250 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
the enclosure, the undoubted proximity of the great road, the im- 
portance of the position, and the unquestionable evidence of a 
Roman population in the immediate neighbourhood, goes far to 
show that there was an early Roman work of some kind here, 
perhaps placed by the Roman soldier upon the defensive work of 
the Damnonii. 
We have at Plympton the great mound and the banks of the 
enclosure below, clearly to be traced, and in their present state 
we are able to examine at the present moment a military work of 
creat interest and importance, in a remarkably perfect state of 
preservation, the history of which carries us back to the days of 
the Roman in Britain; the English earthworks being probably, as 
I have said, not an original work, but an addition to banks already 
in existence, which banks were Roman.* 
Here then we have a large mound—a truncated cone—about 
fifty-five feet high, and about seventy feet in diameter at the top. 
This was probably formed to a great extent, if not entirely, from 
the accumulated soil obtained by the excavation of the ditch which 
completely surrounds the mound, or rather did so within a com- 
paratively short time; now, in some parts, the ground has been 
filled in. 
This mound stands on the eastern side, or rather end, of an en- 
closure rectangular in shape, surrounded on every side except the 
east by a high bank of earth, which, like the mound, was formed 
by throwing up the materials of an excavation on the outside to 
make a deep ditch. The mound was situated nearly in the centre 
of the eastern extremity of this enclosure, but tending a little to 
the south. The height of the bank at present varies. The enclosure 
within the ditches contains a space of about 710 feet long by 380 
feet broad. 
On the western side of the enclosure is another work, in which 
advantage has been taken of the natural formation of the slate rock, 
which indeed seems to project to a great extent over the whole area 
of the Castle. Around this are evident indications of entrench- 
ments. On the eastern side, beyond the ditch of the mound, is a 
little plain, now occupied by the church of St. Maurice and its 
graveyard, and houses; and then on the north and east the 
ground again slightly rises. ‘This little plain is surrounded north, 
south, and east by roads, and by the ditch of the mound on the 
* Clark, “ Arch. Journal,” vol. xxiv. p. 104. 
