156 CASTLE HILL, CRANBORNE. 



Wight through the New Forest into Wiltshire. The invasion was a 

 successful one, and in the course of the next century the Kingdom 

 of Wessex was so firmly established that Kenwalk, King of the 

 West Saxons,* son of Cyngils, and fifth in descent from Cerdic, 

 having been baptised by Birinus, completed the building of St- 

 Peter's, Winchester, A. 648, and endowed it, amongst other lands, 

 with the Manor of Downton. The Manor continued with the See 

 at the time of Domesday Survey, but there is no mention therein 

 of "The Moot." (Clark, p. 308). It is, however, highly probable 

 that in the early Saxon times the Courts, both of the Hundred and 

 Manor, were held here as in many other Saxon places which still 

 retain the name of " Moot," or " Mote," in this country as well as 

 in France, t 



The Moot is a very remarkable earthwork, or series of earth- 

 works, rising above the Avon, which is on the N. side its chief 

 defence. The whole work is decidedly of a defensive character, 

 consisting of lofty and deep entrenchments on the N.E., S., and W. 

 sides, which affect a circular course and cover a space of about 

 five acres. The central part, where an entrenchment takes a 

 horse-shoe form, is the most important, called by Mr. Clark " the 

 core of the work," being defended by a branch of the river on the 

 West and on the South side by a ditch 250 yards long, broad and 

 deep. The extremities of this horseshoe-shaped rampart are 

 rounded off into mounds, that on the W. being the larger and 



* A. 643. This year Kenwalk succeeded to the kingdom of the W. 

 Saxons, and held it 31 years ; and Kenwalk commanded the old church 

 at Winchester to be built in the name of St. Peter ; and he was the son 

 of Cynegils. 



t As "In Scotland the ancient place of assembly was the Mote hill at 

 Scone. In the midst of the town of Hawick there is a singular conical 

 mound called the Moat hill. We may notice also the names of the Moot 

 hill at the eastern end of Lyne bridge ; and the Mote of the Mark in 

 Galloway. On the confines of the Lake District there are hills called 

 Moutay and Caermote ; and there is a Moot hill at Naseby, all of which 

 have probably served as the 'Meeting-places of Assemblies.'" P. 33. 

 (E. T. Stevens, F.S.A., in "Jottings" on the Moot Excursions of 



the Wilts A. and N.H. Society in August, 1876). 

 See Note to p. 12, Earthworks in Normandy. 



