Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/526

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

A HISTORY OF KENT the work is not due to more modern fancy on the part of an owner of the estate/ Lamberhurst : Scotney Castle. — This picturesque ruin will be described in another section of this History, but so much of its defence having depended on its wide and deep moat it is thought well to include a plan in this chapter. Leeds : Leeds Castle. — Though one of the most remarkable feudal strongholds in England, this has so little defensive work of the class treated of in this article that it is not necessary to give a plan. The castle is wholly of stone, and its description will fall into another section of this History, but it is well to note the clever engineering which created a double island and rendered the place of great defensive strength even before the erection of stone walls and towers. Milton (near Sittingbourne) : Castle Rough. — It is very doubtful whether this is the work thrown up by Hasten, the Dane, in A.D. 893, but as that view is held by many we mention the tradi- tion." Though not large enough to serve an army it is probably of ■^ ~ have sheltered Danish marauders whose boats could lie protected in the water which flooded all the land immediately east and south ; or perchance a Saxon or later settler here constructed strong defence against the Danish enemy. The earthworks lie on slightly rising ground just where the marsh joins the higher land, sloping down from the west and within a short distance of Milton Creek. The fosse, or moat, on the south-west side is about 12 ft. below the enclosed mount, and a little less on other sides. As the top of the mount slopes gently from north-west to south- east it appears to be the original level of the hillside, little raised by ballast from the surrounding moat, which may have been used in rearing ramparts, some portions of which appear to have remained when Hasted wrote, but have now disappeared.' Minster (Isle of Thanet) : Cheesman's Camp. — The farm- house known as Cheesman's Farm is in the parish of Acol, but the SCALE OF FEET 100 ^00 Castle Rough, Milton. ' Colonel E. Wyndham Grevis Bailey, the owner, has an early print of the Court, which shows rectangular stew-ponds to the north-east of the circular work first mentioned. ' See Sittingbourne, Bayiord Court, post. » Hasted, Hist. Kent (1782), ii. gives a striking bird's-eye view of the earthwork. 432