ANCIENT EARTH-WORK AT NORTON. 47 
shall be guilty of any very absurd credulity, 
if we think it not improbable, that the area 
contained within the rampart on Norton hill is the 
site of the ancient British town, Theodunum ; which 
certainly, if it ever existed, might as far as date goes, 
have been a market town for many hundred years, 
while Taunton was a furzey down, or an almost 
impervious forest. 
As for the idea, that it was originally a Roman 
work, the extreme irregularity of the plan, so 
different from their usually rectangular system of 
fortification, renders it highly improbable, while 
the importance of the fortifications, and particu- 
larlythe deep excavations which formed the approach 
to its gates, make it as unlikely that it was a work 
thrown up by the Danes, in one of their hurried 
and temporary incursions. 
