"What house has been so connected with our political and religious annals as that of Howard? The premiers in the roll-call of our nobility have been also among the most persecuted and ill-fated. Not to dwell on the high-spirited Isabelle, Countess Dowager of Arundel, and widow of Hugh, last earl of the Albini family, who upbraided Henry III to his face with 'vexing the church, oppressing the barons, and denying all his true born subjects their right'; or Richard, Earl of Arundel, who was executed for conspiring to seize Richard II—we must think with indignation of the sufferings inflicted by Elizabeth on Philip, Earl of Arundel, son of the 'great' Duke of Norfolk, beheaded by Elizabeth in 1572 for his dealings with Mary Queen of Scots. In the biography of Earl Philip, which, with that of Ann Dacres his wife, has been well edited by the fourteenth Duke, we find that he was caressed by Elizabeth in early life, and steeped in the pleasures and vices of her court by her encouragement, to the neglect of his constant young wife, whose virtues, as soon as they reclaimed him to his duty to her, rendered him hated and suspected by the Queen, so that she made him the subject of vindictive and incessant persecution, till death released him at the age of thirty-eight. To another Howard, Thomas, son of Earl Philip, the country is indebted for those treasures of the East, the Arundel marbles."
(Quarterly Review: Hare.)
The castle, though not that portion at which we have been looking, has been besieged on three important occasions; in 1102 by Henry I, to whom it surrendered. By Stephen, on its giving hospitality to the Empress Maud; and by Waller, who captured it after seventeen days' siege with a thousand prisoners. Artillery mounted on the tower of the church played great havoc with the building and it remained in a ruinous condition until practically rebuilt by the tenth Duke in the latter part of the eighteenth century.
We commence the ascent of the keep, which is the only part shown to the public (usually on Mondays only) by way of the clock tower which once formed the entrance to the inner courts. We can now see the remnants of Richard Fitz-Alan's buildings (1290). A flight of steps leads to the Keep, the older portion of which was built by the same Earl; the walls are in places ten feet thick. In the centre a well descends to the storeroom of the garrison, which is cut out of the solid chalk. Over the entrance note the remains of St. Martin's chapel; from the window is a magnificent view towards Littlehampton. The openings in the floor suggest the use of boiling liquid for the heads of besiegers.
The Keep was once famous for its owls, the older members of the colony being known by appropriate names, such as that recorded in the story of the Ducal butler who convulsed the guests one evening by announcing, "Please, your Grace, Lord Thurlow has laid an egg."
