In describing the building, it has been found convenient to call the tower face the north, but really it fronts more to the north-east.
It has been suggested, from the rectangular plan of the earthworks, and from the prevalence of Roman remains in the district, that the castle occupies the site of a Roman encampment, and that its material, said by some to have been taken from Mayburgh, was derived from some Roman building. This latter suggestion is, no doubt, perfectly possible. Certainly the material was not taken from Mayburgh, which never could have supplied ashlar in large quantities.
It is certain that there was no castle here during the early Norman times, or while the manor was the heritage of the kings of Scotland. From them it came to John Baliol, and was confiscated with his other English possessions late in the thirteenth century. The Neviles of Raby then held it. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had the castle and manor, and seems to have been often here. He probably made any pure Perpendicular additions of which evidence may remain.
There are extant two licences, one to crenellate the town of Penrith, 20 Edward III.; and the other, 22 Richard II., to William de Strickland, with permission to make a mantlet of stone and lime, and to crenellate it. Probably the present castle is the mantlet referred to.
PEVENSEY CASTLE, SUSSEX.
PEVENSEY is, in some respects, the most interesting place in the south of England. Not only is it closely associated with English history during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but its ancient and present names, and a part of its material remains in masonry and earthworks, connect it closely with the British, Roman, and early English occupation of our island.
It was, without doubt, the chief place in the great forest of Anderida, which, in remote times, extended over the south of Sussex and the Weald of Kent, and of which the not infrequent remains are seen in the very numerous and wild parks found in these districts. The British name, both of forest and town, is preserved in its Roman form, and the site of the latter is still indicated by its Roman walls and towers, which, like those of Porchester, have been incorporated into a later fortress. The Romans probably left Anderida in good repair. One of the chief strongholds of the “Comes littoris Saxonici” was not likely to have been neglected, and it appears, from the Saxon Chronicle, that the Britons were well aware of its value, and held it against their piratical invaders with fierce but unavailing valour. Late in the fifth century it was besieged and taken by Ælle and Cissa and their followers, and every Briton within it was put to the sword.
Andredes-ceaster, or Andreceaster, from a Roman and British, became an English fortress, and, by slow degrees, the Forest of Andredes-weald became encroached upon by cultivation. The change of masters also brought a change of name, and the island or “eye” in the marsh is supposed to have become the property of “Peofn,” whence its present name is thought to be derived.
Under the English rule, the divisions and names denoting property were gradually introduced, and Pevensey became the chief town of a Rape, an honour it shared with Chichester, Arundel, Bramber, Hastings, and Lewes, in each of which the town was distinguished by early earthworks, and at Chichester by Roman walls. Each of these Rapes had its town and fortress, and each town was placed upon a river. That of Pevensey rises in the wooded ridge about Penshurst and Dallington by a number of streamlets which meander athwart the marshy level of Pevensey, until a little above the castle they form what is still known as the old Haven, and which was in use in the twelfth century. As late as 1317 a grant by Edward II. mentions the marshes as overflowed by the sea, and as in no man’s tenure. The castle then stood on the margin of the sea, from which it is now more than a mile distant, and the whole area of the level, many square miles in extent, seems to have been an impracticable morass, covering the fortress towards the south and east, and in some degree to the north. The knoll must so have presented itself to Julius Cæsar, if, as generally supposed, he here landed, and so, with the addition of the Roman walls, it was certainly seen by Ælle and his followers, and 500 years later by Duke William when he landed between Eastbourne and Hastings, and selected the higher ground to the east of that castle for his march inland to give battle. “Mare transivit,” says the Bayeux tapestry, “et venit ad Pevensæ,” and the chronicle of Battle says he landed “prope castrum Pevensel dictum,” whence the soldiery went to seek victuals at Hastings. Here, then, it was, beneath these very walls, that the Conqueror took seisin of his yet unconquered kingdom.