Further, it is singular that, though there is a second and a third line of defence, there is no middle or outer ward. These lines of defence include ditches only, and not the space which, however narrow, was always left between the walls of castles for the assembling their defenders. Here the garrison of the two outer lines must have been ranged in line close in rear of the stockade, with but room to pass between it and the ditch in their rear. It should be mentioned that an earthwork, composed of bank and ditch, and known locally as Grimsdyke, traverses the high road above the town, and there are several barrows in the immediate neighbourhood. The Berkhampstead earthworks are quite peculiar, but the neighbourhood is rather rich in military earthworks of a circular character, among which, to the south and west, may be mentioned Bushwood, Hawridge, Cholesbury, and, at a greater distance, Kimble. The masonry that remains is all of chalk flint rubble, bathed in a pure white mortar, and probably faced with coarse flints, picked, if not squared. Here and there parts of the face remain. This work may be Norman, or it may be later, though probably not much. The absence of towers is remarkable. There is no ashlar at all. This, no doubt, was removed when Berkhampstead Place was built, but there could not have been very much of it. Berkhampstead was a seat of the Kings of Mercia, and the place of meeting of a council of magnates summoned, in 697, by Wightred, king of Kent; and, at the time of the Confessor, it belonged to Edmar, a thane of Earl Harold. It was evidently a strong place, for when the Conqueror gave it to his brother Robert, Earl of Mortaigne, amongst the vassals there was a certain “Fossarius,” whose duty must have been to clean the castle ditches. Robert is said to have fortified it with a double ditch and rampart, and he held it at Domesday. Moreover, under the Conqueror, it was expanded into a very extensive Honour, of which it was the _caput_. The manor is named, but not the castle, in Domesday. The castle seems to have been held by King Stephen and by John, with the earldom of Cornwall. It had suffered in Stephen’s wars, and John gave it, 1206, to Geoffrey Fitzpiers, Earl of Essex, who rebuilt or restored it, and may have erected the present walls. Prince Louis laid siege to, and took it, in 1226. The attack was from the north side, and the castle held out for a considerable time.