A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



an escarpment of 38 ft. This is cinctured by a fosse with a counter- 

 scarp of 1 2 ft., and is partially bounded by an agger which varies in width 

 according to the contour of the ground; on the east this has a scarp of 

 1 8 ft., which is continued by the natural declivity to a considerable depth 



this being the steepest side of the hill to a brook. 



The base-court is on the north-west, surrounded by a vallum 24 ft. 

 wide at the base ; at the two extremities, where it closes in upon the fosse 

 of the mount, it slightly inturns and rises 22 ft. on the scarp from a fosse 

 1 2 ft. deep. Except at these points the agger makes a rampart 4ft. high 

 from the interior. An entrance is on the north-west. A second court (?) 

 on the north-east, possibly a later addition, is but a raised platform on the 

 slope of the hill, rectangular in plan. On the north-west is a shallow ditch 

 which opens on to a terrace 6 ft. wide and 5 ft. below the level of the court. 



Onthesouth- 



A-TT^ ern side of the 



mount two low 

 aggers branch 

 from the main 

 work and de- 

 scend the hill 

 side; they appa- 

 rently indicate 

 another court 

 but of inferior 

 importance for 

 defensive pur- 

 poses. The most 

 assailable side of 

 the castle was 

 the south-west, 



and here, 1,600 ft. distant, is a small camp which has been included in 

 Class C that may have been an outpost, or in some way connected with 

 a stronghold on the site of Castle Hill. 



LEICESTER CASTLE (xxxi, 10). The 'Castle Mount' is situated just 

 outside the south-west angle of the rectangular Roman station of Ratae, 

 upon the right bank of the River Soar, and 20 ft. above its level. The 

 mount is now 30 ft. high ; the steepest scarp of 48 ft. is on the south- 

 west, and it is 100 ft. in diameter upon its level summit; its height was 

 much greater until ninety years ago, when it was reduced and levelled for 

 a bowling green. Around the edges of the mount are the remains of 

 masonry apparently of late Norman date. There are but slight traces of 

 a fosse, but the contiguous buildings may account for this. The bailey 

 was on the north of the mount, well guarded on its western side by a steep 

 scarp to the Soar and elsewhere by a fosse now destroyed. The building 

 now called the castle and, perhaps, the beautiful church of St. Mary de 

 Castro stand in the area of the ancient bailey. In the fourteenth century 

 Henry, earl of Lancaster, added an outer bailey the Newarke but as 

 its defences were of stone the picturesque fragments which remain will be 

 described elsewhere. 



260 



SCALE OF FEET 



100 200 3OO 



CASTLE HILL CAMP, HALLATON 



