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A ditch is a trench in the earth made by digging, particularly the term is used for a trench for draining wet land, or for making a fence to guard inclosures, or for preventing an enemy from approaching a town or fortress. In the latter sense it is called also a fosse or moat, and is dug round the rampart or wall between tho scarp and counterscarp.
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Edward John Eyre was a British colonial governor. He was born in 1815 at Yorjshire and died in 1901. He explored the north part of the newly colonised South Australia and in 1839 he discovered Lake Torrens, in 1840 explored its eastern shores and the adjacent Flinders Range. He then commenced his perilous journey along tlie shores of the Great Australian Bight, and reached King George's Sound, in Western Australia, a distance of 1200 miles, with a single native boy, having left Adelaide more than a year before.His report published in 1845 resulted in the opening up of the land route between Adelaide and Western Australia. Lake Eyre in South Australia was named after him. He was Governor of St Vincent from 1854 to 1860 and was made Governor of Jamaica in 1864. He vigorously suppressed a Negro revolt in Jamaica in 1865 and was as a result was recalled to England, suspended and retired. On his return to England John Stuart Mill and others took measures to try him for murder resulting from the severity with which he handled the revolt, but failed. Carlyle was one of his moat strenuous defenders.
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Guillaume Geefs was a Belgian sculptor. He was born in 1806 at Antwerp and died in 1883. Among his moat important works are the monument to the Victims of the Revolution of 1830 at Brussels; a statue of Rubens in front of Antwerp Cathedral; statues of King Leopold, etc.
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A berm is a level space about a metre wide between the outside slope of a rampart and the scarp of the ditch in a fortification. In a castle, the berm is the space between the curtain wall and the moat.
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A castle (from the Latin castellum, meaning fortress) was a stone defensive building. The concept of castles was introduced to the British by the Normans and replaced the earlier Saxon burh. The castle underwent many changes, its size, design, and construction being largely determined by changes in siege tactics and the development of artillery. Outstanding examples are the 12th-century Krak des Chevaliers, Syria (built by crusaders); 13th-century Caernarfon Castle in Wales; and the 15th-century Manzanares el Real in Spain. The main parts of a typical castle are the keep, a large central tower containing store rooms, soldiers' quarters, and a hall for the lord and his family; the inner bailey or walled courtyard surrounding the keep; the outer bailey or second courtyard, separated from the inner bailey by a wall; crenulated embattlements through which missiles were discharged against an attacking enemy; rectangular or round towers projecting from the walls; the portcullis, a heavy grating which could be
let down to close the main gate; and the drawbridge crossing the ditch or moat surrounding the castle. Sometimes a tower called a barbican was constructed over a gateway as an additional defensive measure. Early castles (11th century) consisted of an earthen hill (called a motte) surrounded by wooden palisades enclosing a courtyard (called a bailey). The motte supported a wooden keep. Later developments substituted stone for wood and utilised more elaborate defensive architectural detail. After the introduction of gunpowder in the 14th century, castles became less defensible and increases in civil order led to their replacement by unfortified manor houses by the 16th century. Large stone fortifications became popular again in the 18th century, particularly those modelled after the principles of fortification introduced by the French architect Vauban, and were built as late as the first half of the 19th century. In the late 19th century, castle-like buildings were built as residences for the wealthy as part of the Romantic revival in Europe and America.
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In fortifications a coffer was a trench dug in the bottom of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged troops to defend it by a raking fire.
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In fortifications a cunette or cuvette is a drain trench, in a ditch or moat.
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Fosse is a French word formerly used to describe a ditch or moat dug outside the walls, parapet or rampart of a fortification and sometimes filled with water.
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In fortifications a moat is a deep trench around the rampart of a castle or other fortified place, often filled with water.
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MOAT is an abbreviation for Missile Off Aircraft Test
MOAT is an abbreviation for Missile On Aircraft Test Antenna
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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