A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
broad low external rampart with faint signs of a shallow interior ditch. 
The rampart averages 35 feet in breadth by some 4% in height, except 
near its north angle, where it suddenly widens to 51 feet. At this point 
a ditch runs through a break between the broad and narrow banks in 
the direction of the brook. In the centre of the enclosure is a low circular 
mound, about 100 feet across the base, and 45 at the top, with a shal- 
low trench round it. An old oak, 4% feet through the trunk, stands 
on its north slope. At the east angle of the external rampart are three 
narrow oblong depressions, with a lower bank enclosing them, which 
may have been fish stews. The internal area of the triangle is a little 
over 3 acres, and there seem to have been three entrances—one near the 
broad rampart on the north, and two near the ends on the south side. 
It is difficult to tell whether this place was a station secured by surround- 
ing marsh or a piece of artificial water with the mound for an island. 
In the first case it may be of early origin ; in the latter of much later, 
and perhaps connected with the former manor-house on the hill. 
(9) Eronsury or StTonsury, ARLESEY.—These curious remains 
are within a stone’s throw of Arlesey station on the Great Northern 
Railway, which runs on a great embankment through the western side of 
the work, thereby making it impossible to decipher its plan. 
The position occupies the edge and slope of a great plain. The 
Ivel flows past it on the west, on the other side of the railway. 
It consists of two features—a main fort near the river, strongly held 
to the north by great ramparts and fosses, and with a wide expanse 
of broad moats on the south where the ground is low, probably fed 
from the Ivel; and a very large oblong outer work, which still has the 
remains of strong entrenchments to the north and east, measuring about 
1,200 feet by 600. The rampart to the north of the oblong is still 
fine, standing in some places about 8 feet above the bottom of the 
broad outer ditch. Remains of a second rampart and ditch appear 
near its eastern end. Much of the larger ditch has been lately filled 
in, especially where it approaches the main work. There appears to 
have been an entrance at this point commanded by the towering ram- 
part and mound of the inner defences, of which the outer fosse is almost 
a ravine, about 50 feet across and 10 feet down to the water level, above 
which the rampart rises again to a height of 12 feet, and the mound some 
3 feet higher. Each of the ramparts of this inner work ends ina similar 
mound, and there is another on the east side of the moat, suggesting that 
there was a bridged main entrance here to all parts of the inner work, 
strongly commanded by these mounds. On the west, Lyson’s drawing * 
shows the two ramparts as ending suddenly at the top of the slope 
down to the river and without any return. This part has been broken 
through by the railway bank. The broad moat on the south is 
carried round a large flat area raised slightly above the general level. 
In many places there are the remains of a low rampart on the outer edge 
of the broad moat, and on the west a small dam stretches across it, leaving 
1 Add. MS. 9460, f. 25. 
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