The nature of this alienation is obscure; for, in the midst of it, 22 Richard II., Sir John de la Warre and Elizabeth his wife are seized of the Castle of Ewias Harold. However, there seems to have been an actual and permanent alienation to the Montacutes; for, 7 Henry VI., Thomas, Earl of Salisbury, has Ewias Harold. Thence it passed to the Beauchamps, of whom Joan, widow of Sir William Beauchamp, of Bergavenny, had the castle, vill, and lordship in 14 Henry VI.; and, finally, the Beauchamp heir, Edward Nevile, Lord Abergavenny, died seized of the castle, &c., in Herefordshire, and of Teffont-Ewias, in Wiltshire.
THE CASTLE OF EXETER.
THE Castle of Exeter is not only a fortress of high antiquity, but is in many respects peculiar. It occupies the northern angle of the city, forming a part of its enceinte, and it crowns the summit of a natural knoll formed by an upburst of Plutonic rock, of a red colour, whence it derived its Norman appellation of Rougemont. The knoll rises steeply on the north-east and north-west from a deep valley, but on the other two sides the slope, though still considerable, is more gradual. The sides of the knoll have been scarped, and at the foot of its upper part a deep and broad ditch has been excavated, beyond which, to the north, a second scarp descends to the bottom of the valley. Towards the south, where the ground allowed of and required it, there was a second and outer ditch. The contents of the inner ditch were carried upwards and inwards to form a high bank round the original summit of the knoll, the central part of which was thus converted into a pit, and became the inner, and indeed the only, ward of the castle. In figure this ward, taken at the level of the circumscribing bank, is something between a square and a circle. Probably its outline was governed by the natural figure of the ground, and such angles as it now has are due to later modifications of the works.
Originally then, the fortress was a hill camp, composed of a bank about 30 feet high, cresting the edge of the knoll, and outside scarped down about 60 to 80 feet deep to the bottom of a broad ditch, which again was reinforced on the less steep side by a second ditch. The main ditch towards the north-east and north-west has been filled up and converted into a broad public walk and garden, but the outer or second scarp still remains, and descends to the valley now occupied by the station of the London and South-Western Railway. Towards the south-east and south the ditch remains unaltered, and is a very fine example of an ancient earthwork. Towards the east it seems to have been filled up.
The camp thus described is probably older than the city, and was an ordinary earthwork, constructed in the usual fashion of the Britons, with one main ditch, reinforced with parts of others where needed. The main entrance was probably always on the south-eastern face, where the ground is less steep than elsewhere. Here, no doubt, a cut traversed the bank, and the ditches were crossed by narrow causeways, as at Old Sarum and elsewhere. These original works were probably British, and were no doubt occupied and slightly modified by the Romans. When the city, if such there was, of Caerwisc, was founded by the Britons, they probably made it an appendage to the south side of the camp, on the site of the present city, the spot being indicated by nature for such a purpose. The city occupies an oblong, elevated platform, contained between the Exe on the south-west, and its tributary streams, with their valleys, on the north-west and south-east, and connected with the higher and distant ground to the north-east by a long narrow isthmus, pierced recently by the tunnel of the London and South-Western Railway.
The Isca Damnoniorum of the Romans was certainly this enclosure, though, no doubt, they gave their enceinte more of a rectangular figure than it afterwards maintained, and laid out the cruciform roads which are occupied by the two main streets of the present city. The camp was their citadel, and they would, of course, continue the defences of the city up its faces, so as to make it a part of the general enceinte. The Saxons, on their arrival, no doubt contented themselves with these previous arrangements, and made the best of them against the Danes in 876 and 894. Rather later Æthelstan walled in the city and the castle, and, amidst the varieties of ancient masonry still to be traced round the town, Mr. Freeman thinks it just possible that some of this great king’s work may be seen. These were the walls which enabled the citizens to hold at bay Swend of Denmark in 1001, when he threw up the earthworks at Penhow to the north of the city, and won a victory in the open field. When the Norman Conqueror appeared before Exeter in 1068, he approached from the north-east, and summoned the city at the east gate, just below the castle. Æthelstan’s walls were then in good order, and it was in them that the breach was effected. Probably, however, neither the city walls nor the defences of the castle were up to the Norman standard, for Baldwin of Okehampton was left in command with the usual instructions to build a castle, as the Normans understood that formidable structure. How long Baldwin contented himself with repairing the existing defences, and in what order he replaced them, is unknown, but enough Norman work remains to show the general plan upon which he or his immediate successor proceeded. A strong retaining wall was built against the face of the upper bank. This wall rested, and does still rest, upon the natural edge of the hill, and it supports, as a revetment, the made ground behind it, being about 30 feet high, and having carried a parapet of about 4 feet more. Probably this wall was carried on slowly, the old outer defences being tenable.
The earliest masonry now seen, earlier probably than the wall, is the gatehouse, which may safely be attributed to the latter part of the eleventh century. At the western angle, where the city wall joined the castle, was built a rectangular tower, the base of which still remains, and it is said at the north angle was a similar tower, the two thus flanking the north-west face. The wall had a high base or plinth, battering somewhat, and carrying the superstructure, which is vertical. There remain upon it two half-round solid bastions; one at the north end of the south-west face has three flat pilasters rising from the plinth, and is evidently pure Norman; the other, near the centre of the north-east face, is similar in pattern, but the pilasters are rather narrower and chamfered, and probably very late, or transition Norman. Most of the wall is rubble, but a portion of the north-eastern front, near the site of the castle chapel, is composed of good blocks of ashlar, possibly of the age of Richard II. The bank and wall have been removed in the centre of the north-west front, to make room for the Sessions House, an ungainly structure, ugly anywhere, but here especially out of place. The chapel stood in the court, near the western corner.
The gatehouse is decidedly original, and a good example of a rude Norman gatehouse. It is about 30 feet square, with walls 6 feet thick. At each end is a full-centred archway, of 12 feet opening, very plain, having a square rib 2 feet broad, with deep recesses or “nooks” of 2 feet on each side. The southern capital of the inner archway shows traces of Norman carving. There was no portcullis, each portal having doors; the space between the portals was covered with timber. On each of the two outer sides are two broad flat pilasters. The superstructure is lofty, and seems to have contained two stories. Above each portal are two windows, of 2 feet 6 inches opening, divided by a space of about 2 feet. The jambs are square, with a plain Norman cap or abacus. The present covering of each is formed of two inclined stones or lintels, which may be original, but are more probably late insertions. Above each pair is a larger single window. The inner portal opens at the level of the court. Outside, the ground is about 10 feet below that level. No doubt there was a drawbridge falling upon a detached pier, whence a causeway, probably with one or two bridges, crossed the ditches and carried the approach. The enceinte wall abuts against the gateway flush with its inner face, so that it has a projection outward of about 24 feet, flanking the adjacent curtain. In later days, probably during the time of Richard II., two buttresses, or rather pilasters, 4 feet broad by 5 feet deep, have been built against the inner face, one on each side of the portal; and at the other end are a similar pair, but of 14 feet projection. These latter, at the battlement level, outside, are connected by a flat segmental arch; and the sort of barbican, or forebuilding thus formed contained the drawbridge, covered the gateway, and above had a flat roof, where archers could be posted to protect the approach. The old entrance is walled up, and pierced with two loops, which look early, but can scarcely be so. In the east side of the gatehouse a small doorway, in the Decorated style, has been pierced, possibly as a postern, for any lodge connected with it would have been outside the castle. The present entrance is, and for very many years has been, close west of, and outside the main gatehouse. This evidently was due to a wish to preserve the gatehouse, but to avoid the inconvenience of entering at so high a level. Probably when the new entrance was made the ditch at this point was filled up, all but a narrow gut, across which fell the drawbridge shown in the later drawings of the castle. When this was dispensed with the whole was made smooth, and Castle Street took its present aspect.
There is no evidence as to what buildings, save the chapel, were contained within the court of the castle. There must of necessity have been a hall, kitchen, lodgings, stabling, and barracks; and probably most of these buildings stood near or on the site of the Sessions House, where there seems to have been a postern gate. There is no evidence of a keep, nor, at so great a height, was any needed. Rectangular keeps, though found at Corfe, Sherborne, and Taunton, were not common in the west. A shell-keep, as at Trematon, Launceston, Dunster, Restormel, or Truro, would, in such a position, have been the usual structure; but the previous earthworks had converted the only site for a shell-keep into a pit so deep that it would have been commanded from the ramparts. Probably the Normans regarded the whole court as a shell-keep.