252 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
were abandoned by the Norman. There is, however, nothing but 
the general appearance of the land to favour such a supposition. 
Instances of such a disposition of the ground are sometimes met 
with, a central mound with moated and banked enclosures north 
and south, or east and west, as the case may be. 
The Chateau des Olivets, an earthwork measured by Mons. de 
Caumont, precisely corresponds with my idea of what the Plympton 
earthworks might have been; and on comparing it with the plan 
of Plympton, its resemblance is apparent. 
i i We 
on) il i. ae ae 
WW sss | 
~ rs 
he “iP NZ Mn ml Bu 
Wl 
NS ean 
WA WA Ny aM “al AG Z yy 
a oy tlt ml as ; is li A 


in 
SS 
cae 



& wy 
- ‘ on ae . ° UR = 
cen nine Mh yer WH Heri 
on ae sg ai cin ee 
j WI; Ny Han mul nA Hi 
ea 
~ 
Guided by other examples, the entrance to the Saxon “ton” 
would be on the western side, opposite the mound, at a point as far 
as possible from it ; but here I think that the entrance must have 
been originally, as in later times, nearer the principal point of 
defence, as there is no indication whatever of a break in the earth- 
work on any side except where the medieval entrance was. Still 
there is something to be urged in favour of a western entrance, for, 
as I have just said, taking advantage of the natural form of the 
ground, the constructor of this defence formed a second enclosure 
which was perhaps made to cover the entrance, while, as we shall 
see, this also I believe formed part of the later fortification. 
The ground-plan of all that I have mentioned can be traced by 
the most casual observer, and the important mound and the banks 
and ditches are as apparent to us dwellers on the threshold of the 
twentieth century as they were to the Danish maraude? in the 
ninth, or to the Norman invader in the eleventh century. 
But the mound, banks, and ditches were not sufficient protection 
