Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/345

 ANCIENT EARTHWORKS This outer moat has no rampart, and proceeds almost due north and south, dying out before it shows any sign of turning. From this moat the site slopes gradually away to the south, where there are remains of a large bank near a brook, which was probably a dam. No signs of the outermost enclosing lines are now apparent. Fisher publishes a view of Conger Hill in his Collections (1812). The Lysons l stated that near it were ' considerable earthworks' in their time. 3 (4) The ' Bury Hill,' Thurleigh. — Fisher's drawing finely shows the impressive nature of the great moated mound at this place, and its near association with the church, in which is a tower and north door of early Norman date. It also stands on a lofty height, which slopes rapidly down to a low-lying stream on the west and south. The mound was of the conical type with its summit in two levels, the higher of which is crowned by a small circular hold with low ramparted edge. In the centre of this stands a great walnut tree 12 feet in girth. There is no bank anywhere else on the mound, which rises some 23 feet above the bottom of the fosse, on the east, where the work is best preserved. The fosse is about 25 feet across and 8 or 10 feet in depth on the east, north and west. Here there are also fine remains of the great rampart on the outer edge of the scarp. On the south side all these features are almost worked 1 Mag. Brit. i. 1 + 3. 1 At the time of Do Ernulf de Hesdin. sday Toddington was a large and very 287 manor held in demesne by