DUFFIELD CASTLE. 137 



Second only in interest to the uncovering of the Norman masonry, 

 and the proof thereby afforded of the magnitude and importance 

 of the work, is the evidence (that has accumulated in connection 

 with the excavations) c. the successive occupations of this com- 

 manding knoll by different waves of the conquerors or colonists 

 of Britain. Although more interesting and more perfect records of 

 various nationalities of the past have been uncovered in many 

 other parts of our country, we doubt if there is any other plot of 

 ground throughout Great Britain that has yielded so varied a return 

 of all that contributes to the " making of the English " as has 

 been the case with the few acres at Duffield, termed castle field. 



We now ask that attention should be given to the sketch-plan 

 of the earthworks round Duffield Castle (Plate VII.) The castle 

 field is immediately to the left of the present turnpike road from 

 Duffield to Belper, to the north of the village, and separated on 

 the east from the river Derwent by the road, a single small field, 

 and the railway. It rises boldly on the east, and also on the 

 south and north ; but on the west, after a slight depression, is 

 connected with the ground that gradually rises towards Hazelwood 

 and the Chevin ridge. The exact height of the highest part of 

 the Castle field above the turnpike is 46-09 feet, and of the same 

 above the level of the Derwent 76-72 feet* The earthworks con- 

 tain within them an area of upwards of five acres. The measure- 

 ments of the deep foss on the south-west side, in its widest and 

 deepest part, is 35 feet at the top, i8£ feet at the bottom, and 7 

 feet in depth. The foss on the north-west side is far shallower as 

 it now remains, and is clearly of a different date and construction 

 to the deeper one. Modern quarrying has interfered with the 

 earthworks on the north side. The eastern end, too, of the deep 

 foss, has also been obliterated by the lawn-tennis ground of a 

 modern villa residence. On the east side the configuration of the 

 ground has been much altered, and the slope rendered much 

 steeper by the construction of a new turnpike in 1838, some 



* For these levels, and for the carefully measured ground plan (Plate VIII.) 

 we are indebted to the kindness of Mr. G. C. Greenwell, civil engineer of 

 Duffield. s 



