ANCIENT ENGLISH CASTLES, 
709 
green tiirf. it was carried on from the Solway Frith, a little west of 
the village of Burgh on the Sands, in as direct a line as possible, to 
the river Tyne on the east, at the place where the town of Newcastle 
now stands: so that it must have been above sixty English, and near 
seventy Roman miles in length. It consists of four parts : 1. The principal 
agger, mound of earth, or rampart, on the brink of the ditch. 2. The 
ditch on the north side of the rampart. Another rampart on the 
south side of the principal one, aboiit hve paces distant from it. 4. 
A large rampart on the north side of the ditch. This last was pro- 
bably the military way to the line of forts on this work : it was so to 
those formerly built by Agricola ; and if it did not serve the same 
purpose in this, there must have been no military way attending it. 
The south rampart might serve for an inner defence, in case the enemy 
should beat them from any part of the principal rampart, or it might 
be designed to protect the sohiiers from any sudden attack of the 
provincial Britons. 
For many ages this work has been in so ruinous a condition, that 
it is impossible to discover its original dimensions with certainty. 
From its appearance, it seems }>robable that the principal rampart 
w'as at least ten or twelve feet high, and the south one not much less, 
but the north one was considerably lower. From the dimensions of 
the ditch, taken as it passes througli a lime-stone quarry near Harlow 
hill, it appears to have been nine feet deep, and eleven wide at the top, 
but somewhat narrower at the bottom. The north rampart was about 
twenty feet distant from the ditch. 
History oe Ancient English Castles, 
Castles walled with stone, and designed for residence as well as 
defence, are for the most part, according to Mr. Grosse, of no higher 
antiquity than the Conquest ; for although the Saxons, Romans, and 
even, according to some writers on antiquity, the ancient Britons, had 
castles built with stone ; jet these w'ere both few in number, and at 
that period, through neglect or invasions, were either destroyed, or so 
much decayed that little more than their ruins were remaining. This 
is asserted by many of our historians and antiquaries, and assigned 
as a reason for the ease with which William made himself master 
of England. 
This circumstance led him also, both with a view to guard against 
invasions from ivithout, and to awe his new'ly acquired subjects, im- 
mediately to begin erecting castles all over the kingdom, and likewise 
to repair and augment the old ones ; and as he had parcelled out the 
lands of the English amongst his followers, they', to protect themselves 
from the resentment of those so despoiled, built strong-holds and 
castles on their estates. This likewise caused a considerable increase 
of these fortresses ; and the turbulent and unsettled state of the king- 
dom in the succeeding reigns, served to multiply them prodigiously, 
every baron, or leader of a party, buiUling castles, insomuch that 
foivards the end of king Stephen’s reign they amounted to the almost 
incredible number of 1115. 
As the feudal system gathered strength, these castles became the 
