ANCIENT EARTHWORKS HINCKLEY, CASTLE HILL (xlii. 8). Thirteen miles south-west from Leicester, near to the Watling Street. The discovery of Roman relics has led to the supposition that a Roman camp was on this spot, but the earliest information affecting this earthwork is the erection of a castle by Hugh de Grantmesnil, which Burton tells us (A.D. 1622) ' is now utterly ruinated and gone, and only the mounts, rampires, and trenches are to be seen.' Two hundred years later we read in Nichols that the antient site of the Castle had, beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant, been occupied as a gardener's ground, and the Castle-hill considerably lowered by taking materials from it for repairing the roads ; till, in 1770 Mr. Hurst caused a handsome modern dwelling house to be built. Since that time the services of a landscape gardener have been requisitioned to reconstruct the garden. After this record it is marvellous that any of the ancient works have survived, yet there is just enough left to formulate an idea of the original state of the mound of the keep and its fosse. By the removal of ma- terial for the roads the whole of the centre and north and west sides of the mound have been destroyed, but the south- ern and eastern portions more or less remain, with an escarp- ment of 38 ft., at its highest point A, to an ornamental lake which has been formed in the old fosse. At this section the water is 30 ft. wide, but the counterscarp has been reduced. The highest point of the coun- terscarp is at B, where it is 23 ft. The fosse, with lowered banks, continues round the west side, but is entirely built over on the north ; and the banks in the interior, as marked on the plan, are the paths and flower beds of the garden. RATCLIFFE CULEY (xxxiv, 8). One and a half miles north-east from Atherstone, and south-east of the Sence Brook. Within a field immediately to the east of the church is a well-defined mount and fosse of very moderate dimensions. The mount is nearly circular with a gradual escarpment of 1 9 ft. and is surrounded by a fosse, distinct but very shallow, which latter condition is due to the action of the plough, although at the present time the land is under grass. SCRAPTOFT (xxxii, 9). ' THE MOUNT.' East of the village is a small truncated conical mount with a depressed top. Hinck/ey 100 ZOO 300 CASTLE HILL, HINCKLEY 257 33
