ANCIENT DEFENSIVE EARTHWORKS 



half of its circumference ; it likewise is defended by a ditch, with a 

 rampart on the inner side ; both rampart and ditch increase in size 

 in a curious way in their course round from south-west by south-east to 

 north, until the bank abutting upon the fosse belonging to the mount is 

 fully two-thirds of the height of the latter. 1 All these earthworks have 

 suffered considerably in course of ages by denudation. Dugdale records 

 that the mount in his day was as much as 42 feet high, and measured 

 only 23 feet across its flat summit ; also that the ditch was then only 20 

 feet wide at the top, with a depth of 1 2 feet. The present measure- 

 ments, given above, 

 show that the mount 

 and banks have be- 

 come considerably re- 

 duced in height, and 

 the tops of ditches 

 have also become 

 wider in the last 250 

 years. Dugdale no- 

 ticed that this natural 

 erosion was continu- 

 ally in progress, for he 

 remarked that the di- 

 mensions he gave were 

 evidently ' much lesse 

 than what they were 

 at first, by Reason that 

 the Earth is so shrunk 

 down.' a An entrance 

 into the courtyard at 

 its south-east corner is 

 possibly the original 

 one ; at any rate it 

 existed in Dugdale's 

 time. As at Brinklow, 

 there are also remains 

 of a further and much 

 larger enclosure at 



Seckington, the defences of which may have encircled, but did not join 

 on to the inner works of moated mount and court ; for to the north- 

 north-east and east traces of a long rampart and ditch are to be seen, the 

 latter still containing water in parts. No signs of any masonry are ap- 

 parent upon either the mount or the ramparts of this little fortress. 



These interesting earthworks have attracted the attention of many 

 antiquaries even from the days of Queen Elizabeth, when Camden 

 makes mention of them. 3 Some have ascribed their origin to the ancient 



1 See section. Dugdale's Warm. p. 799. 



3 Camden's Brit. (Gibson's ed. 1695), p. 507. 



391 



SECTION 



SECKINGTON. 



3CAUEOPFCCT 

 IQO BOO 



300 



