154 CASTLB HILL, CRANBORNB. 



my regret, I cannot find ; but am able to compare it with a ground- 

 plan which is taken from the B. Arch. Journal for September, 

 1874. It shews a strong typical likeness to our Castle, so that I 

 believe there can be no reasonable doubt of these two earthworks 

 being of about the same date and attributable to the same people. 

 It is most conclusive to be able thus to strengthen one's argument 

 by an appeal to Domesday Survey.* I will now devote a few 

 words to the Saxon owner of this, his residence, castle, or strong- 

 hold. Earl Edwin was son of Elgar, and giandson of Leofric, Earl 

 of Mercia, and of his wife Godiva. He, with his brother Morcar, 

 received charge of Northumberland, and they seem to have had a 

 lively time of it in efforts to repel the incursions of Northmen and 

 Danes, who, however, received a fatal defeat in the battle of 

 Stanford Bridge A.D. 1066. Harold II., who married Aldytha, 

 sister of Earl Edwin, and widow of Griffin, King N. Wales, 

 assisted his brother-in-law, Edwin, and Morcar in this battle, and 

 then he hastened to meet William Duke of Normandy, who was 

 landing his hostile forces on the shore of Sussex, where Harold 

 quickly lost both his crown and his life. The Norman invasion 

 soon proved ruinous to Edwin and Morcar. We know the result 

 from the Domesday Survey : " Earl Edwin had 66 villeins there 

 (Allertonshire), with 35 ploughs ; yearly value, four score pounds. 

 . . There were 116 sokemen . . . now it is waste." f To 

 the same effect W. Malmesbury : "The resources of this once 

 flourishing Province (York) were cut off by fire, slaughter, and 

 devastation, and the ground for more than 60 miles, totally 

 uncultivated and unproductive, remains bare to the present day." 

 B.iii. The land which had belonged to Edwin and Morcar almost 

 everywhere in the Survey is stated to be wasta, as well as numerous 



* The earthwork at Laughtonis said to be very like the " Chateaux -fi- 

 Mottes so common in Normandy, described l>y M. de Caumont in his 

 Cours (VAntiqiiltes. All of them are enclosures more or less circular, 

 protected by ditches and embankments of earth, having within a high 

 circular mound." Exinf. Rev. J. H. Ward, M.A. 



t " The Races of Britain " by John Beddoc. C.x.piii. The Normans in 

 Yorkshire. 



