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ANCIENT EARTHWORKS the fosses, was thrown up into screen banks along the lines of the adjacent steep slopes for about 6 ft. in height. On the other boundaries from one to three banks were thrown up with corresponding fosses of varying widths and depths. The magnitude of these walls and intrenchments was determined by the nature of the adjacent lands. Where they were flat and afforded easy approach to the fort, there the works of defence were multiplied ; but where natural obstacles to approach existed in the shape of slopes or otherwise the works of defence were reduced to a minimum. But what these forts always afforded was an internal area of some acres in extent, but varying in size, inclosed within a well-raised vallum, effecting the exclusion from without of the inclosed area. On the outside of the inclosing wall were either the natural cliff-like slopes or the raised banks and sunk ditches, giving to those within the inclosure security from surprise and a very formidable defence against any invading foe. The tops of the walls it is considered had possibly the further defence of a stockade sloping outwards from the foot and making a solid barrier in addition to the walls and intrenchments. None of the intrenchments in this class of work were served with water as an aid to defence in the examples within the county. Since the accounts given by the early writers on these earthworks very little has been added with regard to them, but the present writer did, in 1892, read a paper on the subject before the North Staffordshire Field Club, and also another at the congress of the British Archaeological Association held in York in 1891 ; and in the Court Guide for 1902 the subject was further referred to, when the main characteristics of the early forts were described as follows : 1. Their situation is at a high level. 2. They command panoramic views, so that the surrounding country is everywhere within direct sight. 3. They are near to a water supply of stream or spring. 4. They make use of natural means of security to a full practicable extent by hugging the upper edge of a precipitous slope or cliff, and when this terminates fosses are dug and ramparts raised. 5. Their entrances are secluded and flanked by commanding mounds. 6. The surface of the inclosed area has been shaped by the removal of earth for the ramparts, and it forms a shelter and fortified space ; the outlines are irregular and unsymmetrical. 7. The approaches are circuitous, secluded, and under view from the ramparts. Their general aspect is that of a defended retreat safe in any direction from surprises of any kind and offering secure protection to a whole com- munity, with its herds, flocks, and other belongings. These defensive forts in some cases have command of rivers, and in others lie upon their tribu- taries. The courses of rivers were, it must be remembered, commonly resorted to by the invader. There still remains in this county strong evidence of Roman earthworks (class C), as may be seen in the remains of camps at Chesterton near to Newcastle under Lyme, at Barrow Hill near Rocester, at Longdon near Lich- field, and at Green's Forge west of Dudley. The mound and mound and bailey type (classes D and E) of defensive earthwork is conspicuously present in this county, and exists at the county town of Stafford, and at Heighley, Newcastle under Lyme, Alton, Tutbury, 333