ANCIENT EARTHWORKS ^ -<• T « ? ^0 ' Ground-plot ' of Hereford Castle left Stand upon ground but little above the River Wye, which defends the south-western side. The exact details of the entrenchments in their original state cannot now be determined from the traces left, but fortunately extant records and the view given by Speed indicate the lines. All we now see is part of the rampart which defended the court, or bailey, with a moat on its northern side. The rampart is now used as a promenade, the whole inclosure being laid out as a public pleasure ground. The rampart may have returned towards the north-west and the moat continued round the whole work excepting where the River Wye, on the south, and a small stream on the east, rendered it un- necessary. There is now no mount or keep, but a second inclosure containing the keep mount once existed beyond the western constricted end of the court. The mount was conical, wholly artificial, surrounded by its own circumscribing water-filled moat and provided with a flat summit to accommodate the shell-keep of timber for which stone was subse- quently substituted. That the mount was mainly composed of gravel is proved by the entry in County Sessions Records, 1653, 'The gravell of the castle mount hath been disposed off by order of sessions.'" The diameter and position of the great mount are placed beyond doubt by a most interesting document, reproduced by the Woolhope Club, entitled 'Ye Ground-plot of ye Castle of Herifford,' dated 1677. In addition to the figure of ' the hill which ye Great tower stood on,' here reproduced, the ground-plot shows the court with a round mount in the north-east corner, and another, square, at the south-east angle." Unfortunately the ground-plot does not tell us the exact height to which the mount was reared, but it must have been of con- siderable alt'tude. The circle in the centre of the plan shows the area of the flat summit of the mount. Huntington Castle. — This stronghold is formed from a natural hill, 3 J miles from King- ton, on ground rising to- wards the west and south- west. The mount rises at an acute angle from its outer fosse and is height- ened by means of the bal- last thrown therefrom, the " Op. cit. ■•^oo' .-,;■ ee'5 f .■7<n>^ abort Sta. ^6k-. ■">•.-.. 2>B «■ tnat'amrtt Mcit9nry^ Huntington Castle " Trans. Woolhope Field Club {i ?3-i), 162. 239
