ANCIENT EARTHWORKS side the works or to be retained when needed. The castle moat proper could be relieved of its surplus water by a sluice at F, a point much lower than the inlet E. Close to and on the east of the present footbridge over the Stort will be noticed a break in the embankment, now partially filled up, through which the river water could be led into the reservoir ; but examination of the ground further west shows that at some time a stream flowed along the bottom, indeed it is most probable that the Stort itself flowed here and was artificially diverted. Banking is evident to the west of the ground shown on the plan, and there are two mys- terious little banks on the east which we indicate. We have devoted much space to these outer earthworks, because they appear to form an interesting example of hydraulic engineering of an early date. EASTON (GREAT). The moated mound here though insignificant when compared with the large work at Mount Bures is like thereto in giving a distinctive name to its parish, for there can be little doubt that the Norman place-name Easton ad Montem was de- rived from this artificial mount as Bures ad Mon- tern from that. Some would assign the mound to Roman or pre-Roman days, but it may well have been a lonely little fortified work in a clearing of the great woodland in Saxon times, or it may represent part Creaf ars/v/r. ssex of the defensive WOrk of ^ ne ' rom * to how> t moat about 8 feet in depth, the mound of about zo feet altitude and the moat again. the grantee in Norman William's reign. This view is perhaps strengthened if we can regard the scanty traces of outer work on the south as part and parcel of the whole. ELMDON. Close to Elmdonbury, now the chief manor-place of this parish, is a wood for generations past known as Castle Grove ; within it is a circular moated mound, to which no reference is made in our county histories. It may have been, probably was, the first site of the castle or manor-house of the manor mentioned in Domesday, then held of Count Eustace of Boulogne by Roger de Sumeri. 1 1 It may be well to note that the present house of Elmdonbury, though of some antiquity, is not on the site of the late-mediaeval manor house, it occupied the square moated enclosure about 400 yards to the west. 293
