142 



DUFFIKLD CASTLE. 



last July, from the keep almost due west out into the field for a length 

 of 179 feet, when the ordinary level of the ground was reached. 

 The natural rock was found 3^ feet deep at A. Throughout 

 this section pot fragments were found, some at a depth of 5A feet. 

 They were most numerous some two feet below the surface, for 

 two or three yards, about midway between the points marked A 

 and 13 on the plan. Smaller trenches were cut in other parts, at 

 D, E, and F, when searching for remains of an outer or curtain 

 wail of Norman date : in each of these fragments of pottery were 

 found. Immediately to the north of the keep, the workmen, 

 when digging holes for the supports of the iron fence that now 

 encircles the castle, found a variety of pieces. In all some two 

 or three pecks of potsherds must have been gathered together, 

 but nothing approximating to a perfect vessel. The very best 

 authorities have examined these pots, with the result that nine- 

 tenths of the fragments were pronounced to be Romano-British ; 

 and they represent a great variety of styles of pottery brought from 



Fig. 



Fig. 3- 



Fig. 4. 



many different localities, and extending very probably in time 

 over the three-and-a-half centuries that the spot seems to have 

 been held by the Romans. Figs. 2, 3, 4, are drawings of three 



