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traced if they were looked for, in the neighbourhood of ancient 

 churches and manor houses. Before castles were built of stone, 

 the strength of the defence lay in the advantage which the bank 

 gave to the defenders, and in the hindrance it caused to the 

 besiegers when they would set the citadel on fire. 



You may see an illustration of this in the Bayeaux tapestry. 

 The best extant figure of a wooden fortress, pitched on a conical 

 and moated mound, is to be seen in that part of the Bayeaux 

 tapestry which represents the assault on Dinan. Now these 

 mounds exist in two forms, that which I have already mentioned 

 of the fortifications of a domestic house, and also in the 

 other form of the fortifications of a city. There is a very 

 large one at Oxford near the station. There is one at Tarn- 

 worth, and one at Canterbury. I think there is one, too, at 

 Leicester. The most perfect example that I have ever seen of 

 the fortifications of a domestic house is to be seen at a village 

 called Laughton, about eight miles from Sheffield. The field in 

 which it is placed is called, I think, the Castle Field. 

 There is another very good example, only partly preserved, in 

 Northamptonshire at Earl's Barton, close to the churchyard. Mr. 

 Clark, in a work of his published some years ago, gave some 

 ground plans of various places in which he had observed these 

 remains of Saxon houses, and when once they are ascertained and. 

 recognised they are exceedingly interesting, as illustrating the life 

 of our forefathers. 



Turning now to the churches of the neighbourhood, I have no 

 doubt that Charlecombe was a very old church, as it is rejiuted to 

 be. Before the Norman church was built there was, no doubt, a 

 Saxon chuch there, as there was at Swanswick and a great many 

 other villages about here. The churches about Bath are very 

 generally Norman churches, or churches that bear traces of 

 having been Norman churches. There original form is in some 

 instances much obscured. At Twerton, for instance, the church 

 has been subject to many changes, and the only extant evidence 



