 
Dykes, Ripon (Fig. 108), in which excavation has failed 
to find any trace of a mason-built enceinte. We have it 
on the authorit}^ of C{3esar ^ that some of the Belgic tribes, 
nnd nota1»ly the Nervii, were expert in the making of 
almost impervious fences, and some such device may well 
have been employed by the Belgic settlers in this island. 
Stockades, logs, or thorn-fencing would alike present a 
very troublesome obstacle to an attacking force struggling 
up the steep slope of the vallum l)eneath. E^•en modern 
troops cannot always negotiate a zareel)a of thorns with 
success, and thick gorse will turn even the best of hounds. 

The number and size of the gates, without counting- 
mere posterns, varies according to the size and the class 
of camps. The small ring-forts (of the lowdands) commonly 
have but one entrance, but larger examples, such as 
Yarnbury and Ambresbury Banks, may have several. 
Peninsular forts, as a rule, have but one entrance. The 
generality of contour forts present two, and of these one 
is usually more spacious than the other. In the more 
complex camps showing two or more divisions of the 
area, the inner work commonly has but one entrance, as 
at Old Burrow and AVinkelbury. The gates vary in size : 
at Pen-y-Gorddyu, Llandulas, one entrance is 9 feet 
wide, the other 1 3 feet ; at Smalldown, Chesterblade, 
the main entrance was 35 feet in width ; at Winkelbury 
the gates are represented by mere gaps in the valhi, one 
of them 115 feet long. 

The ingenuity of the ])uilders was cliiefly exercised in 
making the entrances difficult and dangerous of access. 
Often the gate was placed at one corner upon the very 
edge of a precipice or slope, over which an unwelcome 



' B. G. II. 17. 4. Tlie .siimo metliod of fencing, from whateviT source 
derived, is regularly employed in muny Englisli counties to this day, and 
notably in Lincolnshire, Was it learnt from, or introduced by, the Conti- 
nental Gauls ? 



i88 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

intruder could easily l)e driven, the narrowness of the 
approach not admitting of an attack in force. This 
plan is to be seen at Hambledon Hill, and at Mt. Caburn 
(Fig. 223). More usually the gate is found full in the 
face of tlie containing wall, but masked and hampered 
in a variety of ways. The ends of the vallum on either 
aide are commonly raised consideral)ly aljove the average 
level, ^ thus affording a better command of the approach 
(Cissbury, Bat's Castle, Maesbury, Dolebury), and are 
frequently splayed considerably, so as to furnish standing- 
room for an extra number of defenders (Cissbury and 
Maesbury). These splays are in some cases developed 
into large terraces, with or without breastworks, so 
arranged as to rake the path and the adjoining fosse from 
right and left, as at Brent Knoll (Fig. 48) and Pillesdon 
Pen (Fig. 20). In very many examples the vallum has a pro- 
nounced inward curve, on one or both sides of the entrance, 
so that all incomers must run the gauntlet of a cross-fire 
at the closest quarters. In Dumpton Great Camp (Fig. 59) 
near Luppitt, this recurve exlends to nearly 100 feet. It 
is traceable in many of the camps of the chalk, e.g. at 
Mt. Caburn (Fig. 223) and at Eggardon (Fig. 19); other 
examples are the small ring-work in Dunster Park (Fig. 69), 
arid Caynham Camp (Fig. 58). It is said to occur also 
in some of the Devonshire pounds. '^ It is a very much 
more prominent feature of the dry-built hill fortresses of 
Wales ; at Pen-y-Gorddyn, Llandulas, l)oth gates of the 

' So regular a feature is this that it may often be taken as a i-otigh test of 
the age of a ga}) in the vallum. Where the gap has been made in recent 
times there is no such raising of the wall. In the curious case of Berry Castle, 
Huntshaw (Fig. 73), it seems to have been designedly used as a blind. In 
Ravensburgh Castle, near Lnton, the vallum is thus raised on one side only, 
and that to unusual proportions. 

2 The fact that the very same plan survives locally in the making of sheep- 
folds may perhaps suggest that cattle and their requirements had a good deal 
to do with determining the plan of many of the prehistoric camps, e.f/., that 
at Gallox Hill, Dunster (Fig. 69). 



vr 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



189 



fort display it in great perfection. Al)Out the lesser oate. 
which is 1) feet wide, the walls recurve for 10 yards ; 
about the larger entry their recurve is twice as long, 
although the gateway is l)ut 13 feet wide. On either side 
of the passage is a rectangular guard-house built within 
the mass of the wall, and on the face of the wall right 
and left mav still he seen the grooves in which stood 



, ) mi) n r/ ^/y' - â–  






i ^ 






■ .■ • . . \ *■ ^ ' \ ' -• 









U. 






V, 



.V 



i... . 




o 100 J^GQtr :2oo 300 

Fi(i. 50. — East Gate, Dlmfton Gkeat Ca.mi-. 

wooden posts — their sockets are still traceable in the soil 
below — marking the position of some sort of barricade or 
gate. Traces of similar posts were found at j\lt. Caburn. 
In Ilolne Chase Castle, Ashburton (Fig. GO), one end of 
the vallum, dry-l)uilt, is recurved for a distance of 20 
yards, while the other is sphiyed to a sutHcient width to 
allow of buihling within its mass a circular guard-house ' 



^ Others see in this tlie iem;iins of ,i pitfall, or blind entry, like that at 
Membury CHuip (Fij.'. 72). 



190 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



22 feet in diameter. The wide splay of the ends of the 
valla is a common feature in camps of all classes, whether 
built of chalk or of stone, and was perhaps intended in 
many cases to provide for such guard-houses, now mostly 
too much ruined to be recognizable. In many cases the 
heaps of fallen stone have all the appearance of ruined 
towers, although the erection of a tower must, to builders 



,o'^ ' '•' Mf 



,<!!»!« 






-^. 









Ni ^r<^> 



Fig. 60. — Holne Chase Castle. 

using no mortar, have been, if not an actual impossibility, 
at any rate as dangerous to the occupants as to the 
enemy. At the western entry to Bat's Castle, in Dunster 
Park (Fig. 69), there are distinctly visible the bases of two 
small tourelles flanking the passage ; but this work is of 
very doubtful date, and the Imilders had used mortar. 
There are instances in which the guard-house stands 
outside the entry, e.g. to the right hand of the main gate 
of Brent Knoll Camp (Fig. 48), and to the left of the 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



191 



south-western entry to the great camp at Burrough-on-the- 
Hill, Leicestershire (Fig. 61). Tliere seems to have been 
something of the sort also at the eastern gate of Bat's 
Castle. 

In Grimsbury Castle (Fig. 62), llampstead Xorris, Berks, 
one vallum is carried forward at a right angle to the camp 
along the path of approach, flanking it for many yards. In 
Dudsbury Camp, near AVimborne (Fig. 63), this is repre- 
sented by a short bank running at right angles to the in- 
most vallum, like the head-line of the letter T. In Muz- 
bury Camp, near Axminster (Fig. 64), each entrance to the 



///, 



'"li 











Fig. 61. — Gateway, Burrough-on-the-Hill. 



odd bottle-shaped fortress is barred by double traverses 
extending; ri^ht across the narrow area. The same end 
was attained more easily elsewhere by carrying the path- 
way diagonally through the several lines of earthwork, so 
that it should be enfiladed throughout by the successive 
ramparts. Instances are to be seen at Hembury fort (Fig. 
12), Eggardon (Fig. 19), and in the small north-west postern 
at Cissbury (Fig. 214); and it is a prominent feature of many 
stone-built forts. In the most notable instances the slant 
of the path is from right to left of the person entering, so 
that the unshielded right side was exposed to the missiles 
of the defenders. As the shield was carried on tl»e left arm 



192 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



the converse slant from left to right would have l)een less 
difficult to negotiate. The north-west gateway of Hod 
Hill Camp (Fig. 65), Dorset, shows a remarkable combina- 
tion of the diagonal entry with the recurved gateway above 
described. 

Sometimes the successive lines of the defences are 






i; 



,, ..,„ ...>;4V^^*^ 












«>' 









^••.,,;'u.uuiAijjuiji_ui.uLJiuiiUi,j,, '',, .. „-^->''' ,o.V' 

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''A 



/go ;;oo 3C O 
jTeetr. 



Fio. 62. — Grimsbury Castlk. 

arranged en echelon, as at Winkelbury (Fig, 11), or they are 
made to overlap more or less, as at Buckland Brewer (Fig. 
66), 3|- miles west of Great Torrington Station, where 
the overlap is as much as 200 feet in length, and the entry 
is further barred by a hollowed mound. In some cases 
the entry l)ecomes a downright zig-zag, as at Maiden 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



.v>'. 






.<»* 



r ^-y^ 






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xOUii 



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Fk;. 63. — DuDSBUHY, Wimborne. 



x^Vi- 















193 




100 209 300 



-•■ — > '-W'-k':--- 



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'â– ''%ii 









Fl(i. ()4. — MrZBlKY, AXMINSTER. 



194 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Castle (Fig. 18). In the last-mentioned camp, and in the 
camps of Badbury Rings (Fig. 21), and Battlesbury(Fig. 68), 
a peculiar bastion-like outwork of uniform type and large 
enough to accommodate a numerous force, overlooks the 
path which winds round and beneath it.' Often there are 
found depressed mounds, isolated or in groups of two and 
three, either at some little distance in advance of the gate — 
e.g., at Mt. Caburn (Fig. 223) and Chanctonbury (Fig. 91) 
— or actually within the entry — e.g., at Cockburn Law, 
(Fig. 75), Muzbury (Fig. 64), and the western end of 




.--V;^'<^^"^' 






Fiii. (55. —North-East Gate, Hod Hill. 

Maiden Castle (Fig. 18) — or even in the i-ear of the 
vallum, as at Badbury (Fig. 21). At the southern corner 
of Battlesbury Camp, Warminster, a mound ' of unusual 
size stands within the inner fosse, which has been splayed 
to make room for it (Fig. 67). In yet other examples 
more extensive works are thrown forward to cover the 

* It may be only an accident, but a curious accident, that in the three 
instances mentioned as showing this form of defence to the gate, it is found 
attached to one gate only, and that always the eastern gate. Something 
very similar covered the eastern (and only ?) entrance to the colossal fort 
known as White Cathertun, near Brechin. Other examples of this form of 
defence are Yarnbury (Fig. .30), Bratton Camp, and Chiselbury Ring, all in 
Wiltshire. 

- Marked as a tumulus on O.M., but its peculiar position is against such 
an explanation of its original construction. 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



195 



approach, sucli as the fosse and valhiin travei'sing each 
approach to Chanctonbury Ring (Fig. 91), the long ditch 
to the west of Oiimslmry Castle (Fig. 02), the vallum 












o 

o 




o-" 



ii 






to the south-west of Eggardon, (Fig. ID), and the suc- 
cessive walls and fosses which cover the approach to 
AVorlebury (Fig. 56) from the east. The entry to the 
circular camp at Norton Fitz warren, near Taunton, lay 
along a hollow way of 400 — 500 feet. This may not be an 

U 2 



196 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP, 



intentional feature, l)ut in some of the Northumbrian camps 
occur real "sunken ways" between unmistakably purposed 
])anks on either hand ; and in many hill-forts of Wales and 
the North the pathway is purposely led up some natural 
cond.)e in such a way as to expose all assailants to a con- 
centrated plunging fire from the walls. The entrances to 
Maiden Castle (Fig. 18) and Dolebury (Fig. 224), are superb 



/ 



u t^ 



^f can,p ^"^-r ^j^^^^ 



i 




Fig. 67. — South Ditch and Mound, Battlesbury. 

examples of defensive engineering. No stranger could 
hope to find his way, if resistance were ofi'ered, through the 
intricacies of the gateways of Maiden Castle, but must have 
inevitably turned aside into one or other of its many 
trenches to be trapped like a rabbit ; and no attacking force 
could hope without terrible loss to fight its way to the 
great east gate of Battlesbury (Fig. 68), where the note- 
worthy features are the outer bastion and the way in 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 197 

which the inner valliini is outcurved to enveh)p the main 
ditch on either side of the entrance-way. 

Bat's Castle, in Dunster Park, a camp (Fig. 69) of oval 
plan defended hy a fine double vallum of stone with intei-- 
vening fosse, has two entrances, both showing singular 
features. That to the west has already been mentioned 
as having once been guarded by towelles, of which the 
foundations were laid in mortar. That to the east, the 




,>^^ 



/I /area. under p/oug/, ^ 

Fig 68.— East Gate, Battlesbuky. 

principal gate, is covered by a bottle-necked outwork 
30 yards in length and 10 yards wide, flanked on either 
hand by prolongations of the outer vallum and fosse of 
the main camp, which are carried out with a right-angled 
turn on right and left of the actual gate, on either side 
of which the inner vallum is, as usual, considerably 
heightened, splayed, and slightly recurved, with traces 
of a guard-house on the outer face of the vallum to 
the right. In the camp at Duntishe there seems to have 
been a similar l»ottle-necked entry, made by carrying <>ut- 



198 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 



ward the single vallum and its fosse/ but in this case the 
fosse remains on the outer side, whereas at Bat's Castle it 
is within the vallum. 

At Blackhury Castle (Fig. 70), Southleigh (Devon)— an 
oval camp with one vallum and one fosse, both of very great 
size — the vallum is again thrown forward, as at Duntishe, 
for some 50 feet on either side of the single entrance, so 







BflTS Castle 



o /oo IPO 300 

I . I r I 



.■^.• 



Fig. 69. — Bat's Castle, and Gallox Hill, Dunster. 

as to envelop the ends of the main fosse. At points some 
150 feet away from the entrance to right and left, 
secondary ditches 12 feet in depth leave the main fosse, 
and, running outward for 250 feet as if to meet, suddenly 
turn inward and are continued for another 150 feet direct 
towards the gate. The material removed to form these 
secondary ditches is thrown up on the inner side at AA, 

^ Wavne's Ancmit Dorset, 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 199 

on the outer side at BB. Tlie result is a most formidable 
entrance-way, a narrow passage more than 50 yards in 
leno'th, pinched between two great bastions. Both in 
plan and in scale the whole is a most unusual work. 
There is said to be something similar in design, but on a 
diminutive scale only, at Rink Hill, Selkirk, a circular 
fort of about 2^ acres, with a ruined stone vallum 9 feet 
















Fii;. 70. — Black lUTKY Castlk. 



in thickness and a fosse 3^ feet deep. Here (Fig. 71) the 
entrance is said to be " strengthened by a wall i-unuing on 
either side obliquely up the scarp from the bottom of 
the trench at the middle of the entrance, to join the main 
wall, thus forniino- a little closed work on each side of the 
inner part of the entrance." ' 

Quite as ingenious is the arrangement seen at lleiubmy 

' \)\\ Christisoii in Pmr. Hoc. Aiili<i. Sml., xxix. (ISM.")). 



200 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



Fort, Honiton (Fig. 12). An assailing force, if able to make 
its way up the steep slope and past the successive lines of 
earthworks which enfilade the diagonal approach, would 
he face to face with three openings, and would naturally 
take the largest and central one of the three, only to find 
itself entrapped in a narrow passage-way, a cul-de-sac 
commanded throughout by two considerable valla. If 
by good fortune it took either of the alternative openings, 
it would still have to assault and carry this double line 






^<,-<^>. 









Of-. -J -J . ^ . \ '' 









l^lil'^'^' 



30 



too 



Fig. 71. — Gateway, Rink Hill, Selkirk. 



of wall crossing the area of the camp, and these could be 
held by the defenders with equal facility from whichever 
direction came the attack. 

There can be no doubt that equal care was taken to 
safeguard the smaller postern gates, where these are to be 
found. At Hembury a spacious berni covers the eastern 
postern, and in most instances the approach to such 
entrances was so narrow and so steep as to make very 
dangerous the attempt to force it, there being room for 
the approach of only a handful of men at a time. 

At Membury Camp, near Axniinstei', the chief entrance 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



20I 



is so arranged that any attacking force uiiac(|uaiiite(l witli 
the right path would push forward to find itself caught in 
a l)lind recess (Fig. 72), commanded hy a plunging fire fioni 
all sides.^ It is possible that some of the supposed guard- 
houses, at Holne Chase Camp and elsewhere, may have had 








w- 



yeet 
Fi(!. 72. — Memuuky. 



Fi<;. 7.'^. -Berky Castlk, Huntshaw. 



a similar purpose, although their comparatively small size 
is rather against this. In Berry Castle, Huntshaw, there 
appears (Fig. 73) a still more ingenious " pitfall," and to 
heighten the delusion the valla to right and left of its 
mouth are raised in the manner usual with gateways, while 
on either side of tlie real gate, some thirty feet to the 



' There is something similir in tlic in'iploxint,' oaiMiwi.ik known h.s 
Siinvey Castle, Leicestershjio. 



202 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



right, they retain only the normal elevation and no tell- 
tale increase of height is noticeable. 

In some instances the arrangement of the entries 
suo;a;ests nothinof so much as some medieval maze. 
Buzbury (Fig. 74), midway between Badbury Rings and 
Blandford, is now^ but a sorrv remnant, but when Warne 




W^...•■■■■• 



W \ 









^<:^ 






A /,â– â–  

V •■ - 

< / -" 



/Ol^ ooo 3oo 

I 
I 




•'.■).,,' •■I.'I.".VAHV.'11I''-'|, 

"'â– 'â– ''â– â– â– v.-.iv.'iiu"-'''-''"'''' 



Fig. 74. — Buzbuky (inset after Warne). i 

mapped it its plan was remarkably intricate (see inset to 
Fig. 74). In his time there were abundant traces of 
habitations within the inner rincr, and a remarkable out- 



^ The figure is given to illustrate further the destruction which may be 
accomplished in forty years. Whatever may be said of the accuracy of 
Warne's plan, it is obvious that there was far more to be seen of the camp 
— oppidiiia, he calls it — in his day than is now traceable, 



VI 



PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 



203 



work covering the entry from the north-east. At 
Cockburn Law (Fig. 75) there are three entrances, all so 
disposed as to be completely under command of the 









j,V;-.'>*'''' 


','Vi', 


"i': 


"'â– "S. 








\^ 








-i. 










1 

c; 


I '.'i 






-.w 




.^- 








. X 


â– /.. 















- 




1 


J, 


-"/ 








^ 


â– \^ 


I ~ 


-V 


«f — 





— 


- 


ir "^ 




*> 


/? 


v: 








. 


C- 


1 ; 


1 










k.... - 




t?i ^ 




K> £ 






ji 




1-- 


1 ^ 


i 


'â– u 






{ 






->:-'- 


K- 


% 






' " 




if"- 


"^/•rc 


'^ 


V. 








\ ^ 


• -^„^^ 


D 


r. 


V.J, 










â– ^ 



â– '/-> 



^U;,. 



Vm 



''â– ^>.. 






U-.^-.-i" 



■>-:•■" < 



55^^^^^ 



^^%>,B 



'^z:^ 



% 



xSca/e : luv.^ /20ft 



Fk;. 75. — CuCKiu'RN Law. 



defenders. xVt C was probably a guard-house. D is a 
block-house mound of the normal type. The abrupt 
deflexion of the walls at ERE is \qyj remarkable, and the 
tbrm of tlic exception,! 1 entry at F is uiiiisuall\- well 



204 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



preserved. Within the area are remains of huts which are 
characteristic of these stone- built Scottish forts. 

It is a universal characteristic of the contour camps that 




•313 '''^^ 



^<> b--033 ac. 1^ 




Fk;. 7<i.— Thk Bkrth, Baschirch. 



they never depend upon water for their security. Their 
ditches are dry, or if by any rare chance water is found in 
them, it is merely an accident. The site selected is almost 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 205 

without exception <liy. Nevertheless, a few curious excep- 
tions occur. Near Baschurch, Shropsliire, is a series of 
works known as The Berth/ consisting (Fig. 76) of two ring- 
works, each enclosed within a single vallum and ditch, and 
connected one with the other by a causeway, but both 
situated in the middle of what must have l)een in earlier 
times a permanent mere. There were elaborate defences 
on either side of the entrances, and an interesting feature 
was that the causeway did not actually enter either work 
but stopped short at the fosse, which must have been 
crossed by a timber bridge, exactly as in the Lake-Village 
at Meare. The same county has two other examples of 
camps located in marshes, viz, one on the eastern shore 
of Oak Mere, Delamere Forest, and another much larger, 
known as The Wall, five miles north-east of Wellington. 
The last-named extended to thirty acres, and was 
surrounded on all sides by bogs, marshes, and streams. 
Other examples are Belsar's Hill, Cambridgeshire (p. 137), 
Sutton Common, near Askern, Yorkshire (p. 24G), and 
Thunorbury on Hayling Island, a ring-work lying little 
above sea-level, and possibly of later date. 

As a rule a level site was preferred, yet in some cases, 
for no obvious reason, the camp lies upon a very decided 
slope. The more or less circular work known as Trendle 
Ring,- on the side of the Quantocks above Bickuoller, 
occupies a south-westward slope of great steepness. 



' Described at length in Anderson's Shropshire, mostly (juoting fr<ini 
Hartshorne's S<dopi<i Atitiqua, a valuable book despite its author's desperate 
plunges into etymology. In a paper published in the Proceedhuja Sot-. 
Antiq. (1908), Reginald Smith, F.S.A., suggests that The Berth was possiljly 
the site of the observatory of an Astronomical College of Druids, the text 
for this suggestion being the discovery in the surrounding bog of wliat 
appears to be a sort of water-clock of bronze. 

- Tile name of "Trendle" (Anglo-Saxon, "a hoop"), or its equivalent 
" Trundle," is of frequent occurrence, e.f/. The Trundle, near Cliichcster ; 
Chisenbury Trendle, near Everley, Wilts. ; Trendle Hill, at Cerne Abbas, 
Dorset ; and Trundle Mere, Hunts. Prof. Skeat pronounces Tn'iuUe to l)e 
Saxon, Trundle Frie.sic {Proc. Cambs. Antiq. Sue, No. xliv. p[t. .S.'iG-T). 



2o6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

although the top of the hill above offers an ample area of 
comparatively level ground. The same is true of the 
little ring-work in Dunster Park, which likewise slopes to 
the south-west.^ It is not unlikely that the question of 
drainage may have had something to do with the choice 
of such positions,^ and the majority of the works thus 
situated seem to be of a simple and feel)le kind, intended, 
perhaps, chiefly as cattle-rings. Placed as they are they 
at once forfeit much of the advantage of their locality. 
It is possible that a further object was to secure some 
degree of protection from the wind ; and that this is not 
altogether an absurd suggestion is shown by the fact that 
the hut-buiklers of Dartmoor and Cornwall, and of the 
Welsh hills, took measures to avoid the wind. It cannot 
be merely a coincidence that the doors of the huts in 
Grim's Pound almost all face to the south-west, that the 
entries to the small circular works within the area of Hod 
Hill Camp open mostly to some point between east and 
south, that the huts in the British village at Greenshaw 
Hill, Greaves Ash, Northumberland, all face to a similar 
point, and that the huts on Saddlescombe, Sussex, all lay 
upon an eastern slope. Nothing again but practical 
utility could have prompted the building of elaborate 
wind-screens about the entrance of so many huts in Wales 
and elsewhere.'^ These considerations may perhaps explain 
the position of such works as Hardwell Camp, below 

' Another instance is Staddon Hill Camp, Exmoor, which is, however, a 
more elal)orate work, with a number of interesting outworks, intended 
apparently to cover a spring immediately above the site of the ring-camp. 

2 To appreciate this one has to visit such places as Exmoor in winter. 
The rainfall is then torrential, as may be judged by the immense gutters 
constructed at every few yards to carry off the surface-water from roads at 
the very highest levels. 

^ Along the western side of the curious rectangular huts at Trewartha 
Marsh, Launceston, has been thrown up a considerable vallum of earth, 
apparently to serve as a wind-screen. It was the same windiness which 
drove the inhabitants so often to make their cooking-holes in the fosses of 
their camp, e.g., at War Ditches, Cambridge, and at Wallington, Croydon, 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 207 

Uffington Castle, or that known as Bevry Castle, Porlock 
Common, wliicli. though 1,100 feet a])ove sea-level, lies 
literally in a hole. 

Even in the case of the hill-forts strictly so-called, 
although the site selected is usually the highest in the 
vicinity, this is not invariably the rule. There are a very 
great number of camps which, for no obvious reason, are 
so placed as to ])e commanded from higher ground, even 
when warfare knew of no more formidable missile than 
the sling. Burrington Combe Camp (Fig. 200) is com- 
pletely dominated by the rocky eminence immediately to 
the south-east. Bell Hill Camp, Selkirk, is a Scottish 
instance, and the list might easily be multiplied. All 
that can be said is that the builders probably best 
knew their own business, and that warfare then was not 
what it now is. One obvious advantage of selecting the 
highest point was that the range of view was a safeguard 
against surprise ; and where the camp was set at a lower 
level, without doubt highei- points would 1)0 utilized as 
look-outs. This may be supposed to be the usual explana- 
tion of the Occurrence of camps occasionally in pairs, 
usually a larger and a smaller work, lying at no great 
distance apart. Thus Dinghurst may have been an out- 
post of Dolebury, and Stockland Little Castle, near 
Honiton, an outwork of Stockland Great Castle only a 
quarter of a mile away ; and the same purpose may explain 
the position of the small but formidable ring-work at 
Hawridge only a mile or so distant from the great camp 
at Cholesbury, Bucks. In other cases the relative positions 
are reversed, the larger work occupying the point of 
vantage. In all these cases, however, the difficulty is 
that excavation nmst first prove the two works to be 
contemporaneous. In such a case as that of Bat's Castle, 
Dunster Park, with its attendant ring-work close at hand, 
the latter may have been intended merely as a cattle-})()und 
without strategic value, and placed below the crest of the 



2o8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

liill for pur[)().ses of concealment or of shelter. As the 
community increased in numbers and in wealth, it would 
be necessary to provide furtlier accommodation ; and as no 
trace is discoverable in most cases of any attempt to 
enlarge the main fortress, the only alternative must have 
been the provision of subsidiary works at no great distance. 
Such subsidiary works would of course be upon a much less 
ambitious and less formidable scale than the main fortress,^ 
and as a matter of fcict it is unusual to find two camps 
of the first rank in A^ery close vicinity. The case of the 
triple camps at Clifton, already noticed, is unusual. The 
three camps which occupy the three summits of the Glee 
Hills, Shropshire — Abdoii Burf, Clee Burf, and Titterstone 
— are stone-walled enclosures, probably of much later date 
than the great hill-forts of the chalk, and, as the plentiful 
traces of hut-circles declare, were most likely different 
settlements of one neighbourly people. Amongst the 
Northumberland hills, and in some other parts of the 
North, the numljer of camps is astonishing, and in many 
cases the interspace is but half a mile or so ; but there is 
little difference in scale or plan to indicate which were the 
main works, which subsidiary.^ 

Pitt-Rivers was of opinion that the builders of the forts 
on the South Downs purposely selected positions such that 
the area, rising above the level of the enceinte, should 
give to the missiles of the defenders command of all 



' Sixty yards south-east of the large circular camp at Tadmarton Heath, 
Oxfordshire, is a small enclosure of some 200 feet each way, roughly 
rectangular, and with remains of a fosse surrounding it. This may (if 
contemporary with the camp) have been such another subsidiary cattle-fold. 

- There are a dozen camps within immediate reach of each of a dozen 
centres like Ingram, Bellingham, Doddington, and Wooler. " In North- 
umberland," says Canon Green well, "every hill-end has its place of 
defence ; in some instances two or three in connexion, one stronger than 
another." He concludes that we have here "the evidence of a number of 
small tribes living in a constant state of feud and warfare . . . each tribe 
independent, to some extent, of the others, though possibly all for certain 
purposes joined into a general confederation ..." (Arch. Journal, vol. 
xxii. p. 100). 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 209 

the approaches. It is true that many of the camps there 
and elsewhere do occupy such positions ; it is seen, for 
example, in the Devil's Dyke Camp, at Cisshury, at 
Mt. Caburn, and still more markedly in the Dorsetshire 
fortresses of Handjledon Hill and Chelborough. But, on 
the other hand, there are very many camps, of earlier 
and later date, in which no such disposition is apparent, 
although the natural features of their positions might very 
easily have been utilized to secure it ; and further in very 
many cases where it J is found, the supposed advantage 
must have disappeared if, as is probable, the valla were 
crowned with stockades of some heio;ht. On the whole it 
would seem more probable that, where this feature is 
found, it is rather the result of accident than of design, 
due merely to the natural outline of the hills. Pitt- 
Rivers' idea seems to be based upon a rather exaggerated 
estimate of the range and effect of weapons in early times, 
and it may be doubted whether any missiles of the Bronze 
Age at any rate, let alone the Stone Age, could be relied 
upon to stop a rush. Nevertheless the very first concern 
of the defenders must have been to prevent the assailant 
from reaching the ditches of the camp, for once there 
he might turn the tables on the defenders and use their 
earthworks as cover for himself. He would at any rate 
have a fsiir chance to break or fire the stockade and so 
breach the defences. Doubtless stones were the usual 
ammunition of the earliest ages, hurled either by sling or 
by hand. Stores of sling-stones, whether flints dressed to 
shape or selected water-pebbles, have been found in many 
camps, and in others larger lumps of flint or other 
imported stone, which may have been intended for use as 
missiles.^ 

' Within the camp on Whit Tor, Dartmoor, had been collected quantities 
of small sizeable stones heaped up into cairns. Examination showed that 
these were not the debris of ruined buildings, or burial cairns, and the 
conclusion arrived at by the explorers was that tliey must liave been 
collected to serve as ammunition. 



2IO EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Of sieges and blockades it is practically certain the pre- 
historic period knew nothing. A single rush, a succession 
of rushes, at most a day's assault, was all that was 
to be feared, and a hostile force would more often confine 
itself to desultory raids and cattle-lifting, leaving severely 
alone fortresses of any size or strength. This considera- 
tion must at once discount much that has been written 
about the absence of any water-supply in these ancient 
fortresses It was not until the methodical Roman came 
upon the scene, with his capacity for siege and leaguer, 
that the Briton would find it needful to reconsider the 
question of water-supply.^ 

The elevated positions of the hill-forts make them 
convenient sites for beacons, and many of them have been 
so used down to the present time, but it is difficult to 
prove their use for that purpose in prehistoric days. The 
theory that, e.g., Shoulsbury Castle, Castle Neroche, Ham 
Hill, Cadbury, Maesbury, Dolebury, and Brent Knoll 
passed on one to another the fiery signal round the whole 
circuit of Somersetshire — that Shoulsbury could " beckon " 
to Pen-y-fan in South Wales, and Maesbury to the great 
Wiltshire fortresses behind Warminster — is picturesque, 
but it implies a unity of purpose, a collectivism amongst 
the tribes occupying wide areas, for which there is no 
evidence ; and even if such a feeling existed in the Later 
Celtic time, it can scarcely have existed in the remoter 
ages when the hill- top fortresses were first built. These 
camps were not constructed in order to serve as beacons, 
though subsequently utilized for that purpose. Many of 
the more conspicuous camps of Dorsetshire and elsewhere 
have been purposely planted with trees, or otherwise 
distinguished, to serve as sea-marks to sailors, who, for 
instance, still know Lewesdon Hill and Pillesdon Pen as 
"the Cow" and " the Calf." 



1 See Chapter YIII. 



VI PREHISTORIC KORTIFICATION 211 

The same objection disposes of those many and 
ingenious theories which have seen in certain groups 
of camps, larger or smaller, the carefully thought-out 
frontier-lines of certain tril)es, or the chains of connected 
fortresses marking the successive steps in the advance 
of some conquering people. Thus the camps of the South 
Downs have been supposed to fall into three groups or 
chains corresponding to as many imaginary frontiers held 
against some invading tribe advancing from the coast ; 
and a similar attempt has been made to reconstitute 
history by the aid of the camps of Wiltshire and Dorset- 
shire, and their supposed connexion with the various 
" Belgic Ditches "—Bokerley Dyke, the Wansdyke, &c. ; 
while yet other theorists have tried to establish some 
relation between the three classes of camps — the very 
irregular, the less irregular, and the approximately 
circular — and as many different swarms of invaders, 
Lloegrians, Goidels, and Brythons.^ Such speculations 
require no detailed refutation, and passing by any more 
particular objection it is enough to advance this general 
one, that they are all based upon the unwarrantal)le 
assumption that ancient tribes in the first place con- 
structed each some one uniform type of earthwork, and 
in the second place entertained a broad and well cal- 
culated strategy, a unity of purpose, for which there is no 
evidence at all. There were no Vaubans in the pre- 
historic days, and no strategic frontiers ; and ere the time 
came in which the early communities felt the calls of 

' It has been thought tliat camps such as Yarnbiuy (Fig. .'}()|, and 
Quarley Hill, above (irately, Hampshire, sliow reconstruction anil im- 
l)rovement by a later people in the more regular form of their inner lines 
as compared with the outer. This may be so, but it reipiires proof ; and in 
most cases such differences are more easily accounted for by the natural 
differences in the contours of the site. The crest of a hill may be a perfectly 
regular circle or oval, while a few feet lower down its slopes will present 
considerably less uniformity ; and this increases w ith every foot of the descent. 
The conical appearance of a hill is usually an illusion to be di.spelled by a 
glance at the O.M. 

P 2 



212 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

nationality in this vivid ftishion, the hill-fortresses were in 
all likelihood abandoned for less formidable settlements in 
the lowlands. 

Lastly may be mentioned the theory that most of the 
camps, and tlie hill-forts especially, were constructed to 
serve as camps of refuge only. Li a certain sense every 
camp doubtless was so, but not in the sense suggested, 
which postulates a people living peaceable lives in un- 
defended settlements scattered over wide areas of ground, 
who nevertheless concerned themselves to build and keep 
in repair some central fortress or fortresses to which, upon 
alarm given, they might resort for refuge with their flocks 
and their families. It would be difficult to cite from 
history any parallel system of society. Man usually 
plants his castle where it is of most use, and that is 
where are his goods and his chattels. It is incredible 
that a tribe, otherwise engaged, according to the theory, 
in the pursuits of peace, should l)e at pains to construct 
such a work as Maiden Castle, or for that matter such 
a work as Blacker's Hill, simply as a precaution against 
a possible day of danger ; and in a state of civilization, in 
which the first news of danger must usually have been 
))rought by the foe himself, it is not easy to see how the 
refugees could have made good their escape to their 
asylum, let alone driving off their flocks. Moreover, 
when careful examination has been made, it has usually 
revealed traces of permanent occupation such as would 
scarcely have been left there by mere refugees of a day 
or so ; and the elaborate plan of some of the larger camps 
with their various divisions proves the same thing. The 
great camps were undoubtedly in most cases, probably in 
all cases, constructed close by, if not actually about, the 
actual dwellings of the builders. As civilization advanced 
they must have lost their original importance, dwindled 
in population, and finally become absolutely deserted, 
save when under stress of circumstances their l)uilders. 



VI PREHISTORIC FORTIFICATION 213 

or possibly quite another race of people, made use of 
them once more as strongholds ; but built originally to 
serve only as asijla for potential refugees they assuredly 
were not/ That is a pitch of political and military fore- 
sight to which we have not attained even to-day.^ 

' CjBSJir's words in reference to the British oppida (quae chnnedici belli 
causa praepavacemnt, B.G. V. 9. 4) do not necessarily imjily more thtan that 
the Cantii had previously built or used such oppida in some tribal war. 

'^ Homer furnishes an example of the building of a fossed and ramparted 
camjj, the despatch with wliich it could be completed, and its formidable 
quality. The Achaeans, driven l)ack upon their ships by the Trojans, hastily 
construct about their camp and vessels a wall and a ditch. The wall has 
"lofty towers" ; the ditch is "deep and wide, a great ditch, and in it they 
set stakes" ; and there was a gate (or gates ?) for the passage of the horses 
and chariots (Iliad, viii. 436-441). Other details are furnished in the 
account of the subsequent assault upon these fortifications in Iliad, xii. 
The ditch was so deep that the Trojans' horses would not face it : its slopes 
were very steep, and were overhung on the inner side by stakes "large and 
closely set and sharp." These, therefore, were not mere obstacles (cipjii) 
driven into the Hoor of tlie ditch, but a cheml de frine planted along its lip. 
The wall was near enough to inq)eril further any attempt to cross the ditch, 
but the mterval (or berm) was sutticiently wide to atibrd room for pickets, 
each 100 strong (ix. 85-87). Double doors, turning on hinges and fastened 
by bars and bolts within, closed the gate (or gates). • The wall is stated, in 
xii. 29, to have been built of "logs and stones," but this is admittedly a 
late interpolation. Walls and towers had breastworks, which were carried 
on Kpoaa-ai. This is the word (a rare one) used by Herodotus for the 
" steps " of the pyramids. The connnentators suggest that it here means 
something in the way of corbels or "machicolations." More probably it 
means that the wall was stepped at the toi), like that t>f tlie fortress at 
Worlebury and that at Tre'r Ceiri. The wall was so low that the top of the 
breastwork was within reach of a man's hand : Sarpedon tears down a 
portion of the breastwork, "and all the wall beyond was laid bare." Alto- 
gether the ditch and the wall proved so formidable that the attacking forces 
gave up the attempt to breach the defences and finally forced a way by the 
gates. The only reference to fire as a weapon of attack occurs (xii. 177) in 
a passage of doubtful meaning, and there it is [)robably n\etaj)horica]. 

According to Professor Ridgway (EarJij Aijc of G recrc), the Achaeans were a 
Celtic people. Certainly the descrii)tion ui the fort which they built has 
remarkable analogies with many Celtic "camps'' of England of the Pre- 
historic Iron Aae. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 

'' hide casus postquam ac x>elles ignemque pararunt, . . . 
Turn genus liumanum jnimum mollescere coepit." 

" Tc7its of a camp which never shall be raised, 
On ivhich four thousand years have gazed." 

The veneration in which the Greeks held Hestia, " the 
hearth -goddess," the similar veneration in which the 
Romans held Vesta and her undying fire, the old myth 
that fire was Prometheus' first gift to the miserable human 
creature that he had fashioned from clay — all these point 
to the universal recognition of fire as one of the first and 
most valuable of those discoveries which have led wp from 
savagery to civilization. It is not necessary to discuss 
here the method by which, or the date at which, it was 
first obtained. To the earliest of neolithic men it was 
certainly familiar, whether they dwelt in cave or in camp, 
upon kitchen-midden by the shore or upon crannog in the 
fens. It is certain also that, as was to be expected of a 
savage, man made use of his new discovery first of all 
for the benefit of his palate — used it, that is, for cooking, 
and by so doing lifted himself once and for all above the 
level of the other carnivora with which the palaeolithic 
savao-e had foug;ht for the shelter of caves and cliffs. 
Accidentally, through the use of fire, he learnt the art of 
burning clay to pottery, and as accidentally discovered the 



CH. VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 215 

means of working metal. Tlic discovery of iron, wliicli 
has been called man's greatest step along the path of 
progress, would never have been made without the 
previous discovery of fire. 

Early as was the date at which the use of pottery was 
introduced, there are abundant traces in the British Isles 
of peoples who knew nothing of it, and were therefore 
compelled to do their primitive cooking without its help. It 
does not follow that these peoples were therefore the 
earliest of the Neolithic Age, or earlier than those who 
have left us both pottery and other still more advanced 
tokens of progress. It only means that they were in a 
lower phase of civilization. It is much more than possible 
that in these islands there lived contemporaneously 
peoples in very various stages of culture, and just as 
tribes of the Stone, the Bronze, and the Iron Ages lived 
side by side, so did tribes wdio were familiar with pottery 
and others who as yet had none. 

In many parts of Ireland, and notably in the counties 
of Cork and AVaterford, are to 1)e seen low mounds made 
up of smallish broken stones, much fired and intermixed 
with charcoal.^ These were the cooking-mounds of a 
people who seem to have possessed no pottery, doing their 
primitive cooking by the help of "fire-stones" or "pot- 
boilers." Selecting a spot close beside some convenient 
spring or stream, they dug a pit in the ground, and a 
channel to feed it with water as required. In the pit they 
laid their meat, and brought the water to boiling-point by 
flinging in stones made red-hot in a fire close beside it. 
The stones thus used were of the hardest availa1)le kind, 
and of no great size, rarely more than half a pound in 
weight, because bigger masses would be too slowly heated. 
The alternate heating and sudden cooling of the stones, 

' In CO. Cork they are said to be known to the [leasantry as ft>l<i>'h Jiddh, 
" deers' lairs, " as "deer-roasts" in Tipperary, and as "giants' cinders" in 
Ulster. The Welsh examples seem to hiive j)assed without name or notice. 



2i6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

which were used over and over again, naturally caused 
them to split, when the fragments were tossed aside and 
fresh stones were taken into use. The accumulation of 
broken fragments gradually built up an irregular mound 
near to and about the pit. In very many cases this 
mound is of horseshoe form, curving round the spot 
where stood the pit, its open side facing towards the 
stream. In other examples it is more or less circular, but 
lacking the obviously intentional symmetry and the 
proportional height of a barrow. 

Numbers of such " cooking-mounds " have lately been 
noticed in South Wales, ^ in the counties of Cardigan, 
Pembroke, Brecknock, and especially Carmarthen. These 
are mostly of the circular form, varying in width from 
6 to 50 feet, but rarely exceeding 3 feet in height. They 
are invariably within a very short distance of a stream, 
often actually upon its bank, and wherever they present 
the horseshoe shape their opening always faces to the 
stream. When opened they disclose nothing l)ut frag- 
ments of fired stone and the fragments of charcoal and ash 
which were blown over them from the hearth. 

Many of the Irish examples have been carefully ex- 
plored. The pits, which averaged about 6 feet in length, 
were found to liave been in some cases lined with rude 
planks, in others to have been formed out of logs rudely 
hollowed. In one of these were found some of the fire- 
stones as they had been left when the pit was last used. 

So great is the number of the Irish mounds that it has 
been said that, in Cork and Waterford, " wherever there 
is a strong spring, there is generally a mound " ; and 
much the same is asserted of those in Wales. That they 
must in some cases have been the result of very long use 
is shown by their size, and by the amount of ashes and 

^ See Archaeologia Cambrensis, sixth series, vol. vi. (1906), where Messrs. 
T. C. Cantrill and O. T. Jones gave pai'ticulars of upwards of eighty examples 
noticed up to the close of 1904. In another article in the same journal for 
1907 there is given a list of sixty-three in Carmarthenshire alone. 



vii THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 217 

charcoal which has accunmhited over the hearth, in one 
instance to a depth of 4 feet. That tliey were tlie work 
of peoples unacquainted with pottery, or at any rate with 
any pottery capable of resisting fire, is shown by tlioir 
very design, and so ftir no fragment of pottery has l)ccn 
found in or near them, nor indeed anything which might 
determine their age ; for the chance finding of stone 
implements near some of them cannot he taken as proof. 
But that they are of very great anti(|uity is likely enough, 
and may perhaps be confirmed by the assertion that in 
one case near Cork a " Druidical ring of two or three 
circles had been built over the heap of cinders." ^ On 
the other hand, the standard of civilization in AVales and 
in Ireland has uniformly been so belated, that this fashion 
of cooking may have lingered there to a very late date. 
It may be remarked that the necessity of placing the 
cooking-pit within immediate reach of a stream, and 
generally therefore on wet ground, at once difi"erentiates 
these mounds from funereal barrows. It is further note- 
worthy that, one instance at Carn-foch excepted,' they 
seem to have no connexion with other vestigia of 
antiquity such as camps or enclosures, or with any traces 
of settled habitations ; nor are they commonly found 
in groups, although in one Irish locality as many as nine- 
teen occur together. So far as the evidence at present goes, 
they would seem to be the work of peoples who had not 
yet arrived at the art of hut-building,^ and who had no 



' In the absence of more precise information it may be d()ul)tcil wlu'thor 
the "rin<?" in ciuestion was not a hut-circle such as is described bek)\v, in 
which case it may have belonged to a relatively late date. 

2 Within the "upper camp" at Carn-foch, Llangadock, there is ont' of 
these mounds l)eside a small pond, but there is nothing to sliow tiiat it is 
coeval with the camp. It may have been there before the camp was built, 
or it may have been formed long afterwards. 

â– ' Tacitus menticms {(h'ruinnin, 4()) a German tril)e, the Fenni, who had no 
dwellings at all, sleeping on the ground in the o[)en, or at the most putting 
up a rude screen of branches. He adds that they scornetl agriculture. 
They were therefore nomads pure and simple, in no higher phase of 
civilization than naost of the savages of the paheolithic time. 



2i8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

need to construct enclosures for the safe-keeping of any 
cattle ; for cattle would not be well folded on boggy 
ground, and it is unlikely that early man would fold his 
flocks at any distance from his hearths, so that it would 
seem that the mound-l)uilders had no cattle. If so, they 
were in a very low phase of civilization indeed, although, 
as has been said, this does not in itself necessarily imply 
a very remote antiquity. 

Only a slightly less low degree of savagery is repre- 
sented by the kitchen-middens, enormous accumulations ^ 
of shells — oyster, mussel, periwinkle, and cockle mostly — 
found at various points upon the coast of England, 
particularly in Devon and Cornwall, in south-western 
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. These are the refuse-heaps 
of peoples who congregated on the spot, and subsisted 
chieHy upon fish and shellfish, although the bones found 
amongst the shell-refuse show that they varied this diet 
with such flesh as the chase provided. They knew the 
use of fire, they made a very rude kind of pottery, and 
they possessed flint implements of peculiar types, but 
they appear to have owned no domestic animals.^ It is 
obvious that they were gregarious, but whether they 
spent all their days upon the same spot, or migrated to 
the coast from the interior at specific seasons, is not 
known. Nor do they appear to have left behind any 
traces of dwellings. If they were merely migratory 
visitants, their sojourn by the sea must have been in the 
warmer season of the year, when they might the better 
have dispensed with any shelter beyond the merest lean-to. 
But though there can be no doubt of their low degree of 
culture, it is not certain that they belonged, as has been 



^ Danish examples — they are common along the Baltic coasts — are 
recorded which measure 1,000 feet long, 200 feet wide, and 3-10 feet high. 

2 Bones of the dog are said to have been found, but split open ; i.e., if the 
dog was known, he was used as food. On the other hand, the bones were 
perhaps rather those of the wolf than of the dog. 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 219 

thought, to the very earliest neolithic times, for some 
of the weapons found in the middens appear to he 
" palimpsests " fashioned out of other weapons of mueh 
higher types. This would seem to suggest that the people 
of the kitchen-middens were the degraded contemporaries 
of other more cultured folk, tliQ hroken fragments of 
whose superior weapons they picked up and refashioned 
according to their ability. It is significant that of the 
British examples most ^ are found upon the remoter west, 
south-west, and northern coasts, illustrating the fact that 
the tide of civilization has always flowed from the east 
and south-east, continuously pushing before it the more 
backward races. 

On the ancient "forest" of Dartmoor are a number of 
stone enclosures, rudely circular for the most part, and 
surrounded by dry-built walls more or less ruinated. 
Locally they are known as " pounds," and the largest, 
most perfect, and most elaborate of them all is Grim's 
Pound (Fig. 55), 4^ miles south-west of Moreton Hamp- 
sbead. The wall encloses an area of some four acres, 
within which are the remains of twenty-four rude huts 
of irregularly circular plan. Most of these were found on 
exploration'" to have contained each a hearth-stone and a 
cooking-pit. Tlie pits were mere holes sunk into the 
floor, not more than 2 feet long, 1^ feet wide, and 9 
inches deep, and roughly lined with thin slabs of 
stone. Numbers of cooking-stones, much fired and 
cracked, were found, but only the scantiest traces of very 
rude pottery. Like results attended the examination of 
similar huts on Broad Down (where the " pound " known as 
Broadun,more than 12 acres in extent, is reputed the largest 
of all tlie prehistoric enclosures of Dartmoor) and elsewhere. 



' Examples are known, however, upon the Sussex coast from Newhaven 
eastward. 

- They were explored by Messrs. S. Baring Gould, R. Buruard, and others. 
See Trunsactiona of the Devonshire Association, xxvi. (1894). 



220 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

These pits correspond exactly with those in use amongst 
the Assiniboine Indians of British North America, whose 
name is said to mean " pit-cookers." The principle is pre- 
cisely the same as that of the Welsh and Irish cooking-pits, 
l)ut with a decided advance upon those. For in the first 
place, as they are not fed by running streams, they must 
have been filled by hand, which, while it accounts for their 
much less extravagant size, implies a certain independence 
in the choice of sites. In the second place they 
evidently belonged to a people who had, as well as the 
means of carrying water, permanent residences and huts 
to live in. The northern part of Grim's Pound crosses a 
small stream known as Grim's Lake, but the nearest hut 
was at a distance of 60 feet from the water, and others 
were from 200 to 400 feet away, and as the ground slopes 
upwards to the south the water could not possibly 
have been conveyed to the pits otherwise than by hand. 
In the third place the builders had developed some sort of 
communal society, and owned cattle ; for the size of the 
pound is too great to be otherwise accounted for, and, more- 
over, there are certain subsidiary enclosures within it 
which, from the exceptional width of the doorways and 
from other features, would seem to have been intended 
as cattle-pens. The explorers came to the conclusion 
that this ^ and similar enclosures were constructed to serve 
as the central strongholds of a population scattered over 
the neighbouring moors, and that only a small numl)er of 
them permanently occupied the huts within the pounds. 
Their state of culture ranged from that of the very early 
Neolithic Age down to the early Bronze Age. The 
excavation of similar groups of huts at Legis Tor and 
other places produced rather more pottery, with some 
indications of improved culture, but as it is almost certain 

' It had previously been attributed to the Druids, to the Phoenicians, and 
to later tin-streamers, at the fancy of individual speculators. As to the 
meaning of the name of Grim, something is said in Ch. XV, 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 221 

tluit the Imts were occupied over long periods hy successive 
peoples/ little can be argued from this. Some of the huts, 
as at Foales Arrishes,- on Blackslade Common, showed a 
curious refinement, the cooking-pit and hearth having been 
relegated to a small annexe ; others of small size with 
cooking-holes of disproportionate size are thought to have 
been used for vapour-baths ; and yet others, larger in size 
and unprovided with hearths, seemed to have been 
intended for occupation in summer. 

Of the Devonshire "pounds" the majority are simple 
enclosures so weakly defended that they can never have 
been " strongholds " in the sense in which the hill-camps 
were such. There are good examples of the larger kind in 
Dunnabridge Pound, at ]\Icrivale Bridoe, and on Teion- 
combe Common. Near Postbridge on the Dart, within 
an area little more than a square mile, Mr. Burnard 
counted as many as fourteen, and others have since been 
noticed, some having owed their preservation to their 
having been adapted as they stood to serve as the 
enclosures of " new-takes." Traces of huts are visible 
in or near most of them, and they vary in size from a 
diameter of 50 yards or less to an area three times as great 
as that of Grim's Pound. So numerous are these vestiges 
of a large population in the vicinity, that Mr. Burnard 
dul)l)ed Postbridge, which to-day consists of an inn and 
nothing more, "the Metropolis of tlic Moor," but in other 
localities the ruins of huts and pounds ai-e almost as 
thickly scattered al)out. On Standon Down, altovc tlie 



' The Rev. S. Baring Goukl has l)eeii one of the n)ost prominent spirits in 
the exploration of the antiijuities of the Moor. Many of liis results are to 
l)e read in the Tr<(ns(ictl(>ns of tlie Devonshire Association, and they are 
summarized in pojiular form in his Huol: of Dnitinoor. He lays emphasis 
upon the curious fact that, densely peopled as the Moor obviously was in 
Neolithic times, it apparently remained deserted thence onward to the later 
Middle Ages. Nothing has been discovered referal)le to Late-Celtic or 
Roman, or even to Saxon times. 

- " Arrish" is a Devonshire word meanin"' stubble. 



222 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Tavy, is a group of more than seventy huts, though 
there is no trace of a pound at this spot. 

The wall enclosing Grim's Pound (Fig. 55) proved on 
examination, like those of the camps of Whit Tor and Brent 
Tor, to have been originally double, two parallel dry-built 
walls of a width of 3 to 3j feet enclosing a continuous 
passage-way of the same width. The original height was 
perhaps 5^ feet. Each wall was built of flat retaining slabs 
of the local fissile granite set endwise in the ground in two 
lines and filled in with loose stone and turf. The purpose 
of the inner passage is not clear. A common feature in the 
walls of stone forts ^ of later age, it is generally believed 
that in their case the passages were intended to serve as 
storage space, an explanation which will hardly suit the 
ease of Grim's Pound if, as seems probable, the passage 
was never roofed in. It is possible, however, that it was 
once roofed over with boughs and turf. According to an- 
other view it was intended to be filled up with earth upon 
which might be erected a stockade. If so the design 
was never carried out, and the apparent occupation 
of the pound for a considerable period is decidedly against 
this view ; nor is it clear that any advantage would 
have been gained, whether in the saving of labour or 
otherwise, by using earth for the purpose rather than the 
small stone everywhere available. The great majority of 
the Devonshire enclosures show no traces of such elabora- 
tion, and for the most part occupy positions too open to 
have been defensible. Like the dry-built enclosures of 
the Cumberland Fells ^ they seem to have been intended 



^ There are examples, for instance, in the fort of Castle Hayne, Kirk- 
anclrews, and the immense Irish forts of Stague and Crinnan Aileach. In 
the first-named case the passages, which have a uniform width of 3h feet, are 
not continuous, though they run almost the entire length of the sides of the 
fortress, which is presumably pre-medii*;val. 

'^ See an article by Swainson Cowper, Esq., in Atchaeologia, liii. 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 223 

iiotliino- 



111 



for purely domestic purposes, and liave 
common with "camps" properly so styled.' 

The huts within Grim's Pound, conformably to a well- 
known Devonshire type, were built as follows : — Flat 
retaining-slabs were planted in a rough circle of a 
diameter of 6 J to 15 J feet, one opening being left for an 
entrance. The average height of the slabs was about 3 feet. 




Flu. 77a.— Hit, Uautmook Tyi'k. 



The intervals l)etween these uprights were tilled in witli 
smaller pieces of stone, and the whole was backed with 
turves, which effectually stopped the draughtiness of such 
walls. Across the entrance was laid a block of stone as a 



• Rev. S. Baring Gould remarks upon the pacific character of the remains 
of these primitive people. Weapons are rarely found ; there are faint 
traces of agriculture ; the signs of any knowledge of weaving are rare. On 
the Moor itself is not a single fortress properly so-called : round it lie some 
tliirteen, live of them stone-built, the rest of earth and stone. 



224 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

lintel, the opening being usually only some 2^ feet high and 
2|- feet wide. In most cases it faced to the south-west, and 
in some instances was furnished with a sort of porch so 
arranged as to screen the draught. The floor was of 
beaten clay, occasionally paved with rough blocks of stone. 
All the huts stood upon a slight slope, and in nine instances 
there was constructed within the hut at the higher (south) 




Fig. 77b. — Hut with Dais, Dartmoor. 

side a sort of dais, from 8 to 12 inches high, which may 
have served equally well for a seat or for a sleeping-place.^ 
Near the centre of the floor was a flat stone which prol )ably 
carried a post supporting the roof; for the absence of any 
great amount of debris within the huts showed that they 
could not have been roofed with stone, but probably with 
turves and fern laid over rafters formed of ])0uglis. The 
huts contained also each a hearthstone, with evident 

1 A similar arrangement was met with in other cases, e.cj., at Broaclun, 
Shapley Common, and Langstone Moor, but was unusual. It has been found 
in other parts of the country, as at Pen-y-Gaer. 



VII 



THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 



225 



traces of fire, and one of the eooking-pit.s above (lesciil)e(l. 
Certain small enclosuies which showed only the uprioht 
retaining stones, with no trace of filling- or liacking, no 
hearths and no cooking-pits, hut luuing doorways of 
greater width, were thought to have been used as cattle- 
pens. 

With slight variations this seems to have been the usual 
method of biiildiiio' huts whei'ever suitable stone was 




Fio. 78. — Hit, Ax(;i.esi:v Tvpk, 



available. The Welsh and Northumbrian hills are dotted 
over w4th the ruined rings of such dwellings, knowni to the 
Welsh as Cuticm'r Gwyddelod, "huts of the wood folk."^ 
As a rule the retainers are all that is left, and these rise 
but slightly a])()ve the turf wdiich has overgrown the site, 
but their regular design and small size make them at once 
recognizal)le. In many cases the ring is double, the 

' Gwyddel = Goidel = Gacl. See p. 7, note. There is a tradition that 
the Brythonic Welsli adopted the Gaelic Irish way of hut-buihlinu; in loiise- 
quence of the destruction of the forests in Roman times. Tliese Wi-lsli huts 
are, of comse, in very many cases far ohler. 

Q 



226 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

inter.space fillet] in with sniall stoue.s or with earth. Upon 
these there may have been raised eourses of turves,^ but it 
is probable tluit in many cases the walls were never carried 
up to any considerable height, but that large boughs, 
firmly planted l)etween the retaining stones of the ring- 
wall, were bent over to meet above the centre of the Hoor, 
these being covered in with heather, fern, turves, or 
perhaps skins, and in some Welsh examples with rough 
slates. In such cases, to compensate for the lack of height, 
the floor is usually sunk to some depth, as little as 2 feet 
or as much as 6 or 7 feet ; and to prevent the inflow 
of surface water the rim of the pit is slightly raised all 
round. This plan was very noticeable in the huts within 
Eggardon Camp, where, moreover, the bottom of the hut 
was uniformly filled in with some 2 feet of loose flints to 
secure a dry floor. The huts within the great fortress of 
Tre'r Ceiri, on Yr Eifl, showed a yet greater elaboration 
in this direction : ^ the natural peat was first removed from 
the surface, and the hollow thus formed was filled in with 
loose stone, which was in turn covered with a rude 



1 It is doubtless the decay of these turves has so fre(|uently buried, or 
almost buried, the stone ring which served as a foundation. Turves, like 
bricks or squared stone, may be built up so as to form a perpendicular wall, 
and are, moreover, imjaervious to the wind and rain. The persistent assertion 
of bygone antiquaries that the stone-built Wall of Hadrian was preceded 
by a wall of turf was shown to be correct only two years ago (1906). The use 
of turves enabled the builders to obtain a far more steep and unassailable face 
to their wall than was obtainable by the use of earth or of earth and stone 
together. Any one who desires to test the amount of shelter, warmth, and 
comfort which a turf -hut may afibrd, need but get inside a grouse-butt on the 
moors on a windy day. These butts are in fact nothing but modern replicas 
of the prehistoric hut minus the roof. They are commonly made with a 
circle of rude stone carried up perhaps a couple of feet, and strengthened 
here and there with retainers. Upon this foundation are laid successive 
courses of turf to the required height. In two or three centuries the ruins 
of such a building will probably be mistaken by amateurs for those of a 
prehistoric hut- circle, and only excavation will reveal the evidence of their 
real date in the shape of old cartridge-cases. 

- Ilev. S. Baring Gould and R. Burnard, Esq., in Archwul. Camhrensis 
(1904). 



VII 



THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 



pavi'ineiit of Hat slahs. In some cases tlie loose stone was 
dispensed with, and the Hooi- was made of Hat slabs set 
edgewise. One or two huts even showed ^utters for 
carrying away any moisture from the Hoor. Trer Ceiri, 
however, is apparently the work of a far later age, probably 
dating only from the very hist days of British independence 
in tlie first century a.d., and the liuts (Fig. 79) sliow no such 
uniformity of plan as is found in earlier examples. They 
are arranged simply, in groups, and in clusters ; some of 
tlicni liave two or more compartments, and manv have 




Fk;. 75*. Hits in Trki; Ckiri. 



wind-screens or other i)rovision for avoidino- draughts. 
They are of every shape, tlie walls built up of loose stone 
which in some instances still stands to a heioht of 6 feet 
and a thickness of 4 feet. Perhaps the walls were 
originally calked with moss or fern to make them imper- 
vious to the wind ; and the wind (jn the crest of Yr Eifi 
(1,590 feet) is not to be hiughed at.^ None of these dwellings 

* In his Notes of a Toitr throiKjh the Western Isles of Scotland in 1708 one 
James RoVjertson descriljes the liuts of the inliabit;ints of Arisaik as being 
built up of wattled heath and branches, overlaid on the outer side with thin 
turves "much in the manner that slates are laid," and roofed with turf, 
heath, and straw. He continues in reference to the crofters of Contjir : 
"Their barns and houses are built in the same manner as hath been 
de.scril)ed, only the former have no turf fastened upon their outer side from 
the ground up to the easing, so that tlie wind blows througli all parts of the 

g 2 



228 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



showed any trace of cookiiig-pit.s, nor was it to be expected, 
seeing that they belonged to a pet^ple familiar alike with 
pottery and with metal. But neither are there any such 
pits in the huts at Eggardon, which are of a very early 
date indeed and reveal no trace of metal. ^ The cooking 
at Eggardon must have been done outside the huts, 
perhaps in the fosses of the camp. 



\ -"^^ 






'1//, -x 




Fig. 80. — Castell Caer Seion. 



Castell Caer Seion, â–  on Conway Mountain (808 feet), a 
mile and a half from Conway, is a well-preserved specimen 
(Fig. 80) of a small Welsh hill-fortress. Its outer wall of 
rudely built stone closely follows the 700 feet contour 
line, save on the north-west side, where the precipitous 



barn with freedom and dries their corn." Quoted in Pruc. Sac. Antiq. 
Srotland, vol. xxxii., p. 14. Many of the huts at Tre'r Ceiri and elsewhere 
may have been left uncalked for the same reason. 

^ Dr. Colley March, in Proc. Soc. Antiq., Series II., xviii., p. 258. 

2 Called also Caer Lleion. Something is said of it in Arch. (Jionhrpiuis, 
vol. i. (1846). 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 229 

fall of tlic hill makes needless any sueh defence. The 
actual summit of the mountain is crowned by an inner 
fortress measuring only al)()ut 150 yards in length and 
60 yards in breadth. Towards the north-east, the weakest 
side, this is defended by a formidable wall of stone, 
its outer facing carefully coursed, and this again is 
covered by two fosses. To the south also the wall 
is very thick, though no fosse is traceable. On this 
side is tlie entrance, of which the retaining-stones 
and jambs are still in situ. The north-west wall, much 
weaker, is covered l)y a fosse which sweeps round 
the south-west end of the citadel, and thence runs 
east along the outer wall, in which is a second gate 
immediately facing the first. The south-western ex- 
tremity of the inner fortress seems to have been walled 
oft". Immediately adjoining this is a large hut-circle with 
a double ring-wall filled in with rub1)le, and just within 
the entrance is another of smaller size, its floor considerably 
sunk, the sides carefully pitched with coursed stone. 
Other circles are scattered about the area, and over the 
whole of the outer camp to the eastward. There is 
another ruined work on Alltwen (828 feet), three-and-a- 
half miles W.S.W. 

While the character of such hut-circles, once they are 
seen, is almost unmistakable, the question of their date is 
a matter to he determined only by excavation. The 
methods of man change very, very slowly, and most slowly 
of all the methods he employs in matters domestic, in 
building and in farming. Constructions very similar to 
the Cutimir Gwyddelod continued to be erected even in 
England down to very late times indeed l)y miners and 
shepherds, so that great caution is needed in attriltuting 
to such vestigia any very venerable antiquity. Built in 
very much the same rough-and-ready fashion, the newer 
work has (|ui<'kly weathered to an appearance exactly like 
that of the older. 1 1 is only from the (•oiiconiM.ni! 



230 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAF. 



presence of other and indubitably ancient traces that one 
can even tentatively presume the antiquity of jDOunds, 
cutiau, and other such ruins, which are to l)e found every- 



.o^---^'^^ 



-^^:^^, 



^ 






'S'^. 



^, 







f%^ 




\»- ft mW 



^. 



^^»"' 

.x^" 



rt^^^ 






Fiei. 81. — Llankaikfecuan. 

where upon the hills of Wales, Northern England, Dart- 
moor, and Cornwall.^ The annexed plan (Fig. 81) is that 

1 It has been proved by excavation that huts of the type of the Bi'onze 
Age continued to be used far down into the days of the Romans in Anglesey, 
Samian pottery and Roman coins having been found within them. Huts 
quite as rude continued to be used in many of the remoter jjarts of Scotland 
up to the end of the last century, in localities where wood suitable for 
building purposes was scarce, nor are they altogether abandoned even to-day. 
See Mitchell, The Pad in the Present. Tliese huts have neither windows 
nor chimney, and the materials of the roof — straw, bracken, heather, &c. — 
used periodically to be stripped off to be used as manure. The animals 
shared the exiguous accommodation with the owners, and it is a disconcerting 
fact that persons reared under such roofs were as healtliy, strong, and good 
looking as their more civilized compatriots. 



VI I 



TH1<: PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 



231 



of a grou]) of ruins beliind Lljiiitairtccliaii. (.'aL'riiai-\'oii- 
sliire. It is quite possiljle that tliese are only the remains 
of some shepherd's fohl or farmer's hovels of quite late 
date ; l)ut the fact that they stand close beside a very 
ancient trackway leading from Bwlch-y-ddeufaen to Pont 
Newydd, in a tract of moorland littered over with the 
ruins of similar enclosures, huts, and dolmens, raises a 
presumption that these also are old/ But even so the 
remains may very well have been tampered with l)y later 




Fl(!. 82. — YORKSHIHK yilKKI'l-'OLI). 

hands, who found them adaptable as sli('('[)folds oi- cattle- 
pens. The same doul)t attends many of the enclosures on 
the Fells, where durino- long; centuries tlie unrest of the 
Border prevented any material advance in the methods of 
building. 

Fig. 82 shows one of the rude slR'ep-[)ens built b\' the 
shepherds of the Fells for convenience in washing their 
sheep. It is obvious tliat sucli a structui'c, dry-built of 
small stones, with walls unduly thin for tlirir height, is 



* The plan given is frmu ,1 skitcli uiado .s<tnio liftcen years ago. In 
^/•(•/i. CrtJH/x'oi.s/.s-, vol. i. (1S4()), II. Longucville .Jones gave a plan of .soini,! 
yuins very similar, 



232 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

very easily ruinated, and witliin a very few years the 
rapid growth of heather and wliortleberry about its debris 
would leave discernible nothing but the vague ground 
plan of what might readily pass for a group of huts of 
prehistoric age. There would Ije nothing whatever to 
indicate to the ordinary eye the entire modernity of the 
remains. Only the practised observer would be al)le to 
determine whether the stones had lain there a longer or a 



»- 










Fi(i. 88. — Baohan Galldair. 

shorter time, and only the expert again would notice the 
tell-tale fact that no large stones had been employed. 
The greater size of at least some of the stones used is a 
fairly safe test of really ancient work. The savage took 
the trouljle to find and move blocks of a size which the 
modern shepherd, and even the modern road-mender, will 
leave severely alone. 

In Ireland similar constructions, known as Baivns 
[Baghan, Badhan), attracted the notice of writers lis 
early as the sixteenth century. These enclosures were 
intended for use as folds, and were l)uilt to shelter the 



VII THJ: IM^IMITIVE homestead 233 

herdsmen as well as tlicir cattle. Tliey occur also in 
Scotland. Baglian Galldair (Fig. 83), for example, is a rough 
circle of 22 yards by 24 yards, surrounded by a dry-lniilt 
wall 8 feet in thickness, with two entrances on opposite 
sides. The ruins of two hut-circles abut upon the inner 
side of the wall. Baghan Burlach (Fig. 84), said to be 
unusually large, conforms to the contour of a knoll of 

\ n i ' ' ' ^ / / / V 




="7^^^^ 






<6?- 






Fkj. 84. — Bauuan Bria.Acii. 

elliptical plan, and surrounds an area measuring 5G yards 
by 34 yards. Its wall is LI feet thick and its entrances 
are two, one at each end. Near the centre of the enclo- 
sure are the remains of a very large hut of 31) feet in 
diameter.' 

The so-calle(l bee-hive huts mai'k a very decided 
advance in the art of building. In these the roof is 
formed by building up successive courses of unhewn stones, 
each overlap})ing that beneath it, until tlie whole can be 



' /'/-or. ,Snr'. Set. Anfi,!., xxix. (1S*.C>). 



234 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

covered in by a single large flat stone. ^ Familiar in a far 
more refined form to students of Hellenic archaeology, 
examples of this type have been found in Cornwall, 
Devon, and the Isle of Portland. It has not been proved 
that this imj)rovement in building necessarily implies any 
very great advance in the general standard of culture ; it 
might be merely the natural outcome of the character of 
the district and the local stone. Unlike some of the Greek 
examples, the English bee-hive hut is mostly very small, 
a roughly circular construction of from 4 feet to 8 feet 
in diameter. Quadrangular specimens are less usual, and 
not seldom the hut is merely a lean-to built against some 
convenient mass of rock. The Rev. S. Baring Gould 
cites an example, " on the river Ernie, above Piles Wood," 
on Dartmoor, which is " still completely water-tight," and 
another in Cornwall, Ijetween Brown Willy and Kough 
Tor, which the tenant of the ground has preserved from 
destruction to serve him as "a pig-stye or a butter-house." 
On the sides of Rous^h Tor there are said to be " hundreds " 
of them, and apparently the building of huts of this type 
was practised contemporaneously with those of the type 
seen at Grim's Pound. In almost all West-Country ex- 
amples the dimensions are very small — too small to allow of 
a man's standing upright within, and to enter them one 
must crawl on all fours." AVhether or no the inhabitants 
of the southern and south-eastern counties were of a taller 
race, they certainly l)uilt larger dwellings, but of another 
kind, just as they built also finer camps. 

Stone huts, like stone-built fortresses, have too often 
been greatly damaged, if not entirely destroyed, by the 
removal of their material for Ijuilding or for road-metal. 



^ The same method was followed in forming the roofs of some of the 
chambered barrows, which are of the Stone Age. 

- Beehive huts are abundant in Kerry and other parts of Ireland, and in 
Lewis. Most of them are small, but there are exceptions : some of the 
Irish examples are said to have been large enough to hold forty men, 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 235 

As enclosure and cultivation have gone less far in Cornwall 
than in most counties, it can show more and finer speci- 
mens than occur elsewliere. The best known group is 
that at Chysoyster/ three miles north of Penzance, now a 
mere remnant. Originally this was a circular fortress 
enclosed within two concentric walls. Of the outer wall 
scarce a trace is left : the inner was more massive, dry- 
built, with one entrance only. In the space between 
the two walls are the remains of a dozen or so of isolated 
huts, all of one uniform oval shape and once roofed in the 
usual l)ee-hive manner. Within the thickness of the inner 
wall are several others open- 
ing upon the central area, \ \ ' 'V ' 
which is itself clear. There '^^'- '<£> ^"^^Z ^ // ,' .' 

••11 -v '-•.£v^^ "Xv -i*- • ' j' ■' 

IS another very smiilar cluster ^ - ,^/^ -P*^ â– ^*, ,a--. ' â–  â–  
at Old Bosullow, just north ''~'^^%. .Xf^--^%-iQ'^lr 



of Chun Castle, three miles ;;;^ >a^ :4 J'P^^^' 
north-east of St. Just. Three- ^.•'^i^t'^'y \ \ \^ ^■ 



quarters of a mile south-east / r 

of Chun Castle, at Bodennar, / I i ' 

is a third group of different Fio. 85.— Bouennak CkkllAs. 

plan (Fig. 85) ; two circles, 

the larger 40 feet across and the lesser 21 feet, are 

united by a passage G feet in width. The larger (drcle 

is contained within a doul)le concentric wall braced at 

intervals by transverse walls." Almost hidden Ijy gorse 

and heather, at a short distance the whole has the look 

of a single green mound, whence its name of Crelhis 

[Cry-glds, "green hillock"). Finally, at Bosporthennis, 

near Gurnard's Head, three miles north-east of Cliiin 

Castle, in a spot littered over witli the ruins of other 



^ The name signifies "Bee-hive." For tliis and sinul<ir groups of Cornish 
huts, see Proc. Sue. Antii[., ii., xvii., 7'->. 

- The iUustration given is after W. C Borlaso (,1 ////(/ i(///cs <;/' ('orxindl). 
Even in his time the ti'ansvcrse walls were so nuicii ruinated as to escape 
notice, 



236 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

lints Hiid the debris of an enclosing wall, is " proba})ly 
the most perfect specimen now remaining in England." 
It is a double hut of two rooms, one circular, the other 
rectangular. The circular room has a diameter of 13 feet, 
and the other measures but 9 feet by 7 feet. In the wall 
of the latter, 4 feet from the ground, is a window about 
12 inches square. The doorways, with their lintels and 
jambs, are in excellent preservation, and the principal 
entrance faces to the south-west. Huts of this type, rare 
in England, are more frequent in Ireland, where they are 
popularly believed to be hermits' cells, the rectangular 
chambers passing for oratories. This Cornish example 
may l)e of similarly late date, or the rectangular chamber 
may 1)e a later addition made in Christian times to an 
older hut then rebuilt and repaired. A curious group 
of huts at Trewartha Marsh, near Launceston, is supposed 
to belong to the Iron Age. They are — or rather were, for 
most of them have been destroyed — -all rectangular in 
plan, and constructed upon a much more spacious scale, 
cross-walls dividing the main chamber into separate 
apartments. One of the largest chambers was provided 
with a continuous stone seat running the whole length 
of the side and terminating in a single seat exactly 
like an arm-chair. It has been fancifully named the 
Council Chamber, and may not improbably be a good 
deal later than is supposed. 

As to the ao'e of these clusters of huts, their elaborate 
plan, not less than their more careful building, proves 
them to be a development from the ruder and simpler 
huts of stone. But this in no way determines their date, 
because it is not known at what period the building of 
"bee-hives" came in and went out in any given locality. 
There is reason to believe that some at least of the 
clustered huts were occupied in Romano-British times, 
and equal cause to believe that others belong to a later 
age. Prol)ably the type continued in use for many 



VII 



THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 



237 



centuries, and it may l»c taken as certain that sudi 
clusters, once ])uilt, would rarely be without occupants. 

Many of tlic liill-forts of Cornwall, especially in the 
south-western extremity of the peninsula, are merely 
enlarged examples of the plan seen at Chysoyster, 



Bosullow, &c 



Thus Chun Castle,^ crownincj a hill of 










S' sir-—/ 



f 
6 






•p ;^ 'i! ^ii ? ' ; '^ n ^ 'li-. 






^ / 



";?' 
/' 



Fic. 86. — Chun Castlk. 



709 feet, althougli now greatly ruinated, originally con- 
sisted (Fig. 86) of two concentric walls of dry -huilt masonry 



^ The illustration is after Borlasc. In the inset is the same work as 
represented on the 25-incl; O.M., which will show how terribly the ruins 
have suffered during tlie last century. Borlase mistook the remains of the 
huts surrounding the area for those of enclosures as sliown in his plan, and 
his Hgure is al)surdly regular ; but nevertheless lie proljably ol)tained a true 
notion of the general arrangement cand correct measurements of the walls 
and fosses. 



238 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

with a single eiitrniice lowaids the west. The outer wall, 
auiToundecl by a fosse 19 feet wide, was but 5 feet in 
thickness, but as much as 10 feet high in places. It 
was separated by an intervallum of 30 feet from the 
inner wall, which was 13'G inches in thickness and about 
5 feet in height, enclosing an area of about 60 yards 
in diameter. The central part of the inner area seems 
to have been clear of any traces of huts, but the ruins 
of bee-hive dwellings were traceable round the entire 
circuit of the wall. They averaged 18 — 20 feet in 
diameter, but one w^as as large as 30 by 26 feet. The 
entrance showed a peculiar plan, and the corresponding 
opening in the outer wall w^as not immediately opposite, 
but somewhat to the left. Traces of transverse walls 
could be made out in the intervallum, very similar to 
those observed at Crellas, Bodennar. There was a well 
within the area. 

The fortress of Castell-an-Dinas (Fig. 87) shows much the 
same plan, with the addition of a third wall, and apparently 
a vallum of earth and stone surrounding the wdiole. The 
width of the third wall is said to have been 5 feet, of 
the second 13 feet, while the third and innermost was 
much slighter than the second. The innermost wall 
enclosed an area of 190 feet in diameter, the intervallum 
between it and the second wall being about 30 yards. 
Within the area is a well, and on the westward slope 
of the hill another.- The steps leading to the latter are 
still to be seen. Close to the very centre of the fortress 
stood an isolated bee-hive hut, now obliterated by the 
erection of a particularly foolish " folly" on the spot. All 
round the inner wall had once stood other huts arranged 



^ Some two miles E.S.E. of St. Columb Major is another Castell-an-Dinas, a 
contour fort of C acres, encircling with three concentric rings of earth and 
stone the summit of a conical hill. Here, too, there are said to be traces of 
a well and of a tank for rain water, tliere being at the present time no spring 
on the lull. 



VII 



THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 239 



as at Chun Castle.' There are siiiiihi.r liill-casth.'s on 
Tregonan near Helston (the inner wall 15 feet in height), 
on Trencrom near 8t. Erth, and at Caer Biaii and P)artiiie 
Hill, beyond Sancreed. 

The facts that fortresses of precisely this type are 









i 






J 









^ X 



Fk;. 87. — Castkll-.vn-Djnas. 

abundant in some parts of Ireland, and that the English 
examples are most numerous in the parts of Cornwall into 
which Irish settlers are known to have made their way, go 
to support the theory that the type is of Irish origin. It 
has been identified with the dun of the Irish kinus, and 



' Illustration after W. Cotton in Archeolocjin. His figure is, of course, 
much too geonietricjil in drawini^, but the real plan and measurements 
of the ruins were far more readily determinable iu his day than tliey 
now are. 



240 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

old Irish laws are cited which dechire, not only that every 
king must have his own dun, but that every dun must have 
two walls and a moat, i.e., a ditch. The further theory 
that all dry-built fortresses are of Irish origin, or imitations 
of Irish works, can scarcely be justified ; stone forts would 
be built wherever stone was more easily used than earth, 
and there is no reason at all to suppose that such works 
as AVorlebury and Dolebury owe anything to any Irish 
influence ; nor is it to be supposed that all the stone forts 
of Scotland and of Wales, and they are multitudinous, 
were due to the same influence, although it may be true 
enough of some of them in those particular areas of AVales 
and Scotland which received settlers from Ireland. The 
Celts of Gaul built stone forts, and their kinsmen of south- 
eastern England only did not do so because they did not 
require such strongholds or because suitable stone was 
scarce. Pushed westward presently by the Romans, they 
found stone in plenty in the western and northern hills, 
and resumed there the practice of constructing stone forts, 
caers, cathairs, and castella on the hills. There is reason 
to believe that most of such forts are of comparatively 
late date, not older than the date of Caesar's coming. 
There may be exceptions : where earthworks are concerned, 
the exceptions are usually more numerous than the rule. 
But even if there were no evidence at all to work upon, 
it were better to underdate than to overdate them.^ 



1 A fortress of this class was lately excavated at Dunbuie, near Dumbarton, 
and the character of the "finds" there discovered is still matter of debate 
amongst archieologists. The fort Avas remarkable for its small size and for 
the extraordinary thickness of its wall, for there was but one — a solid, dry- 
built wall ISj feet thick, surrounding an almost exactly circular area of 
30 feet diameter only. The single entrance, 3 feet 2 inches wide, was provided 
with guard-i'ooms on right and left, built into the mass of the wall. There 
was no trace of other huts. Hearths and cooking-stones were found, but no 
sign of pottery or of metal. But the most puzzling feature was the character 
of the ornamentation of the weapons and implements, which were mostly of 
bone or of slate ; they are elaborately decorated with lines, circles, and cup- 
markings in a style unknown elsewhere in Britain, and alleged to be pi'e- 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 241 

In some parts of Scotland, especially in the more remote 
northern counties, the Celtic population of historical times 
developed a peculiar type of stronghold known as duns, 
hi'ochs, or Picts' Towers.^ These are perfectly circular 
shell-keeps of dry-built stone, open to the sky, with a 
diameter in one instance of as much as 70 feet, and in the 
best-preserved example — -Broch of Mousa, Shetland — a 
height of 40 feet.' Built with a pronounced external 
" batter," and with no opening save a single small door to 
break the fiat exterior surface, they resemble nothing so 
much as the ruinated trunks of gigantic windmills. The 
walls, averaging 13 feet in thickness, are solid to a 
height of 8 or 9 feet, except that occasionally there occur 
in the body of the wall, at ground-level, beehive chambers 
precisely like those at Chysoyster, and similarly approached 
from the inner area. The upper portion of the wall is 
always douljle, and is divided by floors of flag-stones into 
a series of galleries running entirely round the well of the 
tower, and approached by a single stairway which ascends 
from floor to floor. Light is obtained from windows 
opening upon the court. The Broch of Mousa has six such 
galleries, and may originally have had more, for in this, as 
in all other examples, the upper part has fallen to ruin. 
The single doorway is but 2^ — 3 feet wide. It was closed 
by doors of timber secured by bars, and furnished with 
guard-houses on one or both sides. In many examples 
there is very careful provision for drainage, and while in 
some cases there is a well within the area, in others 



Celtic. Whatever be the ultimate verdict upon these finds, the fortress 
itself can scarcely be anything but an ancient work. For a discussion of 
the matter see Dr. Munro's Archwoloay and False Antlipiities. 

' The Scottish and Irish dun is the Cornish din, the Welsh di)u(s. Jhnrh 
is the same as the Saxon bnnjh, burh, "fortress." Their attribution to the 
Picts may, perhaps, be correct only so far as the Picts were a Celtic 
(Brythonic) people, though innnigrant into Britain before the Goidels. 

- When perfect they may liave stood as much as (iO feet high, or e\on 
more. 

R 



242 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the water supply lies outside, npprouelied by covered 
passages. Occasionally the approach is covered by out- 
works in the shape of fosses and ramparts. Exploration 
has shown that these constructions, which are mostly 
confined to the north and west coasts of Scotland and to 
the adjacent isles, mainly belong to the post-Roman period 
(VI — -X centuries),^ and were the work of a highly- 
developed agricultural people, familiar with the use of 
iron, and gifted with a decided artistic sense. They were 
probably erected as towers of refuge against pirates, and 
especially the Northmen. It is recorded that the Broch 
of Mousa successfully stood a siege by the redoubtal»Ie 
Earl Harold of Orkney as late as 1 155.^ 

The " Round Towers " of Ireland — there are also three 
in Scotland, including a fine example at Brechin, 86 feet 
in height — have no relation to the Picts' Towers. They 
are mortar-built structures of great height — that of 
Ardmore is 95 feet high — intended to serve the double 
purpose of watch-towers and of storehouses for the 
treasures of the church or monastery close to which they 
were invariably built ; and they are known to be works of 
the IX — XII centuries, perhaps modelled upon similar 
constructions in Switzerland (Canton of St. Gall), Italy 
(Ravenna), and elsewhere.^ Their Irish name, Cloichtheach, 

^ Some of them may be earlier, and some of the relics found on such sites 
belong to no recognized culture of the British Isles. But just as it is not 
wise to date any work by the latest relics found within its area, so is it un- 
wise to date it by the earliest. 

2 See ArchteuUHjia Scotica, vol. v. There are more than 200 such brochs, 
or sites of brochs, in Sutherland, Caithness, and the Orkneys and Shetlands 
alone ; there are many in Ross, Inverness, and Argyle ; others in less 
numbers in the shires of Forfar, Perth, and Stirling ; and the type occurs 
even as far south as Berwickshire. The best-preserved are the Broch of 
Mousa (Shetland) and the diDis of Dornadilla (Sutherland) and Carloway 
(Lewis). Almost all stand at low levels, most commonly on the actual shores 
of lochs, or on islands lying close off shore. 

^ Good Irishmen persist in believing them to be at least 2,000 years old. 
These figures are, to the rustic, only a manner of speaking. The writer has 
heard an Englishman, pointing to the old mill at Guy's Cliff, Warwick, 
declare that it was "Saxon, at least 3,000 years old." 



VII THE PRIMiriVE HOMESTEAD 243 

.signifies " hell-towers." Tliere arc I I'O in frelaiid. That at 
Cloiidalkiii, only live miles from Uuhlin, is one of tlie 
best examples. 

In districts where suitahle stone was not to he found, 
e.g., upon the chalk or sand, the hut was usually made 
simply by sinking a circular pit and covering tliis with a 
roof of boughs, turves, &c., what was lackino- in heio-lit 
being compensated by the extra depth of the pit. As such 
boughs, together with their covering of turf, heather, 
rushes, skins, or what not, would cjuickly disappear, there 
remain on the surface no visible traces, except where the 
pit itself, usually all but filled up by the accumulated soil 
of years, is still descernible.^ But covered as they 
invariably are with turf, or more often than not 
concealed by heath and other dense overgrowth, a quick 
eye is required to detect such pits at all, and as extreme 
a caution in attributing to them either date or purpose 
without the evidence of excavation. The finding of Hint 
chips in any quantity, or the presence of ashes indicative 
of ancient hearths, may l)e taken as fairly good evidence of 
their true character, and this is as much evidence as is 
usually forthcoming without laborious digging. But 
such pits are by no means all of great age, and if the rash 
speculator would avoid falling into his own pit, an 
acquaintance with the geology of the locality is a primary 
necessity. The abortive or abandoned diggings made in 
the search for Hints," building-stone, chalk, gravel, and 



' It is implied in Ciesar's account of his expeditions into south-east lUifain 
that the buildings of the natives were easily destructible by lire. He nowhere 
says anything to suggest that stone was employed. So Diod. Siculus 
(v. 21), T(jf oiKijaeis (VTfXfli; e^ovaiv, (k to)v KiiKd^iav rj ^I'Xcov tu nXfiiTTop 
(ivyKeiixfuas, "such dwellings as they have are makeshift erections of straw 
or wood." So Strabo (§ 197) describes the huts of the Belgic (Jauls as 
"constructed of planks and wickerwork." 

- It must be remembered that flint, like gravel, is still a valuable eartii 
product, extensively used for purposes of building and road-making. ( )ld 
saw-pits (recognizable by their oval or oblong shape) are connnonly found in 
or near camps in wooded areas, and not seldom pass for i)rimitivo dwellings. 

li '2 



244 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

mineral ores may all leave traces closely resembling 
those of genuine pit-dwellings ; and though such diggings 
may themselves be of prehistoric date, they are on the 
other hand very frequently only the work of yesterday. 
Within the last century the miners of the Mendips built for 
themselves both furnaces and huts, of which the situation, 
the plan, the rudely coursed pitching, and the general ap- 
pearance in decay, all resemble most closely the huts of 
the prehistoric age. An exactly similar method was until 
lately frequently used in making water-holes, which in 
consequence become known as Roman wells or as hut- 
circles, according to the imagination of the tyro. 

In Norfolk, where stone was so scarce that the mediaeval 
builders built even their church-towers of flint alone, and 
therefore of a round pattern, there are an extraordinary 
number of pits. At Weybourne, on the north coast, four 
miles west of Sheringham, are hundreds of them on the 
high ground overlooking a strong spring. All seem to 
have been made according to one plan. A circle of stones, 
from 6 to 20 feet in diameter, was first formed, and the 
soil within was then removed to a depth of from 2 to 6 
feet, and banked up on the outer side of the circle. In 
some cases the floors seem to have been rudely paved. 
Nothino; remains to show of what materials the roofs were 
built, but doubtless of boughs, turves, and rushes.^ There 
are groups of similar pits on Beeston Heath, west of 
Runton, locally termed the "hills and holes"; others to 
the south of the curious little camp at Runton ; and yet 
others further away on Marsham Heath, two miles south 
of Aylsham ; while on Aylmerton Heath, where they 
go by the name of the " Shrieking Pits," they number more 
than two thousand. Local tradition oddly attributes 



' The Belgic huts were "dome-shaped" — i.e., of the bee-hive form— 
" with very thick roofs," says Strabo (§ 197). This imjjlies that they were 
not roofed with either stone or shingles. In some cases (e.g., at Saddles- 
combe, in the South Downs) che roof is thought to have been of clay. 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 245 



/J. T/pt 4 
f^tfardon 




.CAaU 









CC/ay //oor ^^^ 







C 3ee]\\vt 






D E ash Coast 
Type 







£& 



•>av-eeC /■iaer' 






Fig. 88. — Sections of Huts. 



246 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

them to the days of Thomas Cromwell and the Peasant 
Rising. On Hayes Common, in Kent, is another well- 
known site, extending east and west of the village of Hayes 
over a distance of one and a half miles. " The enclosures, 
entrenchments, pit-villages, and tumuli are the finest in 
Kent for their extent, preservation, and the great number 
of pit-dwellings, exceeding 150. In fact, they cannot 
probal)ly be matched nearer than Wiltshire or Dorset- 
shire," ^ 

Dwellings of this type, if they were to be habitable at 
all, must of necessity be built upon dry sites ; and as a 
matter of fact, whenever they lie at low levels, it is 
usually upon sandy or gravelly soils. A curious 
exception is recorded on Sutton Common, near Askern, 
Yorks., in the marshy levels bordering the Don. Here, 
amongst other less determinable works, is a complete 
enclosure of 800 feet in length from north to south, and in 
width tapering from 400 feet at the north to 200 feet at 
the southern end. Its defences consist of one wide vallum 
with exterior fosse, carried entirely round the area ; a 
second similar line of works upon the north and east ; 
and at the north-east corner yet a third vallum placed as 
a breastwork to the outer ditch." The whole of the 



^ W. M. Flinders Petrie in Arch. Gantiana, vol. xiii., p. 12. 

- Absurdly described as a Roman work by Rev. Scott F. Surtees, A 
Roman Gamp in South Yorkshire (1868). Its water-logged situation alone is 
sufficient to controvert any such theory of its origin. There were traceable, 
in a right line leading to the western entrance, the stumps of old logs, 
which, it is suggested, represent the remains of a causeway. In Cusworth 
Wood, on the adjacent higher ground, were a number of other pit-dwellings, 
arranged in rows and pitched with stone inside. These were about 4 feet 
deep. Describing the original appearance of these British huts, the writer 
goes on to say : "I could point you out a charcoal-burner's hut in the woods 
close by, of the same pattern and build and material, no doubt, as those of 
older days." In The Evolvtion of the English Hoii.sp (S. O. Addy) are given 
some particulars of the building of such modern survivals of the cutiaii'r 
Gwyddelod, with an illustration (also a Yorkshire si)ecimen). Something 
much the same, but less carefully built, is still affected by the half-gipsy 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 247 

surrounding giound is wet and s\vanip\', and the actual 
area of the camp scarcely less so. This must lie the 
explanation of the position of tlie dwelling-pits, indiffer- 
ently round and oval, which are set at irregular intervals 
actually on the broad inner vallum, to the numl)er of thirty 
or more. The spot must have l)een the refuge of fugitives 
driven from the more habitable dry ground above the 
marshes, and compelled to make what shift they might 
in the way of dwellings. 

Besides the pits intended to serve as dwellings, the 
prehistoric peoples constructed others of varying shape 
and size and depth to serve as storehouses ; and other 
pits were made for the reception of ru1)bish, for water- 
lioles, or even for interments. In the great fortress 
of Worlebury are scores of pits, seemingly of the 
Iron Age, not more than 6 feet across and not so 
deep. In one of them was found a quantity of grain. 
In another in Oxfordshire was found a large store of lime. 
Within Highdown Camp, Sussex, was found a large rect- 
angular pit excavated in the chalk, with steps at either 
end, prol)ably likewise intended as a store-chamber, and 
apparently of the Bronze Age. At Fisherton, near 
Salisbury, was found a group of curious underground 
pits of conical section, the entrance ])eing ])y narrow, 
sloping shafts which expanded below into circular chambers 
from 7 to 10 feet in diameter. These seem to have 
been constructed in the Stone Age. In Kent and 
Dorsetshire have been found other pits of that age but 
of the ordinary " hut-circle " type. It appears, there- 
fore, that, wherever there was no stone availal)le, pits 
of more or less similar kinds were constructed by 
peoples of the Stone, the Bronze, and the Iron Ages in- 
differently. 

"•Botchers" of the Buckinghanisliiro l>eecli-\v(>o(ls. Duos tliis (li,ik'ct-word 
preserve an echo of A.-S. hoc, "beech " '! 



248 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Constructed on a more extensive scale souterrains of 
the Fislierton type are known as dane-pits or dene- 
holes/ There are, or have been, dene-holes in other 
localities (e.g., near Dunstable and Chipping Norton, 
and in the vicinity of Bexley, Crayford, and Chisle- 
hurst) but the best-known examples are those of Essex, 
where in Hangman's Wood alone (at Little Thurrock, 
one mile from Grays) there are said to be as many 
as seventy-two. Explored some years ago, they were 
found to be of fairly uniform dimensions and plan : 
a central shaft is sunk straight down into the chalk 
here at a considerable depth, expanding at 60 feet or 
more below the surface into a spacious chamber varying 
from 16 to 22 feet in height. From this central chamber 
open out others, as if from a central hall, but with no 
attempt at regularity of plan ; in some cases the process 
of making a second dene-hole close by has broken through 
the chalk wall of another, the two thus forming one 
complicated cluster of chambers. Their construction 
shows a highly developed knowledge of the art of mining, 
for the floors are in many cases nearly 100 feet below the 
surface, and in the case of those in Hangman's Wood, 
some 50 feet of loose soil, clay, and Thanet sand had to 
be pierced before the solid chalk was reached. Li some 
instances there are discoverable what seem to be the 
traces of a lining to the shaft."' 

Not to mention half-a-dozen less likely theories as to 
the purpose of these excavations, it need only be said that 
some authorities believe they were made in the search for 



^ Another name is Cunobelin's Gold Mines. About Rheims the wine- 
growers store their champagnes in similar denes, which are numerous there. 
They are probably of much the same age as the English examples, and, like 
those, they go down some 80 feet vertically. 

^ One of these, a deep dene-hole in Joyden's Wood, Bexley, Kent, is sunk 
witliin the area of wliat seems to be an earthwork of Roman character, lying 
upon the line of a British trackway. 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 249 

Hint, others that they were the granaries of a people of 
the Late-Celtic age.^ The Chislehurst caves, in particular, 
have long enjoyed a blood-curdling notoriety as the scene 
of " Druidical " rites, and all kinds of fancy names have 
been given to different parts of them — " treasure-chambers,'' 
"altars," "ambulatories," and so on. Saner investigation 
may be said to have established the fact that these 
particular caves are of a very recent origin indeed, and 
were made simply in the process of digging out the chalk. 
Some dene-holes may be much older, even of liate-Celtic 
date, but most of them are indubitably modern ; \ and, 
whatever their date, the purpose of their making was 
probably always the same. 



' Diodorus Siculus is constantly quoted as authority for the assertion that 
the Britons stored their grain in underground pits. What he does say (v. 21) 
is that they reaped the ears only, and stored them in roofed buildings {rovs 
(TTaxyi cnroTffjLvoiTfs mi drfaavpi^oures els ras KarafrTfyov? olnTjaeis). Pytheas of 
Marseilles is (juoted also as saying that they garnered the ears and burnt the 
straw. This was the common method followed in classical Italy, and Varro 
says that the harvest thus gathered might be stored for fifty years without 
detriment, provided due precautions were taken against damp. The custom 
of storing grain in pits prevailed in countries as difierent as .Spain and 
Cappadocia, Thrace and N. Africa (Smith's Classical Diet., vol. i., p. G4/>). 
But Diodorus goes on to add that the Britons were said to take out of their 
granaries for daily use the oldest portion of the contents. How they could 
do this if the grain were merely dumped into a deep pit is not apjjarent ; it 
might, of course, be done if each new harvest were stored in a separate 
chamber of a dene-hole, but not possibly be managed with such a simple 
shaft as, e.j/., those found at Cadbury (p. 28.3)and Mount Caburn (p. 284). 
Yet both these shafts have been imagined to be Celtic grain-pits. Un- 
threshed grain would j'l'obably keep much better above ground, and the 
words of Diodorus may very well refer to such airy Iniildings as those 
mentioned al)ove, p. 227, note. 

" There are men still alive who worked in the Cliislehurst "caves" some sixty 
years ago. One feature of these is the presence of a well within the workings. 
The writer has talked with a person who harboured no romantic notions a])out 
Druidical water-supply. The well was built, ho said, by Mr. 8o-and-.So 
(he knew the man and his residence) " in the sixties. He tons a curious sort 
of man,'' he added. " He nvtnted plentij of ijoixl icatcr.'' The shafts, which 
are mistaken for the sole means of entrance to the supjiosed underground 
dwellings, were, he explained, made for hauling up the chalk from the 
mine. 



250 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Compared with these, the " earth -houses " ^ of Scotland 
are very primitive contrivances. They are narrow, hori- 
zontal shafts, sometimes GO feet long, sunk beneath the 
surface, dry- walled with unhewn stone, and roofed with 
flags. In the more spacious specimens, the successive 
courses of the side walls are gradually brought together 
in bee-hive fashion, until the whole can be covered in 
with large flags. The shaft is sometimes chambered, but 
not often. Covered with earth, the whole made a very 
effective cellar or grain-pit, although it was so near the 
surface that a modern plough generally breaks into it. 
The evidence of the remains discovered in them shows 
them to be post-Roman, and in some cases at least to have 
served as hiding-places at a very late period ; in fact, 
underground chambers of smaller size were still made and 
used for that purpose in the remoter western islands as 
recently as the beginning of the eighteenth century. 

Nothing a])out the dene-holes is earlier than the Late- 
Celtic time, and very often it is nothing like so early ; the 
Fisherton Pits belong to the Neolithic Age ; but older 
than either are the flint-diggings of Cissbury and Brandon. 
Flint " knapping " is still the staple industry of Brandon, 
and it seems to have flourished on the same spot during 
an unbroken series of centuries since the Neolithic Age. 
Six miles north of Brandon, on high ground near Weeting, 
is a series of pits of various depths and sizes known locally 
as Grime's Graves. The locality had long been known to 
abound in beautifully worked flint implements, and the 

1 Also called yircl- or eide-houses, with the same meaning, and Picts' 
houses. They are common in many localities, sometimes occurring in groups 
of some size, e.f/., on Clova Moor, Aberdeenshire, where there are more than 
forty together. The Cornish fomjovs {e.g., the Fougou of Trewoofe) are 
similar, but some of these latter are the work of very recent smugglers. The 
writer has talked with an old North-Devon man, who proudly l)oasted that 
his grandfatlier was the best smuggler on all that coast, and declared that lie 
alone possessed the secret of certain caves — foitgou is only the Brythonic ogof, 
" cave " — in which the smuggled goods were concealed amongst the Exmoor 
hills. He refused to divulge his secret. 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 251 

explanation was forthcoming when some of the pits were 
explored. They proved to be the mouths, now clioked 
with rubbish, of shafts sunk into the chalk in search of 
flint. One of them was carried down for 80 feet, with 
lateral galleries wherever a workable belt of Hint was 
found. ^ The width of the main shaft, which had first to 
j)ass through several feet of loose and sandy soil, w-as 
sometimes as much as 28 feet, and the side galleries were 
S^ feet high. Within them w^ere found some of the 
miners' appliances — stone implements, a deer's horn which 
had been used as a pick, and small chalk cressets for 
lighting purposes. These relics showed the mines to 
date from the early part of the Neolithic Age, yet man 
had already learnt, not only that freshly-dug flint is more 
tractable than that which has been weathered by exposure 
on the surface, but also that certain kinds of dug flints 
w^ere more suitable for his purpose than were others. The 
great 70-foot pits of Cissbury (Fig. 214), explored on 
several occasions, tell the same tale of a neolithic com- 
munity permanently, and apparently peacefully, engaged 
in the flint-mining industry, and certainly gathering wealth 
therefrom, whether by trading the finished or unfinished 
implements, or both. There are other places in England 
where flint was mined and worked in very earliest times, 
but no other centres seem to have afforded a stone so much 
valued as those of Cissbury and of Brandon, and, so iav as 
is known, no other mining settlement reached to the 
prosperity indicated by the immense area, the extensive 
workiuQ-s, and the liuoe fortifications of Cissburv."' 

From a very remote age, therefore, neolithic man 
knew enough about mining to satisfy all his modest 
requirements in the way of dwelling-})laces and store- 

* The flint nodules lie in parallel bands in the chalk. Not all cli.vlk jno- 
duces flint of tlie same (|ua]ity, and thv. bands vary in tliickiioss and in 
frequency. The crumbling of the cliffs at Seafurd, Sussex, lias exposed a 
fine section of flint-bearing chalk, just under the Britisli oanij). 

- For a description of this camp, see p. 647. 



252 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

houses. Accordiiio' to the character of the soil on the 
particular spot, his huts would be built above the surface 
or sunk beneath it, their height and depth and size 
varying with the differences of culture, wealth, and ex- 
perience.^ But when one looks for the traces of habita- 
tions of any kind within or about camps, they are not by 
any means always apparent. In stony districts they are 
easily detected, unless agriculture has removed them, the 
more easily as the surface of the ground in or about such 
constructions, as, e.g., Grim's Pound, was usually pretty 
well cleared of loose stone, to be used in building walls 
and huts. In the south-western counties, therefore, in 
Wales, and in the hills north of the Craven district, there 
is usually evidence enough, and many of the Scottish 
hill-forts show such traces in profusion. But in other 
localities, where the conditions would seem to have been 
equally favourable, there are few or no remains of huts, 
e.g., on the Mendips, in or near such fine works as Dolebury, 
Maesbury and Slacker's Hill, and on Exmoor. At lower 
levels generally, and everywhere where stone is scarce, 
the plough and the builder have between them obliterated 
almost every trace, and only those have escaped which 
were sunk to great depths, like the dene-holes and the pits 
at Fisherton, or which by a lucky accident stood upon lands 
never enclosed or ploughed, like those of the Commons of 
Kent and Norfolk. Even on the Chalk Downs they had 
little chance to survive, for as there was no building-stone 
they must have been simply and literally pits '^ with 

1 Speaking generally, man's progression has been upwards, even in the 
matter of his dwelling-places ; and the older the hut, the deeper the pit. The 
total span of his progress might be measured by the distance which separates 
those who dwelt in the Fisherton pits from those who occujjy the topmost 
floor in the latest American "sky-scraper." 

2 Similar circular depressions also mark the sites of the refuse-pits so 
frequent on Roman or Romano-British sites, e.g., at Hod Hill. They difler 
from the true hut-pit in having a more funnel-shaped section, whereas the 
hut-builder was naturally concerned to have as wide and flat a floor space as 
might be. 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 25.3 

("overiiios of hoiiiihs; and the wastace of Ncais would 
rapidly fill up the pits, exeept where, as at Eggardoii, tliey 
were of unusual depth. Moreover, there are few areas of 
the Downs which liave not been ploughed over since the 
days of the hut-l)uilders. It is therefore hardly matter of 
surprise that there should remain few visil)le traces of 
huts in all the formidable fortresses of Wiltshire and 
Dorsetshire. They once existed within Maiden Castle ; 
they still remain at Eggardon, at Hod Hill,^ at Chalbury, 
Martinsell, and Durrington walls ; and it is reasonable to 
suppose that they once existed at or near other similar 
camps of those counties. Amongst the camps of the 
South Downs there are, or were, huts at Cissl)ury, Mount 
Caburn, The Trundle, and HoUingbury.^ It can certainly 

1 For Hod Hill, see Arrhaol. JoHiiud, vol. lix. (1900). The pits were 
of the usual type, varying in diameter from less than 6 to more than 9 feet, 
and in depth from 3i to Qh feet ; and excavation has proved that they wei'e 
occupied in Late-Celtic times. But two points of special interest were 
determined : firstly, that an original pit had in more than one instance been 
so completely abandoned as to be utilized for an interment, and again in- 
habited when the interment was forgotten ; secondly, that in a numljer of 
cases two or three \ntH were enclosed within a circular ])ank and fosse of 
slight relief (Fig. 30), as it were, miniature replicas of the arrangement 
seen in the central citadel of ChCin Castle, etc. 

^ Pits are to be found at or near most of the South Down camps, *â– .;/., 
Harrow Hill and Wolstonbury, but they are not necessarily dwelling-pits. 
Only exploration can decide whether they were really such, or rather Hint- 
diggers' pits or similar excavations. Mr. H. S. Thorns has quite lately 
detected a number of hut-pits on Saddlescoml)e, Sussex, adjacent to the 
Devil's Dyke. They had clay floors and central hearths ; and the latter fact 
shows that they can have had no central strut to the roof. It has been 
argued, from the small size of the pits at Mount Caburn, that these can never 
have been dwelling-places ; while from the fact that traces of grain have 
been discovered in sucli small pits at Worlebury and elsewhere, the inference 
has been drawn that those at Caburn also were intended for store-pits. But 
these pits are not a whit more exiguous than many of the bee-hive huts of the 
south-west counties, which admittedly were dwelling-places. And if these 
])its represent only the store-houses of a people, where are the remains of 
that people's dwellings ? For presumal)ly they did ni>t live at any distance 
from their l^elongings. Primitive man was the best judge of his own 
I'equirements, and he may liave been (juite as comfortable in a 4-foot pit as 
in those exiguous "mound-dwellings" of NVales and the North out of which 
the " Celtic imagination " has evolved the theory of a pygniy race. 



254 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

never 1»e argued that, where there are no cliseover- 
able traces of huts to-day, there never existed any. 
The case of Maiden Castle is in point : no vestiges of 
any dwellings were known there until they were abun- 
dantly revealed by accident in the digging of a pond. 
Judging from the analogy of the forts where huts are 
still traceable, and from the evidence of such few excava- 
tions as have been made, it is probaljle that all the hill- 
top fortresses were l)uilt to shelter permanent popula- 
tions, and were not mere asyla to be occupied on 
emergency only. And it must not be forgotten that the 
huts of which we have remains were necessarily only 
those best calculated to survive. There may very well 
have been many, even a majority of the population, who 
never rose to the dionitv of such elaborate dwellinos, 
living rather in the rudest of shelters like those of gipsies, 
who leave behind them no other traces than the ashes of 
their camp-fires, and even these for but a few days or 
weeks. It is known that many of the huts were built of 
wattle and daub,^ that is, of wicker plastered over with 
clay or covered with turves, and of such there could 
survive no trace except in the rarest instances. And 
lastly it is quite likely that, in the cases of certain of the 
larger camps, the population found shelter in the fosses 
as much as in the area, which was presumably given over 
to the cattle ; but the fosses of camps have seldom been 
explored further than by running a trench across at one 
or two points to determine their original dimensions and 
the form of the original section. In several cases it has 
been proved that the fosse was the usual cooking-place of 
the occupants," and it is quite likely that it was, where 



1 At Mount Cabuni, Hod Hill, the Lake-Village by Glastonbury, and else- 
where. 

- Notably at War Ditches, Cambridge, and at Wallingtou. In the former 
case the cooking-pots, too frail to stand fire, were set upon flat griddles of 
thin stone resting on four struts of l)urnt clay ; and there were also found 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 255 

large ciiougli, the site of inaiiy of their dwel lings, the iiKtic 
so as huts of slight eoustructioii must have been instantly 
knoeked to pieees if built within the same area as that 
where the cattle were herded. It was to obviate this that 
the design seen at Winkelbury was inti'oduced. But 
probably a majority of the population dwelt outside the 
area in shelters of the frailest kind. The only thing for 
which the early peoples had to fight was their live-stock. 
Their dwellings offered nothing at all in the way of loot, 
for the owners could and did carry with them whatever 
else was theirs — their pots, their implements of war and 
of industry, their wives and children — -leaving to the 
raider nothing but heir pot-boilers. 

The conditions of life when the hill-forts were occupied 
must have been very much like those which still obtained 
centuries later on the Border.' That unliappy debatable 
land, bristling with fortresses of British and Roman and 
Norman or mediasval dates, knew little peace until the 
Union ; and as late as 1596 it was declared that there 
were estimated to have occurred there a thousand murders 
within the preceding nine years, and thefts to the value of 
£100,000 — say half a million of modern money. The 
great families living on or near it regarded it as free 
warren, and so often as the lady of the house found her 
larder growing l)are, she served up to her lord a dish con- 
taining only a pair of spurs ; and he desiring no further 
hint, started forthwith upon another raid, burning what 
could be burned, slaying where resistance was offered, and 
carrying away " nowts " by the hundred to replenish his 
own byres. The only dwellings worthy of the name were 
the castles of the Douglases, the Buccleuchs, Rercies, 



thick discs of the same clay intended to be slipped between the struts and 
the griddle to vary the distance between it and the Hames. In Wallington 
camp the stone griddles were rephiced by Hat tiles of burnt clay pierced with 
irregular holes. See above, pp. 140 142. 

- See an article by the late Bishop Creighton in ArihiioL •fumiittl, vol. xlii. 



256 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Howards, and Dacres, and the pele-towers ^ of Armstrongs, 
Kerrs, and Scotts, Graemes, Fenwicks, Liddles, Musgraves, 
and Featherstonliauglis — comfortless and gloomy l)iiildings 
of massive masonry with rooms, as dark and confined 
as cells, designed only to shelter refugees until the 
marauders, of whom they live in daily dread, should have 
passed on. Lesser folk had perforce to be content with 
nothing better than " earthen and wooden huts contain- 
ing nothing worth attack," and roofed with some material 
calculated to resist fire. Their food was meat and milk, 
barley, oats, and peasemeal. "They had neither bread 
nor wine," They had no furniture and no utensils other 
than their weapons and their kail-pot. Their very 
beggary was the best safeguard of such dwellings : what 
the raiders sought and took was the scanty and 
miserable livestock.^ Antedated by centuries the picture 
may serve very well for what prevailed even in Roman 
days upon the Welsh and Scottish borders, and at a still 
earlier date in many nearer parts of Britain, 

A good deal has of late been written about the " cattle- 
ways " of the hill-forts,^ i.e., the well-marked tracks upon 



' Pele, Pile, and Pale are one and the same word. Pcle meant first a 
stake (the Roman vallus) ; secondly, a palisade of stakes, a stockade, an 
enclosure defended by a palisaded Avail (vallum) ; thirdly, a castle, and more 
particularly a small castle, or tower ; and fourthly (sixteenth century), the 
pele-tower of the Border. Similarly, the wall and rampart of a pele was a 
pele-dyke. If there was a rampart there was a fosse ; and by " pele- 
tower" one understands usually a "tower-built house" surrounded by 
fosse and vallum. 

- Bishop Creighton, I.e. He cites the experiences of Aeneas Sylvius Picco- 
lomini, an eye-witness, in 1435, who summed up the character of the land 
in the ejjithets, "uninhabitable, terrible, uncultivated." Some of the 
details of the picture are filled in by Thos. Carrick in llie Borderland in the 
Olden Time. 

^ See Neolithic Dewjwnds and Cattlewaijs. The instances there cited are 
particularly Cissbury (p. 647) and Figsbury (p. 574). The authors do not sug- 
gest any reason why similar tracks should not be equally prominent about 
any other considerable camp of the chalk-hills, but it is a fact that in many 
cases they are not discoverable at all, although the conditions appear to have 
been the same. 



vii THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 257 

the hillsides aI)ouL them, scored, it is .suggested, l)V the feet 
of the euttle ;is they passed to ciiid fro between tlie camp 
and their pasturage. It has been assumed that they must 
necessarily be of the same age as the camp, and the latter 
))eing assumed to be neolithic, the cattle-ways have been 
so styled likewise. Unfortunately there is very scanty 
evidence, if any, to prove the antiquity of such trackways, 
which are rapidly formed in certain soils and as rapidly 
assume all the appearance of age. Even if tlie\' were as 
ohl as is assumed, there is no showing that they are due 
to cattle only ; and seeing that similar tracks lead from 
one British village to another on the Downs of Wiltshire 
and Dorset, it would appear that the ordinary intercourse 
of the times was enough to produce theni.^ But there is 
good reason to 1»elieve the trackways to be in many cases 
of quite recent formation, and it is more than likely that 
the camps have frequently Ijeen used as grazing-grounds 
since the turf covered them. Such a fortress as Cissbury, 
with its GO acres of grass and high ranqwrts, ottered a 
very convenient pasturage and fold in one to the farmers 
and Hockmasters of any period ; and had it been so used 
for but a few years only, the constant tread of a small 
herd of horned cattle was l)Ound to wear tracks enouo-h 

o 

along their usual routes. The further assumption that 
because such tracks frequently lead to ponds wet or dry, 
these ponds are therefore of Neolithic Age, is (piite 
unwarrantable, and can be shown to be untiue. It is not 
easy to see how even excavation could hope to establish very 

' The Celts had carts, for instance, and also war-cars ; and though it is not 
suggested that the latter caused the trackways about the hill-forts, it has 
been argued tliat there must have been roads in Scotland (and <i fuitiuti in 
England) before the Rouiau time, liecause there were cars. Would it l)e 
argued further that, when the tribes went to war, they were careful to 
arrange for their battles to take place on ground such as we should think 
suitable for car-fighting '! Un(iuestionably there were roads of a sort, but 
the car-drivers were independent of them. Cjusar tells us that tiiey could 
handle their teams on steep hillsides with astonishing skill ; and there are 
farmers on the Downs who can do so to this day. 

â–ºS 



258 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Jetiiiitely the age of a trackway : it is certainly not «utti- 
ciently well established to allow of their being made the 
premisses from which to draw conclusions about the ponds. ^ 

As a general rule, the lower the level the less the 
stone available for building. The huts built upon lower 
levels must therefore have been very easily destroyed, and 
it is precisely upon these levels that the plough has had 
the best and longest opportunities to efface them. They 
survive only where by good fortune some piece of 
common-land has escaped cultivation. Elsewhere they 
were speedily destroyed, and their sites are to be traced 
only by flint flakes and other leavings of their ancient 
occupants. Every collector of flints is aware of the ex- 
tremely local character of the objects which he seeks : 
they abound on particular spots, perhaps at one corner of 
a particular field, while the surrounding soil will not yield 
a trace of human handiwork. Wherever such " prolific " 
spots occur must have once stood a neolithic settlement 
larger or smaller, and the limited area of such sites is 
exactly what was to be expected, for only in exceptional 
cases was the neolithic settlement of great extent. For 
every village covering an acre, there were probably twenty 
which did not cover half that space, and a hundred which 
boasted of but a dozen huts or so. If one were only sure 
that all such sites were contemporaneously occupied, it 
would be an easy matter to reconstruct the neolithic map 
of any district in which the flint-hunter has made ex- 
haustive researches. 

Down to a very late period portions of the populations 
of Scotland and Ireland continued to live a half amphibious 
life on crannogs,^ i.e., artificial islands formed near the 

' See further on this matter of trackways, Ch. XVIII, and for the dew- 
ponds, Ch. VIII. 

^ The word is derived from Irish crann, "tree " or "log," and answers 
to the English "pile-dwelling" and "lake-dwelling." They are mentioned 
amongst fortified strongholds of the Scots as late as 1608 — " Crannokis of 
the Yles." 



vii the: PRIMITIVK HOMKSTKAD 259 

shores ut lakes and tidal estuaries, ^ioi inaii\ lia\e thus 
far been Ijrouglit to liglit iu Eiigkiiid, hul thev were 
proluil)ly at one time numerous. Examples are kiiowii in 
Yorkshire (4) and Norfolk (i), witli min'e <luhious cases in 
Sulfolk (1), Shropshire (1), and atlledsorin Buekingham- 
shire ; l)ut the example par excellence in this country is 
the Lake-village at Meare, near Glastonl)ui\ . 

This seems to have been constructed in the manner 
common to all crannogs. Stone, gravel, clay, brushwood, 
and logs were sunk in the ])ed of some shallow sheet of 
water, until there was formed a foundation ^ fii-m and drv 
enough to carry a hut or huts of wicker-work or timber. 
The rude floor was made of logs overlaid with clay, and 
slabs of flat stone furnished a central hearth. Tiie gradual 
settling of the substructure under the weight of the wlioh' 
rendered it necessaiy from time to time to lay a new and 
higher floor, and excavation reveals the traces of each 
successive floor, in some cases as many as ten. The 
remains found upon the Yorkshire sites point generally to 
a people still in the Bronze Age, whereas the settlement at 
Meare, though certaiidy pre-Roman, is as certainly of Late- 
Celtic date, and indicates a degree of culture and art 
rather surprising in a people wdio continued to occupy a 
site seemingly so undesira]>le. They were expert woikers 
in metal and in carpentry : they enjoyed the benefits of a 
far-reaching commerce; and to judge from the number of 
separate dwellings — sixty-five — -were numerous as well as 
prosperous. It was n(jt the village of a people forced to 
adopt this way of life by circumstances, and therefore 
decadent, l)ut progressive and apparently masters of their 
own destiny. The staple of their food-supply was in 
fishing and hunting, 1)ut they possessed also domestic 



' Tlie Abhoys of Westminster .ind ("rowluiid, aiUDngst others, were built 
upon foundations of exactly tlie same artitioial character, the one in a Thames 
marsh, the other in the Fens. 

S l2 



26o EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chai>. 

animals/ wliieli tbiuid pasturage upon the adjoining shores 
of the swamp or upon the patches of higher ground 
amongst the fen, which betray by their Saxon names that 
they were still islands in the Saxon time. The gradual 
shrinkage of the fen, whether by embankment or drainage, 
or the slow elevation of the land, covered the entire 
village with one uniform depth of peat ; but the process 
of desiccation continuing, the softer and deeper peat 
surrounding the crannogs shrank and so left them as so 
many mounds just breaking the general level of the soil — 
obvious enough when once observed, but never noticed 
until 1893. The peat, moreover, having a peculiar power 
of preserving timber, the more perishable portion of the 
remains has escaped destruction — bowls of wood, boats 
hewn out of single logs, and the timber work of the 
dwellings. The entire area of the village was a rude oval 
measuring about 500 ])y 400 feet. It was entirely 
surrounded by a stockade of stout piles driven into the 
surrounding peat at irregular intervals. The only approach, 
save by ])oat, was along two narrow causeways, which 
stopped short at a distance of 12 or 14 feet from the 
actual cranuog, leaving a waterway some 6 feet deep, 
which must have been crossed by a sort of bridge. Close 
to the stockade were found a number of skulls, all showing 
unmistakable signs of ill-usage. They were of the long- 
headed Iberian type, and from their condition and situation 
it is supposed that they were the trophies of war — skulls of 
some hostile tribe, affixed in the customary fashion to the 
gates of the victors' stronghold.^ 

' Amongst the other finds was a cart-wheel. Most of the huts were 
round, but there were a few of oblong shape, and the frame-work of some of 
these was carefully and accurately mortized together. An oaken door was 
found. Amongst articles of luxury may be mentioned elaborate glass-ware, 
a box of dice, and a cock's spur. 

2 The inhabitants of the great fortress of Worlebury wei"e of the Iberian 
type, and it has been suggested that these skulls from Meare are the grim 
relics of some encounter l)etween the Lake-dwellers and the men of Worle- 



VII THE PRIMITIVK HOMESTEAD 261 

it is likely enough that otlier such settlements still 
await discovery in the wicle area of the Somersetshire 
levels,^ in the Fens of East AnoHa and similar localities ; 
but it is obvious that sites of this class can offer Init small 
resistance to the plough, and must disappear entirely when 
once the share has torn up their clay floorings and the 
flaQ--stones of the ancient hearths. What saved the villasre 
at Mcare was the poverty of the soil that hid it : there is 
no ploughing the 20-foot peat of Somersetshire, for it wdll 
grow nothing but a poverty-stricken grass. 

Scattered with some frequency over the Downs in 
Wiltshire and Dorset are the remains of villao;e settlements 
of Roman, post-Roman, and even pre-Roman date. The 
most common characteristic of these is their complete lack 
of any regular plan : they are usually just such haphazard 
accretions of huts and enclosures as in later days grew up 
into English villages. In those cases where a more regular 
disposition of the huts in streets or lines is discoverable, 
the settlement appears to be of later date, betraying the 
influence of Roman ideals of method. Their sites are as a 
rule marked only by a tangle of seemingly purposeless 
banks and trenches of very low relief, from which even 
excavation can restore only conjecturally the })robal»le 
position of hut and fence, roadway and containing ditches. 
The huts, which follow no regular design, were usually 
built of wattle-and-daub, and the fences dividing one small 
enclosure from another seem to have been either of the 



bury. It is scarcely necessary to go so far afield : there was a very large 
Iberian element in the population of the south-west, and the men of Meare 
must have had many nearer neighbours than those of Worlebury, twenty miles 
across the fens. There is no reason, indeed, why the skulls sliould not be 
those of their own community. It was customary to make a trophy of the 
.skull, not of the external foe only, but ecjually of the domestic offender. 
One of the skulls was tliat of a woman. Was she possibly the victim 
of exogamy, a bride stolen from some adjacent community ? 

' Confirmation of tliis comes at the moment of going to jn-ess, in the 
discovery of a second lake- village in the inunediate vicinity of Meare 
(July, I'.KKS). 



262 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

same materials or mere palisades of wood. The surround- 
ing trenches are so slight that they cannot have served for 
defence so much as for drainage. Many of these villages 
have wells, sometimes several of them, and the trackways 
leading from one village to another are frequently (juite 



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Fk;. 89. —British Village, Hampton Down. 

plainly traceahle. There is a remarkable al)sence of all 
masonry even of the most primitive kind, and the rubl)ish- 
pits reveal a decidedly low standard of culture. The 
inference is that the rural population of Roman Britain 
was poor and backward, if numerous ; that it was concerned 
mostly with cattle-farming and agriculture upon a small 
scale ; and that it reaped from the presence of its 
conquerors little l)enefit beyond the guarantee of the Pax 



VII THE PRIMITIVE HOMESTEAD 263 

Rortiana, wliicli ;it least eiial)l('<l it to disju'iisc with the 
building of any defensive works worth the name. 
Apparently the same phenomena asserted themselves then 
as now : the more capable and energetic part of the native 
population gathered about the Roman towns, and thus 
began a " rural exodus," which was not arreste<l until the 
occupation of the island by the Saxon tribes. A curious 
feature of these villages is the frequent presence of a large 
circular enclosure at or near one of the entrances, e.g., at 
Gussao:e Cow Down and at Turnworth, l)oth in Dorset. 

Between Marlborough and Amesbury are upwards of a 
dozen of these sites ; ^ others at Heale Hill, Woodcuts 
(excavated l)y Pitt-Rivers), and near Eggardon Hill. 
They lie commonly upon the slopes of the Downs rather 
than on the hill-tops, and they have been preserved 
because the soil was too poor to be worth ploughing. In 
fatter soils they have almost all perished. A number have 
been found in the hills of the northern counties. The 
tourists of half a century have made their pilgrimage 
to a well known Yorkshire example on Danby ^loor, 
near AVhitby. " It is," so they are assured, " of late 
date, the pits which mark the sites of the huts being 
arranged in two roughly parallel rows, with an open 
street between. The external defences arc of the 
slightest. At one end (west) is one of the peculiar 
circular enclosures already noticed, with a diameter 
of 35 feet, and a number of barrows and ' Druidical ' 
stones lie immediately adjacent. The huts number upwards 
of forty, with an average depth of 1^- feet, and 
diameters from 3 to 8 feet. The width of the 
street is 20 feet or so." As a matter of fact this is no 
village-site at all : the pits ami mounds arc merely the 



* Speaking of Hewish Hill, the Rev. .\. C. Smith writes : " Nowhere in 
the whole ai'ca of our map (N. Wilts.) aie there such distinct traces of 
British hal)itation " ( .1 »/ /-/m // ((;.s of Norlk IT/V/s. ). 



264 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND ch.vii 

cluince remains of early mineries, aiicl similar remains, 
whether styled villages or not, are to l)e found all over 
the Cleveland district.^ Probal)ly there are many genuine 
settlements still to be found in Yorkshire, Cumberland, 
Westmorland and Northumberland, ^ but the deep growth 
of heather on the moors makes it a rather hopeless task to 
seek tliem, especially where mining operations and peat- 
digging have broken the ground. Nevertheless, it is certain 
tliat wdierever camps and barrows of the British types are 
to be found there was a resident population, which must 
have had its dwellings and settlements, and the discoveries 
made from year to year are proof that there are still many 
more to make. 

Examples are known of native ^•illages which reveal a 
more orderly arrangement and a somewhat higher regard 
for creature-comfort. At Welton, for example, in 
Staffordshire, the huts, paved with rude stone, were 
arranged as a regular street. But there seems to be 
nothing to traverse the general statement that the Roman 
conquest proved decidedly detrimental to the 
development, even to the continuance, of that peculiar art 
and culture which marks the Late-Celtic period. There 
seems to have occurred a change analogous to that which 
has so constantly followed the intrusion of the white races 
into native areas in both hemispheres — such a change as 
has already debased much of the native art of India and is 
at the present moment destroying that of Japan. It 
would perhaps l)e less correct to say that the British Celts 
Ijecame Romanized than that they became denationalized. 

• See Rev. J. C. Atkinson, Forty Years in a Moorland Parish, p. 01 .S77. 
These miners' pits are easily recognized by any one with a slight knowledge 
of local geology, for they invariably lie upon spots where is, or was, an out- 
crop of ore, usually iron-ore. 

- Mr. J. Clifton Ward has compiled a list of twenty-one such prehistoric 
sites in Cumberland alone. 



CHAPTER VI 1 1 

DEWPONDS 

" Wc have no iratcra to delight 

Our broad and brookless rales — 
Only the deivpond on the height 
Unfed, that never fails ." 

The fact that so large a iiuml)er of camps appears to ])e 
totally lacking in any water supply has provoked much 
obvious comment and a o-reat deal of less obvious 
theorizing. In the ease of the hill-systems of the rest of 
England the difficulty frequently disappears, for as anyone 
knows who has walked across them, the highest levels of 
the moors and hills of the northern and western counties 
never lack abundant springs, and when the climate was 
wetter than now it is the springs likewise must have run 
more copiously. It may safely be said that the occupants 
of no camp in Northumbria, Wales, Exmoor, Dartmoor, or 
Cornwall had far to go for water, and in very many 
instances springs rise actually within the cam}), or even 
flow across it.^ But in southern England, that is to say, 



' Many of the Cornish hill-forts have wells within the area. Streams flow 
through the small camp on Hawsett Moor (Fig. .'M) and the larger WanlucVs 
Bank, Bedfordsliire. Within the lines of the great ft>rtress of Old Oswestry 
(Fig. 17) is a series of large pits on the western side. These are commonly 
supposed to have been intended for the storage of water, and some of them 
are still wet. Their date is a matter of question, l)ut from tlieir position 
they W()n]<l seem to have been jiLinned at tlie same tinie as the defences 
of tlie cam 11. 



266 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

on the chalk hills, the case is otherwise. Here the springs 
are at the present day remarkaljly few. Such springs as 
there are lie at tlie foot-hills, and, save for artificial reser- 
voirs, the upper levels of the Downs in Wilts, Dorset, and 
Sussex are almost entirely waterless. 

Pitt-Rivers made a special point of discovering, if 
possi])le, from what source the occupants of the camj)s 
which he examined could have obtained water, but with 
very little success. In regard to the camps of Sussex, he 
declares ^ that he had " not met with a single example of 
a fort having a su23ply of water within the enclosure, and 
the majority, like Cissbury, are at a considerable distance 
from any spring." 

In Wilts and Dorsetshire he found the same difficulty. 
AVarne, expressly remarking- that the earthwork at 
Duncliffe, between Shaftesbury and Sherborne, possessed 
an ever-flowing spring, insists on its exceptional good 
fortune. At Pillesdon Pen he fancied he observed 
"ancient reservoirs fed by natural springs" in two large 
quadrangular hollows at the north-western end of the 
camp, remarking again that " absence of water was the 
only weak point in the military works of the Durotriges." 
He elsewhere quotes Aubrey for the assertion that there 
was a spring within Badbury Rings, and the same assertion 
is made of Maiden Castle, Dorchester. Neither of these 
alleged springs is now visible.^ 

Half a dozen theories, more or less probable, have been 
mooted in explanation of the difficulty. It has been 
suggested, for example, that the springs of the Downs 
once flowed at levels far higher than at present. Pitt- 
Rivers noticed in the case of AVinkelbury that a spring 
near the- camp only runs in wet seasons ; and he gives the 

^ Archceologia, xlii. (1869). 
^ Ancient Dorset, p. 49. 

^' Within the woods known as the Earldoms, 3 miles east of Downton, 
Wilts, but at no great elevation, is a ring-work surrounding a cojiious spring. 



VIII DEWPONDS 267 

autliority of a local well-digger for the assertion tliat a 
spate in the Adur aifects the level of water in wells 
several hundred feet higher up on the Sussex Downs. ^ 
Both these facts tend to support the theory, but against 
it is to he set the fact that there are few indications upon 
the Downs of old water-courses, although in the chalk soil 
even a small stream must have speedily cut a very notice- 
ahlc channel. Another suggestion is that the camp- 
l)uilders took their supply from wells, and any pit within 
the area has been supposed to be the mouth of such a 
well. But excavation has in many cases shown that such 
pits are not wells, and although it has further proved that 
even the earlier occupants of, e.g., Cissbury could and did 
sink mine-shafts upwards of a hundred feet in depth, 
there is no reason to believe that they ever attempted 
shafts of the depth necessary to reach water at th^\se 
elevations — ^to a depth, that is, of some 300 feet.^ Yet a 
third set of theorists, compelled to admit there was no 
evidence of any supply within the camp, have seen in the 
various deeply-worn trackways leading therefrom so many 
" covered ways " intentionally constructed to secure access 
to some spring more or less remote. Thus, at Cissbur}', it 
has been alleged that such a " covered way " was con- 
structed the whole distance to Aplesham, fully 3 miles ; 
and even Pitt-Rivers was forced to conclude that the 
supply was brought from Broadwater, Ij miles away, the 
well at Leechpool, 1 mile to the east, being thought to be. 
of later (Roman) construction. Other theorists, giving the 

1 Until a few years ago springs used regularly to break out at various 
l)oints along the lOO-feet line under the Downs overlooking the Ouse Valley 
near Lewes. Some of these occasionally run still, but many of tliem 
have not flowed for several years audther ])rn<)f df tlio steady fall of the 
water-levels. 

- At the present time the wells upon some of tlie Down farms go down '.\bU 
feet and more. At Leo Farm, luider Harrow Hill, is, or used to be, a well 
worked by a tread-wheel, on the i)iincii)lo of the well-known donkey-wheel 
at Carisl»rooke, the farm lads taking the donkey's i)laoe, doulttloss (piite 
etiiciently. There aie other such wells i\i Pntcham and at .Saddlescomlie, 



268 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

problem up, luive simply maintained that ,sucli camps 
were never intended for occupation save on the occasion 
of a sudden raid — that they were merely camps of refuge. 
But admitting that this may be true of some, it is certainly 
not true of all. Cissbury itself is supposed to have had a 
permanent population of flint-knappers, possibly even 
l)efore the great ramparts w^ere thrown up ; so the theorists 
are reduced to the supposition that this population must 
have come to work in the morning and gone home else- 
whither in the evening, carrying with it a sufficient supply 
of fluid for the day's requirements, precisely as do the 
navvies of to-day. It may be added that Pitt-Rivers, 
having discovered upon one site in Wilts the skeletons of 
persons who had apparently suffered acutely from 
rheumatoid arthritis, suggested that these victims of the 
disease had contracted it through long fetching and 
carrying of water to their camp ! Anyone who knows 
how damp is the atmosphere of a high hill-top will doubt 
whether it is needful to seek so far for the explanation. 

The theory that the camps depended upon ponds now 
dried up, a theory several times mooted only to be 
dropped again, has lately been revived by various 
speculators,^ wdio believe the so-called dewponds still 
found upon the Downs to be merely a survival of the 
actual means of supply in use among Neolithic men ; and 
going still further, they assert that Neolithic man built 
his ponds according to the same elaborate method now 
practised by the pond-makers of Wilts and elsewhere. 



' See especially Messrs. A. J. and G. Hubbard, Neolithic Detvpimds (tnd 
CxUleways (1005). Twenty-five years earlier a similar view was advanced by 
Sir George Duckett in Wiltshire Arch, and Nat. Hid. Magazine, vol. xviii., 
p. 177 (1879), who went so far as to suggest that all the pits to be seen in the 
camps of Cissbury and Mt. Caburn were intended to hold water, and even 
thought that the ditches of British camps on the chalk might have been 
puddled to serve as reservoirs I Another writer (Mr. T. Shore) has advocated 
the pond-tlieory for the Hami)shire camps, Init witliout offering any proof of 
the anti(juity of the ponds now found ii^ many of those camps. 



viii DEWPONDS 



.'209 



Tlioy cite two or tlucc iiistaiiecs of raiiip.s in or near wliirli 
such ponds are fouiul, pointing out that the ponds may 
in some cases conceivably have some structural connection 
witli the camp, and that in otlier cases there are trackways 
leading from the camp to the pond. Upon this evidence 
— mainly drawn from existing facts at Ciss])ury, Chancton- 
hury, Maiden Castle, and Figshury Ring — has been based 
a theory which is held to solve the problem of a century, 
and to cover all and every camp to which the problem 
applies. What is the value of the evidence will appear 
later. 

Ponds on the high chalk- downs are of two kinds ; some 
are artificial and others are natural, but ])oth kinds are 
fed almost entirely by dew, fog, and mist.' With natural 
dewponds man has no concern ; they are mere water- 
holes, large or small, scattered about the uplands, some- 
times in the open, sometimes amongst dense woods, but 
invariably affording a supply of water even in the hottest 
months of the hottest summer. They are only to be 
found where there occur pockets of more or less clayey 
soil overlying the chalk, for the latter in its natural state 
is usually too porous to retain water. Such deposits of 
clay, of varying extent, are common upon the Downs ; 
clay mixed with sand or gravel forms the surface-soil 
over large areas, and it occurs occasionally as a ca})ping 
to the highest summits, but more commonly in pockets 
at somewhat lower levels. At Walton-on-the-Plill, Surrey, 
is an immense pond, appropriately known as the Mere. 
Modern wells require to be sunk 300 feet or so to find 
water hereabouts, and the village — an ancient one, once 

' In some localities they arc known indifferently as dewpomls or fog-ponds. 
It has been sutji^ested that the former name is not old, but it is certainly a 
great deal older than the discussions which have of late popularized it. Old 
natives of Hampstead still allude to the ponds on the Heath as the "fog-ponds," 
and the writer has known a man who constantly spoke of a certain pond upon 
the Chilterns as tlie "dewpond'' ; and liis memory would go back fully 70 
years from now. 



270 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

boasting itself a royal iiiaiior, and still retaining wliat 
would seem to liave served it as a moot-hill — must have 
come here because of the pond, which, according to local 
tradition, has never l»een known to fail. But mostly 
such ponds are small, and commonly very small. 

In very many cases such water -holes are so situated as 
to derive part, at any rate, of their supply from surface- 
drainage, but in other cases they stand upon the actual 
crests of the high ground, in positions where they can 
catch no rain-water save wdiat inconsiderable cj[uantity 
falls actually into their basins. These draw their supply 
almost exclusively from the air. They make their own 
supply by condensation, and the greater the surface-area 
of the pond, the more rapidly does the work of condensa- 
tion proceed ; and while they can borrow moisture from 
the atmosphere . under almost any conditions, it is from 
mist and fog that they derive it most readily. Should 
the pond be overhung by trees, then the point of every 
leaf in summer, the extremity of every twig in winter, 
acts as a new condenser. To realize how powerful is their 
joint activity one need but walk out along some upland 
road any day between November and February, when the 
weather is foggy, but otherwise fine. Before you, wherever 
it is open to the sky, the road will stretch dull and dry 
between its gaunt hedgerows ; the hedges themselves will 
l)e jewelled with beads of water condensed from the fog, 
l)ut these fall into the hedge-bottoms, leaving the road- 
way untouched. But wherever a tree spreads its naked 
branches overhead, there the road's surface will be reeking 
wet, glistering before one as if covered with flood-water. 
Standing under the trees you may feel the great drops of 
moisture falling slowly and sullenly to the ground, like 
those intermittent premonitory drops of a thunderstorm 
in July. In the leafy months the work of condensation 
goes on so much the faster as there are more of the small 
condensers at work — so rapidly that the fall of the drops 



VIII DEWPONDS 



271 



upon tlie k'uvr.-s and gra.s.s Ijeueatli is as loud and iiices.saiiL 
as ill heavy rain. There are ponds upon tlie Bucking- 
hamshire hills where the fall of this "dew" may ])e lieard 
upon the night-silence man}' yards away, varying in 
intensity with the variations of the temperature and with 
the direction and force of the wind, l)ut most active when 
there blows a light, warm summer air from the south- 
west. Speaking generally, the warmer the day has been, 
the better works the machine, and herein lies the explana- 
tion of the seeming paradox that such ponds frequently 
hold more water in high duly than in Decem])er ; for in 
winter not only are the conditions of temperature less 
suitable, but all the myriad leaves have fallen. On the 
very crest of the Cliilterns in Buckingliamshire, near 8t. 
Leonard's, one of these ponds lia.s been formed fortuitously 
in the trench of the old Grim's Dyke — a mere pit, perhaps 
20 feet across, overhung by tall beeches and half choked 
in winter with fallen leaves. Supply it has none save 
what the air provides, yet it never fails, and in dry 
summers which have entirely exhausted the great reservoir 
at Halton, at the foot-hills some 400 feet lower down, the 
herons have found in this diminutive pool food and water 
a summer long-, for it swarms with multitudinous frog-s.' 

A totally difi'erent thing is the artificial dewpond. A 
shallow, saucer-like depression, usually of sc^'erely regular 
plan — circular most commonly, but occasionally approach- 
ing a squarer form — its artificial origin is betrayed no less 
])y the raised embankment sunounding })art or all of its 
periphery. No trees overhang it, not the smallest shrub, 
and not a furrow marks the smooth green turf about it. 
So smooth is the sod, so gently and with such slight relief 
does the embankment swell and fall, that the whole work 
is invisible at the distance of a few yards. You come 

^ This particular pond has been known as "the Do\v[»(iiul " for at least 
three-(iuarters of a century — sufticicnt answer to those vvhn (|iu'stinn whctlier 
the term was ever heard upon the (Jhiltern Hills until to-da}'. 



272 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

upon it vmcxpecteilly, iiiid at first sight of its vuUuiu 
there tlashe.s into your luiiul the thought that here is a 
barrow — the rare disc -barrow, belike ; until climbing the 
low bank you find yourself looking down upon an un- 
suspected patch of water, motionless, untenanted, naked 
to the glare of the sun here on the very roof of tlie world 
when the surrounding Downs are baked hard by the heat, 
and there is never a spring or a well to be found perhaps 
within miles. When seen from some vantage-poinr a 
little further off, the effect is odd in the extreme — a suc- 
cession of concentric rings of different hues laid there upon 
the open Down as if painted by man's hand. The 
monotonous dull green of the turf comes sharply to an 
end, as if ruled by a compass, and next to it is the bare 
white floor of the basin ; for the heat of summer shrinks 
the water sadly, and leaves in the midst but an exiguous 
pool — a perfect circle of intensest blue reflected from the 
sky, Ijroken perhaps at the very centre by a tuft of rushes 
that have rooted there and furnish as it were a bull's-eye 
of darkest green. Next to the lip of the Ijasin the sun- 
baked floor glares a dead chalky-white, but, growing 
moister and darker as it approaches the water-line, 
deepens finally to a muddy chocolate. Darkest green and 
sapphire blue, chocolate, stark white, and again the dull 
grey-green of the turf — it suggests nothing so much as 
some gigantic target of fancy pattern, left there where it 
fell upon the Down by some archer of prehistoric time. 
But in the winter, when the rushes have died down, the 
basin fills to the brim with water, and there is only a 
splash of colourless water reflecting a colourless sky. 

In Wiltshire they make such ponds still, and the 
manner of their making is a " mystery" which rests with 
one or two families, whose members travel far into the 
adjoining chalk-counties to make ponds to order. The 
problem before them is to construct a basin which shall 
not merely create its own supply — a matter easily 



VIII DEWPONDS 27.3 

acliievod -Imt shall ivtaiu it in spite of the porous nature 
(jf the chalk. For this latter object, not in itself easy, 
the pond-makers would seem to have evolved the most 
elaborately difficult method (M)nceivable. Selecting their 
own site — they are jealous of their freedom of choice, and 
uniformly select the very summit of a rising ground. 
where no surface-drainage can ])e looked for' — they scoo[) 
out a smooth, shallow pan, sometimes as much as 70 yards 
in diameter, but commonly nmcli smaller. The chalk thus 
removed is l)uilt up all round the pan to form a slight 
lip, and the basin is next lined with a thick covering 



Fi<i. ItO. — Skction of Di:\vi'(»M). 

of clean, dry -straw, extending outwards so as to include 
the lip. Over the straw is laid a lining of finely puddled 
clay, carefully disposed so that never a crack or Haw is 
discoverable ; and over the lip is heaped more chalk, to a 
depth sufficient to safeguard the clay from damage by 
treading. The floor of the basin is now carefully strewn 
with a thin covering of flints, and when the whole is 

• The following is quoted from an anonymous leaflet dealing with the Dew- 
ponds of the South Downs :— " They are frequently found at the heads of 
gullies running up the southern or seaward slopes of the hills ; often indeed 
with their rims l)uilt up like the edge of a cup or saucer projecting into the 
head of the gully. I'p the gullies come the mists, and as they i-each the top 
they meet tlie cold air coming from the north and drop in a perpetual rain 
of condensation into the l)iisin or pond put ready to receive them." The 
ponds at Chanctonbury (Fig. 91) are a got)d instance of what is meant. The 
cloud-cap which seems to hang motionless about a mountjiin-top, is merely a 
c(jnstantly moving current of air, made momentarily visible at that one point 
by condensation. So vigorous is this condensation that this alone, and no 
visible springs, suffices to maintain the supply of considerable rivers ami to 
keep large areas of ujdand moor in the condition of bog throughout the year. 
But on the chalk there are no l)ogs l)ecause that porous material can carry 
i>ft'any quantity of water. 

T 



274 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

finished a little water is poured in, as it were to give the 
machine a start. If the work has been properly done, the 
pond proceeds automatically to fill itself, and continues to 
maintain itself until, through accident or neglect, the all- 
important clay lining becomes pervious. When this 
occurs the maker's labour is lost, his pond of no more use 
than a broken bowl. Therefore great care is taken to 
prevent heavy animals — horses and cattle — from getting 
into the pond, and breaking through the lining by their 
weight. Sheep, being lighter, may come and go with im- 
punity, and it is for the benefit of the sheej^ that the 
ponds are mostly liuilt. 

There are variations of detail in different localities, or 
accordino" to the traditions of the different members of 
the " mystery." Occasionally osiers are used in lieu of 
straw,^ and sometimes other tiers of straw and clay are 
laid over the first. The Rev. A. C. Smith, speaking from 
his personal observation of the making of such a pond, 
says that "a layer of clay about 12 inches thick, mixed 
with lime to stay the earthworms, and covered over with 
first a coating of straw (to prevent the sun from cracking 
the clay), and finally with loose rubble, made up its water- 
proof bed"; and he adds that, to start it in working, 
" snow was carted into it at the first opportunity." "' But 
whatever the variations of detail, the principle is always 
the same — a lining of elastic clay, and some contrivance 
to preserve its elasticity. Should this lining become wet 
through, the machine ceases to do its w^ork. This is why 



^ This is said to be the practice, e.g., in Norfolk. 

^ British and Raman Antirputies in N. Wilts (1884). It must be owned 
that his. account is hardly convincing. He seems to reverse the arrangement 
of clay and straw ; and. it is not easy to see why straw was needed at all 
in his method. Neither does it appear a practical metliod, which compelled 
the pond-maker to wait for a sufficient snow-fall to start his pond. And, if 
there was snow enough to cart, how was it that it did not fall into the pond 
and so save the trouble of carting ? Mr. Smith mentions A Pinctical 
Treatise on Detoponds, by H. P. Slade. 



VIII DEWPONDS 275 

the straw and da}' are so careful 1\' carried well o\'cr the 
lip, so that by no possibility can any overflow from the 
pond get under the lining ; and this also is why the 
buildei's choose a site where there is no risk of any 
surface-water's eating its way into the pan, or of a spring's 
l)reaking out within it. 

Were the clay laid directly upon the chalk floor of the pan, 
then, no matter how carefully it had been puddled, unless it 
were of very great thickness it must speedily crack, and 
therefore fail to hold water. The lining of straw, ])eing 
clastic, prevents such cracking. The whole is, in fact, an 
ajjplication, upon a magnified scale, of the principle to be 
seen in a thrush's nest, the lining of which never cracks 
until the rains of half a year have rendered sodden its 
foundation of dry twigs and grasses. And exactly as the 
thrush tempers and toughens her clay with other matter 
of a vegetable nature, so the pond-makers sometimes mix 
straw with their clay. The object in both cases is the 
same — to secure greater elasticity and toughness. 

The pond-makers may not always be able to explain 
why they follow a plan so elaborate and so laljorious, l)ut 
experience has taught, them that it is a good one.^ To 
imagine that their practice is founded upon any knowdedge 
of the relative conductivity of straw and other substances 
is nonsense,^ as well as needless. In plain matter of fact, 

' It has been found by actual experiment that a dewpond may rise 
as much as 2 inches in a single foggy night of January, and in five nights rise 
fully 8 inches. In the early summer the same pond collected .'H inches of 
water upon five nights of heavy dew. Fog, therefore, would seem to be a more 
coi)ious scmrce of supply than mere dew. Of course the ponds catcii wliat- 
ever rain happens t(j fall int(j them, but it is a i»lienomenal rainfall wliich 
amounts to a single inch in 24 hours, to say nothing of twice that ipiantit}' 
in half the time. The shepherds of the Downs will tell one that it frL'(|uently 
rains copiously on the hill-tops when no rain at all falls in the valleys. 

- It has been thought that straw, etc., were used l)ecause these in some 
way aided the precipitation of dew, the work of condensation. But the 
determining fact is, of course, the temperature of the water, and the presence 
or absence of a straw lining some inches below the surface of the basin can 
have no appreciable effect upon the water. 

T 2 



276 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

tlicir use of stniw is a lalxnii-saving expedient, for without 
it they must use vastly more chiy/ and that, too, puddled 
with vastly more care and labour ; and even then tlieir 
labour may prove to be in vain. 

To assert that primitive man was incapable of such in- 
genuity would be very rash. He may quite well have 
learnt the lesson of the thrush's nest ; and after all, the dew- 
pond lined with straw and clay is Ijut a glorified develop- 
ment of his earliest essays in pottery, when he wove a basket 
of osiers or rushes, and lined it with unburnt clay. If 
the one could hold water, he mio;ht reasonably argue that 
the other would do it also. But, leaving out the question 
whether he was not too indolent to construct such 
reservoirs — and it is difficult to maintain the charge of 
indolence against the beings who, with tools so inadequate, 
constructed a Maiden Castle, or a Stonehenge, or a Devil's 
Dyke — it is quite certain that he did not exert himself 
needlessly, and equally certain that he could have obtained 
the desired result with infinitely less trouble by simply 
puddling the native chalk. 

On the South Downs at any rate this used to be the 
normal plan, and whenever it was decided to make a 
dewpond of more elaborate kind, it was found necessary to 
send for the needful artificers out of Wiltshire, the 
peasantry of Sussex knowing nothing at all of such 
complicated contrivances." The Sussex plan is merely to 
scoop a hole of the required size, and thoroughly to 
puddle the floor of it by assiduous trampling. In this way 
may be made a pond which will hold all the water it can 



' The clay, it is to be recollected, will usually have to he fetched from 
a considerable distance ; and to drag up to the top of a 700-feet Down, and 
properly to puddle, clay sufficient to line a 50-feet pond is a matter of very 
great labour ; while the task of spreading it uniformly without flaw is 
one requiring very great skill, experience, and patience. 

- "The Pond-makers' Arms" is the name of a Sussex inn. Does this 
refer to some bygone importation of droughty moonrakers, or rather to 
the equally thirsty iron-smiths and hammer-ponds of a vanished generation ? 



vm DEWPONDS 



277 



catch, while it bids (letiuiice alike to the percolation of 
springs and surface-water, and to the footfall of the 
heaviest of l)lack Sussex plough-oxen. Indeed the oxen 
were actually employed to assist in the puddling, for the 
one drawback of the Sussex pond is that the puddling 
needs to l)e repeated at intervals. It used to be customary 
to set a farm-lad, with the return of spring, to drive the 
heavy cattle round and through the pond for a whole 
day ; or to load up a cart with a ton or so of flints, and 
drive that similarly over the whole of the basin, so 
churning up the floor and puddling it to an elasticity 
which would endure for another twelve months. The 
plan had the merits of cheapness and simplicity, and 
further it allowed of the pond's being made in any spot, 
higher or lower, according to the shepherd's requirements. 
Even where from neglect a pond had lost its virtue and 
become dry, it could readily l)e restored if required. The 
Downs between Lewes and Arundel are covered with such 
ponds, mostly abandoned now, although a few are still 
maintained and used. The process of their gradual 
undoing may easily be seen and watched. The heat of 
summer causes the water to shrink, and bakes the exposed 
portion of the floor until, not having l)een lately re- 
puddled, it cracks at its driest points, i.e., at the outer 
edge. When in winter the water o^athers aoain, it refills 
the pond just as far as the nearest crack and no further. 
In the next summer there is left a smaller supply to 
withstand the evaporation of the hot months, and yet 
more of the floor is uncovered, to be cracked as Ijefore ; 
and so the j)i'Ocess goes on until, the fissures reaching to 
the pan's lowest level, it will no longer hold water at all. 
Meanwhile the turf has been encroaching u[)()n the outer 
portion of the basin, always pushing forward to the 
year's high water-mark. In tlic upshot the whole of 
the floor becomes grass-grown ami reverts to the turf. 
One can gauge the relative age of the deserted ponds by 



278 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the depth of the vegetation and the size of the grassy 
ant-heaps which dot tliem over. And yet a very little 
trampling will suttice to keep the pond in work for 
unlimited years. To all appearance many of the finest 
ponds receive little other puddling than that afforded by 
the feet of the sheep which once a day or so come hither 
to drink ; and considering how laborious a matter it is 
to cart water from the lowlands to the hills, and to what 
o-reat distances the flocks must be driven for water in the 

o 

lowlands, it is astonishing that not only are few such 
ponds made nowadays, but even the older ones are rarely 
kept in repair. Of late years it has been the fashion to 
make ponds with linings of cement, l)ut the method seems 
to be far from satisf\ictory, the floor soon splitting and 
leaving the basin empty. And it is a costly method 
too. 

How far back goes the use of artificial dewponds, 
whether of the simpler Sussex kind or of the more 
elaborate type, it is impossible to say. They have no 
literature apparently until the last century or so,^ albeit 
of late there has been written more than enouo;h about 
them. That those who occupied the hill-top forts of the 
chalk used such means to obtain and store water is likely 
enough ; to prove that they did so is a more difficult 
matter, and amongst the cases which have been advanced 
in proof some are singularly unfortunate. The square 
dewpond within Maiden Castle, Dorchester, is not ancient 
at all. It was constructed as late as 1868, and in the 
process of making it was brought to light evidence to 
prove that no pond had ever existed on that spot at an 



' Letter XXIX. of White's Sdbonie (under date 1776), has something 
to saj' about dewponds in Hampshire, and especially about the capacity 
of trees to act as rainmakers. The Wiltshire-born Richard Jefferies also has 
something to say of them {Wild Life in a Sontheni County, d-c). Both these 
are worth reading because they both wrote of facts which they had observed. 
A good deal of what has been written since Jefferies' time is neither fact nor 
observation. 



VIII DEWPONDS 279 

earlier time.^ Outside the iiortlieni walls of Ci8sl)Ui}' 
camp," Sussex, is a fine pond, and several deeply-worn 
cattle-ways lead diagonally down the slope towards the 
pond ; l»ut to argue that the pond is old because these 
tracks lead to it is to assume too much. There is no 
proof, and possihly no means of proving, that the tracks 
are old ; and if they ])e so, their connexion with the 
existing pond is, to say the least, doubtful. If one may 
judge by appearances that pond is of quite recent make, 
for it shows none of the usual signs of even moderate 
age ; but it is of course possible that an earlier pond 
may have occupied the same s]jot.'^ As for the trackways, 
they are so rapidly formed upon chalk slopes that it is im- 
possible to assume them always old. This consideration 
must rule out the further case of Figsbury Ring (Chlorus 
camp. Fig. 193), with its alleged ancient cattleways. At 
Ditchling Beacon * are two ponds abutting upon the north- 
west corner of the camp. These are undeniably old in a 
sense, l)ut possibly not much more than a century old, 
and one of them still holds a little water. It has been 
suggested that they were expressly designed to be covered 
by the defences of the camp : it is more in accord with 
the facts to argue that the defences of the camj) have 
been demolished in the process of making tlie [)onds. 
Lastly, there is the case of Chanctonbury (Fig. i) 1 ) four 
miles north of Cissbury. Here there are two poiuls, each 
some 380 yards from the ring-fort. When Pitt-Rivers, 
who had always an eye to the problem of water-supply, 
examined the ground in 1868-9, the site of one of 
these was a mound, and the other he does not men- 



^ See above, j). 100. 

''' A plan and description of this camp will hu found below, p. (i47. 

•■* It is referred to, apparently, by Sir G. Diickett (Wilts Mmj., xviii, 
p. 17!>) as existing in ]87'.». This is not a dew]M)nd at all, but an ordinary 
catchment-basin fed by surface-water, and the two trackways under discus- 
sion are themselves its best feeders. In liot suunners tliis ])<)nd runs dry. 

* For plan and description see below, p. (>(i8. 



28o EARTHWORK OF KNC^LAND chaf. 

tiuii. Yet the latter is so placed as to suggest at once that the 
outlying vallum and fosse which cover the approach to the 
camp on this (south-east) side, were expressly deflected to 
include the pond. The inference from Pitt-Rivers' silence 



300' -- . 

s 

50$' V, 
^03'- 
TOO' 



r'i_-, % ^, -^.,-_ 3fe#^i»::^•Tr^ .^ ^ ... n 



I ' 

/ \ 







IS JO â– - 


1 > 1 
.1 • ' 


500'-^, ^'^^o . 


/ 






ScaU ; 

Fig. 91.— ChaxNct 


ON BURY. 





is that forty years ago the pond did not exist. ^ As a matter 
of fact the normal way of emljanking the ponds constantly 

1 The (iniinaantKm ex aileatio is legitimate here, because Pitt-Rivers was 
actually looking for the water-supply. All that he could discover was a 
well, which he believed to be Roman, in the "bottom" to the south of the 
camp, and a spring below the northern face of the Downs. To anyone 
not ac(iuainted with the mental capacity of the Southdown shepherds, it 
miglit seem an easy matter to learn from them at what date such a pond as 
this, or that at Cissbury, was constructed, if they are indeed modern. It is not 
easy, for the same man will tell you, almost in the same breath, that one and 
the same pond was made "a bit since," and that it has "always been there." 
The only determinable truth that the writer has been able to arrive at from 
their evidence is that many of the big ponds in this neighbourhood (those 
at Chanctonbury included) have been made within the last 40 years, and 
some of them according to Wiltshire methods. 



vm DKWPONDS 281 

.suggest.s the vallu and fosses of ancient fortittcations, where 
there is not the slightest question that tlie resembhmce is 
entirely fortuitous. The outworks at Chanctonbury 
followed the natural curve of the hill in the usual fashion 
of prehistoric engineering, and a pond-maker of the nine- 
teenth century selected this rounded swell of the Down as 
a desirable spot for his dewpond. By accident he did not 
interfere with the old trench and vallum. The accident 
mav be accounted foi'tunate for archseolooists, unfortunate 
for those who have misinterpreted it as proof of the age 
of the pond. The writer is not aware of a single case in 
which the alleged antiquity of such ponds will bear ex- 
amination ; and it is no more permissible to argue the 
date of the pond from the presence of a camp, than to 
argue the age of the camp from the presence of the pond. 

In point of fact the difficulty of the problem of 
neolithic man's water-supply has perhaps been very much 
exaggerated, simply ])ecause no sufficient allowance has 
been made for altered conditions. It is not doul)ted that 
the Down camps are in some cases, such as Cissbury, of 
very high anticjuity indeed, and if it can be shown that 
the water question was possibly no difficulty in the case 
of Cissbury, it will probably be admitted that it was not 
likely to be a difficulty in other cases. When Cissbur}' 
was built the summits of the Downs may or may not 
have been wooded, but their lower slopes and the Weald 
below indubitably were densest forest. This means that 
the climate generally was very moist, and a single water- 
hole such as that near St. Leonard's, especiall}' if there 
were a tree or two to help it, would suffice to supply 
the wants of many persons and much cattle. The fact 
that through the hottest of summers the turf upon the 
very crests of the highest Downs rarely goes l)r()wn, 
proves how great a supply of moisture the atmosphere 
can still furnish, despite deforestation and drainage. 
It is universally admitted that for centuries the climate 



282 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

and the soil have been growing constantly drier, and in 
neolithic times the springs without question ran at very 
much higher levels and in much greater numbers than 
they do now ; so that it is not in the least unlikely that 
there was a spring either in the valley to the south-east of 
the camp or in that to the north-east, if not in both. But 
even if there were no spring availal)le, it does not follow 
that the inhabitants found life very difficult. It is 
surprising how little drink is really needed even by 
nioth'ni man when he has perforce to stint himself; 
proljably his neolithic predecessor required still less, 
not merely for climatic reasons, Init also by habit.^ A 
certain amount could always be brought up in skins or 
jars, and it must be rememl)ered that the warfare of 
those days knew nothing at all of long sieges. If the 
human animal could do with little water, still less would 
suffice for his cattle. Neolithic man would be troubled 
with no sentimental notions about cruelty to animals, 
and would certainly not be more tender to his beasts than 
to himself and his family. The herds could very well 
wait the short space of a day or two," if occasion 
demanded it, and for the meantime their master had 
their milk to go on with. While he is as yet uncorrupted 
by artificial conditions of life, man, though born lazy, 
is capable of immense endurance ; and while the modern, 
who pays rates, grumbles justifiably enough if he but 
have to fetch his water from a stand-pipe across the way, 



^ Thirst is largely dependent upon the kind of food eaten, and the food of 
neolithic man was very different from that of his later day representatives. 

2 A sheep may be penned up without water for an entire fortnight in the 
intense dry heat of an Australian hot season, yet will emerge not visibly any 
the worse. Oxen have less powers of endurance, but they do not require 
anything like the amount of water one would suppose. Very possibly they 
could get moisture enough from the dewfall of a summer's night on the 
Downs to keep them going all day. This, at least, is the conviction of 
Wiltshire folk. 



VIII DEWPONDS 283 

pi-iniitivo man — or more ])rol)al)ly primitiv^e woman — 
would think nothing of fetching the requisite supply 
from a distance of a mile or two, and mostly up-hill to 
boot.^ Lastly, primitive culture was not measured, as 
culture now is, by soapsuds and baths. Save what was 
required for drinking and cooking, little water was wanted 
at all : for drinking, milk was preferred, and for cooking 
— well, if water could not be dispensed with entirely for 
a day or two without inconvenience, the same liquor 
would on emergency serve over and over again. Is 
not the Celtic cook to this day renowned for his (or her) 
perennial j^ot-au-feM ? 

There remain to notice a few isolated cases of con- 
structions which may conceivably have been connected 
with the water-problem. In the centre of the hill fort of 
Cadbury Castle,'^ Tiverton, has been discovered and ex- 
plored a shaft 58 feet deep. Its mouth was a funnel- 
shaped depression with a width of 12 feet at the surface 
and a depth of 3 feet. Tlie diameter of the shaft was 
8 feet at the top, tapering to 3 feet below. At the bottom 
it was puddled with clay. Nothing of importance was 
discovered within it, and on the analogy seemingly of the 
so-called dene-holes, and on the authorit}' of a passage in 
Diodorus Siculus ^ it has been declared to have been 
intended as a store-pit. Inasmuch as ice may he ruled 
out of the question, it is not obvious what commodity 
could be held to require so peculiar a store-chamber ; and 
as the shaft is so narrow that it must have been impossible 
to get at any but the uppermost part of whatever was 
kept in the pit, the contrivance hard)}' tallies with the 
store-chambers alluded to by Diodorus, from which he 

' This is still the habit amongst African savages, who fetch and store their 
water in calabashes. 

2 See the plan on p. 111. 

•' See the preceding chapter, p. 241(. 



2S4 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

expressly says it was customary to take out always the 
oldest part of the contents. In such a pit as that at 
Cadbury the oldest part must have l)een always at the 
bottom, and quite out of reach. Nor, if it were a store 
])it. does there seem any need of the funnel-shaped orifice, 
which is strongly suggestive of a catchment-basin. The 
puddling with clay may have been advisable even if only 
grain were kept in the pit, but it was more than ad- 
visable, it was necessary, if the shaft were meant to hold 
water. 

In the centre again of the area of the Late-Celtic camp 
on Mount Caburn,^ Lewes, is a circular funnel-shaped pit 
with a diameter of 33 feet, carefully banked about. On 
first seeing this Pitt-Eivers remarked that it "might 
possibly have served as a reservoir." Subsequent investi- 
gation discovered that the bottom of the pit was in reality 
the opening of a shaft with a diameter of 12 feet at the 
mouth, quickly narrowing to 7h feet at a depth of 
4 feet, and tapering more gradually to a width of 
5j feet at the bottom, which w^as 9 feet lower still. 
There was no trace of any clay-puddling, but that this 
was expressly intended to catch water is proved by the 
discovery of a shallow gutter or drain, 1 foot wide and 
10 inches deep, leading to the edge of the pit. 

In neither case is there anything to suggest that the pit 
is of different date from the camp in which it stands. 
Both are furnished with wide mouths which have no 
apparent use unless it were to catch water. One of the 
shafts is puddled with clay, obviously to make it im- 
pervious, and the other has a gutter which at once betrays 
its purpose. That no clay is traceable in the pit in the 
Sussex camp is to be explained on the analogy of the 
dewponds of the neighbouring Downs ; clay was not 
essential, for the native chalk could be made to hold 

1 See the description and plan, p. 677. 



vm 



DKWPONDS 2R5 



water witliuut il.' Tlnn-u seoiiis no room lor doiilil tliat 
both pits were designed expressly as water-holes. 

It does not necessarily follow that either pit was a 
success, or so much a success as to lead to tlie makino; of 
such shafts in all contemporary cases. Inasmuch as the 
activity of a dewpond in collecting water is in direct 
ratio to the extent of its surface, the Caburn pit was an 
ingenious compromise between the normal pond and a 
storage tank, and was a vast economy of space, for to 
contain an equal amount of water there must liave been 
required at least two ponds of the normal sort, and in a 
camp so small as this so much space could ill be spared. 
In the case of the Cadbury pit it would seem that the 
collecting-pond was unwisely sacrificed to the storage-tank, 
])ut possibly the original arrangement of the catchment- 
basin has been lost. It is noteworthy that the entire area 
of Caburn camp is dotted over with hut-circles. Obviously 
the occupants kept their cattle elsewhere, if they kept any 
at all, in the wide trench to the north perhaps, or in 
separate folds upon the Down without, so that there 
would be no risk of their getting into the shaft. At 
Cadbury Castle the huge 50-foot southern fosse might 
have been designed on purpose for the folding of the 
cattle. 

That no similar sliafts liave been brought to light in 
other instances is no matter for wonder, seeing how little 
has been done in the way of systematic exploration of 
British camps. Tliere is, however, another camp on the 
South Downs, viz., Edburton Hill, which can sliow some- 
thing rather reminiscent of the tank in Mount Cal)urn. 
A plan of the camp is given on p. GOO. The sliallow saucer- 
like mound upon the southern enceinte of the fortress has 



' It may be remarked licre that althoui,'li clialk is usually pnrnus it is 
a very variable stone, and there aiv eases in wliieh its texture is so tinii and 
tine as to be impermeable. 



286 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap, vin 

ii ))ii.se-ilicimeter of u))out iOO feet, but the central de- 
pression measures only 33 feet across, or just the same as 
tlie pit at Mount Caburn. If this was in truth a water- 
hole, then its peculiar position must Ije explained by the 
narrow dimensions of the camp, which measures barely 
150 feet either way, so that there was no room for a pond 
within the area. 



CHAPTER IX 

ROMAN CAMPS 

" Thine, Boman, is the pilum ; 
Itoman, tJte sirord is thine, 
The even trench, the bristling mound, 
TJie legion's ordered line." 

With the Roman period one might hope to feel that one 
was at hint on terra Jlrrna — in the region of things certain : 
l)ut not in the vvliole dictionary of archaeology is there a 
term more misused than " Roman." It is misapplied witli 
fine indifference to l)rick and mortar and to earthwork, to 
every scrap of metal or potter}' that is not too ol)\"iously 
modern. Enthusiasts for education may he gratitied to 
hear the word fall with ecjual giibness from tlie lips of 
parson and of peasant ; it is distressing to tlie anti(juary to 
find it used with e(]ual looseness by both. When the 
writer found his way to Ham Hill he was solemnly assured 
that the great cam}) was Roman, Roinan too the quaint 
carven tympanum of the little cliurcli below the hill, 
Roman even the splendid perpendicular gateway of the 
ruined priory of Montacute a mile away.^ Such heretical 
doctrines are excusable in Giles and his dame, but scarcely 
so in their betters ; yet one rector will apply the adjective 

'Doubtless in uumy cases "Roman Catholic'' is meant, hut tlie misuse of 
"Roman "in the sense of "Roman Catholic" (I.e. pre-Reformatio;.) is no 
more excusable than tlie converst; misuse of "Catiiolic" where " /^"(/u/fi 
Catholic " is meant. 



288 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

to a late nie(lia.'val figuiiuc luuiid liiddeii in the wall of his 
cliureli, and anotlier will attach it to the paving of his 
garden-pa til, for no other reason than because it happens 
to l)e constructed in a manner unusual in his county. 
To cautious ears the word should convey no further meaning 
than that there is something to be seen that is old, or 
odd, or possibly both ; for in most cases it will be found 
that the Roman had as little to do w4tli it as had Oliver 
Cromwell or the Devil. C?esar and Noll and Old Nick 
between them claim a most unfair share of the nation's 
antiquities. 

Earthworks naturally bulk large amongst the many 
things thus miscalled, merely liecause they are mostly 
military, and the Roman was traditionally the military 
man ; and the vulgar error is too often duly endorsed and 
authorized by the Ordnance Map. Camps of indubitably 
British date, Saxon and Norman entrenchments, to say 
nothing of minor matters such as dykes and mounds and 
so-called amphitheatres, — all are accredited to a people 
who very proba})ly had nothing at all to do w4th many of 
them. Where one niioht look to find a legitimate 
national pride in the monuments of our forefathers there 
seems to be a perverse conspiracy to give the credit to 
anyone rather than to the Briton, and preferably to the 
Roman interloper. If any evidence at all be asked for, the 
chance finding of a coin or tw^o, or of a handful of shivered 
pottery, is deemed enough. 

Such evidence is emphatically not enough. The 
discovery of Roman coins in quantities no more proves 
that the Romans permanently occupied the spot, still less 
that they built any earthworks there observable, than the 
finding of a Japanese natsuke in the writer's house would 
prove a Japanese to have lived there, or than the discovery 
amongst its ruins at some future date of his few specimens 
of flint implements would prove it to have been once the 
dwelling of a neolithic family. Explorati(Hi of the great 



IX ROMAN CAMPS 289 

cavern known as Wookey Jlole in the Mendips Jias (juite 
lately produced fragments of >Samian ware, shaped floor- 
tiles of apparently Roman date, and even coins of Crispus 
and other Emperors ; but no one would venture to advance 
these as proof that our Roman conquerors ever made the 
Hole their residence. Like enough some of their conquered 
subjects in subsequent days, fleeing to the hills and the 
holes, did so, but certainly no Roman, and least of all a 
Roman with any money to spend. PIow% then, did these 
relics come there ? There is only one answer : ' they are 
the leavings, not of Romans, but of Romanized Britons. 
At the comino- of the Saxon the Briton had sore need to 
seek refuge in the dens of the wdld beasts." We know 
that he did so, for example, in the King's Scaur above 
Settle. Witli him he carried such odds and ends of his 
belongings as he could, and human nature being pretty 
much the same tlie w^orld over and the centuries down, it 
is probable that his properties included divers odds and 
ends of a civilization different from his own. He 
"conveyed" his poor shards of Samian, his unnecessary 
floor-tiles, in the same spirit which prompts the equatorial 
savage to feel a special pride in the glass bottle for wliich 
he has no use and the European l)00ts which do not fit him. 
And the objects most usually discovered are precisely 
those which were most likely to have attracted him — 
weapons, pottery and coins, and small vanities in the way 
of personal ornaments. 

As a matter of fact, very little has been done towards 
recovering the history of the potter's art in Ancient Britain, 
Professor Mc Kenny Hughes has pointed out some deter- 
minate facts, as, for instance, that Roman ware largely 
ousted the ruder British types during the Roman occupa- 



' The only alternative theory, that they were carried hither by the action 
of water, is declared to be untenable. 

2 Gildas expressly asserts that at the Saxon Conquest the Britons " Hed 
to the caves and the hills. " 

U 



290 I'.ARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

tion,^ and that tlie Roman types were prol)al)ly handed on 
traditionally from century to century after the Romans 
abandoned the island, until far into the Middle Ages. 
There is no question whatever that quantities of what 
passes for IJoman pottery is not of Roman make or date 
at all. 'I'he famous Samian ware, whatever its place of 
origin, may perhaps be regarded as of manufacture con- 
temporaneous with tlie Roman o(;cupation, but proves 
nothing moie. Its rarity, finish, and beauty, naturally 
made it attractive to the Romanized Briton, who may 
well have treasured it, whole or broken, just as the modern 
man, in no sense a collector, treasures his few pieces of 
what is here prized highly, but is in China and Japan, in 
Syria or Morocco, accounted possibly of little value. 

The extraordinary profusion with which Roman coins 
are scattered broadcast over the sites of many Roman 
and Romano-British settlements is a commonplace of 
archaeology, but it is not difficult to explain. The Saxons, 
whose earliest coinage was of silver, but who, on their 
first coming here, had none at all, attached no value to 
the coinage of other peoples, least of all to the debased 
copper and brass of the later Roman period, and the still 
more debased tninimi supposed to have l)een minted by 
the Britons after the departure of the legions. With 
pieces of gold and silver it was another affair : the frequent 
finding of these in Saxon graves, often with small rings 
attached or otherwise perforated for suspension, proves 
that they were valued as ornaments or as charms. But 
coins of brass and copper were not so prized. The Saxons, 
as they stormed town after town and burned villa after 
villa, might and did ajopropriate and preserve other 
articles, but the bulk of the money which they discovered 



^ ArchcHological Journal, lix., pp. 219-237. In view of the discoveries at 
Silchester and Hod Hill this opinion may require some modification. A 
single contemporaneous deposit lately found at Silchester included specimens 
of native British, Roman, and imported vessels of Germanic type. 



IX ROMAN CAMPS 291 

they flung away as so much rubbish, t(j lie where it fell 
among the ruins. Not so the native refugee, who carried 
with hini all he could, and not seldom lost his life in trying 
to save his little hoard. This explains why coins, though 
almost invariably found with all remains of the post-Roman 
Britons, are usually found, not strewn broadcast, but 
collected in (piantities larger or smaller, and often carefully 
bestowed in boxes, jars, etc., as if for concealment. The 
chance finding of single coins proves nothing at all.^ The 
habit of accidentally losing things is no special peculiarity 
of modern days, and a Roman was as liable to lose his purse 
as any other man. He might lose also his hunting-gear, 
brooch, ring, or pocket-knife, and the chance discovery of 
any single article of such personal (character is no more 
proof of a " site" than it w^ould l)e to-day. These surface- 
finds have their own value, and ought in every instance 
to be recorded with all possible accuracy of type, circum- 
stance, place, and date, but they do not in the least 
warrant the hasty and large inferences usually di-awn from 
them. 

While the Romanization of much of the island Avas in 
a sense marvellously complete, it is not always realized 
how very small must have been the genuine Ronian, or 
let us say Italian, element in the population of Britain in 
Roman times. Csesar declares that in his day the native 
population was "innumerable," and it is not likely to have 
decreased under the Fax Roinana. But the Italians 
remained to the end a strictly limited class, brought into 
the island by considerations military, political, or com- 
mercial. It is certain that their nund>ers must at any 
time have been far less than those of the Normans who, 

1 Prof. Boyd Dawkiiis has something to say on this point in Cdvp-Huntimj. 
He adds the further warning that amongst any (jroup of coins so found, 
"the latest only gives a clue to tlie date " of the deposit. .Judged l)y this 
test there have been found hoards, for example, which can be detinitely 
dated as belonging to Britons of the time of the Claudian Conquest, to the 
period of civil war under Carausius, and to the days of the Saxon terror. 

u 2 



292 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

some centuries later, took their place ; certain also that 
their distrilmtion over the land as a whole was far less 
complete and systematic than under the methodical 
appropriation of Norman feudalism. The Roman garrison 
was at no time more than a nominal four legions — say 
20,000 men — with auxiliaries ; and even the legionaries of 
that epoch w ere no longer Romans, were not even Italians. 
Legionaries and auxiliaries alike were simply " liarbarians " 
of sorts, European, Asiatic, and even African, alike only 
in heing, not Romans, but subjects, as were the Britons, of 
the Romans. Li many cases they were not more highly 
civilized than the Britons, if indeed as highly. The towns 
which grew up out of the Roman fortresses were peopled 
by non-Roman inhabitants controlled by a very small 
official class, in part only of Italian blood, and that 
indifferently pure ; and for every one such town there 
must have been many others which never received any 
purposed leaven of Italian blood at all. The very names 
of the towns, so far as they are known, declare that with 
very few exceptions they were native settlements, re- 
organized and rebuilt perhaps in Roman fashion, and 
dignified with official names of a Latin form, luit retaining 
unquestionably their original native populations. Even 
the commercial class, which of course dwelt in the towns, 
was certainly not entirely of Italian blood. 

And if the Italian element was in the minority even 
in the towns, it was still more so in the country. The 
villas which dotted the land, nowhere really numerous, 
were more frec_[uently very sparse indeed, and even these 
were centres of native rather than of Roman life. The 
Roman in England was very much as is the Englishman 
in India : the sahib's bungalow witli its train of native 
servants is but a reproduction on a smaller scale of the 
villa of the Roman conqueror ; and as our memorial in 
India is to be but our empty beer bottles, so that of the 
Roman is mostly his l)roken vessels. And whereas in 



IX ROMAN CAMPS 293 

Indiu social feeling prevents any very large intermixture 
of the ruling and the su})ject races, in Roman Britain 
there is no trace of any such feeling ; so that what little 
genuine Italian blood entered the island was to a orreat 
extent absorl)ed by intermarriage. Could we but see 
the land as it was in the fourth century, we should probably 
find that, ethnically at any rate, the Britonizing of the 
Romans had oone a great deal further than the Romanizino- 
of the Britons. It is usually so where the conc|uerors are 
relatively few. In any case everything which Roman 
influence may have achieved in the course of four centuries 
by way of altering the character of the native population 
was undone within a vastly shorter space of time by the 
Teutonic race which supervened. There remained of it 
all little beyond a slight tinge of alien blood, a proud 
tradition of great days past which was to linger long in 
Welsh legend, and here and there the visi1)le evidence 
of such stubborn ruins as the grim walls of Anderida 
(Pevensey), the splendours of Acpiae Sulis (Bath), and 
the mighty system of roads which liad linked up one such 
scene of ruin with another. The language itself l>etrays 
how complete was the obliteration, how thoroughly the 
new-comers cleaned the slate : of that tongue which was 
for almost 400 years t]ie official speech of Britain, there 
remain to us but two solitary words which incontestably 
date from that time — the Roman's name for his roads 
("street") and the Roman's name for his fortifications 
(" wall "y 

1 As is well known the Latin castra survives in various place-names and 
in various forms — " Chester," "castor," "Caistor," "cester," itc. ; but it has 
not been sufficiently remembered that, if .some oi these names betray Roman 
sites, the conclusion that all do is illogical. Exactly the same is true of the 
word "street," and its by-forms " strat," &c., when occurring in place- 
names. The common name of Walton sometimes preserves the memory of 
a (Roman) "walled town" on or near the spot ; and that of Newton is a 
still more reliable hint, for numbers of Saxon settlements seem to have been 
so called to difterentiate them from older (Roman) settlements in their 
vicinity. 



294 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

The jeremiad of old Gildas gives a sufficient picture 
of the Britain of the fifth and sixth centuries. It shows 
that the coming of the Saxons was in very truth the 
return of barbarism. The Teutonic tribes, who had 
scarcely yet reached the most rudimentary stage of civic 
government, destroyed every Roman town which they 
could reach, and what the flames spared, the less violent 
l)ut not less effectual hand of Time speedily removed. 
The villas of course shared the fate of the towns : few 
are brought to light which do not betray evidence of 
their having been destroyed by fire. The roads fell into 
decay because there were few to use them and none to 
maintain them. Of all that the Romans had wrought 
in Britain only their earthworks and their superb masonry 
had the smallest chance to survive the tempest, and of 
the two the latter had the less chance, because subsequent 
o-enerations used as quarries whatever was left of Roman 
building.^ The earthen defences of Cassivellaunus' oppidmn 
have better escaped destruction than the more pretentious 
walls of Verulamium ; of the tremendous defences of the 
Roman Wall the earthworks have escaped more lightly 
than the masonry of any of the seventeen fortress-towns 
built for their protection ; the paving of many a Roman 
road has been torn up to serve other purposes, while the 
agger which carried it still endures ; and though the last 
stone of Calleva (Silchester) disappeared from view long 
years ago, the great British earthworks which ringed the 
town still remain almost intact. Yet the Roman would 
least of all have trusted to his spade-work for his 
memorial. He boasted himself rather of his work in 



1 In 1600 the walls of Brancaster (Norfolk) still stood 12 feet high : now 
the site of the fortress is scarcely determinable. The ruins of Roman Bath 
were still extensive in the seventeenth century : to-day there survive only 
such fragments as were saved by having been long ago buried. It is to be 
hoped that such destruction has at last gone out of fashion, at any rate 
where brick and mortar are concerned ; l)ut where only earthwork is visible 
the same spirit of Vaiidalism still prevails, and is mostly unheeded, 



IX ROMAN CAMPS 295 

brick and stoiie ; Ik^ was not intleed as a rule a Ijuilder 
of earthworks at all. He used the spade of course, as 
engineers must still use it, in the construction of his roads, 
his canals, his sea-\v;dls, and to some extent in his 
entrenchments, but in all things else he was rather a 
mason than a sapper. It is quite true that his legionaries 
invariably carried trenching-tools, and that, in theory 
at any rate, his troops halted not for a single night 
without entrenching their position ; but there is reason 
to think that the theory was not by any means rigidly 
translated into practice — that, if done at all, the en- 
trenching was often rather l)y way of discipline than 
utility, and it is certain that the troops were trained to 
rely more upon their weapons than upon their earthworks. 
Each of which facts is but an additional reason wdiy 
a Roman camp, properly so called,^ is a comparatively rare 
thing to find, and is not commonly an impressive work 
when discovered. 

The theoretical camp was a right-angled jJaraUelogram, 
its length one-third greater than its width, and its corners 
rounded. Its defences, as simple as its plan, consisted of 
a single vallum surrounded l)y a single fosse, neither of 
great size : the ditch was tlieoretically at least 5 feet wide 
and .3 feet deep, the vallum 6 feet high and 8 feet wide. 
Upon the vallum was planted a stout palisade of stakes 
(vcdli). The regulations allowed some discretion in the 
manner of constructing the ditch : in some' cases both 

' The misuse of the word " camp " to denote equally the site of a Roman 
station and that of a temporary bivouac, is too inveterate to be cured. In 
the text it is used to denote what seem to have been merely the tomijorary 
entrenclnnents of a force ujuju the march, the cKdra of the ordinary Latin 
parlance ; and no ditterence is here drawn l)etween the so-called atstra 
e.rploratoiia, rastra nediva, Szc, wliicli figure so largely in some writers' 
pages, because these names are apparently used ([uite arbitrarily and without 
any sufficient evidence. Nothing is gained, and a good deal may be lost, by 
the use or misuse of such terms. Where there is reason to think that the 
work was of more permanent kind, the writer has tried to avoid the term 
"camp" altogether as misleading. 



296 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chaf. 



sides sloped regularly down until tliey met ; in others 
only the inner side was thus sloped, while the outer side 
was perpendicular, and the floor of the ditch was level. 
As the former plan entailed the less labour, it was the 
more usual one. The materials excavated in making the 
ditch went tow^ards building the vallum, which, however, 
would require nearly three times as much material to 





Fig. 92. — Sections of Roman Ditches. 



bring it up to the theoretical dimensions ; and the required 
mass was eked out with whatever came handiest — earth, 
stone, brushwood, or even timber. In the centre of each 
of the four sides \vas left a gap to serve as a gateway, 
and these gaps might or might not be covered by slighter 
outlying ditches and breastworks (claviculce). These have 
rarely survived. They are shown in the plan of the Hod 
Hill camp (Fig. 112). When Roy ^ made his dra wrings of 

' General W. Roy's volume on The Military Antiquities of the Romans in 
North Britain was published in 1793, 



IX 



ROMAN CAMPS 



297 



the camps of the Border district there were prol)al»ly 
many still recogniza])le, and they are shown in most of 
his illustrations ; but he was not altogether free from 
the imaginative traditions of Stukeley's century, and may 
very well have put them in, at least in some instances, 
where he fancied they ought to be. The plans of the 
camps at Kirkbuddo in Strathearn (Fig. 93), and at Rae 
Dykes near Ury (Fig. 04), three miles from Stonehaven, 
are here given as he saw them, i.e., more correct in theory 




-1 



Fk;. 9.S. — KiKKBUDDo (after Roy). 



H 



perhaps than in fa(*t. After his drawings also are the 
plans of the works at Kreiginthorpe, near Kirby Thore 
(Fig. 95), and at Rey Cross on Stanmoor (Fig. 96). In 
the last-named instance it will be seen that the more 
normal form of outwork is replaced by a circular mound 
before each gateway. Both at Kreiginthorpe and at Rey 
Cross the remains are those of stations rather than of 
camps, and as a rule the gates of stations liad in reality 
no such outworks. 

Such a camp was very easily constructed, the more 
so as tlie tendency was increasingly towards economy 
of space and the crowding of larger numbers within 
smaller areas. There were hands enough available to 
make the work light and expeditious. It had the further 



298 



EARTHWORK OK ENGLAND 



C H A F , 



advantage that it could, on occasion, be speedily con- 
verted into a forniidabJe fort by tlie addition of outlying- 
fosses and pit-falls armed with sharpened stakes, by 
sowing caltrops over the approaches, and l)y driving 




Fig. 94.— Rae Dykes (after Roy). 



thorns or sharpened stakes into the outer face of the 
vallum. Caesar's campaigns in Gaul furnish instances 
enough of the resourcefulness of the legionaries in such 
emergencies. On the other hand, an earthwork of so 



IX 



ROMAN CAMPS 



299 



sliglit a character was little calculated to retain its dignity 
after the lapse of many centuries. The construction of 
the fosse and of the vallum alike was such as rendered it 
easily destructible. The natural settlement of the materials 




Fiu. 95. — KKEKiiXTiioKi'E (after Roy). 



"I 



/? O man '-i'^ h^ai/. I3rou.ffh * &o ^Otirc^ 






VO' 



Fi<;. 1)H. — Rky Cross (aftor Roy). 

of the newly raised rampart would in a year or two take 
away much of its height, and when newly thrown up 
it would tend to crumble rapidly ; while a three-foot 
ditch would in most cases be filled up more speedily still. 
If this is true of a camp constructed in strict accordance 
with the theory, it is niucli more true of others, probably 



300 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the majority, in which the theoretical measurements were 
neglected. jMoreover, as there was no permanent occupa- 
tion of such a camp, there was no one to make good the 
damage done by time, whereas the defences of a British 
camp would l)e carefully maintained by its occupants. 
In a very few years the dip of the Roman's fosse and 
the relief of his vallum would alike be too slight to 
offer any obstacle to the plough, and the i^lough would 
in a few generations efface the last trace of the works. 
Where Roman camps survive, it is commonly in spots 
which, for whatever reason, were not brought under 
cultivation, or where the vallum could be utilized as and 
embodied in a fence. If the camp was a large one, it 
might survive almost' intact as a single enclosed field, 
while smaller camps in the same way became the enclo- 
sures of orchards, gardens, and homesteads. Probably 
there are not a few fragments of Roman spade-work 
thus incorporated in hedges and similar fences, and now 
totally unrecognizable. In the nature of things there 
can be little or nothing about such works to betray their 
origin, unless all or most of the entire plan survives, 
or is at least capable of reconstitution with some degree 
of certainty. Nor is it likely that their sites should yield 
many traces of articles of Roman manufacture such as 
might possibly assist in their identification. Even the 
modern soldier leaves few traces of his bivouac, unless 
it be empty meat-cans or tobacco-tins. The Roman 
troops used neither, and their camps being constructed 
for the very briefest occupation only, it is unlikely that 
he would leave anything much upon the site. 

The systematic exploration of a Roman site at Coel- 
bren,^ between Neath and Brecon, has established a number 
of facts in regard to Roman methods of fortification. The 
work, situated on a hill-top at an elevation of 730 feet, is 

' See Arch, Cambrensia, Sixth Series, vol. vii. (1907). 



IX ROMAN CAMPS 301 

a quadriviiitn with the custoiiiai-y four gates. Its phiii is 
a square of 480 feet, enclosed within the usual vallum. 
Beyond this was a herm of 1 (i feet, and two ditches, 
of which the inner was the deeper and wider. In these 
ditches were found remains of sharpened oaken stakes 
[cippi), and it was evident from their small size tliat the 
ditches w^ere designed merely as obstacles. The vallum was 
built up of earth and In'usJiwood upon the natural surface, 
here a very wet clay, still full of springs ; and to secure a 
firm footing there had been laid at each of the angles, and 
in other spots where the ground was wettest, a flooring 
of large pieces of dressed or undressed timber, some of 
them 17 feet in length. These were arranged side by side, 
with their larsfer ends turned inw^ards. It is suo-gested 
that these elaborate foundations at the ansfles w^ere 
needful to carry the weight of artillery — catapultce and 
haUistre — mounted there, but prol)al)ly they would have 
been necessary in any case, for the weight of the Nallum 
at a right-angled corner is to all intents double that of the 
same vallum along the sides of the enclosure. Some of tlic 
logs employed measured 15 inches in diameter, and in one 
part wdiere the soil was especially wet and unstable the 
flooring was double. A little stone had been used in 
drier parts to make the footing, l)ut there were no traces 
of any buildings of masonry within the area, and appar- 
ently the site was occupied for l)ut a short period, perhaps 
thirty years. The excavators concluded that it represents 
one of the earliest fortifications erected by the Romans in 
this (juarter of the island, and that it was subsequently 
abandoned, wdiether as unnecessary or in favour of some drier 
site. There is reason to believe that the fortress was 
purposely dismantled when abandoned, not merely left 
to fall into decay. 

A plan (Fig. 97) is here given of the well-known group 
of works near Cawthorn, six miles north-wTst of Pickering, 
Yorks. They show several exceptional features. The 



302 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



doubly fossed bcrm surrounding No.l Ijears a remarkable 
analogy to that of the much disputed work at Hod Hill 
(Fig. 112), and while the proportions and plan of the whole 
are characteristic of Roman work, the disposition and 
number of the gateways is not theoretically correct. No, 2 
is curiously irregular in plan, and for no obvious reason ; 
and Nos. 2 and 8 both show a most unusual disposi- 



tion of the gates and remarkaljle defences thereto. 



Fi(i. 97. — Cawthorn Camps. 



The 




last-named peculiarity finds analogues elsewhere. The 
two works at Pigwn, Merionethshire. (Fig. 98), have 
their gates, here normal in number and in position, 
covered by similar processes of the vallum, with the 
difference that they are reversed ; and according to Roy 
there was a yet more complicated arrangement to be seen 
in the Roman camp at Dealgin Ross, in Strathearn 
(Fig. 99). The purpose of all these devices is supposed to 
have been to make room for double gates at each entry, 
the one behind the other. 

Camps of large size, and possibly of proportions theoret- 



IX 



ROMAN CAMPS 



303 










Fifi. 98.— PiciWN Camps. 




y^ect. 



'"'hi' 






•^r^ ^ 



->" 



Fio. i)9.— Dk.vloin Ross (Aftkr Roy). 



304 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap 

ically correct, were doubtless constructed in plenty in 
the earlier days of the Roman conquest, when the island 
was still in the main the enemy's country ; for the troops 
would move about in considerable bodies, and there 
would be need to take every possible precaution against 
surprise. But as the conquest became more of a fact, 
the camps would become fewer in number, smaller in 
size, and weaker in their defences, as the troops moved 
about with less frequency, in smaller bodies, and with 
increasing security ; while at the same time the construc- 
tion of walled towns as permanent bases would render 
less necessary such expeditionary bivouacs. From the 
days of Agricola onward the province of Britannia was 
generally speaking at peace, save along the northern 
frontier, and only there was there need of constant 
caution, activity and watchfulness. The southern and 
midland parts of the island probably never saw Roman 
troops for months or even years together, let alone troops 
on active service. Such camps as were still constructed, 
were of course where were the fighting columns, and this 
was in the north. As a matter of fact the majority of the 
Roman camps, and beyond question the finest, are to be 
found in the northern counties and in the lowlands of 
Scotland.^ Other towns remained the headquarters of 
military divisions, and there was coast-guard work to be 
done on the " Saxon Shore," but the real activities of 
military life were to be seen, if at all, only along the line 
of the Great Wall and beyond it. Even if the more 
southerly parts of Britain had been sown ])roadcast with 
camps in earlier days, these had l)ut small chance to 
survive in face of the increase of population and the 
extension of agriculture. It was the wilder character 

' Dr. Christison declares that ' ' as regards Scotland, besides the forts in 
the rear of the Antonine Vallum, only four fortified works are known that 
may claim to be Roman stations — Birrens (Dumfries), Lyne (Peebles), 
Strageath and Ardoch (Perth)." Proc. Soc, Antiq. Scot., vol. xxx. 



tx ROMAN CAMPS 30^ 

of the more northern i)art.s which theie necessitated tlie 
construction of (*umps more fre(|uently and more care- 
fully than elsewhere ; it is tlie same wild and largely 
uncnltival)le ehai-acter tliat has there kept so many of 
them intact. Further to the south the areas of unprofit- 
able land were fewer and smaller, and the plough therefore 
liad freer play. 

There are other considerations to ]»e l»orne in mind. 
Large areas of southern Britain were at the time of tiie 
conquest, and indeed long afterwards, dense forest or 
impassable fen, where no large number of foes could 
maintain themselves, and where it was impossible even 
for Roman troops to move to much purpose. Thus there 
can never have been many Roman camps in all the wide 
area of the Sussex Weald, which retained for centuries its 
forest character, or in the still wider area of the East 
Anglian Fens. Berkshire and Buckinghamshire w'ere 
dense forest, and the western plain of Somersetshire 
practically a tidal swam}). Again, the various tril)es did 
not all show the same fighting qualities, or the same 
determinatioji to resist. This seems to l)e the explanation 
of the fewness of Roman camps in the south-west. That 
there is no certain trace of a Roman fortress or road 
beyond Taunton and Exeter is in itself proof that the 
natives beyond gave little trouble. Yet what possibilities 
of resistance were offered by the fastnesses of Exmoor, 
Dartmoor, and Cornwall ! ^ But an even more important 
factor in determining the locality of a Roman encuimp- 
ment was the (juestion of an adequate su|)ply of wood 
and of w'ater. The South Downs, and the downs of 

* See an article in Jourmd af tlw Ifoyal InditittiuiL of Cornwall (1899- 
1900), by the late R. N. Worth. At that elite Roman coins had l)een found 
in seventy localities in the county, pottery supposed to be Roman on tlie 
estuary of the Camel and at St. Hilary, so called miliaries at St. Hilary and 
at Tintagel ; but of earthworks attriljutable to Roman l)uilders there are 
very few, and these dubious, *'.<}., one ("Tregear") near liodmin and another 
(Fig. 100) at Bossens, St. Erth. 

X 



3c6 EARTHWORK OK ENGLAND chap. 

Ilunip.shire, AViltshire, and Dorsetsliire offer endless 
strategic positions of tlie first value, l»ut tliev are mostly 
waterless to-day, whatever they may have been in Roman 
times, and they do not seem ever to have been wooded. 
Therefore the Roman, if he were compelled to build camps 
there at all, must needs build them in the valleys, and 
the lower their situation the more certain was their 
speedy destruction under the plough. Jn plain fact, like 
any other soldier he preferred to do as little expeditionary 
service as might be. He selected his l)ases, made tliese 

v'''Vi'i'i'iVji>Vil'.'.»'.'."ii'/'/'; ^> i> I ""<"•"•' I <V/^-',, 
.•"\'\V»" < " > I M ' M 1 1 |\V^ ■>;/ M I f » » M »» 1 1 f , ,'',';.. 



■,'///'" '11(1. ,11111 1 1 Kill ml II 111. "•i>i i.ii>MMi>> ,\ « 

'''''f,'/" """" •""V.".'.v,i.'.';i,''.'.v,.i.>--" ' 

Fifi. 100. — BossExVs, St. Erth. 

his headquarters, and from these directed what further 
strokes were needful. It might be otherwise with the 
fighting Brigantes of the north, l)ut the more pacific 
tribes of the ova maritima for the most part acquiesced 
speedily and finally.^ 

About 2j miles south of Masham, Yorks, to the right 
of the road to Kirkby Malzeard, a fine camp of Roman 
type (Fig. 101) crowns a conspicuous hill nearly 700 feet 
above sea-level.^ Advantage was taken of the natural 

^ T. Codrington remarks, with reference to the Roman Fosse Way, that 
"one camp only, or name suggestive of a camp, is to be found on it in the 
74 miles between Leicester and Cirencester." (Roman Roads in Britain.) 

- It is absurdly called a Danish Cam]) in the vicinity. The late Mr. Lukis 
had a statuette of Diana in silver, 8 inches high, which was ploughed up in 
the field next to the camp. 



IX 



ROMAN CAMPS 



307 



features of the ground, so that while the north-east side 
shows no trace of vallum or fosse, but was sufHciently de- 
fended by the abrupt fall of the hill, on the remaining sides 
a little scarping gave to the outer face of the vallum an 
exceptionally bold and steep relief. Seen from within the 
vallum rises in places to a height of 4 feet, and for the 
most part no more than 2 feet ; l)ut seen from without its 
crest is fully 10 feet above the level of the ground to the 
north-west, along the south-west Hank it is little less, 
while on the south-eastern side, where alone the ditch 




7//1 ///I "â– â– â–  Till !'' ' 'â– ''''i' ''if!"' ' 



Fig. 101. — Roman Camp, Grewelthorpe. 

retains its original proportions, the scarp measures 
upwards of 14 feet, and from the crest of the vallum to 
the outer lip of the ditch is a span of 30 feet. The area 
is almost exactly rectangular (127x66 yards), and the 
comers were originally boldly rounded, though this feature 
has been greatly interfered witli ])y the enclosing of the 
area with a dry-l)uilt wall, and the planting of its vallum 
with trees. Exactly in the centre of the north-west end 
are traces of a gate, but that at the opposite end (south- 
west) is placed close to the eastern angle of the camp. At 
neither side was there any gate. There is a waterhole 
below the north-eastern slope. 

One thing with another, Roman camps, as distinct from 

X 2 



3o8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Roman stations, arc decidedly scarce over most parts of 
England. There are scores upon scores of earthworks so 
called that owe nothino- at all to Rome, l»ut works of the 
genuine Roman type are difficult to find, and when found 
it is not always easy to bring forward evidence sufficient 
to prove them actually Roman. The tests of shape, area, 
proportions, and defensive features are all unreliable. 
Rectangularity is not an exclusive feature of Roman work, 
for while on the one hand there are rectangular works of 
non-Roman origin,^ on the other hand there are Roman 
works which are not rectangular. Nor is the preference 
for right lines peculiarly Roman, for it is found more or 
less in camps of all classes and ages. As to size it is 
impossil)le to lay down any rule at all ; and the proportion 
of length to breadth, theoretically constant, in fact varies 
widely. It seems to Ije the rule that the ordinary camp, 
as distinct from a permanent fortress, had but one vallum 
and one fosse, and neither more nor less than four gates, 
one in the middle of each side ; but all these characteristics 
are liable to be disguised by subsequent alterations. 
Given a work of which the general plan and appearance 
conform to the Roman type, there is always a possibility 
that it may be Roman, but it must fulfil at least three 
other requirements ])efore possibility is raised to pre- 
sumption : it must have a convenient and adequate supply 
of water ; it must itself stand upon a reasonably dry site ; 
and the level of the area enclosed must be the natural 
level of the soil. If these characteristics can all be shown 
to exist, or to have once existed, then the further finding 
of Roman relics upon the spot will have weight ; and if 
the site can be brought into connexion with any other 
indubital)le traces of Roman work, more especially with a 
road, then presumption will pass into probability. But 

^ ^.y. the Bronze Age earthworks at Martin Down and South Lodge 
Camp, and the dubious but apparently non-Roman camp at Handlej^ Hill, 
described in Ch. Y., pp. 143-145. 



IX ROMAN CAMPS 309 

the only tiling wliich can make pro))a)»ility into certainty 
is such exhaustive excavation as sliall demonstrate that 
there is notliing that is not Roman upon the site. 81iould 
Roman masonry ])e discovered, then the site is tliat, not 
of a camp, l)ut of a station. 

The w^ater-supply is gencially obvious, this point pre- 
senting one of the most marked differences between 
British and Roman works. Numbers of the very finest 
British fortresses stand upon hills which reveal no trace of 
any spring, pool, or well within reasonable distance ; 
other non-Ron)an forts stand close beside water, if not 
actually in it ; but the Roman's work is between the two. 
It is within immediate reach of a sufficient supply of 
fresh water, while itself standing almost invarialjly on 
perfectly dry soil. The fosse of the Roman camp was 
never intended to be anything l)ut a dry ditch, and there- 
fore the presence of water in the ditch of a work other- 
wise conforming to the Roman type should at once raise 
doubts of its Roman origin — doubts whether it be not 
rather a moated site of post-Roman date.^ If the area 
has been artificially raised al)oYe the natural surface, then, 
so far at least, it is not a Roman camp, but almost 
certainly a mediaeval "homestead" moat. In moated 
sites as much attention had in some cases to be paid to 
drainage as to defence ; in a Roman camp this (question 
did not arise, because the site selected was out of the 
reach of flood. It niay be added that Roman camps ai-e, 
with few exceptions, on perfectly level ground, and 



' The iioniiiil rectangular plan of the nioateil honiesteatl readily lends 
itself to confusion with Roman works, and many such sites pass for Roman 
camps. There are, on the other hand, a few instances in which genuine 
Roman camps may have been converted into moated sites. One of these is 
Old Ingarsby, Leicestershire, and another the extensive works known as 
The Sladd, St. Albans ; but they are more tlian doubtful. Hardham Moat, 
near Pulborough, Sussex, seems to be a genuine ease of the transfer of the 
term "moat" to a Roman site, apparently a small station on the Stane 
Street to Chichester. 



3IO EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

generally in open positions, altliougli later afforestation 
may easily have altered the last-named condition. Areas 
which were true forest in early times show very few 
Roman earthworks. In Sussex, for example, there is but 
one, viz., Hardham Moat, near Pulborough, and there are 
only one or two dubious examples in all Buckinghamshire.^ 
They are fully as scarce in Kent, Hampshire, and 
Berkshire.^ 

It must never be forgotten, however, that the Roman, 
albeit a most convinced theorist, w^as above all a practical 
strategist, and when the circumstances required it, would 
throw overboard all tlie studied rules of castrametation. 
From the great Roman station at Ardoch, Perthshire, to 
be described in the next chapter, northward l)y the similar 
station at Strageath, and Ijy Gask to Dupplin Loch, runs 
a road which was probably adopted, if not first constructed, 
by the Romans. Along it lie at equal distances two 
Roman camps of the regulation pattern, and of much the 
same area as that at Ardoch (470 x 400 feet), and also a 
series of four earthworks of unusual type (Fig. 102). These 
are very small circular double ring-forts, varying in dia- 
meter from 70 to 110 feet over all, with inner areas no 
more than 30 or 35 feet across. Round the inner area runs 
a vallum surrounded by a broad fosse, and in one instance 
there is a parapet upon the outer edge of the fosse. The 
relief of all is very slight, and all are built upon the dead 



' For a so-called Roman camp on Muswell Hill, see below, p. 313. Near 
Chase Farm, Whaddon, is a more likely site, where the contour of a 
rectangular earthwork of about 8 acres may still be traced under the turf, 
despite centuries of cultivation. The spot, which is very little known, 
passes locally as " California," from the fact that some years ago, about the 
time of the Californian gold-rush, a labourer found here a number of gold 
coins ; but these were of British mintage, and so far as the writer can learn, 
nothing distinctively Roman has ever been discovered in the vicinity. 

^ Similarly Prof. McK. Hughes, writing of the Cambridgeshire side : 
"It is curious how few traces of their military advance we find, yet how 
universal are the signs of long occupation which they have left." {Junrnal 
Brit. Arch. Assoc, 1899.) 



IX 



ROMAN CAMPS 



311 



^ 


















O 1' 









^ 






,v>M<'i./,/ 






WSKT 



level, and witliin a few yards of the roadway. All have 
one entrance only. A fifth fort stands also close to the 
road, but on somewhat higher ground, on the saddle of a 



312 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

low ridge to wliicli its [)laii is adapted. It is an oval 
work measuring 100 x 80 feet within, surrounded by a 
single vallum, and further eovered l)y advanced fosses 
which cross the ridge to east and west of the fort, the 
measurement over all l)eing oidy 180 feet. Yet a sixth 
work, known as Kaims Castle, has an inner area of 
almost square plan, measuring 80 x 75 feet, round which 
runs a circular level terrace, and l)elow this a second, the 
scarps of both terraces becoming ditches wdiere the 
f/round rises somewhat to the north, west, and south. 

Although the matter still awaits positive proof, there is 
very little doubt that these six anomalous forts are all of 
Roman construction, so many l)lockhouses in fact, designed 
to protect the road. If so, they prove as conclusively as 
do the greater works at Ardoch and Birrens, to be 
described later, that the Romans, like other strategists, 
could and did upon occasion waive all theories. There is 
not one of the six which could, if considered l)y itself, 
have been declared a Roman work, but their peculiar 
disposition in relation to other works of untjuestionably 
Roman origin seems to preclude any other theory than 
that they also are Roman. The fifth of the series indeed, 
though upon a smaller scale, is precisely like the saddle- 
back forts of the South Downs — White Hawk Hill and 
Combe Hill (Fig. 222) — which are almost beyond doubt of 
British construction, and very early construction to boot. 
Once more the moral is plain — "camps" are very 
deceptive. 

That the Romans did at times make defensive works of 
circular plan is conclusively proved by the recent explora- 
tion of a site known as Cwmbrwyn, \^\ miles west-south- 
west of Carmarthen.^ Here an earthwork, of which there 
remained visible only the slight hump of an irregular oval 
ring-work, with still slighter traces of an outer fosse and 

1 Arch,, Cdmhrensis, vol, vii., Sixth Series (1907), p. 175, 



IX ROMAN CAMPS 313 

of a gate in the eastern side, was found to liave l)een 
originally an enclosure measuring about 1^00 x 110 feet 
over, surrounded by a i-ough but formidable walb 15 feet 
in thickness, built up of soil and turves upon a course of 
clay. Beyond this was a level berm of 6 feet, and finally a 
trench \vith aV-section, 17 to 18 feet wide and 8 feet deep. 
The gate was 13 feet wide. Within tlie area, which had 
apparently been partially gravelled, were the remains of a 
building, 100 feet in length and 25 feet wide, constructed 
of S(juared stone laid in mortar. Koof-tiles, Hue-tiles, and 
other remains established the Roman character of the site. 
Its purpose, however, remains conjectural. According to 
one theory it was a posting-station. More probable is a 
second theory, that it was a cavalry outpost of a larger 
infantry-camp 2 miles north-north-east, on the banks of 
the river Taf. 

One or two exam])les of dubious character may be cited. 
Un Muswell Hill, l^ miles north-west of Brill, in Bucking- 
hamshire, at an elevation of some 650 feet, stands a 
remarkably perfect eartliwork (Fig. 103). In })lan almost 
an exact scjuare of upwards of 90 yards to the side, its 
level area is surrounded Ijy a massive bank, 30 feet broad 
at the l)ase and raised 4 to 5 feet above the ground-level. 
Whence came the material for this bank it is ditH(;ult to 
see, as there is now l)ut the very faintest indication, 
at one or two points outside, of there ever having been a 
fosse ; and the extraordinary regularity of the vallum, 
which is as even and level as if made yesterday, would 
seem to suggest that none of its material has lieen removed 
to fill up the fosse, or for other purposes. The top of the 
vallum, 15 feet and more in width, is as smooth as a high- 
w^ay. There are two entrances, in the centres of opposite 
sides of the square. If the work were of mediaeval date 
one would expect to see unmistakable signs of an exterior 
ditch or moat ; and if it l)e not of mediaeval date it is 
quite impossible to explain the extraordinary state of its 



314 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP 



prcserviitiou. On the OrdiiaiHJO Mnp it is, of course, 
niarkcd as a l-toman canij), l)ut uppnreiitly for no ])etter 
reason than its rectangularity, for it does not appear tliat 
the site has ever yielded any Roman remains. On the 
other hand the soil of the adjacent field to the south is full 
of delicately-worked flints, of which the presence here. 






^/,A^ 



<^^% 







::^><c 



c7;«?/v ^//nmiiiiiiinmniiMiiinnuiininnminfmimnw"^ 

'^'â– ''^'^^ C O V NT-y B O U f^D fj RY 



do 



so 

—I 



yArcL^ 

Fig. 103. — Muswell Hill, near Brill. 



upon soil otherwise barren of flint, is conclusive proof that 
the spot was occupied in prehistoric times. The fact that 
the southern wall of the enclosure coincides with the 
county boundary seems to show that it is of respectable 
antiquity. But there is in reality no reason for thinking it 
Roman : the area is too small for a permanent station, 
while the rampart is too massive for a temporary camp ; 



IX 



ROMAN CAMPS 



315 



juul moreover the angles lack the cliara(;teri.stic rouiidiics.s 
of Jtoman work ; but that, well preserved as it is, and in 
a situation where cultivation has proceeded without 
interruption for generations, it can be older even than 
Roman times would seem impossible to believe. 

In Rook Wood, Great Missenden, Bucks, is another 



vv 



>>^ 



\ n/; 









\ 



V 



^^^^^^:^^^ 



>:^^^^ 









/ 



/ 



- V.- 






o /o 

L_l I I L. 



so 



100 



'^ - ^ 



>» y 



J^ee^. 



y/^. 












N 



Fm. 104. — Castle Hill Camp, Great Missenden. 



work of rectangular plan, known as Castle Hill Camp 
(Fig. 104). Like that at Muswell Hill it is almost square, 
but smaller (circa GO yards across) ; l)ut unlike the other 
it has only one entrance ; and it differs also in having its 
angles decidedly rounded, while the vallum is of more 
normal proportions, and there is 11 considerable external 
fosse. Nothing is known of its origin or date. It may 
very well belong to the class of homestead-moats, for the 



3i6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

alKsence of water at the present day is no proof that the 
ditch was always dry/ 

About a mile equi-distant from Sarratt and Flaunden, in 
Hertfordshire, is another rectangular work, l)ut much 
smaller, measuring 30 paces by 24 paces only, or about 
^th of an acre. It is surrounded by a low vallum and a 
ditch, and is well preserved. There are no determinable 
entrances, but from the western side a straight broad 
bank runs out at right angles for some yards, flanking a 
small water-hole, apparently a dewpond, for the site 
is thickly planted. The proportions, the strictly rectilineal 
and rectangular plan, and the character of the defences, 
are all of the accepted Roman type, yet there is grave 
reason to doubt whether this also T)e not a mediaeval work. 

Fig. 100 shows the so-called Roman camp at Bossens, 
near St. Erth, Cornwall. This, again, is of very small 
dimensions, 152 feet in length by 136 feet in width, but 
the plan, the rounded angles, and the relative scale of the 
defences, all suggest Roman work. The single gateway 
is, however, a non -Roman feature, so that, despite the 
finding of Roman coins here, it is permissible to doubt 
whether it be a work of Roman origin, the more so as it 
lies so far beyond any proven traces of the Roman 
occupation of the south-west. 

Three earthworks, all of one type standing upon Wal- 
ton Heath, Surrey, are unhesitatingly attributed to the 
Romans, 1)ut the most valid reason for such attribution 
appears to l)e that there undoubtedly was a Roman 
settlement somewhere in the vicinity."^ All three works 



1 The work has some resemblance to that at Bray's Wood (Fig. 163), 
2| miles to the north. Near the church of Great Missenclen, on the hill 
some three-quarters of a mile to the north-west, there used to stand another 
work of a[)parently similar plan, now destroyed. 

2 The remains of a villa have been found at Walton, the name of which 
raises the suspicion that some sort of walled town stood here. The forgery 
known by the name of Richard of Cirencester put Tedertis here — a supposed 
Roman original of the modern Tadworth. 



IX ROMAN CAMPS 317 

arc rectaugulai- and rectiliiK'al, all have one vallum and 
one fosse, and all are so thickly overgrown with heather 
as to be difficult to find, especially as their relief is hut 
slioht in tw^o cases out of the three, the soil heino' n 
sandy ora\xd wliicli raj)idly wastes. The largest and 
most noticeable is only 65 paces by 45 paces ; the second 
is a s(|uare of ;U paces ; and the third is a tiny enclosure 
of 24 paces l)y 17 paces. From crest of vallum to outer 
lip of the ditch is some 20 feet in the case of the smaller 
works, more in the largest of the three. The square work 

^o ^oo 



^Mr;r.i;;.'U;i;iiiuUilllJHiiii;iiiji;iii,;ijiiw/,7;,.,- 



Fig. 105. — King Akthuk's Hall, Leaze. 



seems to have had an entrance in the middle of one side. 
In the others no gates are determinable. 

To regard these as military works is scarcely reason- 
able : the largest alone is large enough, the others are 
much too small. Moated sites in the proper sense they 
cannot have been, for the soil will not hold water. Only 
excavation can possibly throw any light on their date 
or purpose, and even so the possibility is slight. But until 
scmie valid evidence is forthcoming it is unwarrantable 
to speak of them as Roman at all, still more unwanant- 
al)le to say they are Roman cdstra. 

Certainly not Roman, and apparently unique in 
England, is the rectangular enclosure (Fig. 105) called 



31 8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

King Arthur's Hall, near Leaze, Cornwall. Here a broad 
and almost rectilineal vallum of earth, sloping naturally to 
the surface level on the outer side, but on the inner side 
held up by a rude retaining-wall of single stones, forms an 
enclosure measuring from crest to crest 160 by 66 feet. 
The longer axis lies a little west of north by south ; there 
is no outer fosse ; and the original entrance seems to 
have been at the south-western corner. It has never, 
apparently, been explored, but the exploration of two 
very similar enclosures in Brittany seemed to show that 
they had been built as ustrince, or crematories for the 
dead.^ 

Speaking from the point of view of the sight-seer, 
Roman camps of the normal type are amongst the least 
impressive of all our earthworks. Originally of but slight 
construction, they have been so badly treated by time as 
to retain little of whatever dignity they once possessed. 
So rapidly does the shallow fosse fill up and the vallum 
crumble, that often no eye but that of the trained en- 
thusiast can detect the faint traces which remain. There 
is little to strike the imagination in these all but obliter- 
ated mounds and ditches under their uniform mantle of 
green turf. Nor for that matter is there much to be made 
out of such examples as are best preserved. The specula- 
tions of those who, like General Roy, endeavour to recon- 
struct the whole story of an Agricola's campaigns from 
the surviving vestigia of Roman entrenchments, proven or 
imagined, are ingenious, and may possibly come near the 
truth at times, but they prove nothing. Even spade-work 
will probably reveal no more than the original measure- 
ments of the fosse, so that even the collector with a cabinet 
to fill passes them by almost as contemptuously as does 

^ See an article by A. L. Lewis in Journal of the Anthrop. Inst., August, 
1895. Mr. J. B. Cornish inclines to believe that King Artliur's Hall was 
nothing more than an enclosure for cattle (Vict. Co. Hist. Cornurdl, vol. i.). 
Local tradition says that it was once a Christian Church. 



ix ROMAN CAMPS 319 

the photographer in search of a " subject." They have 
no history, usual 1}' no name. The archasokjgist, who 
rightly holds them in greater reverence, may weave what 
fancies he will al)out their shrunken lines, — may, if he 
please, see a greener grass, a ru(hlier heather, on these 
nameless sites, and with Omar 

"Sometimes tliiiik blows never rose so red 
As on tlie spot where once a C;«'s;ir bled" ; 

but such fancies are luxuries which he must needs keep to 
himself, simply because they are fancies and nothing more, 
" notions " which no power of imagination or eloquence 
can transmute into trutlis. If he would make disciples to 
his cult, he were wise, perhaps, to choose for his first object- 
lessons in the fascination and mystery of ancient earth- 
work something more robustly ol)vious and impressive 
than any Roman camp can show. 



CHAPTER X 



ROMAN STATIONS 



" And, little toivn, thy streets for evermore 
Will silent he, and not a soul to tell 

Why thou art desolate can e'er return.'" 

The position, character, and growth of Roman towns in 
Britain depended, as such things always do, upon 
considerations of strategy, organization, commerce, and 
various other matters less obvious. With the Roman, who 
was primarily an alien conqueror, strategic considerations 
had at the outset the greatest weight. This explains why 
in so many cases the later town is merely the earlier castra 
translated in bricks and mortar. In some few cases the 
Roman town had seemingly no relation to any earlier 
settlement ; it was a new position occupied and fortified 
for newly arisen strategic reasons. More frequently the 
invaders occupied and fortified a British town as they 
found it. But most commonly they built a new town in 
their own way close beside the site of some important 
British settlement. 

Where the temporary camp was subsequently adopted 
as a permanent station, there would be little modification 
of the original plan. The site was entrenched within a 
more formidable ditch, walls of masonry replaced the 
earthen vallum, and on the exact lines of the castra with 



CH. X ROMAN STATIONS 321 

its four o-ates^ arose curtciin-walls of stone or rubble laid iii 
mortar and bonded with the tell-tale courses of flat tile 
which almost invariably accompany Roman Ijuilding. At 
the four corners, on either side of each gate, and along the 
curtain-walls at intervals proportionate to their length, 
were set towers, usually drum-shaped and solid."' The 
gates became round-headed archways, usually double, 
closed by doors of wood or metal or both, and provided 
with guard-houses on the inner side.^ So excellent was 
the masonry, so tough the mortar, so sure the foundations/ 
that after fifteen centuries or more some of these fortresses 
remain almost intact, as at Burgh Castle near Yarmouth, 
at Pevensey, and at Porchester. In cases where a 
considerable stream covered one side of the fortress, the 
walls upon that side may have been less formidable, but it 
is doubtful whether the stream alone was held to be a 
suflicient defence/ 

1 The number was not invariable. The stations of Cilurnum (Chesters) 
and Amboglanna (Bircloswald) on the Wall had each six gates, altliough these 
fortresses — they covered something over five acres — were only of large size 
as compared with others in that district. 

" The great multangular tower at York shows nine faces in a periphery 
of 270^, i.e., it was of dodecagonal plan. In some cases there are no towers 
along the curtaiii-wall, e.g., at Silchester. 

â– '' There are many examples to be seen in the stations of the Wall, and one 
remains in the Newport Arch at Lincoln. Where the gate is double, the 
two passages are sometimes of the same span, but more frequently of different 
sizes, the s^jiua (dividing wall) being eccentric, as at Hard Knot Castle, 
Cuml)erland. Each passage was commonly provided with two pairs of 
valvce (double doors), which opened back upon the passage-walls. They were 
sometimes hinged, sometimes turned upon pivots let into sockets in the 
stone sill. Asa rule there were no gate-towers right and left, 1)ut exceptions 
are known, e.g., in the station at Haltwhistle Burn, where "huge semicircular 
constructions" flanked the entry. 

* Yet as a rule the foundations of Roman work are not deep. The liuge 
walls and towers of Burgli Castle actually rested in part upon planks of oak 
laid upon the wet soil ; and the same was the case at Pevensey and 
Ribchester. Their strength lay rather in the ijuality of the mortar used or 
rather of the cement. 

•'' Such positions wer^ e.g., Burgh Castle (Fig. 106), near Yarmouth, on 
the banks of the Waveney, and London. The river-wall at Burgh Castle has 
long vanished, whereas the wall enclosing the other three sides of the fortress 

Y 



322 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 



The area thus enclosed was usually rectangular, but not 
by any means always of the exact proportions of the 
theoretical castra. These proportions are found in 



^ — 7?/'uer nour 
600 /t 01 Ufa y 



ToCtrer nour 
ya/^en- 




yeef. 
Fig. 106. — Bukuh Castle. 



comparatively few instances, as at Ancaster, Bincester, 
Birdoswald, Chesters, Catterick, Grassy Walls on the Tay, 

remains to this day one of our finest surviving specimens of its kind of 
work. The inference is that the river-wall was at any rate weaker than the 
rest. In the case of London the nature of the defences towards the river 
is still a vexed question. At Castle Dykes, Ripon (described below), there 
appears to have been neither wall nor ditch on the fourth side, ovei'looking 
the stream. The same is true of the Wall-stat:Shi at Corstopitum (near 
Corbridge), where the southern side, overlooking the swampy land by the 
Tyne, was unwalled. 



ROMAN STATIONS 



^^Z 



Lyiie Kirk in Tweeddalc, Minskip, and Natland near 
Ken dak Elsewhere the phin shows every variation from 
an actual square to a parallelogram of which the breadth 
is ])ut half tlie length or even less. The square plan is 






l\^ 


















7.O0 

f 



'^",'",j ^ 

..'"'^;;:*"^^^ 



'// 



"'^\y\'^ 



Fig. 107. — Mklani>ka, DERtsYSHiRE. 



found at Melandra (Fig. 107). Porchester, Hard Knot, 
High Kiechester, Ebchester, Bowes, Maryport, Brancaster, 
Kirkby Thore, Alchester, and elsewhere. At Temple- 
borough, Chesterford, Ambleside, Grantchester, and 
Horncastle, the length is to the breadth as five to three ; 
and at Burgh Castle it is as 100 to 47. The areas vary 
quite as widely. The fortress at Minskip, near 
Aldborough, Yorks, contained only r55 acres ; Porchester, 
2 "5 acres; Harel Knot, 3 "05 acres ; Koman Manchester and 

Y 2 



324 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chai>. 

Templeborougii (near Sheffield), 5 acres ; Braiicaster, 
8'25 ; while Tasburgh rose to 24 acres; Caister St. 
Edmunds to 30, Towcester to 40, Caerlleon to close upon 
50, York to 52, and Chesterfoixl to little short of GO 
acres/ 

The area was intersected at right angles by two main 
thoroughfares running from gate to gate, parallel with 
which ran lesser streets^ dividins; the whole into 
rectangular blocks (insulce). Originally these were but the 
sjrass avenues left between the ordered lines of the soldiers' 
tents or huts. The tents and huts gave way to more 
permanent dwellings of masonry, the grass to pavement, 
and thus the whole camp was translated into a town of 
rectilineal streets. AVith the lapse of years the regularity 
of the less important streets tended to disappear, but the 
main thoroughfares have in many cases preserved their 
plan and their importance to this day. It is the familiar 
"Carfax"^ plan so obvious at Chester, Chichester and 
elsewhere, and still recognizable even in London. 

A complete station of regular type has been excavated 
at Newstead, near Melrose.* The gates, the principal and 
subordinate thoroughfares, the blocks of buildings, and the 
central quadrilateral prsetorium, have all been laid open. 
Of the buildings two-thirds appear to have been intended 
as barracks for the garrison, the remainder as Government 
offices, arsenals, and storehouses. The enclosing wall was 
7^ feet in thickness. From the evidence of the coins 

1 Prof. Haverfield gives the aiea of a station garrisoned by a full legion at 
50 acres more or less ; that of a station held by an auxiliary regiment as from 
5 to 10 acres. But though each station was doubtless originally designed 
for the accommodation of a definite force, it is obvious that its importance 
must have altered with the course of years, and where there was any long- 
continued occupation the limits of the station must have altered accordingly. 

- The stations of the Wall supply several examples of these extremely 
narrow secondary streets — mere alleys or venelles. 

^ From qiiatre foix { = quadrivium), " a place where four roads meet." 

* See Scottish Histoi-ical Review, vol. iv. p. 443 (1907), where a plan is 
given. 



ROMAN STATIONS 



3^S 



discovered it is believed that the station ceased to ])e 
occupied about 190 a.d. 

Castle Dykes (Fig. 108), three miles north of Ripon, is 
one of the finest examples of a minor station to be found 
south of the Wall. Its plan shows a very practical economy 







/5s./'.%,/'^^^'"""'nn!iiifj.^ , ^,^. 

uno-C Cue * ' * * * It 1 1 1 f-M « 1 1 1 1t 1 1 1 f 1 1 11 1- "-I'l 

Unfo So/ let 
reck t/^/f de£^:> 

/ 10 %o 30 4o 50 

/yaces. 



Oufer- u-cU/'Hrrt 
2. - ^t ft. fugh 

lOO 



Fig. 108. — Castle Dykes, Ru'ON. 



of labour, for the northern side of the station was covered 
only by the swampy hollow along which flows the Light 
Water, a small feeder of the Ure. When the camp was 
built this was doubtless a considerable stream, and if any 
artificial defences were raised on this side, they were too 
small to leave any traces. The three remaining sides, 



326 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

enclosing an area of 5 J acres with a veiy gentle slope to 
the east and the north, are entrenched within an enormous 
Hat-floored fosse 15 feet in depth and fully 50 feet from 
lip to lip on the southern side. In comparison with this 
fosse the vallum and parapet are but slight, excepting 
upon the western side, where the lie of the ground 
required their greater development, and the parapet rises 
to the dignity of a second vallum with a width of 20 feet 
and a height of 6 to 10 feet above the ground without. 
x\long the south side the parapet is 2 — 4 feet high, and 
the vallum little more ; while at the east the vallum 
disappears altogether and the parapet is again developed to 
somewhat larger proportions. The fosse is perfectly regular, 
its sides as clean cut and its broad floor as level as if made 
by modern engineers. There are two entrances, respec- 
tively in the middle of the southern and eastern sides. 
The former has a width of 12 paces, the latter of 8 paces, 
the fosse partially filled up at each point to furnish a 
passage. There are no outworks now traceable. The 
corners of the camp are boldly rounded. At the north- 
west the lines vanish on the slope running down to the 
stream, and at the north-east they have been obliterated 
by the present high road, which here curves round upon 
the course of the original fosse. Exploration of the site 
some years ago brought to light the foundations of baths 
and other buildings lying on either hand of a central 
street which commenced at the southern gate and inter- 
sected the area. The Ijuildings were of two dates ; later 
and less careful work had been run up upon the ruins of 
earlier buildings, which had evidently been destroyed by 
violence. The position, which is four miles west of the 
Great North Road, in marked contrast with that of 
Grewelthorpe Camp, four miles further west, is low-lying, 
and was apparently intended to guard the ford by which 
a vicinal road ran direct from Ilkley (Olicana) to Catte- 
rick (Cataractonium). It was a byway, traversing a wild 



X ROMAN STATIONS 327 

and mostly uncultivated country ; the station therefore 
was small, and its population could not afford to neglect 
their defences. Yet there was no discoverable sign that 
it had ever been walled with masonry.^ 

Hard Knot Castle, perched high upon tlie fells dividing 
the Valley of the Duddon from that of the Esk, and facing 
westward down Eskdale towards Muncaster, is a typical 
example of the smallest kind of fort. To all intents an 
exact square, its area, no more than 3 acres and 3 poles in 
all, is girt by massive stone walls of 5 or 5|- feet in thick- 
ness. The corners are rounded, and built up against the 
inner face of each was a square tower, 12 feet on the side, 
probably designed to carry hcdlistce. The gates, set in the 
middle of each wall, were double-arched. There was no 
fosse. Within the area have been found the foundations of 
buildings, much resembling those at Cwmbrwyn (p. 312), 
and probably representing barracks. The garrison can 
scarcely have mustered more than a single cohort, and 
they must have found their vigil up above the mists a 
wearisome monotony.^ 

The exploration by the Society of Scottish Antiquaries 
of the two great stations at Ardoch,^ in Perthshire, and 
Birrens* near Micldlebie, has completely disproved a 
good deal which previously passed amongst antiquaries 



1 Formidable and striking as the site is, it remained almost unknown until 
1866, when exploration was at last commenced. The immediate cause 
leading thereto was tlie finding of a single rare coin and the chance upcast- 
ing of a tessera or two on a mole-lieap. De minimis ! 

2 For the site and its exploration see Transactions Cumberland and 
Westmorland Soc, vol. xvi. (1893). The station at Haltwhistle Burn had an 
area of no more than | acre within the walls, but its fosse was 25 feet wide 
and proportionally deep. 

^ Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland, vol. xxxii. (1897-8). 

â– ' Oj). cit., vol. XXX. f (1895-6). The name of Birrens, Birrcnswark, 
Burrens, Borrans, Borrowens, Burians, or Burwens, attaching to various 
earthworks, Roman or otherwise, is found as far nortli as Shetland and as 
far south as Cumberland. It is connected with Anglo-Saxon bi/riiien, 
" buryings," i.e., " barrows," and corresponds exactly to the dialectic variant 
"Barrow" for " Borough," as in Elworthy Barrows, Thunderbarrow, itc. 



328 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

as beyond question, aijd has thrown an entirely new 
light upon other similar sites as yet unexplored. Both 
Ardoch and Birrens show indeed the normal rectangular 
Roman plan, but they show also a most extraordinary 
complexity of defences, there being in the former case 
five fosses upon a single side of the camp, and at Birrens 
no less than six. Traditional archaeology, liaving rightly 
guessed the sites to be Roman, and having wrongly 
postulated that the Romans never constructed more than 
one fosse about their castra, found itself hard put to 
reconcile theory with fact. After " great argument about 
it and about," it was usually concluded that these were 
Roman works which had either been placed within earth- 
works of an older date, or had been added to and 
elaborated at some later period. How an earlier camp 
came to be so very Roman in plan, or who were the later 
engineers that spent so much labour upon the improve- 
ment of the sites, were questions which remained 
unanswered. Only the spade was able to clear up the 
mystery. 

As a matter of fact in each instance, their extra- 
ordinary elaboration notwithstanding, the earthworks 
have been found to be entirely Roman, owing nothing 
to earlier or later ages ; and as being most remarkable 
examples of the value of spade-work when applied to 
the problems of Roman Britain, both cases deserve some 
consideration. 

The works at Birrens form a parallelogram of 500 x 300 
yards, lying in the angle made by the junction of 
Middlebie Burn (E.) with the Mein Water (S.). The area 
is surrounded by an enormous vallum constructed after 
the fashion of the Roman â–  siege-mounds of earth 
alternating with layers of brushwood, and resting in 
places upon a carefully laid course of flag-stones. Natural 
wastage, and possibly also human agency in the search 
for building-stone, have so spread this vallum that at the 



X ROMAN STATIONS 329 

present time it is always 40 feet, and often more than 
50 feet in width, thouoh risinG; but 3 or 4 feet above the 
area. The further defences upon the northern and best 
preserved side were as follows : at the foot of the vallum 
was a berm, and beyond this a series of six parallel 
trenches divided merely by l)alks (i.e., strips of soil left 
m sitic and at their original level). These trenches were 
originally about 5 feet in depth, and usually 2 or 3 feet 
wide at the bottoms, which were flat, the innermost 
trench showing a rather wider section than the others.^ 
The balks were gently rounded off at the top. Beyond 
these works was a second vallum. The whole series of 
defences was continued round the eastern side until 
interrupted by the fall of the ground to Middlebie Burn. 
Whether they were also carried fully round the western 
side has not been determined, all that is now visible 
in that quarter being the great inner vallum and a single 
trench. 

On the northern and western sides were found gates 
respectively 5 and 10 feet in width, the road-way 
through the vallum flanked by walls 3 feet in thickness. 
On the northern side these walls were projected for a 
distance of 30 feet, and on the western side for half 
that length. There was no gate on the eastern side. 
Whether any existed on the south is not known, that 
end of the camp having been much eroded by the Mein 
Water. 

The area had been regularly laid out in accordance 
with the theoretical Roman plan. A broad street, 
running in a right line from each gate, divided the whole 
into four sections, which were further subdivided by 
narrower lanes running from east to west, so that the 
whole floor was partitioned into a number of parallelograms 



^ These were merely obstacle-trenches, like those at Coelbren (p. 300), and 
like those also, tlioy were probably intended to l)e furnislied witli cippi and 
lilia or similar contriv^ances. 



330 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chai-. 

of uiiifonn size. Each of these insuhe was occupied by 
l)uil(liiius. arranged all in narrow blocks, saving that in 
the actual centre of the area stood an elaborate Forum, 
some 70 X 75 feet, and east and west of it two other 
blocks of building of much the same dimensions. Where 
space was not available for a street, each block of build- 
ings was separated from the next by a space barely wide 
enough to allow a man to pass ; and between the vallum 
and the whole mass of buildings there ran all round the 
area a broad open space some 16 feet in width. At the 
foot of the eastern vallum were found four ovens side by 
side. Evidence was forthcoming that the station had 
been twice occupied. The original fortress had been 
abandoned and razed to the ground, and after the lapse 
of a considerable period had been rebuilt and reoccupied, 
probably without further intermission, until the time 
when the Romans finally withdrew from this locality. 
Whether it was ever walled is uncertain, but the 
probabilities are against it. If there was ever a wall 
at all, it may have been simply a stone-facing to the 
great vallum. 

The advanced position of this station — its Roman name 
is quite unknown — in the very heart of the untamed 
northern country, at once explains the extraordinary 
character of its defences ; and the utter destruction 
which put an abrupt period to its earlier occupation — a 
destruction so complete that those who rebuilt it did not 
trouble themselves to seek out the foundations of the 
older town, but constructed as it were a replica of the 
old plan with the same streets, lanes, passages and 
blocks of building, but all on new foundations — is proof 
that the tribes of the North were thorousih in their 
hostility. The station at Ardoch, a point yet more 
remote, illustrates the same fact even more forcibly. 
Here the general scheme of defence was the same (Fig. 109) : 
there were inner and outer ramparts, between which lay 



ROMAN STATIONS 



331 



a series of trenches^ with intervening l^alks. On the 
eastern side these trendies were five ; on the north the 
nuniher remained tlie snnie, l)ut the ])laii was complicated 






.... Vm*--. w 



«ii»Li- — ■-Sq;,'""' *''C^fi?3 3fe 



If i^l^llli li 







ROMAM STATION 
ARDOCH 



Fm. 109. — Aruoch, Perthshire. 



hy the extension of two of the halks into ravelines, of 
which the outer one (between the second and third 
trenches) was further ^^rovided with n raised breastwork. 
On tlie two remaining sides, just as at Birrens, the 



' Unlike those ;it Birrens, the trenches at Anhiclr liad a V-^hapeil 
section. 



?>2>^ 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



C H A F . 



original works have been all but obliterated. There were 
gates on the north and the east, but whether others ever 
existed is not known. Exploration of the area revealed 
the foundations of buildings as closely packed and as 
orderly in arrangement as at Birrens, but wdth the 
remarkable difference that they had been constructed of 






w* ^j, ,,[,111 

..MW 






,r^^. 

:; â–  r 'â– 'â–  %.'^ % 






b C d e f g h 




»J?%;^^^^.^i***'^25^?S!^^ 



Fig. IIU.— Ardoch : Plan of N.E. and N.W. Angles, and Enlarged 

Sections of E., N., and W. Sides. 



wood throughout.^ Evidently the fortress at Ardoch 
never lived to reach the fully developed stage of brick 



^ They were built upon horizontal beams laid in shallow trenches, which 
were lined with a flooring of clay and cobbles firmly rammed together- 
Certain traces of foundation near the centre had of course been dubbed the 
Pnietorium. Excavation showed them to be the remains of a mediaeval 
chapel standing within its churchyard wall, a rectangle of some 80 feet each 
way. " Prtetorian here, Prtetorian there ! I mind weel the bigging o't." 
The family of Jonathan Oldbuck of Monkbarns is .still numerous and 
flourishinii. 



X ROMAN STATIONS 333 

and mortar. The latest coins known to have been found 
there belong to the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, the 
builder of the great Wall between Tyne and Solway. 
Probably Ardoch was abandoned when the Wall was com- 
pleted, and possibly at his orders. But possibly no orders 
were required : the finding within the area of a num])er of 
sling-stones of burnt clay suggests a more unconsidered 
fate, for it is known that the "barbarians" used to heat 
such missiles to red heat and therewith fire the inflammable 
buildings within the enemy's camp. That they thus 
terminated the Roman occupation of Ardoch is not 
demonstrable, but the presence of the sling-stones shows 
that at any rate they tried. 

The results attained at Ardoch and Birrens have 
bearings upon certain earthworks elsewhere. It had 
long been agreed that Antoninus constructed a vallum — 
a miniature edition of Hadrian's Wall — across Scotland 
from the Forth to the Clyde. The remains of this work, 
insignificant to-day, were considerable a century ago, and 
Roy gives a series of plans of all the fortresses, or castles, 
Avhich guarded it. These show a similar multiplication 
of trenches, and in Rough Castle, the only one now 
remaining in a fair state of preservation, these are three 
in number. Antiquaries, obsessed with the preconception 
that Romau works must necessarily show but a single fosse, 
doubted whether the Wall of Antonine had not been 
tampered with by later hands. It is to-day clear that 
the Roman origin of such forts as Rough Castle need 
not be called into question on that score, and the further 
fact that the Wall of Antonine was constructed of earth 
raised upon a course of fiag-stones is also illustrated by 
the excavations at Birrens.^ The like results will prol)a])ly 



1 Exactly analogous were the fortresses constructed along the Liuioi 
Doniitianua, the Roman frontier in Germany. The c<iiifra there were uni- 
formly walled, but usually with only a stone revetment covering a massive 
earthen vallum. They were entrenched within one, two, or in a few cases 



334 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

attend the excavation of other cases of multiple fossation, 
such as those at High Rochester and elsewhere. At 
Whitley Castle, in Northumberland, two miles north-west 
of Alston, the number of the fosses actually rises to 
seven on one of the four sides of the fortress. It is 
impossible not to admire the untamable spirit of those 
"barbarians" who could put their conquerors to such 
labour for the protection of their own persons.^ 

Within the narrow w^alls of a Roman station was 
packed all the human machinery of a community self- 
contained, self-governing, and for the most part self- 
supporting. Whatever might be the case in the open 
countiy around, within the w^alls the population was 
dense indeed. There are still to be found in Italy little 
towns of the precise Roman plan, which, at any rate 
on those soils where the Latin tradition w^as most firmly 
rooted, maintained itself far down through the centuries. 
Perhaps Old Bordighera " is as accessible a parallel as can 
well be found — a fully-developed hive of humanity, with 
its churches, municipal offices, shops and workshops and 
dw^ellings, even its miniature forwrtx — the jyiazza — of a 
dignity oddly out of proportion to its size, all packed 



three fosses. There were no subsidiary valla, either between the fosses or 
without them. One of these castra, at Saalburg, has lately been "restored " 
at the Emperor's orders. See a descriptive article in Archceol. Journal, 
vol. Ixi. (Dec, 1904). 

* At Newstead, Melrose, there have been discovered the traces of cer- 
tainly two, probably three, and possibly four, reconstructions of the station, 
with slight variations of the plan and of the defensive works. With each 
successive reoccupation the strength of the defences would seem to have 
been increased, the last presenting a massive wall of masonry covered by 
three of the ditches now recognized as a common feature of Roman stations 
in dangerous localities. Yet the station of Newstead seems to have had an 
intermittent existence of less than 150 years. 

2 It is not suggested that Old Bordighera is itself a Roman foundation, 
albeit standing immediately upon the Roman coast-road from Genoa to 
Marseilles. It is apparently not older than the days of the Genoese naval 
power of the twelfth centur5^ Its precise area is 13,800 square metres, and 
its populaticm 1500 souls. 



X ROMAN STATIONS 335 

away with innrvellous nicety within a para]leh)gram of 
three acres, and hemmed about by lofty turreted and 
gated walls. Nothins; biooer tlian a coster's barrow could 
well traverse its exiguous ruelles ; horsed traffic seldom 
or never disturbs the mediaeval calm of its swarming 
population, who hang their many-coloured Southern 
washing athwart the narrow strip of 1)lue sky overhead, 
carry on at open windows of third, fourth, fifth, and even 
sixth floors their neighbourly conversations, and up stairs 
and down stairs, out of doors and in, fill the whole of 
their city of Lilliput with the muffled music of a life as 
strenuous as manifold. The houses and walls are taller 
than they were in Roman Britain, and the style of the 
architecture is something different, but otherwise Old 
Bordighera in this twentieth century is pretty much 
what were a score of towns in the Britain of sixteen 
hundred years ago. 

As the community outgrew its walls these might l)e 
enlarged, as seems to have been done at London and 
Lincoln, the original regularity of plan being thereby 
sometimes lost. More often the surplus population simply 
gatliered into faubourgs without the walls, ^ troubling 
themselves less and less about orderly plan as the Pax 
Romana became more and more a reality, and strictly 
military considerations of less and less importance. So 
the ground adjoining the southern side of Roman York 
was thickly covered with houses, temples, baths, and 
tombs, hi pacific districts there would probably in every 
case gather a non-Roman town about the Roman fortress, 
for the presence of the garrison implies an attendant army 
of civilians — servants, artizans, merchants, and so on — 
to supjDly its wants. It is surprising how tpickly a camp 

* The term procedriwn is applied to such annexes, when provided with 
their own defences linking tliem up with the main fortress. Both Ardoch 
and Birrens show remains of such annexes, and so d<> many, if not most, 
of the larger stations of southern Britain. 



336 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chaf. 

develops into a town to-day, and the causes being the 
same in Roman times, without doubt the results were the 
same. 

Those Roman towns which do not show the theoretical 
regularity of plan must l^e explained by supposing that 
in such cases the invaders had merely occupied the whole 
or part of some existing British town, subordinating their 
own theories to existing facts, or to topographical con- 
ditions which interfered with those theories. Thus Roman 
Bath was pentagonal, the site at Bewcastle an irregular 
hexagon, and on the Erming Street near Chesterton stood 
a Roman town of polygonal plan, while- Uriconium 
(Wroxeter) w^as oval in circuit. British towns were in 
very many cases of enormous extent, defended by lines 
of earthwork constructed without regard to any ideals of 
regularity ; and frequently the Roman was content to 
occupy and fortify but a fraction of the area covered by 
the native town. Thus Roman Colchester occupied a 
mere corner of the spacious area of British Camalodunum, 
and the same fact is illustrated by Verulamium (St. 
Albans), Lincoln, and Chichester. The most familiar 
example of the Romanization of a complete British site 
is that of Silchester (Fig. Ill), where the Roman walls 
follow the outline of a slight plateau, and include an 
area of 100 acres surrounding a forum 100 yards square. 
The walls are backed with earth to the depth of many 
feet, but whether this material represents the vallum 
of some original British stronghold is at present in- 
determinable. The general plan of the Roman town, 
which was apparently never a military station, is that 
of an irregular octagon ; but beyond the Roman walls 
lie the remains of more extensive earthworks — a vallum 
and exterior fosse, both of great size — which seem origin- 
ally to have surrounded the whole, save on the southern 
side, where the swampy character of the ground rendered 
further defences needless. The Roman passion for uni- 



ROMAN STATIONS 



337 



formity provided the usual four gates, and as far as 
possible the usual chessboard arrangement of streets. 
The north-to-south main thoroughfare was successfully 
managed ; the other, from cast to west, shows towards 
the middle of the town a sharp double ])end of some 
250 feet. 

If the recorded names of the towns of Roman Britain 
are to be trusted, it was seldom that the new-comers 



'. ?yy^- 



zc?f^ 



5ffii^ 



- ^ A 




O 300 60V 9*t> 



•^mpAitheatrt. 

Devi is //tgharsy 



Fig. 111. — SiLCHESTEU. 



created a new town upon a new site. Of the 113 towns 
enumerated in the Itinerary of Antoninus only the 
smallest fraction bear non-British names. Even if we 
include such hybrids as Csesaromagus and Durolipons, 
there are but thirteen, while of those which bear purely 
Latin names the number is exactly seven, or one in 
sixteen. There were, of course, very many towns which 
are not mentioned in the Idnerary, Init it may l)e taken 

z 



338 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

as certain that amongst those unrecorded the proportion 
of lloman to British foundations was not higher. It may 
1)0 taken as certain also that, wherever the name is of 
British form, the Romans found some sort of native 
settlement there existing, adopted the site, and Latinized 
the name. The fact illustrates very forcibly the truth 
that the laws which govern the growth or decline of 
towns are little influenced by changes of Governments. 
The Roman, looking about at first only for strategic 
points to serve as bases for further operations, looking 
about presently for others in which to centralize his 
administration and organization, pitched with scarcely an 
exception upon sites already chosen by the Briton ; and 
when finally military and political considerations were 
superseded by commercial, the man whom he had styled 
a barbarian was again before him. The facts need not 
be laid to the credit of our barbarian forerunners ; they 
were the inevitable outcome of certain definite laws 
referable in the ultimate to nothing more abstruse than 
physical geography. Physical conditions regulated, then 
as now, production or the lack of it, that is, demand 
and supply. 

Physical conditions determine also the channels through 
which demand and supply meet, that is, the trade-routes ; 
for these depend upon the position of hills and passes, fens 
and forests, fat land or waste, rivers and harbours. 
Strategy is reducible to the same elementary factors. And 
these factors are before and beyond conquest, which can 
modify them but slightly, if at all, and only in the course 
of long years. Whether Britain was Celtic or Roman, tin 
was still to be mined in Cornwall, to be transported along 
the most convenient road, to be shipped from the most 
convenient port ; the Gwent was still a kindly soil of 
unchanging fertility ; the first possible ford of Thames 
was still to be found at the same spot, whatever the name 
of it may have l)een ; and along the great chalk-ridge of 



X ROMAN STATIONS 339 

the Chilterns must still be carried the commerce of east 
and west. With such facts not even the Ciesars could 
interfere. Their scheme of administration, like their 
military system, was of course far different from any that 
had ever entered the head of- any British prince. To the 
Roman, Britain was firstly a unit, to l)e organized accord- 
ingly under one central authority at York ; secondly, a 
})r()vince amongst many others, to be l)rouglit into similar 
dependence upon the centre-paramount in Rome. But 
here again he could do little but endorse existing fticts. 
Caer Evrauc had been a political centre before his time ; 
he continued it as Eboracum, only in an extended sense. 
Caerlleon and Caerwent had of old l)een frontier fortresses ; 
they remained so under the new names of Deva and Venta 
Bilurum. Dubrae continued to be the port of communication 
with Graul, Calleva Attrebatum was still the meeting-place 
of traders, Aquae Sulis carried on the traditions of Caer 
Badon as a health resort. Military strength and political 
importance might be greater than of old ; Dubrae might 
be busier, Calleva more prosperous. Aquae Sulis more 
frequented ; but radical change there was none. The life 
of each community went on without interruption, main- 
tained by the same forces which had first created it. It 
may almost be taken as an axiom that, wherever there 
sprang up a Roman town of importance, there or close at 
hand must have stood a British settlement, and vice versa. 
In scores of cases the evidence of the existence of l)oth 
communities has l)een found upon the same spot ; in 
many more the tradition of both remains, although it ma}- 
not yet have l)een proven hy archa3ology. At Colchester 
and Verulam, at Silchester and Bath, the vestigia of both 
are still plain to see. In very many instances, perhaps in 
most, the names and the sites of l)()lli are entirely lost. 
all the efforts and guesses of the anti(|uaries notwithstand- 
ing. If there is one problem more elusive than the 
recovery of a lost site, it is the recovery of its lost name. 



340 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

On the Fosse Way, about midway between Leicester and 
Lincohi, the Itinerary places the Roman station of 
Margidunum. It Lay astride the road, between Bingham 
and East Bridgford, and although to-day its site is 
scarcely to be recognized by the most keen-eyed, within 
the last century there was still standing a fragment of its 
walls in what is now called Castle Field, a few yards east- 
ward of the road ; and in old tithe-deeds occur at the same 
spot the names of Aldwark ^ Field and Burrow - Field. 
Within and about the lines of the old walls, which formed 
an approximate square, the soil is littered with the usual 
broken pottery and tesserce, and from time to time have 
been found Roman keys, skeletons, a jDot of coins, and all 
the customary rubbish which the Roman left behind him. 
The name of Margidunum is unc^uestionably a British 
name under a Latin disguise, so that here or hereabouts 
we may suppose to have stood a British town. Nothing, 
however, has as yet been found to determine its exact 
position. Some years ago the writer was driving along 
the Fosse from Newark on a morning of early August. 
The harvest was late that year, and right and left the 
uncut corn stood tall in the level fields, and under the 
glare of the sunlight the shadows made by unsuspected 
inequalities of ground stood out among the corn as in a 
photograph. There to the left, in a field adjoining the 
road a mile or so north of the Roman town, could be 
distinctly seen the regular curve of an unrecorded circular 
earthwork. It was too distinct to be an illusion, so 
distinct that the other occupant of the dog-cart, himself no 
archaeologist, at once recognized its outline. To examine 
it more closely at the time was impossible. He had 
perforce to leave it, and though he has since returned 
more than once, he has never seen it ao;ain. Sometimes 



1 I.e., Old- work, the old fort. Contrast Newark, the new fort, some 
10 miles away. 

- I.e., Borough, Bury, always a tell-tale name. 



X ROMAN STATIONS 341 

there has been no sunshine, sometimes no suitable crop 
upon the ground, and the will-o'-the-wisp eludes him still. 
But he likes to fancy, most unwarrantably perhaps, that 
once he looked upon the very site and shape of that losi 
British town which gave away its name to Margidunum, 
and some day he will once more try to hit again that 
happy combination of requirements — a sunny day, the 
growing corn, and a high dog-cart whence one has a 
comprehensive view of one's surroundings. 

Should anyone else feel drawn thus to " Trace the long 
shadows o'er the grass," it may be added that in the 
immediate vicinity, a few hundred yards east of the village 
of Bingham, he may see the site of the mediaeval village of 
that name, and trace with unusual ease in the grassy 
surface of "Crow Close" its narrow lanes and walls and 
foundations (Fig. 183). It is not every day that one 
can find within one square mile or so a Roman and a 
mediaeval site, let alone a Celtic one as well— possibly. 

The stubborn continuity of towns should be borne in 
mind in any attempt to recover the lost stations of the 
Itinerary. A very large proportion of the known Roman 
sites in Britain are important towns to this day ; a score 
of names at once suggest themselves, from Dover to Chester 
and Carlisle, from AVallsend to Exeter, from Lincoln to 
Caerwent. The same causes have worked to the same 
results in modern times, in the Romans' day, and in the 
years before the Romans came. But, on the other hand, 
certain new" causes have worked in other cases to break 
this obstinate vitality, so that not only has the last frag- 
ment of the Romans' wT)rk vanished from many a site, but 
the site itself has, figuratively speaking, become a dwelling- 
place for the owl and the bittern. These new causes, 
bound up as they are with the whole history of the country, 
cannot be discussed here. It is enough to say that we are 
living in modern times, whereas the Roman and the Briton 
l)elonized to another era ; and whereas Briton and Roman 



342 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

were, so far as regards those causes vvliich make or 
unmake towns, on very much the same level, the modern 
world has been put upon a totally different plane by new 
manners and new methods, new developments of science 
and of commerce, new means of production and exchange 
and communication, new departures in centralization and 
distribution, in a word, by the Industrial Revolution. 
But that revolution was scarce dreamed of even four 
centuries ago ; and there is in many ways a greater 
difference between the England of to-day and that of 
1500 A.D. than between tlie England of Henry VII. and 
the Britain of Antoninus. 

Certain more visible causes of change are to be found in 
those physical changes which the centuries have brought 
about. That steady erosion of the coast which has at 
long last called forth a Royal Commission has been going 
forward ceaselessly, and at different points the land- 
levels have been rising- or fallino- with infinite slowness. 
Bradwell — the Broad Wall — on the coast of Essex, pre- 
serves the memory, but little else, of the Eoman Othona, 
once a coastal fortress of the same dignity as Burgh Castle 
and Pevensey, and the Roman Tortus Adurni is probably 
under the waters of the Channel. But these are extreme 
cases ; in such slow movements, as a rule, a millennium and 
a half make little discernible difference. Such differences 
as are observable are as frequently of the reverse kind. 
Stutfall Castle is no longer a sea-port, no Caesar of to-day 
could beach his ships at Lymne, Burgh Castle no longer 
lies upon an arm of the sea, and a score of petty rivers 
which were navigable to the vessels of the Roman time, 
have long ceased to bear any keels at all. But to those 
towns which had been called into being by the older 
conditions, the retreat of the waters was as fatal as was 
their advance to other towns. They too died, not over- 
whelmed, but quietly starved, and their doom was but a 
more lingering agony. There are even now scores of 



X ROMAN STATIONS 343 

towns of far younger date wliich are sinking down tlii'ougli 
the same stages of long decay— such towns as Walberswick 
and Aldburgh, Romney and Rye and Winchelsea. 

But man himself has been, and still is, a far more speedy 
and ruthless ao'ent of destruction than either natural or 

o 

economic laws. If he has spared here and there one 
monument of the past, it is but to emphasize, as it were, 
the extent of his ravages elsewhere — the strength and 
the dignity and the number of the many that he has 
destroyed. 

It is not likely that all Roman stations were fortified 
on the same imposing scale ; it is certain that their fortifi- 
cations were not in all cases maintained in their original 
efficiency. Peace is detrimental to the wTjrks of w^ar ; and 
wherever the immediate menace of war was removed, the 
tendency was to allow the defences to fall into decay. 
Only where and while danger threatened would steps be 
taken to keep them in good repair. Along the Wall such 
danger was a constant and unquestionable reality ^ ; so 
it was, in a less degree, along the Saxon Shore ; and herein 
lies the reason why the latest and the strongest, and inci- 
dentally also the best preserved, of our Roman fortresses 
lie in those districts. They marked the vulnerable portions 
of the province in the later years "^ of the Roman occupa- 
tion, and for that reason they w^re kept permanently 
garrisoned and in first-class repair, whereas elsewhere, and 
throughout central Britain in particular, even the towns 
which had once been most strongly fortified passed 
gradually out of the military into the commercial or the 
merely residential state, and ceased to be fortresses at all. 
The inland counties have nothing at all to show like 

^ Prof. Haveifield has emphasized the fact that only at Corbridge and at 
Carlisle has there been discovered any trace of civilian life along the entire 
course of the Wall. 

â– ^ Parts at least of the fortifications of Anderida (Pevensey) appear to date 
from the reign of Honorius, who succeeded in .31)5 a.d. ; for recent excava- 
tions have brought to light bricks bearing the stamp hon . avg . andria. 



344 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the forts of the Wall and of the Saxon Shore.^ In all 
probability their defences were neglected, if not actually 
dismantled, long before the coming of the Saxons. In 
almost every case the town had outgrown its original 
walls, but only in exceptional cases were new walls built. 

For many years after the desolation of Britain by the 
Saxons, Time was left to complete the ruin which fire and 
sword had begun. And of all enemies Time, or, to put it 
more prosaically, neglect, is the most deadly. Those years 
during which the site of every Roman town was given 
over to the devils wherewith the Saxon's imagination 
peopled it, must have done damage frequently so extensive 
as to defy repair.'^ And when at last in his turn the 
Saxon took to building in brick and stone, slowly 
abandoning; his ancient traditions of earthwork and timber- 
work, he directed his earliest efforts, not to walling his 
settlements or to erecting castles, but to the building of 
churches and monasteries ; and on every hand the ruins of 
the old Roman masonry furnished him with abundance of 
material for the trouble of carrying it. There are dozens 
of churches in England, the earliest portions of whose 
fabric is of Roman materials ^ relaid by the Saxon or the 



* The distribution of the Roman garrison illustrates this. The original 
army of occupation, exclusive of auxiliaries, was but four legions, and of 
these one {legio ix.) disappeared very early. The remaining three were 
quartered, two on the Welsh Border at Caerlleon-on-Usk (legio ii.) and at 
Chester (leijio xx.), and one at York (legio vi.). The seventeen fortresses of 
the Wall, and those of the Litns Saxonicnrn, were all manned by auxiliaries. 
[This distribution of the forces, though not invariable, was at any rate 
typical, and is significant of the condition of various parts of the island.] 

- Mrs. E. S. Aimitage and others, however, believe that this view is 
wrong — that the more important towns (such as London, York, Winchester, 
and Canterbury) were continuously occupied by the Saxons. 

3 The earliest missionaries amongst the pagan Saxons had a fondness for 
making their headquarters upon deserted Roman sites (e.g., St. Fursey at 
Burgh Castle, St. Cedd at Othona), whether to demonstrate their own power 
to defy the imagined devils haunting such sites, or because the terror of the 
said devils was something of a guarantee against molestation by human 
beings quite as formidable. As Christianity extended the former reason no 



X ROMAN STATIONS 345 

Noniian. There may well have been huiidieds. And it 
is certain that the materials found so serviceable for eccle- 
siastical purposes would presently be used as readily for 
secular purposes. The Saxon, was as a rule, but a poor 
mason, and his churches speedily fell to pieces. When 
rebuilt it was by the Normans, men whose piety, late 
l)orn, was all the more fervent, and took therefore a more 
costly form. Scorning to use yet again the old material 
the Normans demanded new stuff, the more so as they had 
now learnt how to quarry and square their own. As the 
Colisseum furnished a quarry out of which were built half 
the churches and palaces of mediaeval Rome, so the Roman 
buildings of England were the quarries of later genera- 
tions. The Saxon took the Roman's bricks and stones as 
he found them ; the Norman rechiselled them, or broke 
them up for rubble.^ 



doubt held good, while the ruined walls and ramparts offered some means of 
defence against violence (c.f/., of the Danes) ; and, moreover, such sites 
furnished the requisite material uijon the spot. There are churches within 
Roman fortifications at Tasburgh and Caister St. Edmunds in Norfolk, at 
Stowlangtoft and Old Minster in Suftblk, at Ilkley, at Caerhun in Caernarvon- 
shire, at Llandovery, and at Holyhead. St. Cedd's Chapel at Bradwell 
stands on the foundations of one of the gateways of Roman Othona. There 
was a chapel within the lines at Ardoch. Where chui'ches are found within 
works of pre-Roman date (*'.;/., in such ring-Avorks as Cholesbury and Went 
Wycombe, and at Knowlton, Dorset) there was often no building material to 
tempt the builders, and the choice of such a site may have been determined 
by the desire for some protection. Within the great camp ot Chisbury, near 
Bedwyn, Wilts, stands a ruined chapel of St. Martin, built, perhaps, in 
expiation of the terrilile slaughter here in 675, when Wessex fought a drawn 
battle with Mercia. In some cases there was perhaps a more or less 
conscious feeling that the spot had once been consecrated to religion. Many 
modei-n churches thus perpetuate the holy places of paganism, e.g., Le Mans 
and Chartres in France, and, if tradition speak true, St. Paul's in London. 
The church ui Yspytty Cyntin, near Aberystwyth, is said to stand within 
what was once a megalithic circle, and there are many other and surer 
instances. See also p. 593, note. 

' The tower and much of the body of St. Alban's Cathedral are built of 
Roman brick from Verulamium, and there are many less well-known instances. 
At Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, the columns and capitals of Roman buildings 
have been embodied in the church. Widford Church, Glos., occupies the 
site of a Roman villa. At Lyminge, Kent, the ruins of a Roman villa have 



346 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

When masonry was once more utilized for secular 
l)uilding, one of its earliest cares would be to construct or 
reconstruct the walls of towns ; for, as has heen said, the 
law of continuity did in the long run assert itself in very 
many cases, and the long-neglected Roman sites took a 
new lease of life. Here again the old materials were all 
too easily used, whether to repair the old or to build the 
new, so that the very revival of the town spelt in most 
cases the final destruction of such traces of its Roman 
phase as yet remained above ground. In some instances 
the old walls were embodied in the new, as at London, 
Colchester, Lincoln, York, Bath and Chester. At Lincoln 
one of the Roman gates — the Newport Arch — still does 
duty. But in most cases the Roman work served simply as 
a quarry, and seeing that, ecclesiastical and military 
buildings apart, there was very little mason-work done 
until the later Middle Ages,^ the supply was fairly 



beeu rebuilt as a monastery, and the Church of St. Mary stands upon part of 
the Roman foundations, its windows turned with Roman brick. So with 
Boxley Abbey, near Maidstone, and Bosham Church, Sussex. It is ahnost 
impossible to avoid the conclusion that the earliest Saxon builders took not 
merely their materials, but their designs also, from the Roman remains 
around them, e.g., the round arch and the Hat pilaster. There are certain 
very ancient churches in Italy, manifestly constructed out of Roman materials 
on Pagan sites, and as manifestly showing many of the most characteristic 
features of so called Saxon architecture. The Church of San Pietro, In Old 
Ventimiglia would, in England, be accounted a superb example of typical 
Saxon work. 

^ Hurstmonceux Castle, Sussex, and Caistor Castle, Norfolk, both built 
circa 1440, claim to be amongst the earliesc large buildings to be built of 
brick, when that style of building was at last revived after 1,000 years of 
abeyance ; but there are several still earlier examjales in East Anglia, c.f/., 
Little Wenham Hall, Suffolk, and another in Kent, at Allington Castle, both 
of which are thought to be of the thirteenth century. It is to be remembered 
that, although the use of bricks was for a long time discontinued, there is no 
reason to think that tile-making ever ceased. Fragments of thin red tile 
may be seen embedded in the mortar and masonry of many churches of the 
eai"liest date, but they have nothing to do with the Romans, to whom they 
are proudly referred. The genuine Roman tile was rather a brick of exagger- 
ated length and width, vastly more robust than the thin pantiles which 
continued throughout the centuries to be the usual material for I'oofing. 



X ROMAN STATIONS 347 

a(lc((iiate. With the revival of In'ick-iuakiiig and the 
hirger anihitiou of Elizabethan builders, who were no 
longer content with second-hand materials, the few re- 
maining ruins of Roman date had a In-ief respite, until 
they were found to be useful as road-metal. That utili- 
tarian sense which could not spare Aveljury and Stone- 
henge and such tougli monuments, was not likely to 
keep its hands off less impressive and less obstinate ruins 
of brick and mortar.^ In most cases there remains visible 
not one stone npon another, and we owe our knowledge of 
the existence of many Roman town-sites to the merciful 
accident that the mediaeval l)uilders were content to build 
over the Roman foundations, not taking the trouble to 
gi'ul) them up. 

Such exceptions as Burgh Castle and Pevensey are 
explained by the fact that here there was no continuity. -' 
Burgh Castle has been deserted from Roman days to the 
present time ; its place was taken by Yarmouth. Pevensey 
was similarly superseded by Hastings. In each case the 
new site was too far away to make worth while the labour 
of hauling material from the old one. Moreover St. 
Fursey's " noble monastery," which he built upon the site 
of Garianonum, though utterly vanished now, would in its 
day prevent the spoliation of the walls which formed its 
precinct ; and the timely interference of Robert Mortain 
rescued Pevensey by converting it into a Norman castle. 
Similarly Porch ester (Fig. 130) was saved by the rise of 
Portsmouth, Hard Knot Castle by the remoteness of its 
position, and most of the fortresses of the Wall by their 
lying within the debatable land of the Border, where the 

' At Slack (identified with the Roman Canibodununi), inmiediately west of 
Huddersfield, the walls of an old farmhouse are largely built of tlue-tiles, 
&c., from a Roman l)uilding 

^ As lieing purely military foundations, built to meet a definite but 
transitory danger, these towns of the Saxon Shore naturally vanished with 
the danger which had called tliem into being, i.e., when the Saxon tribes had 
made themselves comjuerors. 



348 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

age-long activities of raiders and rievers rendered 
impossible the rise of any towns at all — made impossible, 
indeed, the growth of any population to speak of. 

If fortress and town have been so easily and so entirely 
obliterated, the disappearance of any smaller constructions 
of the same date was necessarily still more rapid and 
complete. Villas, relatively slight buildings even in the 
most substantial cases, naturally fared badly. Everyone 
knows how speedily mere desuetude plays havoc with an 
empty house ; the added violence of man rendered 
impossible their escape, especially as they were largely 
l)uilt of wood. The foundations, of course, were of brick and 
stone, the lower story of the same materials with more or 
less of timber ; but timber and plaster alone seem to have 
been the usual materials for the upper structure, the whole 
being roofed with tiles of red earthenware, stone, or slate. 
In very many cases the remains show plainly that their 
destruction was l)y fire, and fire would on such buildings do 
its work very thoroughly. If by chance the lower walls 
were .spared for a time, their relative slightness would 
ensure their ultimate demolition. They were easily broken 
up, whether by time or by the demolisseuv. The villa at 
Ravenglass, of which the walls still stand in parts to a 
height of eight feet, is a notable exception. In most cases 
nothing at all would l)e left but those substructures which 
lay too deep to interfere with the plough — the actual 
foundations, the floors, and the heating-chambers beneath 
the floors. These are the remains which are most 
frequently brought to light, and even these are mostly 
mere ruinated fragments, bearing unmistakable traces of 
purposed destruction. Still, tesselated pavements and 
hypocausts are things which cannot well be removed intact, 
while they are of little use as road-metal ; so that in cases 
where the last stone of the foundation walls has been 
grubbed up, patches of flooring are still occasionally found 
in situ. But very rarely, indeed, is there left anything 



X ROMAN STATIONS 349 

wliicli in the smallest degree l)i'euks the dead level of the 
surface soil. There are immlierless sjDots where low 
mounds and shallowing trenches bespeak the sites of 
vanished buildings, old manor houses and monasteries 
with their walled precincts and terraced gardens and 
fish-ponds, or even whole villages of the later Middle 
Ages which have yielded to the visitations of the Black 
Death or to the slower pressure of altered economic laws ; 
but rarely, if ever, is there the slightest outward mark to 
betray the spot where sleep the ruins of the most 
extensive of Roman villas. 

For the vast extent of many of these villas is one of 
their most striking features, and may easily create a false 
impression of the civilization and the social system to 
which they lielonged. The villa, the larger sort of villa, 
at any rate, was less a private residence than a complete 
colony gathered about a private house : that was its 
character in Italy, and there is plenty of reason to think 
that it was even more so in Britain. It was the Roman 
equivalent of the later day castle of the feudal l)aron, with 
the surrounding cluster of his retainers' meaner dwellings. 
A country residence, from Roman times down to the 
eighteenth century, had of necessity to be self-supporting. 
It was not possible then, as now it is, to satisfy every 
want at shortest notice by a visit to the shop or the 
market town, or by a letter to the capital. Such shops as 
the towns could boast of catered merely for the small needs 
of the town's immediate population, and of this but a very 
small fraction was well-to-do. There were no great 
em])oriums, stores, or universal providers. What was 
required in the villa was mostly produced upon the estate, 
and what could not l)e so produced was pr()l)al)ly provided 
by the regular or irregular visits of those travelling traders, 
whose representatives, the tinker and hawker and pedlar, 
have all but vanished out of the land to-day, albeit they 
were numerous enough less than a century ago. The 



350 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

great manorial estates of the Middle Ages themselves 
furnished almost everything that was needed in the way 
of provisions, and wliatever the estate produced in that 
kind was consumed at home, the lord of the manor 
visiting it with his friends and retainers once a year or so, 
expressly to eat up the year's harvest of crops and meat 
and game. It would never have occurred to anyone to 
make merchandise of any of the produce, for the simple 
reason that there was no market for it. Other people of 
means grew enough for their own requirements, and 
people without means cannot buy. The domestic 
economy of the wealthy Norman, of the Saxon lord, and 
of the Roman wlio dwelt in a villa, was the same. Each 
grew his own corn, ground it in his own mills, baked it 
and ate it at home ; each reared, fattened, and killed his 
own poultry, mutton, beef and bacon ; each grew and spun 
his own wool, planted and gathered his own fruits, brewed 
his own beer or whatever other drink was in fashion, bred 
and fattened his own venison, fish, partridges, snails, or 
what not. His staff of villeins, serfs, or slaves included 
all the needful artificers in stone, wood, metal, or leather — 
masons and carpenters, saddlers and blacksmiths — as 
naturally as it included ploughmen and gardeners, hedgers 
and ditchers, millers, grooms, and cooks. The estate, 
whether manor or villa, was to all intents self-contained 
and self-sustaining. Excepting in such items as the 
produce of the mines — iron and lead and tin — and what 
other few articles Britain produced for export as Govern- 
ment monopoly or tribute, there Avas no trade save in the 
superfluities of life ; and a trade which is confined to 
luxuries can never be an extensive one, though it may 
easily be profitable to the few who share it. 

Realizing this, one marvels the more at the time and 
laliour expended by the Romans upon their roads in the 
outlying provinces of the Empire, until one remembers 
that certain great military Powers of the present day 
display an almost equal energy with as little apparent 



X ROMAN STATIONS 351 

utility. There was no more tmttic, in the modern sense 
of the word, upon the grandest of Roman roads in Britain 
than there is to-day upon many hundreds of miles of 
superb hig•hwa^^s in provincial France, or on the intermin- 
able military roads of Russia, which have no more relation 
to the social economy of that Empire than had Burgh Castle 
or Pevensey to the social economics of Britain. 

There was therefore no necessity for any high road 
leading to, or even very near to, the villa. A road of 
some sort there naturally was, but probably not often 
a high road. There was none to Pliny's villa at Lauren- 
tum,^ yet that was a very pretentious country-house 
indeed, was only 17 miles from the capital of the Empire, 
and was the favourite residence of an official of very 
considerable importance. The Roman in the country 
took no more trouble about the approaches to his 
" place," probably very much less, than did the owner 
of any country-seat in modern England before the advent 
of the motor-car. The existence or non-existence of a 
Roman road hard by has little to do with the distribution 
of Roman villas. 

Of the host of underlings required to supply the 
owner's various needs, many would be housed in the 
meanest of huts in the vicinity, erections on too humble 
a scale to leave any traces behind them.^ But those of 



' Two highways led near to it, l)ut the villa itself had to be reached by 
"sandy lanes, difficult going for a carriage, but easy enough on horseback," 
the shorter 3 miles long, the other (> miles. See Pliny, Epii<tk's, ii. 17. 
The great man's apologetic description of the amenities of his "little place ' 
gives a charming idea of the spaciousness and luxury of what a Roman of tlie 
period (100 A.n.) deemed merely " a useful sort of house, and not expensive 
to keep up." One has to turn to Bacon's Essays, "of Building " and "of 
(iardons," to find in an Englishuian of "the spacious times of great 
Elizabeth," or somewhat later, tlie like combination of magnificence and 
humility. 

^ These huts were perha^js precisely similar to those of tlie natives of the 
period before the Romans' coming. We know that such huts remained in 
use in Roman times. At Pevensey Castle have lately l)een opened up the 
remains of huts which are tliought to have been tlie temporary dwellings of 
the workmen emiiloyed upon the Imilding of tlie fortifications of Anderida. 



352 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

.superior class, and such as attended to the master's 
person, were accommodated within the great house, as 
now they are. The only difference was that, as usual 
in a society founded upon slavery, the number of the 
servants was vastly greater than under modern conditions, 
and this in some measure accounts for the enormous size 
of many villas. The wealthy man in Roman, as in 
Norman and Plantagenet times, advertized his own impor- 
tance by the numbers of his household. If the indoor 
household has greatly shrunk under modern conditions, 
the outdoor staff has all but vanished, although one might 
still find within memory in the remoter parts of the 
northern counties isolated homesteads which maintained 
about them every kind of artificer of more immediate 
importance, e.g., their own blacksmith and their own 
joiner. But the industrial revolution has mostly swept 
away such survivals of the older order of things. 

Like " country places " of the old-fashioned kind,^ 
Roman villas were, as a rule, but thinly scattered over 
the soil, for their owners went into the country for the 
country's sake — for quiet and sport and privacy. It is 
exceptional for the vestigia of villas to be unearthed save 
at long distances apart, but exceptions do occur, and 
naturally some parts of the island were more sought after 
than others. Around the shrunken remnants of Somerton, 
once the capital of Somersetshire, lie or lay the ruins of a 
dozen or more of villas of various sizes, one of them 
covering as much as 2|- acres of ground. These were 
all served more or less immediately by the road from 

> The house — commonly a mean one — built to give to its owner, who has 
)i() other interest in the country, the chance to breathe country air once a 
week, or even to sleep all the year round beyond the reach of the town, is an 
exclusively modern development. In the Roman time, and thence onward 
to the nineteenth century, the house and the land were inseparable ; the one 
was unthinkable without the other. The Roman villa was simply the head 
and centre of an estate larger or smaller, and estates of any size were further 
subdivided amongst farm-houses of less dignity than the master's villa. 



X ROMAN STATIONS 353 

Ilcliester tliruugli Street and Walton — all tell-tale names — 
to Glastonbury. At Pitney, halt-way l)etween Somerton 
and Fiangpoi't, was a particularly tine one with very 
l)eautiful mosaic Hoors, all of which were wantonly 
ploughed up only so lately as 1836. Aui'i sacra James ! 
A])out Bath, again, have been discovered the remains of 
some thirteen or fourteen villas within a radius of 5 or 6 
miles. Thfs might seem at first sight to imply a dense 
population of country gentry.^ Undoubtedly it was very 
much denser about Bath, the one ftishionable watering- 
place of all the Roman society in the island, than else- 
where it was, but estimated by modern standards it 
cannot be called dense at all ; ten times as many country 
houses, even if of large size, could scarcely overcrowd an 
area of 25 square miles. It is clear, however, that the 
Komans were fully alive to the abiding charm which 
still clings to the pleasant garden -county of the west ; 
indeed, Roman remains are said to have been found in up- 
wards of one-third of the 500 parishes of Somersetshire, but 
not, of course, the remains of villas.^ Gloucestershire was 
another favourite residential county, and so was the 
hioh land of north Lincolnshire near the line of the 
Erming Street. As one travels northward, the number of 
villas becomes rapidly fewer, for the country was less 
settled.^ 

' There have been recorded in all l)et\veen fifty and sixty sites of Roman 
villas in Somersetshire. But some of these are dubious, and, on the other 
hand, the county is a large one. Most of them lie in the eastern and 
northern portions of the county. 

- Mostly they are surface finds only — pottery, coins, weapons, and sucli 
bric-a-brac. Inasmuch as the west country was the very last retreat of 
the Romanized Britons from the Saxons, before they l)ecame finally 
homeless <ind barl)arizcd fugitives, it was to be expected that the remains of 
Romano-British civilization would abound. And, as has been argued in the 
preceding chapter, that is exactly what, for the most part, these so-called 
Roman remains really are. 

•' The villas at Well near Bedale, and at Middleham on the Ure, claim to 
be the most northerly of Roman civil remains on the eastern side of England. 
On the west coast the villa at R^ivenglass is more northerly still. 

A A 



354 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

In his choice of a site for his vilhi one Roman was much 
like another. He preferred a situation at once sheltered 
and open, with a fertile soil and a constant supply of the 
very best water. A southern aspect pleased him hest, 
and whereas he frequently nestled his villa at the foot of 
a hill, he did not affect the steeper slopes, still less the 
actual ridge. The Roman building which is said to have 
once stood within the earthworks of Chanctohbury Ring 
was not a villa, if only for the reason that there was not 
room for such a building there. A warm and sunny spot 
which might remind him somewhat of his native Italy's 
climate, good hunting and good fishing — plenty of wood, 
that is, and plenty of water within easy reach — with an 
absolutely dry situation for the house itself; such were 
the requirements of his case, and they were more easily 
found in his time than now. But he knew better than to 
build on wdnd-swept moors, amongst the jungle, or too 
near the fens. Had he done so the ruins of his habita- 
tions had perhaps been better preserved than they are ; 
it is because his villas stood invariably upon the choicest 
of soils that their very foundations have so often been 
erased, and the ploughshare has completed the ruin which 
fire commenced. 

In popular parlance, "camps" and "villas" include 
anything and everything that the Roman built. But 
villas and towns, with their usual accessories in the way 
of baths, temples, tombs, and theatres, do not by any 
means exhaust the list of his buildings. Along all the 
great roads must have stood many less pretentious con- 
structions, such as inns and posting-houses, and smaller 
dwellings. In some places have been unearthed what 
seem to have been the foundations of watch-towers, 
beacons, or signalling-stations. At various points along the 
greater roads at least were erected miliaries — not so much 
milestones, perhaps, as monuments to record the date of the 
road's construction or reparation, incidentally utilised to 



X ROMAN STATIONS 355 

tell the distance to the next important town. A few of 
these are preserved in museums, and the remains of some 
are still to l)e found m sitic,^ but the great majority have 
certainly been removed and destroyed, broken up for road 
metal or built perhaps into neighbouring walls, whence 
they may yet l)e disinterred. Many modern bridges stand 
upon piers laid by the Romans, and without doubt there 
are many others of which the Roman substructures have 
not yet been remarked. Roman wells are of frequent 
occurrence ; their carefully laid linings of stone or timber 
distinguish them from the rubbish-pits which accompany 
almost every residential site, and which yield some of the 
best of the treasures recovered by excavation.' In fact, 
the Roman left behind him all the reliquice of a civilisa- 
tion not so very much inferior to our own. Certain other 
special forms of his handiwork will be touched upon 
amongst miscellaneous earthworks, e.g. dykes, hotontini, 
roads and amphitheatres. 

Many as are the buried towns, villas, and other Roman 
remains which have l)een already traced, there may well 



1 One is the so-called "Imp Stone," a Roman mile to the south of 
Silchester (it-s name originated in the letters Y^IY* — Invperator, which were 
part of its inscription) ; a second is "Joseph's Stone " on Otnioor, Oxford- 
shire ; a third is between Cnerhun and Aber, in North Wales ; and a fourtli 
is near Borcovicus, on tlie Wall. High on Bowland Knots, on the line of 
the Roman road from Ribchester to Over town, is a circular stone base which 
may have once carried another miliary. Others are known to have stood 
near Leicester, Cambridge, Braughing, itc, and yet others are thought to be 
embodied in mediieval wayside crosses. 

- It is said that when the authorities of the South Kensington Museum, 
desiring to add to their collection of old Delft ware, despatclied for that 
purpose to Holland a representative, lie ol)tained some of the choicest of his 
finds from old wells which he caused to be cleared out. In Roman days, 
also, the pitcher went once too often to the well, and such places yield relics 
in quantities. Some of them, partly because of the abundance and variety of 
these relics, partly because of their odd construction, seem to have been 
mistaken by the older antiquaries for arav Jinnies — those depositories in 
which the Roman agrimensor laid the miscellaneous articles to-day repre- 
sented by the coins and the copy of the Tinu-s laid beneath a foundation- 
stone. 

A A 2 



356 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND ch. x 

be a hundred more as yet undetected, and it is no ab- 
surdity for any one who has the ambition, to hope to 
make such another discovery to-morrow Ijeneath his tennis 
lawn, in his orchard, or in his field. The signs are 
unmistakable, but they require to be sought for with keen 
eyes. It is too much to hope to find, at any rate above 
ground, one stone remaining upon another ; l)ut so often 
as the plough breaks up the soil again, the ditcher trenches 
for a drain, or the navvy digs a railway-cutting, there is 
the possibility, almost the likelihood, of a new discovery. 
A few pieces of Roman tile, a handful of tesserce, a few 
fragments of painted stucco, even a mass of oyster shells,^ 
may prove to be the clue which shall restore to the day- 
light and to the map another Silchester. It is not 
pretended that finds so small ivill lead to such great 
results, and it has been pointed out that very little value 
attaches to the evidence of coins, pottery, and similar 
small and j^oi'tahle relics ; but whatever the scoffer may 
say, the genuine enthusiast knows that the very meanest 
of such discoveries, properly authenticated and recorded, is 
a certain link in a chain of evidence, long perhaps and all 
too slender, but not the less continuous, linking up to-day 
with a yesterday full fifteen centuries overpast. 

1 Quantities of oyster-shells are a well-known accompaniment of the other 
vestigia of a Roman site, though what was their purpose is not clear. At 
the small station known as Lowbury, in Berkshire, there is a quite pheno- 
menal accumulation of them. They are frecjuently found, also, accompanying 
burials in barrows of other than Roman date. 



CHAPTER XI 

T H K T R A N S I 'i^ I () N 

"And still from tune to time the heathen host 
Swarmed overseas, and harried lohat was left, 
And so there grew great tracts of tvilder^iess, 
Wherein the beast was ever more and more 
And man ivas less and less." 

The conquest of Britain l)y the Teutonic tribes was a 
protracted agony of more than four hundred years. 
Whether or no it be a fact that Henoi.st and Ilorsa first 
landed on the shores of Kent in 449, and whatever l)e the 
truth about the reasons which brouoht them hither and 
kept them here, it is more than probal)le that many small 
bodies of immigrant adventurers from the shores of the 
Baltic had already established themselves in Britain long- 
before that date, and that the south-eastern sea-1)oard of 
the island was even in the fourth century known as the 
Saxon Shore, ^ not so much ])ecaLise it was the natural and 
ftivourite objective of piratical expeditions, as because it 
had already received a consideral)le nundjer of Teutonic 
settlers. This may be matter of dispute, and the story 
of Hengist and Ronwen the Fair, may be more than 
dubious, but it is solid fact that not until 577 was fought 

^ The name embraced the whole sea-board from Pevensey to the Wash. 
For its security against the jjirates were reared — or repaired — tlie great 
fortresses at Brancaster, Burgh Castle, Bradwell, Reculver, Richl)orougli, 
Stutfall, and Pevensey. 



358 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the ])attle of Deorham, which laid Bath in ruins, and 
brought the West Saxons victorious to the Severn Sea, so 
severing finally the overland connexion between the 
Welsh of Cornwall and their kinsmen of Cambria. Ad- 
mittedly then there elapsed at least 130 years ere the 
invaders could push their arms across the southern part of 
the island from Ebbsfleet to the Severn. In the North 
things moved even more slowly. As Deorham marked 
the isolation of the south-western parts of the island, so 
the battle of Chester (607) marked the lopping-ofF of the 
north-west, the Celtic kingdom of Strathclyde, and this 
was just 30 years later than the fight at Deorham. Not 
till another half-century had passed did the West Saxons 
reach the Parrett (658), after which King Ina, having 
fortified Taunton, was content to leave the further con- 
quest of the south-west to the gentler influences of inter- 
course and law. The freedom of Strathclyde ceased only 
wdtli the fight at Dunmail Raise in 945. In Cambria the 
AVelsh maintained their independence against Saxon and 
Norman and English alike until 1277. The Welsh of 
Brittany, many of them refugees from Britain, w^ere never 
conquered Ijy force, and did not become even nominally 
French until the marriage of the Duchess Anne to 
Charles VIII. in 1483. Everywhere the tale was the 
same : the Welshmen fought always a losing fight, but 
they fought it with a stuljborn courage which made 
glorious defeat itself. Whatever other effects may have 
resulted from their four centuries of contact with Rome, 
that contact had not made them cot\'ards. The Saxon 
tribes could scarce boast of one forward step made without 
cost. Their earliest steps, the proverb notwithstanding, 
were the easiest, for whereas elsewhere they had to fight 
inch by inch for their conquests, along the east coast only 
did they make good their footing with little trouble. 

This fact may in part be explained l)y there being 
already in that quarter many Teutonic settlers, whose 



XI THE TRANSITION 359 

presence aided the newcomers, Ijut it was quite as much 
the consequence of physical facts. The east coast of 
England is mainly a fiat land, offering, south of the 
Yorkshire Wolds, no higli ground where the Briton might 
make a stand. His only refuges here were the forests and 
the fens, and both were seamed in all directions by 
streams which gave to the Saxon in his " sea-snake " ready 
means of access. It was because those districts had so 
complicated a river-system, such a multiplicity of estuaries 
to serve for harbours, so many navigable streams to serve 
as hiohwavs to the seafarer, that first the Saxon and then 
the Dane made their easiest and most complete foothold 
there. 

Excepting the three or four great fights already 
mentioned, we have but the scantiest details of this 
struggle of centuries, especially of the earlier part of it. 
Here and there is recorded an event which can be 
localized and dated— some isolated landmark standing- 
out clear in the mists of antiquity — such as the sack and 
burning of Uriconium, " the hall of Cyndyllan the Fair," 
and the destruction of Aquae Sulis ; but no one knows 
where was actually fought the great fight of Atons 
Badonicus (Mount Badon), in 520, albeit it was a victory 
so dearly l)ought as to stay for half a century the west- 
ward march of those who won it. Not until 577 did they 
achieve another such advance. On every hand the struggle 
was as bitter and as obstinate. How was it maintained ? 
By what means did the Britons contrive so long to make 
a good fight ? Where are the indicia of their resistance ? 

With the possible exception of the works known as the 
Wansdyke and Bokerley Dyke, it does not appear that 
there is a single known earthwork which can with any 
degree of confidence be attrilnited to the Britons of this 
period. Yet it is difficult to believe that they can liave 
made so obstinate a resistance, and lived so long under 
the unceasing menace ol" laid and ruin, without resorting 



36o EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

to some elementary method of defence. They had indeed 
still the more or less dilapidated defences of the Roman 
towns behind which to take refuge, and there are cases 
where these defences seem to have been hastily and un- 
skilfully repaired. But for every fortified town there 
were many which had never been properly fortified at all, 
and of those which had been most elaborately walled 
every one lay upon a trunk-road which invited the 
enemy's attack, and ofi"ered to him the easiest means of 
approach. Did the Britons do nothing to wall the un- 
walled towns, or to improve the defences of the rest ? or 
did the inhal)itants of the unwalled towns, like those of 
the open country, merely withdraw en masse within the 
fortified positions ? To believe that they did so during 
the whole of a period so long is as difiicult as to believe 
that they did nothing. 

From the discoveries made at King's Scaur has been 
reconstructed a pathetic picture of the gradual relapse of 
the fugitive Britons into barljarism. Doubtless the 
picture is equally true of the Britons of Wales, of 
Strathclyde, and of Cornwall. Of the unending tale of 
" Roman remains" brought to light almost every week of 
the year, a very large number, as has been pointed out, 
are rather the reliquice of the Briton — poor odds and 
ends of the civilization so fast slipping from him, to which 
he clung pitifully in the hills and holes. It was the 
British refugee who carried shards of " Samian," scraps of 
bronze jewellery, and handfuls of ill-minted coins into 
fastnesses — islets in the fens, long-disused forts upon the 
hills, even holes in the very ground — whither the most 
decadent of the TrojugencB would have disdained to fiy. 
In this way came the shreds and tatters of Roman culture 
into the caverns of Craven, of the Peak, and of the 
Mendips. But between the last flight to such lurking- 
places and the first commencement of the struggle there 
elapsed whole generations. Did the Briton do nothing 



XI THE TRANSITION 361 

during all those years but patch up the decayed walls of 
his Roman masters, or the yet older hill-forts of his own 
ancestors, in no case realizing that the new circumstances 
called for new methods ? It is hard to reconcile with 
such apathy the implacable ferocity of his resistance, and 
it would seem only reasonable to suppose that many of 
the earthworks of England were the handiwoi'k of tlie 
Britons of this period, at least in part. But "it is seldom 
that anything is forthcoming to i^jupport such a theory. 

The camp at Hod Hill, Dorset, may possibly be such an 
one. This (Fig. 112) is a hill-fort of immense strength and 
very great size,' occupying a flat summit (470 feet) three 
miles north-west of Blandford and some 12 miles west of 
Bokerley Dyke. A mile and a half to the north-north-west 
is Hambledon Hill, likewise crowned by a very large camp, 
the two fortresses together blocking the way westward up 
the valley of the Stour, which river makes a curve about 
the western and southern sides of Hod Hill. The latter is 
fortified by two ramparts of fine proportions, reinforced in 
places by a third : at some points the inner rampart has a 
slope of 26 feet above the area within, and a fall of over 
60 feet to the bottom of the fosse without ; while the 
second bank, although less formidable, has nevertheless 
inner and outer slopes of 15 and 30 feet respectively. 
AVhere the fall of the ground allows it the third rampart 
forms a slight parapet to the outer fosse. The contour of 
the hill gives to the whole camp a ftiirly regular 
rectangular plan, and there are four entrances whicli are 
ancient. 

The north-east gateway (Fig. Go) is a characteristic piece 
of British work, the ramparts enfilading the path and 
recurving upon it in the actual entrance. The same 
recurve protects the south-western gate, which lies nearest 



* Something under 50 acres. In his jutick' updii tliis canii) {Atrhaol. 
Journal, lix.) Prof. Boyd Dawkins gives the area as .â– >20 acres, that of 
Lydsbury Rings as 70 acres. The hitter is about 7 acres only. 



362 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



to the river, an additional vallum and fosse running 
direct from the gate towards tlie river to form, perhaps, 
a covered way. The area of the camp is covered with the 



ijiiji'j-'jii. 



r-* ■■■•''"'VW;;;v^ 




â– '^'^'^^^j^^^^:^^ 

A 



471 




in 



Fid. 112. — Hod Hill and Lydsuuky Ring.s. 

vestigia of huts, and excavation has shown that these 
were occupied in the Prehistoric Iron Age for a number of 
years, and continued to be occupied more or less into the 
Roman time, but apparently with a considera(ble interlude. 



XI THE TRANSITION 363 

There was evidence that pits originally intended for huts 
and long so used, had subsequently l)een utilized as 
burial places, and again reoccupied by living tenants. 
Such alternations postulate a long time. Whether the 
earthworks of the camp are in any respect earlier than 
the huts explored is not yet decided. As they stand they 
are just like those surrounding a score of similar fortresses 
in Dorsetshire and elsewhere. 

But at the north-western corner of the area is found a 
secondary line of defences, specifically known as Lydsbury 
Rings, and enclosing a space of 7 acres. In several ways 
this work suo-aests Roman castrametation. The lines are 
rectilineal, the enclosure is rectangular, and its solitary 
original corner (south-east) is boldly rounded ; while the 
two contemporary entrances (those which traverse the 
two sides enclosing the south-eastern angle) are disposed 
in the regular Roman way in the middle of the sides, and 
covered each with an outwork of design theoretically correct. 
Quantities of remains of Roman character have been from 
time to time found within the area and upon the adjacent 
slopes of the hill, and a Roman road, running due north- 
west from Badljury Rings (5 miles) toward Hod Plill, has 
l)een partially traced. It has therefore become traditional 
to regard Lydsbury Rings as Roman work, and as the 
result of the most recent excavations Professor Boyd 
Dawkins endorses this view, and further believes the work 
to belong to a very early date in the Roman occupation, 
subsequently abandoned, he suggests, owing to the rise of 
another and more convenient Romano-British town at 
Iwernc (Ibernio), a little distance to the north.' 

With all deference to authority it may be doubted 
whether this is the only conclusion possible. In the 
first place it is certain that the Romans did not usually 
adopt and adapt the work of native Britons in the piece- 
meal fashion suggested in the case of Lydsbury Rings. 

^ See Archcvol. Journal, vol. Ivii. (1900). 



^ 364 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

They may have done so on occasions, but such occasions 
are very very rare.' The only entrance to the supposed 
Roman camp from the outside workl lies in the north- 
west anole, and has no resemblance to Roman work either in 
position or in plan. No trace of masonry or Roman found- 
ations has been found within the area or along the valla. 
Finally, that part of the enceinte which is supposed to be 
Roman work is unlike other proven examples of Roman 
castrametation to be found in the South of England : 
there are three fosses with a wide berm intervening, 
and two of the fosses envelop the berm on either side 
of each entrance. The most convincing evidence forth- 
coming to support the theory that the Rings are Roman 
work, is the finding of two very early coins in the 
refuse-pits within the area, and the alleged finding of 
fifteen others, none later than Trajan, recorded by 
Warne.' But no excavation appears to have been made 



1 The writer is not acquainted with a single instance in which the fact may 
be considered certain. Where British camps have been reoccupied at later 
dates, it was certainly in most cases by others than the Romans. (The case 
of British sites which subsequently grew up to be Roman towns is not here 
in question.) The supposed modification of a British camp at Powerstock 
(Fig. 29) by the Saxons is, to say the least of it, doubtful : there is nothing 
whatever in the plan of the works there which may not well be Norman 
only. The Normans not seldom adapted British works, just as they adapted 
Roman ones. But for the most part the later occupations were post-Norman, 
and not military, so much as domestic. Reddingwick (Fig. 162) may be a very 
doubtful case, but there are plenty which are not doubtful ; indeed, it 
is (juite common to find dwelling-houses within the lines of British works 
to-day, and the fashion is of respectable age. Seeing that churches were so 
often built in such positions (see p. 344, n.), it would be surprising if houses 
were not so built also. There is a small rectangular work of about one acre 
within the area of Bury Wood Camp, Colerne, Wilts, a fine promontory-fort 
of 25 acres ; and in Colt Hoare's time there was another, much smaller, 
within the lines of Soldier's Ring (Fig. 44). In such cases as Eggardon 
(Fig. 19), and perhaps Cissbury (p. 650), the so-called inner camp was never 
a camp or a dwelling-place at all. 

2 The two very early coins are of the reigns of Augustus and Caligula ; of 
the fifteen mentioned by Warne eight more belong to reigns antecedent to 
the Roman Conc^uest. There remain therefore only seven specimens dating 
43—117 A.D,, and the number oi all is very small. 



XI THE TRANSITION 365 

across the so-called Uoinaii trenches, and of all the pits 
within the area four only were explored, The examina- 
tion therefore has been very partial, and seeing that 
coins of very ditferent reigns appear to have been in 
constant circulation throughout the Roman occupation, too 
much stress should not be laid upon the character of those 
discovered. Had the camp been occupied, as the coins 
would suggest, continuously from the reign of Claudius to 
that of Trajan — i.e., more than fifty years — -there must have 
been discoverable some traces of Roman Ijuilding of tim])er 
if not of stone. As it is, nothing seems to have been 
found which might not have been brought there by the 
native Britons, who admittedly reoccupied some of the 
pits during the Roman time or afterwards. On the other 
hand, the fortifications are far too elaborate to allow of 
the supposition that the camp was only temporarily 
occupied.^ 

It is at any rate conceivable that Lydsbury Rings was 
the work, not of the Romans at all, and still less of the 
Romans at the very commencement of the conquest, but 
of the Romanized Britons at a date posterior to the 
departure of the Romans." The works are in fact 
sufficiently like Roman work to suggest that they were 
raised by a people conversant with Roman methods of 
defence, while they are sufficiently unlike it to suggest 



' The rarity of genuinely Roman encampments in Dorsetshire has fre- 
(juently Ijeen reniax'kod. Warne could mention only nine possible instances 
(including Lydsliury Rings), and of these the majority are decidedly doubt- 
ful. He desci-ibes Weatherbiuy Castle, near Milborne Stileham, as having 
a great resemblance to Lydsbury. It is, he says, more or less rectangular 
in plan, having dou])le lines of vallum and fosse with wide intervening berm, 
outcurve of vallum about the entrance, and outlying breastwork beft)re it. 
His description hardly fits tlie existing remains (see above, p. 121), in 
which there is nothing to recall Lyd.sbury. The plan of the S(juare camp at 
Cawthorn (Fig. !)7) should also be compared. 

â– ^ That the eastern and southern lines of Lydsbury Rings are later than the 
other works upon the hill is al)undantly clear fnna the manner in wliicli they 
cut across the latter at the N.E. and 8.\V. angles. 



366 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

that the builders were not actually Romans. They may 
very well have been Romanized Britons, and the theory 
that these did occupy an older British fortress and modify 
its excessive dimensions to suit their requirements tallies 
quite well with the discovery of Roman or Romano- 
British remains on and near the spot.^ In all likelihood 
there was a Romano-British settlement on the slopes of the 
hill, occupied perhaps by the very people whose forefsxthers 
had inhabited the great fort above. In the days of the 
Saxon advance it may very well have happened that the 
Britons decided once again to use the old fort as a 
garrison -post to watch the valley of the Stour, and as the 
key to the Vale of Blackmore to the west. But it was far 
too large for their purpose, and was accordingly modified in 
a manner learnt indeed from Rome, l)ut altered exactly 
as amateur imitators almost always do alter their model. 
The Briton had seen the Roman's way again and again, 
and he had learnt that the Roman was invincible ; but he 
had not learnt that the Roman, though he made 
earthworks, did not owe thereto his invincibility. He 
thought the vallum and the fosse were the secrets of 
success, and sought to make that success doubly sure 
by doubling his spade-work. It is a curious fact that the 
camp on Hambledon Hill, equally valuable as a strategic 
position, has also been tampered with, its area being cut 
across by a " lofty irregular vallum and fosse, the object 
of which is not obvious." It was perhaps just such 
another attempt to convert the original camp, a vast 
enclosure upwards of three-quarters of a mile in length, 
into a fortress more convenient and tenable. When the 
original camps of Hod Hill and Hambledon Hill were 
built, they were designed to shelter a whole population 



' There are hut-circles within the area of the main camp, and the walls of 
the lesser camp are said to be thrown up over the sites of other such circles. 
But this fact, if it is a fact, throws no light upon the question whether 
those walls are of Roman or of Romano-Biitish date. 



XI THE TRANSITION 367 . 

and their belongings ; if the Romano-Briton re-occupied 
them it woidd be no longer as towns, but as watch-posts 
only, and lie would naturally wish to icmIucc their size. 

It is quite possible tliat a similar explanation may 
account for the presence of transverse banks and fosses in 
other camps of large size, e.g., at Bindon Hill, near Lul- 
worth, where " the area is divided into three parts l)y two 
traverses of great strength " ; but on the whole it is remark- 
able that there are so few examples of camps which are 
thus divided at all, and very few in which the dividing 
works are on a sufficient scale to suggest that their purpose 
was military. If there were constructed any new camps 
at this period, it is at present quite impossible to say which 
they were. On the whole the Britons W(juld seem merely 
to have reoccupied, as occasion demanded, the older works 
on the hills, possibly in some cases repairing or strength- 
ening their fosses and valla ; but it is not possi])le to 
show that their long experience of Roman methods, their 
familiarity with Roman masonry, and the novel tactics and 
accoutrements of their new enemies, called forth one novelty 
in the tactics, castranietation, or fortification of the Britons.^ 

In point of fact the English invasion, and equally the 
British resistance, were utterly destitute of organized plan 
or method. There was no sudden inrush of barbarian 
swarms in numbers large enough instantly to overrun 
the entire land and to alter within a year or so its whole 
character, as was the case in Gaul. Rather this complete and 
immediate appropriation of Gaul by the Franks, \'izigoths, 

' The old theory that any approximately rectangular fortification might 
reasonably be attributed to Romanized Britons is just as untenable as that 
which wrote down every strictly rectangular entrenchment as Roman. Such 
camps as those at Hascouibe Beeches and Holmbury Hill in Surrey, like 
Shoulsbury Castle and Hod Hill itself, owe their regularity of form to 
the hills which they occupy. It is quite possible, but it has not been proved, 
that the peculiar arrangement of the valla and fosses with wide berms 
in such camps as Shoulsbury Castle may belong to the Romano-British 
period ; but it is found in other instances where there seems to lie no reason 
to think the work to be of so late a date. 



368 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

and Burguiidians, only served to cut off Britain from tlie one 
influence which had given unity to her peoples, leaving the 
land to be slowly devoured at their leisure hy the Baltic 
pirates. On the side of the latter there was no hurry, no 
definite plan, no need of either. They came in twos and 
threes, as each was prompted to try his fortune beyond the 
seas, and no large bodies of men were deliberately thrown 
into the island to proceed forthwith to its systematic reduc- 
tion. It was rather analooous to those leisured and irre- 
sponsible occupations which have since carried into India, 
Canada, Africa, and Australia the sons of the Saxons, Jutes, 
and Angles, forbears themselves of " the legion that never 
was 'listed," hewing out each for himself a new patrimony 
and building for his race new empires, without knowledge 
or thought of such high mission. The diversity of the 
participant tribes, the multiplicity of their leaders, 
the manifold points successively or simultaneously 
attacked, all bear this out. The English, then as since, 
simply " muddled through " to a great achievement. 

The invaders asjain were men of the sea and shore. 
They had no love of the hills, and at the outset no reason to 
grasp at the hills. They found land enough for their imme- 
diate requirements, and more than enough, along the shores 
of seas and rivers. As fresh bauds of settlers arrived, these 
perforce passed further along the coast or further up the 
rivers. But the uplands were still left to the Britons : they 
were merely driven back to the areas which they had occu- 
pied before the reclamation of the lowlands. 

If the invaders were without organization, so also were 
the natives. There was something in the government of 
Imperial Rome which tended to paralyze all national spirit 
without creating a genuine imperial spirit to replace it. 
Under Roman rule the Britons had forgotten how to act 
even in partial or momentary unison. That they made 
a better fight than did the Gauls is little to their credit, 
for they were not faced with the same tremendous 



XI THE TRANSITION 369 

inrush of enemies. Indeed tlie very immensity of the 
host which poured across the Rhine into Gaul, or over 
the Pyrenees into Spain, was more calculated to awaken a 
national feeling, to provoke a national resistance, and to 
call forth a national leader, than was the lingered, piece- 
meal, incoherent advance of the Saxon tribes into Britain. 
The very lack of plan and promptitude in their inroads 
took the heart out of the Britons' resistance. It provoked 
carelessness, and took fresh advantage of the carelessness 
which it provoked. The forces of the Britons were 
distracted by the multiplicity of the attack, their 
watchfulness and energy disarmed by its leisured 
character. Ao-ainst a sinole force actino- under one 
command and conducting its operations from a single base 
according to a single plan, it w^ould have been possible to 
make an organized and calculated resistance, to mark out 
and fortify new frontiers, to construct regular lines of 
defence ; but against this mosquito-swarm of hap-hazard 
and ubiquitous assailants, any such methods were out of 
the question, particularly with a people of Gallic 
temperament. They " let things slide " further and 
further, and with each fresh reverse there came, as usual, 
aogravated indifference. When at last the awakenino- 
came, as tradition says it came, in Arthur's time, it was 
too late. The Britons mioht seek to oroanize their forces 
now, but the opportunity was past. They w^re hennned 
in upon every side, and the invaders had swelled to 
numbers against wdiich resistance w^as hopeless. The 
state of things is reflected in the meagre facts recorded ; the 
later steps of the Saxon advance were bloodily contested 
indeed, and separated })y long intervals of quiescence, but 
the advantage gained l)y each fresh encounter grew 
steadily greater. Badon might give little profit to the 
victors, but Deorham gave much, and anotlier fight more 
brought the Saxons to the Barrett. 

How far the struuule went towards externiinatini; 

I'. B 



370 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

the British popuhitioii, and how fav the Saxon was 
responsible for such extermination, are matters of dispute. 
Probably the Briton was more to Ijlame for it than the 
invaders, who presumably preferred a live slave to a dead 
foe.^ AVithout doubt a large numlier of the women were 
saved alive, while the men, refusing to become slaves, were 
either slain in battle or driven into hiding. They fled to 
the fens, to the hills, into Cornwall and Wales and 
Brittany, but the Saxons took no systematic steps to 
hunt them out, so long as they kept their distance. It is 
thought that there is a large element of British blood in 
the people of the Fens to this day, as there certainly is in 
the West country. Doubtless it was open to the Britons 
to stay if they chose, and being a proud race they mostly 
preferred to go. But the Saxons merely ignored them : 
what they had come to Britain for was rather the Briton's 
land than his person. 

The fate of the towns illustrates the same view. No 
one knows how London died, yet die it assuredly did. It 
was apparently isolated and left to perish rather by 
isolation than by immediate violence. The like fate 
befel most of the Roman towns. We hear of the storm- 
ing of here and there a city — Anderida, Aquae Sulis, 
Uriconium — but mostly they passed away unnamed and 
unrecorded, because their destruction was left to work out 
itself. The few that are mentioned are probably 
mentioned simply because they were the exceptions. If 
Cissa at the storm of Anderida " left no Briton alive," 
the mention of his ruthlessness points to its being 
unusual. The Saxons were not professional butchers, and 
if they were merciless when no quarter was taken, they 
were far less merciless than the Danes who came after 
them. Rather they had a horrible fashion of killing by 

1 Professor McKenny Hughes has remarked that it is unlikely that the 
invaders should have made it their policy to exterminate a people who were 
their superiors in handicrafts, e.g., in pottery. 



XI THE TRANSITION 



371 



passivity. Had they only moved from i)oint to point, 
from town to town, with method and despatcli, metliod 
and despatch miglit have been forthcoming to withstand 
them ; l)ut this leisured nonchalance was like the fascina- 
tion of a serpent, as paralyzing as it was ftital. 

It is therefore of little use to seek for the evidence of 
any organized and purposeful resistance, for there pro1)al)ly 
was none. The most that can be hoped for is to recover 
here and there some of the points which indicate where, 
for the time Ijeing, was the high-water mark of the Saxon 
advance. Occasionally, but rarely, these are recoverable 
in place-names. If Wansdyke and Bokerley Dyke are 
really works of the Britons of this period, they furnish a 
more complete piece of evidence — the only evidence 
indeed of any attempt at organized resistance ; but their 
course, seemingly covering nothing but the south-western 
promontory of the island, shows that the day was already 
lost when these works were planned, nor is it possible to 
show that they were ever completed. That a dyke so 
extensive as the Wansdyke, 80 miles in length, could 
have been long maintained without provision of well- 
trained troops and constant garrison-duty at close 
intervals, it is impossible to believe, and of sucli provision 
there is no proof ; and, moreover, no people can successfully 
dyke itself about against foes whose attack may come from 
any point of the compass. The Wall of Hadrian, with its 
elaborate provision of fortresses and watch-i)osts, and its 
permanent garrison of many tliousands of picked troops, 
may have served the Romans against such rude foes as the 
Caledonian tribes, seemingly little familiar witli the sea 
and lacking the means or the will to turn the [)Osition by 
landing in force upon its rear; l)ut no such dykes could 
have long availed the Britons in warfare agaiiisf cnemii's 
who were as much at home on sea as on land, and wlio 
were free to attack not merely some 200 mik^s of laiu]- 
frontier, but also an unprotected sea-frontier twice as ex- 

li B 2 



372 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

tensive. The Britons, if they did indeed nerve themselves 
to the effort of constructing these dykes of the south-west, 
must very (juickly have been disillusioned as to the value 
of such a mistaken method of defence, and speedily aban- 
doning the useless attempt to hold so impossible a frontier, 
must have contented themselves with garrisoning merely a 
few posts like Hod Hill, and with praying that the next 
onslaught might not come from some unexpected quarter 
— as it invariably did. 

Wansdyke,^ the most extensive of all English works of 
the kind, had a total length of 80 miles, and for the 
major portion of its length it is still in very fair preserva- 
tion. It commences in Berkshire, and traverses the 
counties of Wiltshire and Somersetshire to the Severn at 
Portishead. First noticeable near Great Bedwyn, west of 
Inkpen, it crosses Savernake Forest in a right line, and 
continues with less directness westward across the downs 
north of Martinsell Hill by Heddington. From Hedding- 
ton to Bathampton Down, where the dyke is to be seen 
at its best, its course, straight as a ruled line, coincides 
with that of the Roman road from Verlucio (near Marl- 
borough) to Bath. Its course westward from Bathampton 
to the coast is less direct, being determined in general by 
the contours of the high ground overlooking the valley of 
the Avon. Much of this latter section has been entirely 
destroyed. The works consist throughout of a single 
vallum with a deep fosse to the north, and at most points 
there is a more or less pronounced parapet along the 
northern edge of the fosse. Where the slope of the hill is 
very considerable the vallum is slighter, and even dis- 
appears altogether. Where best preserved the crest of 
the vallum rises as much as 9 feet or 10 feet above the 
ground level, and 18 feet or 20 feet above the floor of the 



^ I.e., Woden's Dyke. Woden was the Scandinavian Mercury, the god of 
boundaries. 



XI THE TRANSITION 373 

ditch, the total width of vallum and fosse vary in jj; from 
80 feet to 90 feet. Unlike most dykes, Wansdyke appears 
to have been expressly designed so as to touch several 
important camps presumed to be British : it skirts the 
British village on Bathampton Down, incorporates the 
northern sides of the works at Stantonl)ury and Maes- 
knoll, and terminates on tlic coast close beside Portishead 
Camp ; while all along its course in front and rear lie more 
than a score of other camps, larger or smaller. 

Pitt-Rivers established definitely the fact that between 
Heddington and Bathampton Down, where the course of 
the Wansdyke coincides with that of the Roman road, the 
latter is the earlier work, the builders of the dyke having 
availed themselves occasionally of the pre-existing road 
to save labour. Theories, therefore, which would attribute 
the work to pre-Roman days no longer call for discussion. 
As the Romans can scarcely 1 )e supposed to have tampered 
with their own road, the dyke must date after the 
departure of the Romans ; but how long after it is 
impossible to say. The usual view sees in it a *' mark " 
or lioundary line constructed by the Saxons after their 
settlement — 

"A mighty niuuiid sith long he did remain 
Betwixt the Mercian rule and the West Saxon reign " ; 

and if this were so, then from the position of the fosse on 
the northern side it would seem to follow that it was of 
West Saxon construction. Pitt-Rivers himself pointed out 
that the Wansdyke and Bokerley Dyke together, "though 
not continuous works, defend the whole south-west 
promontory of England, including Wilts, Somerset, 
Dorset, Devonshire, Cornwall, and part of Hants," and 
present the appearance of a continuous sclieme of defence 
embodying a single design. The gap between the eastern 
termination of the \Vans(l\ke and the northern end of 
Bokerley Dyke might be accounted for either by supposing 



374 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

it to have l)eeii sufficiently filled l)y the forest which 
gave its name to Berkshire, or l)y assuming that the com- 
pletion of the whole scheme was in some way frustrated. 
He saw an analogy between the manner in which the 
Wansdyke leans at short intervals upon stray camps and 
the arrangement of the Roman Walls of North Britain, the 
AValls of Antoninus and of Hadrian, with their regular 
stations ; and evidently he would have liked, had the 
evidence justified it, to attribute the whole to the Roman- 
ized Britons. That it was rather a defensive work than 
merely a boundary mark he was convinced. It may be 
pointed out that it would l)e more to the interest of the 
Britons than of the Saxons to destroy the open Roman 
road leadino; direct to Bath and the West. Wherever 
may have been the Mons Badonicus which witnessed 
the great fight of 520, the battle of Deorham and 
, destruction of Bath (577) must have rendered untenable 
the Wansdyke. We should therefore have to suppose 
that the dyke was l)uilt 1)etween 412 and 577. 

Bokerley Dyke is a smaller work, some 4 miles only in 
length. It marks to-day the county-boundary of Wilt- 
shire and Dorsetshire, between Woodyates and Cranborne. 
Its general course is from south-east to north-west, the 
fosse beino- on the northern and eastern side. Close to 
Woodyates it crosses the line of the Roman road from Old 
Sarum to Badl)ury Rings, ^ 11 miles to the south-west, 
and cutting a section at this spot Pitt-Rivers again proved 
the dyke to be of later construction than the road. 

Although actual proof is not yet, and possibly never 
may be, forthcoming, there is very strong reason to think 
that both Wansdyke and Bokerley Dyke were the work of 
Romanized Britons seekino; to secure themselves against 

1 Bokerley Dyke barred the approach to the Dorsetshire centre in Baclbury, 

just as the Wansdyke in another fashion hhjcked tlie highway to Bath. In 
a manner this supports the view that Badbury was Mons Badonicus — a 
position to be fought for at any cost by Briton and by Saxon. 



XI THE TRANSITION 375 

the Saxons ])y the same means which they liad seen their 
Roman masters more successfully employ against the 
Northern tribes. Those points in which these Romano- 
British dykes differ from the genuinely Roman works, are 
precisely such as would he expected in the work of semi- 
))arbarian imitators who saw. their model without undoi - 
standing it. AVitli the Roman the vallum was but a 
subordinate matter, merely the link connecting into one 
co-ordinate whole the various points occupied by the troops. 
With them it was not the wall, but the men were the 
important thing, the real secret of their strength. With 
the Briton the wall was everything. It was bigger, broader, 
and if need be longer than the Roman's walls. But to 
the more important matter of the maintenance and 
distribution of his garrisons he seems to have paid but 
small attention. Such forts as actually stand upon the 
dykes were probably there before, not expressly built to 
meet the special requirements of his case, and when all is 
said they are but few, in no way comparable to the 
17 fortresses which marked the 70 miles of Hadrian's Wall 
and the mile-castles which covered the intervening spaces. 
The Briton was guilty of the oft-repeated error of sj^ending 
lavishly upon the materiel and neglecting the personnel. 

Unaccountable as it may be, there seems to be scarce 
any evidence of the Britons ever having taken the offensive 
with even momentary success. Mostly the history of the 
period, so far as we know it, is a series of retreats ; and 
repeated retreats but breed the habit more robustly. He 
fell l)ack until the Saxon was content to leave him in 
peace again — in Cornwall and Wales and the North — but 
with every step of his retreat he became more of a 
fugitive, more of a savage, retaining at the last nothing 
beyond his native virtue of a desperate courage in the last 
resort. The Celt could not plan, prepare, and bide his 
time, but could and did fight when cornered. No Saxons 
probably went Briton-hunting for the mere sport of it, tor 



376 EARTHWORK OK ENGLAND chap. 

the work was too dangerous ; but they moved forward 
whenever they desired more land, took it, and settled 
down again ; and once more the Briton reconciled himself 
to facts, so much the poorer in territory, so much the 
poorer therefore in resources, so much the more a savage. 
He had been an artist once, and the Roman had killed 
out that gift : he had never been rich since tlie Roman's 
coming, and he had never learnt any new lesson save that 
of passive obedience to the Roman tax-gatherer. Of the 
positive qualities of the Roman he had acquired none at 
all, and it was too late now to try to learn them. So he 
built for himself no forts of masonry, practised no world- 
conquering strategy, merely drifted. He drifted so far 
that at last the Saxon was content to leave him alone, 
nay, even to offer to him the hand of friendship, and the 
two who had fouQ-ht each other so lono; became more 
Britannico excellent friends. By that time the influx of 
fresh invaders had ceased : there were enough in England, 
not too many left behind. When there commenced 
another influx, that of the Dane, tlie now Christian Saxons 
were as much the enemies of that heathen Northman as 
were the Britons, and the two had a common interest in 
keeping him out.^ Perhaps the menace of the Dane did 
as much as anything else to reconcile Briton and Saxon. 
Though they occasionally took up arms again, the Britons 
— the Welsh, as they now were — gave to the Saxons far 
less trouble than they presently gave to the Normans. 
The Norman, like the Dane, was the common enemy of 
Welsh and Englisli, and to be treated accordingly ; indeed 
his foes of tliat date knew, what their later-day descendants 
too often forget, that the Norman ivas a Dane and nothing- 
else. 



' As A general statement of the case this is not inconsistent with the 
Occasional alliance of Danes and Britons against the Saxons, c.;/., in 835, when 
Egbert, King of Wessex, defeated the allied forces of the Danes and the 
West Welsh at Hengston Hill, Cornwall. 



XI THE TRANSITION 377 

The Cliristianizatioii of Suxon Enolaiid did not Ije^in 
until the (hiwn of the seventh century ; it was Ijarely 
completed when the eighth century was half ended. 
Christianity led to the revival of the art of building in 
stone, and to the concentration of tlie people a])Out their 
churches. Tlie Saxon lost his ancient dislike of neigh- 
bourliness, his dread of town life, and many of the deserted 
sites of Roman stations struggled once more into life. 
But this revival had scarcely well begun when the Dane 
intervened, and created a worse desolation than that 
l)efore. If London could not withstand him, still less 
could smaller fortresses. Once aoain thev died down, and 
the number which revived once more in Alfred's reign was 
hut small. 

The extreme sparseness of the population throughout 
Saxon times must have left wide areas of land quite 
unoccupied, and the old forests once more reasserted 
themselves — convenient hiding-places for refugee Britons, 
some of whom may have maintained a hole-and-corner 
existence for years even in the southern and south-eastern 
counties, and in the midlands. But it must necessarily 
have been an existence of self-effacement, not parading 
itself in the construction of any earthworks likely to 
attract attention. In the south-west, in Wales, and in the 
north, it was another matter, and a large number of the 
earthworks there remaining were possibly occupied, if not 
actually constructed, by Britons of the post-Roman times. 
This may account for their relative meanness as compared 
with the magnificent and probaljly much older works of 
the Down-counties. The refuoees had neither the heart 
nor the means, possibly not the leisure, to rear a second 
Maiden Castle ; and besides such a fortress would have 
been but a challenge to fresh attacks. The way to safety 
lay rather in dispersal and sclf-cfiacement. It is an 
unquestiona1)le fact that, with very rare exceptions, the 
multitudinous camps of the area between the Parrett and the 



378 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND ch.xi 

Lizard are of quite secondary size and strength, and that 
their sites have so far yielded few evidences of culture. 
To all seeming they were the work of a decadent race of 
builders. On the other hand the number of religious 
monuments in Cornwall — circles, avenues, menhirs, &c. — 
is so large that one may hardly doul;)t that the refugee 
Britons had actually gone back to paganism, and that the 
journeys of Saint Patrick and his fellow missioners from 
L'eland were something; more. than mere revivalist tours. 

Similarly in Wales the evidence, such as it is, goes to 
suggest that the numberless casteUs and caers of the 
Cambrian hills are mostly of a date later than the freedom 
of Britain, l)uilt mostly in the course of the struggles 
against the Roman and the Saxon. Dr. Christison arrives 
at much the same conclusion in regard to the hill-forts of 
Scotland.^ If the hills of Scotland had any population at 
all in pre-Roman times it must have been too sparse in 
numbers and too low in civilization to rear any very 
notable works — a thinly scattered population of nomad 
hunters and fishers, not more gregarious than the game 
they hunted ; and probaljly the condition of the natives 
was little l)etter down to the ninth or tenth century, and 
the days of Kenneth Macalpine. 

^ Early Fortifications of Scotland, p. 386. It is there stated that there is 
no evidence to carry them back to the Bronze Age, but that " there is some 
evidence for their existence at the early dawn of Scijttish liistory, soon after 
the departure of the Romans." 



CHAPTER Xll 

SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 

"He loved the freedom, of his farm. 
His ale at night bj/ the fireside icarm, 

Gudrun, Jiis daughter, with her flaxen tresses ; 
He loved his horses and his herds, 
The smell of the earth and the song of birds, 

His well-filled barns, his brook zvith its water-cresses." 

If little can be said with certainty of the eartliworks 
of the Romanized Britons, of the works of their conquerors 
almost as little is known. ^ The unpremeditated character 
of the conquest would in itself suggest that the Saxons 
had no very highly developed ideas altout military earth- 
work, no peculiar forms of fortification, and no charac- 
teristic methods of warfare ; and if they were not the 
people chiefly responsible for the dykes and ditches of 
the map, there is no single form of earthwork which can 
be said to be more suggestive of the Saxon than of other 
peoples, earlier or later, unless it be the wet moat." This 
is the one novelty which came in during the Saxons' time, 

' " No serious .-ittempt has yet been made to ascertain what Anglo-Saxon 
fortification really was," says Mrs. E. S. Arniitage in Pror. Svc Anliq. Scot., 
vol. xxxiv. (IHJM) inOO). 

"' Neitlier the I'riton nor the Rmnan, saving in exceiitional cases, relieil at 
all upon «.v/-ditches for his defence. Most of such ditches are of course 
Norman or post-Nonnan, hut some of them were certainly constructed in 
Saxon times and l)y Saxon liands. 



38o EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

but whether it was distinctive of one of their tribes more 
than of another cannot be determined. All the tribes 
were very near kinsmen to one another, as well as to 
Danes and to Normans ; but only the last-named, as will 
be seen, made a study of the science of war and so 
developed for themselves a distinctive style of fortifica- 
tion. 

The various tribes of whom we speak collectively as the 
Saxons^ were uniformly lovers of the sea. Pirates who 
practised their profession " in gentlemanly fashion," as 
Thucydidcs would have said, they were quite as much 
at home on shipboard as on shore. They left the hills to 
others, and themselves frequented the rivers, the sea- 
marshes, and the coasts, proud to be known as Vikings — ■ 
"men of the creeks." Their life oftered small opportunity 
for the mason, but ample scope for the carpenter ; they 
were skilful workers in timber, of which they built alike 
their "sea-snakes" and their dwellino;s. Jnsfrained with 
that jealous individualism which is to this day character- 
istic of the English, they knew nothing of the communal 
life of the ancient Britons. With the Britons the unit 
was the tribe, crowding into the narrow circle of a single 
hill-fort, or at least looking to one common oppiduni for 
refuge in time of need ; but the men of the Baltic 
acknowledged no bond of unity beyond the influence of 
their chiefs, who preferred to live each in his own home- 
stead, to seek each his own fortune, hating to l)e overlooked 
l)y any neighbour." They had indeed long passed the 
very earliest stages of civilization, They were already 
agriculturists, but as it were under protest. The sea was 
their real home still, and when his hour was come the 

' For the real diversity of these tribes, see T. W. Shore's Origin of the 
Anglo-Saxon liace. 

2 See on this matter H. M. Chadwick, The Origin of the English Nation, 
where the older view that the unit of society in the Baltic tribes was the 
family is set aside in favour of a sort of embryonic feudalism. 



XII SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 381 

\'ikiiig was fain to 1)0 l»iiri('(l in lull war-liuiiicss, actually 
ill the "long-ship"^ in which he had spent .so much of 
his life; or failing- this, dcsiicd at aii}' rate that his 
liarrow should be reared upon the windy crest of some 
" ness " commanding a far view over the waters — 

" a token to he 
To the men tliat come after, that when o'er the sea 
Through the mist of tlie whale's-])ath their hjnt^-sliips drive by, 
They may see it afar, and may know it, and cry, 
' Lo I there sleeps great Beowulf under the sky I ' " 

Far from water, salt or fresh, the Baltic peoples rarely 
went. Their homesteads were at the water's edge, and 
the immediate proximity of water is fully as much a 
characteristic of their settlements as the reverse is 
characteristic of British camps. Their traces must there- 
fore 1)6 looked for in the lowlands and along the foot- 
hills, rather than in the drier uplands and on the hill- 
tops. Such at any rate was the earlier rule, until the 
growing density of the population drove the overflow 
further and further from the sea-coasts and the hanks 
of the rivers into the forests, and up the slopes of the hills. 

If the invaders built any earthworks at the time of 
their first coming, no record of them remains. Probably 
they built none at all. Before the Saxon had come to 
be regarded as an enemy his kinsmen had long been 
settled upon the eastern coast of Britain, and here, 
where the new-comers natuially landed, they were sure 
of welcome. They had no need perhaps of any earth- 
works to cover their landing-places or to safeguard their 
ships. Once landed they put little trust in earthwork, 
less even than did the Roman. It was the (xermanic 
way to rely rather upon the terror and the desolation 

' It was not uncommon to bury the Viking actually in his sliip, piling the 
})arrow over this, as in the well-known case at Gokstad. Montelius 
{Civilhatioii of Siirdeii in lleiifhen Tiwes) figures other liarrows with 
peristaliths arranged in tlie form of a ship. 



382 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

wlierewitli they ringed their phice of settlement, and ere 
the Briton, if he desired it, coukl grapple with his foes, 
he must make his way across the " mark," the wasteland 
which, waste and wide in proportion to his foes' prow^ess, 
served them in lieu of fosse and wall. Each successive 
horde of invaders hewed out for itself a new " mark." 
The enemy— the " Welsh " — lay always before it indeed, 
but behind it was always safe retreat, if needful, upon 
others of the blood. And for the most part the " Welsh " 
did not venture to challenge the interloper, when once 
the new settlement was effected and the mark established. 
It was only when the tide of invasion had ceased to flow, 
when the settlement was in effect complete, that the 
various tribes, no longer united by the bond of a common 
peril in face of a common foe, began to quarrel one with 
another ; l)ut again there is no reliable record of any 
earthworks raised during the struggles of the Heptarchy. 
There is no known series of forts or fosses that marks the 
alternating greatness of Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, 
or Wessex. The one great work attributed to an indi- 
vidual monarch — ^Offa's Dyke— was constructed not against 
his Saxon rivals, but ao-aiust the Britons of Wales. This 
proves, indeed, that the Saxons did construct earthworks, 
but neither record nor tradition speaks of any walls of 
Ida or fortresses of Penda, and the name of Alfred himself 
attaches to no earthworks such as are claimed by Csesar, 
by the Danes, or by the Devil. Even the arbitrary 
imagination which allotted all " camps," round, rectan- 
gular, and oval, to Briton and Roman and Dane severally 
made no provision for the Saxon. ^ 



1 The same feeling guides the nation to this clay. " We ourselves, mainly 
a Teutonic people .... have never heartily entered upon any system of 
defending the country by foititied places, and have always placed more 
reliance upon the arm of flesh and our wooden walls than upon those 
elaborate stone- and earth-works which other nations have carried to 
perfection." (Greenwell and Rollestcjn, British Barruivs, p. 12-5). 



XII SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 383 

It was only when, in the ninth century, tlie inroatls 
of the Danes threw the Saxons in turn upon tlie defensive 
that the hitter were compelled to pay more attention to 
their fortifications, and very fortunately the record of the 
Anglo-Saxon Clironicle commences but little later. It 
contains repeated allusions to the making of various 
fortifications by Danes or Saxons ; such phrases as 
" wrought a work," " wrought and built a burli," ^ recur 
again and aoain amonsjst others more or less definitive. 
Sometimes the builder is a Saxon king : Ina, for instance, 
"wrought the burh " at Taunton (before 721) to secure 
against the West Welsh (Britons of Cornwall) his conquest 
of the Somersetshire levels from King Geraint. Alfred 
built many burhs against his Danish enemies, and his son 
and daughter, Eadward the Elder and Ethelfied the Lady 
of the Mercians, were yet more active in that kind. 
Amono;st those which Ethelfied l)uilt were works at 
Stafibrd and Tamwoith (913) and Warwick (914), while 
Edward "wrought" the l)urlis at Witham and IMaldon, 
in Essex. At other times it is the Danes are the builders 
— at Benfieet, at Quatl)ridge on the Severn, at Reading, 
&c. Inasmuch as the settlements of the Saxons were 
mainly in the lowlands, and the Danes seldom travelled 
far from their ships, these Danish works are commonly 
in riverine positions : the Saxon for defence, the Dane for 
ofience, built them upon one or both l)anks of the rivers, 
on the Ouse at York, on the Trent at Nottingham, at 



* Tlie root is found in tlio old Teutonic benjan, " to shelter," whence the 
various dialectic forms bxri/, bernj, banvw, bi(rrun; boroKijh, bornKC, burg, 
hioyh, biirf, barf, berth. The word boivcr (('.if., in Maiden Bower, Bower Walls 
at Clifton, and the village of Bower or Burgh Chalk in Dorsetshire) has 
been confused with one or other of these forms, although really derived 
from another word, the old Teutonic bum, "to dwell." Tlie A.-S. burh 
still survives in actual use in Somersetshire. A farmer, guiding the writer 
to the fragmentary ring-work known as Road Castle, near Exford, said, 
"This is Road Castle Field, and there's the burh." N.B.— He did not say 
" bury," and the work in (luestion has no mount. 



384 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

BiK'kingliani and 8tamfor(l, Ilei'tford, and elsewhere.^ 
But what was the precise form of these various " works " 
is rarely explained. We are told, indeed, in another 
record'^ that in 871 the Danes " made a rampart between 
the rivers Thames and Kennet, on the right side of the 
royal city" of Reading, but that was for a winter camp, 
and was evidently just such another work as the Dyke 
Hills at Dorchester (Fig. 7). Such entrenchments, 
partly because of their low-lying positions, partly because 
they were not permanently occupied for any length of 
time, would for the most part l)e quickly destroyed 
either by the soldier or by the ploughman. 

The Bedfordshire Ouse was the scene of a good deal of 
fighting between Saxons and Danes, and a number of 
earthworks yet remain upon its banks which were almost 
certainly "wrought" by the Danes. Two of these may 
be cited as examjoles of their class, viz., the little fortress 
known as Gannock's Castle, or The Gannicks, at Temps- 
ford,^ near the junction of the Ouse and the Ivel, and 
the larger works at Willington, four miles from Bedford. 

Gannock's Castle (Fig. 113) lies 200 yards away from 
what used to be the bank of the river. It is a very regular, 
rectangular enclosure with an inner area no more than 
180 feet in length and 84 feet in width, enclosed within a 
moat fully 20 feet in width. Along the edge of the moat 
runs an earthen rampart, of which the crest is from 1 1 to 
12 feet above the floor of the moat. The north-eastern 

1 G. T. Clark identified them with the mottes now almost unanimously 
regarded as Norman, and misapplied to those mottes the A.-S. term burh. 
Amongst the many arguments adducible to disprove his theory is the fact 
that in most cases where the construction of a burh is recorded by the 
A.-S. Chru)iiele there is no mound; and in many of the cases in which a 
mound is found, there is satisfactory evidence that a Norman stronghold 
stood upon the site. 

- Asser's Life uf Alfred. 

^ Professor Skeat declares the first syllable of the name to be the same as 
Thames, which proves the river Ouse at one time to have borne the name of 
Thames. 



XII SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 385 

angle i.s occupied l)y a low mound 20 feet in diameter, hut 
rising only some 2 feet above the level of the rampart. 
On either side of tliis mound the rampart is intermitted 
to leave an entrance. The Anglo- Saxon Chronicle records 
that the Danes l)uilt a fortress at Tempsford in the year 
921, from which they were speedily driven hy Eadward. 
There seems no reason to doul^t that Gannock's Castle is 
a remnant of their fortress, for that it was once much 
larger is shown hy the traces of other earthworks in the 






^/,1 






) 1 1 

o jfe&t \Qo ^<^<^ 

Fio. 113. — Gannock's Castle, Tempsforf). 

ground about. The remaining enclosure is perhaps no 
more than the inner fortress of a w^ork originally planned 
upon a like scheme witli that at Willington, of which the 
outer wards and fosses have now disappeared. The allu- 
sion in the Chronicle is dou])ly important, for not only 
does it furnish a determinate date for the construction of 
the work and a determinate attribution to the Danes, but 
it also shows how^ remarkably the Danes' works might 
occasionally resemble the ordinary moated enclosures of 
Saxon and Mediaeval times. 

Vastly more imposing is the fortress at Willington (Fig. 
114), on the south bank of the Ousc, in spite of the "ravage 

c c 



386 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



of ten long sad hundred years " ; for what was once its outer 
fosse is now a roadway, and right across its central strong- 
hold, parallel with the river, has been driven a railway. 
In its original shape the fortress must have consisted of a 
central enclosure of rectangular plan, analogous to that 
at Tempsford, but considerably larger, with an inner and 
an outer ward running parallel with each other round its 
eastern and southern sides, all three being fossed in such 




\*1>!nn'y?5L??t'5 '*'•••■'' 



^^rii^'^B:"' 



I- ' o 3 



It. I 




Fig. 114. — Willington. 



a way that the ditches were filled by the adjacent river. 
The fosse of the central area was fully 40 feet in width, 
that of the inner ward 30 feet or more, and that of the 
outer ward considerably smaller. Traces remain of the 
valla which originally followed the edges of all three 
moats, and at the north-west corner are distinct vestiges 
of another and smaller ward lying immediately upon the 
river. But what gives to Willington Camp its peculiar 
interest is the presence of certain basins, which apparently 
served as docks for the vessels of the Danes, who here 
proposed to spend the winter of 921. Of the three basins 
the larger, formed by an expansion of the moat of the 



xi[ SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 387 

inner ward, mccisures as much as 105 feet in wiiltli at its 
S^reatest, and still has a lenujtli of 170 feet, altliouuli the 
building" of the railway lias sadly stunted its original 
proportions. It still contains a little water, and ])efore the 
railway dammed its mouth it was a broad and fairly deep 
inlet of the river, calculated to have l^een laro-e enouoh 
to accommodate between twenty and thirty Danish ccols. 
At its southern end a passage 25 feet wide opens into a 
second oblong basin 110 feet by GO feet. The third basin, 
much smaller, was apparently intended to dock but one 
vessel at a time. It is formed by widening the outermost 
fosse, and measures but 72 feet by 35 feet, with a depth 
of 6 feet or less. Traces remain of what seem to have 
been slip-ways running up from this and from the largest 
basin across the outer ward, here only some 100 feet 
in width. 

The Danes were disappointed of their purpose at 
Willington. After a bloody fight Eadward stormed their 
camp and doubtless destroyed most of their fleet, the 
remnant of the " heathen " retiring down the river to take 
up, with no better fortune, a second position at Temps- 
ford, If the suggestion that Gannock's Castle corresponds 
to the inner stronohold at Willino;ton be correct, the 
difference in size is thus explained. The refugees at 
Tempsford were but a remnant of the force — perhaps 
3,000 strong — which had been entrenched at Willington. 
They were not sufficient to build a very extensive work, 
nor did they require it to shelter tlieir niiiiished 
numbers. 

Such a work as that of Willington, if really Danish, 
presumably represents the very highest development of 
Danish spade-work. For the most part the Dane required 
no such elaborate defences. A plunderer rather than a 
colonist, rarely staying long in any one spot, as a rule he 
required nothing more than such temporary works as 
might cover his landing. The camp at Shoebury (Fig. 115), 

c c 2 



388 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

if rightly attributed to Hasten, is exactly what was to be 
looked for. At the present time there remain only scraps 
— some 1,300 feet in all — of the fortress, which had an 
extreme breadth of 750 feet. The single vallum extended 
to as much as 2,800 feet, covered by an enormous fosse 
25 feet in breadth at the Hoor ; and the base, or side open 
to the sea, was 1,900 feet in length. It was traditionally 
the camp of Hasten (Hasting) and his Danes in 893. 
Very similar, l)ut stronger, was the promontory-fort of 
Hengistbury Head, formed by running two deep ditches 
across the strip of ground between Christchurch harbour 
and the Channel Sea. One of the ditches is still 20 feet 
in depth. The smaller work known, as Danesfield — the 
name may or may not l)e well-chosen — ^near Medmenham, 
is a miniature replica of the Dyke Hills at Dorchester 
(Fig. 7), showing two parallel lines of rampart, 
terminating at one end on the l^ank of the Thames. The 
other end presumably also ran up to the bank, but it has 
been destroyed to make room for Danesfield House. 
Danish, too, perhaps, is the immensely strong little 
promontory-fort at Burpham (Fig. 212). It is not im- 
possi1)le that some few of the simpler ring-works found 
near the coast or the rivers ^ may be Danish works, l)ut 



^ E.g. the once strong, if small, fort called Thunorbury, on Hayling Island 
(p. 205). Another is the camp, small and oval and very strong, Ij miles 
south-west of Porlock Church, Somerset ; and eastwards along the coast or 
the foot-hills as far as the Parrett are the vestiges— or trtidition— of several 
others. The Danes, or other similar pirate-raiders, certainly did land here 
or hereabouts on several occasions, e.g. 880 (when they are said to have 
burned St. Dubric's Church in Porlock), 918, and 1052. There are dozens 
of Danesboroughs, Danesburys, Danes' Camps, on the map, but such names 
are very misleading, and the " red terror " of the pirates led to the associa- 
tion of their name with many works which they probably never even saw. 
The camp of Dovvsborough, in the Quantocks, to all appearance purely 
British, is commonly called Danesborough, probably only because of the 
impression left behind in the district by lluljba and his kin. In other 
instances the name has been attached to a site simply because the camp 
happens to be oval, e.g. Blewburton Hill, Berks, where it is even doubtful 
whether there was ever any camp at all. 



XII SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 389 

it is quite as likely that they are older works, perhaps 
occupied l)y the Danes, who are said, for instance, to have 
held the British fort of Bratton Castle, near Westbury, 
after their great defeat l)y Alfred at Ethandune.' Pound- 
bury, at Dorchester, again is generally said to l)e a Danish 
work, but why the Danes should have troubled to build 
it with Mauml)ury Kings only a few yards away, and 
Maiden Castle little further, does not appear. The un- 
usually fine wM)rks surrounding the ancient town of 
Wareham are yet another instance of such arl)itrary 
attribution, based on little more than the bare record of 



Fin. 115.— Shoebtjry. 

the fact that the Danes constantly landed liere. As a 
matter of fact the eartli works, in tlieir [)resent shape at 
any rate, are mainly Norma u and Cromwell ian. Even 
when the Danes l)ecanie permanent masters of part or all 
of the land, it does not appear that tli(\v constructed any 
earthworks of note, still less tliat thev dcNclopeil aii\- 
peculiar type of earthwork. Their occupation of the 
Danelagh under the terms of the Peace of Wedmore was 
not followed, so far as is known, by any systematic fortifi- 
cation of that area. The "Danes' Camp" at Tlunsbury, 
Northants, l)elongs to the Ijate-Celtic period. The I)aiies 

' A similar explanation may account for tlio names of Danes' l>yke and 
Little Denmark ou Flamborough Head, of Danes' ("amii applied to tlie 
Britisli fort of Hembury Castle, Buckfastleigh, and many other cases. 



390 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



were content mostly to occupy the existing Saxon 1)urhs, 
such as Stamford, Lincohi, Nottingham, and Derljy. And 
if they built no defences to safeguard themselves against 
their acknowledged master Alfred, they were not likely to 
build any when in the eleventh century they were in 
possession of the whole of England. 

If little is known of indisputably Danish works, of 
those of the Saxons there is not more certainty. We are 
told that King Ida, " the Flamebearer," fortified Bam,- 
borough with a hedge and a wall, i.e. with a vallum of 
earth and a palisade ; and the building of a vallum 

.' • •• II I « > t • 'MIH** », ,. 

. . 1 . I . 1 I I t I I I I / ''• 






7>in 



\OQ 



I 



Fia. 116. — Kenwith's Castle. 

implies, we may sujjpose, the sinking of a fosse. • Ida 
made himself King of Bernicia in 547, and his fortress at 
Bamborough was probably a promontory-fort. Moat and 
wall and palisade were, therefore, employed by the 
Saxons, but we are not told that they affected any 
particular plan more than another. At the other end of 
England, near Bideford, is a curious earthwork known as 
Kenwith's Castle (Fig. 116), traditionally said to have 
been built and occupied by the Saxon of that name at the 
time of a Danish inroad in 878. It is very small, and its 
defences are less artificial than natural ; it has in fact 
much the appearance of a work hastily wrought as the 
occasion demanded. But that it is in reality a Saxon 



xii SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 391 

work there is no proof uiul little likelihood.' Tradition 
again declares that the hill-forts of Anstiebury - on Leith 
Hill, Surrey, and Holmbury Hill, four miles to the west, 
were respectively the work of the Danes and of Aethelwulf, 
the father of Alfred, who at Ockley, under the southern 
slopes of Leith Hill, inflicted upon the invaders (853) the 
most bloody overthrow which they had ever experienced. 
But even if it is conceivable that the Saxon king should 
have had time or desire to construct such a fortress as 
Holmbury camp, it is incredible that he would have 
allowed the enemy to entrench themselves at leisure in 
Anstiebury, the finest camp remaining in Surrey. The 
Danes were merely occupying a work which they found 
already existing, and probal)ly of British age ; and in all 
likelihood Holmbury also was originally British. Similar 
traditions attach to many other camps which are known 
to be of much older date, e.g. Clearbury, near Salisbury.^ 
Near Scamridge, in the North Riding, is an extensive 
series of dykes, said to have been constructed by the 
Northumbrian Saxons under King Oswy {ohiit. 670), and 



* The raiding of the time did not call for the construction of earthworks 
on any great scale, and even if Kenwith's Castle were really constructed at 
tlie date in (juestion it would he more probably the Danes' stronghold than 
their ccmquerors' camp. Other autliorities place the scene of the tight at 
Cannington (quasi Kenwith's-tun), 4 miles west of Bridgwater. Here is a 
small and feeble camp of normal plan on the crest of a low hill (200 feet) 
overlooking the levels about and commanding an ancient ford over the 
Parrett at Combwich. That some great fight actually occurred here is 
proved by the discovery of the graves of the slain : "They lie on a hill 
close under the camp and are very numerous, many of the skeletons 
bearing marks of weapons. ... A short exploi-ation of the trenches into 
which the dead have been huddled in long rows has yielded pottery of 
Anglo-.Sax(m make, and distinct evidence of indiscriminate massacre" 
(Rev. C. W. Whistler in FoUdurc, xix. 1, March, 1908). The Danes may 
have utilised the camp, but it is surely older than their time. 

- The first part of the name is said to preserve tliat of Hengist. 

•* The fact that some of the hill-forts were used by the Saxons as burial- 
places {e.ij. Winkelbury and Highdown) is proof that these forts had long 
been al)andoned by their occupants, and that the Saxons ilid mtt regard them 
as desirable places for occupation by the living. 



392 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

still known as the Six Dykes, or Oswy's Dykes, l)ut there 
is nothino; distinctive about them.^ 

Amongst the very few earthworks which may with 
some certainty he attributed to Saxon hands are that at 
Eddisbury, near Delamere, in Cheshire, and those at 
Witham and Maldon, both in Essex. The latter is now 
almost destroyed, and Witham l>urh has been greatly 
mutilated, a railway cutting it right across, and a station 
standing almost upon the centre of its site. The burh at 
Maldon, now to all intents ploughed out, was of a fairly 
regular oval plan, fortified apparently by a wide and deep 
fosse, a high vallum, and a palisade, though an old 
description of 1775 represents it as having a second wall 
surrounding the inner part of the area, and declares the 
ditch to have measured 60 feet across.^' The burh at 
Witham (Fig. 117) is less regularly oval, measuring 
roughly 1,200 feet by 1,000 feet, and surrounded by a 
considerable vallum and a ditch 30 feet wide and 3 feet 
deep ; and there remain cons-iderable portions of a second 
and inner vallum, very roughly parallel with the first, to 
which it is joined by two cross walls. This inner area, 
about 600 feet by 525 feet in extent, had likewise its 
exterior ditch, but of smaller proportions, apparently 
not more than 10 feet in width. ^ Both at Witham 
and at Maldon the burh occupies a slightly rising site 
close to water, and both appear to be of one design 
and age. They are usually believed to be the work of 



1 Accordin<5 to Messrs. Greenwell and Rolleston, they are "apparently 
intended to protect an invading body advancing from the East" (British 
Bamiivs, p. 484), and are therefore similar to the more extensive dykes of 
Cambridgeshire and Flamborough Head. The same writers go on to say 
that "there is probably no place in England which has produced more 
arrow-points, scrapers, rubbers, and other stone articles," which fact 
raises a presumption that the dykes are older than the days of Oswy. 

^ See an article by the late Mr. I. Chalkley Gould in Transactions of the 
Essex Arch. iSoc, New Series, vol. x., part ii. (1907). 

3 Ibid. 



XII SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 393 

Eadwaid tlie Elder, who is said hy the Chronicle to have 
"wrought and built the burh at Witham " (913), and to 
have "built and established" that at Maldon (920). 
They were intended as fortresses against the Danes, who 
in fact laid abortive siege to Maldon biirli in the very 
next year. 

While her l)rother Ethelred re-fortified the old Eomtin 
station of Chester in 915, Ethelfleda, the " Ladv of tlie 



/•/7Af SrATION 




Fig. 117. - The Bukii, Witha^i. 

MtMcians,'' eonstrufted a new l)urli at Eddisl)urv (Pig. 118), 
commanding the roadways from the east to Chester and to 
Wales. The vestiges of this fortress Mrs. Armstrong 
thinks to be the best siir\i\ing example of its class. 
They consist of a strong (lou])le vallum and intcr\ciiing 
fosse surrounding one half of Eddisbury Hill ; for on the 
remaining sides the abrupt fall of the ground rendered 
needless such extensive works, and ;i mere palisade was 
perhaps all that w^as recpiircd. Tlic \alliiin still stands 
upwards of 14 feet high, and, though now oxcigrown with 
turf, is said to be constructed of stone. The ditch is 3o 



394 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP 



feet wide. The area thus enclosed measures some 1,200 feet 
by 750 feet, or upwards of 12 acres. The name of the 
Old Pale, still clinging to the earthw^orks, betrays their 
Saxon origin.^ 

Indeed, the Saxons were not by habit builders of 
military earthworks at all. At their first coming they 
seem to have made few or none : theirs was not a military 
invasion but an immigration, and one need no more look 
for extensive traces of earthworks to mark it than one 







Quarry 






5~ Quarry 



Pond 



''"'""M.,.f,,, 
O /ca jOQ 3<^ o "'tt, 

Fk;. 118.— Edihsbury, The Old Pale. 



looks for them in the track of the Pilgrim Fathers of the 
New England States. Earthworks, except where they mark 
a deliberate military occupation like that of the Romans or 
of the Normans, are the work not of the people who attack, 
but of those attacked. It was seemingly only when the 
Saxons were thrown upon the defensive, whether against 
the "West Welsh " of Cornwall or against the Danes, that 
they found it desirable to set about the systematic 

1 Eddisbury gives its name to the Hundred. For the meaning of "pale," 
see p. 256, note. One of the old ditches of the North Riding is still called 
the Paled Ditch. 



xii SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 395 

l)uil(ling of l)uvlis. But tliey cannot l)e sliown to have 
developed any new design. Tliey had from the outset 
had before them the Romans' work : they began by 
occupying the old Roman sites and repairing the old walls, 
and they ended, it would seem, in building new fortresses 
rudely imitating the Roman plan, but wrought perliaps as 
often of earth and timber as of ])rick and stone. Thus in 
920 Eadward the Elder built a fortress at Thelwall, near 
Warrington, and the name of that place still preserves tlie 
fact that it was merely " a wall of thills," i.e. of piles, a 
stockade of timi)er.^ Mr. Chalkley Gould doul)ted 
whether Maldon l)urh ever Iwasted Saxon mason-work, 
and there is none now traceable at Witham. But where 
the Saxons entered into possession of the ruins of older 
Roman fortresses, they would repair these usually, it is to 
be supposed, with masonry,^ to the best of their aljility, if 
the necessity arose. So Regnum, which Cissa had occupied, 
retained its walls and grew up to be Chichester, and so 
the Chronicle records in various places the repair of other 
Roman fortifications. The Saxon l)uilt no hill-top camps : 



I Exactly such a work is denoted by the term "bulwark," if Prof. Skeat 
is right in derivinf^ it from "bole," a tree-trunk. The Netn J']n(ili.sh Dirt. 
does not challenge this derivation, although it adds the alternative German 
derivation from holn, meaning "to throw," the word " l)ul\vark " having 
apparently been used at times to denote "a machine for throwing large 
stones." It is a local name for many earthworks, with no reference to date 
or origin, ejj. the British oppid^iDi in Holwood Park (p. 129), another on 
Breedon Hill, Leicestershire, and the bastioned fort at Earith (Fig. 207) : 
but it can scarcely be of any great anti(iuity, the earliest citation of tlie 
word in the Ni>v: EiKiUsh Diet, being dated 1418. 

'â– ^ But even upon important sites of Roman military stations the later 
town, if fortified at all, was not necessarily fortified with masonry. 
Doncaster, for example, representing the Roman Danuni, was fortified witli 
earth only, and never boasted any better wall. Possibly the original 
Roman station was never walled with masonry, but left (like Castle 
Dykes, Fig. 108) to rely upon its vallum and fosse ; a big fosse would, on 
that particular spot, have been defence enough. Moreover, while there is 
no good building stone near at hand, there was timber in any (luantity. 
In the sixteenth century all the houses of Doncaster were built of wood 
(Leland, quoted by Mrs. Armitage, Key in Knijiish Antiquities, p. 4). 



396 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

lie merely fortified his existing settlements, and these lay 
mostly in the lowlands. To "make a burh " was simply 
to fortify such a settlement, and just as he imitated the 
Roman in his ecclesiastical architecture, so did he also in 
his military buildings.^ 

Moreover, he must needs set his burhs in the lower 
ground, along which the Danes made their way. He did 
not concern himself to pile rampart upon rampart and 
fosse upon fosse : that was natural in the older peoples, 
who had lived all their lives under the protection of their 
forts, and had had long generations in which to complete 
their elaborate defences. To the Saxon the burh was 
what a fort is to us, a troublesome and temporary military 
necessity rather than a place of residence. It was a city 
of refuge when need was, but the Saxon's home was 
away in the open fields. 

These settlements in the open were probably all 
originally furnished with some elementary sort of en- 
closure, if only sufficient to keep the cattle in and the 
wolves out — a moat, a vallum, and the customary 
stockade in most cases, but not, it is to be supposed, 
very elaborate of their kind.^^ The terminations -ton. 



1 Looking through the A.-S. MSS. in the British Museum to find a con- 
temporary picture of a burh as the Saxon artist understood it, Mrs. E. S. 
Armitage found "an excellent drawing of a four-sided enclosure with 
towers at the angles and battlemented walls of masonry " .... "The A.-S. 
idea of a burh was an enclosure with walls and towers of stone, or, in other 
words, a walled town" (Proc. Sue. Antiq. Scut., vol. xxxiv). Too much 
stress should not be laid upon the details of the artists' work, e.g. the 
battlements and the angle-towers ; makers of pictures have ever been 
makers of pictures, rather than realists, all the world over. There may well 
have been both towers and battlements ; there certainly were walls, and 
doubtless often walls of stone. 

^ The Saxon settler had, perhaps, neither more nor less need to erect 
elaborate defensive works against the Britons than the Cape- Dutch against 
Diniziilu's men. It is doul)tful whether Britain produced a more formidable 
leader than Dinizulu, not at all doubtful that his Zulus were more formidable 
men in war than the Britons. Yet the Dutch lived amongst them without 
moats or valla or any equivalent. 



XII SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 397 

-fold, and -stooJi, -yard or -(jartli, -wird or -ivorth, 
-horough, -bury, &c., so common in [)lcice-names, are 
thought to preserve the memory of some such rude 
defensive enclosures/ but that these were of a very 
slight kind is suggested by the distinctive name of 
AValton attaching to so many villages near Roman settle- 
ments. If the ruined vallum or wall of a Roman station, 
larger or smaller, were so remarka])le a feature as to give 
a name to the Saxon settlement hard by, it is clear that 
the Saxon was as a rule content with something very 
unpretentious ; and the same thing is proved by the 
Saxon's adopting another Roman word, castrum, to denote 
fortress-towns of a kind for which he himself had no name. 
Had he further borrowed the term opjndum for his 
ordinary village-fortification, he would probably in no 
way have strained the meaning of that term sav^e in 
applying it to a permanent instead of a temporary 
stronghold. 

Here and there survive fragments and traces of these 
villaoe-enclosures. There is one surroundino- the village 
of Hoooeston, Bucks, G^ miles west of Tjeii>hton Buzzard. 
It is an oblong area, \ mile in length and half that width ; 
the corners are rounded, and the enclosing ditch is still 
traceable at all points, though less noticeable on the 
northern and southern sides. AVithin it stand the modern 
village and the parish church. About 2 miles to the 
south-east of tliis, at Cu1)lington,"" are the remains of 
another, tlu,' ditch and bank still formidable at the north- 
western side. The survival of these vestio-es in such a 
locality is only to be understood if we suppose the 

' It is quite possible tliat tliose terminations, and others like them, do 
indicate that originally there existed sonic sort of defensive enclosure on tlie 
spot, but very rarely is there to be found any trace of it to-day, still less any 
trace of wliat could be called a "camp." The application of, c.(j. " bury," to 
scores of larger works, mostly British, is another matter, as also to isolated 
spots once doubtless the sites of single fortified dwellings of Saxon lords. 

'^ See below, p. 548. 



398 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

origiiuil walls to have l)eeii unusually large, though it is 
impossible to guess why they should have been so.^ The 
case of a village like Avebury, or of Great Sherston near 
Malniesbury, merely shows the appropriation by the Saxon 
settlers of convenient earthworks of an older time, but 
there do not seem to have l)een many earthworks on so 
great a scale in the lowlands where the Saxons preferred 
to live. 

As for the individual Saxon, the great man of his tribe 
or district, there is little to be said. He dwelt in a 
house of timber," and if this were not within the common 
enclosure of the village, it must have been provided with 
some defences of its own. These would be of no different 
type : a moat, with or without a vallum and palisade, 
would sufHce.^ But so far as can be proved there was 
nothing distinctive. The Saxon kings may occasionally 
have availed themselves of pre-existing works, British or 
Roman, when these were in convenient places, construct- 
ing within the older lines a smaller moated stronghold for 
their own less ambitious requirements. But in matters 
domestic, as in war, the Saxons were not original,* and if 
many of the dykes of England be not Saxon work, then it 

' Both these villages were originally clearings amid dense forests, Bernwood 
on the one hand and Whaddon Chase on the other. The dread of wild beasts 
and of man —Bernwood had a bad reputation, see 23.514, note — might call for 
defences of unusual size. But where are the similar defences of all the other 
villages of a like antiquity in this and similar localities ? 

2 An article by E. Magnusson, M.A., in Proceedings of the Camb. A^itiq. 
Soc, No. xlvii. (1907), p. 480, shows that some of these northern peoples 
continued to construct partially subterranean dwellings to a late period, 
exactly as did the remoter Scottish peoples down to the last century or so. 

^ Citing the recorded fact that the King's dwelling in the most important 
city of the realm in Saxon times (Winchester) was defended only by a hedge, 
Mrs. E. S. Armitage remarks that the lesser nobles were presumably content 
with even humbler defences, or with none at all. 

^ Perhaps the greater number of such domestic works as existed were 
occupied, modified, and disguised by their Norman successors, or by the 
Saxons themselves under Norman influence. Of the vexed question of the 
date of the mounts, erroneously called burhs, something is said in the next 
chapter. 



XII SAXON AND DANISH EARTHWORKS 399 

is impossible to point to aii}' particular type of eai'tlnvork 
as being distinctively Saxon. A very few moats, larger 
or smaller, may ])e of their making/ and a few of the 
simpler ringworks of sliglit elevation and circular plan. 
Beyond this it is unwise to generalize. It is characteristic 
of the race to pay little heed to matters military ; it 
is characteristic of them also not to have accounted worth 
record the works of their own forefathers. They seek 
everywhere for the traces of the Briton and the Roman, 
but their own people and their fathers' house they 
forget. 



^ Mr. Chalkley Gould suggested that some of the larger moats of the East 
Coast, especially such as lie near to the heads of creeks and surround the 
entire village and its church, may have been originally constructed by the 
Saxons to defend their settlements. 



CHAPTER XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



" When might ivas right, and sword and brand 
Possessed and meted out the land — 
Demesnes that he tvlio built the strongest, 
And only he, could keep the longest." 

All over England, Wales, the Scottish Lowlands, and the 
Irish Pale are to be found earthworks of a type entirely 
unlike those heretofore described — mounds of earth 
ranging in size from 10 to 100 feet high and from 300 
to 1000 feet about, surrounded by fosses, sometimes 
without any visible accessory works, sometimes associated 
with other fosses and valla of great extent and colossal 
proportions. Grouped under two classes by the Com- 
mittee, these works (Classes D and E) appear to be but 
two stages in the development of one idea. The great 
majority, if not actually all of them, are the work of one 
people ; they represent the military princij^les of the 
Normans, and were raised therefore during the space of 
some 300 years, from the days of Edward the Confessor ^ 
to the end of the thirteenth century. 

Whether or no any of these mounds belong to an 

' Throughout the reign of Edward the Confessor the Normans were 
making a peaceful conquest of the English. They introduced, inter alia, 
their peculiar form of castle, castels of the mount-and-bailey type. The 
A.-S. Chronicle mentions these castels once or twice : the first instance is 
sub anno 1048. To this period (pre-Conquest) are believed to belong 



CH. xiii NORMAN CASTLES 401 

earlier date and another race is a question much disputed,' 
but there is no need to enter here into the arouments 
either way, for all parties are agreed that most of the 
mount-castles are Norman. They are scattered broadcast 
over Normandy and the adjoining districts ; they are of 
rarer occurrence in Germany and Italy, and also in 
Denmark ; but they are not found in the lands whence came 
the Saxon tribes, or in those parts of Ireland and Scotland 
to which the Normans failed to penetrate. Nor is it 
necessary to discuss the source whence the Normans 
learnt the style of fortification which they made their 
own.^ The distribution of the mount-castles over the 
British Isles is at once too limited and too methodical to 
have been due to any conquest by Saxons or by Danes, 
and it is a peculiarity of their distribution that they were 
evidently intended not so much to defend a frontier or a 
locality as to overawe it. They are the means by which the 
Norman invaders secured their control over their English 
subjects. In a great number of cases they can be 
identified with fortresses of the l)uilding of which by the 
Normans we have documentary record. They bespeak a 
people who were mighty workers in earth, as the Saxons 
and the Danes were not. Next to the Briton the Norman 

Pentecost's Castle and Ewias Haiold. The Chronicle, clearly distinguishing 
them from hurhx, speaks of them as a novelty. Ordericus Yitalis, the 
contemporary historian of the Conquest, expressly says that England at that 
date had few castles, this being one reason wiiy the Normans found it so 
easy a prey. 

' See various articles by Mrs. E. S. Ariuitage and Messrs. J. H. Round, 
W. H. St. John Hope, and others, in Archai'dlixjia (vol. Iviii.), Airh(«'i>l. 
Journal (\\.), Pror. Sor. Antiq. Sent, (xxxiv.), itc. ; and in particular a careful 
sunnnary of the case by Dr. Davies Pryce, reprintml from tlie Jnurmd llrit. 
Aicluicol. Asftor., 1907. 

^ A tentli-century Lifi; of St. John of Thrroiuoiiit' states that tlie Mero- 
vingian nobles practised the same style of castle-I)uilding. The description 
of the completely developed mount-and-bailey castle, as given below, is 
almost identical with that attributed to the Merovingians. There is a 
theory that the mount is a development from tlie Roman pno'toriiim, which 
has, however, nothing to connnend it, and is b.-ist-d upon a wrong idea of the 
purpose and fasliion oi the jiracturittm. 

D D 



402 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

lias left the most enduring, the most numerous, and the 
most impressive marks upon our soil. He was as great 
a sapper as the Celt, as systematic and methodical as was 
the Roman. 

G. T. Clark first made a study of these moated mounds. 
In lack of a better name he applied to them the Saxon 
term of hurhs, and the name has unhappily stuck. In 
the Chronicle the term hui^h (or hurg) is applied not to 
castles, and still less to castles which can be shown to 
have been of this plan, but to fortified towns.^ The 
Normans themselves styled their mounts mattes,^ and the 
name survives in Scotland and Ireland in the form mote. 
In England it has very often been confused with the 
two quite different terms nioot and moat. The motte was 
never built to serve as a moot, thouo-h in the course of 
time individual examples may perhaps have come to 
be so used. The mere making of the mount, on level 
ground at least, entailed the excavation of a fosse, and 
so far every motte implies the possible presence of a 
moat. But whereas the word moat, in modern English, 
always implies the intended presence of water, the ditches 
of the m,ottes were not, save in rare instances,^ designed 
expressly to hold water. If they did so, this was as often 
accidentally as intentionally.^ 

^ The Saxon burh was very much larger than any Norman castle. Even 
royal castles co\'ered but a few acres — three or four — ^whereas a burh might 
extend to 20 or 25 acres, or more. 

^ The origin of the word is dubious. Dr. Christison remarks that the 
confusion between motte and moat is exactly parallel to that between ditch 
and d\il:e. The word appears in Welsh as Mod, in Gaelic as Mhoid. But 
the common Welsh term for such mounts is Tumen ( = tumulus), and the 
Ordnance Map not seldom follows suit by marking as "tumulus" what is 
indubitably a genuine motte. 

^ E.g. Clifford's Tower, York. In low-lying sites water would of course 
gather in the fosse, but the point is that the Norman of the Conquest 
rarely allowed this advantage to determine his choice of a site for his castle. 

'' In certain obvious cases the ditches were of course intended to be wet, 
and the works were expressly designed to that end, but these are not as a 
rule castles of the mount-and-bailey type. There are examples at Porchester 



XII 1 NORMAN CASTLES 403 

In their simplest form the fortresses of the Norman 
coiKjuerors were merely so many moateil mounts.' The 
mount was in almost every case partially artifieial : either 
it was constructed entirely of the materials excavated 
in making the fosse, or a natural hillock was scarped 
and worked into the desired shape." The plan of the 
mount was usually circular, but frequently ovoid or ellip- 
tical, and occasionally almost rectangular. Its sides were 
made as steep as might be, and its summit was a level 
platform. On this platform stood the hretasche, a timl)er- 
built tower, the archetype of the later-day keep of stone ; 
and a})0ut it, following the edge of the platform, was 
carried a wall of earth with a wattled fence or a stouter 
stockade of timber. The only means of ingress and egress 
was a steep and narrow bridge of timl)er spanning the 
fosse, which was commonly of great width and depth ; 
and a second earthen rampart, likewise stockaded, ringed 
the fosse and completed the fortress.^ The fosse was 
more often dry than not, Ijut in some cases it must have 
contained a great depth of water. 

Clifford's Hill, Northants (Fig. 119), is amongst 

(where the sea filled the fosses), at Newark (a thirteenth century castle of 
which the moats were filled from the River Trent), and at Whittington Castle, 
Salop (where the stream which originally supplied the ditches is now too 
much shrunken to do so). There is a very large number of such riverine 
Norman castles, l)ut even of this type there are many more which can never 
have depended upon wet ditches at all. 

^ There are examples of earthworks in Normandy, soemingly of early 
date, which have no mount, but, so far as England is concerned, sucli cases 
are the exce[)tion, e.g. Hedingliam Castle, Essex, and Old B.-ising, Hants. 

- The entirely artificial mount is perhaps the commonest of all ; the 
entirely natux-al mount is certainly the rarest. A fine example of the latter 
kind is to be seen at Corfe Castle, Dorset ; another at Montacute, Somerset. 
Castle Neroche (Fig. l.'i) is a good example of the intermediate variety, 
where a natural hill has been improved into a motte by fossingand scarping. 
At Maryport, Cumberland, is another. 

•' In the liayoux Tapestry is a representation nf the fortress at Dinan, 
with motte, gate, bridge, ])alisa(les, and luftitsclu' crowning the whole. It 
figures similar fortresses at Rennes and Do! and Hayeux, and tlie process <if 
building yet another at Hastings. 

1» I) 2 



404 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



the finer examples of mottes of the simplest plan. The 
mound has a diameter at the base of 300 feet, a 
diameter at the summit of upwards of 80 feet, while that 
of the whole circle included by the fosse is as much as 
420 feet. On the other hand, Croft Castle, Winkleigh, 
Devon, is but 110 feet in diameter at the base and 20 feet 
in height, and Roborough Castle, Loxhore, Devon, with 
a base-diameter of 120 feet, is l)ut 15 feet high.^ In the 

smaller mounts the fosse is 
often scarcely traceable to- 
day, for not having been 
originally of any large pro- 
portions it has been quickly 
filled in by wastage, by 
ploughing, or by both agen- 
cies. Indeed, it must be 
remembered that cultiva- 
tion may have obliterated 
the last trace of both 
fosses and base-courts alike, 
so that what is to-day 
seemingly a simple mount 
may once have been a 
fully developed mount-and- 
bailey fortress. At Bride- 
stow, Devon (Fig. 120), the mount and fosse are perfect, 
measuring about 180 feet over all, and the vallum of 
one Ijase-court, planned on about the same diameter, is 
w^ell preserved. Hoi well Castle, near Parracombe, is very 
similar, save that the base -court is in proportion larger. 

1 Small mounds of this kind are very numerous in many counties ; indeed, 
many of them are so very small as to pass commonly for barrows. A mound 
in Mutton Wood, near Rochester, has an extreme height of 10 feet, a 
diameter at the summit of 16 feet, and a base-diameter about twice as large ; 
while the ditch is nowhere more than 2 feet deep, and in places much less. 
But the level dejiression on the top, with its uniforin breastwork some 
4 feet high, sufficiently bespeaks the real character of the work. 






.o>^ 



y-ee.!^ 



lOo 100 ioo 
119. — Clifford's Hill 



Fio. 



XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



405 



â–ºSimilar again is Durpley Castle, Sliebbear (Fig. 121), 
with the addition that the vallum covering the outer 
edge of the fosse is intact. In all these instances the 
general outline is, as commonly, circular, hut other forms 
occur. A very small example at Aslockton, Notts, locally 
known as Cranmer's Mount ^ (Fig- 122), has the plan of 
a narrow parallelogram divided into two courts, one of 
which is in efiect a perfect square. Near Wembworthy, 




''miiiv^' 



O 50 

Fig. 120. — Bridestow. 



100 



1^ miles from Chumleigh, Devon, are two examples of 
this type of work. The one has a narrow oblong plan, 
the fortress being so constructed (Fig. 123) as to be 
covered on one side by the natural fall of the ground to 
the river Taw, without need of further artificial defences. 
The other (Fig. 124), only 450 yards distant, shows 
the more common curvilinear plan, with a second and 
very exiguous base-court, so placed as to abut half 
upon the main base-court, half u])()n the mount. This 



' 8(>lely l>or;uise the villayo happens to have been the birthplace of the 
great Archltishojt. Tliis is not an original work, lint has been tanijiered with 
and converted into a moated homestead, .hist as many of the mottes 
developed into stone-built castles, others sank to be nianor-liouses, halls, &c. 



4o6 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAF. 



is the most usual disposition when tliere are two 
courts, and the phm is repeated in the far finer works of 






-'lie'' 

â– ^ r ^ i 












O 5o 100 

Fio. 121 —DuRi'LEY Castle. 



Mexljorough C^astle, Yorks (Fig. 125), where the second 
court is again of very small size. The fosses here are 




111'. I ' /./ / 




o s m /s so PS 



^ares 

Fio. 122. — Ckanmer'h Mount, Aslookton. 

^•ery tine, but at Builtli Castle (Fig. 126), another very 
similar fortress, they are so large as to appear out of all 



XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



407 



proportion to the Jireas enclosed. A dili'ereiit aiid less 
usual arrangement is seen at Ongar (Fig. 127), where 
the second court, now mostly obliterated, overlies the 






onnnnninnnnn}nn)niVV„'^^ 









Vrrtnnf\r<nnnnBnnj-i^*'<k/v-. -~^ ^ 



•^-- ,^<^* 






3t^ 



IfMiMW}! 



1 1 




FiCr. 123. — Wembworthy, No. I. 



1^ v'* \A" 






/h 









1^5 






100 f€et %^ 300 

Fk;. 124. — WEsriswoKTHY, No. 2. 

first, exactly as that in turn overlies the mount. The 
splendid example known as The Rings (Fig. 128) or 
Blackdown Camp ((350 feet), two miles north of Loddiswell, 



4o8 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP, 



near Kingsljridge, Devon, shows this arrangement in 
complete preservation. The outer court here embraces 
as much as 10 acres, and the slope of its containing 
vallum to the bottom of the outer fosse is in places fully 
30 feet. 

In the case of Nottingham Castle the same arrange- 




^wwmir/;;, 



..,.;;av'.>\ 



N> 



^•^.. 






.^ 









<^. 






^^^ 



NU'^'^ 






•Ml'' 



/oo 



zoo 



300 



Fio. 125.— Mexborough Castle. 



mcnt is to })e seen, with the addition of yet a third 
bailey to the north. At Clun the motte occupies an 
angle of the river, and the three l^aileys, lying side l)y 
side, cover tlie approaclies from tlic oast, south-east, and 
south. xVt Whittington Castle, Shropshire, the arrange- 
ment is the same. In Montgomery Castle there are as 



XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



409 



many as four t-uurts arranged in line from north to suuth, 
their peculiar disposition determined Ijy the form of the 
narrow ridge which they occupy. 

It will be noticed that in all the plans heretofore given, 
the mount is so placed that its fosse forms part of tlie 



ip Vatt 









\^ 






-^^i^ ground 



\ 

I 

.0 "^ 












''/A 



Vy_ -y-^^ 






^ <.N^^ ..vj^\<^' 






I I I 



.Jl 



100 



I I t 



'yiflrds 
Fig. 12(). — Uuilth Castle. 



outer ceinture of the defences. This was certain]}- the 
normal position, and arises naturally lioin tlic gradual 
development of the design. Whoic (\\('c[)tions occur 
they will probably be either the result of the adaptation 
of pre-existing earthworks, or constructions of a late 
period, marking the transition from the true mouiit-and- 



4IO 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



Ijailey fortress to a later scheme of fortification. Where 
a Norman castle is found at a town which was itself 



100 zoo 300 




Fic. 127.— Ongar Castle, 



already fortified, e.g. at London and Lincoln, it commonly 
occupies an analogous position in relation to the defences 















% 






yff^. 



0.D.65O. 



.O^v. 



^r^r.-^-^rTS^^ 






I 



^^rCv* 



Fid. 128. — TUK RiNdS, LODDISWELL. 



of the town, i.e. it is situated not within, but on the line 
of, those defences, so as to form an essential part of the 
entire enceinte of the town. 



XIII NORMAN CASTLES 411 

The fort (Fig. l'2[)) known as Cynibelinu's Mount,' in the 
grounds of Chequers Court, Bucks, is a fairly perfect 
specimen of its chiss. The mound, about 160 yards in 
circumference and 25 feet in lieight, with a slight fosse only, 
stands at an elevation of 500 feet on the extremity of a spur 
of the Chilterns which falls abruptly in front to the left 






_^^ c ''-oo oo'-'^ 3 C t 



- --,â–  O I 




-.3H 



lits 330 n^s duray 



id paces 40 fi"© 

Fi(i. 129. — Cvmi!klinp:'s Mount. 



(west). The slope to the right (east) is gentle, and in the 
rear the ground is almost level, rising presently very rapidly 
to the height of 75G feet (Beacon Hill). The main bailey 
lies in the rear of the mound, a small court of some 30 yards 

* So called on the Ordnance Map and l)y most of the people of the 
neighbourhood. There is, liowcver, an alternative name, Kimlile Castle, 
sometimes ap|)lied to it ; and others of the natives insist, that what is in the 
text called ('ymbeline's Mount is properly called Kimble Castle, and that 
the name of Cymljeline's Mount strictly bel«>n;j;s to a considerable tumulus, 
now planted with trees, which crowns Beacon liili. 



412 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

across either way, its peculiar shape and small size deter- 
mined ])y the lie of the ground. The vallum and fosse are 
])old to the right and rear. To the left no ditch was 
needed, and along the side abutting upon the fosse of the 
mound there is as usual no vallum. Attached to the right 
side is a second still more exiguous hailey of narrow plan, 
ditched and banked where it leans upon the main work 
and at either end, but showing upon its outer (eastern) 
side no trace of any defences. This side flanks a slight 
depression in the side of the hill, where obviously was 
once a spring, and if any defence existed here it may 
have been nothing more than a slight scarp. The soil of 
the main bailey is black, full of very small fragments of 
pottery of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, intermixed 
with oyster-shells. The mound is apparently entirely 
artificial, and its small summit only provides an area of 
some 15 yards across. Immediately outside the bailey, upon 
the surface of the level ground in the rear, are two shallow 
circular depressions, and a third of larger size lies a few 
yards further to the south. Upon the actual crest of 
Beacon Hill close to the flagstaff is yet another, and up 
to the flagstaff from the direction of Ellesborough runs a 
considerable ditch covered by a bank on the western side. 
Another ditch and bank, precisely similar, run up the 
steep slope of Combe Hill beyond the valley. 

For the association of the works with Cymbeline or 
Cunobelin there is of course no authority save tradition, 
but that the association is of considerable antiquity is 
proved by the fact that the adjacent villages of Great and 
Little Kimble appear in very early records as Chenebelle, 
Cunebell, &c. Tradition further declares that at or near 
this spot were killed two of Cunobclin's sons fighting 
against Aulus Plautius, 43 a.d. As they stand, however, the 
works have nothing British about them, and excavations 
made here in 1858 seem to have produced only negative 
results. But it is curious to find that there are the 



xiii NORMAN CASTLES 413 

reiiuiiu.s of ciiiothci' ni()iint-aii(l-l)ailcy fortress upon a much 
larger scale some 500 \ar(ls westward at a spot close 
heside the old l('kiiiel<l Way. Here a s[)ring, wliicli rises 
some 100 feet lower than that which once covered the 
north side of Cymbeline's Mount, crosses the old road ; and 
immediately upon its western bank rises a second and 
much larger mount, oblong in shape, measuring 50 x 40 
paces, and some 18 feet in height. The original fosse is 
still distinctly traceable, as well as the remains of an inner 
and an outer bailey.^ Unfortunately these works, lying 
upon good soil and close to the highway, have been sadly 
defaced by subsequent buildings and by cultivation. 
Within the same field lay the manor-house of Little 
Kimble, until its final demolition about 1830, so that 
upon one and the same spot are to be seen the vestigia of 
successive manorial residences from the time of the 
Normans to the last century — the mount- and-l)ailey 
fortress, the medieeval moat, and the foundations of the 
post-mediseval building. Possibly the original fortress 
of Cymbeline's Mount was replaced by another, whether 
because the lord recjuired more space, or because he 
desired a better water-supply, or for some other reason. 
Cases in which the remains of two fortresses of this type 
are found in close contiguity are not rare : three examples 
occur, for instance, in Devonshire : at Bridestow. at \\ emb- 
worthy, and at Buckerell Knap, Honiton ; and in tlie two 
former cases at any rate we have a smaller work side l)y 
side with a mucli larucr one. exactly as at Little Kimbh'.- 



' See the plan on p. 470. 

-' At Aldinghani in Fuiness is aimLlier example of a iiieilia'val iimat 
standinj^ side by side with a ui<)unt-and-l)ailey fortress, and as at Kimhle 
the moated site is very small, l)arely KM) feet stiuare, though the moat is as 
much as .^(5 40 feet across. The mount, it is suggested, " was the (•<(/<"/ <if 
the Manor of Aldinghaui, and for shelter the lords removed their wooden 
house to the s(iuare camp, which, according to tradition, is the site of 
Aldinghani Hall." Swainson Cowper in A nha ohxila, liii. For I*uckerell 
Knap, see p. 80, note. 



414 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



The new comers were not above utilizing the work of 
their j)re(leces,sors where this was practical )le. With 
â–ºSaxon works there was fre(|uently nothing to be clone ; 
they were too large in area, and if the Normans built 
castles at such spots at all, it was either an independent 






..C^ C^c' 






C CAurcA , 




Fig. 130. — Porchesteh Castle. 



fortress upon the line of the Saxon walls — space being- 
obtained by demolishing the houses— or it was immedi- 
ately outside. Of the adaptation of Roman earthworks/ 

' A 111 )unt-iind-l)ailey fortress at Little Wymondley, near Hitchin, 
stands in a rectangular enclttsiirc. witliin which have been found Roman 
foundations 



Xlll 



NORMAN CASTLES 



415 



with more or less modiiieation of the oi'iginal plan, there 
are many examples, cj). Porchester (Fig. 130), Pevensey, 
Chichester, Leicester, Liii((»lii, and BroUL^li. A nioatc*! 
mound at Beaumont, Cunil)erland, is said to have ))een 
constructed out of one of the mile-castles of the Roman 
Wall. At York, on the other hand, although the Roman 







Fio. 1.31. — Dkfen(;es of York. 



defences were formidable, the Norman fortresses —there 
were two on opposite sides of the river, now represented 
by the mounds of The Bail and Clifford's Tower — were 
l)uilt some distance away to the south (Fig. l-'U). In 
some cases a Bi'itisli woik lias been ada))ted, as at ( Md 
Sarum (Fig. 27), probably at the Herefordshire Beacon 
(Fig. 28), and elsewhere. Hembury Castle, Buckfast- 
leigh (Fig. 132), a fine kidney-shaped camp 540 feet 
above sea-level, suii-oiimlcd l»y two valla with ,111 inter- 



4i6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

veiiino- fos.se, is to all seemino- a British fortress of a 
faiiiiliui' plan, and within it have been found bronze 
implements, sling-stones, &c., l)ut at the western edge 
of the area, abutting in characteristic Norman fashion upon 
the enceinte, is a ditched and ramparted mound of the 
usual pattern, measuring upwards of 220 feet in diameter 
over all. The local name for the whole work is the Danes' 






3 






^^. 



0. D. 539. .^^^^ 



^-^^ , ^<^^ 



Fig. 132. — Hembury Castle, BucKFASTLEifiH. 



Camp. There appears to be no reason to suppose that 
any such appropriation has occurred at Totternhoe,^ in 

^ Fortresses of this class gave much trouble to the antiquaries before their 
recognition as Norman works ; and Totternhoe, with its circular mound and 
its rectangular court, was sometimes styled a British camp, sometimes an 
example of a x'ectangular Roman camp superadded to an earlier British mound. 
The peculiar shape of the court here is simply due to the natural contours of 
the position, exactly as at Cymbeline's Mount. At any rate it is unlikely 
that the site (524 feet) was ev'er occupied by any permanent military jiost of 
tlie Romans, and the existing remains are too formidable to represent 
tennjorary works of that people. To the north and north-west of the mount 
are certain pits and other inequalities of the ground which have been alleged, 
apparently upon no adequate evidence, to be hut-circles. A precisely similar 
supposition was made, with as little reason, in regard to Castle Neroche. 
Attached to the mound at Bletsoe, Bedfordshire, are the remains of a per- 
fectly rectangular court of approved Roman plan, but tliere is no reason at 
all to tliiuk that it is really Roman work. 



XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



417 




"^^ 



100 200. 



J'ett. 



3po 



Flii. 13;i. — TOTTERNHOE. 



Beclfordsliire (Fig. 133). BerkLampstOc"id Castle is aiiotlier 
(loul)tful example, as also the eiirious camp on EJburtoii 
Hill, Sussex (Fig. 21G), dcsciihed in another chapter. 

E E 



4i8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Yet another case is that of Hemlnuy Fort, near Honiton 
(Fig. 12). But the case of the so-called Csesar's Camp, 
Folkestone (Fig. 134), shows how unwise it is to hazard 
guesses about the age of suc^h earthworks. By the vulgar 
dubbed Roman, by the others held to be British, this was 
conclusively proved 1)y Pitt-Rivers' excavations to be no 
older than Norman times, and not necessarily very early 
Norman times. 



\ u.... .^-- ..-.- ...u 4' ^- 

,.^vv^:':V#aii]iiiiiiiiiii/(///;;i;/,/;^^ ^,^- 

y':^^-'. \%\ ' ^ ^-^ 



— ^. • 



.Vr'->:///iii)iii!lii',!'ii'iii'''''>*'^' 



Fig. 134. — Caesar's Camp, Fcjlkestone. 

Here and there occur exceptional earthworks in which 
not the mount only, but an entire base-court, is artificially 
raised considerably above the natural level. There is a 
curious example in Swerford Castle, near Chipping Norton, 
where the single circular court now remaining, surrounded 
by a vallum 3 feet or more in height, is itself many feet 
above the original ground-level ; while the motte is repre- 
sented perhaps by an enlargement of the vallum, which 
rises at the eastern side of the single entrance some 8 feet 
above the floor of the court, without any trace of a fosse. 



XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



419 



Its summit measures some 30 feet in diameter. The 
earthwork called Castle Toll (Fig. 135), near Newenden, 
Kent, seems to be another example. A glance at the 
plan will show that it is certainly, in its present shape, 
the remnant of a mount-and-bailey fortress, hut tlie wjiole 



260.IX 






'%s\ 









O So 100 15a 200 250 



.-::^^^^ 



,or;- 



^''^:'".mv::^^ 



fiiver Tiothet' 



\ 

Fig. 135. — Caktlk Tull, Newkkden. 



of the main-court is artificially raised, and the motte is 
non-existent, unless a slioht exaooeration of the containino- 
vallum at the north-eastern corner be taken to represent 
it. This, again, had no fosse.^ With Castle Toll should 

^ Castle Toll has constantly been cited as an example of Danish work, but 
on no sufficient grounds, though the Danes are said to have destroyed a castle 
which stood at Newenden in SiL'. In IlMO was settled a suit concerning 

E E 2 



420 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

be compared the works, to be described later, at Topcliffe 
(Fig. 151), where the mount is of much the same character 
and position, and those at Gannock's Castle (Fig. 113). 

For the size of these Norman fortresses there is no rule 
at all. The mounts vary in circuit from less than 300 
feet to more than 1,000 feet, in diameter from 80 feet or 
less to more than as many yards. Their height may be 
as little as 12 feet, or as much as 100 feet. That at 
Mount Bures, Essex, is 80 feet in height. The base- 
courts vary as widely. The main court at Cymljeline's 
Mount is only 115 paces in circuit, the other about 130 
paces ; w^hile the inner court at Loddiswell covers an acre 
and the outer bailey as much as 10 acres.^ The ditches 
are not more uniform in depth and width, and the valla 
are indifferently within the fosses, outside them, or on 
both sides alike. The mount is usually very steep, even 
when entirely built up of made earth. The great mount 
at Thetford, Norfolk, 100 feet in height and 1000 feet 
about, is so steep as to be almost inaccessil)le. At Laxton 
Castle, 2|- miles from Tuxford, Notts, the finest work of 
its class in that county, the mount — 90 yards in diameter 
at the base — rises with a scarp of 70 feet to form a plat- 
form some 45 yards across, in the centre of which is a 
second mound, about 15 yards in diameter at the base 
and 8 feet in heioht. In most instances the vallum which 
originally surrounded the summit has entirely disappeared, 
but where it is still preserved it varies from the slightest 
breastwork to an enormous wall. In Croft Castle, Devon- 
certain manors in Sussex and Kent, one of them at "Newendun." Is Castle 
Toll perhaps the representative of that manor ? On the banks of the 
Roding, at Barking, there used to be another earthwork rudely square in 
plan, with a considerable mound at one corner. This, like Castle Toll, used 
to be attributed to the Danes. But Castle Toll has also been classed as a 
British oppidum. 

1 The average size of the royal castles of William I. is said to have been 
about 4 acres. In the Irish Pale many of the mottes are accompanied by 
curiously small baileys, an indication of the small numbers of the men-at- 
arms following the lord in this conquest. 



XIII NORMAN CASTLES 421 

shire, it is flat on the top, 6 feet in width, rising 12 feet 
above the level of the area within ; whereas in Roborough 
Castle, a work of much the same size and of apparently 
the same date, it is l)ut 7 feet high. 

Situated in the great majority of cases on levels 
actually or relatively low, oftenest in the midst of a town 
or village, and rarely beyond the limits of the arable land, 
and ])uilt up in many instances of gravel or of good rich 
soil with no admixture of stone, these works have too often 
sutlered more serious damaoe than works of far 2'reater 
age. Many of them have been levelled and their materials 
spread over the fields, just as have so many barrows of 
older date. Often there remains nothing but a sadly 
diminished mound, the plough having obliterated not only 
the walls and fosses of the courts, but even the great main 
ditch of the mount. Of their once formidal)le wooden 
defences no trace remains at all, and later generations, 
using the mount commonly as a playground or a view- 
point,^ have trodden an easy pathway up to its summit. 
The mound at Barnstaple is now ascended by a spiral 
pathway too regular to be of other than purposed origin, 
but certainly no part of the original design.^ The timber 
bridge which once formed the only means of access was 
naturally soon destroyed. G. T. Clarke cites from the 
Acta Sanctorum ^ an amusing illustration of its perishable 

' To this refers the word " toot," seen in such names as Toothill, Tuthill, 
Tiitbiuy, Beltout, Tothill Fiehls, in the Welsh Twt, and perliaps in Tottern- 
hoe, the original being related to the Anglo-Saxon ttitt((, "a spy." At 
Egnianton, Notts, only a mile from Laxton Castle, is another motte, with 
slight traces of attached baileys. This used to be the scene of village games 
every Shrove-tide. Its local name of Gaddick's Hill recalls that of Tlie 
(Jannicks ((iannocks Castle), Tempsford. 

^ In Southover, Lewes, is a similar mound some 40 feet in height, with a 
spiral ascent, standing within the i)recincts of the once great Priory of 
St. John. It is said (without any authority) to have been formed out of the 
soil removed in making the tish-pond of the Priory, and to have been 
utilised as a Calvary. Wiiat was once the tish-i)ond is now known as the 
Drijjping Pan, a level sunken area large enough to serve as the county 
cricket ground. ^ Medieral Milltunj ArchitedHn; chap, ii., Appendix. 



422 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

character : the bridge of the motte at JNFerchen in Dix- 
mude gave way beneath the weight of one Bishop John 
{ohiit 1130) and precipitated him and his followers to the 
bottom of the ditch, five and thirty feet below, " with great 
force and noise." That the wooden defences w^ere easily des- 
tructible is shown also by the constant allusion, in records 
of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, to the purposed 
or accidental burning of "castles" ; and only in this way 
is to be explained the assertion that King Henry II. 
destroyed hundreds^ of unlicensed or "adulterine" castles 
durinof his reio;n. In a timber-built castle fire w^ould in 
a few hours achieve the work wdiich, in the case of a stone- 
built fortress, would have entailed months of labour. But 
as they were easily destroyed, so they were easily con- 
structed. The enormous growth of unlicensed castles in 
King Stephen's time is only to be understood on the 
supposition that most of them boasted only wooden 
defences. 

Some of these mounts have been altered in far later 
days for military purposes. A number of them were 
reconstructed and remodelled in the time of the Civil 
Wars according to the altered military practice of the 
time, e.g. Cambridge Castle. Another at York, " The Bail," 
was utilized at the same date as a gun-platform, just as 
was the Derry Mount outside Nottingham Castle, originally 
a tumulus, and in no sense a Norman construction.^ There 
are, however, known instances in which ancient barrows 
have been utilized by Norman builders and converted into 
mottes. 

Often the lapse of time has reduced what was an original 
motte to the appearance of nothing more formidable than 
a barrow, and the Ordnance Map not seldom endorses 
popular misapprehension by marking such mounds as 

* One version says 375, another 1115 ; but even the smaller number would 
be past belief if the castles had all been built of stone. 

• It was destroyed in 1781. 



XIII NORMAN CASTLES 423 

tumuli. The Beacon at Cubliiigton is an instance ; another, 
in all probability, is Ailcy ^ Hill, Ripon (Fig. 136). This is 
a considerable moiiiid, GO feet in height, just east of the 
Minster. Human bones having from time to time been 
found in or on it, there has grown up a cherished belief 
that the entire hill is "made of bones," the burial-mound 
of the victims of some mighty battle, " the memorial of 
some terrible carnage" ; and the slight similarity of name 
has oiven rise to the oroundless assertion that it covers 
the bones of King ^^Ua of North umbria and those who 
died with him in the ninth century. But there is no 
reasonable doul)t that this, too, was a Norman ^ castle- 
mound, albeit every trace of fosse and base-courts has 
disappeared ; and the human bones within it were 
probably brought there in one or other of the many 
reparations of the Minster and the periodical clearances 
of the charnel-house.^ There are distinct traces of later 



1 "Ailcy" on the Ordnance Map. In actual speech this is pronovuiced 
" Ailsa," with conscious or unconscious reminiscence of the Scottish name. In 
the eighteenth century it was "Hillshaw," and in Leland's time " Ilshow " ; 
while earlier still it is said to have been " Elveshou," rjr'wsi Fairies' Hill. 
Leland had a glimmering of the truth when he wrote that "by all likeli- 
hood " there had here been " sum grete forteres (of the Britons)." 

'^ The manor was given at the Conquest to the Norman Thomas, ex-Canon 
of Bayeux, successor to the Saxon ^-Eldred in the Arclibish(i])ric of York. It 
was subse([uently a favourite residence of various arclibishops until the Palace 
at Bishopthorpe, York, was built. There are some small remains of tlieir 
residence at Ripon, at the north-west corner of the Minster, and l)ehind it 
stood in Leland's time a second mount, "lyke the kepe of a castel." It was 
known as Allhallows Hill, but its site is now a gravel-pit. With these two 
mounts so placed that " one standith directly set agayn the conspect of the 
other," compare the two in Lewes Castle (p. 4.'}5), and tliosr at York 
(Clifford's Tower and The Bail). 

■' Records of such removals of bones are connnon in the Fabric Rolls, «■.</. 
snh. ann. 1520, 1521, 1522, 1523, 1525 (when one of tlie aisles was in 
building) ; and in 1.505 the large sum of 24 shillings and <)i pence was paid out 
for such " carriage of bones." Apparently they were dumped anywhere, for 
not only does the whole west end of the Minster rest upon a large bone- 
ground, but bones in quantities underlie all the soil about, «'.</. St. Agnes' 
Gate. Where this street is opened, the sub-soil is literally ma of Ixmes, 
and it is quite possible that tlie street lies in ])art along tlie line of the original 
fosse of Ailcy Hill, which was deliberately tilled up by the helji of bones 



424 



EARTHWORK OK ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



modificutioiLS of the mound, Mppareiitly for military 
purposes, in the course of which were formed the circular 




nil, ..' '..;^/^!.i>v 



..JL^ 



j^eet. 



^S->- 



Fk;. 136. — Ailcy Hill. 

depression in its north-eastern shoulder, and the bastion- 
like platform to the south-east. 

from the charnel-house. There is record of the finding of many early Saxon 
coins near (not oji) the mound, and a quantity of harness within it. But 
that the bones found on it are no relic of any bodies buried under it is proved 
by their being all on the surface. 



XIII NORMAN CASTLES 



425 



Col. \V. L. Morgan has explored a moiint-and-bailey 
fortress known as Old Castle Camp, Bi.shopston, five miles 
south-west of Swansea/ The mound is small, rising but 
fifteen feet or so above the original bottom of the fosse. The 
fosse, which had a V-seetion, surrounded three-quai-ters of 
the mound, the other side l)eing sutiiciently protected by 
the steep fall of the ground to the Bishojiston stream. 
Outside the fosse lies a broad vallum, with a relief of some 
6 feet only, but a breadth of 25 yards over all. Outside 
this was another shallow fosse 22 feet wide, and there are 
some small remains of a base court attached to one side. 
The platform is provided with a low parapet, and a trench 
dug across it revealed the socket-holes of a series of posts 
which had evidently encircled the whole of the summit. 
The posts which had filled these holes had of course 
perished, but it was possible to make out their 
measurements. The a\'erage was about three inches square 
only, and they had been driven into the soil no deeper than 
from 2 feet 3 inches to 2 feet 8 inches. They were 
altogether of too slight a character to have constituted in 
themselves any defence, and Col. Morgan was led to 
believe that the real ceiiiture of the platform had been 
a mud wall, to the interior face of which these posts 
had served as a re\'etment only. He concluded also 
that this fortress represents the last phase in the de- 
velopment of its type of earthwork — a phase in which 
the chief weapon of ofi'ence was the bow," and the 
main defence • not the mount and its hretascJie, but 
the disproportionately broad vallum surrounding it, 



' Another at Penwortham, Lancashire, was explored as long ago as 1856, 
when there wore found the foundations and cellarage of the original brcta.'iche, 
which had l)een surrounded by an outer ring-wall of wattles. The broken 
stuuijjs of the main tiuil)ers of the bn'tm^che were f(jund in situ. 

- The bow as a military weapon, remarks Colonel Morgan, was intro- 
duced into England by the Danes. The Normans were experts in its use, 
but the Englisli presently made it the national weapon. 



426 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

every part of whicli was within easy bow-shot from the 
phitform.^ 

As a rule the mount-fortresses, like their lineal 
descendants the stone castles, stand at wide intervals 
apart. Cases to the contrary occur, however, and these 
may be explained perhaps partly upon the analogy of the 
occurrence of more than one manor-house in a single parish 
or village, more frequently as works of different dates. 
Where there is found a larger work of the kind side by 
side with a smaller, it is reasonable to suppose the latter 
to be the older and original dwelling of the lord, 
subsequently transferred to a more advantageous site or 
re-built upon a more commodious scale, whether by his 
successors of the same blood or by some later grantee of 
the lands adjoining. Thus side by side with the small 
mount at Bridestow are the remains of another of far 
greater extent, and the two mounts at Wembworthy, 
though less markedly different in extent, are an analogous 
case. The mount at Little Kiml)le apparently bears the 
same relation to Cymbeline's Mount." Those at Bushy 
Knap and Buckerell Knap,^ near Honiton, are possibly 
contemporary works analogous to duplicate manor-houses. 

In a preliminary list of moated mounds published in 
1889, CI. T. Clark ' enumerated 283, of which all but 18 are 
English. That list, though necessarily very far from 
complete, gives a very fair idea of their general distribution. 
In the three northern counties of Nortliumberland, 
Cumberland, and Westmorland they are scarce, 
exceptional in Dorsetshire, and in certain other of the 

' The excavations pi'oduced little in the way of " finds " excepting 
pottery. This was very fragmentary, like that to be picked up at Cymbeline's 
Mount, and like that also was much of it so rude in type as to resemble the 
fragments of Celtic burial-urns. Yet there can be no doubt that it was con- 
temporary with the fortress, and that the fortress itself is of quite a late 
date amongst its kind. See Arch. Cnmbrensis, vol. xvi., 5th Series (1899). 

'^ See p. 41.S. ^ See p. 86, note. 

* "A Contril>ution to a Complete list of Moated Mounds," in Airhaolngi- 
cal Journal, xlvi., p. 139. 



XIII NORMAN CASTLES 427 

midland and southern counties are sparsely represented ; 
but elsewhere they are decidedly numerous, in Devonshire, 
along the Welsh Marches, and in the Eastern Midlands 
particularly so. In Scotland Dr. Christison has counted 
69 pro])al)le and 72 possiJDle mounts, and remarks that 
"in a general way they may be said to be thickly 
clustered in the Stewartry of Kirkcudl)right, and to thin 
out rapidly to the east and north, and more slowly to the 
west." ^ North of the Forth they are very few, and in 
the Highlands there occur but two possible examples, both 
very doul)tful. In Ireland they are common all over the 
English Pale, and especially large and frecjuent in East 
and West Meath. 

The use of masonry in England, which seems so 
completely and inexplicably to have gone out with the 
Romans, was very slowly revived, and mainly in the 
interests of the Church. The earliest known examples of 
Anglo-Saxon mason-work are exclusively ecclesiastical — 
churches and monastic buildings — planned only upon a very 
small scale and executed with very little skill." It is only 
quite late in Saxon times that we hear of the revival of 
masonry in fortification, e.g. in repairing the older Roman 
walls of towns such as Colchester, C^aml>ridge, Oxford, 
Chester, Exeter and London ; and to judge from the 
available evidence the work was still rude and unskilful. 

A still later development was the Ituilding of burhs, 
i.e. the fortification of towns with new walls of masonry 
after the pattern furnished by Roman works still 
surviving. For the building of actual castles, that is, 
fortified dwellings of masonry, in genuinely Saxon times, 



1 Earlii Fvftificalions of Scotland, p. 17. 

2 Amongst very early examples is the original crypt of St. Wilfriil, under 
Ripon Catliedral. This is said to have been the work of masons brouglit 
over from Rome, and it is a fact that the mortar or cement used in the 
flooring is mixed with poundeil brick in the Roman manner. Tliere are 
discernible on the walls traces of a sort of hard-polished plastering, 
which is apparently identical with that to be seen in the ruins of Pompeii. 



428 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

there is little or no evidence. Such an application of 
the mason's craft was reserved for the Normans, and 
wherever there is to be found masonry of pre-Norman date 
in Britain other than ecclesiastical, it is almost exclusively 
Roman work, emiiodied perhaps in some later building, 
ccf. in the Castles of Pevensey and Porchester, and in the 
walls of London, Lincoln, Leicester, Bath, and York, 
Even of Norman masonry, other than ecclesiastical, there 
survive very few examples attributable to an earlier 
date than 1087,^ and of our scores of stone castles the 
vast majority date only from the reign of Henry L or 
hiter. The construction of a castle of stone was a labour 
of time, leisure, and means, as well as of skill. It is 
to be doubted whether there were available many 
craftsmen competent to undertake such work in the 
first rush of the Conquest ; it is certain that all the 
other essentials were lacking. So soon as the stern 
work of conquering the island was accomplished — and 
it was no easy task when all is said — William set 
himself to rivet his fetters upon the land by means of 
castles of stone. But until that time he was content to 
erect castles of earth and timber only, of the approved 
mount-and-bailey type ; and as did the King, so did his 
lesser nobles, each according to his means and the number 
of his retainers. The first castles were mostly small, but 
their plan was such as allowed any reasonable amount of 
expansion by adding further baileys. But it is c[uite a 
mistake to suppose that every moated mound grew up to 
be a stone-castle. Scores of them never saw any masonry 
at all. Lack of means, the gradual disappearance of the 
need for such fortresses, and the jealousy with which the 
Crown restricted the right to build them, combined to leave 
many of the original mounds as they were first thrown up. 

* To this date belong, it is believed, the oldest portions of Colchester 
Castle and of the Tower of London. Parts of Richmond Castle, Yorks — 
chiefly of herring-bone masonry — may be as early as 1068. 



XIII NORMAN CASTLES 429 

Tliere was a furtlier ditiiculty. The weiglit of stone- 
built towers, or other great masses of niasoniy, is too 
great to be carried on made earth, and as the mounds 
were ahnost always artificial, they would not at first 
carry towers of masonry. The soil required to settle, and 
this was a matter of some years, so that wherever the 
builder had a clear field to work upon, he preferably 
dispensed with the mound altogether, and in place of the 
wooden bretasche upon its heap of earth, he built a 
massive and lofty keep of stone upon the natural surface, 
adding thereto stone-walled courts or baileys analogous to 
those hitherto wrought of earth. If he was called upon 
to fortify with masonry some mount-and-1)ailey castle 
already existing, he substituted for the wooden tower a 
similar tower of masonry, commonly a four-square, 
or at any rate rectangular, block complete with its 
several floors and roof, more rarely circular, and 
only in exceptional cases a mere shell-keep open to the 
sky. A structure of this kind retained all the 
advantages of position, with the additional virtue 
that it was proof against fire. Of more than forty 
castles erected by William I. and Rufus the greater 
number have no mounds at all, and they show, moreover, 
a decided preference for a rectangular plan, wherever the 
position permitted it. Otherwise the outer walls took 
whatever course the site required — triangular in many 
cases, e.g. Hastings and Carlisle, or even octagonal, 
e.g. Oxford. But the older type of castle, of earth and 
timber only, continued to be built, or rebuilt, until the 
end of the thirteenth century and even later.^ Many of 
them, when at last by royal license coinerted into castles 
of stone, retained still their original exiguous dimensions. 

' Such a castle, on the bank of the Loughor at Lhindih), Talybont, is 

known to have been "destroyed" in 1215, and again fortified as late as 

1353 ; i.e. its xcouden defences wore first dismantled and again restored in 
those years. 



433 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



How very little masonry was needed to turn the mound 
into a formidable castle is illustrated by the example of 
Richard's Castle (Fig. 137), a border-fortress of Hereford- 
shire. Situated in a position of very great natural strength, 



i I < ' / 



,.;;v;""'/. 










N 



^/,0^"^-^^^ 






// 



//M\^^' 



/OO 

I 



OiOO 



300 

1 



yeet 

Fig. 137. — Richard's Castle, Herefordshire. 



and protected on three sides by the slope of the hill-sides 
or by deep water-courses, the castle itself is simply a mound 
of 60 feet in height, its summit 30 feet in diameter, and 
its sides, now heavily wooded, extremely steep. Around 
its base runs the usual fosse, very broad and deep, and to 



XIII NORMAN CASTLr:S 431 

the east lies a small base-court protected l)y tlie iioriiial 
agger and fosse. Upon the summit of the mound once 
stood a stone keep, and on eitlier side a curtain-wall ran 
(hjwn the slope and across the fosse to the outer agger. 
Along the agger the wall was continued round so as 
to include the base-court. No plan could well 1)e simpler, 
yet it was a castle of very great strength, especially as its 
keep, 300 feet above the levels below, commanded a vast 
expanse of country. The place is further interesting 
because of its history ; its eponym was Richard Fitz8crob, 
a Xorman member of the Court of Edward the Confessor. 
There must therefore have been a fortress of some sort on 
the spot before the (Jonquest, but the masonry can scarcely 
date from that period. Small as it is, it can never have 
been a residential castle so much as a frontier-post ; and 
the constant unrest of the Welsh Border for many a year 
after the Norman Concpiest prevented the building of any 
l)ut strictly military works along the March. Otiier 
mounts or mount-and-bailey forts of the Border are to 
be seen at Clun, Ewias Harold, and Kilpeek, and beyond 
the Border are many others scattered altout the Welsh 
valleys, amongst the best known being that at Bala 
(Tomen y Bala). 

The fortress known as John o' Gaunt's Castle (Fig. 138), 
near Fewston, in Knaresborough Forest, is another example 
of the addition of masonry to a moated mound of the 
simplest type. It is very small, barely fifty yards acros.s, 
and the inner stronghold measures only about twelve 
paces each way. The Ijuilding can never have been nuich 
more than a pele-tower, but it must have been formidable 
of its kind. The surrounding fosse is 30 feet wide, and 
the outer rampart, strongly developed on east and west, 
rises 1 5 feet above the floor of the fosse. 

Hopton Castle, near Clun, Shropshire, is a similar 
diminutive stronghold, a shell-keep only, with walls 
10 feet thick, standing upon a depressed mound within 



432 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

a circular fosse. Tlic keo]) measures only 50 feet by 
48 feet externally, and beyond the fosse are traces of 
one or two baileys, with no vestige of masonry. 

Plans of one or two other early castles are here driven. 
In the case of Bramber, Sussex (Fig. 139), a natural hill 
has been scarped and trenched to form an ample 1)ailey 



\\ 



\ 
\ 



WW 

A' 






,^*i^. â– v|;;:^ " 









'>%/7iiilllillii€ ^-^'iiilluW^.^ 



v-^^ 



15 2.0 



Fig. 138. — John o' Gaunt'.s Castle, Harrogate. 

560 feet by 280 feet, within which has been raised an 
artificial mound, 70 feet in diameter and 40 feet in 
height, without any encircling fosse. Here must have 
risen the shell-keep, but of this, as of other masonry, 
no fragment now remains. The place was already a 
" castle " in Domesday, then in the tenure of the great 



XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



433 



house of de Braose, but in the days of Edward tlie 
Confessor its owner was the English Earl Guerd, so that 
the earthworks may in part l)e of pre-Conquest date. 
The position was one of immense strength, the scarp of 
the hill having a fall at an angle of 45° for over 180 feet, 
to a ditch 20 feet in width on the floor, with a counter- 
scarp of from 20 feet to 40 feet. What Bramber Castle 



,^^^;\^^^M:';^vv,';::^^^ 







Fic. 139. — BuAiMUEK Castle. 

may have been like is suggested by the much smaller 
border-castle of Skenfrith, JMonniouthshire (Fig. 140), 
where the circular keep occupied much the same position, 
but the dry ditch with its immense retaining vallum is 
replaced by a wide wet moat, originally fed directly 
from the river Monnow. 

Arundel Castle (Fig. 141) occupied a narrow, oblong 
platform, some 900 feet by 300 feet, cut ofl' from the 

F F 



434 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



adjacent high ground by a broad and deep fosse. The 
area is broken into two wards by a lofty conical mound 
of 230 feet diameter at the base, deeply fossed, and 




'\rards 



Fm. 140. Skenfrith Castle. 



having; a level summit 90 feet across. The mound is 
for the most part artificial, and its fosse, like the greater 
one surrounding the platform to the north and west, 



O 100 200 3oo 



w." N, 






(^ 



Fit!. 141. — Arundel Castle. 

was dry. It has been supposed that the platform repre- 
sents the area of a peninsular camp of British date. The 
place was certainly a royal manor in the days of Alfred, 



XIII NORMAN CASTLES 435 

and is mentioned in Domesday as being already a castrum 
in the Confessor's time. 

Lewes Castle is remarkable for the presence of two 
fully developed mounts/ placed east and west at a 
distance of about 120 yards, though there is no means of 
accounting for the fact. Little or nothing is known of 
any lord of Lewes in Saxon times, although the place 
was important enough in Aethelstan's day to possess 
the unusual privilege of two mints. The Conqueror 
gave it to AVilliam de Warenne, together with the hand 
of his daughter Gundrada. The Fabian Clwonicle 
records that in the twenty-first year of King Alfred 
the Danes visited the tow^n, and built "a tower or 
castel " near the river, wliich work was very promptly 
" bette doun to the grounde." This cannot have had 
any connexion with the castle mounts, and if it be not 
identical with the so-called Calvary-mount in Southover 
already mentioned, it must have been so well " bette 
doun " as to have entirely vanished. A fortress of 
still earlier date is said to have existed on the spot 
now occupied by the church and churchyard of St. John 
sub Castro, outside the castle's precincts to the north. 
But so far as can be ascertained, the castle and its earth- 
works were the work of Norman builders only, and the 
oddity of the double mount remains unexplained. 

Li all of these cases the position selected was one 



' At Lincoln ulso there are two mounts, but one is only half as large as 
the other, and neither approaches the dimensions of the mounts at Lewes. 
At the castle of Vieux Conches, in Normandy, there are likewise two. This, 
a nearly circular enclosure, with no remaining traces of masonry, is known 
to have been built in the eleventh century and abandoned as early as 1040. 
Lincoln Castle occupies a corner of the older Roman station. The case of 
York, with its two mounts of Clifford's Tower and The Bail, is no parallel, for 
those represent independent fortresses on opposite sides of the river. At 
Ripon again there were two mounts, of which one (Ailcy Hill, above, p. 42.3) 
still remains, but the t)ther has been wholly removed. It may be doubted 
whether tlie latter was not a natural formation, such as occurs frecjuently in 
the gravelly soil of the district. 

F F 2 



436 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

of very great natural strength, and the prominent feature 
of the earthworks is the mound, which is always artificial. 
There are other instances illustrating the way in which 
the traditional mound of the earlier type of fortress 
gradually shrank in size and importance, until in some 
cases it appears to have become little more than a 
pretence. Such a case is Eaton Socon (Fig. 142), Bed- 
fordshire, wliich is otherwise a formidable specimen of 









X^ 



,,AV,\\\V\«'lII'!/ll!'ifni(M!''i\>-|i 



â– ;- .S^ 






nV 






O .100 200 300^'''^'fnfin[lV 
I 1 1 1 I I 1 \^\ - 

Fi«;. 142. — Eaton Socon. 

earthwork, traditionally constructed l)y the Beauchamps, 
and showing a characteristic arrangement of the baileys. 
An example of a very early castle which shows no trace 
of any mound is at Whitchurch, Bucks (Fig. 143), the 
work of Hugh de Bolliec,^ from which the last stone 

1 Hugh de Bolbec, a descendant of the Coinjueror's great-grandmother, 
held the manor under Walter Giftard, temp. D<nnesday. His descendant, 
another Hugh, is the reputed builder of the stone castle, circa 1164 
(Lipscombe's Hist. Bucks.) 



XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



437 



has Jong since vanished. The peculiar terracing of the 
natural soil upon which it stood finds analogies in Bramber 
(part natural, part artificial) and Laxton, Notts (wholly 
artificial). 

Carlisle again, possibly a Norman adaptation of a British 
promontory fortress, has no trace of any mound. Neither 




Well. 



Fn;. 14.S. — WHiTcmHcii, Hicks. 



has Helmsley Castle, a fortress whose rectangular plan 
and large scale have led to the ))elief that it may be an 
adaptation of a Eoman site. No sucli inference is neces- 
sary : William the Concjuei-oi-, as has been said, set a 
fashion for square and rectangular castles. Helmsley 
appears to belong to the twelfth century. 



438 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

The Norman Kings came very early to restrict with 
jealousy the multiplication of castles, realizing that each 
new fortress was a new centre of possible rebellion. In 
the disturbed days of King Stephen the barons took to 
building castles without license, and the country was 
covered with such "adulterine" fortresses, the destruction 
of which kept Henry II. busily employed during a long 
reio'n. As the Crown ao;ain o;rew strono-er and the Baron- 
age grew weaker, the license was once more rigorously 
restricted, and the greater and lesser lords, gradually 
ceasing to live exclusively for violence and j)i'ivate war, 
came to pay less attention to military requirements, more 
to their personal comfort. The fashion of building 
fortresses died out, and there came in castles of the fully 
developed type, spacious and many storied buildings 
sufficiently roomy to accommodate the lord's household with 
all that was needful for the comfort and security of his 
person and the good of his soul. 

The central part was the keep, surrounded by fosse and 
curtain wall. The keep itself was commonly of rectan- 
gular plan enclosing a courtyard, and as the lines of the 
outer enceinte corresponded more or less exactly to those 
of the inner works, the whole was in a loose sense " con- 
centric." In the most fully developed examples there are 
two enceintes, and the concentric arrangement is then 
very noticeable. As castles of this type were first erected 
in large numbers by Edward L, the terms "Edwardian" 
and "concentric" are interchangeable. There are typical 
examples at Beaumaris (Fig. 144) and Harlech (Fig. 145) ; 
others at Caernarvon and Caerphilly. A similar plan 
resulted at Middleham, Yorks, from the building by the 
Nevilles of a second square fortress about the original 
Norman Castle of Fitz-Ranulf ; and much the same plan 
was that of Kilwardby Castle, the work of Sir Brian Fitz- 
Allan, temp. Edward I. Where the outer enceinte was 
dispensed with, for reasons of economy or otherwise, the 



XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



439 



inner building remained merely as a more or less rectan- 
gular block, sufficiently defended by a wide and deep 




Fk;. 144. Beaimaius Castlk. 




yeet 
Fk;. 145.- Hahi.kch Casii.k. 



moat. Ill the bii'ger examples the central space fcmained 
an open court, as at Bodiam, Sussex, where the moat 



440 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



reached tlie extraordinary width of 60 yards.^ Siiape 
Castle is another instance. In less ambitious buildings 
the central court might disappear, and the result was a 
simple house with nothing of the castle al)Out it save its 
solid fabric, and in many cases the towers at the four 
corners. Even these were retained more for convenience 
than for defence, the stairways to the upper floor or floors 
being set in one or other of the towers. There is a 




Fiii. 14<j.— NuNNEY Castlk. 



well preserved example in Nunney Castle,^ Somersetshire 
(Fig. 146). 

Where every vestige of masonry has long since vanished 
the earthworks of these castles — the great moats and 
mounds— still remain, sometimes of amazing size. England 



* The moat, however, as is often the case with very large examples, is only 
partially due to excavation. It was mostly formed simply by banking up 
the eastern side, and so enclosing a natural hollow in the slope of the ground. 
The necessary water is obtained from the river Rother. The entire work — 
moat and castle— is said to belong to the fourteenth century. 

^ Cited in Turner's Domestic Architecture as a good instance of the " tower- 
built houses," which in troubled districts are rei)resented by the pele-towers, 
or by such works as Dacre Castle, Cumberland, and Langley Castle, North- 
iimberland. 



XIII 



NORMAN CASTLES 



441 



has perhaps nothino- to sliow so impressive as the earth- 
works of the Norman Castle of Arques (Fig. 147), 5 miles 



%. 



Oi^^^^/f 



"' J I I III i i 1 1 II I ^ ''â–  



'LUiihi'jjJ 



Fi(i. 147. — AuQUEs. 



300 

I 



from 'Dieppe, which belong to the eleventh century. The 
huge encircling ditch, 60 feet in depth and 70 feet in width, 
surrounds an area of 5 acres. But there are tremendous 
earthworks at Castle Acre, Castle Rising, and a score of 










.•^^" ''o, 



/OO zoo 3 00 

— I 1 — +- 



Soo 



J-ecf. 
Fk;. 148.- BnnvKi.L Castlk. 



other places. Scalehy Castle, Cumhei'land, was furnished 
with two ciivulai' moats, the outer one 1 icing very nearly 
a mile round. At Burwell, Caml»ridgcshire (Fig. 148), is 



442 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



an enormous fosse, marking the site of a castle said to 
have been built by King Stephen. It stood a. siege in 
1144, in which Geoffrey de Mandeville lost his life. The 
much less ambitious work known as The Roundal)out, or 
Desborough Castle (Fig. 149), a mile west of High Wycombe, 
is nevertheless formidable. In area about an acre, it is 
surrounded on three sides l)y a vallum which, on the 
southern and strongest side, has an inner slope of 35 feet, 



V 



^Vi»»»'» V » » • 



.--%? 



â– > 



-vi: 



0. D 400 ft. 



.♦'■ 
C^^'' 






*'<?^ 



£^,'' c THE >, fl 

Cyr ROUNDABOUT 2^3 



Fk;. 149. — DEstsoRoroH. 



an outer slope to the bottom of the fosse of 43 feet, while 
from lip to lip the fosse here measures 56 feet.^ There 

* This work is of interest as an undoubted examjjlo of the adaptation of 
an older British (?) fortress by a later people. Of the British work there 
remains now only a pronounced scarp rounding the north-western brow of 
the hill, and still traceable along the northern side of the Roundabout. 
Proof that it once ran round the southern side also is only to be seen when 
the ground there happens to bear the right kind of crop — standing corn, 
whose straight drilled lines reveal the otherwise imperceptible dip in the soil 
where ran the fosse. The original camp was probably very much like its near 
neighbour on Keep Hill, one mile east of Wycombe, where again the northern 
portion of the enceinte, lying upon cultivable land on the actual top of the 
hill, has entirely vanished. That the Roundabout is of different date from 
this scarp is suggested by its eccentric position. The spot was of sufficient 



XI 11 NORMAN CASTLES 443 

was at one time some sort of l)uil(liiio- on the site, Ijut its 
every vestige has long since disappeared. It is recorded 
that in 1743 an "ecclesiastical" window-frame was dug 
up on the spot, which might suggest that the buihling 
was of the type of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. 
Even the name of Des])orough, attaching to the site, has 
no explanation. An older name for the locality was Old 
Hollows. 

There occur here and there perfectly circular moats, 
wet or dry, and of great strength, which may have been 
the exterior defences of small castles analogous to pele- 
towers. In a case like that of Peel Hall Moat, between 
Ashton and Mouldsworth in Cheshire, there can be little 
doubt that there once stood here a pele-tower for the pro- 
tection of the Welsh Marches, the more so as the island, 
80 feet across and considerably raised above the natural 
le^'el, bears a strong likeness to a somewhat truncated 
mount of the normal kind. The moat here has a width 
of about 60 feet. But in other instances there is little or 
no evidence for the raising of the platform, so that it is 
not easy in extreme cases to guess what can have been 
done with the mass of material removed frpm the fosse. 
Brogyntyn Castle, near Oswestry, is a perfectly round 
moated site, the external diameter 290 feet, the internal 
160 feet, and the fosse having a width of 65 feet. In 
yet a third case, l^ mile east of Llandovery, the circular 
area measures 198 feet in diameter and the fosse is pro- 
portionately large. There is said once to have l)een some 
sort of external vallum here. The spot is known as Ynys- 
y-borde, "Table Island," or Bord-gron, "Round Table." 

importance in early Saxon times to give its name to rtnc of the Hundreds of 
Bucks, and an old roadway, known as Gallows Lane, leading up to the hill, 
preserves the memory of a time when Desborough Castle was the scene of 
the administration of justice, possibly therefore a moot. That the scarp 
belongs to a far older period is probable, not merely from its resemblance 
to the works on Keep Hill, but also because the site is littered with worked 
flints and other neolithic vestigia. 



444 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

With these may Ije compared an oval enclosure at Llanfair 
Isgair, known as Gerlan-ddibont, " the place without a 
bridge," where, however, the area, 190 by 150 feet, is 
surrounded by a vallum of earth 20 feet thick and up- 
wards of 8 feet high ; and the well-known work of Tomen 
y Mur, 1^ mile from the railway- station of Maentwrog 
Road, where the area, likewise oval, has a similar contain- 
ing wall, and the presence of a large mound at once 
suggests the hand of Norman builders. The enclosure 
itself, however, is believed to represent a Roman station. 

At Middleham (Fig. 150), Yorks, are to be seen side by 
side Norman castles of the earlier and of the later type. 
The mount-and-bailey fortress is in fine preservation, saving 
the outer bailey, which appears merely as a long strip 
of land following the ridge, with defences wdiich can 
apparently never have been of great strength. The 
inner bailey and the mount are very fine specimens 
of their kind, the scarp of the latter rising to 60 feet 
and extremely steep, the fosses deep and wide. The 
parapet of the mount is of exceptional height and 
strength, curiously broadened out at the north-west angle, 
and its plan is approximately rectangular rather than 
round. Four hundred yards away to the north-east rise 
the ruins of a stone-built castle of two periods. The 
inner and older part of the building, Norman in style, 
is to all intents a simple square of masonry, without 
mound or other visible trace of earthworks. About 
this was built by the Nevilles (fourteenth century) a second 
square in the decorated style of the period. The moat 
which originally surrounded the whole has now entirely 
disappeared. Records declare that in the days of the 
Confessor " Midlai " was held by Ghilepatric, a Dane, 
and was granted by the Conqueror to Fitz-Ranulf, part 
of whose service was the rendering of a Danish axe. It 
was Robert Fitz-Ranulf began the older stone castle 
in 1190. Until that date therefore the Norman lords of 



XI II 



NORMAN CASTLES 



445 



,;^-0^^'"'" 




â– i 


!C 


'J. 


;- 


k: 


•J 


:-'*'»f.f. 


il: 


7 




I': 

* 


1 






,..#,^% , 





'^'''^miwww'^'^' 



Fig. 150.— William's Hill, Miouleiia.m 



446 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



Middleham were content to occupy the mount-and-])ailey 
fortress constructed by the first grantee. Of the residence 
of Ghilepatric there is no record. 

The extensive group of works atTopcliffe (Fig. 151), near 
Thirsk, must likewise be of different dates. Here a long 
tongue of land, covered on two sides by the waters of the 
Swale and the Cod Beck, is cut off from the adjoining 
high ground 1)v a dyke half a mile in length, witli fosse 




(,i<^ 



to f^OOc^ . 






\\^ 



rs-- MAI DEL N Wv-^'/'iV^<^> 
B W EL R ■-->S*«p " 



''o'''r'' â– >' 

''('''Pr, ,>"'">>•■ 






.A 






"â– â– â– :^'\K^ 



kX" 



/) 



COCK 
LODGE 






^OO u{^i â–  



#% 



#0" 



FkJ. 151. — TOPCLIFFE. 



â– ;\v 



\<A 



to the north, running from one stream to the other. 
Behind this dyke lies a large " camp," formed by cutting- 
fosses across the liio-h ground. These fosses are as much 
as 45 feet across and proportionately deep. To east and 
west it was only needful to scarp the position, the fall of 
the ground being from 30 to 60 feet along the slope. 
Around three sides of the area thus marked out runs a 
heavy vallum. On the extreme edge of the area on the 



XIII NORMAN CASTLES 447 

western side stands a small mound some 65 paces al)Out 
and perhaps 18 feet in height, with no visible trace of 
any ditch ; and a second fosse partially divides this 
(the highest) portion of the area from the rest. On the 
very tail of the ridge, some 300 yards further away to 
the south, lies a mount of great size, covered by a circular 
bailey of the usual type, with some traces of the vallum 
and fosse of a second bailey lying to the east and 
extendino; as far as the Cod Beck. The a;reat central 
"camp" has no obvious relation to the last-named work, 
there being no trace of any works connecting the two, 
and the two mounts are of different types. But what- 
ever the date to which it originally belonged, the larger 
"camp" was, from the Conquest onwards for at least six 
centuries, the site of the principal castle of the redoul)t- 
al)le Percies of Northumberland. Everv stone of the 
building has vanished, and local tradition retains but a 
vague and undigniticd memory of some building called 
"Cock Lodge" which once stood here: but as late as 
1602 it was of dignity sufficient to entertain royalty in 
the person of James L, and in 1646 it was for a time the 
headquarters of the invading Scots. ^ 

The subjoined plan of an earthwork (Fig. 152) in a spot 
known as Magdalen Field, near AYest Tanfield, Yorks, illus- 
trates the difficulty of determining the date of such things 
by the mere test of form. It occu})ies a precipitous 
promontory (375 feet CD.) overlooking the river Ure, 
and its analogy to the regular promontory fortress is 
heightened by the transverse fosse and valhim covering 
the approac'h from the east. The prin('i[)al [)()rtion of the 
earthworks shows an approximately rectangular plan, with 
inner vallum ;ind outer fosse, strongly suggestive of a 
Roman camp. From its position and })lan it is clear 



^ In Edward the Confessor's time, TopclifiFe was held by one Bernulf. 
Williani I. gave it to W'illiam de Percy. In local i)arlance the nKuintaiid- 
bailey fortres.s is known a.s Maiden Bower. 



448 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



that the ditch can never have held water, nor is it of 
the width usual with wet ditches. Nevertheless there is 
no question that this is a mediaeval work : the covering 
works to the east have their parallel on other sites known 
to be Norman, and the rectangular enclosure, while it has 




^^Ks^'wm 



'!w:t\\\' 






Fio. 152. — Maodalex Field. 

in reality no feature wdiich is peculiarly Roman, has 
several which are non-Roman. In all likelihood it 
represents a residence of the de Marmions, who obtained 
in the early part of the fourteenth century license to 
crenellate their residence in the Forest of Tanfield, known 



XIII NORMAN CASTLES 449 

as The lleriiiitcige.' It was seemingly speedils' ahaiidoiied 
for a more convenient site in Tanfield village, where the 
fine gate-tower, the only surviving relic of their later 
castle, is a beautiful specimen of its kind. Just without 
the northern wall of the older site are the ruined found- 
ation-walls of an old chapel — -whence probably the names 
of the "Hermitaoe" and "Magdalen Field" — and in 
certain lights one can see to the south-east the ground- 
plan of more extensive walls, with the remains of the 
foundations of a round tower. These latter presumably 
date from the license to crenellate, while the small 
rectangular enclosure, only some 60 paces long and 40 
wide, with its weak defences, probably represents the 
humbler mansion with wdiicli the de Marmions had 
heretofore been content. 

As the conditions of life became ever more settled, and 
the power of the baronage continually less unfettered, the 
military character of the mason-work rapidly altered, and 
the buildings became, as Clark remarks, less castle-palaces 
than palace-castles. When the use of brick l)ecame general 
again, in the first half of the fifteenth centuj y, the victory 
of the domestic over the military architect may be said to 
have been complete. Defensible, of course, the castles 
thereafter built still were, if occasion should require it, 
but this was no longer the first consideration. The great 
nobles continued to maintain their bands, larger or smaller, 
of armed retainers until they ruined themselves in the 
Wars of the Roses. The results of those wars were soon 
manifested. Henry VII. was the first sovereign strong 
enough to order and enforce the disbanding of these 
private armies. AVhen this w^as accomplished there was 
no further reason for building^ fortresses of the traditional 
kind at all, and the dwellings of even the greatest nobles 
were henceforth designed almost exclusively for the com- 

' This iclontitk'atinii was first siiij;<j;cstL'tl l)y Mr. Fjukis. Tiio license t<> 
ci-LMiellate is dated 8 Kd. IT. 

(; (I 



450 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap- 

fort of themselves, tlieir families, and their houseliohls. 
If .seemingly formidable gateways, towers, turrets, and 
machicolations were still affected, these were now little 
more than pretences — ornamental survivals of the older 
mode. At the same time the disbandino of the armed 
retainers removed the menace of private war, which had 
been the chief reason for digging costly moats. Probably 
few moats were dug, at least for purely defensive purposes, 
after 1500 a. d. 

The chanoed character of the castles of the sixteenth 
century is well seen in the ruins of Snape Castle, near 
Bedale, Yorks, which, originally a stronghold of the 
Nevilles of Middleham, passed by marriage to the Cecils 
of Elizal)ethan fame. The ruins are those of a square 
palace-castle, with square towers at the angles, and no 
trace of moat or other outworks; while the wall, no 
longer the blind wall of a mere fortress, is decorated 
with elaborately carved pilasters, in the style of the 
Renaissance. 

Certain subsidiary forms of earthwork might tend to 
blur the outlines of the original castle-plan. The Normans 
were great well-sinkers ; indeed, the modern artesian-well 
takes its name from the fact that such wells WTre first 
employed — in Western Europe^at Artois in Picardy. 
The castle, of course, had its fish-ponds, of which more 
anon, and other similar " offices." It had also, sometimes, 
an elaborate provision of secret passages to secure the 
entry of provisions, or the sortie of the garrison, under 
siege. There was such a passage constructed in the 
Norman castle of Old Sarum. It had also its proper 
system of drainage, and some of the sewers of old castles 
have doubtless been passed off upon modern sight-seers as 
subterranean passages of another purpose. The series of 
enormous galleries lately opened up beneath the famous 
Castle of Loches, near Tours, was doubtless constructed 
originally for sanitary purposes only. And finally, the 



xm NORMAN CASTLES 451 

superficial plan of any ruined Norman site is veiy likely 
to be perplexed an<l disguised ]>y the eartli works erected 
during one or other of the many sieges which it under- 
went — sieges for the most part, perhaps, unrecorded. For 
the Normans, in their siege-operations, followed in the 
main the methods of the Romans, approaching the enemy's 
walls hy fosse and trench and mine ; sweeping it by the 
fire of siege-towers like that famous Matte (iriffin which 
Richard Coeur de Lion l)uilt for use at Acre and hanselled 
at Messina; or "sniping" from the safe vantage of an 
earthen mound, itself an imitation of the Roman agger, 
not inappropriately dubbed a malvoisin. One thing with 
another, it is no marvel if the earthen mounds and fosses 
that still remain reveal no uniform and obvious design. 

It will be inferred from the foreooino- remarks and 
examples that there is no great uniformity of plan, or of 
detail, in English castle-ljuilding. Castles of stone or 
of brick, like earthworks pure and simple, were of endless 
variety, and in conseipience the mounds and trenches, 
platforms and fosses, which alone mark the present-day 
sites of scores of vanished fortresses, are infinitely 
various. Overgrown by brambles, or defaced l)y later 
vandalism, they may be as difficult to date as the remains 
of fortresses of far o;reater ag-e, the more so as not seldom 
the same spot, occupied in succession l)y Briton and 
Roman, Saxon and Dane and Norman, may owe some- 
thing of its features to each of those various peoples. 
Once again the warning holds good — earthworks are very 
deceptive. And although in many instances there is 
documentary evidence enough to estal)lish the occupancy 
of a site by Norman, Dane, or Saxon, it is remarkable 
that about so many castles, some of them obviously of 
the first importance as military works, the records are 
absolutely silent. As for tradition, it is commonly as 
unreliable in respect of castles as of other anti(]uities, 
and nomenclature is no safer guide. The Saxon name 

c c -2 



452 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND ch. xiii 

of l)urh was not apparently applied in Saxon times 
distinctively to any moated mount, and although in some 
eases the local speech of to-day knows such a work as 
" The Bury " or " The Burgh," more often those terms, 
or other dialect variations thereof {e.g., The Berry, The 
Berries, The Burf, &c.), allude merely to the site of an 
early settlement not necessarily Saxon, and still less 
Norman ; ^ while genuine remains of Norman and Saxon 
times have obtained some fi\ncy name which has no 
relation to their origin. The term " Castle," itself of 
Norman introduction, is no guide at all, for even British 
camps in England are known locally as Buries or Castles 
indifferently, just as the equivalent forms in Gaelic 
(Casteail) and Welsh {Castell) are applied to fortresses of 
the most various dates. 

The holder, Saxon or Norman, of many manors eom- 
l)ined in one "honour," selected one of them as his 
headquarters or caput. Here he made his permanent 
residence, and around it naturally grew up a village, if 
none existed there before. Religion being the matter of 
most immediate importance next to personal security, 
a church or chapel stood conveniently near, and this 
explains why castle and church commonly stand side 
by side. It is scarcely needful to cite examples. 

' In very many instances the term has reference to Roman sites. The 
usual phrase in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is that the builders " wrought a 
work." This is reflected in the syllable " wark," an element in many place- 
names, e.g. Carlswark, Southwark, Newark, Aldwark. But here again the 
reference is often to a Roman work ; e.g. Aldwark, Nottinghamshire, repre- 
sents the Roman Margidunvm. 



CHAITEIJ XIV 

THE MOATED HOMESTEAD 

" Tlic old hiicjhts tvith their mail ivcic here, 
The dames demure with high-built hair, 
The grave ruffed sage, the cavalier 
FUmnting his love-locks fair." 

That instinct which had led the Norman lords to rely 
greatly upon the moat for their security prompted the 
smaller folk to do likewise, and just as every castle had 
its moats and fosses, so every important town came to 
have its ditches, and every homestead of importance its 
moat. Not often does there now remain above the 
surface any trace of the ditches which, e.g. at Cambridge, 
surrounded and intersected tlie towns, although the 
operations of the l)ui]der and the navvy from time to time 
reveal the black earth, the broken pottery, and the other 
odds and ends whicli tell where ran the old water-courses 
and how convenient a refuse-pit the townsmen of the 
Middle Ages found them ; but outside the towns, hidden 
away in green fields, hundreds of contemporary moats still 
shelter their shallowing waters, their rushes, their moor- 
hens, and whatever secrets their lialf- forgotten sites may 
keep. 

How the rectaiiguhir moated castle was developcMl from 
the mount-anddtailey fortress lias been suggested, and liow 
the strictly military design of the earlier castle of stone 



454 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

gave place to a purely domestic type of castle in stone or 
brick. Throughout this process of transition the one 
feature which remained unaltered was the moat. The 
motte was abandoned, barbican and bailey disappeared, 
but the moat remained. AVhen the time came for others 
than lords spiritual and temporal to build dwellings for 
themselves, they followed, where it was possil)le, the 
example of their superiors and dug each his moat. For 
this no royal license was required, and wherever the 
physical features of the locality allowed it, there grew up 
the houses of Englishmen, every one a castle in miniature, 
showing, indeed, neither keep nor donjon nor curtain-walls, 
but a comfortable aggregation of dwelling-house, barns, 
and garden, safely packed away on and about an island, 
and approachable only by a single bridge. For though the 
amelioration of the conditions of life went steadily forward, 
the necessity of some sort of defence, or at any rate the 
fear that it might be necessary, lingered stubbornly ; and 
even when this had altogether ceased, the obstinate 
individualism of the Englishman, quite as much as his 
obstinate conservatism, found tlierein an excuse for 
its indulgence. 

The building of such moated houses at all, if it suggests 
that life outside the towns was still insecure, implies also 
that it was becoming safer. It implies also the growth of 
a class of persons whose interests lay in the soil, and whose 
means were sufficient to allow of their ijratification — in 
other words, of an agricultural middle-class. And such a 
class grew up very slowly. Unknown in the purely feudal 
times immediately following the Conquest, its growth was 
viewed with jealousy by the noble class whose privileges 
it was destined in great measure to destroy. It had 
perhaps no existence before the thirteenth century, and was 
still small in the fourteenth century. Edward I., by his 
encouragement of industry and agriculture, gave to it its 
first real start in life, and in Chaucer's days the franklins 



XIV THE MOATED HOMESTEAD 455 

were a recognized, respected and envied company. Tlie 
extension of wool-farming made them ricli, and the revival 
of brick-building made it po.s,si1)le for tliem to construct 
better houses. The Wars of the Roses and the dissolution 
of the monasteries rid them of jealous rivals and threw 
into their hands more land, more wealth, tmd more power. 
From the close of the fifteenth to the l)eginnii)g of tlie 
seventeenth century, they were perhaps at the zenith of 
their prosperity, but even in Elizabethan days their 
collective numl)ers, judged by modern standards, were 
ludicrously small. In Queen EHzabeth's time liegan that 
tremendous expansion of commerce and enterprise wliich 
was destined in the end to create a new plutocracy', in 
turn to invest their fortunes in the s(nl and so to ])ecome 
the " landed gentry." ^ But these came after the days of 
moats. The real moat-builders were the franklins, and tliese 
were ftxted to remain what they had always l)ecn, a 
yeoman class. They had made their money out of the 
land ; they subsisted so long as the land could produce 
and maintain them. By the eighteenth century commerce 
had prevailed, and agriculture liad already ceased to l)e 
the only highway to fortune. 

At what date the earliest domestic moats were made it 
is impossible to say. That they were not known to tlie 
Britain of the R(mians is tolerably certain, for the Roman 
preferred a dry situation and had a horror of bestiolac, i.e. 
microbes,^ which his experience of Italy had taught him 
to abound upon marshy sites. Besides, the conditions of 

' These remarks have reference only to the rural population, witli whom 
tlie merchant-bankers of London and Bristol, and other towns, had little or 
nothing to do. 

â– ^ This doctrine, correct enough for Italy, but not necessarily so in this 
more temperate climate, is enunciated l)y Varro {l)c Rr Riislicd). If jou 
must build <m low ground, he says, let your house look away from the 
marsh, for "in dry weather marshes breed imperceptible animalcul.e, not to 
be seen by the eye, which penetrate into the human body through the nose 
and mouth, and cause many diseases." See an article by the Coiuitess 
Martinengo Cesaresco, in Conlanpontry lievieir, December, l.S'.Ut, 



456 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

life, at least in those parts of the island where the villas 
are found, were not such as to require these elaborate 
defences. Some there may very well be which date back 
to Saxon times, for the Saxon loved the water as much as 
the Roman avoided it. Those moats, of comparatively 
rare occurrence, which show a circular plan, and some- 
times also earthen ramparts a1)out the island, have been 
thought to be amongst the oldest, and in some instances, 
perhaps, of Saxon date.^ Mr. A. R. Goddard has noticed " 
certain moated sites in Bedfordshire, which appear to 
have been already there when Domesday was compiled. 



1 One of these is the "Round Moat" at Fowlmere (Fouhnire), Canibs, 
5 miles N.E. of Royston. It has an elliptical plan of remarkable symmetry, 
measuring about 300 feet by 200 feet ; the bank surrounding the area 
(H acre) rises 7 — 12 feet in height, with a base of 35 feet ; and the ditch, 
one half of which still holds water, is 20 feet wide, and was originally 
11—12 feet deep. The work lies in the fen (O.D. 100 feet) on the 
Wardington Brook, a feeder of the Cam, upon a site which must always 
have been wet. Good authorities have pronounced it to be in all likelihood 
a British work, but some tentative digging (1908) has produced no confirma- 
tion of this view, nor indeed any other positive results. The tradition of 
the locality declares that a house once stood within it, Avhich, if true, would 
not necessarily determine the date of the earthworks. See Proc. Cnmh. 
Antiq. Sue, Ko. xlviii., p. 114. 

â– - " Along the Wyboston Road, on l)oth sides, for more than a mile, there 
is a continuous series of lesser moated sites. . . . Domesday notes the 
former presence of 12 Sokemen at Wiboldestune. This coincidence 
led to the special examination of other places where the settlements of 
Sokemen are recorded ; as at Keysoe, where there were 12, and 
Harrowden (Herghetone), where there were 14. In both these places 
the same series of small slightly banked and moated enclosures occurs 
over a distance of about | mile. If these Sokemen were of Scandi- 
navian origin, it would be quite in keeping with their custom at home 
to surround their small 'tuns,' or farms, with banks of earth" (Victoria 
Co. Hid. Bedfordshire). Sokemen were to all intents freeholders. To the 
position of these sites analogy may be found in the sites of manors and 
villages right and left of the Great North Road, e.cj. between Boroughbridge 
and Catterick. "While there is rarely a house actually on the road, the villages 
lie in regular sequence on either hand, at an average distance of about a 
mile from the highway, so as to permit of the cultivation of the land all 
round the settlement. Mr. W. Stevenson makes much the same remark of 
the villages adjoining the Fosse Way in its course through Nottinghamshire 
(Vict. Co. Hid. Notts). 



XIV THE MOATKD HOMESTEAD 457 

There are moated sites in East Anglia of very great 
antiquity. Local tradition carries l)ack that of Ilehiiing- 
hani Hall, 8 miles from Ipswich, for 800 years, and 
declares that its drawbridge has been raised nightly, as it 
is still raised, throughout those centuries. The famous 
Ighthammote House, Kent, boasts an antiquity almost as 
hinh.^ In the thirteenth centurv domestic moats l)egan 
to be numerous. There is one at Beckley, near Oxford, 
within which stood a residence occupied by the unlucky' 
Eichard, titular King of tlie Romans, who was taken 
prisoner in a windmill after the ])attle of Lewes, 12G4. 
This, however, is perhaps rather to be classed amongst the 
palace-castles. In the next century the Black Prince had, 
it is said, another such residence at Prince's Risboro' 
(thence so called), but this apj)ears to have had a very 
inferior moat. 

From the thirteenth century onward probaldy everyone 
who, though unable to build himself a " cnstle " of whatever 
type, yet possessed property worth stealing, fell back upon 
the moat as a means of security, whenever it was practic- 
able, and preferably of course upon the wet moat, because 
that was at once a cheaper and a more effective means of 
defence than a dry ditch ; for the latter was useless unless 
it was of large proportions and further reinforced by very 
substantial valla or other constructions within. x\ll 
householders, whether military, ecclesiastical, or other- 
wise, from the thirteenth century onward to the sixteenth, 
probably constructed moats of greater or less dignity 
in localities where the needful conditions were to be 
found. 

So many are the moats and moated sites yet remaining, 
and so thickly are they scattered over tlu^ ground in 



1 The house is said to have a continuous history from the days of IKiuy II., 
although the oldest parts now remaining belong perhaps to the next (thir- 
teenth) century. It may be added that the final syllable of the name Tghtham- 
mote projjably represents the word vioul rather than moal . 



458 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

districts specially favourable for their making, that it 
is easy to gain an exaggerated idea of the numbers 
of the class that l)uilt them and of the population 
generally. To begin with, they are of course not all con- 
temporaneous ; and secondly, the moated houses included 
quite the humblest rank of homestead deserving of 
the name. In the towns, such as they were, resided the 
trading class, in houses quite as good, perhaps, but not 
separately moated. In the country there were no traders. 
At wide intervals rose the great fortified castles of barons 
and Ijishops ; at shorter intervals were scattered monastic 
houses and granges ; in every village was a church, and 
generally a church-house, and one or more manor-houses. 
By the fourteenth century many of the manor-houses had 
passed out of the hands of the lords of the manors, and 
there must have grown up a very thin sprinkling of other 
middle-class residences. Some of these buildings were of 
stone, but not by any means all. The great majority, 
perhaps, were of timber, or half-timbered at most. The 
churches and the church-houses excepted, most or all of 
them would ])e moated, and persons who were una1)le to go 
to the expense of making moats did not build houses in 
the open country. The mass of the rural population were 
peasants, living in the veriest hovels, of such rude construc- 
tion that they have long since vanished. Those picturesque 
" cottages," of the fourteenth century and onwards, whose 
high gables and wide-breasted chimneys and irregular 
black and white timl)er-work so strongly appeal to the 
modern artist and photographer, were not cottages at all, 
but the residences of men very well-to-do as the times 
went, franklins and yeomen and lesser nobles. Seeing 
that the population of the whole of England in Queen 
Elizabeth's time is thouoht not to have exceeded some 
three millions, it is clear that this middle-class cannot have 
been very numerous even in the sixteenth century. In the 
fifteenth and fourteenth it must have been smaller still. 



XIV THK MOATED HOMESTEAD 459 

The men wlio built the orcliiuiry domestic moats cannot 
for the most part liave been wealthy, albeit they were 
well-to-do. A moat being a costly thing to make, there 
was an additional reason why the house within it should l)e 
usually of modest dimensions and of no expensive materials, 
especially as stone is usually scarce in the localities 
l)est suited for moats.^ Conversely, brick-making was 
easy and cheap in such localities, so that with the revival 
of that art in the fifteenth century there came a great im- 
provement in the fashion of building. If one invariably 
and instantly associates with the moat a house of red Ijrick 
and red roof-tiles, it is because the earlier moated houses, 
built of wood for the most part, have long ago disappeared.'^ 
The moat was most commonly rectangular, because this 
was the traditional plan of larger English homesteads, which 
were usually so arranged that the dwelling-house on one 
side, the various barns and byres on the remaining sides, 
surrounded a more or less square yard in whicli tlie stock 
might be secure at night. All windows looked upon this 
yard, all doors opened upon it, the outer side of the 
buildings being designed solely with the practical object 



' Where stone was easily procurable it was not unusual to face the sides 
of the moat with masonry, l)ut this would only be done by the more wealthy 
— by the builders of the palace-castles, rather than by the smaller yeomen. 
Marken field Hall, Ripon, is a survival of this type of moat. The existing 
house dates mainly from the fourteenth century, the license to crenellate 
dating I.'^IO. 

- So far as the house itself was concerned, anything other than a wooden 
building was certainly the rare exception until the fourteenth century. 
Mud, "cob," " wattle-and-daub " were the usual materials, and the almost 
universal half-timber l)uildings of the later Middle Ages originally had their 
framework tilled in, not with brick or stone, but with nuid, cob, &c. The 
use of stone and brick for tlie outbuildings came later still, and has not yet 
altogether supplanted the older fashion. The earlier history of these gradual 
developments is traced in The Kralutloii of the Enijli'ih Ihnisf, by S. (). 
Addy ; from the fourteenth century onward it is dealt witli in Turner's 
Domestic Architecture. In the foi-mer l)ook will be t'ouiul some facts 
illustrative of the extraordinary duruhility of cob-walls and similar work. 
The art of building tjiem is all Init extinct now, eviii in tlie remoter 
counties. 



460 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



of presenting a blind wall to any would-be aggressor.^ 
When a moat was thrown about such a homestead it 
became permissible to depart somewhat from this unat- 
tractive plan — to put 
doors and windows in 
the outer walls, and 
finally to turn the 
house, as it were, 
round and put the 
front outside, the back 
to the yard. But tlie 
four-square arrange- 
ment remained, and 
may be recognized to- 
day in scores of old 
farmsteads, moated or 
otherwise. 

Moats of other forms 
occur, but they are 
the exceptions. Some 
few which present a 
strictly circular plan 
have been mentioned 
already.^ There are 
others more or less 
ovoid : the example (Fig. 153) is at Grove Farm, Terrick's 
Cross, Bucks. An oval moat in Under Wood, Checkendon, 

1 Unmoated homesteads of this primitive type survive still in out-of-the- 
way parts of the country, in Devonshire, and in the northern counties. 
Some of these had formidable walls suri'ounding the entire homestead, c.f/. 
Padley Hall, Derbyshire, where a wall of 5 feet in thickness, but without 
any moat, surrounded an area of upwards of 6 acres. The meaner folk in 
all parts of the country had neither moat nor wall, but at most a fence of 
sticks, like Chaucer's widow, Avhose cottage was 

"fenced all about 
With stikkos." 

Even this kind of makeshift may still be seen in out-of-the-way-places. 
•^ Above, p. 448. 







Fig. 153. — Gkove Farm, Terkick's Cross. 



XIV 



THE MOATia) HOMJ^:srKAl) 



461 



V V < 



\ t « 



I > I 



Oxon., measures nearly half a mile altout, the single fosse 
being more than 40 feet from lip to li[), with a considerable 
vallum following the innei- edge for the greater part of 
the circuit. The site is now dry. Others, again, have a 
plan wliieh Mr. Chalkley ({ould compared to the sha[)e of 
a stirrup-iron, one side straight, the rest of the design 
curved in horse-shoe fashion. The moat at Tiittle Pednor, 
Bucks (Fig. 154), is pen- 
tagonal, as is that at 
Bushmead, Beds (Fig. 
170). Ill some cases it 
is clear that the eccentric 
form has arisen merely 
from the builders' takino; 
advantage of the natural 
features of the ground, 
for wherever a convenient 
hollow^ offered itself they 
naturally made use of 
it. A moat at Michel- 
ham, Sussex, reputed the 
second largest in the 
country, is thought to 
represent what was ori- 
ginally a large standing pool or mere. The moated 
site at Givendale, near Ripon (Fig. 155), is a good example 
of adaptation : the builders merely raised and eml)anked 
the fiat floor of a natural amphitheatre in the side of the 
rising ground overlooking the Ure, the moat upon the 
more assailable sides being as much as 60 paces over. It 
was fed from a spring on the slope, now almost dry, and 
the position of the abutments of the Ijridge is clearly 
marked at the northern angle. But in the great majority 
of instances the whole work is artificial, and where the 
l)uilders had to do the whole work themselves they com- 
monly chose a rectangular plan, and generally the simplest 






50 



too 

l_ 



200 



feet. 
Fni. 154. — Little Pkdxok. 



3O0 



462 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



— a more or less exact parallelogram. Nash Lee, Bucks 
(Fig. 15G), is a good example of the simplest and smallest 



lire 

^00 uetrds 






o 



bO 100 150 aoo 250 

J J I 



yo^f. 



''t'lmvif//,;. 









-^ ;;;^ :^.' - foise /f, 






5i pp'-'"s '"''/;;■.•;;.•;"• 






r 












C^ivendale 

(modtrn }ioust) 



\ N ' 



Fig. 155. — Givendale. 

type of moated site.^ Sometimes there are two such 

1 This is a good illustration of the rapidity with which even moated sites 
may change. Less than fifty years ago it was a charming garden, with 
terraced walk running round the edge of the island, and deep water which 



XIV 



THE MOATED HOMESTEAD 



463 



islands side l)y side, as at Aitsley (Ki.i;-. 157), Bucks, 
where the moat along the south-eastern side, now partially 
filled in, was of great breadth, while the site is so low- 
lying, and the soil so peaty and wet, that all the year 
round the water is almost flush with the banks. At Great 
Kimble (Fig. 158) the second island is a mere narrow bank, 
too small to have furnished accommodation for any build- 
ings of importance. Perhaps it was more for defence than 




^o 



Fig. 156. — Nash Lee. 



occupation, and the same may be the explanation of the 
similar but rather larger platform seen in the site at Stoke 
Mandeville (Fig. 159). This last site is remarkable for 
the small size of the central island, only 17 by '20 paces, and 



reflected all the glory of old-fashioned flowers ; and its crowning pride was a 
great evergreen arbour so arranged that one could always find shelter from 
tlio wind, always catch whatever sun there w-as. The site of the arbour is 
now a mound, which will doubtless yet ])uzzle some anticiuaries ; and the 
torrace-walk can still bo traced ; but the flowers are gone, and most of the 
water too ; and of the house which stood just outside tlie entrance, not a 
brick remains. Sonic one tried to m:il<o use of the moat as a watercress 
bed, and some one else is trying to turn tlu; island into an orcliard. 



464 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP, 



the disproportionate width of the .surroiiiidiiig- moat, which 
measures nearly 60 feet from lip to lip/ Sometimes the 
number of islands rises to three (Fig. 174), and some- 
times one moat is surrounded by a second, generally of 
less width but of larger sweep ; but the preference is 
always for rectangular rather than curvilinear figures. 
In some parts of the country the prevailing type is 
a small and perfectly square island, 30 to 40 yards 




Fig. 157. — Apsley. 



across, with a deep moat, and no trace of any outer 
works. A plan is here given (Fig. 160) of a curious 
little work at North Lees, two miles north-west of 
Ripon. The island, which is considerably raised above 
the natural level (190 CD.), measures no more than 
32 paces in length, 16 paces at its w^idest and but 10 at 

1 It must be remembered that, until the sudden expansion of Elizabethan 
days, even manor-houses were commonly of the most modest proportions. 
A ground floor of two or three rooms only, an upper floor as simple, were 
considered ample accommodation for the family and its servants. See 
Emlntioii of the English House. Further, it was not essential that all the 
farm-buildings, &c., should be gathered within the "island." Many of 
them doubtless lay outside the moat. In the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
turies "when the King was coming, orders were sent ahead to run up the 
needful offices," which were, of course, of timber (Turner's Dotneatir Arrhi- 
techire). 



XIV THE MOAIED HOMES'lEAD 465 



I ^''nMllllMllllW MM I Iff\n\t\\^''' 






_^v 



B 5<- 



SS/>ac6s... ...>.^ £ 









C^^ 



^,VS«? 




—n nr«nf»on rt» •^ 




Fl(i. 158. — GUKAT KiMl'.LK. 



uf;;,,, 




/ i n 1 ' 11 M I i ' "^ 



''^/yinilliUmiUA \\.iJy AllUlllllJlllli 






<v^"^. 



I 



PdCSS 



i - â–  \ 



. < I ■ — H-'— I Q r- 

O \0 20 30 40 50 
Fi(i. 159. — Stuke M.vni>kvii,i,k. 




II II 



.66 



EARTHWORK OK ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



its narrowest, while the moat varies from 8 to 10 paces 
ill widtli. The peculiar feature of the site is the vesti(/ia 
of what would seem to have Leeii a large drum-tower, 
which occupies almost the entire width of the northern 
end of the island, and through which passed the approach. 
It is locally spoken of as a Roman work, but the traces of 
the usual feeders and water-courses show it to have been 
of the mediaeval type. It stands within what was once 
the hunting-ground or chase of the Archbishops of York, 







-2.5 



TDaceS 

n 1 111 ) M ( / I ( M M f M I'H I 1M • (f I MM'I'IM m » 



^ 







?> rr- 



r^ — . c i «; 

-' .ZZi rO W W 



••\v 



Fig. IGO. — North Lee.s, Kii'on. 




to which the name of the Deer-parks still attaches. 
Perhaps this diminutive moated site represents what was 
once a keeper's lodge, provided with some sort of tower 
as a look-out. At High Lodge, in AVychwood Forest, 
Oxfordshire, is another diminutive rectangular moated 
site, measuring only 100 by 120 feet over all, the moat 
being al)0ut 12 feet wide. It probably surrounded a 
watch-liouse of the keepers of the Forest, which it over- 
looks. There is a similar work — the " Roman Beacon " — 
at Mellor near Blackburn, perhaps likewise once a keeper's 
lodoe of Iimiewood. 



XIV THE MOATED HOMESTEAD 467 

The dimeii.sioii.s, «le})tli, width, ami area of the moat 
varied with tlie l)uihler'.s means and amhitions, and with 
the nature of the ground, the supply of water, and other 
local considerations. There are some of which the 
contained area measures no more than 20 yai-ds each way, 
while others include several acres. Perhaps a length of 80 
— 100 yards, with a breadth of 50 — 80 yards, is an average 
size for the domestic moated site properly so called. It 
is a fairly formidable moat which measures no more than 
30 feet from lip to lip, and there are some which have a 
width of as many yards. Of their depth it is not easy to 
speak accurately, for they are now choked with the 
accumulated soil and weed of centuries, if, indeed, they still 
hold water at all. For the genuine moat was rarely so 
constructed that it could be properly scoured. Its waters 
usually moved too slowly to cleanse it appreciably, and 
sluggish water quickly makes weeds, and these, again, make 
mud.^ Such mud, however, so long as it is kept thoroughly 
wet, is a deep and slimy stuff more ditticult to negotiate than 
even water itself ; so the owner s only concern was to see 
that the weeds, mud, and rushes did not accumulate to 
such a height that the water no longer covered them. 
But here, as always, local peculiarities were .the guiding- 
factor. On a stiff clay a pond may go for years unscoured 
and be little the worse, but on a peaty soil the deepest 
ditch wdll fill up within a year or two through the 
crumbling of the sides and the "blowing up" of the 
bottom. The slope of the moat's side will vary, for the 
same reasons, from a perpendicular fall to the gentlest 
shelving descent. It is astonishing to see how steeply rise 
the 1 tanks of ancient moats in some localities where one 
would least expect it. As a general rule, moats upon very 
low and wet sites are formidable rather for their breadth 



* The swans, which are so essential in any ment.il pictuio of a iiioat, were 
put there less for ornament than to keep down the weeds, and so clieck tlie 
steady process of silting up. 

II II 2 



468 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



than their depth, and conversely upon higher levels the 
moat is rather deep than wide. 

Perhaps 10 feet was a fair average depth for the original 
ditch when dug upon a level surface. If there is even a 
gentle slope of the ground, the moat will seem feeble upon 
the lower side and unduly deep on the other, where the 




Fio. 101. — Moat at Marsh. 



])ank may be as much as 20 feet above the water level. 
On very Hat and low-lying soils it was frequently 
necessary to throw up an outer vallum on one or more 
sides of the moat to secure a greater depth of water, as at 
Marsh, Bucks (Fig. 161), and at Givendale (Fig. 155). 
In other cases the continued dredging of the moat, and 



XIV THE MOATED HOMESTEAD 469 

the throwing out of the excavated mud along its margin, 
has produced somewhat the same appearance. 

The soil removed in the process of making the original 
moat was usually thrown up upon the island, thus raising 
it above the level of the surrounding ground.^ The 
difference in elevation is often very noticeable, often 
imperceptible. Sometimes, where the moated area is 
unusually small, the raising of the floor by the soil from 
the moat gives to the whole very much the appearance of 
a Norman castle-mount, the more or less rectangular plan 
alone betraying the difference. This raising of the island 
was, in low-lying districts, a matter of health. In the 
nature of things, a moated house must be upon a site where 
water is very iiear the surface,' and the year-long presence 
of water, often almost stagnant, on every hand must 
necessarily add to the dampness of the air and the soil. 
Every inch gained in elevation was thus of value. But 
according to the primitive methods of mediseval times, the 
moat was also the receptacle of all the sewage. If there 
was a steady flow of water, however slight, such pollution 
was of no moment ; l)ut if, as was very often the case, 
either from local conditions or from neglect of the proper 
precautions, the water was to all intents stagnant for long- 
periods, there was an obvious reason for raising the house 
as far as possible above it. Modern faddism has gone so 
far that no person boasting himself practical would 



' This feature at once di.stiiiguislios tlic uioatod site fioui the Roiuau canii), 
of which the Hoor was never thus puri)osely raised. A still easier di.stinction 
is furnished by the fosses ; the Roman fosse Avas never intended to be wet, 
whereas the niediieval moat was rarely intended to be dry. If water stands 
in the fosse of a rectangular enclcjsure, the presumption is that such enclosure 
owes nothing to Rome. .A. good many deserted moats masquerade as ' ' Roman 
camps " u}K)n the Ordnance Map. 

^ Itis (|uite likely that in such positions tlic Ituildiii^ of a moat, at least in 
the later meilia^val period, was often regardeil as much in the liglit of a jirecau- 
tion against damp or flood as of a protection froui violence. Many a "lonely 
moated grange" in fenny districts must have been w;vterlogged but for 
its fosse. 



470 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

consent to live in a house lying close to water-level, 
moated about l)y a sluggish or stagnant pool, and 
unprovided with whatever may for the time being be 
considered the "most modern system of sanitation" ; and 
anyone might be forgiven for assuming that the 
foundations of such a house must needs be damp, its 
atmos^ihere chilling and ague-provoking. But it is a 
remarkable fact that such houses are rarely damp, either 
without or within, so long as they are maintained in 
repair, and the fact that no other type of country-house 
was built or desired for so many centuries is surely proof 
that they were not insanitary. Undoubtedly the quality 
of the bricks, mortar and timber used by the old builder 
goes f'dv to explain the fact. His bricks were made of the 
right kind of clay rightly fired, his mortar was mixed with 
real lime, he knew how to make his walls damp-proof,^ 
and his timber was native oak thoroughly seasoned. The 
jerry-builder was not yet. 

The first desideratum being an unfailing 'suj)ply of 
water, the moat-builders naturally favoured the lower 
ground. The moated site, indeed, belongs to the low- 
lands, and to the foot-hills overlooking the lowlands, 
where, in the days before modern drainage and the 
modern practice of making reservoirs had combined to 
exhaust the springs l)elow and to parch the soil aljove, 
water would stand for most of the year at but a few inches 
Ijelow the surface. The level stretches of the East 
Anglian counties are thickly strewn with moats, as are 
those of Kent, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Cambridge- 
shire. In Essex alone there are between 300 and 400, 
and even Sussex, its wide forest area notwithstanding, 



1 The cheapest, simjjlcst, and best of all dani[)-proof courses is cemented, 
not with mortar, but with clay. The Romans knew the fact and acted upon 
it. So did the country builders of England until recent days. They have 
forgotten it now, and in consequence a modern house with no water in sight 
is often damper than an old one standing within a well-tilled moat. 



XIV THE MOATED HOMESTEAD 471 

lias more than 60, In the Fens, on tlie other luind, moats 
are few, for the simple reason that until the seventeenth 
century they were to all intents uninhabited, at any rate 
by persons in a position to choose their place of residence. 
Other areas, again, show few or no moats because they 
were dense forest, and still others l)ecausc their sandy 
soil would neither provide the needful water nor retain it. 
All along the foot-hills of the Chilterns in Buckingham- 
shire and Oxfordshire are moats in numbers ; they are 
almost all dry now, but their presence proves that there were 
at one time springs in plenty where now there are few or 
none. On higher levels one does not usually expect to 
find moats, l)ut it is all a question of local conditions. 
They are to be found in smaller nunil)ers right upon the 
top of the Chiltern Hills, wherever the clay surface-soil 
was deep enough to retain the water. The enormous 
moat at Grove Farm, Ashley Green, stands at a height of 
500 feet ; that at Little Pednor, near Chesham, at 
580 feet ; that at High Lodge, Oxfordshire, at 631 feet ; 
and *on the very summit of the isolated hill whereon 
stands the village of Brill, well over the 600-feet line, are 
the remains of an old moated site immediately north of 
the church, water still standing in one part of the ditch. 
But, speaking generally, the upper levels were left to 
builders of another class ; the middle-class ap[)ropriately 
occupied the middle levels. 

One or two examples are added of ea it li works wliicli 
evidently date from a time when the soil was nindi 
wetter than now. In Reddingwick Wood, l! miles north- 
east of Great j\rissenden, is a deep and wide moat (Fig. 
162) lying within other earthworks seemingly of entirely 
different date. The moat is still wet except in the driest 
summers, but the source from which it was (illc(l is not 
now' disco vera) >1('. n(n' any determinate traces ot" an 
etttuent, while the presence of the suiiounding works — ;i 
shallow fosse and rampart of a type usually associated 



472 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

with British sites, and seemiugly never designed to hold 
water — makes the presence of the wet moat the more 
anomalous. The entrance to the moated area towards 
the wTst is covered ])y a second fosse, much slighter iu 
proportions, and so constructed as to leave the merest 
strip of soil between it and the main fosse.^ On the 




Fiti. Ifi2. — REDniNriwicK Wood. 



south side is an annexe, of which the straio;ht rectanoular 
lines have, of course, been taken as warranty for its Roman 

1 As this feature, not otherwise common in moated sites, is found again 
at Bray's Wood (see below), and in a somewhat more developed form 
at Great Kimble (Fig. 158) and Stoke Mandeville (Fig. 159), it would seem 
that it was a local peculiarity in defensive engineering. Doubtless there 
were such local peculiarities in the building of moats as there were in the 
building of churches. It occurs also at Markenfield Hall, Ripon, where, 
however, it is more obviously intended to strengthen the weakest side of the 
enclosure, and at Walkingham Hall, near Knaresborough (Fig. IfiT). 



XIV 



I HJ: MOATKl) HOMESTEAD 



473 



origin. Aiialogou.s in certain p(jint.s is the group of works 
in Bray's Wood (Fig. 163), Ij miles to the north. Here 
an originally rectangular enclosure measuring 19()X7G 
paces,Svith fosse and vallum of very sliglit relief, contains 
a second enclosure of much smaller area l)ut mucli 
greater strength. It is a square of 50 yards or ratlier 












O.D 



^nJi? 






a. 



S^T "V .ui'iMI''""' 









:••; /i^, 

â– â– . % 






'>//.: 

Fk;. 1«).S.— Bkav's Woon. 



1:^ 



less, surrounded by a coiisidcraUU' ditcli. witli cnlraiiccs 
east and west, and tlie western side, exactly as at 
Reddingwick, is covered by a second parallel fosse. In 
the south-west corner of this inner enclosure are the 
foundations of a rectangular building of Hints .ipp.iri'iitly 



1 Most of the enceinte of this work is now entirely ol)litcr;itc<l, if, indeed, it 
was ever completed. 



474 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chai-. 

laid without mortar.^ On the eastern side was an annexe, 
of which the enclosing lines ran down to a pond now 
ploughed out. To all appearance the ditches com- 
municated with this pond and with one another, so that 
they must be presumed to have been once wet. At the 
present time they are absolutely dry, and they do not 
show either the width or the depth, or the peculiar Hat 
tread usual with wet moats. Pottery of " Roman " 
character is said to have been found on the spot, but it 
may be doubted whether it was not rather media3val. 

Earthworks of similar character — rectangular enclosures 
with ditches of slight width and depth, feeble valla, and 
mostly of very small extent^ — must in many instances 
be the remains of homesteads which, for whatever reason, 
had no wet moats. They are mostly to l)e found in spots 
overgrown with wood of recent planting, or in fields 
which have long been under grass, the plough having 
elsewhere completely destroyed them. They have a 
general resemblance to the works at Magdalen Field 
(Fig. 152), at Bossens (Fig. 100) and Rookwood (Fig. 
104), and though usually styled Roman camps, are for 
the most part far too small to have been such. 

In some few cases the moat is fed by springs which 
rise in its floor, as with the Bishop's Palace at Wells, or 
at some spot close at hand. More often the supply was 
drawn from a spring or stream at some little distance, and 
no little skill was shown in conducting the water to the 
required spot, i)roviding against deficiency or fiood, and 
regulating the fiow to the owner's taste. Proficiency in 
making such leets was learned from the Normans, who 
were great builders of mills and mill-streams. Very 



1 Flint work oi precisely the same character was found in 1858 on what 
was un([uestionably a Roman site at King's Field, Terrick, Bucks. See 
Records of Bnrl;s, vol. ii., p. 58. The works in Bray's Wood, investigated in 
1855, are descril)ed in the same publication, vol. i., p. 170. They have 
sufl'ered materially in the intervening half-century. 



XIV THE MOATED HOMESTEAD 475 

occasionally the natural stream was made to do duty as 
part of the moat/ but more usually this was wholly 
artificial. Stagnant moats seem to have Ijeen quite the 
exception, if they were ever purposely made in mediaeval 
times ; there was almost invariably a flow of water, slight 
perhaps, but perceptible. The old channels by which 
the supply was maintained and the overflow discharged 
are still traceable in many cases,^ although neglect or 
the purposed blocking of the effluents has made a stagnant 
pool to-day of many a moat that was originally filled with 
running water. 

As the builders of earlier times — Saxons and Danes 
and Normans — had made a point of selecting sites in the 
immediate vicinity of water, it naturally happened that 
occasionally the sites they had chosen were usurped 
by later builders, and mediaeval moats now stand on or 
within the area of older fortresses. It is not unlikely that 
some of the circular wet moats may be but the modified 
remains of moated mottes, of which the mounds have 
been levelled far enough to suit the purposes of the 
mediaeval builder.^ In some cases the latter seems to 
have adapted to his requirements the ditches of some 
pre-existing fortress of Norman type, leaving the mound 
and other works more or less to take care of themselves. 



' There is a good example at Newnham Priory, near Bedford. This site 
covers 35 acres, the river Ouse forming one of the longer sides. 

- Even where the old spring has not entirely failed, modern drainage 
operations have frecjuently pijjcd it and buried it, so that the source of 
supply is no longer visible. The old culverts reuiain in many cases, mostly 
waterless to-day, and when accidentally lit upon by tlie rustic ditcher, lend 
substance to his favourite dreams of subterranean pass;iges. Such culverts, 
built of brick and carefully concealed beneath the surface, belong rather to 
the military than the domestic moat. It was desirable to keep secret tlie 
sc'urce of their water suj)ply, and only wealthy people could afford to 
construct them. 

â– ' There appears to be an examide of this at Peel Hall, Cheshire, which (as 
the name suggests) was probably a fortified post for the defence of the 
Welsh March ; but the j)erfectly circular island may still preserve its original 
design. 



476 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP, 



Craiimei-'s Mount (Fig. 122) has been already mentioned. 
Two plans here given show what appear to be cases 
of such adaptation at Little Kimble and at Saunderton, 
two Buckinghamshire hamlets not 5 miles apart. In 
the case of Little Kimble (Fig. 164) the original mount 




Fig. 164. — Little Kimble. 

still remains, and the baileys, albeit sadly defaced, are 
still traceable in great part.^ In the case of Saunderton 

^ Remains of Roman character have been unearthed on this site (Records 
of BhcJ(s, vol. i.), and quantities of stone — foundations, &c. — have been 
removed from the spot. Tradition declares that Queen Eleanor, who is said 
to have built (^rebuilt) the church, had a nunnery here, and it was long the 
site of a manor-house, of which tlie last representative was pulled down only 
at the beginning of the last century. The site of a small mediaeval moat is 
plain enough immediately south of the gi'eat mound, as are the traces of the 
enclosing wall of the later manor-h(»use finther to the south. See also p. 413. 



XlV 



THE MOAIED HOMESTEAD 



477 



(Fio'. 165) the mound is sadly sliruiikeii, l)ut the traces 
of at least one bailey, within which stands the tiny 
church, are quite obvious, while the other has ])een as 




Fi(i. iGo.— Saunderton. 



obviously con\eited into a moated site of exceptional 



strength/ 



• There were originally two manors of Saunderton (St. Mary and St. 
Nicholas), and two churches. One manor is said, with doubtful reason, to 
have stood on Lodge Hill ; the other may very well have occu[)ied the site 
south of the present church. [In a field somewhat to the east have been 
ploughed up fragments of Roman tessellated pavement.] Of the second 
cluirch (St. Nicholas) there is no trace, but two stone colfins are said to 
have been dug np (m the site of the ju'csent farm buildings. The moat which 
tmce surrounded the churcli-farm has only been Idled in within recent 



478 . EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chaf. 

Certain deeply moated sites, with heavy earthen 
ramparts a])Out their areas, are thought to be of very 
early date — Saxon or very early Norman. The later 
mediaeval moat occasionally shows traces of a similar 
but much slighter rampart, which, however, in most cases 
represents nothing more than the remains of the wall, 
stockade or hedge, exactly as similar mounds within the 
area mark the sites of vanished ])uildino's. The owner 
commonly secured his privacy })y raising some sort of 
fence about his island-residence/ But many of the larger 

; — o* "■' '^ '' " 

~ :; Zr — ^ o s 'o to 30 ^o so 

- r E r '- ' /»""' ' 



r E '',.0" ''""""HiMiMr,, »\>inniitiniM\'''' i 5: 



l^» 'I' 



' ' 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 n^ ^> 



• 

Fig. 166.— Fortified Manor Site, Sibthorpe. 

moated sites of late date were fortified with formidable 
ramparts and complicated ditches. In Fig. 166 is shown 
the plan of part of a very large site at Sibthorpe, Notts, 

memory. Half a mile away, in Roundabout Wood, in the parish of Horsenden, 
is yet another small moated site. Its ditch still holds water, but the spring 
which originally fed it no longer flows. 

' The customary defence was a simple wooden palisade. Turner (Dumestic 
Architectvre, p. 14) gives a reproduction from a MS. of 1.316, showing the 
moat, slight wooden bridge with handrails, wooden gate-house with towers 
and battlements, and palisades. Beyond the i)ali.sades is to be seen the 
residence. He cites also an entry from the Court Rolls of Ed. I. : "For 
7 empty casks for the paling of the bridge, seven shillings and a penny." 
And this was the bridge of Rhuddlan Castle ! 



xiv THE MOATED HOMESTEAD .479 

with unusually fine defen(;es. It is pioluiMy of no great 
age as moats 00. The site of Sii; Ilari-y TiOc's mansion 
at QuaiTcndon, Bucks (15G()), was entrcneli('(l hcliind an 
enormous wall of earth from 20 to 30 feet wide at its 
perfectly level summit, which rises 4-6 feet above the 
surface of the area, and extends for a length of 200 yards 
in one direction and 140 yards in the other, moated 
on either side. In a few instances the rampart is 
transferred to the outer side of the moat ; or while 
both sides of the moat are ramparted, the stronger 
work is on the exterior. The site known as Berrysteads, 
Keysoe Park, Bedfordshire, stirrup-shaped in plan, has an 
area measuring about 100 yards either way. Round this 
runs a modest vallum, beyond wdiich lies a moat 40 to 
50 feet w^ide ; and about the moat is thrown up anotlier 
vallum of great size, in places 50 feet wide and 15 feet 
high. Works of this pretentious kind are outside tlie 
category of domestic moats properly so called. 

The usual means of communication with the outer 
world was a l)ridge, originally a temporary structure 
which could* be raised or removed when occasion 
demanded it. This was later replaced by a permanent 
structure of l)rick or stone. On many a moated site 
long since dry and defenceless still lingers the tradition 
that it was accessible only by a plank. The more per- 
manent bridge was of course not built until the raisoa 
d'etre of the moat had passed away, and very t)ften the 
owner saved expense l)y simply filling up the moat at 
a convenient point, so making a passage for himself and 
his cattle. It was l)ut a i^light step further to remove 
tlic barns and stal)les to the further side of the moat, 
and turn their old site into oarden or orchard. The final 
step came when, tired of tlic narrow confines and the 
inconvenience of his picturesque domain, or finding, 
perhaps, that the house which had served his forl)ears 
for so many generations was now past repair, he l)uilt 



48o EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

for himself a new resideiiee move to his liking outside 
the moat, and, pulling down the older falnic, gave up to 
the trees and the 2;rass the whole of the island's area. 
One can frequently fix the date at wdiich the older site 
was abandoned by the style of the newer building. Of 
the older house, rarely a stone or a brick remains ; the 
materials were used afresh to build the new home. The 
discarded moat, no longer regarded even as an ornament, 
1)ut rather grudged as so much space lost to the grazier 
or the ploughman, gradually shrank. The neglect of the 
sluices, the accumulation of weed and reed from within, 
the constant tipping in of rubbish from without, filled up 
its fosse, and the gradual failure of the springs curtailed 
its supply of water. Its day was past, its disappearance 
but a matter of time. In too many cases there remains 
of it not so much as a tradition ; in others a forgetful gen- 
eration has attached to its vestiges some absurd tale of 
Cromwell and the Civil Wars, some name sucraestive 
of a Roman or even older origin,^ or talks idly of 
castles that once occupied the site, and of treasure ])uried 
within the area. 

The persistence of some sort of homestead uj)on one 
spot is almost as remarkable as that elsewdiere noticed 
in regard to towns. One constantly finds side by side 
not merely the discarded moat and the present-day house, 
but also the vestigia of intermediate houses that have 
long been forgotten. Thus the modern Givendale ^ is a 
picturesque farm of perhaps two centuries old ; beside 



' At Pacheshain, near Leatheihead, Surrey, is a moated site of medium 
size, solemnly named a British camp by vai-ious writers. There is nothing 
about it in the least resembling British work, and nothing that does not 
resemble mediiBval work. A few miles away to the north, buried in a wood 
near Chessington, is an earthwork which may be anything except Roman. 
It is persistently styled a "Roman camp" by the maker's of books, on the 
convincing evidence of a solitary coin there discovered. Q)ndj)lvir( ? 

- Sir Simon Ward, of Oivtiidale, was one of those who fought and fell at 
Bannockburn. 



XIV 



THE MOATJa) HOMESTEAD 



481 



it at tlie foot of the slope lies the original moated site 
(Fig. 155) ; while the whole of the ground about is 
seamed with trenches and mounds marking the sites of 
spacious l)uildings of intermediate date. At Walk- 




Fl<!. Ifi7.— MOATKII SlTKS, WAI,KIN(iH.\>[ H AIT.. 

ingliam, l)etween Ripon and Knaresliorough, is an exactly 
similar but more extensive group (Fig. 167). In a water- 
meadow on the bank of tlie Shaw Beck lie two dcscrtc(l sites. 
The older of the two is oval and of great size, but I lie 
other is of rectangular design and of (juite extraordiuary 
dimensions ; while upon the northward shjpe overlooking 

I 1 



482 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



])otli staiuls their modern representative, known as 
Walkingham Hill Farm. Alike at Givendale and 
at Walkingham, it will be noticed that the older work 
lies nearer to the water, is less regular in plan, and is of 
smaller size, than that which superseded it ; while the 
modern house is still further away from the water, smaller 
than any of its predecessors, and, of course, of strictly 



75 SA enU y 


C/iurch-^"^ — ^ 


-— V.VI'fMMKiriM' 
1 — -'-i ' 

-F -: Traces 0/ 




•■'■■■'■'"''■':>: 


." tr — - ;. •■'" 


, 


, 1 


rr. y'j,^ '-'• /,iri. I ui 1.1.;. .-'".' 


- 

■■-.•.•. '•■,■ .,. -" ^ 


■•^•■•'•■■■•-..uu,, 


T00&. d n %i 

/ 


/J 


20 J^fO 

1 1 -ll 


60 80 700 



yarcfs 

Fig. 168. — Moateu Sitpis, Shenley Church End. 



rectangular plan. These are the regular characteristics of 
the successive developments of the homestead. At Shenley 
Church End (Fig. 168), Bucks, may be traced another 
example of develoj)ment. The principal earthworks are 
the remains — islands, wide moat, and heavy containing 
vallum — of a mansion covering several acres, while con- 
tiguous, and indeed almost within the precincts of the 
larger site, is a diminutive island, heavily moated and 
artificially raised to an unusual heio;ht. Measured alonuf 



XIV THE MOATED HOMl<:S lEAD 483 

the outer edge of the moat, tliis is a s(juare of no more 
than 45 yards. It appears to l>e tlie original site, sul)- 
sequently sujierseded by the hirger.^ 

Besides tliese cases of duplicated moats, explicable as 
merely earlier and later phases of the same homestead, it is 
not at all uncommon to find two or more moated sites of 
considerable size, quite independent one of another, in 
the same parish or even in the same village.- Sometimes 
these will be contemporary works representing the sites of 
different manor-houses ; for the same parish, as in the case 
of Saunderton, was frequently parcelled out amongst two 
or three manors, and at Sibthorpe, Notts, there were as 
many as five. In other cases they are of difierent 
dates, for as time went on and the moat came to be no 
longer the special mark of only the greatest houses, there 
might well be in the same village several families of 
dignity and means sufficient to Iniild moated residences, 
without taking- into consideration the multitudinous 
moated houses — priories, granges, and what not — belong- 
ing to the Church. 

Where local conditions made moat-buildino- easv, it is 
not unusual to find, l)esides the principal moat enclosing 
the homestead, a sul)sidiary moat embracing a much 
larger area. Such subsidiary streams are, of course, fed 
from the same source as, and are connected with, the main 
moat, but as a rule they are of less widtli and depth, 
although they may be of sufficient extent to include 
several acres of paddock, garden and orchard. In Essex 
there are three instances in whicli the moat is so extensive 



' The manor of Church End was in the hands of the Vache family, fi'iiii>. 
Ed. I., thence passing to the Greys, Daul)eneys (loO;")), Pigots (l.")!'!)), and 
Ashfiekls (15()."?). To these numerous changes of ownership tliere doulttless 
corresponded considerable changes in the I'csidence. The site, needless to 
say, has been claimed as a " Roman camp." 

- The occurrence of moated sites of less dignity in groups was mentioned 
in the footnote to p. 456. Of larger moats there are, or were, no less than 
five within the single parisli of Arlington, Sussex. 

I I 2 



4«4 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



as to include within its circuit not only the great house, 
but the church and the entire village also ; viz., Mundon, 
Hazeleigh, and Canewdon. Grove Farm, Ashley Green, 
Bucks (Fig. 169), is a fine example of a doul)le moat, in 
which the outer works are not merely more extensive than 
the inner, but also wider and deeper. This was once a 
manor-house of the Cheyne family. In an old barn upon 
the inner island are embodied the scanty remains of the 
orio-inal house, and there are still to be seen the ruins of the 

r - /,-•"' ""'A %,„ """"../^> 

-: t-RVlNS '-â– - \ """/-^ r '. 

CHAPEL^ 




too zoo 3oo 



Fig. 169. — Grove Farm, Ashley Green. 

once fortified gateway. The outer moat is unusually large 
and well preserved. Moated houses of such pretentious 
kind merge into the moated castles spoken of in an earlier 
chapter. It is, of course, impossible to say at what precise 
point the house ceases to be a house and becomes a castle, 
or vice versa. 

AYhere the moat is double, the inner island usually 
occupies one corner of the larger area, one ditch sufficing 
to protect two sides of both enclosures. There are good 
examples at Bigginwood and at Moggerhanger, Beds. But 



XIV 



THE MOATKI) HOMESTEAD 



485 



there is no hard and fast rule. In anotlier Bedfordshire 
site, The Camps, Bushmead (Fig. 170), the inner area, 
while occupying a corner of the main enclosure, neverthe- 
less has its own ditch carried completely round it, so 
that on two sides it is covered by tw^o parallel ditches 
with only a narrow l)ank of earth between them. Very 
similar is the arrangement at Ashley Green (Fig. 109). 

'•'' "^ "^ ''''/. 



/ .^^ .'\o.... ;'"„, :'".,, 



\ '''/..'"•. 



::;> // 



-^ 1- 



100 2.00 300 ^y 



' / " , „ -UVV*^ // 

/y • :::;:::;r: ^->'/ 

Fi<;. 170. — Thk Cami's, Bushmead, St. Neots. 

At Share Farm, Horsnionden, Kent (Fig. 171), is an 

unusual example, with concentric quadiilatcral moats, the 

interspace ranging from 30 to 80 feet, while the whole 

is rendered yet more secure by its lying within the 

angle formed by the confluence of one stream — the Teise — 

with anotlier, these two forming as it were a third moat 

which very nearly surrounds the entire site. 

It was in "the spacious times of (ireat Elizabctli "" tliaf 

Englishmen beaan to feel the bounds of moats too narrow 
o o 



486 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



for them. AVitli the suppression of the bands of armed 
retainers by Henry VII. had ceased in theory the need 
of any moat at all, and though the theory miglit not 
coincide with the facts of life in the fifteenth century, ])y 
the end of the sixteenth century the general security was 
such that the further l)uilding of moats was abandoned, 



SAare fa.rin 




Jeet. 
Fki. 171. — Shake Faum, Uoksmoxdkn. 

or if practised at all, practised rather as a tradition or as 
an affectation. With the accession of James I. came 
peace even to the long vexed Border. Moated houses 
enjoyed a transitory revival of utility in the times of the 
Civil War, when many of them stood siege for the King 
or tor the Parliiment ; but whereas they had been devised 



XIV THE MOATED HOMESTEAD 487 

by a generation which knew of no weapon more formid- 
able than the crossbow, they had now to face artillery, 
against which no moat was of much use, and in spite of the 
valour of the defenders they were proven useless under 
these new conditions of warfare. This, coupled with the 
larger ideas of the newer generation, caused them to be 
relegated to the luml)er-room of antiquities. The very 
spacious notions cherished by Francis Bacon, as set forth in 
his essays Of (jrardcns and Of Houses, may not be exactly 
true of other and less magnificently ambitious men, but they 
reflect accurately enough the general expansiveness of the 
time. Moated sites were not roomy enough for such a 
time ; they were no longer useful ; they were too familiar 
to be fashionable, and they were too expensive to be con- 
structed on a scale commensurate wath men's enlarged 
ideas. Here were good reasons enough for doing away 
with the moat altogether. So moats ceased to be dug, 
and the country gentry contented themselves with high- 
walled gardens close at hand, and further afield parks 
rino;ed within walls of less heio^ht but of immense 
amplitude. The castle had long been a thing of the past ; 
the monastery had followed it ; now the moated house 
went tlie same way, and the making of earthworks ceased 
in England, to l)e revived presently l)y the " navigator " 
in the service of canals, of raihvays, and of water- 
companies. 

There was one other adjunct to every house — ecclesi- 
astical, military, and domestic alike — which has left here 
and there its mark upon the soil, viz., the fish-ponds, or 
" stews," which in pre-Reformation days were an essential 
part of the establishment. Even Chaucer's franklin had 
"many a l)ream and many a luce in stew," and tliat not 
solely because he loved good living. Tliere being no 
other means of ensuring a supply of fresh fish for Lent or 
other ffist-days, and salt fisli being in those days mostly 
" a kind of not of thel)est [)()()r-.b)lin " — strong stull' which 



48 8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

only the strongest of stomHclis could negotiate — such as 
could afford it preferred to make and maintain fish-ponds 
of their own.^ The method necessarily varied with the 
locality, the one essential being an unfailing supply of 
water in constant circulation. Sometimes the moat itself, 
if large, might serve as fish-pond too : there are still 
moats which yield bream and luces in plenty, not to 
mention smaller fish. But as a rule the stews and the 
moat were separate. The simplest plan was, where a 
convenient stream was available, merely to construct, ))y 
digging or damming, a series of ponds along its course, so 
that the water flowed naturally from one to another. 
There is a series of such ponds at Warnham Place, near 
Horsham, once a religious house ; and the ponds in 
Chequers Park, Little Kimble, were originally dammed 
for the same purpose, albeit now the water serves only to 
feed a pumping-engine. The well-known Waggoner's 
Wells at Hindhead — the name is a perversion of that of 
Wakener, their constructor — are of the same origin. Such 
convenient water-courses, however, were the exception, 
and in most cases it was necessary to construct artificial 
channels to ensure the supply. Considerable skill was 
shown in the manner of getting the largest result for the 
least labour. There is an example on the farm known as 
The Trenches, Langley Marish (Fig. 172). The site of the 
old house with its surrounding moat — a large one, enclos- 
ing upwards of an acre and fringed with ancient trees — lies 
a quarter of a mile away from the fish-pond, which is an 
oblong excavation measuring about 90 x 50 yards, or close 
upon an acre. The central area, now overgrown with 
osiers, is divided into a number of separate " pans," all 
communicating with a deep water-course surrounding the 

^ The situation of so many of the old religious houses on the banks of 
streams was directly determined by the necessity of an adequate sujjply of 
fresh water, not so much for drinking or for washing, as for the stews, the 
number and capacity of which varied directly with the dignity of the house. 



XIV 



THE LMOATED HOMESTEAD 



489 



whole. The clianiicl by wliic.li the supply was l>rouiiht to 
the pond, and the effluent by which it escaped after 
circulating through tlic successive pans, are still in 
workino' order. The soil duo; out in makino; the stews was 
thrown up to form a broad retaining l)ank along the 
southern and eastern side, forming in places amorphous 
mounds — -locally " The Trenches " — which are, as usual, 
attril)uted to the ubiquitous Cromwellians. Stews of this 




-* > ' â–  â–  ' . .vV 

10 20 30 40 50 60 Cjards ,.// , 



Fir.. 172. — Fisii-poNi), Lan'gley Makisii. 



type have in many cases been utilized as watercress beds. 
The second illustration (Fig. 173) shows the i)lan of a 
similar pond at Flamborough, Yorks. Fig. 174 shows the 
arrangement of the moats and fish-ponds of what was 
once a manordiouse of the Buttons at Rolleston, Notts. 
In this instance the ponds were evidently fed direct from 
the stream whicli supplied the moats, as also at Sibthorpe 
(Fig. 175) in the same county. This is a particularly 



490 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP. 



elaborate series, and one of the ponds, square . in plan 
and surrounded by double banks of very unusual height 




O 



loo 



200 3oa 



Fi(i. 173. — Fish-ponds at Flamborough. 

and thickness, is of exceptional design. These jjelonged 
to a manor-house of the Burnells of the sixteenth cen- 



Greef ??,,., 
runs A' i>". 




'^^.<^< 



v^ ii; \ \',-- <y^ c^ C'^ ■-'. .•■ <^ -.- Cross 









Fig. 174.— Mo.\ts and Fish- ponds at Rolleston. 

tury. The fish-ponds at Limbury Manor, near Luton, 
Bedfordshire, of unusual extent and complexity, are 



XIV 



J HE MOATED HOMESTEAD 



491 



known to liave hecii in existence as early as the days of 
Edward 11. 

Rarely of any great depth, such fish-ponds liave mostly 
vanished completely under tlie plough, and where any 
trace of them remains it is generally no more tlian a series 
of shallow rectangular depressions,^ of which the rectilineal 
arrangement at once catches the eye of any one who has 
learnt to look for such things. Although doubtless main- 
tained in many cases for some time longer by such families 



:i 



B 






A c^'''"ttife:-'':ii ^ 



<.\\Vin-7rr,. 






^•v.\Ui.l.U.lAl.U.I,iK.;>^ ';. 



•'V'. T fi'i ivn n ivi'-^^ 



'''iffi 




Fig. 175. -FisH-i'oNiis at J^ihthori'e, Notts. 



as held by the old faith, mostly they disappeared at the 
Reformation, and probably very few were built after that 
date.^ Seeing that 3|- centuries have elap.sed since then. 



' Occasionally the pond.s are so much lai.sed that they can only li.ive heen 
tilled with water by machinery ; e.;/., the square pond in Fig. 175 a. At 
Higham Gobion, Beds, is a series of three similar ponds of oblong plan, 
associated with an anomalous enclosure of 3 acres, which would seem to have 
been an ornamental lake, witli a c(>nsideral)le mound in the Hiiddlr. Tlir 
site is now dry. 

- It is recorded of one Charles Cecil, who died as late as 17-o, that he 
"built all the tish-ponds " at Snape Castle. There are instances of tish- 



492 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

it is no marvel that their traces are but few. It is much 
more remarkable that nowadays no one thinks it worth 
while to cultivate fish in the old way. That salmon and 
trout alone amongst freshwater fish deserve to be Ijred and 
eaten is one of those groundless prejudices which pass 
unchallenged because they are so inveterate. The man 
who has caught his own basket of perch (half-pounders, if 
luck will have it) before breakfast, and eaten them grilled 
" in their jackets " within an hour or so, will never again 
sneer at such " coarse fish," or envy another man his 
trout. 

Though they be the youngest amongst the more im- 
portant classes of English earthworks, and by far the 
commonest, these moats possess a charm and appeal which 
is perhaps for that very reason more intimate and real. 
Here at any rate dwelt men and women of our own 
immediate kin, the good knights and yeomen who fought 
upon a hundred fields from Crecy onwards, and who now 
lie within the churches, some in black suits of cullen- 
plate, some in white cerements of alabaster, but all 
stately still, and bearing themselves like men — like that 
delightful, proud old warrior. Sir John Clerk of Thame, 
who has caused to be engraved upon his brass only that 
he " toke Louys of Orleans, Duk of Longueville and 
Marquis of Rotuelin, prysoner on ye Jorney of Bomy by 
Terouane," Mn 1513, leaving to others to inscribe elsewhere 
the record of his less militant virtues. Within the 
straitened precincts of such a moat doubtless dwelt alike 
Chaucer's far-ridden " veray parfit gentil " knight, and his 
" frankeleyn " with the " complexioun sangwyn " begotten 



ponds built during the eighteenth century for ornamental purposes, perhaps 
in fancied imitation of Roman habit — an affectation which otherwise vented 
itself in building obelisks, classical temples, grottoes, and similar follies. 

• /.(/. the Battle of the Spurs, more familiarly known in its day as 
Ld Juurnee des Eperons, de Guinrgattc, or some such synonym. Sir John's 
p)isoner was Commander-in-Chief of the defeated French, and for this 
service was Sii' John knig'hted. 



XIV THE MOATED HOMESTEAD 493 

of many a sop-iii-wiiie taken Ix'times "l)ytlie morwo." 
Ill such a setting one thinks of slender girls and stately 
women, the mothers of a very crowd of home-keeping 
sons and daughters, that kneel meekly with clasped hands 
on either side of their parents' effigies — the women who 
now and aoain rode a-hawkino- with Dame Juliana 
Berners' instructions at their finger-tips, or wliiled away 
their rare spare hours with Plato his Pliaedo or 
Euj)hiies his England or Sidney's Arcadia, or the thin 
music of the virginals, but for the most part lived 
strenuous days of infinite quietude amongst their 
embroideries, their herbs, and their babies. They are all 
gone now, and their quaint old houses of sound red brick- 
work or of stone, and many gables, are mostly gone with 
them ; the sluices have broken down or become choked, 
the moat is stagnant, the garden with its warning 
sundial and its long hedge of yew, changeless the year 
through as were their own unrecorded lives, has vanished 
under the grass ; and where once walked only sweet 
culture and grave courtesy, now one meets, if one is 
fortunate, no soul at all, or if one is less happy, some 
impatient interloper hot-tongued to know the reason of 
your trespass amongst his cowslips, or some yet more 
earthy son of earth with fatuous talk of treasure buried 
and of castle vanished. But down in the moat itself still 
haunt shy birds, and upon the grassy mound grow rare 
plants, pitiful survivals whose forebears were doubtless 
watched over by bright eyes that answered to the stately 
titles of Dame and Lady and Mistress, 

' ' And this delightful herb, whose tender green 
Fledges the river's lip on which we lean, 

Ah, lean upon it liglitly, for who knows 
From wliat once lovely lip it springs unseen I " 



CHAPTER XV 

DYKES AND DITCHES 

"Men shall say ivitli fearful wonder, 'He hatli digged the earth in 
sunder ; 
With the valleys and the mountains he hatli girded him about.' 
It shall he to them a sign, all within this mark is mine ; 

And whoso luill may call him lord of all that lies without." 

The Devil has extensive property in this country — 
Cheesewrings and Punchbowls and Dens, Causeways and 
Highways, Bridges and Jumps and Leaps, even a Church- 
yard in Oxfordshire, and in Yorkshire a Cross ^ ; but most 
numerous amongst the catalogue of his possessions are his 
Dykes and Ditches.^ By an accident of language, the 
word " ditch " is merely a synonym for " trench," but 
" dyke " may signify either a fosse below, or a vallum 
above, the earth. In Lincolnshire the smallest gutter 
that bounds a field or a road, and the huge cuts, wide and 
deep as rivers, which carry oft' the waters of the fens, are 
alike " dykes " ; in Yorkshire the stone walls which parcel 
out the moors and fells are " dykes " — " dry dykes " for 



1 The Devil's Cross is a large tumulus 3 miles from Aldborough (Isurium), 
said to have once carried a miliary. The word devil is here a corruption for 
deuil, the Roman stone having in later times been mistaken for, or possibly 
converted into, a ti-eepinij-cross. 

- The two words are merely variants from the same root, "to dig." Tlie 
intermediate links are still in local use : dijrhc is the pronunciation in Saloji, 
did: in Buckinghamshire. 



CH. XV DYKES AND DITCHES 495 

(li.stiiictioii. T)ut where the Devil is owner it is almost 
alwnys a vallum that is thought of. It is true that there 
can scarcely be a vallum without a fosse, but man seems 
to have instinctively a greater admiration for that which 
rises above the soil than for that which falls beneath it ; 
and Nature abets his preference. Her forces are far more 
active in levelling up the one than in levelling down the 
other, and in many cases there remains no sign of any fosse 
while the vallum still raises its back — dorsum immane — 
above the surrounding ground, inert, uncouth, inexplic- 
able most likely, but not to be overlooked hy the least 
observant. 

There are few counties which cannot show something in 
the way of dykes and ditches. There are Devil's Dykes 
in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, 
Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and Sussex. Grim's Dykes or 
Grim's Ditches occur in Wilts and Dorset, Hertfordshire, 
Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire. Often the 
same earthwork bears the name of Grim or the Devil 
indifferently, as in Buckinghamshire and Dorset. There 
are scores more wdiich bear individual names : Medlar's 
Bank (Oxfordshire), Combe's Bank and Gudgeon's Bank 
(Dorset), and Bunn's ^ Bank (Norfolk) ; Black Dykes 
(Norfolk, Northumberland, and Yorkshire^), Bran, Brand, 
Brant, or Brent ^ Ditches (Essex, Camln-idgeshire) ; in 
Cornwall a Giant's Hedge, in Cumberland a Bishop's 
Dyke, and on the Malvern Hills the Red Earl's Ditch ; 

1 Probably for Bund {'u'. " boundary ") Bank. 

- The "Black Dyke" of Yorkshire, otherwise known as the Scots' Nick, 
Road Dyke, or >Sixon's Loaning (Saxon's Lane), connnences at the nortliern 
bank of the Swale between Richmond and Easeby, and runs with more or 
less completeness continuously northward across Northumberland into 
Scotland. It rescm])les a broad, sunken way with a liank on each side, 
very like the Catrail (see below), of wliich, according to one view, it is a 
cimtin nation. 

â– ' l.ij. "steep." The word occurs as late as Ascham's Tn.rophllKs, and has 
no connexion at all with "burnt" (Prof. W. W. Skeat, i'/dr-c Naint's of 
CaudiriilijesJiiie). 



496 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Oxfordshire has an Aves Ditch,' Dorset an Achling Dyke, 
Camlnidgeshire a Fleam Dyke and a Fen Dyke ; along 
the Welsli Marches lies Oft'a's Dyke, with its lesser neigh- 
bour. Watt's - Dyke ; and the famous Wansdyke ^ traverses 
half the breadth of Enoland from Berkshire to the Severn 
Sea. But when all is said, the Devil and Grim between 
them own the lion's share, and saving in point of length 
only — in which respect AVoden outdoes him — the Devil's 
share includes the most formidable and the most impres- 
sive of them all. 

Of some of these various works the date and character 
have been already discussed, e.g. the Dyke Hills at 
Dorchester (Oxon.), Pouter's Ball near Glastonbury, the 
Danes' Dyke on Flamborough Head, Wansdyke, and 
Bokerley Dyke. In Cleveland there are numbeis of small 
dykes, many of them built of clean stone, which are 
thought to be similar to the Danes' Dyke in age and 
purpose. Canon Atkinson * remarks that they cross the 
ridges between the dales, in lines always double, often 
treble, and sometimes quadruple, invariably facing to the 
south. He thinks that they may have some connexion 
with the strong fortress on Eston Nab, the dykes being 
apparently designed to block the approaches thither from 
the interior and the south. The date of a few others 
may be regarded as fairly certain. The Graeme's Dyke, 
or Wall of Antonine, traversing Scotland from the Forth 
to the Clyde, is admittedly a Roman work. Roman, too. 



^ Said to be a coiTuption of Offa's Ditch, but dubiously. Tt has other 
local names, e.g. Ashbank and Wattlebank. 

- "Watt" is said to represent " Wato," the father of the Scandinavian 
Weyland, so that Wato's Dyke is analogous to Wansdyke (= Woden's 
Dyke). But Wat or Watt was once a synonym for a Welshman, as Pat 
is still for an Irishman. Hartshorne derived it, as he would derive anything, 
from a Celtic source, viz. giuaeth, "less," "inferior," i.e. as compared with 
Offa's Dyke. 

^ See above, p. 372. The name of Woden's Dyke still attaches unaltered 
to a small dyke Ih miles south of Linkenholt, in Hampshire. 

* Forty Years in a Moorland Parish, pp. 153-160. 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 497 

lor the mo^^t part, is llic oicaU'i- Wall of ILuliiaii, althougli 
this may owe soniethiiig of its existing form to other 
hands earlier or later. The (Jrim's Dyke of North Oxford- 
shire Pitt-Rivers fancied to 1)e a Roman work, intended 
to cover the northern flank of the Akeman street, but 
Prof. Haverfield asserts that the road overlies the dyke, 
which must therefore be pre-Roman. A high bank 
running north-west from the old north gate of Chichester 
was found to contain a piped water-course, to be, in ffict, an 
aqueduct.^ Offa's Dyke is probably much as Offa left it, 
towards the end of the eighth century, as the boundary 
between his kingdom of Mercia and the troul)lesome 
Welsh, though it may well be that he to some extent 
availed himself of pre-existing earthworks of unknown 
age and purpose. Tradition declares that Watt's Dyke 
was an earlier work of the same king. The two run, more 
or less parallel, from the Dee in Flintshire, to the mouth of 
the Wye in Gloucestershire, sometimes as much as 3 miles 
apart, sometimes as little as 500 yards. Watt's Dyke is a 
less imposing work than Offa's Dyke, shorter and smaller. 
Its height is at the most 11 J feet, with a fosse of 7 feet 
in wddth, and its length about 37 miles. Offa's Dyke 
rises in places as much as 15 feet, the ditch ])eing 11 feet 
wide. In each case the ditch is on the western side, 
which ]nust be taken as proof that the original builders, 
whoever they were, dwelt to the east of the dykes. 
Bishop Creighton thought the Catrail — the largest of the 
Scottish dykes, extending for 50 miles across the shires of 
Selkirk and Roxburgh between the Cheviots and the 
Tweed — was perhaps Saxon w^ork, erected by ^'Ethelfrith 
of Northumliria after his victory at Daegsastan (603) to 
be his northei-n frontier-line. It is a wide and deep 
trench with a rampart on both sides. "-^ The Red Earl's 

1 Gentlenuoi's Maga:iiK>, 181(5, Part ii., p. 20. 

- See Chi-istison, Enrbj Fortijicdfions of Scotbimf, ]){). ;i58-3().S. ^^■l•iting 
in Antiquary, June, 1908, Ed. Woolcr, F.S.A., detinitely pronounces it to 
be a military work. It is probablj' [)re-Ronian, as is the Black Dyke. 

K K 



49S EARTHWORK OK ENGLAND chap. 

Ditcli (called also the Shire Ditch, l)ecaiise for some 
distance it forms the boundary l)etweeii the shires of 
Worcester and Plereford) was in the thirteenth century 
the boundary of the estates of the Bisliops of Hereford 
and those of the de Clares of Gloucestershire, but there 
can be little doubt that the work itself is far older than 
that date.^ It may be that the Saxons employed this 
method of markins; the boundaries of neiohbourino- 
king-doms, and some of the existing dykes may be of 
Saxon construction. But, speaking generally, they are of 
proportions too great to have been erected merely as 
boundary marks. The immense size and peculiar dis- 
position of many of them are only reconcilable with the 
theory that they were primarily military works, and 
everything that is learnt about the more important of 
them goes to prove them of very great antiquity. Un- 
questionably, the Saxons on their coming found many of 
the dykes already built, and made use of them 
occasionally as boundary-marks, or embodied them in 
newer defensive works, as King Offa seems to have done. 
Of the minor dykes little more can be said than that they 
may, some of them, be of later date than the larger works. 
The hal)it of building walls, for whatever purpose, did 
not originate with Balbus, nor did it end with him. 

Excepting what was done by Pitt-Rivers in connexion 
with the Wansdyke and Bokerley Dyke, there has been 
very little attempt to determine the age and origin of 
earthworks of this class. The task is one of quite 
exceptional difficulty and cost, and perhaps another 



' "Matilda de Mules, 10 Ric. I., owes one mark for license to make 
a ditch between the wood of Serleby and the fields." This may be the 
so-called "Roman Bank" running north to south for li miles between 
Blyth and Scrooby, Notts, 3 miles north of East Retford. Its fosse forms a 
roadway between the two \'illages. In any case the citation shows that such 
dykes were constructed as boundaries of estates in the twelfth century, and 
were matter of royal license. T ([uote from Mr. W. Stevenson, in Vict. Co. 
Hist. Notts. 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 499 

reason tor tnoidiiii;- it is that it promises liitK- liupc (»t' 
any material " finds," so that the dykes go for tlie most 
part unnoticed. 

Nomenclature, while mostly giving no clue at all to 
their origin, points only to the immense antiquity of the 
more remarkable of them. Tliis is the atom of solid fact 
underlying their attribution to the Devil or to Grim. 
(7 rim and the Devil are Tully and Cicero ; they are one 
and the same, and of tlie two names Grim is the older. 
Dr. Guest soucfht to derive the name from the mediasval 
fjruma, " boundary," a word which reappears in the 
Scottish clan-names of Graeme, Grahame, and Graham, 
families which took their names from the Grim's Dyke ^ 
near which they were settled, i.e. from the Wall of 
Antonine ; for the legend which declares that the clan- 
name was given in compliment to that valiant Scot who, 
when at last the Romans fell back from their frontier- 
line, was first to scale and cross the Wall, has no better 
basis than similar legends which claim for others of 

o 

the clans the use of private l)oats at tlie Noachian 
deluge. 

A Grim's Dyke, then, meant originally a " l)oundary 
dyke." It was the common Saxon name for any of the 
great earthen valla of the map, whether the Saxons at 
their coming found them already l)uilt or themselves 
erected them. But in the rapid flux of dialects of that 
period, words and names, and the meaning of names, 
passed quickly out of memory. So it was with Gruma, 
Grim, or Graeme. The word remained, but its meaning- 
was forgotten ; the dead name stuck, as names will, to 

' The name of Grim's, Grime's, or Graeme's Dyke occurs in Scotland, but 
the longest and best known of Scottish dykes bears the i)eculiar name of tlie 
Catrail. The Wall of Antonine was locally known as a (iraeme's Dyke. 
Inasmuch as its construction was sometimes attril)uted to Severus, bygone 
antiquaries fancied they had therein found the origin of the name of (Jrim ; 
it was, they asserted, merely an Anglo-Saxon translation of the R(.>man 
Emperor's name Severus {obiit 211), "the stein," " the grim " I 

K K 2 



500 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

this or that dyke, l)ut tlie liviiio- word passed out of 
the vocabulary. But there was another very similar 
word of greater vitality, Griraa, "a gohlin." This w^as 
dragged in to explain the other, and Grim's Dyke was 
interpreted to mean Gol)lin's Dyke. A few generations 
later, when Christ had ousted Woden, and Satan had 
usurped the thrones of all the collective devils of 
Saxondom, Grim was retranslated into Christian language, 
and took final shape as the Devil. In some cases the 
older name has prevailed, in others the younger, and in 
not a few instances the two survive side by side. To 
the Devil's better known properties must be added, there- 
fore, such others as Grim's Dykes wherever found, Grime's 
Graves in Norfolk, Grimsbury Camp in Berkshire, and 
Grim's Pound on Dartmoor. 

Of all Devil's Dykes so called, the best known is 
doubtless that on the Sussex Downs, 5 miles north-west 
of Brighton, albeit the squeamishness or the indolence of 
these later days tends to ignore all reference to Satan 
and to speak of it simply as The Dyke, thereby consigning 
to oblivion yet one more fragment of our scanty folk-lore. 
For the name is a happy example of the genesis of a 
legend : it carries with it a faint odour of days when the 
powers of heaven and of hell were more real than 
now they are, when fancy could still flower, and the 
dictionary had not entirely superseded the imagination. 
For this reason it is here described, although it is in 
truth no dyke at all, but a part of the ceinture of a 
British camp of quite normal type.^ 



^ The names of dykes, ditches, and banks constantly attach to fortresses 
of British or other date. Clovelly Dykes, Devon, is a ijarticularly fine and 
ehi])orate British camp, and the earthworks at Lexden, Essex, sometimes 
known as Grime's Dyke, were apparently j^art of the defences of the British 
oppidam which preceded Camalodunum. Castle Dykes, near Ripon, is a 
Roman station. At East Hope, Salop, is a camp known as "The 
Ditches"; in Cambridgeshire is "War Ditches"; a "Castle Ditches" 
occurs at Tisbury, Wilts ; and the lines round the ancient Ratae (Leicester) 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 



501 



From the main mass of the Downs juts out towards the 
north-east a tongue-shaped spur, the crest of whicli, 700 
feet above sea-level, marks the highest point in the 
vicinity. From the base of this spur, only some 1,000 
feet across, the adjacent ground trends almost imper- 
ceptibly down to the south, but upon all other sides the 
slopes arc unusually abrupt, the ground falling immediately 
to the 300-feet level, and thence more gradually to the 
yet lower level of the Weald about Poynings. Especially 
al)rupt is the descent upon the eastern side, where the 
spur is divided from the opposite high ground of Summer 
Down and Saddlescoml)e ])y a narrow cleft in the chalk, 
300 feet in depth and at its widest not more than 1,100 
feet across. Amongst the gently rounded curves whicli 
mostly characterize the Downs, the steepness of this 
narrow combe, not less than its length, makes it singular 
and compels remark. The isolation of the spur, and its 
steep sides, marked it out as the most defensible position 
in all the South Downs, and here accordingly a forgotten 
race constructed for themselves a fortress (Fig. 217). 
Across the base of the spur they drew a mighty fosse 
and vallum, and round the hill-top, almost exactly at 
the GOO-feet contour line, they carried another less 
formidaljle rampart, enclosing in all an irregular oljloiig 
space of 2,300 feet in length and 1,000 feet at its widest 
— a very respectable area as camps go, and more than 
commonly secure from attack. The great south-westward 
vallum, despite the storms and desecrations of unnund>ercd 
centuries, is yet a mighty and impressive thing. 

It was mightier still when, 1,500 years ago, the South 
Saxon first saw it, and named it the Grim's Dyke, (n-nma, 
the boundary, in due coui'se changed into grim the goblin, 



;iio known ;is the Row, Raw, or Ratli Ditches. " Bank " occurs at Wanlud's 
Bank, Bodfonlshire, Belan's Bank, Salop, (Jadlniry Bank, Worcostorshirc, 
Castle Bank, Glos., Anibrosbiuy Banks, Essex, and Tlie Banks ne ir Wcni, 
Salop. 



502 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

and this in turn to the Devil ; and just as an earlier 
generation had misunderstood the earlier name, so a later 
age sought an explanation of tlie other. Demand pro- 
voked supply, and the modern tripper may purchase on 
the spot for a modest sum this most veracious explanation. 

The Devil, it appears, was sorely troubled by the rapid 
growth of churches throughout the Weald ; and truly one 
may see a goodly number from the Dyke, churches of all 
ages and all dignities, from the tiny Hangleton on the south- 
ward slope and the ambitious pile of Poynings at the 
Dyke's northern foot to a score that dot the lowlands to 
north and west. Resolved to put a period to this trespass 
upon his ancient domains, he fell a-digging in the dark- 
ness, meaning to cut a channel through the Downs to the 
sea, and so lay the Weald with all its churches under 
water. He toiled valiantly- — is not his work to be seen 
to this day, the great combe driven far into the hill ? — 
but pausing to take breath, and casting backward an 
approving eye upon his progress, he caught sight of a 
gleam of light. " The Dawn ! " cried his guilty con- 
science ; and without second thought he abandoned his 
enterprise and disappeared. Yet he had seen nothing 
more than the gleam of a candle in some old woman's 
cottage. 

So far tlie tale. That it is of very modern invention 
matters not. The interesting thing is that the later 
generation which coined the story was no wiser than those 
older folk who forgot the true meaning of Grim. The 
modern myth-maker had likewise forgotten the mean- 
ing of Dyke. Forgetting that it might mean a wall, he 
misinterpreted it in its other sense of a ditch, and the 
name which rightly belongs to the great artificial vallum 
on the hill's top lie has transferred finally to the purely 
natural combe below. So the visitor comes, gapes, and 
goes away, probably little enough impressed, and not 
one in a thousand notices the real Dyke, the abiding 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 



S03 



monument of those nntiitoivd engineers of the Neolithic 
Ao-eJ 

o 

Temjwra mutantvr. Here the Neolithic Downsman 
sliepherded liis primitive mutton, herded beeves innocent 
of all pedigree, baked the pottery and chipped the flints 
which still litter the ground, keeping the while a watchful 
eye upon his friend the enemy on Wolstonbury Hill to 
the north-east and Thunderbarrow to the westward, what 
time a deeper sea washed the very feet of the Downs to 
the south and ran far up by Lewes and by Bramber into 
the outstretched forest of the Weald ; for Neptune could 
and did himself do then wdiat the later Devil failed to 
accomplish, and his tides swept daily up amongst the oaks 
that were fated one day to build the ships and forge the 
guns which should wrest his trident from him and should 
substitute for the Britons' log-canoe and spear of Hint the 
three-deckers of Nelson and the cannon of Trafaloar. The 
bits of flint and the broken shards of the older race are 
treasures for our cal)inets to-day. Will ever the day come 
when men will treasure the leavings of those who haunt 
the Dyke to-day ? — pick \x^ the fragments of the trippers' 
shattered beer-bottles, study the eartlnvorks which the 
golfer has constructed, debate the purpose of some remains 
of switchbacks, funiculars, bicycle-railways, aerial flights, 
and band-stands, and seek to reconstruct the plan 
of the marvellously ugly l)uildings which now stand 
within the camp ? If that time should ever come, then 
will vulgarity be dignified at last. 

The association of ancient earthworks, in the mind of 
the Saxon, with goblins and devils is easily understood. 
A conquering race is apt to regard the conquered as beings 
of unwdiolesome kind. The lower the civilization of the 

' The real name of the vallum amongst the few who recollect it is the 
Poor Man's Wall. The origin of this name is quite unknown. In West 
Sussex, between Chichester ami the Arun I'iver, is a series of genuine dykes 
variously known as NN'ar Dykes, Grims Dyke, and Devil's Dyke. 



504 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 



victors, and the more troul)lcsome and contumacious tlie 
vanquished, the more certain is this uncharital)lc view to 
find expression ; and if in addition to a superior civiliza- 
tion the conquered people boast also a different religion, 
no further justification is called for. The true Chinaman 
still regards the white races collectively as so many 
" foreign devils," and the attitude of our Teutonic fore- 
fathers towards the Britons whom they dispossessed was 
much the same. This helps to explain why the sites of 
Roman settlements in England were left mostly unoccupied, 
avoided as the works or the haunts of evil spirits, to 
crumble slowly back to dust, until a new religion bred a 
broader intelligence, and that wisdom which had guided 
the Roman in the choice of his sites was in many cases 
endorsed by renewed occupation. Outside the walls of 
Roman towns and villas there was little or no brick and 
mortar to arouse the wakeful superstition of the invaders ; 
but the sites of the humbler Romano-British settlements, 
with their huts of wattle or straw, were none the less 
avoided, so much so that it is likely that the Saxons did 
not go out of their way to hunt out the refugees of the 
conc^uered race. There was, save over very limited areas, 
no war of extermination against them. They were left 
very much to themselves in the swamps and the forests 
surrounding the Saxons' clearings, and outside the " mark" 
the Teutonic tribes were accustomed to believe that witch- 
craft and devilry had things their own way. That the 
Britons when at bay were an extremely dangerous foe 
was but an additional reason for leaving them alone ; and 
if any excuse were needed, it was at once convenient and 
conclusive to dub them devils. Delightful reading is the 
monkish tale of the trials of Saint Guthlac, when, in 
700 A.D. — two and a half centuries after the reputed first 
coming of Hen gist and Horsa — he essayed to find him a 
hermitage in the Fens, which then, as later in the days of 
Hereward the Wake, were the sanctuary of a race which 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 



SOS 



refused to be conquered. The meditatiou.s of the Saint 
were sorely disturl^ed by unde,siral)le visitors, " truculent 
of countenance and frightfid of shape," beetle-browed and 
l)]u])1)er-lipped, with liideous jaws that l)ristled witli teetli 
like those of horses, and vomited Hanie — creatures who, 
on one occasion at least, " spoke with the speech of 
Britons." Saint Guthlac, says the tale, was in fact con- 
vinced that they were indeed Britons, and was vastly 
relieved to learn in the end that they were not so, " hut 
onJy devils.'' Could the old Chronicler ^^ossibly have paid 
a higher tribute to the formidable qualities of the refugees 
around Crowland, "the muddy land"? And if we are to 
believe that his picture gives a fairly accurate notion of the 
Saxons' appreciation of British physiognomy and physique, 
is it any marvel that they placed devils and Britons in 
one category ? And seeing by rare chance such creatures 
creep, like Mr. H. G. Wells' Morlocks, out of some old 
flint-diggings, or out of the half-subterranean pits which 
served them for dwellings within the ceinture of some 
seemingly deserted camp, were they not justified in naming 
the one spot Grime's Graves, as in Norfolk, the other 
Grim's Pound or Grimsl)ury or some similar name? 

But if the explanation here suggested were at fault — 
and after all, tlie things which Saint Guthlac saw may have 
l>cen but visions l»red, as has been imagined, of poor diet and 
tlie ague — there is another quite sufficient explanation to l)e 
found in the vast size of many of the ancient dykes. The 
Camljridgeshire Devil's Dyke, all)eit not by any means the 
longest of sucli works, is nevertheless of such proportions 
that it might well be put down to nothing less than 
Satan's handiwork. Commencino- at Stetchworth it runs 
for seven miles in an almost direct line from south-east to 
north-west across tlie open stretches of Newmarket Heath 
to the forlorn hamlet of Reach u})on the Cam. Its 
measurements, as given l»y different authorities, varv con- 
siderably : Sir H, Dryden made the height of the bank 



5o6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

above the level of the soil to l)e 18 feet with a width of 
12 feet at the top. The eastern slope he put at 30 feet, 
the western, from crest of vallum to bottom of fosse, at 
46 feet, and the width of the fosse at 20 feet. Another 
authority declares that, a little south of the point where it 
was crossed by the Cand)ridge-Newanarket road, he found 
the dyke to be 18 feet wide at the top, the western slope 
to have a slope of 70°, and the measurement along that slope 
from top to bottom to be as much as 90 feet I The present 
writer's owai opinion is that Sir H. Dryden's figures are far 
too small : as no particular point is mentioned, they perhaps 
represent average measurements only. In matters of this 
sort, however, the smaller figures are usually to be preferred, 
and when one endeavours to realize wdiat even these 
smaller figures mean, one's respect for the builders, who- 
ever they may have been, rises to proper proportions. 
Sir H. Dryden's figures give to the dyke a slope of 45"" 
or so. Now if the cubic content of a bank of the same 
slope, 1 foot in length and 1 foot high, be represented by 
unity, as the mathematicians w^ould say, then the cubic 
content per foot of any similar bank will be represented 
by the square of the altitude in feet. Thus a bank 2 feet 
high has four times the content, a bank 5 feet high 
has 25 times the content, of a one-foot bank. Estimated in 
this way and with due allowance for the fact that its top is 
Hat, the Devil's Dyke represents a bulk, per foot of its 7 
miles of length, at least five himdred and forty times as 
great ! And this enormous wall is throughout the work of 
man's hands, nowhere aided by any natural features of the 
ground. Nor do these figures give an adequate idea of the 
labour involved, for no account has been taken of the fosse, 
nor any allowance made for the shrinkage of fosse and 
vallum under centuries of denudation. There seems to be 
little doubt that the Romans found this particular ditch 
here wdien they arrived, and it bears no sign of having ever 
been strengthened or repaired. It must therefore have 



XV 



DYKES AND DITCHES 



507 




5o8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

.suffered from the wastage of nearly 2,000 years, if fi-om no 
more deliljerate damage. Yet there it lies, or rather stands, 
immense and clean-cut as if it were a work of yesterday. 
The tenacious chalk of which it is huilt has kept its shape 
and slope })etter than a looser soil could have done, and 
the crisp turf has covered it over as with a close-fitting 
garment of green, splashed in summer-time with patches 
of yellow king-cup and sparsely flecked with purple 
scabious. Only when you try to scale the steep hank 
do you realize how formidable a defence it was and is. 
Wet or dry, its smooth steep slope is as slippery as ice, so 
that you are fain to go up on all fours, if at all, and begin 
to admire as it deserves the exploit of that worthy who 
for a wager, a hundred years ago, drove four-in-hand over 
vallum and fosse alike. There are three o;reat makers of 
history whose names have left upon the map a larger mark 
than the rest, videlicet Caesar and Cromwell and the Devil. 
Csesar's metier, rightly enough, is that of the warrior only, 
eponym of a score of mighty camps, with no one of which 
had he in all likelihood anything to do. Cromwell incarnates 
the forces of destruction ; he is the spoiler of churches and 
of castles, Iconoclastes and Poliorcetes rolled into one. But 
the great builder, the constructive engineer, the arch-thau- 
maturge of English tradition, is the Devil. 

Until recent times the boundary of the see of Norwich, 
before that the limit of the halidome of the Blessed Saint 
Edmund of Bury, earlier still the " mark " which divided 
the Saxon kingdoms of East Anglia and Mercia, the 
actual origin of the Devil's Dyke is still a mystery. Nor is 
it alone of its kind in the locality : it is but one, if the 
greatest, of no less than five similar earthworks which lie 
parallel one to another in Cambridgeshire across the 
narrow belt of chalk along which, as along a causeway, 
westward from the lands of the Iceni in Norfolk and 
Suffolk ran the great Icknield Way by Royston and 
Dunstable and Trini>- to the Thames at Wallinoford. In 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 509 

all five instances tlie fosse lies on the wcstein sidc,^ pi-oof 
positive that the dykes were l»iiilt hy a peopk' wiiose 
territories lay to the east ; and if the Bran Ditch by 
Heydon and the Brent Ditch by Pampisford — the name 
in each case means " steep "^ — were perhaps relatively 
never very imposing works, the third — the Woolstreet — 
long accounted a Roman road, is formidable still, while the 
fourth, the Fleam Dyke or Balsham Dyke, scarcely inferior 
in height and solidity to the Devil's Dyke itself, actually 
surpasses it in total length. The purpose of all five is 
ol)vious, whatever doubts may beset the problem of their 
date. Far into the Middle Ages the country to the south 
of these barriers was dense forest, as that to the north 
was impassable fen. At the southern end of the Devil's 
Dyke lies the village of AVood Ditton — the Dyke-town 
in the Woods — and the northern termination of the Fleam 
Dyke is marked by a Fen Ditton — the Dyke-town in the 
Fens ; and the memory of a long vanished forest is 
preserved also in the name of Saffron Walden — the 
settlement in the weald, or forest, wdiich later became a 
centre of the cultivation of saffron. The forest has 
shrunk l)ack to Epping, the fens almost as ftxr on the 
other side, so that to-day the dykes seem to end " in the 
air," to lack purpose ; l)ut it is certain that they were 
l)uilt, whoever the builders, to bar the one and only 
overland approach to territories to the east. The builders 
must have ])een a powerful and a populous people, if the\' 
are to be judged by tlieir works, a people with 0([ual wit 



1 This statement is not altogether free from doubt in regard to the Brent 
Ditch. Babington cites Hartshorne as saying tliat " tiie vallum was on the 
same side as that of tlie other dykes," viz. on the east ; Init says tliat he him- 
self saw (185.3) " alow but well-marked bank on its western side, and no trace 
of one on the eastern side." In very many instances the soil seems to have 
been thrown out indifferently on either hand, so that it may be dithcult 
at any one spot to determine which way the ditch was meant to face ; and 
where ploughing has interfered witli the works, as in this case, the total dis- 
appearance of one or other bank iiiuy make the ditHculty very puzzling. 



5IO EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

and will to turn to their adNJiiitagc the physieal features 
of the land as then it was. 

Upon philological grounds Professor tSkeat ^ was led to 
believe that the name of Fleam Dyke means the Flemings 
Dyke, and strange to say, he found lingering amongst the 
peasantry of the locality the tradition that the dyke was 
indeed built l)y the Flemings. Such a tradition may 
have arisen merely from the fact that the people so called 
in the Middle Ages had a great reputation for construct- 
ing enormous sea-dykes. Dante declares that the 
embankment of the River of Hell's Seventh Circle was 
not so hi oh nor so ])road 

" as the Flemings rear 
Their mound 'twixt Ghent and Bruges, to chase ))ack 
The ocean." - 

On the other hand, it may quite conceivably go back to a 
far more remote date and even to the historical fact that 
these particular dykes of Cambridgeshire were constructed 
l)y invaders coming from the shores of the Lacus Flevo 
(Zuyder Zee) and the lands now occupied by the Flemings. 
The existence of similar works in that part of the 
Continent would seem to support this view. One such is 
the o-reat Dannewerk which cuts off old Jutland from the 
mainland, and which as late as 1863, in the war of Austria 
and Prussia against Schleswig, once more served perhaps 
the very purpose for which it was first constructed long 
ages previously.^ Familiar as the Romans were with such 
a method of defence, it has not yet been shown that the 
native Britons ever employed it, although the cases of the 
Wansdyke and Bokerley Dyke show that the Romanized 

' Place Names of Cambridgeshire, p 40 {Piiblications of the Cambridge 
Antiquarian Society, No. xxxvi., 1901). 

^ Inferno, Canto xv. (Gary's Translation). 

^ Nothing whatever is known of its date. Greenwell and Rolleston 
{British Barrows, p. 124) think it was probably "constructed at a time 
antecedent to the Scandinavian occupation of Denmark." There are several 
other works of a similar kind in the same region, the old Angle-land. 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 511 

]>rit()iis iinit;it('<l tlic Ivdinaii cxainplo. and tlic case dl" 
UftJi's Dyke proves the same of tlie later Saxons. The 
ditches of Caml)ridgeshire are certainly not Roman ; there 
is no analogy for supposing them Celtic ; there is some 
analogy to justify their attribution to one or other of the 
Baltic tribes, some of whom were perhaps included l)y 
Cfesar under the name of Belgse. Beyond this we at 
present know nothing. One theory l)oldly asserts that 
they were constructed by those trilies who first introduced 
iron into Britain. It seems almost certain that works 
such as the Devil's Dyke and the Fleam Dyke at any rate 
can never have been luiilt merely as boundary-marks, l)ut 
must have been strictly military works for the protection 
of the land in their rear from the assaults of enemies 
towards the west ; and though the matter is still in 
debate they may very well represent the work of some 
of the earliest of the Baltic immigrants, who, as is now 
believed, began to make settlements on the east coast of 
Britain even before the advent of the Romans. That the 
dykes are of an age prior to the Roman road which they 
cross is almost certain,^ and that they were here in very 
early Saxon times is incontestal)le.'" 

The so-called Buckinghamshire Grim's Dyke is traceable 
with a total length of upwards of 16 miles from Ashridge 
Park, on the western borders of Hertfordshire, to 
Bradenham, 4 miles north-west of High Wycombe, albeit 
in many places now destroyed. It is first recognizable on 
Berkhampstead Common, heading west by south for the 
valley of the Bulbourne River, and reappears again on 
Wigginton Common, still maintaining the same direction 
as far as St. Leonard's, where it turns more to the south, 



' Professor llidgway believes tlieni to be alluded to in Tacitus' description 
of the great defeat of Boadicea, (51 A.n. See Pmri'i'dimis of flw Catiihridiii' 
Antiq. Sue, No. xxxiii. 

- There is a Hundred of Fiendish in Cambridgeshire, and Flnidish is the 
same word as Flij(()n(lltrh (W. W. Skeat, up. cit.). 



512 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

as far as Cock's Hill. From this puiiit it ran due soutli 
to King's Ash, where it is entirely lost for more than 
a mile, l)iit is again found near Lee running south-west 
down the hill to the Wendover-Missenden highroad along 
the edge of Woodlands Park. Lost again for another 
mile, it is next found near Great Hampden running west 
by north across the park to a point f mile beyond 
Hampden House, where it turns left with an exact right- 
angle and so direct for 2 miles to Lacey Green. Thence, 
bearing a little more to the left, it is traceable for 2 miles 
more to the vicinity of Bradenham.^ 

ThrouQ-hout its course it shows a single vallum and a 
single ditch, and though in reality a work of very 
considerable magnitude, it nowhere presents a very 
striking appearance.^ It is best seen in the neighbour- 
hood of Hampden Park and Kedland End, where it is 
littered with flint chips in some quantity, and it is very 
conspicuous also on Berkhampstead and Wigginton 
Commons. For much of its course over the higher 
ground it maintains a fairly uniform distance from the 
brows of the hills, but it appears to have no relation 
to any of the many camps in its vicinity, and does not 
approach within a mile of any one of them. At neither 
end is there any oljvious explanation for its terminating 



' It is said to be the unshakable conviction of the peasantry that the 
dyke originally ran ri<iht nnoid the ivodd, alike under seas and over 
continents I Some of them, it is needless to say, attribute its construction 
to Cromwell. 

- Where best preserved the over-all measure of vallum and fosse together 
is between 50 and ^0 feet, and the crest of the vallum above the floor of the 
fosse is from 5 to 6 feet. The fosse, where still discoverable, is on the 
southern side. Between Redland End and Lacey Green there remains only 
the fosse, and little of that ; and in many parts almost the sole token of it 
is the ancient field-path along its course. The fosse of the Middlesex 
Grim's Dyke, still very noticeable between Oxhey Lane and Harrow Weald 
Common, is also on the southern side. This single fact at once disposes of 
the theory which would attribute the Buckinghamshire Dyke to the Romans, 
supposing that it was constructed to guard the earliest Roman conquests in 
the south-east of the island. 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 513 

where it Joes, and its general course does not tally with 
any known facts relating to the disposition of Saxon 
kingdoms or British tribes. One solitary feature which 
might help to throw light upon the problem of its age 
is that the two great barrows in Oaken Grove, |- mile 
south-east of Hampden House, stand actually upon the 
line of the bank, which has here been partially removed, 
possibly to provide the material for building the mounds 
in question. This would of course imply that the dyke 
is older than the mounds, but it does not determine their 
date in any way. Excavation has thus far failed to 
discover any traces of interments within them, and one 
at least of the two is so large as to have provoked the 
theory that it may represent a defensive work of Norman 
type.^ If this were so, then the construction of the dyke 
might belong to a very late date in Saxon times. 

A possible explanation for the termination of the dyke 
eastward at Ashridge might be found in the indisputable 
fact that the country thence onward towards St. Albans 
was once dense forest. This is to be inferred from the 
mere fact that the great oi^pidum subsequently known 
as Verulamium stood where it did, and it is in a measure 
confirmed by the further fact that a second similar work 
— the Middlesex Grim's Ditch — which is crossed by the 
London and North Western Railway north of Pinner station, 

• The radius of this mound is 60 feet, its lieight about 10 feet, tlie diameter 
of the summit over 40 feet. Its sides are very steep, but otherwise it has 
every appearance of a typical " bell " barrow. The original vallum of the 
dyke appears never to have been removed, and remains to break the circle of 
the fosse on either side. E,vactly the same feature is observable in the 
smaller mound, 50 yards to the west. The dyke and fosse have completely 
disapjteared east of tlie larger mound ; they reappear innnediately west of the 
other, which has a radius of 50 feet and a height of 12 feet. Tiie fosse in 
neither case has a parapet, nor are tliere traceable any of the usual subsidiary 
works whicli accomj)any the Norman motte. Half a mile due west of these 
and 4 mile soutli of Hampden Church is a third mound, locally known as 
the Dane's Camp, almost identical in size with the larger of the other two, 
and, although this lies ^ mile from the line of the dyke, its fosse has exactly 
the same bridges as the others, and at precisely the same compass-points 
(W.N. \V. and E.S.E.). 

L L 



514 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

running eastward up to Harrow Weald Common, likewise 
ends " in the air." But inconsistent with this theory 
seems to be the utter disregard for forest lands shown by 
the course of the ditch westward across the Chilterns. 
Far into the Middle Ages the dense beech forests of the 
Chilterns were still a well-known resort for lawless 
characters of all kinds, and there is nothing to suggest 
that the country was not quite as thickly wooded in 
earlier times. ^ On the contrary, the course taken by the 
Icknield Way, which carefully avoids the upper levels and 
skirts the slopes where the forest presumably ended, 
although this adds considerably to its length, would seem 
to prove that the forest was ancient. 

If projected, this dyke would pass by West Wycombe and 
Fingest to the elbow made by the Thames at Henley. 
From Henley another Grim's Ditch runs west-north-west 
roughly parallel with the Henley-Oxford Road, passing up 
the valley by Bix, across the brow of the hill overlooking 
Nettlebed Wood north of Highmoor Common, and after an 
interruption of If miles reappears at Nuffield and continues 
in a perfectly straight line for 3f miles to the Thames at 
Mongewell. Just at the middle point of this section it 
crosses the Icknield Way by the side of Foxberry Wood. 
For most of its course it is just such another single work as the 
Buckinghamshire dyke, the fosse facing to the south ; but 
on Highmoor Common, where it is known as Highmoor 
Trench, it has the appearance of two parallel banks of 
slight relief, 30 feet apart, with a slight fosse on the 
southern side of each bank. Like its Buckinghamshire 
neighbour, it seems to have no connexion with any other 
earthworks. Its total length was 10 miles. In the north 



' The manor of Flamstead was held of the Abbots of St. Albans by the 
service of policing part of this woodland westward to the Forest of Bernwood, 
bordering on Oxfordshire. Bernwood was disforested by James I., in whose 
time the author of Polyolbion (1613) could say that " here if you beat a bush 
'tis odds you start a thief." 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 515 

of the county are two other ditches of insignificant size, 
viz. a Grini's Dyke which, mailing a curve of 3 miles 
between Wootton and Charlbury, rests at either end upon 
the rivers Glyme and Evenlode ; and that called Aves Ditch, 
eastward of the Cherwell, which runs from Middleton 
Stony south-west to the Akeman Street near Kirtlington. 

Very little can be made of such small and fragmentary 
works as those last named. Lying for the most part at low 
levels,^ and often upon land which one must suppose was long- 
since deforested and has lain for aoes under continuous 
cultivation, they have suffered grievously, and their 
disjecta membra are mostly too small and scattered to 
allow of any sure reconstruction of their original course. 
Yet the proportions of these remnants are not seldom 
such as to show that originally the works were as striking 
as are the greatest that survive. Near Wealdstone 
Common, Middlesex, is a fragment of a Grim's Dyke 
which, despite Time and the plough, still hasa vallum 12 
feet high and a span of GO feet over all, its fdsse facing to 
the south. Many of the shorter dykes must be analogous 
to those at Lexden, Essex, having been constructed to 
shut off conveniently defensible areas between forests, 
swamps, or rivers ; and of those of less dignity some at 
least, and especially those found in conjunction with camps 
larger or smaller, are presumably the remains of primitive 
cattle-fences. 

Like other such terms, that of dyke or ditch is 
occasionally misapplied. Achling (or Ackling) Ditch, in 
Dorsetshire, is a good example of its erroneous use. In 
speaking of Bokerley Dyke" mention was made of a 



* It has been remarked of the Bucks Grim's Dyke that it would seem 
never to have been so formidal^le a work on the lower and more open 
ground as upon the higher and more wooded levels. Yet if it had been 
designed for defence, one would expect the reverse to be the case. This, 
however, is the explanation of its complete effacement wherever it leaves the 
hills. 

2 See p. 374. 

L L 2 



5i6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Roman road wliicli passes beneath the dyke near 
Woodvates, rnnnino; in a straiolit line to the south-west. 
For some two miles beyond the dyke it is eml)odied in 
the modern high road, l)ut here there is a fork : the high- 
road takes its own course towards Blandford, while the 
older Roman road is continued direct across country for 4 
miles as a broad grass-grown agger, fully 15 feet wide at 
the top, and rising in places as much as 6 feet above the 
natural surface, with here and there traces of a fosse on 
either side. This is the bank to which the name of 
Achling Ditch attaches, and it was long regarded as a work 
of the same class as Wansdj^ke and Bokerley Dyke. As 
a matter of fact it is simply the agger or rampart^ of the 
Roman road, and its disproportionate breadth, its level 
summit, and most of all the presence of the ditch on 
either dde, ought to have prevented any mistake as to its 
real character. The extraordinary trouble taken by the 
Romans, often without apparent reason, to raise their 
roads upon stich aggeres^" had led to similar confusion in 
other cases ; indeed, when agriculture has interfered and 
destroyed the side-fosses, there is sometimes consider- 
able excuse for those who have maintained that the 



^ In many parts of the country, e.;/. in Nottinghamshire, any raised road 
is locally styled a "ramjjer," and the term is occasionally extended to any 
high road, whether raised or not, and without regard to its date. 

- There is a fine, l)ut by no means unique, example in the Roman road 
which led from Danum (Doncaster) to Calcaria (Tadcaster). Near Hampole 
" the ridge is very perfect, 15 feet wide and 6 or 8 feet high, the slopes over- 
grown with bushes ... so high above the fields that cart-ways slant 
obliquely up the side-slopes, which are so steep that they must be built uji 
with stone." T. Codrington, Human Roads in Britain, p. 155. In low- 
lying country the straight, green roadways which serve as accommodation 
roads not seldom show a raised surface, due (in part at least) to constant 
reparation during long terms of years. In Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire 
these ways are known as "droves," in Essex as " manna ways " ; and 
in Lincolnshire "manna" and " muck " are synonyms, and either would 
serve to describe the condition of such marsh-lanes for the greater part of the 
year. In localities where peat-digging is practised, e.g. in Somersetshire, it is 
usual to leave narrow roadways between the turbaries for cartage, but these 
rapidly sink down to a uniform level in the spongy subsoil. 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 



517 



Roman had here and there availed himself of pre-existing 
dykes, and laid his road along their crests. That this 
may have occurred occasionally is quite likely, and in 
later times it was not an uncommon way of utilizing such 
works. There is an instance in the entrenchment known 
as Wool Street, Cambridgeshire, of which the original 
purpose — a defensive dyke of exactly the same character 
as the Devil's Dyke and the Fleam Dyke, to which it lies 
parallel — was only discovered a year or two ago. It had 
so long served as a roadway that all knowledge of its 
having ever been anything but a road was lost ; and 
partly because of its directness, partly because of its 
name of a " street," it was with little hesitation dubbed 
a Roman road. There seems to be evidence that it 
was already thus used in Roman times, as were others 
of the dykes in the locality, but there is no evi- 
dence that it was ever paved. ^ Another instance is 
to be seen at Lexden, Colchester, where part of the 
vallum of the original British oppichim has been utilized 
as a roadway, perhaps from Roman times. At the present 
day it is known indifferently as the Rampart and the 
Roman Way. The reverse case, in which the ficigcr 
intended for a roadway has been utilized either as a 
defensive work or as a boundary mark, is commoner ; 
indeed, the course of Roman roads now vanished is often 



' An «f/f/(.'*" of genuine Roman construction and intended to serve as a road 
will as a rule reveal its true character to very slight excavation. The Roman 
almost invariably used more or less gravel in his road-building, if not uther 
material still more tell-tale ; and his <';/;/'';• was couuiionly provided with a 
slight fosse on either side, whereas a defensive dyke is fossed on one side 
only. A cross trench, if carried deep enough, will usually disclose one or 
both fosses. Defensive dykes were in their original shape nuistly too narrow 
at the top to serve as roadways for vehicles, but they were easily levelled to 
the required width. But the trattic of bygone times was chiefly by pack- 
horse, and it commonly went along the fosse, if that were dry enough, 
so giving rise to those rights of way which freifuently are at the present day 
the sole sign of the course of the ancient wtirk. 'Pliis ox[)lai'is such names as, 
«.(/., Sixou's Loaning applied to dykes. 



5i8 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

to be recovered by the rectilineal course of parish 
boundaries, once more visibly marked by the agger} 
T. Codrino'ton mentions several instances in Yorkshire ^ of 
Roman causeways marked upon the Ordnance Map as 
" intrenchments," exactly as has happened in the case of 
Achling Ditch. 

" Such walls," says Canon Rawlinson, " are always a 
sign of weakness " ; and Pitt-Rivers observes that they 
are usually " the work of a higher civilization struggling 
against a lower." There is no contradiction between the 
two statements, which, so far as we know anything at all 
of the English dykes, are illustrated thereby. The 
Romans took to Iniilding dykes — in Britain, betw^een the 
Rhine and Danube, and along the lower course of the 
Danube — only when they were no longer able to take the 
offensive at all or any point of their vast frontiers. Their 
•civilization was on the defensive at every point, destined 
very shortly to be overborne and submerged by the rising- 
tribe of l)arbarisim, Pictish, Frankish, Gothic, or what 
not.^ It is perhaps scarcely justifiable to treat either 
assertion as the premiss for further inferences, but it 
is permissible to point out that, excluding those known to 
be of Roman date and those which are believed to be the 
work of the Romanized Britons, none of the finer and 
more elaborate English dykes contradicts the fact that the 



' The name of Mereway, or Mareway (fioiu the Anglo-Saxon maere, a 
" mark," a " boundary "), points to a similar fact : the (Ujrjerps of some roads 
served at once as roads and as boundaries, precisely as some dykes seem to 
have done. 

2 Roman Roads, ch. iv. As a general rule the Roman load was .so direct 
that this alone distinguishes it from other dykes, however much mutilated. 
Genuinely old dykes are commonly marked by curious deflections and angles, 
for which there is often, at the present time, no reason apparent. Tn some 
cases it seems as if the work had been ditched now on one side, now on the 
other, but this is probably the result of agricultural operations. The 
Buckinghamshire Grim's Dyke exemplifies both these characteristics 

^ "The Wall is to me," said Bishop Creightun, "more interesting for the 
impression which it gives of the power of tlie Briton.s, than of the mightiness 
of Rome.'' 



XV DYKES AND DITCHES 



519 



civilization of the island has moved always from east to 
west. The Cambridgeshire dykes were apparently the 
work of invaders coming from the east ; so possibly was 
the Danes' Dyke at Flamborough ; and even Offa's Dyke and 
Watt's Dyke in the west of the island are no exception, 
for even if they were really constructed in Offa's time it 
was as a bulwark against a Celtic remnant, now completely 
barbarized by upwards of four centuries of defeat without 
and dissension within, a hunted race, in no point save 
their courage to be compared with the now settled, 
Christianized, and rapidly progressive Saxonry of 
Mercia. 

Quite different in purpose, and probably in date also, 
are the dykes constructed to serve as sea-walls or for 
embanking rivers. The Romans certainly did a good deal 
in this direction : there are Roman flood-banks along the 
Granta below Cambridge, and the names of the villages 
near the mouth of the Wash — lFo7pole, TF«/soken, &c. — 
prove that there were sea-dykes there before the Saxon 
conquest. The fortress of Othona, one of those built to 
guard the Litus Saxo7iicum, is now under the sea, but 
the modern hamlet of Bradwell — the Broad Wall — 
preserves the memory of the Romans' sea-wall adjacent. 
In such cases the original work is of course invisible : it 
has long since been buried under later work, for such 
walls require constant reparation and raising. ]\Ir. 
A. C. J. Spurrell ^ has discussed the date of the various 
embankings of the lower Thames, and concludes that 
there is nothing here which can be safely attributed to 
Roman days. " Of banks against the tide in the district 
below Purfleet there are none surviving of the Roman 



' In the Arfho;olo(j. Jowrnul, xlii. (1885). He traverses the usual belief 
that in Roman times the Thames near London spread out into a wide morass 
or lagoon. Messrs. Norman and Reader (Anhaahxjid, Ix., ]». 179) t<ike 
the same view, declaring that the site of Roman Lomhm was " hoth liealthy 
and agreeable." 



520 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Period, while above that phice none, or but the slightest 
ones, were needed, and no signs of any can be found. Some 
Saxon banks perhaps exist below Gravesend, but cannot 
be precisely identified at present ; while above it, with the 
exception of Littlebrook Walls, there are none now known 
older than the thirteenth century." Such flood-banks, 
usually of small size, are to be found in many districts which 
have long ceased to require them. They belong to a date 
when drainage and desiccation had not gone so far as now 
they have. In such localities it is not uncommon to find 
the farmsteads enclosed within similar banks, the regu- 
larity of which bespeaks them to be of no great antiquity. 
But even as little as a century ago many parts of the 
country which now^ never see a flood were under water 
more or less every winter. 

About the lower courses of the Trent and the Yorkshire 
Ouse it is still the practice to build dykes with the express 
purpose not of keeping the water out, but of letting it in ; 
for these rivers bring down quantities of silt — "warp" is 
the local term — which makes the very best of corn-land, 
and it is customary, when the soil shows signs of im- 
poverishment, to embank a large area, cut a channel to the 
river, and lay the land under water, possibly for several 
years in succession, until there has been deposited a 
sufficient depth of fresh soil. When the land is once more 
drained and enclosed, the dykes are commonly retained 
and used as cart-ways, in their directness and relief 
precisely resembling the aggeres of many Roman roads. 

It is not always easy to say whether, or to what extent, 
a dyke is natural or artificial. At Kirklington, near 
Bedale, is a well-known instance, an immense and very 
irregular dyke extending for some two miles or more in a 
very erratic course mainly from north to south. ^ Com- 

1 It is locally known as the Yamniergaith Hills, a name said to be derived 
from that of Gernan, or Yarnan, who held the lands temp. Edward the 
Confessor, 



XV 



DYKES AND DITCHES 521 



posed entirely of sandy gravel, it has been in places 
removed wholly or in part, hut where it remains intact it 
has the appearance of an artificial work of tremendous 
thickness, with a vertical height of from 30 to 40 feet, its 
summit in places over 40 feet broad. There .can be no 
reasonable douljt that this was originally a natural forma- 
tion,^ curious though it be ; but that it has been artificially 
improved in places is obvious, and at one spot, about 
^ mile north of Kirklington Church, an unmistakable 
ringwork occupies the entire width of the top of the ridge. 
It has fosse and vallum complete, although of slight relief, 
and measures 42 feet over. Huge as are many of the 
earthworks of early times, the Yammergarth Hills are too 
vast in scale not to raise doubts as to their origin, and the 
extraordinary manner in which their line conforms to the 
contours of the oround ooes likewise to suojoest nature's 
agency only. Nor are there discoveral)le any pits or 
fosses, such as must have been formed had the hills been 
built up of material brought hither from some other 
place. ^ 

In some localities the work of the quarryman or the 
miner produces effects which may easily mislead the 
antiquary who is not also something of a geologist. It 
may happen that the particular material to l)e " won " 
follows a perfectly regular line or " strike," at a uniform 
level, so that in winning it the workman accidentally 



' It is one of tlioso Miitiual drifts of gi;i\ol kiiMwii to geologists as 
"eskers,"' or " eskcr ridges,'' often extremely like artificial works. 

- Another "esker," alxmt 1 mile south of Kirklington, and part of the 
same geological formation, is an extreme instance of the closeness with 
which the natural may mimic the artiticial. It is an entirely natinal mound, 
but its resemblance to a motle is heightened by the presence of two processes 
westward, which suggest the walls of a base-court, while the reapi)earanco of 
the gravel ridge IX) yards further to the west forms, as it were, an outer valhini 
to the whole. The only artiticial traces discoveiable, however, are those of 
some slight terracing of the suunnit of the mound, which has evidently once 
I)een occupied (as its name of " Berryhills'' would suggest), though when or 
why is unknown. 



522 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND ch. xv 

opens a level and regular trench, wliicli speedily weathers 
to the exact appearance of an ancient fosse. The risk of 
error is heightened when, as not seldom happens, he 
screens his material on the spot, and casts aside the refuse 
along the line of his trenching, thus inadvertently throwing 
up what seems to the incautious eye a purposed vallum 
following the fosse. There are not a few so-called camps 
and dykes in the country which have been thus made 
within a generation or so. 

As a final word of warning to the beginner may be 
mentioned the case of an enthusiast who " discovered," 
measured, and mapped a striking series of entrenchments 
in a western county, thus passing pleasantly enough a 
whole month of summer holiday. Only when he had 
finished his labours and was already putting the results 
into a paper which he hoped would provoke a sensation 
amongst archaeologists, did it happen that he got into 
conversation with an old woman of the locality, who 
rudely shattered his dream with the remark that " them 
trenches was made by them Volunteers" a year or so 
before ! The antiquary had overlooked a very important 
source of possible information. Local knowledge is fre- 
quently hazy, often wholly wrong, but it is always wise 
to hear its testimony. 



CHAPTER XVI 

MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 

" The hopes, ambitions, pomp and pride 

Of a thousand kings that ivere, 
And a thousand thousand hearts beside, 

They are sport of the idle air. 
The shepherd spurns them underheel. 

The ivild things turn them over, 
And droning bees make moan for them 

Among the heath and clover.^' 

Although the immediate subject of this book is 
defensive earthworks, the character of the sul)ject makes 
it necessary to mention briefly many forms of earth- 
work not of that chiss. Besides camps, castles, dykes, 
mottes, and moats, there are a number of miscellaneous 
works of which something must be said, if only to 
suggest how much there is to be said. 

The commonest of all forms of earthwork are ])arrows. 
Their study is a special Ijranch of archaeology, with a 
copious literature of its own, and we are concerned here 
only with their external appearance. x\llusion has been 
made to the differences of race and date which are 
l)elieved to correspond with the differences of shape in 
barrrows long and round. As would be expected, long- 
barrows are very much less numerous than round ones, 
and their distril)ution is very limited. 

In Wiltshire and Gloucestershire they are numerous, in 
Dorsetshire ftiirly so ; but it is curious that the still mor^ 



524 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

remote counties of Somerset and Cornwall have very few 
to show. In most of the counties they are not found at 
all. Although their measurements vary widely, long 
barrows are always unmistakably intended to be long. 
Their length may be anything from 40 to GO yards, 
their elevation as much as 10 feet, they are almost 
always placed east and west, and the eastern end is 
commonly higher and broader than the other. They are 
sometimes ditched at the sides, but rarely all round. 
Some examples show a rude containing wall, dry-built, of 
no great height, with or without a series of upright 
stones — a " peristalith " — arranged at intervals along the 
periphery. Partial removal of the materials has occasion- 
ally reduced the mound to the seeming of a round 
barrow ; in one example near Cirencester the central 
portion has been carted away, leaving the two ends 
standing like " twin " barrows of the commoner type. 

Isolated, in pairs, in groups — seven, eight, and nine are 
favourite numbers — or scattered thickly over wide areas 
of ground, round barrows are as common as long barrows 
are scarce. About Stonehenge they are counted by 
hundreds, as also in western Dorsetshire ; and save where 
agriculture has destroyed their every trace there are few 
elevations which do not show one or two. They cover 
indifferently the bones or the ashes of Celt and Roman 
and Saxon and Dane.^ With many exceptions to the 
general rule the Celt preferred to build his barrow upon 
the highest levels accessible, the Saxon affected a situation 



^ The presence of a barrow is a sign of heathen burial, which persisted 
amongst one or other of the Saxon tribes until the eighth century, when the 
Church commanded that the dead should be buried in churchyards. Danish 
barrows may, of course, date much later — even into the tenth century. It 
need scarcely be said that, for every corpse buried under a barrow, there 
were hundreds buried without that grave-mark, and that of the barrows that 
were built there survive but the most infinitesimal fraction. Most of them 
would from the first be too insignificant to withstand the denudation of many 
centuries. It is reasonable to believe that the size of the barrow refiectsthe 
dignity of the person or persons buried beneath it. 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 525 

overlookino; the villaoe in which he had lived, and Roman 
barrows are commonly at lower levels. While all show a 
ground-plan approximating closely to a perfect circle, they 
show, besides other less marked external variations, three 
principal forms, known respectively as tlie Bowl, the 
Bell, and the Disc (or Ring).^ 

The Bowl Ijarrow is so called simply l)ecause it 
resembles an exaggerated mud-pie. Most of them are 
not so much mounds as mere swellings in the ground, 
a few inches only above the general level, and in 
diameter anything from 5 or 6 feet to 100 feet or 
more. Others rise to 10, 20, even 30 feet or more. 
There is, indeed, no known limit of size. Silbury " Hill, 
Wiltshire, is believed to be one of them, although 
repeated eftbrts have thus far failed to discover its 

' Not l>y any means every hill or hillock to which the name "barrow" 
attaches is a burial-iuound, or even artificial ; *'.;/. Creech Barrow, near 
Corfe, and many " eskers," or gravel-mounds in Cumberland, Yorks, &c. 
The name attaches even to camps, e.g. Thunder barrow, near Kingston-on- 
Sea, Sussex, and Elworthy Barrows, Somerset. Very many so-called tumuli 
were never sepulchral. There is, for example, a round mound outside the 
Roman station of Wendlebury, Bicester, Oxfordshire, which merely hides 
the remains of some Roman l)uilding. Others, as has been said, are the 
remnants of Norman nuittes. On the other hand, the ancient peoples did 
not invariably go to the trouble of making a barrow ; they occasionally used 
an "esker," or other natural mound, for a burial-place. 

- The first syllable may be the A.-S. sel, "noble." Popular etymology 
declares it to be the burial-place of one King Seal, as Pepys has recorded. 
"Bury "is, of course, the same word as "barrow." A common substitute 
is how (howe) or lotv (law), both meaning " hill " ; e.g. Hubba's Low, 
Quernhow. In Cheshire the word "cob" has the same meaning. Many of 
the more conspicuous, from long use as landmarks, have ac([uired individual 
names {e.g. Leather Barrow, The Butts, The Dial, Money Hill), or have 
even given names to the adjacent villages. Popular etymology is fond of 
accounting for them. In the North Riding, near Kirklington, is a barrow of 
the Bronze Age known as Sfeiple {i.e. Steeple) Hill, doubtless originally in 
allusion to its unusual steepness and height. But the village folk will have it 
that the mound was reared over the body of an imaginary General Stapleton 
' ' killed in the Civil Wars '' ; and they account for its unusual height by 
declaring that the general, an exceptionally tall man, was buried standing 
upright ! It is curious that the peasant of this generation is still alive to 
the very same feature which caused his forbears of long ago to dul) the hill 
"Steeple." 



526 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

secret. It rises to a height of 170 feet, has a diameter of 
104 feet at the top and 552 feet at the base, is more 
than 550 yards in circumference, and covers an area of 
five acres. It has been proved to have been in existence 
before the construction of the Roman road which passes 
along its base. Like some of the long barrows, it 
originally had a peristalith,^ and either this, or a low 
retaining wall of dry stone, is a common feature in barrows 
which at once differentiates them from mounds of any 
other origin. If Silbury be indeed wholly artificial, it has 
few or no rivals. The great tumulus on which stands the 
church of St. Michel at Carnac is but 65 feet in height. 

With the addition of a ditch more or less well marked 
about the base of the mound, the "bowl" passes into 
the " bell " barrow. The ditch is usually interrupted at 
one point, as it were by an entrance, and not seldom 
shows a depressed parapet on the outer edge.^ The 

' Similar rings of upright stones, not of any great size, are occasionally 
found embodied within the earthen mound. Analogous are the small circles 
of stones, without visible trace of any mound, which have occasionally been 
found to surround interments. In these cases the mound may have been 
removed, or some chance may have prevented its ever being raised, or there 
may never have been any intention of raising one. There have been fashions 
in graves and monuments since the beginning of things. 

2 In an article in Proc. Lanes, and Cheshire Antiq. Sue., vol. xviii. 
(1900), dealing with the anomalous oaken circle of Bleasdale, near Garstang, 
Prof. Boyd Dawkins instances a tumulus of the Bronze Age at Whatcombe 
near Blandford, explored 1898, where " the bottom of the ditch, cut in the 
chalk, was smoothed and polished into a perfectly well-defined track by 
human feet circling round the burial mound." This ditch was originally 
5 feet deep. In the case of the Bleasdale Circle there was a closely-set 
stockade of logs, with a diameter of 150 feet. Inside this, and disposed as 
near as might be to its eastern side, was a second work consisting of a low 
circular bank (diameter 75 feet), within which was a ditch, and within this 
again a " peristalith " of eleven oaken posts. At its actual centre was a 
slight mound covering interments of the Bronze Age. The ditch, 5 feet in 
depth with a funnel-shaped section widening to 4 feet at the surface, had 
been carefully floored with poles laid side by side along the line of the ditch, 
as if to form a sort of processional way. The entrance to the exterior 
stockade was by a narrow opening to the south-west ; that to the inner 
circle was by a widely splayed opening between the oaken posts, facing due 
east. 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 527 

dimensions may vary as widely as those of Ijowl-barrows. 
"Bowls" and "bells" alike are sometimes uniformly 
convex at the top, sometimes show a larger or smaller 
depression at the centre.^ On the South Downs it is 
said that the convex-barrows are mostly Celtic, the 
concave are Saxon. The latter are, as a rule, smaller than 
the former, but the local variations are endless.^ 

The characteristic of the third class, or " disc " barrows, 
is not the mound, wdiicli may or may not be there, but a 
simple ring- wall of earth or stone, or both, surrounding 
a circular area/ This area is sometimes the natural 
surface of the ground ; sometimes it is raised to a 
perfectly fiat table, with or without a slight parapet of 
its own ; sometimes it rises in the centre to a mound of 
large size ; or again it contains two, three, or more distinct 
mounds of the "bowl" type. The materials for the ring- 
wall are usually obtained from a shallow^ fosse either 
within or without the wall, and occasionally there is a 
fosse on both sides. Upon the vallum sometimes stood 
a peristalith."* In some cases there is a gap left as an 



* This depression is doubtless in many cases merely the result of ill-advised 
experiments in tomb-robbing, but in others it is unmistakably part of the 
original design. 

- In the North Riding, and elsewhere, are found barrows of square plan 
with rounded corners, surrounded by a trench (Greenwell and RoUeston, 
British Barroivs, p. 370, note). Others, chiefly occurring in Westmorland, 
have as it were projecting rays, or horns, attached to the central mound 
("star-fish barrows"), e.g., Shiel Knowe, near Bewcastle. These "rays" 
are, perhaps, merely later additions to the original mound, covering later 
burials. 

•' Stukeley, with the irresponsibility which characterised the anticjuaries of 
the eighteenth century, was satisfied to conjecture that disc-barrows marked 
the burial-places of Druids. Sir R. Colt Hoare challenged tliis opinion, witli 
very little better reason, and preferred to believe them to be "appropriated 
to the female tribes," whatever that may mean {Ancient fVilts, vol. i., 
p. 21). Dr. Thurnam's Essay in Archceoloyia, xliii., still remains an 
authoritative statement of sounder conclusions as to ban-ows in general. 

* An example in Cumberland shows a circular peristalith of forty-one 
stones, diameter roughly 100 feet, surrounding five separate mounds, each of 
which has (or had) its own peristalith. 



528 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

entrance to the ring, in others there is none. The "disc" 
is in most h:>calities^ decidedly rarer than the "bowl" or 
the " bell." Like those it varies widely in size : from 



^\\\^U^^^^iinili(^ 









"^ilms^ilM^ 






% 









10 10 30 ^o so 

1 1 _i 1 : L 




^^^1^^!^^ 



20 to 40 yards across is perhaps the usual range, but 
there are known examples much larger. Similarly the 

^ Prof. Boyd DaAvkins says this type belongs chiefly to the southern 
counties. In Yorkshire it is rare. In a few instances there seem to be Uf:o 
concentric circles about the area. On Moor Divock, Askham, Westmorland, 
is "a circular space, 68 feet in diameter, enclosed within an earthen mound 
of very slight elevation, the entire area being paved with water-rolled stones. 
At the south-east side of it is a monolith called the Cop-stone, 5 feet high " 
(Green well and RoUeston, British Barrous, p. 400). 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 529 



iUmiyy 



•>-^\^' 









w 






'•''■';», rn;0'^ 



,»m«o„ 










m 



M M 



530 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

ring-wall varies from an unmistakable wall- of 3 or 4 feet 
in height, down to the least discernible convexity of the 
soil, only perceptible in certain lights or from certain 
points of view. The barrow illustrated in Fig. 177, near 
the Hunter's Rest Inn upon the Mendips, is a fine example 
of its class. In Fig. 178 are shown various types of disc- 
])arrows to be seen upon the South Downs near Lewes. 






'.'.i,'!,v,;.- 

O IP :ip 3o ^p sp 

Fig. 179.— Disc-Bakrow, Hadbon Hill. 

The most usual variety is that marked as No. 1, the least 
usual No. 4, while Nos. 2 and 3 are of intermediate 
frequency. The barrow (Fig. 179) on Haddon Hill, 
Exmoor, with very slight inner fosse and well-marked 
outer trench, shows how nearly some of these "discs," 
where no interior mound is apparent, may resemble simple 
ring-forts, especially if the wall be of piled stone ; but as 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 531 

a rule they are distiiiguisliuble, if not by tlie lack of any 
entrance, at any rate by their small size, their indefensible 
position on open plateaus, the weakness of the containing 
wall, their curious symmetry of plan, and particularly by 
the presence of the inner fosse, whenever this exists. 
There are, however, cases in which nothing l)ut exploration 
can determine whetlicr the particular work is a barrow or 
not, e.g. Castle Dyke, Aysgarth (Fig. 195) and Vok'y 
Castle, Parracombe (Fig, 19G). In particular the divid- 
ing line between the mere burial-place and the temple, 
or place of ritual, must necessarily be very difficult to 
determine ; the stone circle merges into the disc- barrow, 
the place of burial into the place of sacrifice. " There 
is no sharp line to be drawn," says Prof. Boyd Dawkins, 
" between the tomb and the temple " ; and the statement 
is as true of prehistoric times as it is of the present day, 
when the church is still surrounded by the churchyard, 
and the same roof covers altar and ashes. 

In too many cases time has reduced "bowls" and 
" bells " to an equality, obliterating all trace of any fosse 
and leaving only the slightest convexity of the soil to 
indicate their presence, so that it needs a (piick eye to 
see them where they are, common sense to avoid seeing 
them where they are not. Even where they still present 
a bold outline, they have often l)een rifled by seekers after 
imagined treasure or possible curios.^ 

The personal names often attaching to them — of 
Cymbeline, of King Arthur, of Ilubba tlie Dane — are 
not more relialde than similar names attaching to camps, 



' Round barrows of large size have been turned to vari(Jii,s utilitarian 
purposes. They were favourite sites for wimbnills, for oxauij)lo, like the 
Derry Mount at Nottingham Castle. Worthington Smith mentions one so 
utilised at Caddington {M(m, the Primeral Savniie, p. 61), and also a Idny 
l)arrow in Dunstable to which attached the name of Windmill Hill. The 
practice of tomb-robbing is at least as old in Britain as Roman times. The 
recent exploration of the large Wick Barrow, Somerset, of tlie Bronze Age, 
has shown that it was disturbed in Roman times, if not by Roman liands. 

M M 2 



532 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

but there are one or two instances of "tough tradition" 
whicli may bear quotation. Wright mentions the demo- 
lition in 1833 of a barrow at Mold, Flintshire. "This 
barrow was called by the Welsh peasantry Bryn yr 
Ellyllon, or the Hill of the Fairies or Goblins, and it 
was believed to be haunted. But the most curious 
circumstance connected with it was the declaration, 
made before it was opened, of a woman of the neigh- 
bourhood, that as she was going home late one night 
and had to pass by it, she saw moving over the barrow 
a spectre ' clothed in a coat of gold which shone like 
the Sun.' " ^ The destruction of the mound proved that it 
actually contained a skeleton, with which lay something 
long considered to be a corselet of thin gold, l)ut now 
described more correctly as a horse's peytrel. It is in 
the British Museum. Another legend declared that 
within the stone hill-fort called the Cheesewring, near 
Callington, Cornwall, dwelt a prophet with an inex- 
haustil:)le cup of gold, which was at last stolen from him 
by a hunter. The hunter paid instantly for tlie theft 
by a broken neck, and they buried him whei'e he died, 
close by the Cheesewring, and the fatal cup beside him. 
When a cairn on that spot was opened recently, there 
was found within it a cup of gold ! ^ And yet one 
instance more. One of the more prominent figures in 
the collection of old Welsh tales known as the Mahinogio7i 
is Bronwen the Fair, who is there said to have been 
buried "in a four-sided grave by the banks of the Alaw 
in Anglesey."^ In 1813 exactly such a grave was 
accidentally discovered and opened on the banks of the 
Alaw, at a spot still known locally as Y7iys Broniven, 
Bronwen's Isle. Such things may be the merest coinci- 
dences, but they have an interest even to the antiquary. 

' Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 105. 

^ The story is told in Baring Gould's Book of the IVest : ConimtU, p. 107. 

^ In the tale called " Tlie Lady of the Fountain.*' 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 533 

Mention has been made of certain mounds found within 
or near various camps of prc-Norman character, e.g. at 
Battlesbury (Fig. ^7), at Badhury, at Shoulsbury, at Ctesar's 
Camp, Easthampstead, and at Mount Cabuni. These 
have commonly been written down at once as barrows, 
l)ut Pitt-Rivers sliowed that in some of these cases the 
mounds in (Question contained no trace of any interment,^ 
and he suggested that they had probably some connexion 
with the original scheme of defence, or were the sites 
of watch-posts covering the approaches. When forming 
part of the enceinte as at Badbury (Fig. 21), and Muzbury 
(Fig. 64), and Buckland Brewer (Fig. 66), their strategic 
value is so obvious that this was doubtless the motive 
for buildino' them. But when found within the area the 
case is different. Excavation has proved that some of 
these were actually used for burials, although it has 
perhaps not l)een piox'cd that the mound is as old as 
the containing earthworks, or that it was expressly Ijuilt to 
cover an interment. In Warbstowl)ury Camp, Cornwall, 
the mound known as "King Arthur's (Trave" is apparently 
a long barrow ; the remains of others stand within the 
camp at Willersey, Glos., Bratton Castle, Wilts, and 
Hambledon Hill, Dorset. It is generally assumed tliat 
in each of these cases the camp is of later date than 
the barrow. But there are again numerous cases where 
actual round barrows are found within the camp, e.g. 
at Smalldown, Winkell)ury, and elsewhere. Here the 
difficulty is to determine whether the interments are 
coeval with the occupation of the camp. Such evidence 
as is at present available certainly goes to show that 
burials within camps are not, as a rule, contemporary 
with such occupation. It is more usual to find the 

' In some cases where no trace of a body is discoverable, it is nevertheless 
possible that it was once there. Just as certain soils have the ((uality of 
preserving huuian remains, so others have the <|uality of consuming their 
every trace. This may be the explanation of m:iny seeming cenotcvphs. 
See Greenwell and Rolleston, British Bki-johs, pp. 201, 202. 



534 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

contemporary cemetery at some spot without the defences. 
There are tumuli, for exam^jle, within the contour- 
camp of Chalbury, near Weymouth, hut what seems 
to have been the burial-pLace of the men who l)uilt 
and occupied the camp has been discovered Ij miles to 
the south at Rimbury. If a l)arrow already existed 
upon a spot which presently recommended itself to 
another generation — and perhaps to another race — as 
the site of a camp, such barrow would naturally be 
made in some way to subserve the purposes of the 
new-comers, if not simply ignored, or even removed for 
the sake of the materials ; and conversely a later people 
may have used as a burial-place some mound reared 
within a camp for a totally different purpose.^ 

Mounds of this character are commonly very small ; 
those just outside the ring- work at Chanctonbury are 
indeed scarcely discernible. In other instances mounds 
of much more considerable size, remote from any camp 
or other now discoveralile settlement, have yielded no 
trace of any interment. Some of these may quite 
possil)ly Ije cenotaphs or memorials of some unknown 
event. It was not more unreasonable in an ancient 
people to raise a cairn in memory of some notable 
person or event, than it is for later ages to rear to the 
same end some unsightly monument, obelisk or column 
or what not. Indeed, the building of simple cairns with 
the same object has not yet altogether ceased. On the 
other hand, some of these barren mounds were certainly 
beacon-hearths, and others, although quite remote from 
any camp, may quite well have been look-outs or signal- 
posts. There are many such on the Exmoor hills. 

Even so cautious and experienced a man as Pitt-Rivers 
seems occasionally to have overlooked the possibility that 
some at least of the earthworks of the hills may be of modern 

' At the southern side of the area of Scratchbury, Wilts, is a mound 
which was perhaps a Nurnian mutte. 



xvr MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 535 

date. Writing of the Late-Celtic fort of Mt. Caburii on 
the South Downs he describes, at about 700 yards to the 
north-north-east of the camp, "a circle of 64 feet diameter, 
with banks raised about 2 feet, and a square pit in tlie 
centre, having two attached chambers." ^ More recently 
(1907) just such another earthwork on Firle Hill, across 
the valley immediately to the south of Alt. Caburn, has 



^J^'^/'Ws 



) \ 












Fk;. 180. — Site oi- NN'indmill, Mount Caburx. 

been thus described : " It is an outer circuhir cnd)ank- 
ment which is nearly complete, in(;luding three segments 
of an inner concentric circle. Within these segments 
is a concentric square depression, and lying outside this 
entire figure are certain sul)si(liarv earthen structures" 
(Fig. 181). But wJicreas Pitt-llivors was content to 

' Archmdugia, xlii. (i8(iU). A c()Ui[).iiisnii with the slight cut there 
given will satisfy any one who knows the locality that Pitt- Rivers was speak- 
ing of the same work as is represented in Fig. 180 of the text. 



5^6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

surmise that what he saw was possibly an outpost of 
the camp on Mt. Caburn with shelter-pits for the 
watchers, the later observer sees in the very similar 
work on Firle Hill nothing less than an astronomical 
temple, "a 8tonehenge in earth, more complete than 
any other structure of a similar period " ; and he goes 
on to point out that " by drawing lines from the centre 
of the square through the centres of the openings between 
the segments of the inner circle, the points on the horizon 












id'^ 



'\>. '' 1 



V "^ 






lO 20 iO '^0 SO 






Fk;. 181. — Site of Windmill, Firle Hill. 



are struck where the sun rises and sets at the winter 
solstice, or on the shortest day of the year. In a similar 
manner, if lines are drawn from the centre of the square 
through the north angles of the square, the points on the 
horizon are struck where the sun rises and sets at the 
midsummer solstice, or the longest day of the year. If, 
again, a line be drawn from the centre of the subsidiary 
earthwork lying on the north-west lo that of the sul)- 
sidiary earthwork lying on the south-east, it is found 



XVI 



MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 



537 



to pas8 ov^ei" the centre of the square. The direction 
of this line indicates the point of the horizon where 
the sun rose and set in the old May-year." Whence 
it is suggested that the whole is a work dating from 
that " vastly remote epoch " when the year was accounted 
to begin in May — an epoch when the South Downs were 
inhal)ited ])y an immigrant race who brought with them 
astronomical ideas once prevalent in Egypt and Chaldaea ! 
A little further investigation would have revealed to both 
authorities that there are quite a number of such cryptic 






t 



â– "â– â– 'â– 'â– â– â–  "^-^ ";> 


















■••• """^'^'^y *^ — '^ ^ 



o 30 -♦.O So 



Fig. 182. — Windmill Sites, Lewes Down. 



C 5° 



works upon the Downs about Lewes, and that in sober 
fact they are merely the sites of bygone windmills ! 
There is one, for example, half a mile west of the prison 
at Lewes ; the mill was ])urned down but a few years ago, 
and there lie two round mill -stones on the turf to prove 
that it stood just here ; l)ut it lias left behind it, like its 
fellow on Firlc Hill, two concentric rings of earth, a 
central depression of s(|uarish plan, and two "subsidiary" 
works in the shape of a pit to the north-west and an 
embanked circular annexe to the south-east (Fig. 1 82 A). 



538 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

There is another, less complete, a few yards to the north- 
west (Fig. 182 B), and yet another a few yards away from 
the site noticed by Pitt- Rivers on Mt. Caburn. 

A very brief examination of the still remaining windmills 
about Lewes — there are two deserted mills out towards 
Kingston, and two others still in working order at Mailing 
and Ringmer — will show how they come to leave such 
curious indicia. They are of the old type, square wooden 
upper structures of great size revolving upon squat circular 
bases of masonry. The base, sufficiently roomy to serve as 
a granary or store-house, has a diameter of from 20 to 30 
feet. Li later examples it is sometimes made of timber 
upon a framework of iron, but in the earlier and more last- 
ing form it is simply a solid circular wall of mortared flints, 
strengthened within by four great buttresses of brick. 
Access to the upper structure and the machinery is gained 
by a heavy wooden ladder known as the tier, and an 
immense wooden beam projecting from the floor of the 
upper structure and passing through this ladder is ingeni- 
ously contrived to serve both to turn the mill round and 
so ])ring the sails to the wind, and also to raise the tier 
from the ground when such turning is necessary. AVhen 
once the mill has been swung to the desired point of the 
compass the tier is allowed to rest upon the ground, and so 
serves, as it were, to anchor the sails in position. Around 
the base of masonry the soil gradually accumulates with the 
years, as it always does at the foot of any wall, until the 
ground acquires a barrow-like hump ; and this is exagger- 
ated by the contrary action of the tier, the weight of which 
slowly scores out a trench in the soft chalky soil. These 
two agencies produce between them the inner circle which 
always marks such sites. The outer circle is similarly 
produced simply by the repeated tread of many generations 
of millers, as laboriously they swing-round the lever-beam. 
This outer ring is rarely very well marked, often scarcely 
discernible, the reason being that it takes longer time to 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 539 

make it. Both the inner and the outer rings are easily 
traceable a})out Rini>iner Mill. Burnt down, blown down, 
blown up sometimes (as on Lewes Race-course), or simply 
left to brenk up in decay, the windmills vanished piece- 
meal, and their disappearance was completed by the 
carting away of the mason-work and the grul)bing up of the 
last brick. This process has naturally left a hole in the 
centre of the site, and as the most deeply set parts of the 
masonry were the four great buttresses, the hole has 
assumed a square or quatrefoil plan more or less regular. 
Finally, as even millers crave for companionship, these 
lonely dwellers on the windy Downs occasionally kept fowls, 
and these they housed in shanties close at hand. Hence the 
mysterious pits, embanked or otherwise, and other such 
" subsidiary works." If any one doubt it, let him go to 
Ringmer ]\Iill and see for himself. It may l)e added that, 
though seemingly all memory of the mill has vanished out 
of West Firle, there still remains a flight of steps cut out 
of the steep fjice of the hill and leading direct up to the 
" Stonehenge in earth," and there still attaches to these 
the sutliciently convincing title of the Miller's Steps. 

The millers of the Downs are all ])ut gone, and the last 
of their mills must soon cease to struggle against the 
competition of steam roller-mills and tlie modern taste for 
tasteless bread ; but should there come to their dusty 
shades any intelligence of the matters which vex the 
minds of men on earth, they must laugh joHily to think 
of their old haunts translated into temples of " the dim 
red dawn of man," of themselves apotheosized into sapient 
astronomers, and of later-day Quixotes so over-read in 
Druidical lore that they must needs ride a-tilting against 
windmills ! And where shall the student of earthwork 
find a more homely lesson in all that an antiquary should 
he ? — cautious, and again cautious, and yet a third time 
cautious. 

The Welsh and Irish mounds built up of discarded fire- 



540 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

stones liave been described al)ove/ They are easily 
recognized by the signs of fire about them, and by their 
position at low levels near to springs. But there are 
other caii'us of which the origin is less obvious. Some 
are funereal barrows, and these are generally at high 
elevations. On the other hand, not every cairn on a hill- 
top is a barrow, or even old. The Ordnance Survey has 
involved the building of some as trigonometrical stations, 
and others mark quite late burials of persons whose sole 
distinction was murder. Some cover the bones of 
favourite hunters only, or even of dogs, and some are 
merely so many " follies." Many have been formed, and 
are still being formed, by the simple process of collecting 
into convenient heaps the stones which in many localities 
interfere with the work of agriculture. A few have their 
origin in old superstitions hardly yet defunct. In some 
parts of the island it is still customary to erect cairns of 
some size at every point at which the coffin has rested in 
the progress of a funeral cortege."^ These road-side cairns 
are at lower levels. In some localities it is, or used quite 
lately to be, considered unwise to pass a certain spot 
without tossing a stone in its direction, the belief being 
that it was haunted, and that the ghost might thus be 
laid. Cairns of quite considerable size and much ap- 
pearance of antiquity have })een thus built up within 
quite recent times. And not a few^ mounds, larger or 
smaller, are not artificial at all. ()ne wdiich stands wdthin 
the churchyard of Old Hunstanton has lately been ex- 
amined and shown to be a purely natural formation, 
although nothing but its precise resemblance, not in shape 
and size only, but in position also, to a tumulus, a motte, 
or a moot, led to its investigation. Only a close acquain- 
tance with geological principles and local peculiarities can 
prevent a good deal of disappointment of this kind. In 



1 See pp. 215-218. - Mitchell, The Past in the Present. 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 541 

a certain iiortheni county men still laugh over the case of 
an eminent antiquary who, for the enlightenment of a 
number of kindred spirits, enlarged upon the mound on 
which he stood, its unknown age and mysterious signifi- 
cance, the scenes which it had witnessed, and the secrets 
which it might conceal ; while of his audience only the 
vicar of the parish knew that it had been made Ijy the 
vicar's orders ! Some of the Yorkshire dales, and 
Wensleydale especially, are full of natural mounds, some 
of great size, curiously like mottes and barrows ; indeed, 
they may occur in any gravelly locality. Some of them 
have unquestionably been tampered with, whether by 
older generations who terraced and scarped their sides 
and reared smaller mounds upon their summits, or by 
later generations of gravel-diggers. Mention has been 
made (p. 521, note) of a good instance at Berryhills, near 
Kirklington ; the very name is suggestive, but the mound 
is as entirely natural as are the adjacent Yammergarth 
Hills. 

The beacon -hearths which are to be found in so many 
hill-top camps — e.g. Mt. Calnirn and Ditchling Beacon, and 
Dowsborough in the Quantock Hills — are mostly of late 
date. Some of them may perhaps be older, but it is a 
difficult thing to prove. ^ Beacon-fires were used by the 
Celtic tribes, whether for alarm signals or for ritual 
purposes ; they are thought to have been used for more 
practical purposes by the Romans ; they continued in use 
during the Middle Ages, wdiether as war-signals or as 
Beltane-fires ; and they still survive, if only as one of the 
tokens " when a mighty people rejoice." 

Barrows, l^eacons, cairns, and Ordnance-marks mostly 
belong to the higher levels. Lower down occur other 
varieties also. Many seeming barrows are really the 



' Jack's Castle, Stourhead, was couiitod a iK'nc-cm-iiKniud until oxoavatiun 
proved it to be a harrow of unusual size. 



542 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

hotontiiies of Roman land-surveyors, and on excavation 
produce nothing more valuable than bits of pottery, 
animal bones, and a handful of wood-ashes. They are 
always of small size. But another class — the moot-hills — 
may wary from something no l)igger than a hotontine to 
proportions as large as those of an unusually fine barrow 
or even of a motte. These moot-hills marked, in Saxon 
times and long after, the meeting-place of the population 
of a village, of the warriors of the Hundred or Rape or 
Wapentake, of the tenants in manorial courts. The 
constantly repeated assertion that such meeting-places 
were always mounds is quite unwarrantable ; any con- 
venient landmark would serve — a tree, a stone, a bridge, 
a wayside cross, even an ancient camp like Badbury and 
Desborough Castle. Old barrows were convenient just 
because they were conspicuous and numerous. Only when 
no suitable landmark existed might the trouble of making 
a mound actually be taken ; and it may be considered 
doubtful whether the making of such moot-hills was ever 
anything but exceptional. Some so-called moot-hills on 
village greens were probably nothing but the sites on 
which were planted the May-poles. Whatever its origin, 
the village moot had little chance to survive amongst the 
growth and decay, the building and rebuilding of centuries. 
That of the manor has escaped sometimes, protected, 
perhaps, by its position on the lord's domain and close to 
his dwelling ; but it is quite likely that many of those 
so-called manorial moots are merely the remains of the 
original motte of the lord's dwelling, adapted later to 
other purposes. At Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, is a fine 
and steep-sided oval mound some 12 to 15 feet in height, 
with a level top about 90 yards in circumference, and 
along part of its base a shallow ditch. Close beside it is a 
small water-hole, to which attaches the significant name of 
the " Court Ditch." It doubtless obtained the name 
because the mound was used as the moot of the manorial 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 543 

court, for Walton was once a place of importance and a 
royal manor. But it is much more reasonable to suppose 
that the mound was built originally to be the lord's 
dwelling than merely to serve as a place of meeting — that 
it is a riiottc degraded to a moot-hill — and the traces of 
the surroundinof ditch bear out this view. It was needful 
to the motte ; it was needless to a moot-hill. There was 
until recently a precisely similar mound at Warrington, 
likewise used as a moot-hill, and the mound at Cublington, 
indubitably originally a fortress, was very possibly later 
the mootdiill of the Hundred of Cottesloe.^ Less pre- 
tentious moots have survived here and there in the low 
heaps of earth oat of which grow ancient trees on the 
greens of English villages. They long ago ceased to have 
any raison d'etre, and Parish Councils do not seem to 
promise to resuscitate them." 

At the very lowest levels, in such areas as the great 
flats of Somersetshire and the salt marshes of the Thames 
and Medway, occur mounds of yet another class, viz. 
spacious depressed platforms rising very slightly above 
the dead level of the surrounding soil. Li wet seasons, 
when the rest of the land is frequently under water, these 
mounds appear as so many islands, where collect 
the cattle to be out of reach of the floods. It was for 
this express purpose that some of them were built, and 
though pumping and the improvements in drainage and 
the better maintenance of the sea-walls have mostly made 
them needless, they were until recent times a very real 
need, and still occasionally prove useful. There are 
many of them in the Sedgemoor levels, where local 
tradition has it that they are the grave-mounds of those 



1 Another well-known instance is that at Dinvnton, Wilts. 

- A great deal of information about moot-hills and their use is to be found 
in Gomuie's Frimitive Folk-moots. The best known instance is, of course, the 
Tynwald Hill, Isle of Man, from which are still read out in full court the laws 
enacted by the House of Keys. 



544 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

who fell ill the fight of 1685 ; and similarly in Kent, 
where they are known as " cotterels," they are reputed 
to be the burial-places of Norse pirates. The majority of 
them are perhaps of no great antiquity, but one at least 
can boast a history of a thousand years, namely the 
famous Isle of Refuge at Athelney, which the Chronicle 
declares that Alfred "wrought." They vary in size and 
elevation, but all are rather platforms than mounds.^ 

All along the coast of Essex, from Burnham to Walton- 
on-the-Naze especially, are to be found other mounds 
of entirely different origin. Locally known as " Red 
Hills," these are artificial accumulations of soil coloured 
red by firing, in marked contrast with the dark peaty 
colour of the local alluvium. That these mounds are of 
very high antiquity is proved by the constant discovery of 
pottery of Roman character within the red earth. They 
have been variously supposed to be the sites of old glass- 
workings, of salt-pans, or of potteries ; and while the last 
is the least unlikely theory, they do not show the kind of 
refuse and debris which might be expected on the site of 
a pottery. Beneath them, on the surface of the clay, have 
been found fragments of Late-Celtic pottery, and within 
them certain wedge-shaped pieces of burnt clay, said to be 
precisely similar to the wedges still used by the Stafford- 
shire potters in firing their wares, with other cylindrical 
pieces which may possibly be fragments of Ijrandreths, 
fire-bars, &c. Of permanent human occupation there is no 
sign at all. 

The " Red Hills" vary in area from less than half an 
acre to several acres, and their elevation above the present 
surface from two to five feet. They occur in irregular 
fashion, singly, or in groups larger or smaller, wdth no 
obvious method. Some of them lie on and in old " rills" 



' The similar work called Rat's Castle, at Wartling in Sussex, was perhaps 
one of them. 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 545 

or waterwuys, and all the known examples aeeni to be 
placed very close to what was the limit of the tides before 
the sea-walls of this coast were constructed. Like the 
cotterels above mentioned they serve upon occasion as 
cattle-refuges, and in some instances they have at a 
remote period been improved into formal cattle-pounds, 
circular or otherwise, hj drawing a slight trench round 
the mound and heaping up the excavated material 
into a vallum along its inner edge.^ 

The making of enclosures with walls of earth or stone, 
with or without a ditch, is too elementary a metliod ever 
to have gone altogether out of use, even in these days of 
barbed wire and iron railino;s. Such enclosures are still 
made in districts where the climate requires that the Hocks 



^ A Coniniittee of Investigation carried out a considerable amount of 
digging upon red-hills near Langenhoe and Mersea Island during 1906-7, 
and the report of its results was presented to the Society of Anti(iuaries in 
March, 1908. These results were in the main negative, but it appears to have 
been proved that the I'ed earth has been brought to the sjjot from some other 
locality, probably not very remote ; that it consists of the refuse of pottery- 
works particularly concerned in the manufacture of a definite and limited 
class of articles expressly designed for potters' use ; that this refuse is not 
later than the Roman period ; and that it was conveyed to its present sites 
by water, at a time antecedent to the construction of the sea-wall within 
which the red-hills now lie. So far as the excavations went, they proved also 
that the surrounding of some of the mounds with fosse and vallum was a 
later event. That the hills were originally constructed to serve as cattle- 
refuges is hardly a tenable theory ; the labour involved would appear to be 
too great, and the positions such as to render such works dt the date of their 
construction needless. If it be permissible to advance any theory in a matter 
so perplexing, it might be suggested that the mounds represent the initial 
steps towards constructing a sea-wall, the material being shot overboard from 
lighters at points to which such vessels could reach. For whatever reason, 
some or all of these mounds were not used in the final embankment, and 
therefore remained as islands within the reclaimed marsh. When the 
marsli came su])se(|uently to V)e intersected by deep ditches and drains, im- 
passable to sheep, it was found ccmvenient to utilise some of the mounds as 
" cotterels," and tliey were accordingly fossed and embanked. This tlieory 
falls in with most of the facts thus far ascertained, if it still leaves unex- 
plained the source whence was brought the red earth. Was this possibly 
from kilns in the vicinity of Camalodunum or of (^thona ? • Similar deposits 
of red earth occur on the coast of Normandy, near Caudebec. 

N .\ 



546 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

should 1)0 not merely folded, but in some measure 
sheltered. This accounts for the immense amount of 
labour expended upon the wide balks dividing the fields 
of Cornwall, and the similar fences of Exmoor, usually 
planted with vigorous hedges of beech, which at once 
so much improve and so greatly limit the wayfarer's 
view ; for fences less impervious to wind and less high 
would fail to safeguard the sheep from the violent gales 
and drifting snows of these uplands. Without doubt 
many of the stone ring-works of the northern counties 
and of Wales are quite recent constructions with the same 
purpose ; and while some of the pounds of Dartmoor 
are prehistoric, others are certainly vastly later in date. 

To this class of work belong the pele-garths of the 
Border, many of which were built as late as the seventeenth 
century or later still. These are enclosures, usually of 
circular or oval plan, surrounded by one or sometimes 
two dry-built walls with or without a fosse. Less 
commonly they show an angular plan. They are to be 
distinguished from camps proper by their relatively weak- 
construction, by the absence of any elaborate means of 
defending the entrances, and most of all l)y their 
indefensible positions. Unlike the camp, which stands 
commonly in a lofty position with no attempt at 
concealment, the pele-garths are usually found at low levels, 
hidden away under the shoulders of the hills or in the 
valleys, where it might be hoped that they would be over- 
looked l)y raiding moss-troopers. Their purpose was as 
obviously merely to keep in the cattle as that of the camp 
was to keep out the enemy. They are, in fact, Bawns 
(p. 232). 

Far down into the Middle Ao;es the EuQ-lish used 
precisely the same method for the defence of their villages, 
wherever occasion required it. The primitive settlement 
of Angle, Jute, and Saxon was a cluster of rude huts 
planted upon a clearing in the forest and surrounded by a 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 547 

ring fence.' \\ here a great Joid made his residence tlieve 
would be constructed some sort of stronghold, presumal)ly 
a stockaded site, and within its immediate vicinitv liis 
" men " would l)e secure ; but those who dwelt in outlying 
hamlet or villaoe had to make their own defences or 00 
without them. They followed in a humbler way the same 
method as did their lord, entrenching the village witliin 
vallum and fosse and palisade. Within this ring-fence 
stood their huts and the three other essentials of the time 
— church and manor-house and mill. Whether the ditch 
held water or not was of course a Cjuestion of soil and 
elevation ; prol^ably it w^as in many cases dry, but there 
are instances in which a wet moat constitutes the common 
defence of village, church, and hall. Right down to the 
thirteenth or even the fourteenth century these local de- 
fences continued to exist. The English were always great 
makers of hedges,^ and the liedger was an important 



' The Celtic Christians are said to have followed the same plan in Ireland, 
Cornwall, Wales, Ac. The village gathered around the church, and the 
church was hut the centre of a monastic settlement larger or smaller, which 
was for security provided with hedge and ditch. To such enclosures refer 
the words llan (W^elsh), Ian (Cornish, Breton), and lis (Irish), as in Lismore. 
There is no need to think that the Saxons copied their Celtic missioners, hut 
they may have done so. 

- The Normans termed the hedge " haia " (Fr. lud^'), and the word survives 
in the dialectic form "hay," as well as in the termination of such place- 
names as Ox/ie;/. The etymology of "ha-ha," an eighteenth-century equiva- 
lent, is said to be different, expressive of the sur})rise with which the 
wayfarer found his customary path barred by some newly planted hedge. 
Reference has been made above to the hedge-fencing of the Nervii ; their 
neighlxjurs the Frisians have left the memory of a like skill in ^^ cheml-de- 
frise." The complete isolation of each English settlement until comparatively 
recent times is difficult to realize, but a fact. In early Saxon times, as in 
early Rome, hospes and hu.ffls were synonymous — a "foreigner" was like- 
wise a "foe" ; and "foreigner" signified any one not of the community. 
The peasants of Lincolnshire still use the word in the same sense, and speak 
of a parish no furtlier off than the other side of a moderately big river as 
" foreign parts. " It is said that the satirical stories told by one village at 
the expense of another are the survivals <jf a time when the more active 
hostility of the earliest period had given way to the milder hostility of abuse 
and suspicion. Gotham and its wiseacres is the stock example, but there are 
many more. The men of Piddinghoe (Sussex) are alleged to have been in 

N N 2 



548 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

member of the community long after Langland's time. 
With the extermination of the wikl animals and the 
suppression of private war the need of these defences 
ceased, and cultivation has mostly destroyed their every 
trace. Very distinct traces of the ring-fence remain about 
the site of the old village at Cublington (Bucks), and the 
course of the old fence may be traced right round the 
neighbouring village of Hoggeston (p, 397). It is known 
that Cublino;ton was transferred to a new and unfenced site 
about 1400, and it may be inferred therefore that by the 
end of the fourteenth century such stockades were deemed 
no longer needful, at least in the Midlands.^ 

Some at least of the many instances in which a church 
is found within the lines of ancient earthworks must be 
relics of this primitive form of settlement, those cases in 
which the church is moated being analogous, but probably 
later. These earthworks were not always of Saxon con- 
struction ; instances have been cited where advantage 
was taken of existing Roman defences, and there are 
others wliere the church stands within still earlier 



the habit of shoeing their magpies ; the village Solomons of Pudsey (Yorks) 
are said to have put manure on the roof of their stunted church-tower to 
increase its height ; and it was a Cublington man who, having once 
travelled the 20 miles to Wycombe, observed with surprise that at Wycombe 
too there seemed to be the same moon as at Cublington ! 

1 The remains at Cublington are of interest as preserving not only a portion 
of the plan of the old village and a considerable part of its enclosure, but 
also a moated mound evidently of Norman type. It is marked upon the 
Ordnance Map as " tumulus," and locally has the name of The Beacon, but of 
its original character there can be little doubt. It stands right in the centre 
of the village enclosure, and excavation brought to light, immediately to the 
east of it, some sixty interments, marking the site of the ancient graveyard. 
The approximate date for the desertion of the site is furnished by a brass in 
the church of the present village, a few hundred yards further to the east, 
which records the name of John Dervyle, " first Rector of this church," who 
was buried in 1410. The manor was, te}iip. Henry III., held by Geoffrey de 
Lucy, "then in rebellion against the King" (Lipscombe). The character of 
the remains suggests that the motte was perhaps raised at that date, for it 
appears to have been constructed at the expense of the village rather than 
vice versa — that it was, in fact, an "adulterine" castle. 



XVI MISCKLLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 549 

defences.' But inasmuch as tlie village church was for 
many centuries the only defensible Ituilding, it is likely 
that some of the earthworks found about churches may be 
of much later date ; but their constant attribution to the 
days of the Civil Wars is certainly groundless in most 
cases, if not in all, for by that time there were plent}' of 
other and more defensible buildings which could be 
utilized as fortresses." 

Wall and hedge and fosse were again the regular means 
of enclosing woods and forests, estates larger or smaller, 
and indeed any area which required to be fenced.^ The 
great manor of Oxhey (Middlesex) was ajiparently named 
from its being enclosed, in whole or [)art, by an " ox- 
fence"; and the deed l)y which King ^Ethelred the 
Redeless confirmed the original grant of it l)y King ( )tl"a 
to the xAbbey of St. All)ans, proves that the name dates 
back at least to 1000 a.d. Throughout mediaeval times 
occur references to the making of such enclosures by the 
landowners, ecclesiastical and civil : thus the monks of the 
Charterhouse of Witham, Somerset, provoked much ill- 
will by enclosing a certain area of wood with a ditch and 
wall and liedae. Such an enclosure was sometimes termed 



' See Ijelow, i^.- 5(51. 

- The tradition of the iiidubitahle fact that tlie village church — usually the 
only stone building existing — freiiuently sei'ved its congregation as a fortress, 
survives in the absurd belief that the narrow window-slits with very wide 
inner splay, set high up in the walls, which are characteristic of the earliest 
ecclesiastical ai'chitecture in England, were expressly designed to be used as 
loopholes — against the Danes, says the usual tale. A more real reason was 
the costliness of glass and the wish to uiininiise draughts. In the northeni 
counties the churches continued to be fortresses throughout the Middh' 
Ages. The tower of the church at Burgh-on-Sands, Bowness, was a i)cle, and 
so far south as Bedale may bo seen another, once furnished with a port- 
cullis to screen it oft" from the body of the church, and so turn it, on occasion, 
into a stronghold. Others are found on the Welsh Marches. 

^ One of the most remarkable examjdes of the jnactice in nindcru times 
was the constructicm of a huge wall, 40 miles in length, round that portion of 
Kxmoor " Forest " which was purchased in 1818 by a Mr. Knight. The wall 
is there still, or rather part of it, for like most modern articles it has not w oin 
as well as does older work. 



550 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

defensuni, so that the occurrence of that word does not 
necessarily imply a military work. There must have been 
a great deal of such fencing done as early as the fifteenth 
century, when stock-farming so largely replaced the older 
method of cultivation, in which few or no hedges were 
needed.^ Whenever and wherever stock was kept on any 
considerable scale there must have been constructed some 
sort of pound or fold, and it would usually be built in the 
same way, suitable stone being in most cases difficult to 
get and often troublesome to work. Such pounds were 
provided also for the convenience of drovers when taking 
their cattle to market. The hill overhanging Wells 
(Somerset) appears to take its name of Pen Hill, not from 
the familiar Celtic word so spelt, but from the fact that 
upon its slope was built, and may still be seen, such a 
" pen-fold " for the use of drovers bringing down their 
stock from the grazing lands of Mendip,'^ 

The village stockade is rarely traceable to-day. In most 
cases it has vanished utterly, while the original church, 
Time and the architects notwithstanding, still endures, 
and more substantial representatives have replaced the 
wattled hovels of churl and villein. But there are very 
many instances where the entire settlemen has died out, 
leaving perhaps its ancient name attaching to some 
hamlet near by, to the Hundred, or even to a single farm- 
stead — leaving occasionally not so much as a name 

^ Exactly the same method was, and still is, followed in afforesting an 
estate, each new plantation being enclosed within its own ring-wall of 
earth, and the making of such wall always entailing the digging of a fosse. 
Probably these old boundary-fences have been at times mistaken for older 
earthworks, and so given rise to the belief that " camps " once existed where 
no trace of them is now discoverable. Some of them bear a very close 
resemblance to the genuine old ring-works, and the smaller ones in particular 
closely resemble some specimens of disc-barrows, &c. In some counties the 
keepers speak of them as "roundabouts." 

â– ^ The name of Poundbury, the fine camp close to Dorchester, suggests that 
the Saxons may have found that and similar earthworks of use as cattle- 
pounds. "Pen " or " The Pens " is not an uncommon name for any earth- 
work in the form of an enclosure, 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 



551 



beliiiid.^ So slight were the (Iwelliiig.s of all but the 
great folks, even down to the fifteenth century, that Time 
alone was more than ecmipetent to remove them ; and 
when Time was abetted by the purposeful efforts of tlie 
ploughman, the last vestige of their very foundations 
vanished within a few years. Still there survive not a 
few sites of sueh deserted villages, of varying antiquity. 
Mention has already been made of Cublington,'- Bucks, 
which is doubly exceptional in that the lord's motte still 
remains, and that the date of the al)andonment of the site 
about 1400 is recorded. The date is significant : it is 
only a year or two after the Peasant Rising, and only a 
generation or so later than the first voicing of the 
abasement of the village-population l)y Langland in 
Piers Plowman s Vision. It is about midway between 
the terrible year of the Black Death (1348) and the 
culmination of the efiects of that visitation in the sub- 
stitution of grass-farming for plouiih-farming. whence 
resulted a great shrinkage in the demand for rural labour, 
and the commencement of that Rural Exodus which is 
still in progress. Many a village was emptied outright 
by the plague, from many more the few survivors melted 
away for lack of employment, or were forcibly ejected by 
those who desired to extend their sheepwalks. What had 
been the common land of the village w^as now enclosed 
and given over in whole or part to grass, and in this way 
the skeleton-outline of a few villages of the fourteenth 
century may have been preserved. Other causes were as 
eiFective elsewhere, and more expeditious, e.g. fire ^ and 



1 There are, it may ])e pointed out, a luuubor of manors and villages 
mentioned in Domesday for wliicli no e(|uivalent is discoverable to-day. 

-' See p. 548. 

•' This was the worst enemy. In every dry sunnnerone hears of cases of the 
destruction of half a village here and there by Bre ; in the old days, when 
houses of brick and stone scarcely existed, the risk was far more real. In 
Elizabeth's time it was compulsory that there should be kept grappling-hooks 
in every village or town, so that when tire occurred the adjacent tenements 



552 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

flood and storm. The village of wliicli a plan (Fig. 183) 
is here given, now represented by Bingham, Notts, which 
stands some hundreds of yards away to the west, is said 
to have been destroyed by a hurricane. In Leicestershire, 
which is almost exclusively a grass country, several such 

JhncJ {(<M 



- ■ tt r"/Mi r fMl•'^^o 












/- 



Fig. 183. — Ckow Cl')se. 

sites have been preserved ' ; and there are, indeed, few 
counties which cannot show some such vestigfes of the flux 

could be p}illed down — a sufficient commentary upon their unsubstantial 
fabric. A pair of such grajjpling-hooks, like exaggerated drags on long 
wooden poles, was to be seen a year or two ago hanging upon a convenient 
wall by the wayside as one entered the village of Warboys, Hunts. They 
may be there still. There are others at Welwyn, in Hertfordshire, and at 
Tring. 

1 They were noticed incidentally b}' Thos. Wright, Cdt, Roman, and 
Saxon, p. 115, citing other authority. Those mentioned are all in the north- 
east of the county, near Ingarsby, Cold Newton, and Humberstone. The 
last named shows traces of its original defences, "three sides of an encamp- 
ment or enclosure, defended by a mound and trench." It was probably the 
site of the mediseval town of Hamilton. 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 553 

of po])ulatioii. The cliaracteiLstic of these sites is the rude 
rectaiiguhirity of the individual fouiidatioii-l)h)cks and of 
the streets, the hitter l)eing, as a rule, mere shallow, flat 
trenches, dividing the area in chequer-fashion, while tlie 
foundation-blocks are uniformly raised above the road- 
levels. No traces of brick or stone are discoverable : 
firstly, because the cottages of the mediaeval village rarely 
boasted such sul)stantial materials, and secondly, because 
wherever such debris was to be found it was speedily 
carried off to be used for other purposes. All that 
remains will usually l)e pottery of medicieval type — 
quantities of it pass for Roman ware — and this is usually 
buried out of sight under the turf which has alone 
preserved the ground-plan of the village. Where the 
plough has passed, every trace of the plan will have 
vanished, but the pottery Avill remain in al»undance. Of 
the buildings, the church, or part of it, is commonly the 
last survival. At Lullington, Sussex, is such a church — 
the chancel only — of early " Saxon " work, but of the 
homes of the men who l)uilt it and worshipped in it there 
remain but one house of some antiquity, originally 
perhaps a clergy-house, and the tell-tale pottery which 
litters the surrounding fields. A similar example is 
Botolphs, near Bramber; and a couple of miles south of this 
is a third, Coombes, where there is left literally nothing 
but the church. The name of Quarrendon, Bucks, denotes 
merely the ruins of a desecrated church and the remains 
of the fine moats which once enclosed the mansion of Sir 
Henry Lee, a worthy of Elizabeth's days. Just such 
another moat and ruined church remain at a nameless 
spot some 6 miles to the north-west beyond Quainton. 
Altoo-ether there are more than enough of such deserted 
sites to justify the description of the desolation of England 
in the early sixteenth century, which old Sir Thomas 
More puts into the mouth of Maister Ralpli ][ythlodayo 
in the opening pages of Utopia (1548). 



55+ EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap 

There used to be on Uffculme Down, Devonshire, a 
curious earthwork (Fig. 184, A), known as the " Pixies' 
Garden." It was a square of 60 feet or so, surrounded by 
a bank of earth 2 feet high, and divided into four smaller 
squares by cross-banks which met in a small mound at the 
centre. There was an entrance-gap at each corner of the 
outer enclosure, and in the middle of the Hoor of each of 
the smaller squares a low oval mound.' Warne describes 
two similar but very much smaller works (Fig. 184, B) 
which used to be visible on Brow Down, Dorsetshire. 
These measured only aljout 6 or 7 yards square, and were 



,« • 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 > 1 1 1 1 , 1 1 



I I. Ml/. 



\'/ 



A ' '^ ^^^ '- 



,>IU I I I I > > V I k* '/I nil 1 II I I, ' 

*/liii I (III I mil III 1,, I , ,,.,,.<- 



B. 



Fig. 184. — Earthwokk.s. A. Uffculme ; B. Brow Dowx. 

arranged '-' in juxtaposition and lozenge-wise." He does 
not speak of any entrance-ways, nor hazard any opinion 
as to their date or purpose. Perhaps they were merely 
shelters for sheep, analogous to the less elaborate cruciform 
shelters still built by the shepherds of the Yorkshire fells, 
the plan of which is such that, whichever way the wind 
may blow, the flock can always find cover under a lee-wall. 
The construction of other and still smaller cruciform 
banks for rabbit-traps is mentioned elsewhere (p. 690). 

1 Lysons, Magna Britannia, vi., 353 ; Journal Brit. Arch. Assoc, 
xviii., p. 63. The writer of the latter description does not mention the 
oval mounds, nor does his plan show any entrances. 



XVI MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 555 

At Ba 11 well, near Cheddar, Somerset, are two earth- 
works less than a mile apart. The one is a simple but for- 
midable ring-work of 20 acres, crowning a hill above the 
valley of the Axe ; the other is anomalous — a rectangular 
enclosure (Fig. 185) contained within a slight outer fosse 
and small vallum, measuring 55 yards by 4 5 yards, with a 
single entrance at the eastern end. The floor of the 
enclosure is quartered by a raised bank of earth about 
2 feet in height and 10 to 12 feet in breadth, in the shape 
of a cross, the arms reachino- almost to the surroundinix 
vallum. Colt Hoare,^ un- 



f 



warrantably remarking that 

"its form proclaims it to be 

Roman, admitted that he $^}^mxTfrn,nMmt^fnr}i,j^,<^ 

couldnot conceive Its purpose, :^ % t ^i 

Later writers ventured the : jE v^^x^mwwl f^iiiiin:i;:,v^ ^|c 



theory that it was perhaps :-t"i ..,,.vv^vv«v^^ \'> 

an ao-rimensorial cross," and -h- ^ < -P- 

this tentative suofo-estion lias "-5i ^^'^'''^' ''^'" 



-J7i''JJj\ iLLi-j. ' I 'i.'-i- LiA ' i-i-i-v V<;(V^ 
'^i^/.'rninTtTP-Ttrtri I i rrn^^^ 
^. //i/i 1 1 •< < 1' " > 1 1 ' ' « > ' • 1 ' ' * 



now Ijecome positive asser- 
tion. There appears to be no g to 2p , , s-p 
justification of this theory : jcii-o{s 
" No Roman remains have Fki. 185.— Uaxnwell Cross. 
ever been found in or ncai- the 

earthwork, despite excavation, and the thing itself seems to 

belonix to a large class of non-Roman earthworks."^ 



â– &' 



' Anciput Wilts, Roman Period, p. 4:5. Kutter {Xoith-lVi'st Somerset, 
1825)) says that tlie cross was surrounded by a slight fosse. 

- 8ee Coote, Romins of Britain, p. 101. Tliere is one cruoifurni work of 
indul)ital)le Roman construction in the country, viz. at Richhorough, 
Kent. This, however, is of mason- work. Its purpose is (juite unknown. 
It is commonly imagined to have served, perhaps, as the base of some sort of 
'pharos or beacon. Coote, however, declared it to be another agrimensorial 
cross, despite the fact that it stands actually within the fortress. See Roach 
Smith, Antiquities of Ilirhhornitiih, Recidt'er, nn'l Lijinne. 

â– ' There are, however, plenty of the usual traces of Roman occupation in 
the near vicinity. The (|uotation is from Prof. Havertield, in his admirable 
chapter on Romano-British Somerset, printed in tlie Victoria Contttij Uislonj. 
The agrimeiisorial cross was the starting-point of the Roman land-surveyor's 



^S6 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

Coote gives particulars of one or two other cruciform 
works, but there is considerable doubt whether any of 
them can be shown to have anything to do with the 
Eomans ; commonly they are directly associated with 
burials, and even concealed within and beneath barrows. 
The greater number belona; to the East Kidino- of Yorkshire. 
In the case of one found at Fiml)er in the Wolds, a cruci- 
form pit 9 feet deep had been excavated in the soil, and 
on its level floor had been built alow cross of " oolite, lias, 
chalkstones, and some clay," the four arms oriented with 
exactitude to the four cardinal points. This had been 
covered over with earth to a depth of 5 feet, and a 
second somewhat slighter cross had been constructed 
immediately above it, the whole being concealed under a 
barrow of normal appearance.^ 

From the river Cam at Waterbeach across Cambridge- 
shire to Earith, and so northward through Huntingdon- 
shire to Lincoln, runs an ancient waterway known as the 
Car Dyke. In part perhaps natural, it is for much of its 
course entirely artificial, and its original dimensions may 
be gauged from the fact that it is still in places as much 
as 60 feet wide and upwards of 20 feet deep. The very 
ancient canal called the Fosse Dyke, connecting the 
Witham at Lincoln with the Trent at Torksey, has been 
thought to be a contemporary extension of the same work. 
Be this as it may, there is excellent reason for believing 



centuriation : see Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Boman Anticpiitien, s.v. 
Agrimetatio. " Roman land-measurement," adds Prof. Havertield, " is a 
very difticult subject, and tlieories connected with botontini are best left 
alone." See Montagu Sharpe, The Roman Centuriation in the Middle-sex 
JJidrict. Banwell Cross is now so densely overgrown as to be scarcely 
recognisable. 

^ See on this matter a jjaper in Yorkshire Archa'ologiad Journal, vol. ii., 
p. 69. It is hardly needful to remark that the Cross is not exclusively a 
Christian symbol. It was, for example, a symbol of religion in Minoan 
Crete, and it is a well-known motive in the decoration of British pottery of 
unquestionably prehistoric age. See Greenwell and RoUeston, British 
Harrows (passim). 



XVI 



MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 



557 



the Car Dyke to be in the main a Roman work, u ln'ther 
intended for drainage or for navigation, or for l)oth 
purposes.^ Uj)on its banks occur certain curious earth- 
marks of very slight relief and peculiar plan (Fig. 186), 
which would seem to be the traces of some kind of water- 
cultivation, the general scheme showing a series of narrow 
strips of soil divided by parallel trenches wliicli all com- 
municate witli one larger trench, and tliis again with the 




A ^^ ^ 




..•- f =: * fs £- 6' ■snsr^v^^'i.';.';.';;.'.-- 



rJ ij -Vi. = ff ff fi !â– > 






^ij .'^'•""•"■a.P.vp ""v.* 

â– "!rrinirirnm!;i7!!!!inr!!-r."- 



Fig. 186. — Earthimarks at Gotten ham.'- 



Car Dyke. The smaller trenches are about 18 inches 
wide, the strips of soil about 2 feet across, and their 
present relief above the bottom of the trenches no more 
than 9-12 inches. The larger trenches niav have ha.d a 
depth of 4-5 feet. From the quantity of pottery, coins, 

' The existence (if other cunals of Hoinan date in Uritain lias not thus far 
l)uen investigated. 

'^ It is not easy to cinivey by any tigure at once tlie character and the 
faintness of these earthmarks, which are so slight as to be discernibk' only 
when the grass is cropped its closest or in the winter months. 



558 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND ch. xvi 

and other relics found associated with these works {which 
are most noticeable at Cottenham, 10 miles from Cambridge, 
and in less degree at Somersham, Hunts) there can be 
very little doubt of their Roman or Romano-British 



' There is an article on them by Rev. C. H. Evelyn White in Trans. Camhs. 
and Hunts. Arch. Soc, vol. i., part 1, p. 55(1901). For more exact particulars 
the present writer is indebted to Rev. F. G. Walker, who personally inves- 
tigated the works at Cottenham, and believes them to be analogous to those 
constructed by the Japanese for purposes of water-culture. Similar earth- 
marks, if any exist, seem scarcely to have been noticed, but the writer has 
seen something of the sort in Whaddon Chase, upon the banks of a small 
feeder of the Ouzel River, some 4 miles from the Roman station at Fenny 
Stratford. 



CHAPTER XVK 

MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS (continued) 

" No pricHtly stern inocession noic 

Streams through their rotes of pillars old ; 
No victims bleed, no Druids bow — 

Sheep make the daisied aisles their fold." 

In a class apart stand a number of eartliworks, 
unquestionably prehistoric, of which the peculiar feature 
is that the fosse, usually of striking dimensions, lies 
within the vallum. They are not numerous, the chief 
examples occurrino- in Wiltsliire, Dorset, Yorkshire, 
Cumberland, and Westmorland. In size they vary from 
the gigantic circle of Avebury, 400 yards across, to rings 
of n(^ more than .50 paces in diameter ; in [)lan tliey are 
mostly elliptical or circular, and they are usually remark- 
ably regular ; they are found singly, and in groups of two 
or three ; and they lie in localities offering few or no 
facilities iov defence. The peculiar position of the fosse 
makes it unlikely that they were intended for defensive 
purposes or for the herding of flocks ; and the entire 
absence, in such as have been examined, of any remains 
of haljitatious withiu, or of sul)sidiary defences without, 
seems to point to tlie same conclusion. In the case of 
Avebury, once a stupendous monument '' as much 
surpassing Stonelienge as a cathedral doth a parish 
church," few now doubt that the work was of a religious 



560 



EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND 



CHAP, 



character, and the similar Ijut smaller works are usually 
supposed to be of the same class. 

Of the tremendous peristalith which once fringed the 
inner edge of the fosse at Avebury (Fig. 187) there now 










Fig. 187. — Earthworks of Avebury. 



remain zn situ nine stones only. Of the two double 
concentric circles of megaliths which occupied the area 
there remain erect only six stones. All the rest, calcu- 
lated to have numbered some 650, have been thrown 
down, broken up, or buried, by the rude forefathers of 



XVII MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 561 

tlio vilJage which now straggles so picturesquely over 
the whole ground. But the great vallum still remains 
to all intents intact — a prodigious earthen wall rising 
40 feet above the floor of its fosse, and measuring in its 
circuit 1,480 yards, or considerably over f mile. It was 
probably the formidable character of this rampart which 
first tempted the intruding Saxons to make a settlement 
within its shelter, and for long centuries its value as a 
defence w^ould tend to preserve it from destruction, 






« 



A- 













Fiti. 188. — FiAKTHWORKS (tK ^^TONEHENUE. 

whereas the great stones, useless for defence and in the 
way of the plough, were gradually removed. The space 
included within the vallum is a depressed circle of ] ,200 
feet from cast to west, and 1,170 feet from north to south, 
or an aiea of 28^- acres. The church, which embodies 
scraps of Saxon or oi very early Norman date, lies not 
within the vallum, but immediately without it on the 
west. A mile to the south-south-east is the alleged 
barrow of Sill)ury Hill. Eighteen miles due south lies 
Stonclu'nii,e (Fig. 188), a mere dwarf in point of area 

o o 



562 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

wlien compared with Avebiny, and, moreover, probal)ly of 
much later construction.' 

The point with which we are here concerned is that 
althouQch Stoneheno;e, as the ruins of its contained circles 
show, is almost unquestionably a monument of the same 
class as Avebury, it does not show^ the same disposition 
of fosse and vallum. Vallum and fosse at Stonehenge — 
its diameter is but 300 feet — are both feeble, and they are 
arranged in the common way, the ditch without, the wTill 
within. It follows that the reverse arrano;ement was not 
considered essential in religious earthworks. The plan of 
the entrance of Stonehenge is interesting : vallum and 
fosse are prolonged for a distance of some 200 feet on 
either hand of the gateway so as to form a narrow avenue 
— the so-called Via Sacra — pointing to the north-east.^ 

Five miles due north of Wells, on the top of the 
Mendips (918 feet), close to the Castle of Comfort Inn, 
where the high road to Bristol crosses the line of the old 
Roman road running north-westward towards Charterhouse, 
there lies immediately west of the high road a series of 
four circles (Fig. 189), all of one size, all of one plan, and 
all as mathematically exact as circles could well be wdien 
executed in such a soil and on such a scale. ^ Althouojh 

^ This is inferred from the fact that the stones of Avebury were, so far as 
is known, unhewn, whereas many of those of Stonehenge were evidently 
dressed (or redressed 1) with tools of metal, notably the great trilithons with 
their mortises and tenons. Sir Norman Lockyer adduces evidence to 
show that the original work was at a subsequent date (about 1700 B.C.) 
remodelled and reconstructed for an altered form of worshijj. At the 
moment of writing Avebury is at last being explored. The great ditch has 
been opened to a depth of 17 feet, and lying upon its floor have been found 
the picks of deer-horn used (as at Grimes' Graves) by those who dug it. 
This evidence would seem to throw back the date of the monument at least 
to the early Bronze Age. 

2 Compare the arrangement of the entrance to Bat's Castle, Dunster, 
p. 198. The precise point to which the entrance of Stonehenge is directed 
is 25^ E. of N. 

^ It cannot be a mere accident that the four lie upon what is to all intents 
a dead level. The O.D. north and soutli sliows a difference of no more than 
one foot. 



XVII 



MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS 



5^M 




Fig. 189.— Mexdii' RiNinvoiiK.s, Puidhv. 



O O 2 



564 3EARTHVVORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

they have suffered gieatly from the mining operations 
which have scarred all the Mendips, as well as from the 
plough — one of the four is almost oblitei'ated— they are 
still quite easy to make out. The diameter of each is 
some 550 feet within the area, which is surrounded by a 
broad low vallum, and that again by a correspondingly 
broad and shallow ditch. The height of the vallum above 
the ditch, where best observable, is some 5 feet. There 
are no determinable entrances. The most southerly of the 
group is about 250 feet away from the second ; the second 
about 200 feet away from the third ; and a line joining 
the centres of the first and third passes through the centre 
of the second also, and points 17° east of north. The 
fourth circle lies 1,200 feet away from the third, not 
in a right line with the others, but slightly to the 
west. Between the third and fourth circles passes the 
Roman road. Within the third circle is an old pond of 
some size. 

With every appearance of being all of one date, and 
that a venerable one, these circles lack every characteristic 
of military works. Their peculiar disposition, their pains- 
taking regularity, and their identity of size, all suggest 
that they must, if really old, be of ritual, and perhaps of 
astronomical character. 

At Knowlton, in Dorsetshire, four miles south-west of 
Cranborne, is another group of earthworks of exceptional 
character. There are again four enclosures (Fig. 190), 
but irregular in size and in distribution, and three out of 
the four show the fosse within the vallum. The largest 
ring, now mostly destroyed, had an area of some 500 feet 
in diameter. The second lies about 450 feet north by west 
of it. Its inner area measures only 150 feet over, now 
occupied by the ruins of a church and its burial ground. 
Two hundred and fifty feet further to the north-north-west 
lay the remains of yet another, still smaller in size, and 
immediatel}^ south-west of this was a fourth, the smallest of 



XVII MISCELLANEOUS EARTHWORKS c^, 



5^'5 






u 







Fi(i. 190. — Knowlton. 



566 EARTHWORK OF ENGLAND chap. 

all. The group is described by Warne in Ancient Dorset, 
and even when he wrote the two last mentioned were 
scarcely traceable. He describes the second, and best 
preserved work, as " strong and carefully constructed, with 
a kind of narrow terrace raised to near the summit of the 
rampart on the inner side, and a wide, shallow fosse 
within." He believed the original entrance to have been 
on the north-east side. When part of the ramparts of one 
of the rings was removed, there were found " without it," 
so it is said, " great quantities of human bones, with spear- 
heads and pieces of iron." ^ 

It does not see