A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE only a narrow mouth for communication with the river. A small stream runs through the lower part of the site, which was a few years ago turned into the outer moat, possibly deepened for the purpose. Formerly it continued into the river, under the railway bank. Whether this stream flows in its original course is uncertain, as it has the appearance of a later straight cutting. There is a short moat-like sinking inside the inner rampart, as though further to divide the ward within. How the work was closed in on the south is not clear. Possibly the road covers the line of the defences. In the present state of the remains nothing can be suggested as to its origin, except that the small mounds at the ends of the ramparts are found in works reputedly Danish, and the shallows cut near the river, which are unlike defensive moats, may have sheltered their shipping. (10) Dray's Ditches near Limbury. — Following along the old Icknield Way from Limbury, in a north-easterly direction, two isolated hills are reached — Warden Hill and Galley Hill. Under the east slope of the latter is a very large irregular enclosure, with slight bank and ditch, evidently not defensive, all round it. The stretch which lines the Icknield Way is more than half a mile in length. The ground within is a dead level and is under cultivation. On the slopes of the hill above, the ordnance map shows four tumuli. To the south, a strong line of entrenchment runs parallel with Dray's Ditch, 1,000 feet in length, pierced almost at right angles by the Icknield Way. Much of it has been levelled, but at the western end the rampart rises 9 feet above the bottom of the external fosse to the north, which is here 1 2 feet across. What was the purpose of this great enclosure it is difficult to conjecture. EARTHWORKS ALONG THE OUSE FROM BEDFORD TO TEMPSFORD There is an interesting series of earthworks along the line of the Ouse from Bedford to Tempsford, 8 miles distant, which appears to be PLAN ^s^W"** --- , REKHQUB SHEWING THE COURSE of the OUSE fP^--^ "'IrS^ BETWEEN RENHOLD.WILLINGTON and BEDFORD """"-r 1 , __*' . X-., ^, ^S..W— * FROM THE M0LO61CAL HIRVEY. ¥ connected with the campaign of 921 between Edward the Elder and the Danes and Northmen of East Anglia. 1 1 Anglo-Saxon Chon. (Rolls Ser.), i. 194. 280
