In 1557 there was a fray in front of the castle, in the space between the bridge and the iron gate. There were but four men in the place. In 1559, Tunstal died, and the castle was finally and by law detached from the see of Durham and held by the Crown, Lord Hunsdon having a lease of it from Elizabeth. Lord Hunsdon’s representatives, the Careys, were induced by James to part with their lease to Home, Earl of Dunbar, in whose favour the property was converted into a freehold to be held by socage tenure of the Crown. As late, however, as 1583 it was kept up as a place of defence, probably for the police of the border, and had an establishment of a captain of horse, an ensign bearer, a trumpeter, a porter and assistant porter, a master-gunner, a quartermaster gunner, 16 gunners, a chaplain, and a surgeon, costing not less than £1,703. 6s. 8d. per annum.
The history of Norham Castle and Shire will be found given in great detail and with great accuracy in the history of North Durham, by the Rev. James Raine.
NOTTINGHAM CASTLE.
THE annexed drawing, taken from the Illustrated London News, represents admirably, in Nottingham in the sixteenth century, the appearance of a very perfect castle of the first class. The Norman keep is seen on the curtain between two wards. The smaller or inner ward is original and Norman. It was enclosed in a lofty and strong curtain, following the outline of the rock on which it stood, and strengthened at its three most exposed angles by rectangular towers of no exterior projection. On two sides of the court were lodgings, and in the wall was a postern with exterior steps. The main gate of this ward was placed in the face next the tower, near the keep, and was covered by the middle ward. To the original castle was added, probably in the reign of John, or that of Henry III., a second or middle ward, having an entrance through the base of a square tower, so placed as to cover the least protected angle of the original castle. A square tower serving as a gatehouse shows the arrangement was an early one, probably not later than the reign of John. This ward was contained within a strong curtain, with cylindrical mural towers of bold projection, and was so placed as to cover one side of the inner ward, and had its own ditch. Again, outside the two preceding wards, and applied so as to cover them on two sides, and the keep-ward on one side, was a large outer ward calculated to contain a small army. This ward was also walled with round bastion towers, that is, towers on the wall, but not rising above it. It also had two, or probably three, gatehouses and a ditch. The utter destruction of so noble a remnant of early military architecture is much to be regretted.
The drawing shows the Trent and the castle mill, but not the two Burhs, mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon “Chronicle” as guarding the river.
ODIHAM CASTLE, HANTS.
ABOUT a mile north-west of the town of Odiham, in the tything of North Warnborough, stands what remains of this ancient castle. It is placed on the left bank of the Whitewater, a rather copious stream, which rises about two miles south, and flows northwards to fall into the Loddon at Swallowfield. About the castle the ground is low and flat, and, in consequence, very wet. The Basingstoke canal has been carried across the marsh, and being now abandoned and choked with weeds, adds to the dreariness of the scene. The place, no doubt, was always one of strength, and the open woodland about it was favourable to the preservation of game, and to the wilder kind of sporting in which the Plantagenet monarchs took great delight.
