Caldwell, was not appointed until 1558, that may reasonably be considered as the date of his death. He passed, therefore, through the critical times of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary, dying probably just before the drastic changes in religion which followed the succession of Elizabeth to the throne. Let us hope that the latter years of his life compensated somewhat for the stormy period of his middle age.

SOME EARLY DEFENSIVE EARTHWORKS OF

THE SHEFFIELD DISTRICT.

By I. CHALKLEY GOULD, Esq.

(Read August 14th, 1903.)

O those members of the British Archæological Association who heard me at Buxton and Leicester, I must apologise for harping on the same string in my remarks to-night; my excuse must be, my desire in every locality to urge the importance of preserving the remains of defensive earthworks. We all know, only too well, how many interesting relics of Celtic, Roman, Saxon, and later periods, have been ruthlessly swept away in the course of agricultural and other operations; landowners, farmers, builders, railway companies, and even the War Office, have aided in the work; and it is only by an increase of public interest that we can hope to stem the tide of destruction, and so preserve to futurity these priceless relics of our country's story.

The "story" may be hard to piece together, and sometimes we may err in our conclusions; but it is worth while to preserve every evidence of the far-away past for those who will follow us in the generations to come, and may, with fuller knowledge, complete the story.

The Committee for recording Ancient Defensive Works divides fortresses into certain classes, and those classes are largely in chronological order; but it must never be forgotten that the form or plan of a fortress is not positive evidence of its place in time, for the earliest forms are repeated in later works where the shape of the land and the circumstance of the occasion lent themselves to such formations.

First amongst early fortresses the Committee places those which, being partly inaccessible by reason of

precipices, cliffs, or water, are additionally defended by artificial banks or walls.

Owing to lack of local knowledge (which I much deplore) I cannot say whether you have any bold promontory cut off from its mainland by artificial works of defence; but you have, only eight or nine miles to the west, a somewhat similar and most remarkable fortress.

CARL'S WARK.

Of this I have said so much,' and Mr. S. O. Addy has so eloquently written, that I hesitate to occupy your time, but it cannot be omitted from my remarks on early defensive works near Sheffield.

I know no ancient fortress which presents so weird a picture of loneliness and desolation. It has been likened to "an immense blackened altar," an aspect well shown in an illustration in Mr. Addy's book, The Hall of Waltheof.

Imagine a vast table with a rock-strewn area of about 600 ft. by from 150 to 200 ft., rising high above a boggy moor, its rocky sides of dark millstone-grit perpendicular on the north, and partly so on the east and south, while on the west a more gradual slope descends to the moor. Across the narrower western end, where the precipice was lacking, the builders cast up a rampart of earth, facing it outside with a wall of stones. This remarkable dry-built wall remains tolerably perfect on this, the one weak side of the fort, which is further protected by scarping the western slope. Along the base of this scarping the way of access wound up to a path, still hedged in by walls of masonry, passing at the south-west angle into the fort, by a remarkable passage splendidly defended.

Sir Gardner Wilkinson says:

"It is 7 ft. 2 in. in breadth, and as the road ascending from the valley below passed between the two curvilinear faces of the wall which formed the entrance passage, an enemy advancing to force the gate was exposed to the missiles of the besieged on both sides; while the portion of it to the west, projecting like a round.

1 Journal of the British Archaeological Association, vol. vii, N. S., plan, p. 18; Derbyshire A. and N. II. S., vol. xxv.

2 S. O. Addy, The Hall of Waltheof, 1893.

tower, raked the face of the wall to right and left, and formed an advance work over the ascent."

How long a time has passed since the spot was fortified we cannot say, but there can be no doubt that the name "Carl's Wark" is evidence that to the Norseman who so christened it, the fortress was an archaic work belonging to a misty past, long anterior to his own era.

Next in order in the Earthwork Committee's scheme we find:-"Fortresses on hill-tops, with artificial defences following the natural line of the hill." Such an one you

have at

WINCOBANK.

Much time could be occupied in talking about this commanding fort of the Brigantes, but Mr. Howarth has

It has been claimed as Roman by some antiquaries, but no one who has studied the principles of castrametation adopted by the imperial rulers of Britain can imagine them constructing Wincobank; though they may, of necessity, have occupied it for a time to keep less desirable occupants out of it.

Cobbett, in his Rural Rides, I think, describes Sheffield as a place we must not name in polite society; but, alluding to the beauty of the valleys which radiate from the town, he said it was "in the arms of angels." Alas one has now to go a long way along the arms before reaching the "angel" portion, for your city grows, and carries its forges, factories, and slums afar; and one looks from Wincobank's heights, on one side at least, on to the painful evidences of the modern hunt for wealth.

All the more reason that this summit and its immediate surroundings should be spared; and I may take this opportunity to urge upon those who control the destinies of this city, to use their utmost efforts to secure the preservation of the hill and camp: not only of the camp, but of all the slopes leading to it, so that the grim evidences of modern civilisation may approach no nearer, and that the bits of woodland, remaining here and there, may be preserved. The property belongs to the Duke of Norfolk, and I do not think you will find him unappreciative of the importance of retaining this valuable relic of the pre-Roman era.

Mr. J. D. Leader, speaking of the great earthwork and its associated vallum, says "So enormous is the work that by our Saxon and Danish ancestors its origin was deemed supernatural, and so ancient that its ridge became for some distance the boundary between the parishes of Sheffield and Ecclesfield. Upon this eminence doubtless stood a Brigantian city, or hill-fortress.”1

Personally, I should think that it was, like so many contemporary works, a camp of refuge, to be used mainly when war was rampant in the land. When peace reigned the tribesmen would dwell in the vales below,

1 Guest (J.), Historic Notices, Rotherham. 1879.