146 DUFFIELD CASTLE. 



V. — The Anglo-Saxon Burh. 



To comprehend the altered character of this site after the 

 Romans had left our shores, and after those tribes which for con- 

 venience sake we term Anglo-Saxon had permanently settled 

 down in the land they had invaded, we must remember the social 

 changes and different habits of the new comers. Accustomed to 

 life in the open air, in a climate on the whole similar to our own, 

 they disdained to use Roman towns or Roman buildings, which 

 they mostly burnt or destroyed ; and even when occupying sites 

 previously used, cared not to restore broken walls or ramparts, but 

 covered them with great banks of earth. Nor had they the same 

 communistic principles that animated the Celtic inhabitants. 

 Though accustomed to hold most of their fields in common, and 

 though possessed of strong family and clannish instincts, the 

 house and the homestead were strictly regarded as private pro- 

 perty. On this subject, and on the nature of the later English 

 earthworks and their connection with previous encampments, we 

 cannot do better than quote from the very able chapter on 

 " Post Roman and English Earthworks," in the great work of Mr. 

 Clark on Mediaeval Architecture * : — 



"The British encampments, intended for the residence of a 

 tribe, having all things in common, were, both in position and 

 arrangements, utterly unsuited to the new inhabitants. The 

 Roman stations, intended for garrisons, save where they formed 

 part of an existing city, were scarcely less so, nor were the earlier 

 works of the Northmen suited to their later wants. These were 

 mostly of a hasty character, thrown up to cover a landing or to 

 hold at bay a superior force. No sooner had the strangers gained 

 a permanent footing in a district than their operations assumed a 

 different character. Their ideas were not, like those of the 

 Romans, of an imperial character ; they laid out no great lines of 

 road, took at first no precautions for the general defence or 

 administration of the country. Self-government prevailed. Each 



* Mediaval Military Architecture in England, vol. i., pp. 16-19, by G. T. 

 Clark ; a work to which we are also much indebted for subsequent references 

 to Norman Castles, and their comparative size. 



