154 DUFFIELD CASTLE. 



At the short trench dug at D on the plan, a certain quantity of 

 iron refuse and dross, such as might be the rubbish of a smithy, 

 was found, together with a rough and much corroded horse-shore, 

 apparently flung away as of bad make ; at the trench at F a still 

 larger supply was found, and several barrows full could doubtless 

 have been obtained if desired. In each instance the upper part 

 of the dross was from two to three feet below the surface. We do 

 not ourselves believe that these remains had anything to do with 

 the subsequent Norman settlement here, but were traces of the 

 later period of the Anglo-Saxon occupation of this site, and that 

 they betoken that here, within the stockade, worked the smiths of 

 the settlement under the direction and protection of the lord. It 

 we are right in this conjecture, the horse-shoe now broken in two, 

 may be added to the few anglo-Saxon relics at present discovered .% 



Anglo-Saxon pottery is usually dark coloured, a deep brown or 

 dull slate, and sometimes nearly black. There has not been very 

 much found that can bakpositively identified as pertaining to that 

 nationality, but the pottery which is indubitably of that period is, 

 for the most part, coarse in texture and poor in design. Some 

 coarse, almost black, pieces of pot, slightly flecked with red, that 

 we personally dug up three feet three inches below the surface, at 

 the end of the long trench, marked C on the plan, are said to be 

 Anglo-Saxon, and there seems no reason to doubt the surmise. 

 We account for their presence there at this depth, by the opinion, 

 already expressed, that the Normans threw off the upper part of 

 the burh when seeking foundations for their keep, spreading out 

 the earth thus removed to some little distance, and carrying with 

 it and burying amidst it debris which had previously been on the 

 surface or very near to it. 



VI. — The Norman Castle. 



At the time of the Norman Conquest, as Mr. Clark remarks, 

 it may be too much to say there were no castles of masonry work 

 in England ; but it is reasonable to suppose so, and at all events it 



% Meyrick laid it down as an axiom that the Normans introduced the art of 

 horse-shoeing into England ; but later knowledge has modified this opinion. 

 Horse-shoes, pierced for nailing, have been found in ancient barrows in 

 Germany. 



