Excerpt from The North Riding Record Scoiety, Vol. 8: For the Publication of Original Documents Relating to the North Riding of the Country of York

I have ascertained quite enough to assure me that a veritable Moat Hill, of unknown antiquity and very considerable dimensions, with deep moat and strong earthwork surrounding it, has existed there, and is in part trace able by its remains. But as to its original dimensions, or how much of it precisely remains, or of the way in which, or the probable time when, or the reason why, it has been built upon, defaced, or mutilated, I have no exact, or more or less scientific, information. Neither have I any measurements but I am led to infer that it was originally of no inconsiderable dimensions, and, from what I am told, there may be some difficulty in ascertaining enough that is assured to enable one to make the necessary calculations. Far too little is known of these most interesting memorials of the past, and especially of those still extant in the North Riding. I inspected a very fine and perfect example, situate in Aysgarth parish, shortly after the note referred to above was written and, much more recently, I have examined another good instance, situate at the western extremity of the Mulgrave woods. In the former of these the interior mound did not greatly overtop the height of the encircling ring or earthwork. In the latter the superior eminence of the mound was conspicuous if not striking. There is a list of such Objects named as occurring within the limits Of the North Riding, enumerating sixteen in all, given in the Archaeological Review for last year, No. 183. Of these, seven, to my personal knowledge, are not moated mounds at all. One of them, indeed, is a geological formation, and of considerable interest in its own connection, as well as from its name and the legitimate inferences which not only may be, but must be, founded upon it. Four others are simply grave-mounds of no very great dimensions. One is not a mound in any sense; and yet another, in my own parish, so far from being a moated mound is not a mound at all, and could never have been moated round because of its position at a nab-end. And, besides all this, I am more than doubtful about the real character of two or three of the Others included in the enumeration. This statement alone is sufficient to show what need there is for careful and accurate observation, and for the like care and exactitude in recording its results.

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