(,KI \T TANG1 I V M \VM. 



67 



to the r.fht . .t" the bridge, is some massive masonry 

 'gc stot cntly of great antiquity. 



Other t a of a solid stone structure of a 



tinu r than the Tudor house were also 



found. Mr. Webb also erected the timber 

 screen on the house side of the moat, in 

 tmuation <>t' the line <!.! stone wall, loopholed for 

 defence, where a portion of this had been demolished 

 for the cart-road to pass over. This screen, and the 

 remaining portion of the wall, which is of the local 

 Bargatc stone, with brick dressings to the loopholes 

 and doorways, enclose a small garden that has borders 

 of hardy flowers next the wall. The middle space is 

 a plot of grass, with a flourishing mulberry tree in its 

 midmost space. 



Many hundreds of loads of earth and mud were 

 taken out of the choked up moat. All that came 

 out was carefully examined, and various records of 

 ancient days came to light ; among them pottery aiul 

 glass of the sixteenth and two following centuries, and 

 fragments that may have been of earlier date, with 

 many copper tokens of the time of William III. and 

 subsequent reigns, and one silver Roman coin. 

 There is also a ball of wood, of which only the outer 

 part it decayed, of a size that makes it probable that 

 It was one of a set of bowls that escaped during a 

 game, rolled down into the moat, and may have IK-CM 

 lost for some 300 years. But perhaps the most 

 difficult to account for, of all the objects found, arc 

 five large fir-cones in perfect preservation, exactly like 

 the cones of the Italian stone pine. They were round 

 embedded in the mud 8ft. below the surface. Kven 

 the thin, easily-detachable lining, of a texture like a 

 fly's wing, that is between the seed and the scale, in 

 the cavities where the seed rested, has remained 



int.ut, luit the seeds were all gone. There must be 

 something in the soil, probably the iron, with whuh 

 nuuh of the mud ami water of the district i> impreg- 

 nated, that acts as a preservative to these woody 

 structures lor the cones look as if they might l>e only 

 in their second year, when the scales open and the 

 seeds fall out. Of later relics the most abundant and 

 noticeable was the large quantity, equal in all to the 

 contents of a bushel measure, of the earlier form of 

 tobacco-pipe, with the straight stem and the narrow 

 bowl set on at a much more obtuse angle than those 

 of later date. 



The new gardens, formed at the same time 

 that the mo.it \\.is c\t.i\ated, occupy several acres 

 around the house, the greater part being on the 

 eastern side and outside the moat. The long shaped 

 pond that supplies the moat is also in this direction. 

 Passing to the right from the entrance at the bridge, 

 without going over it, and skirting the bank 

 of the moat, which is now on the left hand side, with 

 the timber screen across it, there is a pleached alley 

 of limes overhead. Towards the end of this there is 

 the sound of rushing water where it falls from the 

 higher pond-level. Near here, in excavating the 

 moat, were found some ancient penstocks for 

 regulating the How of the water. The banks of the 

 moat are here planted with the great water saxifrage 

 (S. peltata), the fine plant growing luxuriantly and 

 showing its full si/.e. The path next passes under a 

 pergola of vines, roses, clematis and other climbing 

 plants. AUiut midway in its length the pergola has 

 a projection, also covered with growing greenery, 

 with scats at the sides, leading to a landing-Ward set 

 out into the pond. The path beyond the pergola has 

 a double flower-border full of good hardy flowers, 



7//A <A'G>Ss/.\G OF 7 Ilk MO IT. 



