Caerphilly belongs to the same class of defences. It was built hastily, and probably decided upon hastily also. It never was, and Cardiff being the chief seat of the lord, it may be doubted whether it ever could have been, of an importance at all commensurate with its extent and cost. Morlais, on the contrary, seems to have been solidly constructed, and to have been in all respects suited to the purpose it was intended to fulfil.
Local tradition, the tendency of which is, naturally enough, to ascribe all considerable works to the native lords of the soil, attributes this to Ivor Bach, a celebrated chieftain of east Glamorgan, late in the twelfth century, who is reputed to have fallen in fight upon an adjacent spot, still called “Pant-Coed-Ivor.”
That Morlais, like Caerphilly and Castell Coch, was built on the territory of the family of Ivor Bach is no doubt true, since he, his ancestors, and his descendants, as Lords of Senghenydd above and below the Caiach, possessed the whole tract of country between the Taff and the Rhymney, from Cardiff northwards to the Brecon border; but it is clear, from the position of the work, that it was not built by, but intended to curb the aggressions of, those turbulent native chieftains, among whom Ivor and his son Griffith, and their neighbour Llewelyn Bren (1315), played in their day a conspicuous part.
Moreover, the residences of Ivor and his descendants, said to have been anciently at Castell Coch, but known to have been afterwards at Brithdir, at Merthyr, and finally at the Van, have never been recorded as at Morlais, nor is it at all probable that they would have constructed so expensive a dwelling upon the very verge of their domain, and upon a spot far too high and rocky for ordinary cultivation.
It may be objected that, had Morlais been built by the Earls of Gloucester, it would have remained, like Caerphilly, in the hands of the chief lords; for the site of Caerphilly, seized upon by De Clare in the reign of Henry III., still remains an isolated part of the Cardiff lordship in the midst of the Van estate; but it may well be that, while the size and importance of Caerphilly, and its later use as a prison, caused the lords of Cardiff to retain it in their possession, Morlais, from its moderate dimensions and distant position escaping notice, would be dismantled, and the site allowed to revert to the descendants of its original owners, who still held the surrounding estate. It was probably soon after Leland’s time that the Crown allowed its right, as the then Lord of Glamorgan, to fall into disuse.
The Morlais property, including the castle, passed from Ivor Bach’s male descendant, Thomas Lewis of the Van, by the marriage of his daughter with an Earl of Plymouth, to the Windsor family, in which family it still remains.
NORHAM CASTLE, DURHAM.
THE castle of Norham-upon-Tweed, “Old Norham,” the Queen of Border fortresses, and the most important stronghold between Carlisle and Berwick, was long the “Castle Dangerous” of that contested territory, and the strongest place on the Marches. It is a lasting monument of episcopal magnificence, founded, restored, and maintained by Flambard, Pudsey, and Beke, three of the most powerful prelates who sat in the chair of St. Cuthbert, and as an example of a great Norman keep is not unworthy to be named with Bamborough itself. The natural strength of the ground led to its early occupation for purposes of defence, and the traditions of Norham are in keeping with its architectural grandeur. Here the Roman legions paused in their progress northwards, and threw up earthworks which may still be recognised, and which were probably abandoned when, under the military occupation of the country, a permanent road was laid out a few miles to the eastward, near to the mouth of the river. An early settlement of the Saxon kings of Deira seems to have been on the steep side of Yevering Bell, the ancient Gebrium, a spur of the Cheviot range, about twelve miles south of Norham, where there yet remain formidable earthworks, which Mr. Raine regarded as traces of the residence of the celebrated Eadwine, King of Deira (585–633), the disciple and friend of Paulinus, but who derived his knowledge of Christianity and probably his taste for a hill residence from Cadvan of Gwynedd, by whom he was educated. Hence, in later times, his successors moved their seat to Millfield, a place near to the Till, and scarcely nine miles from Norham. Probably it was from here that the Saxon kings guarded the pass of the Tweed, then called Ubbanford; and it may well be that their handiwork remains in the banks and ditches, not to be confounded with the camp of the legions, but incorporated with the later castle, and which much resemble in their figure and strength other well-known residences of the ninth century. Here, near this “Northern home” of the successors of St. Cuthbert, Bishop Ecfrid of Lindisfarne founded the parish church dedicated to that saint, towards the middle of the ninth century, and placed in it the remains of Ceolwulph, king and saint. The two contiguous shires of Norham and Island, probably given by Oswald of Northumberland to Lindisfarne, are reputed the oldest possessions of the see of Durham, and detached from the body of the bishopric, presented a bold and strongly-fortified front of twelve miles, from Coldstream to Berwick, to the Scottish invaders. Early in the twelfth century arose the castle, of which the ruins are still so grand, and for the possession of which English and Scottish kings contended for centuries with varying success. The great Edward, “Malleus Scotorum,” made much use of Norham in his wars, and here, both in the church and in the castle, were assembled before him the competitors for the Scottish throne, of whom he selected one rather on the score of his subserviency than of his worthiness. It was also from Norham that Surrey and Dacre and the warders of the middle march directed that formidable raid which, following upon Flodden, carried fire and sword almost to the gates of Edinburgh. But although the broad stream of Tweed still flows at the base of the castle rock, and the scaurs and ravines that constituted the strength of the position still remain unaltered upon its southern frontier, all else is widely changed. The lofty, though ruined, battlements, rising far above the tufted trees, still, indeed, remain the landmark of the local shire, but they no longer look out over wasted lands and ruined villages, harried alternately by Englishman and Scot, “galling the gleaned land with hot assays.” In no part of Britain are the fields more skilfully cultivated, the rickyards more richly stored, the byres stocked with cattle of a higher breed, the farmhouses indicative of greater ease, or the agricultural labourer better able to care for his own interests. All shows plainly to the eye of the experienced traveller what has been achieved by the sturdy northern agriculturist, under the invigorating influence of an unfettered trade.
Norham occupies the hollow of a grand bend of the Tweed, which here cuts “a huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle,” out of the English bank to bestow it upon that of Scotland, in the form of a broad and fertile meadow. The castle stands upon a rocky platform, the south-western extremity of a cliff which forms the river bank for a considerable distance. A deep ravine cuts off the higher ground to the north-east, and is joined by a less marked depression, which, deepened by art, sweeps round and forms the southern defence until it opens upon the steep slope which descends to the river and forms the north and north-western front of the castle. Beyond this ditch, which contained the approach from the village of Norham, and more to the south, is a broad and level platform, also defended by deep ravines, upon which may be traced the remains of the Roman camp and the less regular banks and ditches of some of the besiegers of the castle. Both in its choice and in the manner of occupation of the position are shown much strategical judgment and engineering skill. It is both locally strong and well selected for the defence of St. Cuthbert’s and the Northumbrian frontier from Scottish inroads, as well as for the cutting off such invaders as, having advanced southwards, might be forced to retreat. The description of Simeon of Durham is both concise and accurate. Writing of Flambard, he says: “Condidit castellum in excelso præruptæ rupis super Tuedam flumen, ut inde latronum incursus inhiberet et Scottorum irruptiones. Ibi enim, utpote in confinio regni Anglorum et Scottorum, creber predantibus ante patebat excursus, nullo ibidem, quo hujusmodi impetus repellerentur, præsidio locato.”