Sidney Oldall Addy

“ Thus we see that modern African savages worship the forefathers of their chief, and with them, as with the Norsemen, the chief held the priesthood of the village.
We have just seen that the round mound besides being possibly the place of family or tribal worship—a worship which the adjacent Christian church carried on in another and purer form—was also "the seat of the patriarch." Let us now enquire whether it had not also a secular use. The mound near the church at Pirton which I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter is called Toot hill. ”

“ The old writings of the Norsemen often give us, without intending it, glimpses of the social life of Northern races, just as Homer unconsciously tells us something about the manners and customs of his own time when he is telling tales about things which never happened. ”

“ The evidence which I shall give will point to the conclusion that Bailey Hill was the place of the village assembly.
A reference to the plan will show that at Bradfield there are two artificial mounds adjacent to each other, but of an entirely different shape, and I shall refer to them as the round mound and the long mound. They stand at the edge of a steep declivity. The round mound is now known as Bailey Hill. It is of conical shape, and is entirely surrounded by a deep trench. Round its base the round mound measures 504 feet, and its perpendicular height, B to C, is fifty-eight feet. ”

“ At Bradfield the whole administrative machinery of the village community was formerly in existence. It had its lord (represented by its steward or bailiff) , its manorial court, or court of the village community, its homagers, and its by-laws. As Jacob Grimm has observed, the shape of the ancient open-air court was annular, because men naturally form a circle when they meet to hear a speaker in the field. [11] At the court held upon the Tynwald Hill in the Isle of Man the twenty- four Deemsters sat round about the lord on the hill, "the commons standing without the circle." ”

“ Seebohm's "English Village Community." They may remember seeing in that book a plan of a "toot-hill" which adjoins the churchyard at Pirton, and also a plan of another artificial hill which is close to the church at Meppcrshall. It is not an uncommon thing to find artificial mounds near old churches, and the late Mr. ”

“ The "castle" in these cases is not a fortified house, but an earthen bulwark thrown up for the purpose of defence or attack. [19]
Footnotes ↑ "The top or level part of the Delve, or Delf, a plot of land adjoining the street, and opposite Eyam Hall, is known to this day by the name Toothill." ”