THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH, WARWICKSHIRE.

THE three midland counties of England, happily for those who dwelt in them, were not rich in castles, and such as remain are rarely of a very striking character. The position of Belvoir, indeed, is very noble, and Warwick stands without a rival; but these are brilliant exceptions, and the early castle-builders of the shires of Leicester, Warwick, and Northampton, in the absence of those wilder features of nature to which many of the Welsh and Scottish fortresses owe much of their celebrity, had to be content with defences often wholly artificial, and, where natural, seldom of a bold character, though sometimes of formidable strength.

The Castle of Kenilworth is an excellent example of a midland fortress. To an ordinary observer, its site presents much of quiet sylvan beauty, but nothing of obtrusive military strength; and yet, in the hands of skilful engineers, it became, in point of size, strength, and accommodation, one of the most important military posts in England. It had walls capable of great passive resistance, a capacity for containing a numerous garrison and immense stores of provision, and a front protected by a large sheet of water, which again was covered by a formidable outwork. Moreover the midland districts were, from an early period, traversed by main and cross roads, favourable to the concentration of troops and the transfer of stores, seldom sought in vain in so fertile a country. For all these qualities, strength, capacity, a central position, and facilities for collecting and feeding a garrison, there was, in the days of its pride, no fortress in England superior, probably none equal, to Kenilworth; and now, when its grassy lawns and ivy-covered walls are redolent of peace and prosperity, and of English rural life, the thoughtful visitor cannot but feel that the place was a fitting one for the conclusion of that celebrated contest between monarchical power and civil liberty, in which, though the honour and nominal victory were with the Crown, the real and permanent gain remained with the English people.

Half-way between Warwick and Coventry, where the action of water upon the soft rock of the new red sandstone has wrought the surface of the country into an immense network of low, round-topped hills and broad and gentle valleys, the Inchford brook, one of the many tributaries of the river Sow, receives, on its left or northern bank, a smaller and nameless streamlet. At the point where the waters and their respective valleys unite, a knoll, partly of rock and partly of gravel, juts out from the north-east as a sort of low headland between the two, and is somewhat farther isolated by an expansion of the valley lower down, the general effect of which is to invest the high ground with a marshy frontier upon its west, south, and south-eastern slopes, leaving it toward the north and north-east connected with larger tracts of equally raised land.

Such was the spot selected in remote times, probably by some wealthy English franklin, for a residence, and adopted by his Norman successors. By one or other, or possibly by both, a deep trench was dug across the neck of the high ground, on the north and north-east, and the slopes were made steeper on the other sides. The central plot, thus isolated, was raised artificially about 15 feet, probably from the surrounding excavations, and works were thus formed which may still be traced amidst the additions and alterations due to many generations of inhabitants. As usual with these concentric earthworks, the inner and higher part, which carried the residence of the lord, was placed out of centre with the outer and lower area. This was intended not only as an outer defence to the citadel, but as a place of security for the dependents, and in times of danger for the herds and flocks. It was important that all these should be placed near together, hence one or two sides of the base court were of large area, while the remainder was narrow and used for defence only. Such is the arrangement at Berkhampstead, Caerleon, Wigmore, Richard’s Castle, Tonbridge, Ewias-Harold, Kilpeck, Shrewsbury, and in many other fortresses where the Norman engineer has built upon the earlier lines, and such is the case at Kenilworth, where the eastern and north-eastern sides of the outer ward are by much the most spacious.

The mound, so common in English strong places, and found at the adjacent fortress of Warwick, is not here distinctly visible; the question being, whether its site is occupied by the Norman keep or encroached upon by John of Gaunt’s Hall, both of which are connected with ancient earth-banks. A part of one of these banks is seen on the west front of the inner ward, and, though mutilated, may well represent the original burgh. The Norman keep is also connected with made ground. It includes within its walls a very decidedly artificial mound, from 10 to 15 feet high, against which its walls are built. Kenilworth, as it now stands, is a castle of several periods, but its general plan is original and concentric, the principal additions having been the lake and the outwork beyond it. It is composed of a keep, an inner and outer ward, a lake now drained, a large outwork beyond the lake, and a dam which supported the lake, and across which lay the main approach to the castle.

The Inner Ward measures about 80 yards north and south, by 84 yards east and west. Its north-eastern angle is a right one, and its eastern and much of its northern sides are straight lines, but the southern and western sides are irregular. The keep forms and fills up the north-eastern angle. West of it, on the north front, are the kitchens, and at the north-west angle the strong tower. The west front is occupied by the hall, and other domestic and state buildings stand along the south side. Leicester’s buildings form the south-east angle, and Henry VIII.’s lodgings and the curtain, now gone, covered the remainder of the east side. In the centre was an open court, about 40 yards north and south, by 50 yards east and west.

The Keep, known as “Cæsar’s,” and with more justice as “Clinton’s Tower,” is, in magnitude, general proportions, and excellence of material and workmanship, a fine example of a first-class late Norman keep of the rectangular type. It forms the north-east angle of the inner ward, and is built mainly on the rock, here near the surface. The ground is lowest on the east and south faces, so that on these the base is composed of a bold battering wall from 8 to 12 feet high, divided into eight or ten steps, and of 6 to 8 feet projection at the ground line. At the top of this base, which corresponds to the level of the ground floor, the keep measures, from curtain to curtain, 58 feet north and south, by 87 feet east and west, and is from the level about 80 feet high. Its west face is covered by the forebuilding, which projects 38 feet more, and is as long as the keep is broad, or 73 feet from the front face of the turrets. The angles of the keep are capped by four turrets, projecting 7 feet 6 inches, and the faces of which are 26 feet and 22 feet, the latter to the east and west. Between these there are on the south face four, and on the east face three, pilasters, 5 to 7 feet broad, and 1 foot projection. These rise from the common plinth and ascend to the summit of the present wall, which is broken, but which includes 5 or 6 feet of parapet. It is remarkable that this parapet has no exterior projection, not even a stringcourse to mark the level of its base.

The turrets are broken down nearly to the level of the curtains, but parts of their chambers remain. The west face is modified by the forebuilding. There are upon it two pilasters, but they stop at the level of the first floor. The turrets have an offset of 6 inches at two-thirds of their height, and the curtains one at a rather lower level. These are the only exterior reductions in the thickness of the wall, which is vertical. The walls, at the floor level, are 13 to 14 feet thick, and there were two floors only—a basement and an upper or main floor. The basement chamber is 60 feet by 30 feet, and 20 feet high; the upper floor about 4 feet larger, the wall being reduced by 2 feet, upon which shelf the floor rested. This main chamber was about 40 feet high. The basement has lately been probed and opened. It is filled with made ground, varying from 6 to 15 feet deep. The walls evidently go through the made ground, and rest either upon the rock or on the original black vegetable soil. The sacrifice of so much space in so costly a structure is curious. It is evidently intentional, for the character of the masonry shows it was not meant to be seen.

The north-east turret contained a well-stair 10 feet diameter, which ascended from the basement to the battlements, communicating with the first floor. It was lighted by six round-headed loops, of which three to the south-east remain, and open upon a chamfer which fills up the hollow angle between the turret and the east curtain. The stair seems to have opened below by a short bent passage in the north wall, though in the restoration it has been made to open into the chamber in the east wall. The whole north curtain is gone, from the plinth upwards, and has been removed with some care, its junction with the north-west turret being cut smooth. At the other end its removal has necessarily carried away half the staircase, the base of which has been entirely restored. This basement chamber is surrounded by a low, narrow plinth or step, 2 feet high and 1 foot broad. The floor was paved. In the south wall are three grand window recesses, round-headed, and each placed in a reveal about 1 foot broad and deep and square-headed. The arches spring from a plain abacus. They are 8 feet wide and 12 feet high to the springing. At present these recesses are parallel-sided, and open throughout. It is evident they once were deeply splayed, and contained small lights or loops, but the splays were cut away, and the loops replaced by large heavily-mullioned windows of the Tudor period, which windows have again been removed. In the east wall is a similar recess, 6 feet broad, and unaltered. Here the splay from outside and inside contracts in an hour-glass fashion to a loop in the centre of the wall, with a slight shoulder to intercept an arrow. As the parallel sides of the loop are 2 feet thick, and it is 6 feet from the face of the wall, it is clear that no arrow could be discharged hence save nearly straight forwards. As usual, these loops were for air and light, not for defence. Between this loop and the south angle is a square-headed door, of 3 feet opening, under a curious round-headed arch, of which the tympanum is partly formed by the arch stones. This leads to the well, which is in the centre of the wall. It is 4 feet diameter, and much choked up. It ascends to the upper floor. At the north end of this side the wall has been broken away and a small mural chamber laid open, 5 feet wide by 8 feet long, having a plain barrel vault. A door opened into it from the great chamber, and it was lighted by a loop, now converted into a sort of window. The inner wall about the doorway has been strengthened by a pilaster of 1 foot projection, which stops at the first floor. In the recent restoration, this chamber has been made the lobby at the foot of the staircase.

In the west wall is a plain, round-headed doorway, of 6 feet opening, and with ashlar ring-stones 2 feet deep. This is the opening of a straight passage through the wall, here 12 feet 9 inches thick. There are in the passage rebates for two doors, opening towards each other. At Rochester, a small door in this position led only into a sort of prison in the base of the forebuilding, and this may have been the case here; but the size of the door, as at Corfe, makes it at least possible that it was a regular entrance, approached through the forebuilding from the common exterior door. In small keeps the basement was often entered from the first floor only, as at Clitheroe, by a trap, or, in the larger keeps, by a well-stair, as at Middleham. Unfortunately, as the forebuilding is almost always more or less injured, it is impossible in most cases where there is a large basement door to say positively whether it was an independent entrance. There is also the further doubt, as at the Tower of London, Guildford, and Malling, whether the doorway in the basement be not a later introduction. The cill of this doorway is about 10 feet above the outer or main entrance of the forebuilding, the floor of which rises to it. Close north of the large doorway is a small one, of 2 feet 6 inches opening, which leads into a garderobe, the seat of which is corbelled out into the interior of the north-west turret. This interior, 10 feet 6 inches square, seems to have been a vast cesspit, receiving the contents of garderobes from each floor and from the battlements. There is no drain below, and the lower part of the pit contained sand, which has recently been removed. There is a somewhat similar pit in the keep at Ludlow, and one at Sherborne which resembles them. Large as this pit is for such a purpose, it is much smaller than the turret, the wall of which to the west, if solid, must be 11 feet thick. Can there be a second and smaller shaft in that part of the turret, not now accessible? There was no way from this floor to either of the southern turrets, both of which, at this level, were filled with earth.

The main or upper floor is 34 feet by 64 feet, and was about 40 feet high. As the span is long for single joists, it is possible that these rested upon a central beam, and this upon posts; or, as no bases have been found, it may be that they were stiffened by struts from the side walls. Some traces in the ashlar of the broken staircase at the north-east corner seem to point to an entrance from the stair through the north wall, similar to that supposed below. In the south wall are three window recesses corresponding to those below, but of 6 feet opening, with segmental heads. They rest on the floor and are 12 feet high. Above one of these openings, on the outside, may be traced the head of one of the original Norman windows, which shows that it was of small size—probably of 2 feet opening. These have been replaced, with small regard for congruity, by late Tudor windows of three lights, divided in the centre by a transom. In the east wall are two similar windows, and over the well-pipe is the well-chamber, 7 feet square, rudely vaulted and groined. Its floor has been relaid, but it is evident that the pipe ascended into this chamber, and that a pulley hung from the centre of the vault for the working of the bucket. In the south-east corner is a locker for a spare rope or tools. The entrance to this chamber was through the jamb of the adjacent window, but a second doorway has been broken direct from the great chamber. Close to this breach a door and bent passage lead into the south-east turret, where is a chamber 12 feet 6 inches by 15 feet. The floor is of earth, with which the turret is filled to this level. Above are traces of an upper chamber, entered probably by a ladder and a trap-door. There is no fireplace, but a loop high up in the south wall has been converted into a window, and a second loop remains in the east wall.

The west wall of the great chamber contains two windows similar to the other side—save that they do not descend to the floor, but begin about 8 feet up, so as not to interfere with the forebuilding outside. North of these windows, in the part of the north-west turret which abutted on the north curtain, is a door of 3 feet opening, and 8 feet or 10 feet high. This is the cross section of a mural passage leading from the great chamber. Close south of it, in the west wall, and above the similar door on the ground floor, a small round-headed door leads into the garderobe turret. The other opening in the west wall is at its south end, and is the main entrance to the keep. It is a plain doorway of 6 feet opening, with a flat, segmental head beneath a full-centred arch of relief. The passage has a segmental barrel vault. It goes direct through the curtain, here 12 feet thick. It has no portcullis. In the south wall of the passage a side door opens into the south-west turret. This also had an original upper chamber, but below the entrance or first-floor level it was filled with earth; this has been removed, and the lower part fitted up, and windows opened in the south wall, and a rude door at the base, but the rough character of the masonry shows that the turret was originally filled up to the first-floor level. Dudley’s alterations converted the interior of this turret into five tier of rooms, the windows of which are seen in the south wall. It is said also to have been fitted up as a staircase.

The great chamber had an open roof, the holes for the joists of which are seen in the southern wall. The pitch was low, almost flat, as is shown by the original weather-moulding in the east and west walls, which has been masqued by a thin interior facing, carrying a moulding for a roof of a rather higher pitch, all which, however, has disappeared under the recent repairs. This is different from Porchester, Rochester, and Bridgenorth, where the original pitch was steep. On the outside, above the windows, but much below the base of the parapet, is seen a row of loops, square-headed, with a plain chamfer, expanded below into a broad fantail. There are three of these in the south wall and two in the east and west, and each turret has besides one on each of its two outer faces. The turret loops are at a higher level, and this shows that the turrets themselves stood clear above the curtains. These apertures are curious. The loop ascended in the wall and opened in the base of the parapet beneath a flat, three-centred arch. The loops are probably original, but the parapet seems to have been rebuilt, either when the pitch of the roof was altered or in Dudley’s time. The walls are covered with ivy and in a dangerous condition, so that even with the aid of long ladders their upper part is not very accessible. There are traces of doorways opening from the rampart walk into the upper parts of the turrets, the floors of which were of timber.

The forebuilding covering the entrance forms almost as remarkable a feature here as at Rochester or Middleham, though it has suffered much from alterations. It was a rectangular tower built against the west wall of the keep, and projecting 38 feet. Its walls are 6 feet thick, bonded into and of the date of the keep. The west wall has been in part removed down to the plinth, but the two other walls are tolerably perfect. It was of two stages and about 40 feet high. The door was in the south wall, opening from the inner ward. It may be traced, but has been in part replaced by an entrance of Perpendicular date, now also broken away. Above the old door, 12 feet from the ground, is a plain Norman string. From the door a straight stair, reversed with a second flight, must have risen 25 feet to reach the first floor. At that level, over the entrance, was a chamber, of which part of the Norman wall remains, but which was rebuilt by Dudley, and has been nearly all destroyed. Here was possibly a chapel, as at Middleham. The entrance to the first floor of the keep opens from this level, in the curtain, close to the south-west turret. The doorway, like that within, is quite plain, and has a flat, segmental head under an arch of relief, also segmental, but less flat. It looks as though the lower arch had been inserted to carry the joists of the roof, but it is really original. The pitch of the roof of the forebuilding has been thrice altered, as is shown by the grooves cut in the wall of the turret. The flattest is the latest. The roofs seem to have been of the lean-to character. Whether there was a chamber below the stair, or whether there was a way at the base of the stair into the lower floor of the keep, as has been already pointed out, cannot now be ascertained.

It would seem that in the Perpendicular period this forebuilding was much altered, its entrance a little shifted, and in it were placed several piers, 3 feet square, supporting full-centred arches, of 9 feet span, on which the timbers of the floor above were laid. A plain doorway of 6 feet opening was cut in the curtain forming the north end, and in the exterior of the wall an alcove was formed of 13 feet span by 6 feet deep, having a segmental arch, and supported by three plain ribs with a hollow chamfer. This alcove opened upon a terrace, which overlooked the northern part of the outer ward, and formed a sort of landing and staircase, giving a descent of four or five steps from the door to the terrace. The object seems to have been to form a handsome way from the inner ward to the garden north of the keep. The piers and arches might be of the date of Elizabeth or James, but their mouldings and parts of the adjacent walls are clearly earlier, and no doubt the work of the Lancastrian owners, who in that case must have indulged in a garden. Dudley made further alterations, and a part of the south front of the forebuilding still bears the date of 1575, and has Italian ornaments.

There is to be remarked in this keep, the absence of a cross wall, the basement filled up with earth, the unusual projection of the four turrets, the probably distinct entrances from the forebuilding to the ground and first floor, and the well-stair, nearly as large as that of the Tower of London. Also, there is no portcullis, and there are but few mural chambers or galleries. This is the more remarkable as the walls are unusually thick and the material excellent. Further, there are no fireplaces in the three remaining walls, and there is no ornamentation of any kind, inside or outside. The keep is the only distinctly Norman building remaining in the inner ward, although much of the curtain is Norman, and more rests upon the Norman lines.

It has been stated that the keep forms the north-eastern angle of the inner ward. The curtain abutting upon it on either face is of its own date. At the north-west corner the curtain forms the north wall of the forebuilding, and for some yards is original. At the south-east corner of the keep are the remains of the entrance into the inner ward. This, as at Bridgenorth, was a doorway in the east curtain, close to the keep, and, as at Bridgenorth, although the curtain has been removed, a part of the doorway remains. The curtain was here 11 feet thick and 21 feet high to the rampart wall, above which were a parapet and rear wall of about 5 feet more. One whole jamb and the springing-stones of the portal remain. There was no gatehouse, only an opening in the wall, as at Ogmore, and probably at Ludlow. The defences were:—First, a portal 3 feet deep, and in it a square portcullis groove; then a rebate for a door opening inwards; and, finally, an arched passage 3 feet higher than the portal and 6 feet deep. The entrance appears to have been a foot-gate only, so that carriages could not enter the inner ward.

What are called Lancaster’s buildings occupy most of the inner ward. They commence at the forebuilding, and extend along the rest of the north side, the whole of the west, and much of the south side. They evidently replaced similar buildings of the Norman period, and were built towards the end of the fourteenth century. Next west of the forebuilding are the remains of the kitchen and buttery, now a mass of ruin, much of which is covered up with earth. An immense fireplace has been inserted into the wall of the forebuilding, having two very perfect ovens lined with thin bricks; another fireplace is formed in the adjoining curtain; the fire-backs are also of thin brick, set herring-bone fashion. Further on, a curious triangular buttress outside the curtain contains a garderobe shaft, the drain from which is a squared-headed opening in the rock below, about 6 feet high and 4 feet broad. There is a second drain, which traversed the kitchen, and the mouth of which, fitted with a groove for a sluice, is seen in the inner ward, near the hall door. Probably if the rubbish was removed, the plan of these buildings would be visible. Beyond them, the north-western angle of the ward is capped by the strong tower, quadrangular, 50 feet by 40 feet, with octagonal turrets at the two western angles, and between them a rather remarkable triangular buttress. The tower is of three stages, all vaulted and groined, each vault of four bays springing from a central pier. It is of the date of the hall and kitchens, from the foundations. This tower probably derived its name of the “Strong Tower” from its use as a prison, though evidently for persons of consequence. The windows are plain, flat-topped openings. In the sides of one of the splayed recesses, looking towards the west, are some coats-of-arms scratched in the stone. Those that have been made out are four.

1. Six cross-croslets flory, on a bend three pheons bend-wise, points depressed to the sinister.

2. Quarterly, per fesse embattled.

3. On a quarter a fret (or fretty).

4. Quarterly, 1 and 4, a cross botonné.

„ 2 and 3, three crescents inverted.

Next to this tower is the Hall, which occupies nearly the whole west side of the ward. This, for dimensions, proportion, material, and workmanship was probably the finest hall in the kingdom, wholly of the early Perpendicular period. It measured 90 feet by 45 feet, and stood upon a basement of the same size, of which the roof was vaulted in eighteen square bays, springing from ten piers, arranged with the walls in three equal aisles, while against the wall are fourteen responds, besides one at each of the four angles. Between each pair is an arched recess. This vast and beautiful cellar was aired by loops upon the east side only. The cross aisle at the north end was partitioned off by a stone screen as a passage, which traversed the cellar, having at its east end a door from the inner ward, and to the west a postern opening on the outer ward. This postern is a square-headed doorway, with a bold portcullis groove, and immediately above it is a small square window traversed by the grate, and in the cill of the hall window above is a round hole for the chain, by which the grate was lifted. This portcullis is rather a tribute to the military character of the building, than for the affording any special security, for the large windows of the hall above would have admitted an army. The cellar was entered by a side door from the passage, and at its south-west corner was a small apartment, a cellaret, whence a small well-stair led to the “buffet” above. The hall, resting upon its vaulted floor, is one storey above the inner ward level. It was approached by a broad, straight staircase, which landed in a porch at the north end of the east side of the room. The porch rested upon a vault, and was itself vaulted and groined and richly panelled. The hall was lighted by four large windows towards the west or outer ward, and by three towards the inner ward. At the upper two-thirds of the room, opposite each other, and between two pair of windows, are two large fireplaces. They have lintels slightly shouldered, no hoods or projection, and their splays are panelled.

At the upper or south end of the hall, on the east side, is a large half-octagon oriel, opening by an arch of 15 feet from the dais, panelled and groined, and containing three large windows of two lights with transoms and foliated heads, and a small fireplace. Opposite to this, in the west wall, is a recess of 10 feet opening, the roof of which is ceiled, and which is intended for a “buffet” or sideboard. It is flanked by two small octagonal turrets, one of which contains the stair which descends to the cellar and rises to the roof. From hence a passage led to the withdrawing-rooms at the south end of the hall. The buffet projection, with its turrets, matches the strong tower which caps the further end of this front. The north wall of the hall is gone, but there remains the jamb of a large door, probably opening into the buttery. In the north-west angle, in the window jamb, a small door opens into a well-stair, leading up to the roof. The south wall behind the dais is also gone, but one window of the music gallery remains. The windows are broad and lofty, set in deep, splayed recesses, panelled and fitted with seats. The arches, though four-centred, are rather highly pointed. The edge of each recess is replaced by a bold roll. The windows are coupled, each of two lights, divided by two transoms, and the heads of the openings thus formed are richly foliated. The roof was open, of timber, supported by five pair of principals, besides those against the wall at each end, and the spandrels of the window arches in the main wall are panelled. The exterior buttresses are set on square, but have diagonal faces. The door is set in a low drop arch. The whole building is Perpendicular of the purest kind, and early in the style.

From the upper end of the hall a suite of rooms stood along the south side of the court, of which only the ruins remain. Beyond the hall was the White Hall, now entirely gone; and beyond it a fine oriel window, looking into the court, is said to have belonged to the presence chamber. Behind this, upon the curtain, is a low turret of bold projection, 30 feet by 20 feet, divided by a cross partition into two public garderobes, with large cesspits below, a very curious appendage to a suite of state rooms. The base of the curtain on this front shows traces of Norman work, and seems original. Owing to the superior height of the inner ward, the lower 8 or 10 feet of the curtain on this side is a revetment.

Lancaster’s buildings end in the remains of an octagonal tower, on the curtain, and are succeeded by what are called Leicester’s buildings, though it is a shame to use that title at Kenilworth with reference to any other than the great earl to whom England owes so much. These form the south-east angle of the ward. They cover a plot of 50 feet by 90 feet, and are 80 or 90 feet high. They possess no architectural merit, and though built of sound ashlar, the walls are thin for their height, and they are cracked and much ruined. All the floors and roofs are gone. No doubt these buildings replace a Norman tower of some sort, but they probably project much further than that did into the outer ward. Beyond these, along the eastern face of the ward, Henry VIII.’s lodgings and Dudley’s Lobby extended nearly to the entrance; these are now removed, and with them the Norman curtain upon which they rested.

This inner ward was in itself a very tolerable fortress, the keep commanding the whole, and being, from its excessive passive strength and rocky base, practically impregnable. The curtains seem to have had buildings placed against them nearly all round; they were certainly lofty, and from this circumstance and the vantage of the ground on which they stood the inner ward overlooked all the exterior defences of the place. The ground falls rapidly upon the north, south, and west fronts. Along the east front, where the natural slope was gradual, was excavated a broad and deep ditch, which completed the defences of the ward. Moreover, it is not improbable that this ditch was continued along the north front, occupying the site of the garden, and dying out in the low ground near the Swan Tower.

The Outer Ward has next to be described. This is roughly an oval in plan, 270 yards east and west, by 174 yards north and south. The inner ward covers about one-sixth of its area, and is placed about 54 yards and 30 yards from its west and south boundaries, and 67 yards and 130 yards from those on the north and east, giving a large space in the latter direction, which seems to have contained various domestic buildings, the entrances, and the chapel. This ward was divided by the cross ditch already mentioned, and which extended from the exterior northern ditch 150 yards, nearly to the lake. Traces of it remain at either end, but most of it has been completely filled up, probably by Dudley after Queen Elizabeth’s visit. It was 70 feet broad, and across it a bridge led up to the entrance of the inner ward. At the north end this ditch must have been very deep; towards the south, in front of Leicester’s buildings, where part of it remains, the ground falls and it becomes shallow. Probably as an additional protection, a cross wall was built in the rear of this ditch from the south-east corner of the inner ward to the opposite curtain. Part of this wall was removed when Leicester’s buildings were constructed, but the outer end remains, and a part of a doorway in it. This ward is crossed by another wall of later date, which extends from the Strong Tower to the west curtain, about 34 yards. In its centre is a doorway of 10 feet opening, which, with the wall, seems of Perpendicular date. Henry VIII.’s “Plaisance” was built on each side of this gate to the north. The first wall is no doubt original, and was intended to prevent an enemy who had crossed the ditch where it was shallow pushing westwards along the outer ward; the second was probably built to shut off the garden on the north front, in the Lancastrian period. In this outer ward is what appears to be a part of the original earthworks of the early residence. In front of the hall, about on a level with its floor, so that the cellar wall is a revetment, is a triangular platform about 72 feet long at its base along the wall, and of about 63 feet projection at its apex. It is about 30 feet above the rest of the ward, and has a slope of one to one. The cutting for the path from the hall postern divides it from a smaller mound to the north, and the whole seems artificial, or nearly so. This platform commands the outer curtain. It is odd it was not included within the inner ward.

The broad space to the north, called in Dudley’s time the garden, and now a large kitchen garden, has probably been partially raised by the ruins of the keep and of the north curtain. How it was originally occupied is not known; possibly there was a ditch here. If the Lancastrian lords made the passage through the forebuilding and the alcove in the curtain, they must have laid out the space within the ditch as a garden. Of the many detached buildings that at various times must have stood in the outer ward, and especially in the eastern section of it, the site of but one, the chapel, is known. This was an oblong nave, without aisles, having an east end of three sides of a hexagon, and across which is the foundation of a wall. The interior breadth was 33 feet; the length has not yet been excavated. Probably there was always a chapel here, for a capital has been found in it of Norman work much earlier than the keep, but the building, of which the foundations remain, is of Decorated or early Perpendicular date, as is evident from the plan, and from parts of the sedilia which have been dug up.

KENILWORTH CASTLE.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

MORTIMER’S TOWER.

  1. Garderobe and Sewer.
  2. The Dam.
  3. The Lake
  4. Water below the Dam.
  5. Outer Ward.

KENILWORTH KEEP.

  1. Fore Building.
  2. Garderobe Tower.
  3. Well.
  4. Garden Door and Alcove.

The enceinte of this outer ward, about 750 yards in length, and including rather above nine acres, is mainly composed of a curtain wall, upon which are six rather important buildings. These are Mortimer’s and Swan Towers, Leicester’s Gatehouse, Lunn’s Tower, the Stables, and the Water Tower. Mortimer’s Tower derives its name either from Lord Mortimer of Wigmore, who led in a tournament here in the reign of Edward III., or from a Sir John Mortimer imprisoned here by Henry V. It is a gatehouse, and stands upon the inner end of the dam, and occupies a salient of the curtain to the south-east. It is in plan 60 feet deep, by 55 feet broad; in the rear, flush with the curtain and projecting from it, 54 feet. The entrance passage is in the centre of its length, and the outer portal opened between two half-round towers of 18 and 20 feet diameter. Within the arch was a portcullis in a square groove of dimensions for a wooden grate, and behind this a rebate for folding doors. The passage then widens a little with a curved splay, and on each side a door 2 feet wide opens into a lodge looped to the front and to the outside. In the rear of the east lodge is a solid wall 7 feet thick; but to the west lodge has been added a garderobe, and beyond it is the shaft of a second garderobe from the upper floor, and below them a sewer which opened into the lake. The loops are all cruciform. There was a second portcullis, the groove for which is stopped up, and at the inner face a rebate for a second pair of doors. The upper floor of this gatehouse has been removed. It is evident that it has been much altered. Originally it was composed of a mere pair of parallel walls, as at Berkhampstead and Coningsborough, 7 feet thick and 12 feet apart, and these form the back part of the present building. Of the upper floor a fragment remains outside the west wall, carrying on corbels the overhanging vent of a garderobe. To the plain rectangular tower the front drums and lateral chamber were added. The mouldings of the original structure are early, and of the later, more perfect Decorated; but the work is of an inferior character. The whole structure seems to have been originally built and added to in haste.

On its east side, this gatehouse was joined by the ward curtain, here 6 feet thick, of which a few yards have been removed. On the west, the curtain passes back straight and then turns westward at a right angle, forming a shoulder, by which means the long southern face is flanked. Near the angle is a postern door descending by steps to the lake. In the rear of the gatehouse is a shaft upon a culvert, which seems to have brought water from the lake into the lower floor of the Water Tower. There may have been a mill thus fed within the outer ward. In front, the eastern drum of the gatehouse is connected with a long curtain wall, which crested the edge of the dam to the east, and abutted upon the gatehouse, closing one of its loops. In this curtain, near that end, a small Decorated doorway gave access to the lower lake.

Passing westwards from Mortimer’s Tower, the curtain is seen to rest upon ground a few feet above the level of the lake and a few yards distant from its margin. It is of all dates from Norman to Perpendicular, and is from 20 to 30 feet high outside, and inside less by 6 or 8 feet. Opposite Leicester’s buildings, where the wall is 5 feet 6 inches thick, are three loops, of 1 foot opening, placed in full-centred recesses splayed to 5 feet. They have lighted some original Norman building now destroyed. Of the buttresses outside the curtain, some are original pilaster strips, others are from 6 feet to 14 feet broad, and of a projection from 2 feet to 4 feet, with many sets-off, and of a character decidedly Decorated. On the south face there are altogether fourteen buttresses. At the two south-west angles the wall is capped by two broad, flat buttresses, 10 feet broad and 2 feet projection. They may be late Norman. In the space of 30 yards between these is a shoulder-headed window, of 2 feet opening, and a late Decorated postern, which corresponds with the postern below the great hall. Beyond this a depression in the ground causes the wall to be 40 feet high. This western part is about 112 yards long, and terminates in the Swan Tower. In it is a large archway of Perpendicular date and 18 feet opening, corresponding to the “Plaisance” of Henry VIII., and perhaps intended for the purpose of allowing a boat to be thence launched upon the lake.

The Swan Tower caps the north-western angle of the ward. It is an octagon, but rests upon a base 12 feet high and 40 feet square. The upper part has been removed. The base is solid and the inner floor about 10 feet above the ground outside. The door to the remaining floor is in the gorge. The base of this tower may be either Perpendicular or Decorated. It is said to have been remodelled by Dudley. From the Swan Tower the north wall ran nearly straight 150 yards to Leicester’s Gatehouse, and upon it were two towers, one rectangular and one polygonal. These are gone, as is the wall, excepting one very thick fragment, which seems to have closed the cross ditch at its north end, and probably is provided with a sluice. A little probing and clearing here might bring this into evidence, and settle the breadth of the cross ditch. In front of this wall is the great northern outer ditch of the castle by which this front is protected from Clinton Green.

Leicester’s Gatehouse, built about 1570, is a rectangular building 56 feet by 28 feet, with bold octagon turrets at the angles, which rise slightly above the roof. The basement contained the entrance passage and gateway, and above it are two storeys. The windows are square-headed, of two lights and a transom; and, on the whole, the building is a fair example of its period. The passage has been closed and converted into two rooms, entered by a curious lateral porch, of Italian design, which has been added on. Outside are carved the arms of Beauchamp, and the ragged staff is employed as though it was a Dudley cognisance. The panelling of the interiors and a fireplace are curious, and were brought from the castle. A few yards east of this gatehouse are the remains of a buttressed causeway crossing the ditch, here nearly filled up. This looks old, and is probably part of the original entrance. Beyond this, the ditch deepens and reaches Lunn’s Tower, which caps the east angle of the ward.

Lunn’s Tower is cylindrical, 36 feet diameter, and about 40 feet high, and stands three-quarters outside the curtain. On the outer face are four pilaster strips, 5 feet broad by 6 inches projection, which probably rose to the base of the parapet, now gone. They rest on a plinth, and the tower has two sets-off, of which they partake. Appended to the rear of the tower has been added a sort of half-octagonal turret carrying a well-stair—an early addition. The basement is at the ward level, and there are two upper floors containing fireplaces under segmental heads. The floors were of timber. The only openings are loops: those of the two lower floors are square-headed, placed outside in square-headed recesses, ending below in broad fantails like those of the keep. Within, they are placed in splayed recesses with segmental arches. The basement has a door from the ward, but the upper floors are reached by the well-stair, which also opens on the contiguous curtain. This curtain on either side for some yards has been removed; but fragments remain, and show that a small, round-headed arch sprung on each side from the tower to the curtain and supported a garderobe at the rampart level over the hollow angle. Close in the rear of this tower is a well, lined with ashlar, 4 feet diameter. The curtain south of Lunn’s Tower has been breached for about 50 feet, and beyond this it is old and supports a range of stabling and farm buildings 170 feet long by 25 feet broad with square buttresses, in the centre of which is a large porch with diagonal buttresses and a wide entrance as for a barn, with a round-headed arch. The lower stage is of stone, and above is a stage of brick and timber. It is said to have been built by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in the reign of Edward II.; but much of it is certainly of far later date—in the late Perpendicular style. The curtain against which it is built is early English or Decorated, and the superstructure of the barn seems to be an addition, placed there when it was decided to have an upper storey. The arches are round-headed and look Decorated, but there are two late Tudor windows. The chapel was a few yards from this building.

Close south of the barn is the Water Tower, a very curious and complete building, early in the Decorated style. It is a mural tower, with no internal projection, having a base 50 feet broad by 30 feet deep, from which it rises as half an octagon, the angles being taken off by two diagonal buttresses, between which, in a projection, is a loop which lights a garderobe. It has a basement and upper floor, and the culvert from the lake discharged under it and washed out its garderobe sewer. In the ground floor is a large fireplace, above which is a handsome chimney-shaft. This seems to have been a kitchen. There is also a mural garderobe. A well-stair, having a spire over its head, leads to the upper storey, the floor of which was of timber, and to the battlements of the tower and of the curtain. The upper floor has a small room appended on the west, with a loop towards the field. The windows are of two lights, trefoil-headed. The roof sloped with a moderate pitch. It was contained within the battlements. Beyond this is a warder’s chamber, chiefly in the wall, but with a slight exterior projection. It contains a large fireplace and a garderobe, and seems of early English or early Decorated date. From hence the curtain was 6 feet thick, and what remains is supported by three Decorated buttresses. Beyond these, a breach of 30 yards extends to Mortimer’s Tower.

The walls of this ward, though much repaired and restored, seem to occupy the original Norman lines, and are probably in many places of the date of the keep. The defences outside the wall are formidable. On the north is the ditch cut in the rock, of great depth and breadth, a very necessary defence, for beyond it the ground is at least as high as the base of the keep. This is Clinton End or Clinton Green, upon which are some banks of earth, traces it may be of the great siege by Henry III., who probably encamped on this side. It is curious that no attempt should have been made to fill up the ditch, without which no engine could have been brought to play with effect upon the keep. Probably the strength of the garrison and the frequent sallies they are known to have made prevented this, or faggots may have been used. From Lunn’s Tower to the Water Tower, the ditch is still filled with water, and from thence to Mortimer’s Tower no ditch was needed, the ground being low and wet and at times under water. Then follows the dam, above which the lake covered the south front, as an arm of it did the west front, as far as the Swan Tower. The north was the weak side, the ground there being high; but opposed to this was the keep and the very formidable ditch. It is said that this ditch could be filled from the lake, and the castle thus encircled with water. If so, there must have been a small dam, probably at the bridge in front of the old entrance west of Lunn’s Tower.

The defences on the south require special notice. From Mortimer’s Tower a bank of earth is thrown straight across the valley. It is 80 yards long, 15 yards broad, and about 20 feet high on the upper or western side. The lower side is strengthened by a ramp in the slope. About a third of the way across, a deep and broad cut, now bridged, lets off the water and has drained the lake; but whether this was the position of the sluice is doubtful. Mortimer’s Tower closed the inner end of this dam, and a curtain wall 4 feet thick defended its eastern face. At its further end are the remains of the floodgate or gallery tower, an outer gatehouse, beyond which is a deep ditch across the dam, which was evidently intended to take the overflow of the lake, and perhaps to drain it if necessary. It was crossed by a drawbridge, the piers of which still remain. This gatehouse is attributed to Lord Leicester, who probably recast it. In substance it is certainly much older. A grand block of stone, worked with Decorated mouldings, has been used in its repairs, and is probably part of the older building, though also thought to have been brought from the chapel. A flight of steps from this gatehouse descended to the lake, and is superseded by a modern farm road.

KENILWORTH CASTLE.
GENERAL PLAN.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

It was by this gateway, between the Brayz and the tilt-yard, that Queen Elizabeth made her celebrated entry. Dugdale’s drawing of 1620 seems to show a wall on the upper side of the dam, but of this there is now no visible trace. The broad and level surface of the dam was well suited for a tilt-yard and seems always to have been so employed, as was also, no doubt, the Brayz. Such exercises, being attended by numbers of armed men, were usually held at the barriers, or outside the main gate of the castle, as a precaution against a surprise. The effect of the dam was to form a sheet of water 90 yards to 100 yards across, half a mile long, 10 feet to 12 feet deep, and covering about 111 acres. Below the dam, where the valley is rather broader and the ground naturally low and marshy, a second, lower and smaller lake has been formed, the dam of which, of a slight character, may be seen along the upper side of the road from the station to the castle. This lower lake must always have been shallow, but it served to protect the great dam, to cover the south-east angle of the castle, and to guard the rear and eastern flank of the great outwork. At Ledes there was a “Stagnum Regis” below the dam of the lake, and at Caerphilly the waste water from the lake was made to cover the principal front of the castle.

There remains, finally, to be noticed the great outwork which completed the defence of the castle on the south side, and formed a noble tête-de-pont beyond the lake. It bore the name of the Brayz, possibly from “Brayda,” a suburban field or broad place.

South of the lake, a tongue of high land intervenes between it and a more or less parallel brook, which descends from Wedgnock Park, by a valley which falls into the Inchford a little below the castle. It was the point of this tongue, lying between the two valleys, that was taken advantage of for an advanced defence. The ground was scarped into a sort of large, flattened half moon, with a front of 300 yards, and covering about eight acres. Along its front is a bank about 20 feet high, and as broad at the top, and upon this are four mounds such as in later times were called “cavaliers,” and of which that at the south-west end was 40 feet diameter at the top. In front of this bank was excavated a ditch, in some parts 40 feet deep and 100 feet broad, and in parts double, and in the rear, where the work rested on the lake it was steeply scarped and guarded by a ditch about 20 feet deep, beyond which, on the edge of the lower lake, was a bank 10 to 12 feet high, so as to make it very difficult to turn the flank of the outwork and to enter it from the rear. Near the middle of this outwork was the entrance to the castle from the south. Its position is marked by two bold drum bastions in ashlar, 25 feet diameter, and 40 feet apart. They rise out of the ditch from a plain plinth to the height of 14 feet, and so high are solid. Their superstructure is gone. There was, no doubt, a drawbridge here, and the road may be traced across the outwork to the Floodgate Tower. Here stood the southern of the four gatehouses mentioned at Elizabeth’s visit, and by this she made her entrance. A little west of the Brayz is a quarry, which probably supplied some of the materials for the castle.

In advance of the Brayz, between it and the Wedgnock brook, are traces of a light bank and ditch, or perhaps two ditches, with flanking bastions of earth, intended to check the advance of an enemy from that side. The lines cross the road, and are protected by the brook, which flows below and in their front. This road—the main approach from Warwick and the south—leads direct up to the Brayz entrance, whence it makes a sharp turn to the right and skirts the counterscarp of the ditch, so as to be completely commanded from the ramparts.

It would add much to the appearance of the castle, and bring some of its most remarkable features prominently into view, if the owner would make an entrance for visitors at the Brayz gate, and allow them to approach the castle along the dam through Mortimer’s Tower.

The history of the construction of Kenilworth is written with tolerable clearness in its earthworks and walls. The English founder probably placed his residence upon what became the inner ward; he there fenced himself in, as was the manner of his nation, with banks and ditches, and walls either of dry stone or timber, taking the highest ground, and quartering his herds and herdsmen lower down, nearer to the meadows and the marshes in what is now the outer ward. Whether he found it necessary to cut the northern ditch to its full depth is uncertain; probably not, for its faces are sharp for so remote a period. Some ditch, however, there must have been, as without it the other works would be of little use. It may be also that there was then dug an inner ditch upon the north and east faces, as these were necessary to complete the security of the inner ward, and of one at least of them there are traces.

There is no mention of Kenilworth as a lordship until it was granted by Henry I. to Geoffrey de Clinton, who is the reputed founder of Clinton’s Tower or the keep; but this is more probably the work of his son, another Geoffrey, between 1170 and 1180, soon after which the estate fell to the Crown. Lunn’s Tower was probably the work of King John, about 1200; and the original curtain of the two wards seems to have ranged between the two dates. If the northern ditch of the outer work was not previously dug, it must have been dug, or at any rate deepened, at this period; and this applies also to the northern and eastern ditches, which seem to have covered the corresponding faces of the inner ward.

The character of the ground makes it probable that the Norman fortress had but one entrance. This could not have been on the east, west, or south fronts, as the ground was low and marshy; nor on the north, where the ditch is wide and deep, and on which side the inner ward had no corresponding gateway. The obvious position would be where is now Leicester’s Gatehouse, between the high ground of Clinton Green and the marsh land, and the way from which towards the gateway of the inner ward would be commanded by the keep.

Henry III. spent large sums here, and the Water Tower and adjacent Warder’s Tower and the stair of Lunn’s Tower are probably his work, together with large repairs to the south and east curtain. It is also pretty certain that to him must be attributed the great dam, and therefore the older parts of Mortimer’s and the Gallery Towers. Of parallel cases, the lake at Caerphilly belongs to the end of that reign; as, or to the commencement of that of Edward I., does the completion of that at Ledes in Kent. The Brayz, being a necessary adjunct to the dam, must have been contemplated while that was made, and therefore is probably of the same date. The light earthworks crossing the Warwick road are probably the work of Simon de Montfort the younger, thrown up in haste to check the approach of the royal troops from Warwick. Save the Gallery Tower, bridge, and the outer gatehouse, there does not appear to have been any masonry beyond the lake.

The castle contains but little pure Decorated work. The kitchens, hall, and rooms to the south-east, called Lancaster’s buildings, are probably the work of John of Gaunt, late in the fourteenth century. They no doubt replaced other less magnificent domestic buildings of Norman date. The chapel seems rather earlier than the hall, the barn later, and its upper floor later still.

The later Plantagenet and earlier Tudor sovereigns did little more than keep up the place; and thus it remained, until it was granted by Elizabeth to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who spent a large sum of money upon it in buildings and gardens, most of which have disappeared. He gutted the keep and forebuilding, and fitted them up in the Tudor style; and raised the lofty, but flimsy, pile known as Leicester’s buildings. He also embellished the entrance by the Brayz and Gallery Tower, and built the gatehouse still standing to the north-east, a very fine example of a declining period in English architecture. He probably filled up the east ditch and the inner north ditch, if such there was. The castle does not seem to have been inhabited after Leicester’s death. Prince Henry and his brother used it more for its chase than as a residence, and their successors, until recently, allowed it to be used as a quarry. During the Parliamentary wars, the north side of the keep was taken down, and the gorge of Lunn’s Tower blown up. Probably the lake was drained afterwards, when land became valuable.

Kenilworth is evidently the worth or dwelling of Kenelm; though who Kenelm was, or when he lived, are matters unrecorded. He was certainly a considerable person, both because he gave name to his estate and because his dwelling-place was evidently extensive and strong. It appears from Domesday that Kenilworth was a member of the royal manor of Stanlei or Stoneleigh, held as ancient demesne, the tenant doing suit and service upon the mote known as Motstow Hill. This mote, one of the most interesting English remains in the midland counties, stands, as it did at Domesday, and probably for several preceding centuries, upon a ridge of rock which forms the left bank of the Sow, opposite to the curious old Norman church of Stoneleigh. Some excavations upon its flanks have somewhat injured its integrity; but it is still a very marked feature in the valley, and one of the very few mote hills in the midland counties. A steep hollow way leads up to it from the river. The register of Stoneleigh Abbey mentions a castle in the manor, which was destroyed by the Danes in the wars between King Edmund and Canute, and which stood at a place called Holm Hill, on the Avon, in the woods opposite to the site of the late Abbey of Stoneleigh. As the destruction probably relates only to the timber superstructure, it is not unlikely that the mound or burh remains. Unfortunately, Holm Hill, as the ground thereabouts is still called, is in one of the Stoneleigh preserves, and therefore, not unreasonably, closed against strangers. Kenilworth at Domesday was in two parts: Opton or Upton, containing three hides, held direct of the king by Albertus Clericus, in pure alms; and Chineworde, held by Ricardus Forestarius. Opton is upper-town or high-town, the rising ground to the north of the present church; Chineworth is Kenilworth proper. Dugdale mentions a Richard Chineu as the same with Ricardus Forestarius, and cites the “Testa de Nevill”; but the name does not appear in the index to the printed volume of that record. Chineworth may be an accidental coincidence, or it may be a corruption of Kenilworth.

The two members continued in the Crown until Henry I. granted them to Geoffrey of Clinton, or Glinton, in Oxfordshire, one of his chamberlains and his treasurer, and possibly afterwards justiciary of England. Dugdale says he built the castle, and one of his grants shows that he had an important residence there, though it may be doubted whether any of the masonry now standing is his work. The date of Henry’s grant is not known, but no doubt it was before 1122, about which year Geoffrey de Clinton founded the priory of Kenilworth, from the local endowment of which he reserved his castle and park. Speed places the building of the church as early as 1112, but Robert, Bishop of Chester, who was consecrated in 1121, is one of the witnesses to the foundation charter. The Abbey of Stoneleigh was not established at that place till 1154, when Henry II. translated it from Radmore in Staffordshire. To Geoffrey de Clinton, who was living as late as 1129, succeeded Geoffrey his son, a chamberlain to Henry II., who acquired ten knights’ fees in the county by marriage with Agnes, daughter of Roger de Bellomont, Earl of Warwick. These he held, 12 Henry II. He was a large benefactor to the monks of Kenilworth, but he alienated the castle to the king, who held it, 12 Henry II., for some years. It was then recovered by Geoffrey, who, in a charter to the priory, says, “Postquam castellum meum et Honorem meum recuperavi.” It remained in his hands for about seven years, when it was again obtained by the king, who held it, 19 Henry II. and 27 Henry II., as did his successors. The date of Geoffrey’s death is unknown, but it was after 1165. The king evidently strengthened the place, for the entries in his reign relating to it are frequent and important. In 19 Henry II., it was victualled and garrisoned: the prices and quantities of the stores are set down in the Pipe Roll. In 27 Henry II., ward-silver and a commutation for castle-guard were paid to the sheriff, and rent, probably from persons living there for security. In 30 Henry II., the walls were repaired. In it there was then a prison, which was repaired, 31 Henry II. The castle was kept in order during Richard’s reign, and was much valued by King John, who, early in his reign, took a re-lease from Henry, son of the second Geoffrey de Clinton, with whom, or his son, another Henry, the name disappeared from Kenilworth.

King John paid five visits to Kenilworth between 1204 and 1215, and by his order large sums of money were spent upon the castle, and much wine was sent there. In 13 John, the sheriff is allowed sums of £361 and £102, and in the following year £224—all for buildings. In 17 John, £402 was thus spent. No doubt, King John may have built the keep in those years; it is, however, more probable that it was of earlier date, the work of the second Geoffrey; but John may well have built Lunn’s Tower.

Henry III. was much at Kenilworth, and the sheriff’s accounts show large and frequent expenditure very early in his reign. In 3 Henry III., a chapel was built, probably in the outer ward, and £150 allowed to rebuild a tower that had fallen. In each year more or less is spent. In 5–7 Henry III., the wind was high, and blew down several trees in the park, and much damaged certain buildings in the castle. Wine was occasionally sent there from Southampton. In 13 Henry III., the bank of the pool was repaired, and two years later there were more repairs, and mention is made of a gaol delivery by the judges. King John had already used the castle as a prison. In 19 Henry III., £6 16s. 4d. was allowed for a fair and beautiful boat to lie near the door of the king’s great chamber. No doubt the king had by that time constructed the dam and formed the lake. In 22 Henry III., Archbishop Walter de Gray had temporary charge of the castle, to receive there Ottoboni, the papal legate, who was himself soon afterwards placed in charge of it. In 26 Henry III., more money was spent. The chapel was to be ceiled with wainscot and painted, and seats provided for the king and queen. The tower where the bells hung was to be repaired, a new wall built on the south side by the pool, and the queen’s chamber to be painted. No doubt the Water Tower and the early part of, and perhaps the additions to, Mortimer’s Tower were of this period, as well as the dam and the outworks beyond it. Henry seems to have completed the military works pretty much as they are now seen.

In 28 Henry III., Simon de Montfort appears as governor for the king; and, in 32 Henry III., Alianor, the king’s daughter, and Earl Simon’s wife, has the custody of the castle for life. In 34 Henry III., such was the state of the district that the constable of the castle was ordered to cut away the woods to a breadth of six acres between Coventry and Warwick. In 38 Henry III., the Earl of Leicester and his countess had a grant of the castle for their lives, a concession by which Henry made over to his most dangerous enemy the strongest and most central fortress in his dominions. The events by which the king and the earl became opposed in arms in the field, and the succession of great events which led to the death of the earl, and the celebrated siege of Kenilworth, belong to the history of England rather than to that of Kenilworth, and form one of its most interesting and most valuable chapters. The subject has fallen under the pen of Mr. Green, and has found a place in the pages of the Archæological Journal (vol. xxi. p. 277), where the course of the events is disentangled, and very clearly narrated, and their political significance and bearing upon the constitutional history of our country treated in a manner both brilliant and profound. Earl Simon had evidently prepared Kenilworth as the base of his operations in the impending struggle; and upon his fall and death at Evesham, his son at once completed the preparations, and made his arrangements for a protracted defence. It was under the walls of Kenilworth that the younger Simon was surprised and nearly captured by the superior activity of Prince Edward, and it was from Kenilworth that he was marching when intercepted by the superior generalship of the prince, on the eve of the battle of Evesham.

The death of the earl and the defeat of his party brought out into strong relief the immense military value of Kenilworth. Thither fled all who escaped from the field, and they were employed in scouring the country, and adding to the immense stores already accumulated there. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, the king’s brother, was a prisoner there, and the conduct of Sir Simon towards him bears testimony to the prudence and moderation of the captor. He set free Richard, his son, and his followers, and despatched them to the Parliament convoked in September at Winchester, in the hope, not altogether in vain, that moderate counsels would ultimately prevail.

The possession of Kenilworth was the first object of the royal party; but not only was the castle strong, and its resources abundant, but the popular cause was in the ascendant, and the garrison included some of the greatest nobles and bravest soldiers in England. Henry, forty years before, had learned by the experience of Bedford that the siege of a well-appointed fortress was no light matter, and his preparations were very considerable. On the 8th of December he summoned his nobles to a muster at Northampton to proceed against Kenilworth, and on 26th December he called out the “posse” of Warwick and Oxford, “ad gravandum et expugnandum illos qui se tenent in Castro de Kenelworth.” The garrison refused to surrender the castle to Sir Simon, then in the hands of their enemies, and pleaded that they held it in trust for the Countess of Leicester, and could give it over to none other. It was the 23rd June, 1265, before the siege was commenced in good earnest.

The royal head-quarters seem to have been on the north side of the castle, probably along the high ground between what is still called Camp Field and Clinton Green, and it is not improbable that the king’s pavilion was pitched at the former point so as to be out of reach of the sallies of the garrison. On the Sunday after St. Margaret’s day, 20th July, the sword of state, called “Curtana,” was brought to the camp, and, in the presence of the king, delivered to the keeper of the king’s pavilion. To the camp came also the legate, Ottoboni; and so intent was the king upon the siege that the Duke of Brunswick, who had come to Windsor to marry Henry’s niece, came on to the camp, where the marriage ceremony was performed. The garrison was, however, in no way daunted by these symptoms of the king’s determination to take the place. They constructed powerful engines, and threw great stones from the walls, some of which are probably the stone balls, 18 inches diameter, which have been found there, and are still preserved at the castle. Unfortunately, the political events were so important that the operations of the siege have escaped record.

As, however, the royal cause gained ground, it became evident that, however strong the castle might be, its fall was a question of time only, and the counsels of Prince Edward and Prince Richard and the legate were directed to hasten this event by moderate means. A royal council was summoned, and met at Coventry, to settle the terms to be offered to the “disinherited”; and on the calends of November (31st October) the celebrated “Dictum” or “Ban” was proclaimed in camp, and on the following day confirmed, and, finally, on the Sunday, read out from the pulpit of Warwick Church by the legate in the presence of the king. The terms were, however, rejected by the garrison; on which the king decided to attack the place by storm, and, 20th November, masons, labourers, pioneers, and sappers were ordered up from Northampton.

Probably the garrison had been improvident; for stores began to fall short, the water became bad, and disease broke out. Upon this, the garrison asked for time to seek and advise with Simon de Montfort, then supposed to be on the continent. This was granted, but as the sickness became pestilential, Hastings agreed to surrender on terms. Four days were allowed for the retreat of the garrison, with their horses, arms, and harness. The necessary safe-conducts bear date the 13th December, but the castle was surrendered on the 12th. The siege had lasted six months, at a prodigious expense to the royal exchequer, as Henry soon afterwards informed the sheriffs, and to the severe injury of the monks of Kenilworth and Stoneleigh, and of the people of the whole midland district, who had been harried by both besiegers and besieged. Henry left immediately afterwards for Oxford, placing Philip Marmion in charge as constable; but before leaving he, by grant dated Warwick, 16th December, made over the castle and lordship to his brother Edmund, Earl of Lancaster.

Edmund was created Earl of Leicester by his nephew, Edward I., in 1274; and four years afterwards, 7 Edward I., he held a grand tournament at the castle, at which Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, specially distinguished himself. Edmund’s son and successor, Earl Thomas, enlarged the park, 30 Edward I. On his execution and attainder, the castle escheated to Edward II., who was afterwards brought here a prisoner by Henry, Earl Thomas’s brother and heir, and here retained until he was sent to Berkeley. With the new reign the attainder was reversed, and Earl Henry held the castle till his death, 19 Edward III., as did his son Henry, created Duke of Lancaster, 25 Edward III. Ten years later, on his death, 35 Edward III., Kenilworth came to his second daughter and co-heir, Blanch, who married John of Gaunt, Edward’s fourth son, who became Duke of Lancaster, 36 Edward III.

On the death of Edward III., John of Gaunt, distrusting the new king, his nephew, took up his abode for a time at Kenilworth, and probably commenced his alterations there. The works were, no doubt, carried on for many years; and certainly were not ended 15 Richard II., 1391–2, when masons, quarrymen, carpenters, and labourers were employed at the castle, the result being the remodelling of the inner ward, and the construction of the magnificent range of kitchens, hall, and state apartments, of which the remains are still visible. When the son and successor of John of Gaunt became Henry IV., Kenilworth, with the other possessions of the Duchy of Lancaster, fell to the Crown, and so remained. The castle received certain small additions, not of a military character, and all now removed, from Henry VI. and Henry VIII. Elizabeth, in the fifth year of her reign, 1563, granted the domain to Lord Robert Dudley, creating him in the following year Earl of Leicester. Leicester’s works were considerable. He gutted the keep and forebuilding, fitting them up in the Tudor style; built the pile of masonry, now nodding to its fall, and which bears his name, at the south-east corner of the inner ward; he built or restored the Gallery Tower upon the outer end of the dam; probably added an upper storey to the great barn; and built the great gatehouse, a very fine specimen of its age.

Probably also, late in his life, he filled up the ditch of the inner ward. His masonry, though of ashlar, and not ill executed, was not substantial; and upon the removal of the floors and roofs, the walls became unsafe, and much has fallen and is about to fall. No doubt his works were executed with great rapidity, since his famous reception of Elizabeth here took place in 1575. Leicester’s conduct threw a doubt upon the legitimacy of his only son, of which King James availed himself to make an enforced purchase of Kenilworth for an inconsiderable sum for Prince Henry; after whom it was held by Prince Charles, probably more for the use of the chase than as a residence. At that time the lake covered 111 acres, and there were four gatehouses; the four being, no doubt, Leicester’s Gatehouse, Mortimer’s and the Gallery Towers, and the entrance gate of the Brayz.

Drawn by J. H. Le Keux, from a Sketch by H. Smyth.

J. H. Le Keux sc.

KIDWELLY CASTLE.
BIRDS EYE VIEW.

Charles granted Kenilworth, in 1621, on a lease on lives to Carey, Earl of Monmouth, which was converted into a freehold in 1626, and upon which the Careys founded a claim at the restoration in 1660; Colonel Hawkesworth and others having held it while Cromwell was in power. Finally it was granted by Charles II. to Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, from whom it has descended in the female line to its present owner, whose conduct shows a true appreciation of the value of the remains.