ANCIENT EARTHWORKS Rutland, the smallest of the English counties, with no great waterway by which pirates might be enticed to ascend for plunder, and no lofty eminences whereupon the early inhabitants could construct their great hill forts, affords little scope for the builders of earthworks. The natural character of the land also destroys any great hope of the survival of many important works even on the successive ridges of hills which traverse the county from east to west. On the highest ground in the county, at Flitteris in the parish of Oakham, is a girdled area, with surrounding works of doubtful early or mediaeval construction. Various relics found in the neighbourhood give evidence of the occupation of the height by early man, but if these works are of prehistoric origin, they were certainly adapted to later uses, as is proved by documents of the 14th century. There are undoubted remains of the Romano-British period at Great Casterton and Market Overton, and Roman influence may possibly be seen in the rectangular entrenchments at Hambleton, Ridlington, and Whissendine. Of the mount type of fortress, attributed to a later age, there are but two examples, at Beaumont Chase and Burley, and these are but feeble. An entrenched mound at Pilton is traditionally ascribed to Cromwell, but it may have a far earlier origin. In Oakham Castle is seen a type of fortified residence of a somewhat different character from the accepted examples of feudal strongholds, yet far more formidable in its defences than the moated manor-house. It has been suggested that the earthen vallum inclosing the great court was originally a British stronghold, but this is a theory which cannot be taken seriously, and no early remains have been found to give any support to such a surmise. The castle at Oakham was the principal fortress in Rutland ; the strength of the castles of Essendine and Woodhead, or of those at Beaumont Chase and Burley, we have no means of ascertaining. The simple defensive moats, so numerous in some counties, here number but seven. One noble moat, destitute of the slightest sign of a habitation within its entrenched area, is at Whissendine, and that, from its construction, would suggest the rampart and fosse of an early military work, utilized and adapted as a defence in later times. A small circular island surrounded by running water, situated in Hambleton parish, is one of those unexplained works which may possibly have served as a heronry. A twin moat was made at Essendine so as to safeguard the church as well as the manor-house, and to provide a forecourt to the main defence. At Market Overton the protection of the Roman camp was sought in building the church. It is doubtful whether the extensive earthworks at Brooke were for the defence of the monastery, or were the work of the sappers of the Parliamentary army. 107
