A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE KNAPTOFT (xlix, 4). In Nichol's Leicestershire 1 two widely divergent plans are given of a supposed camp with extensive defences. The plan of the outer trench takes the form of an irregular isosceles triangle with sides about 750 ft., containing a mound 8 ft. high in the rounded apex at the north. Towards the southern base of the area is a quadrangular camp or 'principal entrenchment and fortress' 108 ft. square internally, surrounded with a vallum and fosse, the former with an escarpment of 9 ft., and the latter 10 ft. wide at its base. A tumulus is also depicted north-west of the camp. This site became the property of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John, to whom the outer trench may be assigned. The domestic defences (see Class G) and modern disturbances of the ground have left but a fragment of the original entrenchments. LEICESTER (xxxi, 10). Town walls. The site occupied by the county town is such as would be selected for a fortified position ; the irregular course of the River Soar, with the marsh lands beyond, protected the north and west, and from the east the Willow Brook passes to its confluence with the Soar on the north. We are told that the ' Raw Dykes ' are the remains of the oppidum of ' King Leir,' but the first reliable knowledge of its habitation is of the period of the Roman occupation. Ratae, by which name Leicester was known to the Romans, appears to have been a parallelogram in plan, and distinct traces are still left of the ancient boundaries in Millstone Lane and Horsefair Street on the south, Gallowtree Gate and Church Gate on the east, and Sanvey Gate and Soar Lane on the north. It is now considered that there was a western wall extending from Soar Lane on the north to South Gate Street, and that the Jewry Wall is composed mainly of the remains of the West Gate. 8 These boundaries represent the lines of the earliest earthen vallum. Under the Saxons the ancient defences of Leicester must have been frequently manned, and probably strengthened, for this town was repeatedly the scene of strife with the Danes. LUBENHAM (1, 7). Two miles west from Market Harborough. To the north-east of the village, on the crest of a hill are the fragments of an irregular camp. A broad but shallow agger may be traced, but utilitarianism has conquered antiquities, so mutilating it that no definite description is possible. The entrance was apparently on the slope towards the village. It has been suggested that this camp, with that at Farndon in North- amptonshire, were outworks to the camp at Market Harborough. MANCETTER. See Witherley. MARKET HARBOROUGH (1, 8). In a field on the east of the town, rising gently from the River Welland, vestiges of a camp were visible until the recent growth of the town. Roman pottery and other antiquities have been found here. RATBY (xxx, 7) . Five miles west by north from Leicester. * Ratby Burrow,' or ' Bury Camp,' by both of which names it is known, is within a mile west of the village. It is a rectangular camp of single vallum and fosse, situated on ground somewhat high and undulating, but not much higher than its surroundings, the north only having a declivity approaching steep- ness. The area occupied by the camp is over 9 acres ; on the north side the 1 Vol. iv, i, p. 219. " Roman Leicester,' by G. E. Fox, F.S.A., in the Arch. Journ. vol. xlvi. 252
