262 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
very clear that the moat and the mound formed his boundary 
there, and that there was no wall protecting the Castle on that side. 
Having secured his keep, and thus obtained a place of safety 
from hostile attack, the Norman was in no hurry to complete the 
other works of the Castle. He had the ditch and the bank and 
the palisade of the Englishman to protect himself and his followers, 
and in the event of being driven from these, his stronger keep. In 
some cases we know that the antient works served as the only 
protection for half a century or more; and at Plympton, with the 
exception of the keep, I doubt whether there: were any Norman 
works of importance ; that they were not of any great importance 
is evident. The keep itself was small, not nearly as large as 
Trematon, and the military architecture of the Norman was so 
massive and enduring, that if there had been any considerable 
buildings at Plympton some remains would still indicate their 
nature. We have nothing to tell us of lofty towers or great gate- 
ways; the whole of the work was upon a small scale, and what it 
was there seems to be no difficulty in ascertaining. Still the earth- 
works of the conquered are more enduring than the stone defences 
of the conqueror. While the former remain now almost intact, of 
the more solid, and apparently much more imperishable structures 
raised upon them, scarce a trace remains. 
There was no necessity for a castle of first-rate character at 
Plympton. After the successful siege of Exeter, and the destruc- 
tion of Lydford, the reason for which we know not, the Conqueror 
appears to have had no opposition of any kind in the West Country. 
And we find in Domesday that Plympton, at the time of the survey, 
belonged to the king. The English owner had doubtless lost his 
possessions in resisting, or at all events in not helping William in 
his march of conquest. 
Before the Conquest we find that there were various divisions of 
the country, which may be broadly thus described : (1) the township, 
villata, vicus or tithing, forming the basis of, and now represented 
by, our town, tithing, or parish; (2) the hundred or wapentake, an 
aggregation of townships, a division still preserved; and (3) the 
shire, representing the county. 
Between the hundred and the shire,* or more probably side by 
side with the former, existed large franchises or liberties, jurisdic- 
tion in which was vested in private hands. Their origin appears 
* Stubbs, ‘‘ Const. Hist. of England,’’ vol. i. p. 106. 
