As the roof is gone, with the walls that immediately supported it, it is impossible to say whether it was flat or pitched at an angle. There is seen, however, in the west wall, at its north end, a patch of ashlar cut to a low slope, evidently that of a former roof, and there is a like indication in what remains of the cross-wall, at its south end; also about the same level is a square hole, which evidently carried the water from the gutter on one side of the wall to that on the other. The level of these indications of a low-pitched roof is about that of the floor of the upper story, and many feet below even the present top of the wall. It looks as though here, as at Richmond, Ludlow, Porchester, Bridgenorth, Kenilworth, and in many other instances, the original roof had been over the first story, and the second story had been an afterthought, generally not more than a few years later. Possibly the whole wall above the string-course is an addition, but if so it is a very early one.
Bowes tower may safely be pronounced to be very late Norman in style. The cross-walls are certainly original, but the vaulting was probably an addition, and, to judge from the skewbacks of two ribs in the south wall, of the Decorated period. The basements of Norman keeps were very rarely vaulted, and here, as at Brougham, Richmond, and Carlisle, the vaulting looks later than the walls.
The two open sides of the tower, the west and south, show that it was guarded by a ditch at from 40 to 70 feet distance, and this may have been continued all round. The tower stands a few yards south of the highway which traverses this district from east to west, and represents the Roman Way from Greta Bridge by Brough, Appleby, and Brougham, with branches northwards to Alston and Carlisle. At Bowes, as at Brough and Brougham, the road was strengthened by a camp, and Bowes tower stands within the camp, near its western boundary, and to the south of its central line. The ditches of the camp may be traced to the north and west, and partly to the east, and its area is about 130 yards, by 140 yards: to the south the ground falls sharply towards the deep bed of the Greta, and is defended by terraces and scarps, in which, a little west of the centre, is an opening probably for communication with the river. The remains of a Roman bath have been laid open outside the south-east angle, and a fragment of lead pipe, no doubt feeding it, was dug up in the adjacent churchyard. To the west are the remains of four small barrows in Roundhill Close, and the defence of the camp is strengthened by two watercourses at a short distance on the east and west fronts. Besides this camp there is one at Greta Bridge, 6 miles to the east, and two others at 6 and 8 miles to the west, of which one known as Raycross is regarded as a British camp, adopted by the Romans. The cross, commemorated in the name, is said to have been set up in 1067 to mark the boundary then agreed upon between England and Scotland. The further camp is known as Maiden Castle. Bowes is held to be the Roman Lavatræ. The position is well chosen, having considerable local elevation. It is 928 feet above the sea, and commands extensive views, especially to the south and east.
As the history of North Yorkshire is as yet unwritten, but little is known as to Bowes, save that both manor and castle were always held by the Earls of Richmond. King John, that most restless of monarchs, was at the castle on the 16th February, 7th of his reign, that is, in 1206, when he thence, “apud Bouas,” addressed a mandate to the Foresters of Nottingham, and again, according to Mr. Hunter’s itinerary, 16th June, in the 14th year of his reign, 1212. “The Earls of Richmond,” says Camden, “here levied a through toll, and set up a gallows.” Rymer also gives a charter of Henry III. to Peter, Earl of Richmond, dated 25th March, 1262, granting and confirming to him, with other lands, “Villas de Richemund et Boghes, cum castris et wapentachiis, et omnibus aliis pertinentiis suis;” and “Bowes castrum” was held of Peter of Savoy, 10 Edward I., and “Bowes Manerium” of John le Dreux the elder, Earl of Richmond, 13 Edward I. 19 Edward I., William de Felton was put in charge of Richmond and Bowes, &c., for the King. John le Dreux, Earl of Richmond, had it 5 Edward III. 36 Edward III., Margaret de Dacre died, seised of Bowes manor, as, 4 Henry VI., did Joan, widow of John de Gray, Chevalier; and, 14 Henry VI., John Duke of Bedford. 22 Henry VI., two parts of the manor or lordship of Bowes were held by John Duke of Somerset. Its present owner is Mr. Pulleine of Clifton. Mention is made of a Bowes in Northumberland in the reign of Edward III. and of a tenement called Bowes in Boulne in Sussex, 4 Henry IV. The castle was probably built late in the 12th century, and dismantled by either Charles or the parliament in the 17th century. It is a very good example of a late Norman keep. The mill, the almost invariable appendage of an early castle, stood upon the river Greta.
THE CASTLE OF BRAMBER, SUSSEX.
OF the shires of England there is none more intensely English than Sussex. Its name, the names of the most central of its two capital towns, of its principal and secondary divisions, of its parishes, and in a very remarkable degree of its inhabitants, are but little changed from those they bore on the eve of the Conquest, and when under the sway of Godwin and Harold. Even the not infrequent marks of Norman occupation, in the form of parish churches, abbeys, and castles of great strength and durability, were many of them grafted upon foundations dating from the days of Alfred and Egbert. This is the case with Selsey, the ecclesiastical parent of the see of Chichester, with Bosham, Malling, Steyning, and other religious houses; and Arundel, Bramber, Knapp, Hastings, and Lewes, all great castles in their day, were the seats of English chiefs for centuries, before their banks were crested with walls of masonry, or their mounds crowned with keeps constructed after the Norman pattern. Pevensey, indeed, boasts a still earlier origin.
British remains in Sussex are but scanty. A few of the larger and more elevated of the hill-camps, and those of irregular form, as Cissbury, which includes 60 acres, are supposed to be the work of the Regni, the earliest recorded inhabitants of the district. It is also difficult not to see in the Arun, the Adur, and the Ouse, names corresponding to the Aeron, the Dour, and the Usk or Esk, by which many streams in Celtic countries are still designated. Glynde has been claimed as a Celtic name, but it is very rare, especially in Sussex, to find the name of a parish of other than Teutonic origin.
Of the Roman period the traces are more numerous. The main road intersecting the county from Chichester towards London is undoubtedly of that date, and there seems to have been at least one other from Chichester—the Roman Regnum—to Pevensey. There remain also several rectangular camps, as Goushill, Hollingbury, Ditchling, Highdown, and Brighthelmstone Down, evidently Roman. Chichester, though its Latin name probably includes an earlier appellation, has the Roman cruciform arrangement of its two main streets, though not the rectangular outline. Anderida, Mutuantonis, and Mida, Roman towns of which the site is disputed, seem to have been in Sussex; and at Bognor and other places, pavements and foundations and inscribed stones, and other marks of Roman habitation, have been discovered. Still the remains, whether of British or Roman occupation, are but slight: all that speaks of law, of order, of property, of the family tie, of the forefathers of the people, of civil or religious polity, and of public worship—all of this character which is ancestral, is English. This thorough uprooting of the traces of earlier occupation is due, no doubt, to the position of Sussex upon that part of the British coast most exposed to Saxon and Danish invasion, and which bore the attacks of those formidable invaders when at their earliest and fiercest. Sussex was late to come under the humanising influences of Christianity, remaining Pagan till the middle of the seventh century. The remarkable conservation, to our days, of the names and divisions is probably due to the very peculiar configuration of the district, and to the isolation produced by its steep and lofty frontier ridges, and by the dense woodland which covered, and to some extent does still cover, its central part. As the position of the principal castles is determined by this configuration, a few words concerning it will not be out of place.
Sussex forms the western half of a chalk basin. The chalk rises in a long, narrow, lofty, and very steep ridge, forming the northern, eastern, and southern margins of the area, its height, reaching to 800 feet, being known as the Downs. The North Downs divide Sussex from Surrey, the South Downs are the frontier towards the sea. This latter ridge extends from near Chichester to Beachy Head, while the North Downs extend to Folkestone and Dover. The deep wooded area thus enclosed between them is the well-known weald of Sussex. The basin is cut across obliquely by the sea, and the south-eastern frontier of the county thus laid open for a length of about fifty miles. In former days, however, the broad marshes of Pevensey, Winchelsea, and Romney closed this opening with a barrier as effective as the downs themselves.