So far as can be observed, the castle exhibits no trace of Norman masonry. All the structures, walls, tower, gatehouse, hall, and apartments are nearly or quite of one date, and are probably the work of John of Gaunt, who resided here very frequently, and in regal state. This is very remarkable, because Tutbury is mentioned in Domesday, was the caput of a very important Norman honour, and the principal seat of the great Norman family of Ferrars, earls of Derby, from the Conquest to their ruin towards the close of the reign of Henry III., since which time it has been, for the most part, in the Duchy of Lancaster.
Shaw, in his “History of Staffordshire,” gives two most exaggerated drawings of this castle. Another, on a larger scale, a view from the east side, taken in the reign of Elizabeth, is engraved in the “Vetusta Monumenta,” vol. i., pl. 39. This, amidst much absurd perspective, shows the gatehouse and east tower, what may be a chapel east window in the state apartments, and a round tower at the east foot of and built into the mound, besides a west curtain with three mural towers upon it.
Tutbury was held for the king, and taken by the Parliament in the wars of Charles I., and subsequently, by order of the House, reduced very nearly to the condition in which it is now seen.
It may be mentioned that an addition to both the defences and the resources of the castle has been provided in the leat, known as the Fleam, in part only an artificial channel, which leaves the Dove about a mile above the castle, is led beneath its walls where it still works a large and very powerful mill, and finally returns to the river some way down, after a parallel course of about three miles.
Although the temporal evidence of the splendour of the house of Ferrars has disappeared, the memory, as usual, of their ecclesiastical beneficence has been preserved. The parish church of St. Mary, once the church of the Ferrars Abbey of Tutbury, still stands a stone’s throw from the castle wall, and seems anciently to have been included within the outer defences. It was founded by Henry de Ferrars, in the reign of Rufus, and has a Norman nave, clerestory, and aisles; and its west end is one of the most perfect and richest Norman fronts in existence. This structure, which had been much misused, was happily placed under the judicious care of Mr. Street, who was engaged to restore the Norman parts, and add a large semi-circular apse to the chancel. This is probably the chapel of St. Mary within the castle, in which (18 Edward I.) Edmund Earl of Lancaster founded a special mass.
Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Tutbury Castle, under the care of George Earl of Shrewsbury, then constable.
URQUHART CASTLE, INVERNESS-SHIRE.
ABOUT half-way between the two extremities of Loch Ness, the loch is suddenly reduced by about one-third of its ordinary breadth by the projection from its western shore of a bold headland, under cover of which the glens of Urquhart and Moriston open upon the loch, and contribute to it, across a marshy deposit of gravel and peat, their respective waters.
The headland which is thus partially isolated between these waters and the loch is moderately lofty, and slopes down steeply towards its extremity at the north-east, again to rise and finally to terminate in an oval and rugged knoll of rock, which stands out from 50 feet to 100 feet above both the water and the contiguous land. Upon and covering this knoll is placed Castle Urquhart, which is thus a very prominent object from Lochness, and combines, in a very remarkable degree, natural and artificial defences upon its enceinte and within its area.