"It was customary for the rich men and nobles of these parts, because their main occupation is the carrying on of feuds, to heap up a mound of earth as high as they are able to raise it, and to dig round it a broad, open, and deep ditch, and to girdle the whole upper edge of the bank with a barrier of wooden planks, stoutly fastened together, and set round with numerous turrets, and this in place of a wall. "Within was constructed a house, or rather a citadel, commanding the whole area, so that the gate of it could alone be reached by means of a bridge that sprang from the counterside of the ditch, and was gradually raised as it advanced, supported by sets of piers, two, or even three, trussed on each side, over convenient spans, crossing the moat with a managed ascent, so as to attain the upper level of the mound, landing on its edge level with the threshold of the door." A very good idea of such a camp may be derived from the representation of the fortifications of Dinan on the Bayeux tapestry. [Illustration: LAUNCESTON] In France the _mottes_ on which the wooden dongeons of the Merovingian chiefs were planted certainly abound; but in many cases the bank enclosing the bass-court has disappeared. Good examples may be seen at Plympton, at Lydford, and at Launceston. At the former and latter Norman walls took the place of the palisading; but at Lydford a keep was erected on the tump, but the line of earthworks was never walled. In Ireland and in Scotland such camps abound; they are there due to Saxon and Danish invaders. In Ireland they are called _motes_, in England _burhs_. They afforded the type on which the Normans constructed their castles. 3. A much more common form of camp in Devon and Cornwall is one that is circular or oval, and consists of concentric rings of earth, or earth and stone mixed, with ditches between. There is, however, a variant where a headland is fortified, either one standing above the sea into which it juts, or at the junction of two streams. There it sufficed to run defensive banks and ditches across the neck of the promontory. This description of camp or castle is usually supposed to be Celtic. In Ireland such a camp is a _rath_. The same word is employed for similar camps in a portion of Pembrokeshire. Every noble had a right to have a _rath_, and every chief had his _lis_ or _dun_. A lis was an enclosed space, with an earth-mound surrounding it, and was the place in which justice was administered. _Lis_ enters into many place-names in Cornwall, as Liskeard, Lesnewth, Listewdrig, the court of that king who killed S. Gwynear and bullied S. Ewny and the other Irish settlers; Lescaddock, Lescawn, Lestormel, now corrupted into Restormel. In Ireland _les_ had a wider meaning. S. Carthagh was throwing up a mound around a plot of land where he was going to plant a monastery. "What are you about there?" asked an inquisitive woman.