Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/663

 ANCIENT EARTHWORKS The gently undulating contours of Suffolk provide no such heights as were chosen for the sites of hill fortresses by a primitive people, and conse- quently no such strongholds are found in the county. The reason for the paucity of earthworks capable of identification w^ith a very early people must be found in the adaptability of the soil for agriculture ; the greater part of the county is under tillage, and it is one of the finest corn-growing districts in England. To the plough, then, may be ascribed the destructive influence that has spared so few of those unrecorded landmarks. Some, indeed, may unknowingly be extant, incorporated into later moated sites. Possibly this may be the case with the works at Chevington and Wattisham, but it can only be suggested by a study of the entrenchments, and in no wise proven. Similar forces have wrought havoc with the military works raised during the Roman occupation, for excepting the camp on Clare Common we look in vain for any definite earthwork that may be included under Class C. Burgh, Dunwich, and Walton were strongholds for the defence of the Saxon shore ; the last two have been swallowed by the sea, and Burgh Castle, in the northern extremity of the county, is a well-defined Roman work, but only a very small part of its earthen defences remains. Suffolk, however, is not entirely denuded of signs of Roman entrenchments, and it is marvellous that after centuries of cultivation five camps of rectangular plan may with care be traced. At Stowlangtoft and Burgh (near Woodbridge) are double entrench- ments ; at Ashbocking, Bredfield, and Brettenham are traces of single en- trenchments ; the valla have disappeared, having been ploughed into the fosses, which are abnormally widened and almost filled to the surface in the process, but on these sites are found tesserae, pottery, and oyster-shells. It is interesting to observe how ancient ramparts have been utilized wherein to build early churches, as may be seen at Burgh St. Peter, South Elmham St. Cross, where it is called the ' Minster Yard,' and Stowlangtoft St. George. When this district became part of the province of East Anglia the Suthfolc were severely disciplined by foes both at home and from abroad. Their struggles against absorption by the kingdom of Mercia in the 7th century may have led to the construction of those stupendous dykes, the principal of which was known as ' Devil's Dyke ' and ' St. Edmund's Dyke,' and although it is beyond our limits — being in Cambridgeshire — it may be suggested that, with the great fosse to the west of the huge vallum, it was made for the protection of the people resident in the country under our consideration against an inland foe. 583