370 PROCEEDINGS AT MF.l.TINCS OF

earth about 1 "» ft. hi>,'h. Tiiis bunk has been removeil to allow houses to bo built up to the wall, which now, therefore, stamls like a Ilomau aqueduct. The foundation is excellent, so that this plan wixs adopted solely to siwe material and to profit by the older bank. The roughness of the masonry shows the height of the bank, above which the re- maining wall rises about 4 ft. It is much to be regretted that this curious i)iece of Norman wall has been so badly treated. Ahont DO yards of it remain, including eighteen arches. It stops at the Castle Lane, where was the main gate of the Castle, remoyed at the end of the last century. The wall, lievond the gate, was? continued up the mound to the keep ami beyond it, till it reached the Southern gate, whence it was continued till it again struck the town wall. Thus the keep was upon ami formed part of the fnreitite, as was usual. From the South gate, also removed in the last ceutuiy, a winding road, commenced from the wall, led down to Simnell-street, a few yards within the jiostern. IJesides these two gates, the castle had a small water gate in the wall towards the shore, reached probably by a flight of steps or a subterranean passage, as the outlet was so far below the platform of the castle. To the North of this gate is a large subterranean vaidt, now closed; ami, judging from the openings in the wall, there was a corresponding vault to the South. Probably these were coimected with the gate. The whole area of the castle is high, and much of it has been still higher, the mound having been lowered, the ditch partially tilloil up, and the bank along which the wall was built having l)een removed. To judge from the material evidence aftbrded by an insi)ection of the works, it would apjiear that the castle rejjresents the Sa.on or Danish earthwork, jirobably the earliest strong ])lace, and was composed of a tnuicate<l mound, its circular ditch, and a bank of earth encircling au area of which the moimd or a moiety of it made part. The Normans, ijrobubly in the reign of Henry I., enclosed the castle and town in a rectangular wall, and dug the East and North ditches. Also the castle was enclo.sed with a wall built in part on arches, and a shell keep placed on the flat summit of the mound. The wall of the castle, and much of the West wall of the town, and the two houses in Rlue Anchor-lane, may be attributed to this ]ieriod. Tlien it became necessary to strengthen the town wall, and this was ])robably done in the reign of King John, who, it appears, remitted to the citizens .£l'0() out of their fee-farm rents for the enclosure of their town and the thickening of the wall, and perhajts the West and Spur gates were liegiui at that time. .Much must have i)eeu done to the fortifications during the reign of Henry 111. or Kdward I. To this date are ]irol>ably due the older drum towcre and much of the wall coimected with them, antl the recessing of the Har-gatc and the addition of its flanking towers. It ap])ears that the town was attacked by pirates and sacked in October, I.'J.'iH, lii Kdward III., and in conscHpienco it was strengthenetl in the next year. The South and Kast gates may have been of this date, and the Spur tower and its gallery, uuIosk this latter be, with the comphtion of the I'ar-gate, the work of Kichanl II. This king seems to have <lonc much to the cattle, Tlic vault indicatOfl o»i the jilau as on the N.irlh side of (lie w,i(er-gato