Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/291

 The Castle of Brambei% Sussex. 269 ditch crosses instead of skirting the hill, and is much less deep. Here was the entrance, and upon the small tail of the knoll thus cut off is placed the parish church, standing, therefore, just outside the ditch, and in its turn defended by the slope of the hill, and by a hollow way which runs a few yards within the edge of the marsh, the level of which is 8 feet or lo feet below it. Upon the table summit, i6o feet from its northern, and 40 feet from its eastern, margin, was thrown up a conical mound, about 40 feet high, and 70 feet diameter at its summit. It is wholly artificial, and the material has evidently been scooped up from the surface of the area, which has thus been rendered slightly hollow, the surface rising gently towards the mound, and towards the outer margin of the area, that is, the crest of the scarp. The mound does not appear to have had any ditch proper to itself. It has been dug into and disfigured on its southern side. Possibly there have been buildings there. On the north the original and usual form is un- touched. The slope is very steep. This was the " burgh " or keep of the original fortress. What stood upon the burgh, or how the margin of the area was originally defended, is of course a matter of conjecture ; but con- sidering the wealth of timber in the district, it is probable that tlie defences were all of that material, as well as the adjacent church, and thus supposing, we may figure to ourselves the "aula" of Earl Guerd. who was the lord of Bramber during the reign of the Con- fessor. The position is a very strong one, and the view from it to the east and north-east extensive. Bramber is one of the castles named in Domesday. It was then a part of the lordship of Washington, and held by Wm. de Braose, the Norman grantee. " Ipse Wills, [de Braiosa] tenet Wasingetune. Guerd comes tenuit tempore Regis Edwardi. Tunc se defend, pro LIX. hid. Modo non dat geldum. In una ex his hidis scdet Castellum Brembre." William de Braose here mentioned probably was present at Hastings. A charter cited by Dugdale, dated 1075-6, shows him to have been of Braose, near Saumur, on the Loire. He had an immediate grant of nearly the whole rape of Bramber, and he adopted the castle as his chief seat. Although local history is silent as to De Braose's operations, much may be extracted from the evidence of the existing ruins. Around the edge of the table area he or his immediate successor built a wall of enceinte. Where the ground was sound, this was founded upon the edge of the slope, but where the chalk had given way, the foundations were laid 3 feet or 4 feet lower down, so that the wall was built as a revetment, and the ground within formed a ramp against it. Of this wall of enceinte some large portions remain, and its foundations may be traced all round. It was 7 feet to 9 feet thick, from 10 feet to 18 feet high inside, and outside from 20 feet to 30 feet. It was built entirely of large pebbles, as from the sea- beach, laid in very thick beds of mortar. Of course, such stones