PLYMPTON CASTLE. 253 
for the English franklin, nor would they alone have assured the 
safety of his family and possessions within the enclosure, or of the 
flocks and herds which in peaceful times pastured on the low 
meadows north and east of the ton. Nor would those outside, who 
looked up to him for protection, have been satisfied with such 
provision alone against a time of danger. 
Upon the banks, and securely fixed in the solid earthwork along 
the outer edge above the ditch, were placed strong palings of wood, 
which formed a substantial palisade. This palisade completely 
surrounded the main enclosure, and in the more important places 
was strengthened in parts by little towers, also of timber. The 
water too, filling the ditch, formed an important feature in the 
works of defence. It is difficult to imagine that the present ditches, 
now partly cultivated as gardens, and used in other ways, could 
ever have contained any considerable body of water. And yet 
such must have been the case. I recollect well two large pools 
north and south of the mound, which are now both filled up, and 
one built over. Many Plymptonians remember a great deal of 
water in the ditches north, south, and west. Old inhabitants have 
fished there. Leland speaks of the great store of carp therein. 
Still further back, in a document dated about 1232, the sea, by 
which of course is meant, the tide, is spoken of as reaching uwsque 
ad castrum. Old leases of houses on the north side of Under- 
wood contained clauses giving to the lessees the right of fishing in 
waters which flowed up the valley towards Plympton Castle. And 
lastly, an old woman of Plympton, who died about the year 1834 
at the age of ninety-four, used to say that her mother had told her 
that she recollected vessels coming to the quay opposite the Church 
of St. Mary, where there was a boat-house. Other old persons 
now alive recollect boats coming very far up what are now the 
marshes. To some extent this has been altered by the embanking 
which has been effected ; but independently of this, there is in 
this neighbourhood much less land covered with water than for- 
merly. 
We have not only written descriptions which very clearly show 
us what these English strong places were like, but also pictorial 
representations. 
Colmier, Archdeacon of Terouane in the eleventh century, writes,* 
describing the chateau of Merchem : 
* Caumont, ‘‘Cours D’ Antiquites Monumentales,” tome v. p. 1438. 
