ALNWICK CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND.

THE castle of Alnwick stands upon a moderate eminence on the south bank of, and about 150 yards distant from, the river Alne, which was thus its immediate defence against the Scot. It is about five miles from, and about 200 feet above, the sea-level. Towards the east and south the castle is cut off from the town of Alnwick by a deep combe, once the bed of the Bow Burn. This has been trimmed and scarped by art, and its upper part towards the town has been almost obliterated by modern upfilling.

To the west is a nearly level platform in front of the castle, and separated from it by a ditch wholly artificial, and in part filled up and covered by the stables. This ditch was formerly produced along the south front, and communicated with the Bow Burn ravine. A modern bank of earth conceals the town from the castle on this, the south-western quarter.

The walls of Alnwick town were embattled, and probably built, under a licence to Henry Percy, in 1434, when he constructed the Bond Gate, now standing. It is uncertain whether the town wall was independent of the castle, as at Chepstow, or abutted against its outer wall, as at Carlisle. The main entrance to the castle and its principal postern were both outside the town. The former was approached from it by a town gate, the position of which is remembered, and its name preserved, in the way called “Narrow Gate.” The castle postern opens towards the river. The Lion gateway in the south wall, leading to the town and the railway station, is altogether a modern structure, but may represent a by-gate communicating with the town.

In plan the castle is irregular and many-sided; the west and south sides terminate, the one in the Abbot’s Tower, and the other in the Eastern or Ravine Tower, and are 125 yards and 213 yards long; and the side towards the river, and contained between these two towers, is 226 yards. The area within the walls is nearly 3 acres; that included by the ditch is near 7 acres.

There is no single keep-tower. The keep is in plan an irregular polygon, set round with clustered towers, and containing a central court. This is placed nearly in the middle of the general inclosure, with which it was connected at three points: one, on the south, by a bold and lofty gallery which has replaced an original curtain, and projects 35 yards from the keep to a gatehouse which divides the eastern and western wards, and is known as the Middle Gate. The other connexions on the north side were two curtain walls, of which one reached from the keep 33 yards to the Falconer’s Tower, now rebuilt and shifted, and had upon it the Armourer’s Tower, now destroyed; and the other was a curtain, now removed, which extended 20 yards from the keep to the Postern Tower.

By these arrangements the area was subdivided into an outer or western, an inner or eastern ward, and a central open keep. There remained, however, on the north front a three-sided space, bounded by the keep and the two curtains, and flanked by the Falconer’s and Postern towers. This space, open towards the river, is at present protected on that side by a low retaining terrace-wall and bastions of very modern date. A survey of 1567 shows this side open, and no doubt it was so originally; the river, its steep bank, the keep, the flanking towers and curtains, and no doubt palisade, being regarded as a sufficient defence. This disposition is, however, singular and very curious, and looks as though the engineer wished to attract the enemy to this the strongest and most completely flanked part, by a show of weakness by the absence of an outer enceinte. Economy of construction could not have been the motive, for the cross curtains, in length, would go some way towards completing the broken enceinte.

It would seem, from existing fragments and traces of foundations, that the lines of the present enceinte and keep are those of the old Norman fortress. The outline is governed very much by the disposition of the ground, and the shell keep was the approved Norman way of occupying such a knoll, whether natural, as at Durham, or artificial, as at Windsor, or, as here, probably a very slight addition to a natural knoll. A distinct ditch, now filled up, encircled the keep and protected it from its containing wards. Towards the river this ditch seems to have worked out into a steep scarp.

The keep is at this time an open court surrounded by towers. To the south-east, the gatehouse, about 40 feet deep and 20 feet wide, has grand external and internal round-headed Norman arches of 9 feet 2 inches span, the vault between being segmental and crossed by plain chamfered ribs. The exterior arch has a double band of bold chevron mouldings within a circle of double-hatched work. The inner arch has a single chevron band, and above it a band of which the voussoirs have alternate patterns of sunk nail-heads and the heraldic “lozengy.” This is the work of Eustace de Vesci, who died 1157, and may be dated 1150, though possibly a part of his “munitissimum castellum,” which, according to Mr. Tate, was existing in 1135. This Norman gateway is imbedded within a complete gatehouse by Henry de Percy in 1530, of which the main features are two lofty towers, which as half octagons flank the entrance from the eastern ward. Original shields of arms, in the Northumbrian fashion, are carved below the parapets; and upon the merlons, which are looped, are some original figures, as at Bothal and Chepstow. The archway is portcullised. The parapets are not machicolated. The vaulting of the interior of these towers is very good, and they contain in the basement the original dungeons, which are described as vaults 10 feet square, aired by loops, while below these are oubliettes, 8 feet by 9 feet, and reached only by trap-doors in the floor above. Over the gateway is the private dining-room. The plan of encrusting an original Norman gateway with later work is very common; the gatehouses at York afford excellent examples of it.

Entering the court, the open part of which is about 24 yards across, on the right, in the wall, is the very curious well. Within a pointed panel are three deep recesses, also pointed, of which the centre contains the mouth of the well, the shaft of which descends in the thickness of the wall. A wooden axle crosses above it, and is fitted in the lateral niches with two wheels, set round with pegs, for winding up the water-buckets by hand. Above, within the panel, in a small niche is a figure of St. James blessing the source. This curious and probably singular well was the work of the first Henry de Percy, in 1312–15; but the figure of the saint is thought to be an insertion of the last century. There is a similar arrangement over the great gate of Goderich Castle for working the portcullis.

Beyond the well is the rear wall of the Great Hall, built by the same Percy, refitted by the first duke, and rebuilt in 1863. The vaults below with their segmental ribbing are original, as is part of the rear and north wall and of the bow, whence the cross curtain ran to the Postern Tower. This is still the state dining-room, 60 feet by 24 feet, and the vaults fulfil their original destination as cellars. At this point is placed a modern cloister supporting a corridor, by which a bye-access is given to the suite of state-rooms. The original entrance to the hall was by six open steps from the court.

Next beyond the hall, pointing to the north-east, is a tower, once the kitchen and scullery, but rebuilt for the second time in 1856, and now the drawing-room, 45 feet by 22 feet. Beyond this, along the north-east front, are the saloon, 42 feet by 22 feet, and an ante-room, 22 feet by 22 feet, built in 1750–86, but newly fitted up. Next to these, and forming the north-west angle of the keep, is Prudhoe Tower, the principal tower in the fortress, upon which the flag is hoisted. This contains the library, 55 feet by 24 feet, and presents two grand bays to the east and west, with a deep re-entering angle between them. This also is modern.

Next, on the west front, follows the chapel, built in 1856, a rectangular tower of bold projection, one principal floor, and a high-pitched roof. The two angles are cut off, so as to form a polygonal apse. This conventional east end points, however, south-west.

Then, facing to the south-west, follow two half-round towers, rebuilt 1750–86, containing state bedrooms, and connected by a short curtain, within which is a dressing-room. Finally, between these and the gatehouse, completing the circuit of the keep, and projecting due south, is the gallery, having on the first floor a breadth of one line of five rooms and a corridor, and below, the middle gateway. The rooms are the private apartments of the duke and duchess, and a passage communicating with the kitchens. The gateway, which has a portcullis, is of the date of 1309–15, and built into the south curtain, from the outside of which it projects as a mural tower. The gallery replaced a curtain about 1760, and was rebuilt 1856. The battlements of the gatehouse were probably added about 1407–55.

The entrance to the state apartments is in the central court, beneath the arched vestibule, at the north-west corner. From this a grand flight of steps ascends to an interior vestibule, and thence by a second flight to the guard chamber, which opens into the state-rooms. These are all on the first floor, the basement being occupied by servants’ rooms.

Although the greater part of the keep has been rebuilt in the last and the present century, it still is composed of the seven towers of the early Percies, shown in the plan of 1567, and much, especially of the basement, is old; and what is new is arranged with a close general regard to the older, and, indeed, in many parts, Norman plan. The exterior ditch of the keep is partly filled up, and the drawbridge of the inner gate has been removed. A portcullis remains.

Of the general and exterior enceinte, the most complete and striking portion is the western gateway, a very fine and unaltered example of a gate and barbican of the Edwardian period, 1312–15, in its simplest form. The barbican, about 55 feet long by 32 feet wide, is entered by a large round-headed arch, between a pair of square flanking buttresses, corbelled out above into two turrets, also square. Over the entrance in a sunk panel is a large Percy lion, with their motto, “Espérance.” The arch leads into a passage, 55 feet long by 10 feet wide, for the first 20 feet vaulted, but afterwards open to the sky. This lies between very lofty side walls, embattled each way. On the left, a small side-door led to the counterscarp of the ditch; also on the left another door opens into a mural stair ascending to the battlements. In front is the portal of the gatehouse. This barbican crossed the ditch now filled up. Besides an outer drawbridge, over a loop of the main ditch, it had an inner bridge between its lateral walls, dropping from the gatehouse. This is mentioned in the survey of 1538, and was removed in 1567. The parapets are without machicolations, and the embrasures have no mouldings. The merlons are not looped, and the figures placed upon them date only from 1750–86. Probably in advance of the ditch of this barbican was a barrier or palisade of timber, and the level space in front, commanded by the walls of both town and castle, is what was usually employed for jousting matches or military duels. The adjacent river was a sufficient security against surprise.

The gatehouse, of which the barbican is the covering, is a rectangle 40 feet deep by 45 feet broad, of slight internal and bold external projection, and presenting to the field two half octagonal towers. The passage is vaulted and has the usual defences of a portcullis and gates. The portals are round-headed. There are lateral lodges, entered one from the passage and one from the court.

Entering the court, the curtain on the left, of considerable height, has Norman foundations, 1150, and an Edwardian superstructure, 1350. Outside, a string-course marks the base of the parapet, and the embrasures have a decorated moulding carried all round. The wall extends to the Abbot’s Tower, but upon it is a small rectangular mural tower, called the Avener’s Tower, 1309–15. The Abbot’s Tower, of the same date, caps the north-west angle. It is rectangular and of three stages, the lowest being vaulted and ribbed with segmental arches, as in the Constable’s Tower, and below the Great Hall. The third stage rises clear of the wall, and is reached by a well-stair, which occupies the north-east angle.

From this a short curtain of mixed date, 1150 and 1350, with a low salient, extends to the Falconer’s Tower, also rectangular, rebuilt, though not exactly on the old site, in 1856, and from which a modern curtain wall runs up to the Prudhoe Tower of the keep. Upon this wall stood the Armourer’s Tower, also rectangular, destroyed in 1856, to improve the view from the library. The removal of this and the Falconer’s Tower are said to have been the only subtractions made from the original military works of the castle.

Returning to the west gate, the curtain on its right extends past the west Garret Tower to the Clock Tower, all rebuilt 1750–86. The latter is circular, with a flat gorge and keel-shaped salient, and caps the south-west angle. Outside the last-named curtain, and reached through it by a gateway, are the stable courts, riding-school, and guest-hall, 135 feet by 35 feet, by 25 feet to the spring of the open timber roof, a very noble structure. These buildings are of modern date, 1856.

From the Clock Tower the south curtain supports on its outside the estate offices. Part of this curtain is 1750–86, part 1309–15. This latter part includes the Auditor’s Tower, 1770, of which the square rear projects into the court and the half-round front outside. Beyond this is a bit of Norman curtain, 1150, against which on the outside is built the modern kitchen, and above which a modern corridor communicates between the duke’s room and the record-room in the Auditor’s Tower. The treatment of this part of the structure by Mr. Salvin deserves especial notice from the happy combination of the features of the Edwardian age with the appliances of the present day. The kitchen, with much to remind the visitor of Durham and Avignon, is as a whole superior to either, and is besides a model of culinary arrangement. These offices, originally within the keep at the east end of the hall, were placed here by the first duke, but were recast and rebuilt by Duke Algernon.

Formerly there stood in the west ward the exchequer and the stables. The exchequer was a large rectangular building, applied to the north limb of the west gatehouse, and, like it, embattled. The two ranges of stabling stood a little within and parallel to the curtains next the Clock Tower. These buildings, shown in the survey of 1650, were removed probably about 1755.

Traversing the middle gate, in front is the eastern or inner ward, and on the left the inner or gatehouse of the keep. On the right, outside the curtain, is the steward’s room, and beyond it the Warder’s Tower, mentioned in 1567, but altogether remodelled and rebuilt in 1860 upon a work of 1770. It now contains the Lion gateway, leading to the gardens. Below the gatehouse is an ale-cellar, and above one side of it, attached to the offices, the confectionary.

Beyond, the line of the curtain is irregular. About the salient it is Norman, 1150, and a very good example of the rough walling of the age. Upon it is the East Garret, 1309–15, and it ends in the Ravine Tower, the most eastern work of the castle, and capping an acute angle of the enceinte. This is a good-sized round tower, with a well-stair at its junction with the curtain. It has been much repaired since its foundation in 1309–15. It is defended by the ravine, whence it derives its name.

From hence the curtain trends to the north-west, being in great part Norman, but repaired at what is called the “Bloody Gap.” Beyond this is a garret bartizan, called Hotspur’s Chair. It was the gorge of a half-round tower, now removed, but shown in the plan of 1650. Beyond this the curtain is again mixed Norman and Decorated of 1312–15, to the Constable’s Tower. This is a strong half-round tower, capping a flattish salient to the north-east; it has an exterior entrance by stairs to each of its three floors. From this a short curtain, 1150, leads to the Postern Tower, 1312–15, rectangular, pierced below by the vaulted and portcullised passage of the postern, and vaulted also on the first floor. This tower is a fine example of a Northumbrian military building of the Decorated period. The arches are round-headed or segmental, and it has in its rear wall a remarkable two-light window with a transom, and in the head a foliated circle. There is also a very perfect garderobe with external shoot. From this tower a curtain, now removed, ran upwards to the bow of the hall tower of the keep, and thus completed the defences of this ward. The original postern passage is filled up, or nearly so, with earth, but by the side of the tower a way leads to a terrace walk between the keep and the river, and extending to Falconer’s Tower.

The eastern ward contained the castle chapel and the conduit, supplied with water by lead pipes from an exterior spring called Howling Well. The chapel, a considerable building, stood detached near the Bloody Gap, and was removed in 1755. The ecclesiastical establishment seems to have been on a respectable scale, and included a chantry for the performance of the obits of the family. In this quarter also stood the brew, bake, and slaughter-houses for the use of the garrison.

Alnwick Castle is probably the finest extant example of a Norman castle of this type, having an open keep and a complete enceinte; for although most of the present buildings are either of the fourteenth or the nineteenth century, the plan is certainly Norman, and certain detached portions of the construction. It seems also that the keep was never a mere shell, like Cardiff or Arundel, but was always set about with towers and provided with a handsome gatehouse. A notable feature is the use of the round-headed and the segmental arch in the Decorated period. This is not uncommon in the North of England. The very free use of stone warriors upon the parapets, carried to an absurd extent in the repairs of the last century, is also remarkable. They are seen at Bothal, and in Edwardian works both at Caernarvon and Chepstow, but by no means so freely distributed as here. They were obviously intended for ornament only, but, of all figures, that of the eagle at Caernarvon is the only one at all appropriate. No archer would or could have stood on the crest of the parapet. Most of the later figures were very properly removed by Mr. Salvin.

There is found upon the battlements of both walls and towers, in various parts of the castle, a convenient arrangement for hanging a movable wooden shutter in the embrasures, so as to defend the warders from a Scottish shaft, and from the scarcely less keen edge of the bleak winds of the Border. The shutter was suspended horizontally, like a port-lid, but from trunnions, of which one rested in a round hole in one merlon, and the other in a similar hole terminating in a groove in the other, so that the shutter hung freely, and could be lifted in and out if necessary. The arrangement is precisely that applied to the roller of a round towel. Traces of this arrangement remain in various parts of the castle. A perfect example is seen on the barbican. It may also be seen on the east wall of Goderich, at Chepstow, and elsewhere.

The officers forming the staff of this castle as a civil residence, in 1567, were the constable or governor; the porter of the outer gate; the greive, or executive officer or bailiff; the receiver or auditor; the feodary, who looked up the services and tenures; the steward, learned in the law, who administered justice; the clerk of the courts, who engrossed the rolls and kept the records; and the foreign or outer bailiff, who collected the castle-guard and cornage money, and summoned the tenants and suitors. The whole of the annual payment to these officers was £58. 18s.

Looking to the character of the country, so charged with traces of early military earthworks, and to the strong and well-defined natural position of Alnwick, it seems probable that it was occupied as a camp by some of the tribes who, from a very remote period, made this Border their battlefield, and whose defences are still visible in eleven distinct earthworks within a very short distance of the town. If so, they would necessarily have placed their defences to the north and east upon the lines of the present castle. The interior eminence would certainly have been their citadel, and the trench, completing their security, would most conveniently have been carried along the general direction of the western front, so as to connect the head of the Bow Burn with the Alne, and thus complete the seclusion of the peninsula. Such a site, so defended, was not uncommonly adopted or constructed by the Northmen and Saxons when they became settled, and they would have placed the timber and palisaded mansion of their thane upon the central entrenched knoll.

Probably the Norman Gilbert Tison, of cloudy memory, who is the reputed pioneer of the Conquest in these wild regions, found and contented himself with some early kind of timber fortress, for the earliest traces of masonry that remain in situ or have been extracted from the walls, though Norman, are of late character, and attributable to Eustace Fitzjohn, who married Beatrix, daughter and heir of Ivo de Vesci, who is thought to have married Tison’s daughter. Eustace, called De Vesci, flourished under Henry I. and Stephen, and died in 1157. He was a likely man to have constructed a great castle, being a baron of considerable power, sheriff of Northumberland, and founder of the abbeys of Alnwick and, in Yorkshire, of Malton. Also he must have felt the want of a strong place, for in his days, in 1135, Alnwick Castle was taken by David I., of Scotland, in the interest of the Empress Maud.

Eustace no doubt built in the first half of the twelfth century a polygonal clustered keep upon the knoll, gave it the gateway we still see, and placed his residence within. Traces of his walls are said by Mr. Tate to have been discovered when the last rebuilding was being executed. No doubt also he cleared out the moat round the keep. To him also must be attributed the general wall of the enceinte, and possibly the ditch outside it; and this would have been strengthened by mural towers, many of which must have stood where their successors are now placed. De Vesci’s work is indicated by the stones being mostly square blocks of moderate size, laid in courses, but in beds more or less wavy, as though the mason used neither line nor level. The joints are open. Beyond question De Vesci constructed a castle in keeping with his wealth, and worthy of the chief baron of the Border.

In July, 1174, William the Lion, on his way back from an invasion of Cumberland, found himself, to his surprise, before Alnwick. William, son of Eustace de Vesci, attacked him. He was unhorsed, captured, and sent into England, and beyond sea, to prison. Eustace, son of William, succeeded in 1190, and was visited by King John, 12th February, 1201, and 24th April, 1209, when the king received at the castle the homage of Alexander, king of Scotland. Four years later, May 14th, John ordered Philip de Ulecote to demolish the castle of Alnwick—a mandate which could scarcely have been obeyed, seeing the king himself was there 28th January, 1213, and 11th January, 1216, no doubt unwelcome visits, for Eustace was a Magna Charta baron. He met his death from an arrow before Barnard Castle in the last year of King John. Henry III. visited Alnwick 23rd September, 1256, and Edward I. was the guest of John de Vesci there 30th April and 1st May, and 16th and 17th August, 1291, and 16th August and 13th and 18th December, 1292; and again 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th September, 1296; and 26th and 29th June, 1298.

The Barons de Vesci became extinct in 1297, by the death of William, seventh Baron, when the castle and barony were acquired, it is said, to the fraudulent exclusion of the natural son, by Antony Bec, the warlike Bishop of Durham, by whom, in 1309, 3 Edward II., they were sold to Henry de Percy, the representative of a warlike family, whose advent forms an important era in the history of the Border. Percy, as the leader of the Northern barons, made Alnwick his residence, and although in possession only for five years, seems to have rebuilt much of the fabric, the rest being completed by his son of the same name.

The Percy Castle, laid out nearly upon the Norman lines, presented very nearly the appearance of the present structure. The authorship of the Edwardian part of the inner gatehouse is established by the escutcheon of Clifford on its walls, the second Henry de Percy having married a lady of that house. To the first half of this fourteenth century may be attributed, as has already been pointed out in detail, nearly all the leading features of the castle, as it stood at the incoming of the first Duke of the present family. The Percies, though they maintained the reputation of Alnwick as the great Border fortress during nearly four centuries, do not appear to have materially altered the fabric of the two earliest lords. They received here Edward II. in 1311 and 1322, and Edward III. in 1335; but the later earls were much at Petworth and in Yorkshire; and upon the death of the eighth earl, in 1537, and the attainder of his brother, the family ceased to reside at Alnwick, and the castle was neglected. The Percy line ended in Elizabeth, daughter of Jocelyn, the eleventh earl, who, 30th May, 1682, married Charles, Duke of Somerset. Of their children, two had issue, Algernon and Catherine, who married Sir Wm. Wyndham, and eventually conveyed to that family the Percy estates at Petworth, Egremont, and Leconfield.

Algernon Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and by creation Earl of Northumberland, left one child, Elizabeth Seymour, who inherited Alnwick, and married Sir Hugh Smithson, created Duke of Northumberland, and ancestor of the present family.

A survey of Alnwick in 1567 shows the decay then to have been very considerable, and as the Seymour lords preferred their paternal residence, Alnwick became almost a ruin. From this it was redeemed by the first duke, who, under the advice of Adam, restored, and in part rebuilt, the keep; and although he fitted up the interior with plaster and frippery, made the exterior sound and good, and, on the whole, in keeping with the character of the place, and with what remained of the ancient buildings.

Matters so remained until the accession of Duke Algernon, better known as Lord Prudhoe, a naval officer and a good man of business, who had travelled much and possessed a cultivated taste, and was of a truly noble and magnificent disposition. While foremost in works of public usefulness connected with his estates, county, and profession, and careful to drain his lands, rebuild the cottages of his labourers, restore the local churches, and provide lifeboats for his dangerous coast, he, under the sound advice of Mr. Salvin, almost rebuilt the castle, preserving with scrupulous care all that admitted of preservation, and adapting his new work to the period of the first and second Percy, the founders of the later castle. Having thus restored the great fortress of the Border with strict regard to the rules of military architecture, he proceeded, under the advice of Canina, to fit up the interior in the style of an Italian palace. The contrast afforded is certainly extreme, and the attempt on so costly a scale was hardy; but the adaptation of the fittings to the irregular plan of the rooms is so well conceived, the materials employed are so rich, and the execution of the details is so skilful, that it is difficult to regard even so great an incongruity as other than a distinguished success.

Much attention has of late years been paid, and by very competent persons, to the history of this castle. Grose gives some particulars, now very valuable; but this and the castles of Warkworth and Prudhoe have been illustrated by the late Mr. Hartshorne, and are treated of also by him with great success in the Northumberland volume of the Archæological Institute. More recently, Mr. Tate has handled the subject of Alnwick Castle with both skill and accuracy in his admirable history of the barony of Alnwick. And finally, in the “Life of William Rufus,” Mr. Freeman has touched lightly but very effectively upon the connexion of Alnwick and its lords with Northumbrian history. In the above sketch free use has, to some extent, been made of the above materials; but the object of the writer has been to treat solely of the fabric of the castle, and that from a military point of view.

REFERENCES.

Donjon.
Inner Ward.
Outer Ward.
Terrace.
Stable Courts.
Kitchen.
Estate Offices.
Ravine.
Ditch.
Tower.
Inner Gate.
Middle Gate.
Barbican.
Hall.
Withdrawing-room.
Music-room.
Ante-room.
Library. Prudhoe Tower.
Chapel.
State Bedroom.
Entrance.
Spur Gallery.
West Garret.
Abbot’s Tower.
Falconer’s Tower.
Postern Tower.
Constable’s Tower.
Ravine Tower.
Hotspur’s Chair.
East Garret.
Warder’s Tower.
Auditor’s Tower.
Clock Tower.
Avener’s Tower.
Garden.

PLAN OF ALNWICK CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND.