OLD CASTLES

<< IN STREETS AND LANES

VANISHING OR VANISHED CHURCHES >>

Wilney Street Burford

CHAPTER V

OLD CASTLES

Castles have played a prominent part in the making of England. Many towns owe

their existence to the protecting guard of an old fortress. They grew up beneath its

sheltering walls like children holding the gown of their good mother, though the

castle often proved but a harsh and cruel stepmother, and exacted heavy tribute in

return for partial security from pillage and rapine. Thus Newcastle-upon-Tyne

arose about the early fortress erected in 1080 by Robert Curthose to guard the

passage of the river at the Pons Aelii. The poor little Saxon village of Monkchester

was then its neighbour. But the castle occupying a fine strategic position soon

attracted townsfolk, who built their houses 'neath its shadow. The town of

Richmond owes its existence to the lordly castle which Alain Rufus, a cousin of the

Duke of Brittany, erected on land granted to him by the Conqueror. An old rhyme

tells how he

Came out of Brittany

With his wife Tiffany,

And his maid Manfras,

And his dog Hardigras.

He built his walls of stone. We must not imagine, however, that an early Norman

castle was always a vast keep of stone. That came later. The Normans called their

earliest strongholds mottes, which consisted of a mound with stockades and a deep

ditch and a bailey-court also defended by a ditch and stockades. Instead of the great

stone keep of later days, "foursquare to every wind that blew," there was a wooden

tower for the shelter of the garrison. You can see in the Bayeux tapestry the

followers of William the Conqueror in the act of erecting some such tower of

defence. Such structures were somewhat easily erected, and did not require a long

period for their construction. 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. The

quaggy ground between the camp and the stream would be an excellent

defence against sudden attack."

Burgh Castle

Burgh Castle, according to the late Canon Raven, was the Roman station

Gariannonum of the Notitia Imperii. Its walls are built of flint-rubble concrete, and

there are lacing courses of tiles. There is no wall on the west, and Canon Raven

used to contend that one existed there but has been destroyed. But this conjecture

seems improbable. That side was probably defended by the sea, which has

considerably receded. Two gates remain, the principal one being the east gate,

commanded by towers a hundred feet high; while the north is a postern-gate about

five feet wide. The Romans have not left many traces behind them. Some coins

have been found, including a silver one of Gratian and some of Constantine. Here

St. Furseus, an Irish missionary, is said to have settled with a colony of monks,

having been favourably received by Sigebert, the ruler of the East Angles, in 633

A.D. Burgh Castle is one of the finest specimens of a Roman fort which our earliest

conquerors have left us, and ranks with Reculver, Richborough, and Pevensey,

those strong fortresses which were erected nearly two thousand years ago to guard

the coasts against foreign foes.

In early days, ere Norman and Saxon became a united people, the castle was the

sign of the supremacy of the conquerors and the subjugation of the English. It kept

watch and ward over tumultuous townsfolk and prevented any acts of rebellion and

hostility to their new masters. Thus London's Tower arose to keep the turbulent

citizens in awe as well as to protect them from foreign foes. Thus at Norwich the

castle dominated the town, and required for its erection the destruction of over a

hundred houses. At Lincoln the Conqueror destroyed 166 houses in order to

construct a strong motte at the south-west corner of the old castrum in order to

overawe the city. Sometimes castles were erected to protect the land from foreign

foes. The fort at Colchester was intended to resist the Danes if ever their threatened

invasion came, and Norwich Castle was erected quite as much to drive back the

Scandinavian hosts as to keep in order the citizens. Newcastle and Carlisle were of

strategic importance for driving back the Scots, and Lancaster Keep, traditionally

said to have been reared by Roger de Poitou, but probably of later date, bore the

brunt of many a marauding invasion. To check the incursions of the Welsh, who

made frequent and powerful irruptions into Herefordshire, many castles were

erected in Shropshire and Herefordshire, forming a chain of fortresses which are

more numerous than in any other part of England. They are of every shape and size,

from stately piles like Wigmore and Goodrich, to the smallest fortified farm, like

Urishay Castle, a house half mansion, half fortress. Even the church towers of

Herefordshire, with their walls seven or eight feet thick, such as that at Ewias

Harold, look as if they were designed as strongholds in case of need. On the

western and northern borders of England we find the largest number of fortresses,

erected to restrain and keep back troublesome neighbours.

The story of the English castles abounds in interest and romance. Most of them are

ruins now, but fancy pictures them in the days of their splendour, the abodes of

chivalry and knightly deeds, of "fair ladies and brave men," and each one can tell

its story of siege and battle-cries, of strenuous attack and gallant defence, of

prominent parts played in the drama of English history. To some of these we shall

presently refer, but it would need a very large volume to record the whole story of

our English fortresses.

We have said that the earliest Norman castle was a motte fortified by a stockade, an

earthwork protected with timber palings. That is the latest theory amongst

antiquaries, but there are not a few who maintain that the Normans, who proved

themselves such admirable builders of the stoutest of stone churches, would not

long content themselves with such poor fortresses. There were stone castles before

the Normans, besides the old Roman walls at Pevensey, Colchester, London, and

Lincoln. And there came from Normandy a monk named Gundulf in 1070 who was

a mighty builder. He was consecrated Bishop of Rochester and began to build his

cathedral with wondrous architectural skill. He is credited with devising a new style

of military architecture, and found much favour with the Conqueror, who at the

time especially needed strong walls to guard himself and his hungry followers. He

was ordered by the King to build the first beginnings of the Tower of London. He

probably designed the keep at Colchester and the castle of his cathedral town, and

set the fashion of building these great ramparts of stone which were so serviceable

in the subjugation and overawing of the English. The fashion grew, much to the

displeasure of the conquered, who deemed them "homes of wrong and badges of

bondage," hateful places filled with devils and evil men who robbed and spoiled

them. And when they were ordered to set to work on castle-building their impotent

wrath knew no bounds. It is difficult to ascertain how many were constructed

during the Conqueror's reign. Domesday tells of forty-nine. Another authority, Mr.

Pearson, mentions ninety-nine, and Mrs. Armitage after a careful examination of

documents contends for eighty-six. But there may have been many others. In

Stephen's reign castles spread like an evil sore over the land. His traitorous subjects

broke their allegiance to their king and preyed upon the country. The Anglo-Saxon

Chronicle records that "every rich man built his castles and defended them against

him, and they filled the land full of castles. They greatly oppressed the wretched

people by making them work at these castles, and when the castles were finished

they filled them with devils and evil men. Then they took those whom they

suspected to have any goods, by night and by day, seizing both men and women,

and they put them in prison for their gold and silver, and tortured them with pains

unspeakable, for never were any martyrs tormented as these were. They hung some

up by their feet and smoked them with foul smoke; some by their thumbs or by the

head, and they hung burning things on their feet. They put a knotted string about

their heads, and twisted it till it went into the brain. They put them into dungeons

wherein were adders and snakes and toads, and thus wore them out. Some they put

into a crucet-house, that is, into a chest that was short and narrow and not deep, and

they put sharp stones in it, and crushed the man therein so that they broke all his

limbs. There were hateful and grim things called Sachenteges in many of the

castles, and which two or three men had enough to do to carry. The Sachentege was

made thus: it was fastened to a beam, having a sharp iron to go round a man's throat

and neck, so that he might noways sit, nor lie, nor sleep, but that he must bear all

the iron. Many thousands they exhausted with hunger. I cannot, and I may not, tell

of all the wounds and all the tortures that they inflicted upon the wretched men of

this land; and this state of things lasted the nineteen years that Stephen was king,

and ever grew worse and worse. They were continually levying an exaction from

the towns, which they called Tenserie,18 and when the miserable inhabitants had no

more to give, then plundered they and burnt all the towns, so that well mightest

thou walk a whole day's journey nor ever shouldest thou find a man seated in a

town or its lands tilled."

More than a thousand of these abodes of infamy are said to have been built.

Possibly many of them were timber structures only. Countless small towns and

villages boast of once possessing a fortress. The name Castle Street remains,

though the actual site of the stronghold has long vanished. Sometimes we find a

mound which seems to proclaim its position, but memory is silent, and the people

of England, if the story of the chronicler be true, have to be grateful to Henry II,

who set himself to work to root up and destroy very many of these adulterine

castles which were the abodes of tyranny and oppression. However, for the

protection of his kingdom, he raised other strongholds, in the south the grand

fortress of Dover, which still guards the straits; in the west, Berkeley Castle, for his

friend Robert FitzHarding, ancestor of Lord Berkeley, which has remained in the

same family until the present day; in the north, Richmond, Scarborough, and

Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and in the east, Orford Keep. The same stern Norman keep

remains, but you can see some changes in the architecture. The projection of the

buttresses is increased, and there is some attempt at ornamentation. Orford Castle,

which some guide-books and directories will insist on confusing with Oxford

Castle and stating that it was built by Robert D'Oiley in 1072, was erected by

Henry II to defend the country against the incursions of the Flemings and to

safeguard Orford Haven. Caen stone was brought for the stone dressings to

windows and doors, parapets and groins, but masses of septaria found on the shore

and in the neighbouring marshes were utilized with such good effect that the walls

have stood the attacks of besiegers and weathered the storms of the east coast for

more than seven centuries. It was built in a new fashion that was made in France,

and to which our English eyes were unaccustomed, and is somewhat similar in plan

to Conisborough Castle, in the valley of the Don. The plan is circular with three

projecting towers, and the keep was protected by two circular ditches, one fifteen

feet and the other thirty feet distant from its walls. Between the two ditches was a

circular wall with parapet and battlements. The interior of the castle was divided

into three floors; the towers, exclusive of the turrets, had five, two of which were

entresols, and were ninety-six feet high, the central keep being seventy feet.19 The

oven was at the top of the keep. The chapel is one of the most interesting chambers,

with its original altar still in position, though much damaged, and also piscina,

aumbrey, and ciborium. This castle nearly vanished with other features of

vanishing England in the middle of the eighteenth century, Lord Hereford

proposing to pull it down for the sake of the material; but "it being a necessary sea-

mark, especially for ships coming from Holland, who by steering so as to make the

castle cover or hide the church thereby avoid a dangerous sandbank called the

Whiting, Government interfered and prevented the destruction of the building."20

In these keeps the thickness of the walls enabled them to contain chambers, stairs,

and passages. At Guildford there is an oratory with rude carvings of sacred

subjects, including a crucifixion. The first and second floors were usually vaulted,

and the upper ones were of timber. Fireplaces were built in most of the rooms, and

some sort of domestic comfort was not altogether forgotten. In the earlier fortresses

the walls of the keep enclosed an inner court, which had rooms built up to the great

stone walls, the court afterwards being vaulted and floors erected. In order to

protect the entrance there were heavy doors with a portcullis, and by degrees the

outward defences were strengthened. There was an outer bailey or court surrounded

by a strong wall, with a barbican guarding the entrance, consisting of a strong gate

protected by two towers. In this lower or outer court are the stables, and the mound

where the lord of the castle dispenses justice, and where criminals and traitors are

executed. Another strong gateway flanked by towers protects the inner bailey, on

the edge of which stands the keep, which frowns down upon us as we enter. An

immense household was supported in these castles. Not only were there men-at-

arms, but also cooks, bakers, brewers, tailors, carpenters, smiths, masons, and all

kinds of craftsmen; and all this crowd of workers had to be provided with

accommodation by the lord of the castle. Hence a building in the form of a large

hall was erected, sometimes of stone, usually of wood, in the lower or upper bailey,

for these soldiers and artisans, where they slept and had their meals.

Amongst other castles which arose during this late Norman and early English

period of architecture we may mention Barnard Castle, a mighty stronghold, held

by the royal house of Balliol, the Prince Bishops of Durham, the Earls of Warwick,

the Nevilles, and other powerful families. Sir Walter Scott immortalized the Castle

in Rokeby. Here is his description of the fortress:--

High crowned he sits, in dawning pale,

The sovereign of the lovely vale.

What prospects from the watch-tower high

Gleam gradual on the warder's eye?

Far sweeping to the east he sees

Down his deep woods the course of Tees,

And tracks his wanderings by the steam

Of summer vapours from the stream;

And ere he pace his destined hour

By Brackenbury's dungeon tower,

These silver mists shall melt away

And dew the woods with glittering spray.

Then in broad lustre shall be shown

That mighty trench of living stone.

And each huge trunk that from the side,

Reclines him o'er the darksome tide,

Where Tees, full many a fathom low,

Wears with his rage no common foe;

Nor pebbly bank, nor sand-bed here,

Nor clay-mound checks his fierce career,

Condemned to mine a channelled way

O'er solid sheets of marble grey.

This lordly pile has seen the Balliols fighting with the Scots, of whom John Balliol

became king, the fierce contests between the warlike prelates of Durham and

Barnard's lord, the triumph of the former, who were deprived of their conquest by

Edward I, and then its surrender in later times to the rebels of Queen Elizabeth.

Another northern border castle is Norham, the possession of the Bishop of Durham,

built during this period. It was a mighty fortress, and witnessed the gorgeous scene

of the arbitration between the rival claimants to the Scottish throne, the arbiter

being King Edward I of England, who forgot not to assert his own fancied rights to

the overlordship of the northern kingdom. It was, however, besieged by the Scots,

and valiant deeds were wrought before its walls by Sir William Marmion and Sir

Thomas Grey, but the Scots captured it in 1327 and again in 1513. It is now but a

battered ruin. Prudhoe, with its memories of border wars, and Castle Rising,

redolent with the memories of the last years of the wicked widow of Edward II,

belong to this age of castle-architecture, and also the older portions of Kenilworth.

Pontefract Castle, the last fortress that held out for King Charles in the Civil War,

and in consequence slighted and ruined, can tell of many dark deeds and strange

events in English history. The De Lacys built it in the early part of the thirteenth

century. Its area was seven acres. The wall of the castle court was high and flanked

by seven towers; a deep moat was cut on the western side, where was the barbican

and drawbridge. It had terrible dungeons, one a room twenty-five feet square,

without any entrance save a trap-door in the floor of a turret. The castle passed, in

1310, by marriage to Thomas Earl of Lancaster, who took part in the strife between

Edward II and his nobles, was captured, and in his own hall condemned to death.

The castle is always associated with the murder of Richard II, but contemporary

historians, Thomas of Walsingham and Gower the poet, assert that he starved

himself to death; others contend that his starvation was not voluntary; while there

are not wanting those who say that he escaped to Scotland, lived there many years,

and died in peace in the castle of Stirling, an honoured guest of Robert III of

Scotland, in 1419. I have not seen the entries, but I am told in the accounts of the

Chamberlain of Scotland there are items for the maintenance of the King for eleven

years. But popular tales die hard, and doubtless you will hear the groans and see the

ghost of the wronged Richard some moonlight night in the ruined keep of

Pontefract. He has many companion ghosts--the Earl of Salisbury, Richard Duke

of York, Anthony Wydeville, Earl Rivers and Grey his brother, and Sir Thomas

Vaughan, whose feet trod the way to the block, that was worn hard by many

victims. The dying days of the old castle made it illustrious. It was besieged three

times, taken and retaken, and saw amazing scenes of gallantry and bravery. It held

out until after the death of the martyr king; it heard the proclamation of Charles II,

but at length was compelled to surrender, and "the strongest inland garrison in the

kingdom," as Oliver Cromwell termed it, was slighted and made a ruin. Its sister

fortress Knaresborough shared its fate. Lord Lytton, in Eugene Aram, wrote of it:--

"You will be at a loss to recognise now the truth of old Leland's

description of that once stout and gallant bulwark of the north, when

'he numbrid 11 or 12 Toures in the walles of the Castel, and one very

fayre beside in the second area.' In that castle the four knightly

murderers of the haughty Becket (the Wolsey of his age) remained for

a whole year, defying the weak justice of the times. There, too, the

unfortunate Richard II passed some portion of his bitter imprisonment.

And there, after the battle of Marston Moor, waved the banner of the

loyalists against the soldiers of Lilburn."

An interesting story is told of the siege. A youth, whose father was in the garrison,

each night went into the deep, dry moat, climbed up the glacis, and put provisions

through a hole where his father stood ready to receive them. He was seen at length,

fired on by the Parliamentary soldiers, and sentenced to be hanged in sight of the

besieged as a warning to others. But a good lady obtained his respite, and after the

conquest of the place was released. The castle then, once the residence of Piers

Gaveston, of Henry III, and of John of Gaunt, was dismantled and destroyed.

During the reign of Henry III great progress was made in the improvement and

development of castle-building. The comfort and convenience of the dwellers in

these fortresses were considered, and if not very luxurious places they were made

more beautiful by art and more desirable as residences. During the reigns of the

Edwards this progress continued, and a new type of castle was introduced. The

stern, massive, and high-towering keep was abandoned, and the fortifications

arranged in a concentric fashion. A fine hall with kitchens occupied the centre of

the fortress; a large number of chambers were added. The stronghold itself

consisted of a large square or oblong like that at Donnington, Berkshire, and the

approach was carefully guarded by strong gateways, advanced works, walled

galleries, and barbicans. Deep moats filled with water increased their strength and

improved their beauty.

We will give some examples of these Edwardian castles, of which Leeds Castle,

Kent, is a fine specimen. It stands on three islands in a sheet of water about fifteen

acres in extent, these islands being connected in former times by double

drawbridges. It consists of two huge piles of buildings which with a strong gate-

house and barbican form four distinct forts, capable of separate defence should any

one or other fall into the hands of an enemy. Three causeways, each with its

drawbridge, gate, and portcullis, lead to the smallest island or inner barbican, a

fortified mill contributing to the defences. A stone bridge connects this island with

the main island. There stands the Constable's Tower, and a stone wall surrounds the

island and within is the modern mansion. The Maiden's Tower and the Water

Tower defend the island on the south. A two-storeyed building on arches now

connects the main island with the Tower of the Gloriette, which has a curious old

bell with the Virgin and Child, St. George and the Dragon, and the Crucifixion

depicted on it, and an ancient clock. The castle withstood a siege in the time of

Edward II because Queen Isabella was refused admission. The King hung the

Governor, Thomas de Colepepper, by the chain of the drawbridge. Henry IV retired

here on account of the Plague in London, and his second wife, Joan of Navarre, was

imprisoned here. It was a favourite residence of the Court in the fourteenth and

fifteenth centuries. Here the wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was tried for

witchcraft. Dutch prisoners were confined here in 1666 and contrived to set fire to

some of the buildings. It is the home of the Wykeham Martin family, and is one of

the most picturesque castles in the country.

In the same neighbourhood is Allington Castle, an ivy-mantled ruin, another

example of vanished glory, only two tenements occupying the princely residence of

the Wyatts, famous in the history of State and Letters. Sir Henry, the father of the

poet, felt the power of the Hunchback Richard, and was racked and imprisoned in

Scotland, and would have died in the Tower of London but for a cat. He rose to

great honour under Henry VII, and here entertained the King in great style. At

Allington the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt was born, and spent his days in writing prose

and verse, hunting and hawking, and occasionally dallying after Mistress Anne

Boleyn at the neighbouring castle of Hever. He died here in 1542, and his son Sir

Thomas led the insurrection against Queen Mary and sealed the fate of himself and

his race.

Hever Castle, to which allusion has been made, is an example of the transition

between the old fortress and the more comfortable mansion of a country squire or

magnate. Times were less dangerous, the country more peaceful when Sir Geoffrey

Boleyn transformed and rebuilt the castle built in the reign of Edward III by

William de Hever, but the strong entrance-gate flanked by towers, embattled and

machicolated, and defended by stout doors and three portcullises and the

surrounding moat, shows that the need of defence had not quite passed away. The

gates lead into a courtyard around which the hall, chapel, and domestic chambers

are grouped. The long gallery Anne Boleyn so often traversed with impatience still

seems to re-echo her steps, and her bedchamber, which used to contain some of the

original furniture, has always a pathetic interest. The story of the courtship of

Henry VIII with "the brown girl with a perthroat and an extra finger," as Margaret

More described her, is well known. Her old home, which was much in decay, has

passed into the possession of a wealthy American gentleman, and has been recently

greatly restored and transformed.

Sussex can boast of many a lordly castle, and in its day Bodiam must have been

very magnificent. Even in its decay and ruin it is one of the most beautiful in

England. It combined the palace of the feudal lord and the fortress of a knight. The

founder, Sir John Dalyngrudge, was a gallant soldier in the wars of Edward III, and

spent most of his best years in France, where he had doubtless learned the art of

making his house comfortable as well as secure. He acquired licence to fortify his

castle in 1385 "for resistance against our enemies." There was need of strong walls,

as the French often at that period ravaged the coast of Sussex, burning towns and

manor-houses. Clark, the great authority on castles, says that "Bodiam is a

complete and typical castle of the end of the fourteenth century, laid out entirely on

a new site, and constructed after one design and at one period. It but seldom

happens that a great fortress is wholly original, of one, and that a known, date, and

so completely free from alterations or additions." It is nearly square, with circular

tower sixty-five feet high at the four corners, connected by embattled curtain-walls,

in the centre of each of which square towers rise to an equal height with the

circular. The gateway is a large structure composed of two flanking towers

defended by numerous oiletts for arrows, embattled parapets, and deep

machicolations. Over the gateway are three shields bearing the arms of Bodiam,

Dalyngrudge, and Wardieu. A huge portcullis still frowns down upon us, and two

others opposed the way, while above are openings in the vault through which

melted lead, heated sand, pitch, and other disagreeable things could be poured on

the heads of the foe. In the courtyard on the south stands the great hall with its

oriel, buttery, and kitchen, and amidst the ruins you can discern the chapel, sacristy,

ladies' bower, presence chamber. The castle stayed not long in the family of the

builder, his son John probably perishing in the wars, and passed to Sir Thomas

Lewknor, who opposed Richard III, and was therefore attainted of high treason and

his castle besieged and taken. It was restored to him again by Henry VII, but the

Lewknors never resided there again. Waller destroyed it after the capture of

Arundel, and since that time it has been left a prey to the rains and frosts and

storms, but manages to preserve much of its beauty, and to tell how noble knights

lived in the days of chivalry.

Caister Castle

Caister Castle is one of the four principal castles in Norfolk. It is built of brick, and

is one of the earliest edifices in England constructed of that material after its

rediscovery as suitable for building purposes. It stands with its strong defences not

far from the sea on the barren coast. It was built by Sir John Fastolfe, who fought

with great distinction in the French wars of Henry V and Henry VI, and was the

hero of the Battle of the Herrings in 1428, when he defeated the French and

succeeded in convoying a load of herrings in triumph to the English camp before

Orleans. It is supposed that he was the prototype of Shakespeare's Falstaff, but

beyond the resemblance in the names there is little similarity in the exploits of the

two "heroes." Sir John Fastolfe, much to the chagrin of other friends and relatives,

made John Paston his heir, who became a great and prosperous man, represented

his county in Parliament, and was a favourite of Edward IV. Paston loved Caister,

his "fair jewell"; but misfortunes befell him. He had great losses, and was thrice

confined in the Fleet Prison and then outlawed. Those were dangerous days, and

friends often quarrelled. Hence during his troubles the Duke of Norfolk and Lord

Scales tried to get possession of Caister, and after his death laid siege to it. The

Pastons lacked not courage and determination, and defended it for a year, but were

then forced to surrender. However, it was restored to them, but again forcibly taken

from them. However, not by the sword but by negotiations and legal efforts, Sir

John again gained his own, and an embattled tower at the north-west corner, one

hundred feet high, and the north and west walls remain to tell the story of this brave

old Norfolk family, who by their Letters have done so much to guide us through the

dark period to which they relate.

Defaced Arms. Taunton Castle

We will journey to the West Country, a region of castles. The Saxons were obliged

to erect their rude earthen strongholds to keep back the turbulent Welsh, and these

were succeeded by Norman keeps. Monmouthshire is famous for its castles. Out of

the thousand erected in Norman times twenty-five were built in that county. There

is Chepstow Castle with its Early Norman gateway spanned by a circular arch

flanked by round towers. In the inner court there are gardens and ruins of a grand

hall, and in the outer the remains of a chapel with evidences of beautifully groined

vaulting, and also a winding staircase leading to the battlements. In the dungeon of

the old keep at the south-east corner of the inner court Roger de Britolio, Earl of

Hereford, was imprisoned for rebellion against the Conqueror, and in later times

Henry Martin, the regicide, lingered as a prisoner for thirty years, employing his

enforced leisure in writing a book in order to prove that it is not right for a man to

be governed by one wife. Then there is Glosmont Castle, the fortified residence of

the Earl of Lancaster; Skenfrith Castle, White Castle, the Album Castrum of the

Latin records, the Landreilo of the Welsh, with its six towers, portcullis and

drawbridge flanked by massive towers, barbican, and other outworks; and Raglan

Castle with its splendid gateway, its Elizabethan banqueting-hall ornamented with

rich stone tracery, its bowling-green, garden terraces, and spacious courts--an ideal

place for knightly tournaments. Raglan is associated with the gallant defence of the

castle by the Marquis of Worcester in the Civil War.

Another famous siege is connected with the old castle of Taunton. Taunton was a

noted place in Saxon days, and the castle is the earliest English fortress by some

two hundred years of which we have any written historical record.21 The Anglo-

Saxon chronicler states, under the date 722 A.D.: "This year Queen Ethelburge

overthrew Taunton, which Ina had before built." The buildings tell their story. We

see a Norman keep built to the westward of Ina's earthwork, probably by Henry de

Blois, Bishop of Winchester, the warlike brother of King Stephen. The gatehouse

with the curtain ending in drum towers, of which one only remains, was first built

at the close of the thirteenth century under Edward I; but it was restored with

Perpendicular additions by Bishop Thomas Langton, whose arms with the date

1495 may be seen on the escutcheon above the arch. Probably Bishop Langton also

built the great hall; whilst Bishop Home, who is sometimes credited with this work,

most likely only repaired the hall, but tacked on to it the southward structure on

pilasters, which shows his arms with the date 1577. The hall of the castle was for a

long period used as Assize Courts. The castle was purchased by the Taunton and

Somerset Archæological Society, and is now most appropriately a museum.

Taunton has seen many strange sights. The town was owned by the Bishop of

Winchester, and the castle had its constable, an office held by many great men.

When Lord Daubeney of Barrington Court was constable in 1497 Taunton saw

thousands of gaunt Cornishmen marching on to London to protest against the king's

subsidy, and they aroused the sympathy of the kind-hearted Somerset folk, who fed

them, and were afterwards fined for "aiding and comforting" them. Again, crowds

of Cornishmen here flocked to the standard of Perkin Warbeck. The gallant defence

of Taunton by Robert Blake, aided by the townsfolk, against the whole force of the

Royalists, is a matter of history, and also the rebellion of Monmouth, who made

Taunton his head-quarters. This castle, like every other one in England, has much

to tell us of the chief events in our national annals.

In the principality of Wales we find many noted strong holds--Conway, Harlech,

and many others. Carnarvon Castle, the repair of which is being undertaken by Sir

John Puleston, has no rival among our medieval fortresses for the grandeur and

extent of the ruins. It was commenced about 1283 by Edward I, but took forty years

to complete. In 1295 a playful North Walian, named Madoc, who was an

illegitimate son of Prince David, took the rising stronghold by surprise upon a fair

day, massacred the entire garrison, and hanged the constable from his own half-

finished walls. Sir John Puleston, the present constable, though he derives his

patronymic from the "base, bloody, and brutal Saxon," is really a warmly patriotic

Welshman, and is doing a good work in preserving the ruins of the fortress of

which he is the titular governor.

We should like to record the romantic stories that have woven themselves around

each crumbling keep and bailey-court, to see them in the days of their glory when

warders kept the gate and watching archers guarded the wall, and the lord and lady

and their knights and esquires dined in the great hall, and knights practised feats of

arms in the tilting-ground, and the banner of the lord waved over the battlements,

and everything was ready for war or sport, hunting or hawking. But all the glories

of most of the castles of England have vanished, and naught is to be seen but ruined

walls and deserted halls. Some few have survived and become royal palaces or

noblemen's mansions. Such are Windsor, Warwick, Raby, Alnwick, and Arundel,

but the fate of most of them is very similar. The old fortress aimed at being

impregnable in the days of bows and arrows; but the progress of guns and artillery

somewhat changed the ideas with regard to their security. In the struggle between

Yorkists and Lancastrians many a noble owner lost his castle and his head. Edward

IV thinned down castle-ownership, and many a fine fortress was left to die. When

the Spaniards threatened our shores those who possessed castles tried to adapt them

for the use of artillery, and when the Civil War began many of them were

strengthened and fortified and often made gallant defences against their enemies,

such as Donnington, Colchester, Scarborough, and Pontefract. When the Civil War

ended the last bugle sounded the signal for their destruction. Orders were issued for

their destruction, lest they should ever again be thorns in the sides of the

Parliamentary army. Sometimes they were destroyed for revenge, or because of

their materials, which were sold for the benefit of the Government or for the

satisfaction of private greed. Lead was torn from the roofs of chapels and

banqueting-halls. The massive walls were so strong that they resisted to the last and

had to be demolished with the aid of gunpowder. They became convenient quarries

for stone and furnished many a farm, cottage and manor-house with materials for

their construction. Henceforth the old castle became a ruin. In its silent marshy

moat reeds and rushes grow, and ivy covers its walls, and trees have sprung up in

the quiet and deserted courts. Picnic parties encamp on the green sward, and

excursionists amuse themselves in strolling along the walls and wonder why they

were built so thick, and imagine that the castle was always a ruin erected for the

amusement of the cheap-tripper for jest and playground. Happily care is usually

bestowed upon the relics that remain, and diligent antiquaries excavate and try to

rear in imagination the stately buildings. Some have been fortunate enough to

become museums, and some modernized and restored are private residences. The

English castle recalls some of the most eventful scenes in English history, and its

bones and skeleton should be treated with respect and veneration as an important

feature of vanishing England.

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