ANCIENT DEFENSIVE 

 EARTHWORKS 



H 



ERE and there, up and down the length and breadth of our 

 land, even the most casual observer must have noticed certain 

 great grassy mounds and high heaped banks of earth, often 

 accompanied by long and deep trenches, all of which strike 

 the eye as being necessarily of artificial origin. Many of these banks 

 and ditches still enclose some specific area ; others again, and these the 

 majority, seem to have no definite use or object, and though in contiguity 

 often appear quite unconnected with one another. In either case they 

 are for the most part the remains of earthworks which were constructed 

 by former inhabitants of the district for defensive purposes. 



Sometimes these entrenchments are of very imposing dimensions, 

 with great earthern ramparts and ditches encircling the flat top of a hill 

 or a lowland area of considerable extent ; they are then often known as 

 ' burys,' ' camps ' and ' castles,' and their construction is ascribed to Dane, 

 Roman, or other people of bygone days, or else some curious legend is 

 connected with them, giving an earlier and even mythical origin. 



Defensive earthworks of one kind or another have been made and 

 used by well-nigh every race of mankind ; they date from the present day, 

 back through successive ages, to those far off prehistoric times when 

 war was waged between man and man with primitive weapons of flint 

 and stone. 



The most recent military forts, built to resist twentieth century 

 artillery are scientifically designed earthworks, consisting of steep grass- 

 covered ramparts protected outwardly by deep ditches. Such works now 

 form the defences of the most strongly fortified cities in Europe. Dur- 

 ing the middle ages great structures of masonry, instead of earth, were 

 erected in most civilized countries for similar purposes, as the strong 

 walls of many old towns and the imposing castles scattered over the 

 land abundantly testify. But prior to this again, and back to very early 

 times, the chief method of defensive fortification was by earthworks sup- 

 plemented by palisading. Each of the different races and peoples which 

 has successively invaded our island has settled down for protection within 

 the shelter of some kind of earth-built fort : Normans, Danes, Saxons, 

 Romans, Celts, back to the tribes of the Bronze and Stone ages, have all 

 constructed earthworks, of which traces are still to be seen in different 

 parts of the country ; and it is curious to note that although there have 

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