It happens also that, in very many cases where these burhs are found, they can be shown to have been the “caput” or centre of an estate. It is probable that this was always the case, but as a rule it is only with respect to the very large estates that this can be proved from records. Thus the mound of Wallingford was the seat of Wigod, whose heiress married Robert D’Oyley; Bourne or Brum was held by Earl Morcar in 870; Edwin, Earl of Mercia, Lord of Strafford Wapentake, in Yorkshire, had an “aula” at Laughton-en-le-Morthen, and Conyngsborough was the centre of a royal fee. The English Lord of Richmondshire had a seat at Gilling, the mound of which has not long been levelled. The mound at Halton was the seat of Earl Tosti. At Berry Banks, near Stone, dwelt Wulfer, Lord of Mercia. The chief seats of the English lords of Hallamshire are not known, but in that district the latter thanes were Waltheof, Tosti, Sweyn Lord of Sheffield, and Harold, whose seats must be sought for in the mounds and banks of Castle Hill and Castle Bailey, near Bradford; Castle Hill, at the meeting of the Sheaf and Don; Tickhill, Wincobank, and Mexborough, all moated mounds; also in Lancashire and Yorkshire are Melling and Hornby in Lonsdale, Castle Hills at Black Bourton, Robin Hood’s butt at Clapham, and Sedbury or Sedda’s burh, a well-known mound with oval courts, Castle-dykes at Ledescal and Langwith, Maiden Castle at Grinton, and Kirkby Malessant. The great mound at Clare in Suffolk was the fortified seat of Earl Aluric, who held an enormous estate in that district. Eye, in the same county of Suffolk, the seat of Earl Edric, has a fine mound, as have Thetford and Haughley. The hill of Hedingham and that of Norwich are natural, but the latter was raised artificially and fortified with a ditch and horseshoe appendages, probably in the ninth or tenth centuries. Dudley also was a great English residence, as was Bennington mound in Hertfordshire. Hereford was fortified by the great Harold, Ewyas by another Harold; Kilpeck and Richard’s Castle were also early seats, as were the mounds of Clun, Oswestry, and Whittington, in Shropshire. In Scotland upon the mound called the “Butte of Dunsinane,” tradition places the residence of Macbeth early in the eleventh century. The butte stands within an oval area defended, says Pennant, by banks and ditches. Opposite Kingussie on the Spey is a very curious natural mound, rising on three sides out of the marshes of the river, and which is known to have been the residence of the celebrated Wolf of Badenoch. There is also a moated mound with appended courts on the banks of the Clyde. [Illustration: LAUGHTON-EN-LE-MORTHEN]