ANCIENT 

 EARTHWORKS 



A" THOUGH earthworks are the most durable of all man's handi- 

 work when exposed to Nature alone, they cannot withstand 

 the encroachments of the builder. With the continual spread 

 of habitations for the workers of commercial London, and the 

 surrounding cultivation of the land for the vegetable supply of so great a 

 host, there is little cause for wonder that the few works which are known 

 to have existed in the county of Middlesex have been all but obliterated. 

 When we consider the exceptionally small size of Middlesex as a county, 

 that it contains the two cities of London and Westminster, and the amazing 

 extension of their borders, the marvel is that any ancient works remain. 



The natural features of the county lent themselves to no mighty 

 defensive works ; it was no locality for habitations, seeing that it was 

 generally of a marshy nature and subject to great inundations, it was itself 

 a defence for more inland territories. Guest remarks, ' I have little doubt 

 that between Brockley Hill l and the Thames all was wilderness from the 

 Lea to the Brent.' Prehistoric and Roman camps were apparently few ; the 

 Roman stations at Staines (P antes] on the Thames, and Brockley Hill (Sul- 

 lonicae) near Elstree, have no earthworks to indicate their former sites ; while 

 the fosse formerly surrounding the walls of London now no longer remains. 



One great dyke in part remains to record the boundary line between 

 British tribes or Saxon provinces ; but the only type of earthwork much in 

 evidence in the county is that of Homestead Moats, and those are fast 

 disappearing beneath the foundations of houses. 



Moats are more thickly clustered on the north of London than else- 

 where; they surround the sites of manor houses and farmsteads in close 

 proximity to the neighbourhood of Barnet. When it is remembered that 

 this was the scene of two engagements during the Wars of the Roses, that 

 two other battles were fought within a short distance at St. Albans, and 

 how marauding bands were the certain accompaniment of fighting forces in 

 those days, it will be seen how necessary a precaution it was for people of 

 substance to safeguard their property by the best means then known. 



The surface of the county, however, has altogether changed since 

 Nichols described the moated mansion of Balmes within the parish of St. Leo- 

 nard Shoreditch. Whilst passing over Willoughbys and other demolished 

 earthworks, we cannot ignore those that have disappeared in more recent 

 years, otherwise our task would be light; yet the few remaining works are ap- 

 parently doomed in the near future unless the growth of London be arrested. 



1 Ortgines Celtic*. 



