IGHTHAM MOTE, KENT.
In the very few castles which saw their origin during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Britain, domestic comforts and attempts at effective defensive works appear to have run side by side, often to the almost total exclusion of the latter. The substitution of brick for stone masonry in many of these was in itself a startling change, but when combined with this, large and lofty apartments were introduced, many with magnificent carved and moulded wooden ceilings, windows of large dimensions filled with beautiful tracery characteristic of Perpendicular architecture, walls hung with rich tapestry and decorated with gorgeous heraldic devices and trophies of arms, costly furniture and other fittings betokening an advanced education in domestic requirements,—the feeling was borne in upon the minds of the nation that the feudal castle, as such, had seen its day, and that the age of the baronial residence and the manorial dwelling-house had superseded it.
In these later castellated residences the kitchens, larders, cellars, dining halls, residential rooms and general offices became matters of supreme moment, the defensive works of secondary importance, but designed nevertheless with a view to impressiveness and an assumption of strength which they rarely possessed. Within these lordly halls the noble owners held high revel, while troops of servitors, henchmen, and servants of every degree swarmed in the passages and halls in marked contradistinction to the old time grim men-at-arms, bearded archers, and steel-clad retainers of the feudal fortress.
There was naturally a period of transition during which the characteristics of the Castle predominated over the domestic influences, and those which sprang into existence during the reigns of Henry IV. and V. very ably show this feature. To this intermediate period we may ascribe those structures which were chiefly reared by the spoils acquired upon the Continent by soldiers of fortune who "followed the wars," and returning to their native land built palatial residences for themselves, out of their lawful, or it may be, ill-acquired, gains. Many of these were based upon designs which the adventurers had seen abroad, thus our first example, Bodiam, is a replica of many castles which were to be found at the time of its erection in Gascony. Bodiam Castle is one of the finest in Sussex, and certainly one of the most picturesque in England; it is situated upon the Rother, which here forms the boundary between Sussex and Kent. The building owes its origin to Sir Edward Dalyngrugge, who had served in France and Spain under the Black Prince with singular credit to himself and marked advantage to his worldly estate. A portion of this superfluous wealth was expended in erecting Bodiam Castle, which, while affording every comfort as a residence, possessed most of the essential qualities for effective defence.
It presents a singularly beautiful and romantic spectacle at the present time, the towers and enceinte being entire, while a wealth of foliage and the wide waters of the surrounding moat afford a coup d'œil seldom equalled and probably not excelled in England. The licence to crenellate dates from 1386; the building was erected in the middle of a lake connected with the river, thus forming a broad and deep moat. A causeway, defended by an ingenious system of bridges and small gateways, leads across the latter, and terminates in a small barbican, now partly dismantled; the entrance is between two tall square towers which present beautiful examples of machicolation upon their summits. Upon the opposite, or south face, is the postern leading to the moat and defended by a massive square tower, being one of nine in all surrounding the enclosure. The interior is now simply an empty shell, all the domestic buildings having been destroyed by Sir William Waller in 1643, after the siege of Arundel, although the Chapel and the chief apartments are capable of being located. We have therefore simply the outer walls remaining of a particularly fine castle of the Perpendicular period.
The entrance consists of a vaulted passage with many openings for the discharge of missiles upon assailants while they were endeavouring to overcome the three portcullises and the massive wooden gate defending it. In addition to ordinary loopholes there are round holes for the discharge of harquebuses. The castle underwent a siege by the Earl of Surrey in the reign of Richard III. in consequence of a descendant of Sir Thomas Lewkenor, into whose hands it had passed, proving obnoxious to the King.
Shirburn Castle is also of the same type and very similar to Bodiam; it dates from the year 1377 and was erected by Warine de Lisle who had gained wealth and distinction under Edward III. It stands in the Chiltern Hills near Stokenchurch and is a large square pile surrounded by a broad moat.
