258 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
possible to avail himself of the labours of those who had before 
occupied the site; and if the earthworks which he found could be 
made useful in the construction of the new building, they were, I 
think I may say, invariably used. If therefore he found a mound, 
or as he would have called it, a “motte,” which was of sufficient 
strength to bear the massive walls of the intended keep, he made 
his building conform to its shape, and instead of erecting a square 
tower, the lines of the new stone building taking the place of the 
wooden one, followed those of the earthwork. And in doing this 
in England the Norman did just what had been done in the 
country from whence he came. ‘ Works answering to this de- 
scription are common in Normandy, as well as all over England. 
We find them especially in Yorkshire, along the Severn, and upon 
the borders and more accessible parts of South and Mid Wales. 
They are rare in Scotland and Ireland, and unusual in France out 
of Normandy.”* 
A keep of this kind became different in character from the square 
or oblong one, which, being more durable and striking to the eye, 
was preferred.t The latter would be a house as well as a fortress, 
and be divided into floors ; a cellar, with guard-room on the first 
floor, living apartments on the second, and other rooms over, and 
furnished with chapel, armoury, well, and garde-robes. But where 
the existing mound was well settled and strong, and capable of 
bearing the weight of the stone-work, the ordinary form was dis- 
carded for one which corresponded to the form of the mound. In 
two places in England, Oxford and Saffron-Waldon, curiously 
enough, buildings of both characters are found in one fortress. The 
round or polygonal keep was what was designated a “ shell keep,” 
and such a keep was erected upon the ancient mound at Plympton. 
Enough still remains, little as it is, to enable us to compare this 
building with similar ones, and to ascertain what its general struc- 
ture and appearance were. The wall is of rubble masonry, built 
with hard mortar of the strength of cement, about eight feet thick, 
and rising originally to a height of probably thirty feet, enclosing 
a circular space of about fifty feet in diameter. The upper part 
was battlemented, and within the battlements a platform or walk 
was formed in the thickness of the wall. This may be seen now 
at Trematon, and, although the work is later, at Totnes. The 
staircase leading to this was of wood, for although the Normans 
* Clark, “ Arch. Journal,’’ vol. xxx. p. 146. + Ibid, p. 147. 
