A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
only a narrow mouth for communication with the river. A small stream 
runs through the lower part of the site, which was a few years ago 
turned into the outer moat, possibly deepened for the purpose. Formerly 
it continued into the river, under the railway bank. Whether this 
stream flows in its original course is uncertain, as it has the appearance 
of a later straight cutting. There is a short moat-like sinking inside the 
inner rampart, as though further to divide the ward within. How the 
work was closed in on the south is not clear. Possibly the road covers 
the line of the defences. 
In the present state of the remains nothing can be suggested as 
to its origin, except that the small mounds at the ends of the ramparts are 
found in works reputedly Danish, and the shallows cut near the river, 
which are unlike defensive moats, may have sheltered their shipping. 
(10) Dray’s Dircues NEAR Limsury.—Following along the old 
Icknield Way from Limbury, in a north-easterly direction, two isolated 
hills are reached—Warden Hill and Galley Hill. Under the east slope 
of the latter is a very large irregular enclosure, with slight bank and 
ditch, evidently not defensive, all round it. The stretch which lines 
the Icknield Way is more than half a mile in length. The ground 
within is a dead level and is under cultivation. On the slopes of the 
hill above, the ordnance map shows four tumuli. To the south, a 
strong line of entrenchment runs parallel with Dray’s Ditch, 1,000 feet 
in length, pierced almost at right angles by the Icknield Way. Much 
of it has been levelled, but at the western end the rampart rises 9 
feet above the bottom of the external fosse to the north, which is 
here 12 feet across. What was the purpose of this great enclosure 
it is difficult to conjecture. 
EARTHWORKS ALONG THE OUSE FROM BEDFORD TO TEMPSFORD 
There is an interesting series of earthworks along the line of the 
Ouse from Bedford to Tempsford, 8 miles distant, which appears to be 
PLAN 
SHEWING THE COURSE of tHe OUSE = ER 
BETWEEN RENHOLD, WILLINGTON AND BEDFORD ; 
The dotted line Indicates Its od bed, tno 
and present flood-/ine. 
eee 
} FROM THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
f 
connected with the campaign of 921 between Edward the Elder and the 
Danes and Northmen of East Anglia.’ 
1 Anglo-Saxon Chon. (Rolls Ser.), i. 194. 
280 
