A HISTORY OF KENT From Hasted's drawing we suppose the work to have been for sepulchral rather than defensive purposes. Sandgate : The Castle. — Its deep moating, remaining to this day, necessitates mention of the castle built by Henry VIII in this section, but the story of the structure and its partial alteration in 1806 will be found in a later section of the History. Sutton, near Ripple : Wingleton Oaks. — In a pasture field north-west of the farm-house, known under this name, or the perverted form Winkland Oaks, are considerable remains of what appear to have been military works. They are in poor condition, consisting of ridges and broken banks, or mounds, and cover about half an acre of land. A small part of the area is in the adjoining parish of Ripple. Walmer : Castle. — This much modernized blockhouse, origin- ated by Henry VIII, will be described in another part of this History ; here we need say no more than that its formidable fosse can still be noticed, though converted into a garden. BARHAM DOWNS Under this heading we may refer to the numerous fragmentary earthwork remains in various neighbouring parishes. The Downs are at an altitude of about 200 ft. above sea and 100 ft. above the Lesser Stour, the river which flows at the foot of the Downs on the west, and extend for some four miles from north-west to south-east, carrying along the summit the old Watling Street, now, with slight deviations, the high road from Canterbury to Dover. On the east of the road, parallel thereto, at a distance of about 500 ft. (opposite to Charlton Park and Kingston on the other side of the river), runs a conspicuous earthwork, shown in the Ordnance Survey map, over 2,000 ft. in length, in parts now rather a mere scarping of the hillside than a true entrenchment, with a rectangular three-sided projection apparently guarding two ways of entry to the higher ground occupied as a camp. This line of work appears to be the best defined portion of those extensive traces which have been discussed by the Rev. F. T. Vine ; indeed it may be said to be all that remains visible, though Mr. Vine wrote : — There were probably two large oblong castra, the one extending along Barham Downs opposite Charlton, the other at the (north) western extremity of the Downs, extending over part of Bridge Hill, Bourne Park, and perhaps the grounds of Higham. ' Stukeley gives a view of ' Caesar's Camp ' overlooking Kingston church lying in the valley to the west.' Stukeley's imaginative power was great, but the work is too carefully delineated to permit us to suppose that it was not in good preservation when the old antiquary sketched it in 1722. He gives its measurements as thirty paces by sixty. This is probably the now three-sided enclosure above mentioned. » Ccesar in Kent (ed. 1887), 186. » Stukeley (W.), Itinerarium Curiosum : The Brill, 1776. 444
