The earthworks are on a large scale, and probably the remains of a great English residence, the centre of a large estate; circumstances which no doubt led to the adaptation of this position for the Norman fortress whence the village has derived the prefix to its more ancient name.

The central and principal division of the fortress is composed of an irregular oval area about 67 yards east and west by 80 yards north and south, contained within a broad and lofty bank, which, in its turn, is surrounded by a very formidable ditch. Outside this ditch, covering the east face, is a subsidiary work, also within a bank and ditch. It is in form nearly a parallelogram, but its sides are somewhat irregularly convex, and its angles rounded. Its north end is about 60 yards and its south 70 yards broad, and its length of front 90 yards; but the ends are inclined, so that where it abuts upon the main ditch it is about 80 yards.

This is balanced by a corresponding earthwork on the west point of the central work. This earthwork is about 100 yards north and south by 30 yards broad, and is also contained within a bank and ditch. The ditches of these earthworks do not actually run into the main ditch. A narrow causeway of earth is left between them. The whole exterior girth of the ditch is reported to be 10,803 yards. The central earthwork is about 30 feet high from the inclosed area, and outside is about 60 feet above the bottom of the ditch. It is about 15 feet wide at the top, and, being composed of light soil, has a considerable slope. The banks of the outworks are not so high, being about 20 feet inside and 40 feet outside. Those to the east are, however, higher, and at the points nearly as high as those of the centre. The westward work is altogether of a lighter character, though still of great strength. The works cover about 13 acres. They are wholly artificial.

The main entrance was from the north, along the edge of the counterscarp of the main ditch, and it thus entered the eastern outwork. Near its centre the road crossed the ditch by a bridge, and entered the central ward by a notch in its eastern bank. The western outwork seems to have been entered from the central ward by steps up and down the bank, connected probably with a light bridge over the ditch. It may be that it was only used for cattle.

CASTLE RISING KEEP.

It has been thought that these earthworks are of somewhat different dates, and that the central is the oldest. The circle, or irregular oval, with a bank and ditch, with or without a mound, is a not uncommon form of earthwork in England, and is probably the work of the English in the seventh and eighth centuries. That is to say, where the work is on a low site, and the form not governed, as in British works, by the outline of the ground. These English enclosures rarely stand alone. Usually there were one or more appendages outside, and abutting upon the main ditch, as at Laughton and Kilpeck, probably additions, but not much later than the main work. They were usually also at no great distance from the parish church. From the tendency of the outworks at Castle Rising to the rectangular form, they have been supposed, by good authority, to be Roman, and the Romans had no doubt a settlement at Brancaster, about fifteen miles to the north. But Roman works seldom are composed of earthworks of this magnitude, the Roman custom, where great security was needed, having been to build a wall. Also, if the outworks only be Roman, the central work must be British, which is scarcely consistent with what is known of the defences of that people. Most probably the central is an English work, and the outworks either of the same date, or early additions by the same people. But, be the principal origin what it may, it is clear that here, as at Norwich, Clare, Hedingham, and Castle Acre, the Norman invader, having grasped the estate of the English lord, proceeded, as in Normandy, to combine the new fashion of castle-building with the old defences.