Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/266

 240 THE CASTLE. The castle mound was admirably situated for defence. Freed from its present surroundings of buildings, what a vast tract of country was opened to the eye of a person standing on its summit ! — Dartmoor, the beautiful valley of the Tamar, the granitic tors of Cornwall, and the un- dulating landscape stretching towards the North Sea. Even in the days of the struggles between Briton and Saxon, and between Saxon and Dane, such a mound was probably used for warlike purposes ; but our theory is that OLD VIEW OF THE CASTLE FROM THE WEST. no part of that which we to-day call Dunheved Castle, or Launceston Castle, existed before the reign of Edward the Confessor. The Domesday book shows that this district had been minutely surveyed by Edward. {Circa 1050.) The Danes were sources of constant terror to his people. He had resided in Normandy, where castle building was general, and he may have commenced the fortifications which, soon after the Conquest of England by William, were completed at Dunheved. The few apparent objections which are suggested by