Hence they were very useful for the holding of a
conquered country. Sometimes advantage was taken of the works that the
Romans had left. The Normans made use of the old stone walls built by
the earliest conquerors of Britain. Thus we find at Pevensey a Norman
fortress born within the ancient fortress reared by the Romans to
protect that portion of the southern coast from the attacks of the
northern pirates. Porchester Keep rose in the time of the first Henry
at the north-west angle of the Roman fort. William I erected his
castle at Colchester on the site of the Roman _castrum_. The old Roman
wall of London was used by the Conqueror for the eastern defence of
his Tower that he erected to keep in awe the citizens of the
metropolis, and at Lincoln and Colchester the works of the first
conquerors of Britain were eagerly utilized by him.
One of the most important Roman castles in the country is Burgh
Castle, in North Suffolk, with its grand and noble walls. The late Mr.
G.E. Fox thus described the ruins:--
"According to the plan on the Ordnance Survey map, the walls
enclose a quadrangular area roughly 640 feet long by 413 wide, the
walls being 9 feet thick with a foundation 12 feet in width. The
angles of the station are rounded. The eastern wall is
strengthened by four solid bastions, one standing against each of
the rounded angles, the other two intermediate, and the north and
south sides have one each, neither of them being in the centre of
the side, but rather west of it.
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