Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/678

 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK From the north, eastwards, the fosse of the bailey is a huge excavation, with a scarp of 38 ft. and a counterscarp of 25 ft., but where the outer fosse branches from that of the mount the base rises and the two sides are brought to a level at the east, where they are nearly twenty feet above the base of the fosse. On the east the fosse has been blocked with earth, and forms a cart track. South of this modern causeway the fosse continues as a large pond for a length of 340 ft., beneath a scarp of 18 ft., after which it has been filled in and the gardens of cottages cover it beneath a scarp of 14 ft. Another portion of the fosse is seen in the village pond, and yet farther west — on the south side — it is covered by an inn, behind which it is again in evidence with a scarp of 1 8 ft. and a counterscarp of 7 ft. The scarp turns north and gradually rises to 48 ft. at a point round which it originally amalgamated with the fosse of the mount ; now it runs into the branch fosse protecting the southern side of the later quadrangular court. To the west of the bailey is another small angular area with an outer fosse 6 ft. deep, access to i-"'i""i'iiii"- which from the in- terior could only have been gained by a bridge. At the north and north-east of these works is a third fosse 18 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep, apparently of a much later period. Gazeley (xliii, 10). — Denham Castle, 'Castle Holes,' is 6 miles south-west by west from Bury St. Ed- munds. The mount of this castle, 10 ft. in height, with a concave sum- mit, lies within the north-eastern side of the circuit of an oval bailey, the fosse at that point being common to both the keep and the court. The whole work is greatly worn, and the fosse surrounding the mount is now but 4 ft. 6 in. deep. One noteworthy feature is the very wide and low bank around the western half of the bailey ; it rises 4 ft. from the interior, and is 30 ft. broad, forming a wide platform whereon the warriors could take their stand behind a palisade. The scarp of this varies ; on the north it is 14 ft. into a fosse of 9 ft. deep ; towards the west both the scarp and counterscarp of the fosse are 9 ft., which are reduced to 5 ft. at the south-west, where the fosse is 42 ft. wide. The entrance is on the south, and on its eastern side the vallum, or platform, has been dug away, and the site of it, together with the fosse, now provides a pond 100 ft. broad. A slightly raised bank running through the centre of the court has probably been an agricultural division in a post-mediaeval age. H AUGHLEY (xlvi, 1 4). — Haughley, or Hagenet, Castle, 2I miles north-north- west from Stowmarket, is the most perfect earthwork of this type in the county. 598 Denham Castle