252 A HILL-TOP STRONGHOLD. 



however, we shall find on many a deserted down or lonely 

 tor ample evidence of the causes which led the people of 

 this ancient Etruscan town to build their citadel at so 

 great a height above the neighbouring valley. Fiesole, 

 says Dante, in a well-known verse, was the mother of 

 Florence. Even so in England, Old Sarum was indeed 

 the mother of Salisbury, and Caer Badon or Sulis was 

 the mother of Bath. And when there was first a Faesulse 

 on the hill here there could be no Florence, as when first 

 there was an Old Sarum on the Wiltshire downs there 

 could be no Salisbury, and when first there was a Caer 

 Badon on the heights of Avon there could be no 

 Bath. 



In very early times indeed, in the European land area, 

 when men began first to gather together into towns or 

 villages, two necessities determined their choice of a 

 place to dwell in : first, food-supply (including water) ; 

 and second, defence. Hence every early community 

 stands, to start with, near its own cultivable territory, 

 usually a broad river- valley, an alluvial plain, a ' carse ' 

 or lowland, for uplands as yet were incapable of tillage 

 by the primitive agriculture of those early epochs. But it 

 does not stand actually in the carse ; it occupies as a rule 

 the nearest convenient height or hill-top, most often the 

 one that juts out farthest into the subjacent plain, by 

 way of security against the attack of enemies. This is 

 the beginning of almost every great historical European 

 town ; it is an arx or acropolis overhanging its own tilth 

 or ager ; and though in many cases the town came down 

 at last into the valley, retaining still its old name, yet the 

 remains of the old earthworks or walls on the hill-top 



