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THE. ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
thus writes of it:—"In the days of Stephen this fortress was considered as of some
importance, and the Empress Maud endeavoured to prevail upon the Bishop of
London to exchange it for other lands, but without effect. King John ordered it
to be demolished, but after his submission to the Pope he was obliged to make
atonement to the Bishops of London by granting them his manor of Stoke, near
Guildford, in Surrey. Some of the out-buildings and other parts, however, appear
to have been standing as lately as the 17th century, and the Bishops continued to
appoint a Custos, or Keeper, of the 'Castle and Gaol of Stortford' till the time
of James I." The principal interest of the place to the pre-historic antiquary is
the artificial Mound of earth, which still remains, being about 60 or 70 feet high,
of an oval form, and surrounded by a moat, on which stood the Castle Keep.
The party assembled on the lawn between the house and the mound, and Mr.
Taylor gave some very interesting details of the history of the place, and read
extracts from books and papers in illustration thereof.4 There were not, so far as
he had been able to ascertain, any authentic records to show when or by whom the
mound or hill known as the "Castle Mound" was first raised. It had been suggested,
and he thought with some reason, that from its shape it was originally two British
Barrows, and that these were subsequently joined together by the Romans and used
as a fortified place by them. The remains of the walls still existing upon it were
evidently early Norman, and they were similar in construction to some discovered
in 1850 in the garden close to the present house. He thought it might be stated
with certainty that the Castle of Waytemore (or Weymour) stood where "Castle
Cottage" now stands, and extended nearly to the moat surrounding the mound—
on the latter was, probably, the Keep of the Castle.
Mr. Taylor stated that in October, 1850, the earth was removed from the top
of the mound, showing the foundations of the various rooms, and also the well.
On that occasion Mr. Roach Smith, F.S.A., Mr. William Yarrell, F.L.S., Mr.
Joseph Clarke, F.S.A., and others, were present. Mr. Taylor read the following
account of this visit, from the pen of Mr. Joseph Clarke, F.S.A., of Saffron
Walden, who wrote the notes down at the time in Mr. William Taylor's house: —
"Bishops Stortford, Wednesday, October, 16th, 1850.—At the town of Bishop's
Stortford * * * * is a considerable mound of earth, called the 'Castle Mound'
which, although now denuded of all but fragmentary foundations of great durability,
thickness, and strength, enough to defy the storms of ages yet to come, once bore
a castellated edifice on its apex. The field in which the mound is situated is
surrounded by a ditch, the moat of former times ; skeletons have been found in
various parts of the field, during the operations attendant on culture, and in
opening a part of this enclosed ground, nearest the town, for the purpose of
extending some buildings, some foundations of great thickness, but evidently only
a small portion of these originally occupying the ground, were brought to light—a
comparatively modern building being now on the site of the other part which was
most likely destroyed to make room for it. Within the foundations now discovered,
surrounded by walls of immense strength, is a small and singular compartment
extending to a considerable depth below the level of the ground. It is probably
not above six feet square, and with the aperture of a drain through the centre of
one of the walls at the bottom. On one side of this hole through the wall, which
is square with no symptoms of an arch, some Roman bricks are used ; on the
opposite side the surface is made and the corner turned with thin mediaeval house-
tiles used after the Roman fashion. The walls of this cesspool (probably) are of
4 Among other papers he read a letter from the late William Yarrell, V.P.L.S., dated April
4th, 1850, addressed to Mr. W. Taylor, giving some extracts from the Proc. Roy. Soc. Arch.
Antiq. concerning Bishop's Stortford.