A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE an escarpment of 38 ft. This is cinctured by a fosse with a counter- scarp of 1 2 ft., and is partially bounded by an agger which varies in width according to the contour of the ground; on the east this has a scarp of 1 8 ft., which is continued by the natural declivity to a considerable depth this being the steepest side of the hill to a brook. The base-court is on the north-west, surrounded by a vallum 24 ft. wide at the base ; at the two extremities, where it closes in upon the fosse of the mount, it slightly inturns and rises 22 ft. on the scarp from a fosse 1 2 ft. deep. Except at these points the agger makes a rampart 4ft. high from the interior. An entrance is on the north-west. A second court (?) on the north-east, possibly a later addition, is but a raised platform on the slope of the hill, rectangular in plan. On the north-west is a shallow ditch which opens on to a terrace 6 ft. wide and 5 ft. below the level of the court. Onthesouth- A-TT^ ern side of the mount two low aggers branch from the main work and de- scend the hill side; they appa- rently indicate another court but of inferior importance for defensive pur- poses. The most assailable side of the castle was the south-west, and here, 1,600 ft. distant, is a small camp which has been included in Class C that may have been an outpost, or in some way connected with a stronghold on the site of Castle Hill. LEICESTER CASTLE (xxxi, 10). The 'Castle Mount' is situated just outside the south-west angle of the rectangular Roman station of Ratae, upon the right bank of the River Soar, and 20 ft. above its level. The mount is now 30 ft. high ; the steepest scarp of 48 ft. is on the south- west, and it is 100 ft. in diameter upon its level summit; its height was much greater until ninety years ago, when it was reduced and levelled for a bowling green. Around the edges of the mount are the remains of masonry apparently of late Norman date. There are but slight traces of a fosse, but the contiguous buildings may account for this. The bailey was on the north of the mount, well guarded on its western side by a steep scarp to the Soar and elsewhere by a fosse now destroyed. The building now called the castle and, perhaps, the beautiful church of St. Mary de Castro stand in the area of the ancient bailey. In the fourteenth century Henry, earl of Lancaster, added an outer bailey the Newarke but as its defences were of stone the picturesque fragments which remain will be described elsewhere. 260 SCALE OF FEET 100 200 3OO CASTLE HILL CAMP, HALLATON
