"As soon as the walls were finished, there was made a moat or ditch round the town, with bridges at each gate: the whole so complete that boats could pass with their lading to any part of the town, for the conveniency of trade and commerce. And so careful were the magistrates to preserve the said moat from being filled or stopped with earth, rubbish, stones, etc., that in the rolls of the leets, there appear several fines, levied on different persons for offending in that behalf. Thus the tower being fortified with a wall and moat, towers, gates, and bars, was deemed a sufficient defence against all assailants with bows and arrows, slings, battering-rams, and all other missive engines of those times. But afterwards, when great guns of various denominations were employed in sieges, the aforesaid fortification, it was adjudged, would make but little resistance against them, without several additional works, as mounts, ravelins, etc." [Illustration: FIG. 20. SOUTH GATE, YARMOUTH, 1807] In the 36th year of Henry VIII the fortifications of Yarmouth were strengthened by rampiring, or backing up the walls by earthwork mounds. Additional works were constructed by Queen Mary in 1557, and by Queen Elizabeth, the complete process of rampiring not having been finished until 1587, the year before the coming of the Spanish armada. In the following year it was considered desirable to secure the haven against any sudden attacks of the enemy, and it was accordingly decided to construct jetties of timber on either side of the entrance, whilst across the actual entrance was placed a boom of massive timbers furnished with iron spikes, and this was so constructed that it could be opened or closed at pleasure. This work, including probably the two jetties and the boom, cost £120. Traces of the wall of Yarmouth and its towers still remain, whilst other evidence of the wall is the extraordinary way in which the houses are crowded together, leaving only narrow alleys, or "rows," for the traffic. A plan of Yarmouth in 1819, published as a frontispiece to John Preston's "Picture of Yarmouth," shows in an admirable way the congested state of the buildings within the walls. [Illustration: FIG. 21. ST. MATTHEW'S GATE, IPSWICH From a print published in 1785]