Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/510

 A HISTORY OF KENT days for the construction of this strong hill-fort ; indeed the discovery of British pottery would seem to support this opinion, but General Pitt-Rivers' careful examination leaves little room to doubt the approxi- mate date, and the presence of British relics can possibly be attributed to the previous presence here of a burial tumulus destroyed maybe in digging the castle works.* The entrenchments form three enclosures : (i) That on the south- west occupying the highest portion of the hill and acting as the keep of the castle. The inner fall of the rampart of this keep is hardly trace- able in places, and about the section E-F the most perfect part is now only about 4 ft. in height. (2) That on the east acting as the bailey, or court, but of very uneven surface, the central portion running roughly east and west as a natural ridge. (3) A small sloping space on the north-west approached from the court-yard by the outer rampart of the keep, and down the gully north of the keep. Within and below the inner rampart cut by the section G-H are depressions in the ground, and the ditch is divided by low causeways at certain distances, such as are found at Winkelbury in Wiltshire and elsewhere. General Pitt-Rivers' description is so precise that we cannot do better than quote some portions of his minute account of the results ot the explorations conducted under his personal supervision in 1878 ' : — It [the fortress] is on the apex of a cape and is guarded by a ' bay ' or ' coombe.' Whether it was that the sides of this bay were not originally sufficiently steep to form a natural defence, or that an attack on this quarter might be more probably expected, the sides of the bay on the west side of the Camp, immediately outside the ditch of the citadel, have been artificially escarped for a depth of about 90 ft. so as to give the slope an angle of 4ii° with the horizon. On the south side of the Camp the natural escarpment is at an angle of 30° and the height 250 ft., whilst on the north side the slope is not more than 15°, and the total height from the summit to the bottom of the valley on that side about 80 ft. This being the weakest side is therefore defended by two ramparts, viz., that of the outer camp (the outer rampart) and that of the citadel (the inner or upper rampart), whilst the stronger sides are defended by part of the citadel only. Respecting the traverse, which runs from the inner to the outer rampart on the north of the citadel, we read : — Such a traverse might either have been constructed to cut off a breach during an attack on the west side, or if an attack on that side was anticipated it might have formed part of the original defence. The fact that the ditch of the traverse does not run into that of the citadel, but leaves a causeway about 15 ft. in width, to facilitate communication between the two outer compartments of the Camp, favours the opinion that it formed part of the original defences. Immediately to the north of the outer rampart is a level space of about 700 ft. by 450 ft., which is bounded by the bank running along the counterscarp of the northern fosse of the camp on one side, and on the east by its continuation in a northern direction, parallel with the ' The General noticed such a tumulus on the western side of the ravine on the west of this fortress. 5 Archisologia (1883), xlvii. 416