CASTLE HILL, CRANBORJCE. 151 



Height of the Keep above the shallow ditch ... ... 95ft. 



Circumference of the Keep ... ... ... ... 560ft. 



Depth of Kampart on the E. side ... ... ... 68ft. 



Breadth of the ditch ... 20ft. 



Height of rampart above the area ... ... ... 31ft. 



Mound flanking the entrance S.E. ... ... ... 58ft. 



Ditto S.W. side, from bottom of ditch ... ... 45ft. 



By another measurement I make the total circumference of the 

 ditch to be about 360 yards, and the whole earthwork may be 

 estimated to cover about 2J acres of land. The area is of small 

 size, being only 45 yards long by 15 yards broad. A shallow ditch 

 separates it from the base of the Keep. There is a way open on 

 the N. side of the area to a spot supposed to be the well, or pond 

 which supplied the Castle. 



Nothing like foundations of buildings are known to have been 

 found here ; indeed the loose nature of the soil would not be 

 favourable to it. Blocks of pebble-conglomerate are met with here 

 in this stratum. If ever there were buildings of any kind they 

 were of wood, which was usual in important buildings of the Saxon 

 period. The Castle is embowered by trees, but glimpses may be 

 obtained of fine prospects to the Isle of Wight, the Hampshire 

 Coast, Purbeck Hills, &c. 



I do not recognise here any evidence of Ancient British con- 

 struction. The Britons, as a rule, are not known as mound-builders, 

 with the one great exception of their burying places, which 

 certainly manifest a consummate ability in this art. But with 

 this exception of their sepulchral mounds, or tumuli, I know not 

 one specimen of an artificial British mound. The hill-forts of the 

 Britons, often so-called, but which I believe were beacons or signal- 

 posts, are always natural eminences, sometimes of a conical form, 

 which have a limited area on the summit, surrounded with a low 

 bank and ditch. 



Then, as regards the deep entrenchments, the Ancient Britons 

 were famous, we know, for work of this kind ; but the Saxons were 

 no mean rampart-builders, as we know from Old Sarum and the 



