the churchyard wall on the west, in a small grass field, traditionally
called the Castle Field, there is the well-preserved plan of a Saxon
lordly mansion. The circuit of the earthwork is almost complete, and at
a point in the enceinte there rises the mound on which was pitched the
garrison of the little castle. I use the term castle, as the habits of
the language now require, and as it is expressed in the name of the
spot. But, indeed, castles were little known in England before the
Conquest; had it been otherwise, the Conquest would not have been so
easy.[36] The name and the thing came in with the Normans. Yet there
were ancient places of security, and their great feature was an earthen
mound, upon which a wooden building was pitched. The Saxon mounds often
became, to borrow a phrase from Mr. Freeman, the kernel of the Norman
castle. And there was a traditional method of fortification for the
houses of great men of which Laughton is an example.



SCULPTURE.

There are several pieces of Anglo-Saxon sculpture extant; and they are
not hard to recognise, because of the peculiar lines of drawing with
which we are already familiar in the illuminated manuscripts. In the
Saxon chapel at Bradford-on-Avon there are two angels, of life size, or
larger, carved in relief on stone. They appear in the wall high above
the chancel arch, towards the nave; and it is supposed from the distance
between them, and from their facing one another, that there was once a
holy rood placed between them, towards which they were in attendance.

In Bristol Cathedral there is a remarkable piece of Saxon sculpture,
representing a human figure, life size, apparently the Saviour,