Page:VCH Rutland 1.djvu/172

 A HISTORY OF RUTLAND to be ' at Oakham a castle well walled,' which wall now consists of a vallum rising to various heights from the interior. On the eastern side of the entrance this is lo ft., increasing to 23 ft. at the south-eastern corner, where it also assumes considerable breadth; declining to 14ft. on the east and 9 ft. on the north, it again rises irregularly to 1 2 ft. on the west, and at the south-west corner it is of much greater width. The whole of this vallum is surmounted by the remains of a wall of masonry which, around the west, south, and part of the eastern sides, descends to the fosse, but other- wise the earthen vallum is on the outside also, having an escarpment of 17 ft. The fosse on the south is covered by buildings ; on the western side, in the midst of which are the ruins of a bastion protruding into the fosse, the counterscarp is now occupied by the churchyard wall ; and on the eastern side are the lowered remains of the counterscarp, beyond which the road to Burley occupies the site of a second fosse the counterscarp of which is now represented by the high footpath on the eastern side of the road. The posi- tion of the northern fosse was occupied by the ' stews under the castle,' mentioned in 1300' and 1340.* This fish-pond extended the whole length of the northern wall of the court, and at its narrowest part measures 64 ft. in breadth ; on its eastern extremity it is inclosed by a bank 4 ft. 4 in. high, and on its northern side by the vallum of the second court, but its western extremity, where it joins the entrance to the outer court and the western fosse of the castle, has been so altered by the making of a public footpath that the original arrangement is lost. That which we have called the outer court is found mentioned in the two inquisitions above quoted as a garden, and is inclosed by a rampart 8 ft. high ; this has an escarpment on the west of 6 ft., but here a road has destroyed the fosse and raised the external ground high above its former level. On the north the vallum has a scarp i 2 ft. in height and the fosse is partially left, but again a roadway has almost obliterated it ; and at the north-eastern angle the vallum rises somewhat higher for a better defence towards the open country. The southern bank of the garden has been noticed as the northern boundary of the fish-stew, but at the south against the eastern side is something more than a garden wall ; here a defensive work overlooks the ground outside the western fosse of the castle on which stands the church. It is a platform 4 ft. above the level of the garden and 29 ft. wide, with a rampart 3 ft. high con- tinuous with the western vallum of the garden, the southern fosse to which has been filled up with the accumulated soil on which the old grammar school stands, by which the escarpment is destroyed. The entrance ' Ibid. 14 Edw. Ill, no. 67. 116 f'S;"-%-''.« '*--""""'""4// "",. i ..•iliUUlk •o SCALE or FEET 100 too 200 1 I I '»;Mfm<«' Whissendine Moat ' Inq. p.m. 2 8 Edw. I, no. 44.