A HISTORY OF KENT two hypotheses present themselves as to the purpose of such weakly- protected inclosures. They may be the sites of ancient village settle- ments, or the pieces of land reserved in feudal and later days for the preservation of beasts of the chase. This example is possibly too small for the latter purpose, and its banks and ditches may be the remnants of a never strong place guarded by a palisade of timber on the bank. A similar work of a like size exists in a thicket at Navestock in Essex. There are said to be traces of other earthworks on the west of Preston Wood inclosure, but we have not discovered them. Eastry : Shingleton. — This curious work is thickly matted over with underwood and nettles, and the earthworks are in a very poor state of preservation. Its ground is about i lo ft. above sea level, with higher land on all sides except the north-east. The position has no natural defence, for if the work were open and not covered with trees and underwood it would lie entirely exposed to the higher land around. III! ill "-^^ /S? N. /V^f^«'^<.;:7l We// . '"^"y farm eviw^ ^, M Entrenchments at Shingleton, Eastry. The outer entrenchment on the west consists of a ditch with the ballast thrown inward to form a rampart, but on the south besides the inner rampart a slight outer rampart is found, and on the north the only entrenchment consists of this slight rampart, but whether or not this is part of the original plan may be doubtful. The east side like the west 436
