ANCIENT EARTHWORKS far better known than the outer entrenchment to which we have referred, and has the advantage of having played a part in Shakespeare's magic pages. Other hands will take up the story of Pleshey Castle in historic times, for us it is left to record the remains the bare earthen skeleton, parent of the towers and walls and halls of masonry which subsequently formed the castle home of the high constables of England. We find now a great keep-mound, somewhat oval in form, rising nearly 50 feet above its surrounding moat, a brick bridge connecting it with the base-court or bailey, which is protected by a high rampart with its own proper moat 30 to 40 feet below, and some indication of a second bailey on the north of the mound. Back Lane seems to follow the course of the moat to this second or outer bailey. Some say masonry runs through the length of the southern bailey rampart, but we think that, as at Ongar, masonry was used only at the gateways, timber being a sufficient protection for the summit of the ramparts standing high above the water-filled moat. The masonry indicated at p on plan consists of two rubble walls, the space between being filled with clay and sand. The outer wall is 3! feet thick, the inner 2 feet. The latter has red tiles with the rubble. PURLEIGH. There is an entrenched mound here slightly raised above the surrounding surface level. It apparently gives name to a manor at Purleigh known as ' Le Howe,' formerly a member of the manor of ' Lalling,' or, as it is now known, ' Lawling.' It was possibly a moot hill or law hill. Mr. E. A. Fitch 1 describes it as probably Saxon or Danish, circular, about 55 yards in diameter, and surrounded by a ditch about 12 feet wide. RAYLEIGH CASTLE. The commanding position it occupies renders Rayleigh Castle in some respects the most striking of Essex earthworks. A short spur projects from the range of hills running high above the wide lowlands to the west, overlooking a great extent of country, a point of strategic importance in early days.' This spur has been boldly modified into a typical mound and court fortress ; the keep mound occupies the westward end, and is nearly sur- rounded by a deep dry fosse, which on its east divides it from the bailey, an enclosure furnished with its own proper fosse. Of the second or outer bailey some effort is necessary to enable us now to trace the lines, owing to alterations for houses and gardens of the little town of Rayleigh, and to some levelling of the pastures which has taken place within the last hundred years or so. 8 Pre-Roman or British origin has been claimed for all or part of the earthworks by some of our eminent antiquaries, while Weever, writing 1 MaUon and the River Blacktaater.
- With sorrow we have to advise those who wish to see Rayleigh Castle to do so speedily, for the
destroyer is at hand ; already roads are marked out on the western slope, and soon the grand view will (thanks to modern vandalism) be changed to a prospect of back premises of villas and cottages. 8 A plan of about 1789 in Kerrich's collection (British Museum Add. MS. 6735) shows a second bailey. There are traces of further works around, for which see plan (opposite p. 172, Essex Arch. Sec. Trans, iv. n.s.). 299
