THE CASTLE OF ARQUES, NEAR DIEPPE.

ARQUES is one of the earliest examples of a Norman castle, for which reason, though not an English fortress, it has been thought convenient to include an account of it in these pages. This grand castle crowns and occupies the head of a steep and bold cape or promontory, in this case a spur from the great chalk table-land of the “Pays de Caux.” On the west it is flanked by a short but deep combe or dry valley, and on the east by the deeper and far wider valley of the Bethune and Varenne—streams derived from different sources, but which here meander across a broad and level bottom, above half a mile wide, until, a little below the castle, uniting, they receive the tributary Aulne, and, thus combined, under the name of “la Rivière d’Arques,” fall into the sea at the port of Dieppe.

The castle thus stands above the left bank of the principal valley. It is about 4 miles from Dieppe; and immediately below, and to its north-east, is the village whence it takes its name, remarkable for a church of unusual size, and a most elegant example of the style of the latter part of the sixteenth century. Beyond, upon the right bank, are the remains of the ancient Forest of Arques, a part of the spacious domain of the ancient lords of the fee, and upon the skirts of which, within shot of the castle, was fought, in 1589, a very celebrated battle.

The castle in its present form is composed of a rectangular keep, standing in the south-west corner of an inner ward, in plan something less than a half-circle, having its chord to the west, and contained within an enceinte wall, strengthened by towers and buttresses along its sides and at its southern end, and capping its angles.

Applied to the north end of this is an outer ward, of later date, four-sided, and having drum towers at its four angles.

The main entrance, approached by a steep and winding road from the town, is in the north end, or at the point of the cape, between the two towers. Entering, is a second gatehouse, opening from the outer into the inner ward, also between two towers. A third gatehouse, at the other end of the fortress, leads direct from the exterior into the south end of the inner ward, and thus opens a communication with the root of the cape. There is also a lateral postern with vaulted passages in the west wall of the outer ward.

Outside the wall, encircling it closely, is the ditch, the most striking feature in the whole fortress. This is in general plan not unlike the long section of a pear, the northern end being the smaller, and the western side flattened so as to be nearly straight. The counterscarp of this ditch includes an area of about 5 acres. The ditch itself, measured from the level of the foot of the wall crowning its scarp, is about 60 feet deep, with slopes of 1 foot horizontal to 2 feet vertical, and about 70 feet broad. It is only just not too steep to be covered with short turf. The crest of the counterscarp is a ridge about 6 feet broad, and about 20 feet below the level of the foot of the wall. From it descends another slope, equally steep, but much deeper; on the west side descending about 150 feet to the bottom of the valley, and on the east to a rather less depth, as here this “glacis” is succeeded by a sort of broad terrace of pasture land, which falls gently towards the river, the level of which may be 250 feet below the platform of the castle. In many respects these defences resemble those of Bramber, in Sussex.

At the north-west end the ditch is traversed by a very modern causeway of earth, which supersedes the earlier drawbridge. At the south end, where the ground is highest and the ditch about 50 feet deep and 80 feet broad, there remain two engaged piers upon the scarp and counterscarp, and between them two detached piers, of which the outer has fallen against the inner. All are rectangular; and the inner of the detached two is considerably the larger, and probably carried a tower for the protection and working of a double drawbridge. These piers are of flint rubble, cased with ashlar, of which a small part only remains.

At the outer end is the earthwork of a tête du pont, or ravelin, of triangular plan, the passage from which was a little to the east side of the apex. This work was evidently constructed when artillery was in use, and is attributed to Henry IV., during the campaign of 1589. It no doubt represents an earlier barbican, also of earth and timber. There are no traces of masonry beyond the bridge. This work opens upon the ridge of the promontory, which widens and rises somewhat higher to the south. The ground is scarred with banks and ditches, the remains of fieldworks of various dates, both of attack and defence.

The design of this castle ditch is peculiar. The more obvious plan would have been to place the walls upon the edge of the hill, and scarp its sides down to the valley with such steepness as suited the ground. Instead of this, the upper 40 feet of the hill, being chalk rock, was scarped vertically, and then faced or revetted by a wall, upon which was placed the enceinte wall of the inner ward. At the foot of the revetment was then excavated the ditch just described, the material being thrown outwards so as to form an artificial scarp, which thus became a sort of advanced banquette or earthwork beyond the ditch, representing the crest of the glacis, and capable of being held by a line of soldiers, but which, when taken, was too exposed and too narrow to allow of its being held, or of cover being constructed upon it. This banquette was at a rather lower level than the foot of the opposite wall.

Such an arrangement is found in other castles in Normandy, and notably, as pointed out by M. Deville, at Molineaux, De Longueville, Bec de Montagne, and in the later work of Château-Gaillard, where, however, it is less marked.

The keep is rectangular, about 80 feet north and south by 70 feet east and west, and at present about 60 feet high. It stands in the south-west corner of the inner ward, close to the enceinte wall, of which its south-west angle forms a part. Its walls at the ground level are about 13 feet thick. It presents three buttresses on the north face and two on the south—the third being a sort of cap thickening and enveloping the south-east angle. These are of the unusual breadth and projection of 9 feet, and they rise to the present, which cannot be above 10 feet below the original summit. At the north-east angle the adjacent buttresses are set square, leaving the angle free. The south face is plain, or nearly so, excepting the cap at its south-east angle, which extends southwards, and is connected with the adjacent enceinte wall. The west face is plain, outside of which was the entrance.

This is composed of a flight of steps, beginning upon the north face, passing by a doorway through its most westerly buttress, and which then, turning, is continued along the west face, until at its south end it lands in the usual square appendage or forebuilding common in these keeps. This staircase was guarded by an exterior wall, and had gateways at its foot and its summit. It was covered over, as appears from marks upon the wall; and above it was no doubt the usual platform for defence. In the basement of the forebuilding, which forms also part of the enceinte wall, was a vaulted chamber opening into the basement of the keep, as at Rochester, either a store or a prison. The landing story was barrel-vaulted, having at one end a loop towards the field, and at the other a door in the wall of the keep.

Entering this door, the staircase is continued southward in the wall of the keep, up a roughly-vaulted, round-headed, mural gallery, until at the angle it reaches the level of the first floor. The gallery now turns the angle, and is continued on the level half-way along the south wall, when it is stopped abruptly. A door on the right leads upon the enceinte rampart, and one on the left probably led into the keep.

The interior of the keep is composed of a basement and an upper or, perhaps, two floors, divided by a north and south wall into two chambers on a floor. This division-wall is said to be original, and ought to be so in a keep of this size, but it looks of the sixteenth century, and may represent an older one. The west basement is much choked up with rubbish. The east chamber is tolerably clear, and shows an exterior aperture in its east wall, near the south end, which communicates with the adjacent south gateway. This may be original, but it is now a mere hole. In the north wall is a short mural gallery, entering a well-stair in the north-east angle, which ascends to the first floor and chapel only. The lower stage was not vaulted. The first floor has four windows on the north side, two in each room, and one on the east side. The second floor had also similar windows on its north, and a vaulted chamber on its east side; no doubt a chapel. This chapel is formed by throwing a vault from buttress to buttress for its floor, and at a higher level for its roof, and above this were the leads. There are traces of similar chambers on the north front. The upper story has been vaulted in six bays, three on each side, duly groined and ribbed, as is shown by the springers. The material and the workmanship, no less than the section of the ribs, show this to be a late addition, probably of the sixteenth century.

PLAN OF THE CASTLE OF ARQUES, NORMANDY.

The supposed two upper floors were very possibly intended for one floor of state, with two tiers of windows and a chapel above. The chapel seems to have had a barrel round-headed vault, probably groined. The accounts show this eastern side to have been the royal chamber in the fourteenth century. The fireplaces seem to be confined to the upper floors. As now seen, they are of the date of the vaulting.

In the south-west angle of the keep, very near the wall, is the well, of which the pipe was continued at least to the first floor, as in the additions at Richmond. It is about 6 feet diameter, lined with ashlar, and in 1768 was choked up at 254 feet deep, or about the level of the river; a depth now reduced to 30 or 40 feet.

Outside, between the buttresses, are traces of walls, as though the spaces between them had been turned to account below as well as above; but these walls are thin, and do not seem original.

M. Deville cites the public records for the existence in 1318 of four turrets on the keep, roofed with lead.

M. Le Duc, in his Dictionary, Art. “Donjon,” gives a great variety of very curious detail connected with this keep, detail unknown to M. Deville, and for which there should be some authority other than the traces actually existing, which are very unsatisfactory.

The keep is built of large chalk flints grouted copiously in mortar, and cased outside with ashlar, now mostly stripped off and removed. Within, the flints are occasionally laid herring-bone fashion. The ashlar was a calcareous tufa, known in the country, and formed by the trickling of calcareous springs over moss and similar vegetation. It was much used in the earlier French castles. The later ashlar of the vaulting ribs and inserted door-cases seems to be a fine hard limestone, approaching Caen stone in appearance, and perhaps actually that material. Where the ashlar is wanting, the putlog holes are seen, placed with exceeding regularity. The joints of the original ashlar are large, those of the later fine. The new and old ashlar can readily be distinguished; but one flint wall is very much like another.

The inner ward, in length about 160 yards, and in its greatest breadth about 70 yards, is a natural chalk platform, revetted all round by a wall about 8 feet thick, which on the east side is reduced to a parapet, but on the west rises about 20 feet higher, probably its original height. In 1708 this court contained the apartments of the governor and the staff of the garrison, a well, and a chapel. These were probably of the sixteenth century or later, and have now entirely disappeared.

The enceinte wall, which girdles this inner ward, deserves attention, as most of it is of early date. Setting aside the four northern towers with their curtains, which are of later date, we have about 380 yards of curtain broken by five mural towers and three rectangular buttresses. Nearly the whole of the wall is faced with flint, with three bands of ashlar. Much of the flint is laid in herring-bone fashion, the repairs, where of brick, being of much later date. The ashlar bands are of tufa. Of the towers two, half round, are on the east front. Of these one, though probably original, has been cased with brick. The other has had an ashlar base, and the upper part, of flint, shows herring-bone work. Each is about 15 feet diameter, with walls 5 feet thick.

Between these towers are three rectangular buttresses; two of 15 feet breadth and 12 feet projection, and one about 7 feet square. The two former contain no herring-bone work, and are probably early additions, perhaps by Henry I.; the latter is original.

On the west face are now no towers, but in 1708 there were two, half round, and of small size, traces of which remain. They were, no doubt, original.

The remaining three towers capped the three salient angles of the south end, the central containing the gateway, and the others flanking it. All are one quarter engaged.

The flanking towers are alike, about 22 feet diameter and 55 feet high from the exterior base, with walls 7 feet thick. The bases are either solid or pierced by steps leading down to the galleries. There is a regular basement story, and above it a floor on the level of the inner ward. They are not vaulted and show no exterior herring-bone work, though one has a little inside. A modern summer-house has been built upon that to the south-east.

The central or gate-tower is 24 feet diameter. It is pierced at the level of the scarp by a portal which opens upon the drawbridge, the piers of which have been described; and there is a stage above this.

The portal ascends towards the keep; its details are much broken down, and little can be made of them.

Of the enceinte of the inner ward there remains to be noted the northern gatehouse. This, the original and, probably, the only entrance to the Norman fortress, though much ruined, does not appear to have been materially altered. It consists in a rectangular building, 40 feet deep by 20 feet broad, set in the centre of the curtain, with which its outer face is nearly flush. It is crossed by an outer, middle, and inner wall, each pierced by an arch of 12 feet opening, through which lies the passage. There remain the rectangular grooves of a portcullis, and a few years ago there was evidence of a second, and in the wall is herring-bone work. The arches are plain, without moulding or chamfer. The inner one is round-headed, and springs from a flat abacus, chamfered below. The joints of the ashlar work are about 1 inch wide. The curtains on either side of this gateway, though much repaired, seem to be original, and there are traces of the old round gate-towers. The pit of the drawbridge remains in front of the gate, upon the original line of fosse.

The outer ward no doubt occupies the site of an earlier outwork. It is built against the narrow and north end of the inner ward, is four-sided, about 250 feet north and south, by a mean of 110 feet east and west. Its west side is straight, being the continued line of that face of the old fortress. The east face has a slight re-entering angle, caused apparently by the shape of the ground. At the two southern angles are two large drum towers, which connect the old and newer work, and probably replace two smaller and older towers. These stand in the line of the old ditch, and flank the Norman gateway. That to the south-west, rather the larger of the two, and slightly oval in plan, has a mean diameter of 60 feet; it is of two stages. Both are vaulted, or rather domed. That to the south-east, of 50 feet diameter, is nearly circular, but has a remarkable spur or keel-shaped projection towards the field. It is of three stages, the two lower being domed. These towers are in fact casemates, having embrasures for small culverins towards the field. Each has a well-stair in its southern side, and is entered from the gorge.

The two other towers cap the northern angles of the ward, and flank the main gateway. They are of irregular form, semicircular to the field and angular within. In diameter they are about 40 feet, and about the same height. They are of two stages, which have been domed. The walls of these four towers are from 14 feet to 16 feet thick. They are of flint faced with brick.

Between the gate-tower is the gateway, composed of a larger and smaller portal, the latter very narrow. The present work is modern, but no doubt in this double entry represents the earlier openings. The ditch, two detached piers standing in it, and with these any traces of the drawbridge, are concealed by the modern causeway.

In the west curtain, near the south-west tower, a flight of steps beneath hanging arches of brick descends from the ward level in the direction of the foot of the wall. This is much encumbered with ruin, but seems to have been a postern, opening upon the ditch.

All the works of this outer ward are of flint, rubble-faced with brick, which material forms the lines of the embrasures. The quoins are sometimes of ashlar, as are the extensive string-courses and bands, and the dressings of the openings. Traces of herring-bone work in its west curtain, outside, will be accounted for afterwards.

As the original castle was confined to the inner ward, its ditch everywhere encircled it. When the outer ward was added, the intercepted portion of the ditch was partially filled up, but the new work was included in a new ditch, which was an accurate prolongation of the old one, of equal depth and breadth, and continued in the same direction. Accurate observation will, however, detect two slight shoulders in the counterscarp, showing where began the curve of the old ditch.

Very remarkable in this castle are the subterranean galleries, driven in the chalk rock beneath the lines of the original wall, and behind the scarp of the ditch. These are now in part blocked up, but there still remain two or three hundred yards of them of which the direction is known. They are entered by a passage in the inner ward, in its north-west quarter, and by a descent of fifty-four steps near the keep, and possibly from other points now lost. The galleries are about 7 feet high and 6 feet wide, rudely cut, and somewhat singularly laid out. They lie within, without, and beneath the wall, and give off frequent spurs or short passages intended to occupy any space in which a mine was likely to be opened. At this time they have been broken into at three or four points in the scarp of the ditch, about half-way down. They were intended as a system of permanent counter mines to meet any attempt at mining on the part of the besiegers. In one place a large central pier is surrounded by a gallery, whence the branches go off,—an arrangement intended probably to check the progress of those who might break in. So far as is known, these galleries, of which a survey was made in 1708, are confined to the southern half, or four-fifths of the old castle. There are none under the outer ward.

Outside, and to the north-east of the outer gate, are some semicircular platforms, which seem to have played a part in the defence of the castle; but whether before or after the use of artillery is uncertain.

The Bel.—A curtain wall, which originally was about 5 feet thick, and from 15 feet to 20 feet high, commences abruptly upon the crest of the counterscarp in two places; one on the east opposite to the mural tower, which marks about the centre of that front of the castle, and thence descends towards the river; and the other north, close outside of the drawbridge of the main entrance. This latter wall is continued down the hill, and makes a bold sweep towards the town, and, finally reaching the river bank, joins the river wall. The enclosure thus formed contains about twice the area included by the ditch of the castle, and has long been known as Le Bel or La Baile, a form evidently of the Norman-Latin Ballium, called by us the “Bailey.” This enclosure is traversed by the road from Dieppe to Martigny, which passes through the two gates bearing those names. A third, or water-gate to the east, opened upon the river. Upon the north front appear to have been two small half-round mural towers, of which one remains. The river has somewhat encroached upon the lower part of the Bel, and has undermined part of the wall.

The Dieppe gate, which is also that from the town of Arques, was in 1433 called “La Première Port du Bel de Château d’Arques,” and, as such, was the subject of a tenure by castle guard, the tenant being bound to defend it for forty days in time of war. From this gate the approach ascends to the castle, having the curtain-wall as a protection on its right. Where this wall approaches the castle, at either end, it is covered by a broad ditch, continued down the slope.

A flint wall may be of any age, but the remains of the gates, which a few years ago showed round-headed arches, prove this inclosure to be of early date, probably one of the earliest additions to the castle, and made by Henry I. No doubt, before the construction of the outer ward, the wall of the Bel was produced so as to unite with those of the castle. M. Deville has discovered a part of this wall worked into the great curtain of the outer ward, which lies in its line, and may still be seen.

Looking to the history of this castle, and to the evidence afforded by its remains, it seems probable that the keep is the oldest part of the masonry, and the work of the Conqueror’s uncle, Guillaume d’Arques, between the years 1039–1043, and it is supposed to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest, of the rectangular Norman keeps known. The chronicle of Normandy, cited by M. Deville, says of William, “Si fist faire une tour moult forte, audessus du chastel d’Arques”; as though there had been an earlier castle, which the aspect of the earthworks renders highly probable.

To the Conqueror or his immediate successor must be attributed the enceinte of the inner ward and the formation of the galleries. The ditch may be much older than the western masonry. The inner ward no doubt formed part of the original plan, and it is only the occasional appearance of round turrets upon the wall that leads to the opinion that any time intervened between the actual construction of the keep and of its surroundings.

The southern entrance, with its gate and two flanking towers, and one or two of the other mural towers or buttresses, seem to be additions, but of the Norman period, probably the work of the Conqueror’s son, King Henry I., who, about 1123, seems also to have enclosed the Bel. Robert de Thorigny—called also “Du Mont,” from his abbacy of Mont St. Michael—a Norman chronicler of the twelfth century, says that King Henry I. “fortified admirably the castle of Arques with walls and a tower.” This has been held to show that the whole structure was the work of Henry, who reigned from 1105 to 1135, and the extreme boldness of the buttresses and superincumbent constructions of the keep no doubt favour this view; but, as M. Deville remarks in the same passage, similar reference is made to Gisors, Falaise, and other castles, known to be of earlier date.

M. Deville is disposed to attribute the southern gate to Charles V., as he finds a record of 1367, charging cost of transport of 6 “nances” of stone, each of 16 to 18 “tonneaux,” from the river to the castle, for the masonry of the new bridge and the new gate of the castle. This material was taken by the king’s direction from the dismantled “manoir” of Veules or Weulles, at St. Valery-en-Caux. The accounts of 1378–80 mention the tower on the bridge behind the keep, its drawbridge, axles, ties, “vergues” or levers 18 feet long, and its beams of 9 feet. This was probably the southern drawbridge and gate, including the opening of the communication between this and the basement of the keep. These works are attributed to Charles V. about 1378–80. He probably only pierced the existing central tower, not otherwise altering or rebuilding it.

The next considerable work was the outer ward, which may be attributed to the fifteenth century, subsequently to the general use of brick and the introduction of siege artillery. It is singular that no record of this very considerable work should be preserved, for it included not only the outer ward, a castle in itself, with its enormous towers and massive curtains, but the extension of the very formidable ditch, the repair of the older walls and towers, and finally the fitting up and vaulting of the keep. All this is supposed to have been the work of Francis I., and it is said that the date of 1553 was inscribed upon some of the additions to the keep.

Henry IV., during his occupation of the castle in 1589, may have constructed quarters in the inner ward and repaired what was amiss in the old building; but more probably his traces are to be found in the field works which crown the adjacent hills, and along the high ground towards Dieppe.

It has been thought that the ditch of the castle is a remain of an older fortification, such a work as the early Northmen or still earlier Celts might have constructed. No doubt this was usually the case with the sites of the great Norman castles, both in Normandy and in England, and the position of Arques is a tempting one. There is, however, no positive evidence of an earlier encampment.

It will be observed that the keep is so placed as to command both the inner ward and the most exposed side of the castle,—that along the level ridge of the promontory. It was perfectly capable of holding out when all else was taken, and finally, if threatened with fire or starvation, its garrison had a possible escape by the galleries.

This castle is the triumph of Norman skill. Often attacked, it was never taken by storm. Without being a royal residence it was visited in peace or in war by our Norman kings, from the Conqueror to John, and by most of the kings of France, from Henry I. to Henry IV.; and, after a lapse of 800 years, its oldest parts are still those best worth attention, and are at least as well preserved as the additions of far later date.