ANCIENT EARTHWORKS 



have consisted of a rampart and ditch, enclosing a space roughly circular, 

 the scarp referred to taking the place of other defences on that side. 

 The ditches and scarps to the south of the mount are possibly not part of 

 the original plan, or may indicate the presence of such a base court as 

 we should expect to find attached to the mount. The original entrance 

 appears to have been from the south. 



Rochester : Boley Hill and Castle Works. — The limitations 

 placed on the scope of this article forbid us to discuss at length the 

 disputed question of the date of the construction of the earthworks on 

 Boley Hill ; suffice it to say that the writer holds the long-accepted 

 theory of Danish origin' to be untenable, and thinks that the southern 

 fosse may have guarded a Celtic settlement on the promontory, though, 

 on the whole, inclined to attribute the entire work to Norman hands. 



Boley Hill occupies a position close to the northern termination 

 of a boldly projecting ridge of land, the adjoining castle works being 

 on the extreme point, all protected on the west by the waters of the 

 Medway and at other points by artificial earthworks. 



G. T. Clark says these works are on a large scale, and adds : — 



they seem to have been composed of an oblong space included within a ditch, 

 which commenced near the bridge foot, and was carried eastwards for about 130 yds., 

 when it turned to the south, and ran for about 270 yds. roughly parallel to the river, 

 towards which it was again returned. This oblong area was sub-divided into two 

 original parts, the southern being the smaller, by a cross ditch, and the latter part was 

 occupied by a large flat-topped conical mound, known as Boley HiU. The northern part 

 contains the castle. Along the east or cathedral side this ditch is in part a bold natural 

 depression. Along the west side it is superseded by the river, here very broad, deep 

 and rapid. The area thus included is about 7J acres. - 



From the great depth and width of the southern fosse or ditch it is 

 plain that an enormous mass of chalk and earth must have been removed. 

 Much of it was piled to form the rampart which is so conspicuous in the 

 garden behind Satis House and the adjoining buildings, but probably 

 more was thrown on to the surface of the enclosure to raise Boley Hill 

 into the mount-like form it still retains, notwithstanding the havoc 

 made by roads, buildings, and other agencies. 



The great southern fosse ends abruptly on the west, where it met 

 the waters of the Medway, but on the east it was turned northward 

 and continued north and again west till it joined the protecting tidal 

 waters. 



At about 350 ft. northward from the great fosse, where the land 

 slopes abruptly, we meet the second fosse, now guarding the southern 

 side of Rochester castle and its bailey. 



In the construction of the latter fosse a portion of the Roman town 

 wall seems to have been destroyed. 



Like its southern counterpart, this fosse ended at the water-edge 

 on the west, and on the western side of the castle enclosure the Medway 



• Hasted, in his Hist. Kent, iv. 161, says : ' Bully Hill . . . was thrown up by the Danes in the 

 year 885, at the time they besieged this city.' 



2 Mediieval Military Architecture (1884), ii. 406. 



