ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



and that east and west, except the actual bed of the stream, being 

 loo feet higher within the same distance. Hence this position com- 

 mands the immediate neighbourhood only. In the natural state of the 

 ground it must have been but little above the water level of the stream 

 at ordinary times, and flooded under heavy rains, there being a gentle 

 slope upward towards the south. By careful use of the spade the stream 

 has been banked up and a large space levelled, the brook tapped on the 

 extreme north-east, and this large space flooded, so as to form a permanent 

 lake, probably once deeper than at present ; such another lake, but of different 

 form, existed about Berkhampstead Castle in Hertfordshire ; perhaps also at 

 Clavering Castle in Essex. The square mound (if so it may be called) cut by 

 the section E— F was perhaps that used for the keep, which may have been of 

 stone, though there are no visible remains of ancient stonework here or any- 

 where else about the earthworks, the ditch or dell in the middle acting as a 

 cellar or dungeon ; compare this with the north-east enclosure at Barton Sea- 

 grave, 9 miles east-south-east, where are two such dells. The size of this 

 mound, though small, is larger than the mound at Sibbertoft. The enclosure 

 on the south and west of this keep was apparently the main courtyard or 

 bailey ; the shape is practically the same as that at Brandon above mentioned. 

 The larger enclosure on the east answers to such extra yards as are found in 

 mote castles of all types : Castle Rising, Norfolk ; Tonbridge, Kent ; Clare, 

 Suffolk ; Old Basing, Hampshire ; and elsewhere. The rectangular inner 

 enclosure here containing the farm-house, the moat of which is cut by the 

 section G-H, may or may not be part of the original plan ; the house itself, 

 locally called the castle, is an ordinary farm-house of no great age, certainly 

 not part of the feudal stronghold, and now uninhabited. The moat of this 

 rectangular enclosure is not in a perfect state, but is still to be traced at most 

 points. The small islands cut by the sections C— D and J— K are peculiar, and, 

 as may be seen by these sections, their summits are lower than the height of 

 the ramparts protecting them on the south. The writer knows of no similar 

 islands, though mote castles are often divided into many enclosures ; for instance 

 Old Sarum in Wiltshire, and Powerstock in Dorset. The entrenchments on 

 the south defending the castle from the higher land are not now in a perfect 

 state ; the high road runs just under the outer rampart, and may when 

 widened have destroyed an outer ditch. These entrenchments should have 

 continued west and turned north to protect the south-west corner, also north- 

 east to protect that portion ; 

 but the ending of the extreme 

 east entrenchment about the 

 section L— M is abrupt, stop- 

 ping short at the road; origin- 

 ally it must have continued in 

 some direction ; probably it 

 returned west to form a tri- 

 angular enclosure. 



EvENLEY Old Town 



(i| miles S. by W. of Brack- 

 ley). This enclosure, locally 

 called Old Town, but on some 







EvENLEY Old Town. 



415 



