The earthworks under consideration are those which, rectangular or otherwise, were constructed during the historic period commencing with the Roman subjugation of Great Britain, and ending a few years before the Norman Conquest. It may be termed the Romano-British-Saxon Period. It was the incipient era of castellation proper in the British Isles, distinct from pure earthworks, inasmuch as during the Roman period massive defences of masonry supplanted the earlier uncemented walls and wooden palisading.
At the first invasion of Caesar, 55 B.C., we read of no towns being assaulted, but in the next, 54 B.C., the great oppidum of Cassivelaunus was taken by storm after the passage of the Thames. This capital, Verulamium (adjacent to the modern St. Albans), was a large oval enclosure defended upon three sides by a deep fosse and vallum, in one place doubled, and upon the other by an impassable marsh. The city was attacked in two places and captured. In A.D. 43 the final subjugation of England took place, and the vallum at Verulamium was crowned by the Romans with a massive wall of masonry, great portions of which still remain, supplanting the former wooden obstructions.
That which occurred at Verulamium happened also in numerous other places, Silchester for example, the Romans thus adapting an efficient earthwork to suit their own requirements. Where, however, pre-existing works did not occur, the walls, ramparts, and fosses were invariably constructed round a rectangular area such as may be seen at Chester. The enclosed streets crossed each other at right angles, and this feature is a marked one in Verulamium, although, as stated, the defences do not conform to the rectangular shape. Isolated earthworks constructed during the Roman Period are always more or less square.
MELANDRA, DERBYSHIRE.
Melandra is a Roman earthwork in a good state of preservation near Glossop in Derbyshire. It is almost square, and consists of a simple vallum and external fosse. There are four openings caused by two main roads which intersected at the centre of the earthwork. It affords an example of the prevailing structure of Roman Camps, which are numerous in those parts of the British Isles which owned the sway of the conquerors. The many camps, for example, upon the Watling Street all exhibit the same general plan, based upon the formation of the Roman legion.
Richborough Castle, near Sandwich in Kent, may be cited as a veritable example of a Roman castle built in Britain, and is almost the only one remaining at the present day that preserves in any marked degree its original salient points. It is conjectured to have been erected in the time of the Emperor Severus, its mission being to protect the southern mouth of the great waterway which then separated the island of Thanet from the mainland, a similar office being performed by Reculvers at the northern entry. Three sides of the rectangle are still protected by the massive masonry walls which the Romans knew so well how to build; the fourth, or eastern side, where flowed the river Stour, possesses no visible defence, as it has been undermined and overthrown by the river-current. The northern boundary is 440 feet long, and the western 460. The walls, which vary in height from 12 to 30 feet, are about 12 feet thick and batter towards the top; they are beautifully faced with squared stone in horizontal courses similar to those seen at Segontium, the Roman station at Carnarvon; the core is composed of boulders from the neighbouring beach, embedded in mortar with courses of the usual Roman bonding tiles. In the centre of the area stood a temple and other buildings; the foundations of some of these are still in evidence. Whether the external walls were strengthened by the addition of square or circular towers of masonry, as at Porchester and Silchester, has not as yet been definitely determined.
