The domestic buildings occupied the north end of the two wards, and are replaced by a modern house, excepting only a vaulted cellar, which may be late Norman, and is certainly the oldest known masonry in the place, and a bracket which supported the ancient oven, and is placed near what (17 Henry VI.) is described as “Una coquina juxta pedem pontis de la Gloriet,” which kitchen was not long since removed.
In this ward also, or rather partly in this and partly in the outer ward, near a building of the age of Henry VIII., is a very remarkable bath,—“balnea domini regis apud Ledes,” as it is designated, which was constructed for the use of Edward I. in 1291–2. This is now used as a boathouse. It communicates with the lake by a passage in which are still seen the grooves for the portcullis, and the recesses for the oblique gates by means of which the water was retained or excluded. Mr. Wykeham Martin’s investigations of the accounts relating to this bath are very curious. The hundred Reigate stones, 2 feet square, which are there specified, just tally with the area of the chamber.
Thus far the castle is, or has been, a concentric structure, after the plan much in use in the latter part of the reign of Henry III. and throughout that of Edward I. Its peculiarities are caused by the circumstances of its position, and remain to be described. Of these the chief is the keep, or Gloriette, a shell of wall rising from the deep water around it to a considerable height, and containing apartments round a central court, an arrangement usual in Norman shell keeps. This shell contains the chapel, no doubt the “major capella” of the records, the kitchen, and amidst much work of the date at least of Edward I., more that is of that of Henry VIII., and even of recent date. This island is thought to have been the original stronghold of those who first appropriated the spot, but the oldest work now seen dates from Edward I., and the style of the chapel points to about 1280. It contains, however, an excellent low side window, open 17 feet above the water, probably an insertion by Richard II. There is also a postern at the level of the water, part of which appears old, as does an adjacent garderobe. The basement, by which the ground-floor is raised about 12 feet above the water, is solid, and probably very old, for no occupant of these islands for the purpose of security could have neglected this site. Edward, no doubt, remodelled this work with the rest of the castle, and possibly rebuilt the whole of the outer wall. Sir Henry Guildford, custos here for Henry VIII., seems to have removed part of the earlier building, and to have built a spacious hall, a large fragment of which is the present kitchen. During the reign of Charles II. these additions were much injured by fire, so that most of the buildings next the court are modern. Still the general type and arrangement was evidently preserved; and there is little doubt but that this structure represents a late Norman shell, if not an earlier Saxon house of timber. A handsome clock-tower, to which the term Gloriette is sometimes confined, contains a very early clock, and is of the date of Henry VIII., guarding the covered bridge which connects the keep with the larger island. This bridge is of two openings, and has two stories, and was originally a drawbridge, the pit being contained between the side walls, and dropping into the water. It is called in the accounts “pons gloriettæ.”
The term “Gloriette” is not of frequent occurrence, and its meaning has not been precisely defined.[1] It was first brought under notice in the ancient miscellanea of the Exchequer relating to Corfe Castle, amongst which Mr. Bond cites a document dated 8 Edward I., that mentions “Camera que vocatur Gloriette.”[2] It was probably like “Butavant” and “Cocaygne,” one of the towers of the enceinte of the castle, and may have been of somewhat greater elevation. Scarcely any vestiges remain. The name seems sometimes to denote the whole of the buildings near the Queen’s Tower and Hall; in that part of the castle there existed a chapel called the chapel of the Gloriette. It appears that the Gloriette tower at Corfe was newly built by Richard II., about 1379.[3] Amongst the conventual buildings also of Christ Church, Canterbury, there was a “New Lodgyng, juxta antiquam Priorum mansionem vocatam Le Gloriet.” Professor Willis informs us that it was the upper chamber at the north end of the range of buildings, known as the “Privata Camera,” or “Prior’s Mansion.”[4] A building on an elevated spot in the palace grounds at Schönbrunn, commanding an extensive view of Vienna, is called “La Gloriette.”
The third great division of the castle, also very peculiar, is the barbican, or tête-de-pont, which is placed on the counterscarp of the lake, here reduced to 50 feet in width, and at the outer end of the bridge which carries the road of approach into the great island. It is composed of three parts, which were isolated by three wet ditches, of which one is the river Len, and having three entrances, one from each wing of the dam, and one, the main one, central, from the south. Each approach had its drawbridge, gateway, and portcullis, and the three met upon a small central plot, open towards the fortress, and whence sprung the bridge leading up to the great gateway. This is the bridge that was broken down by the great horses and heavy wagons of Aymer de Valence. It is of two arches, the inner of which was open between the parapets for the pit of the drawbridge. One division of the barbican contains the mill, a strongly-fortified building, in advance of which were the barriers which are known to have covered the southern approach, and to have been standing in 1385. They were no doubt mainly of timber, though there are traces of foundations in masonry. This triple composition of a barbican has not been elsewhere observed. The object of its lateral gates was the defence of the dam, which might otherwise have been mined and cut through. Also those who came either from the east or the west could only have reached the south gate by a wide detour, for the causeway along the dam was defended on the outside as well as the inside by water, the lake to the south-east being of large area, and known as the “stagnum exterius,” while, to the south-west, was a deep watercourse and marsh formed by the Len.
The late Mr. Wykeham Martin, whose investigations of his hereditary fortress were a labour of love, seems to have established firmly, on sound critical grounds, the date of its several parts. He shows the high probability of its occupation by at least a Saxon lord, and the changes it has undergone from the Crevecœurs, Leyburns, and the Plantagenet and Tudor monarchs, who, from Edward I. to Edward VI., held it in possession.
Like many Saxon strongholds, Leeds is thought to date from the ninth century. It was held, probably by a Norman arrangement, by castle-guard tenure under Dover. To Bishop Odo, who obtained it at the Conquest, is attributed some Norman work in the church, but the earliest masonry in the castle, probably represented by the curious vaulted cellar, is thought to be the work of Robert de Crevecœur, who founded Leeds Priory in 1119, and afterwards removed three canons into the chapel of his castle. A later Robert shared in the defeat of Lewes, and was in consequence obliged to yield up Leeds in exchange with Roger de Leyburn, a powerful Kentish baron, father of that William whose unscrupulous boldness is well described in the Roll of Caerlaverock, which designates him as “A valiant man, without ‘but’ or ‘if.’”
Out of the disputes between the dispossessed and the dispossessor Edward seems to have established a title by the strong hand. He gave to the fief the character of a royal manor, was a frequent visitor at the castle, and appears to have completely remodelled the fortress of the Crevecœurs, giving it the aspect which in many points it presents at this day. By Edward it was settled upon the queen, part of whose funeral charges were incurred here in 1291. Here also the king founded a chantry in the castle chapel for her soul’s health, and it was about this time that he caused the bath to be constructed.
Upon Edward’s second marriage Leeds was again settled upon his queen, and for several reigns this continued with some exceptions to be the practice. It was also much used for the reception of visitors of distinction who rested here on their way from Dover to London.
In 1321 the king’s defences were put upon their trial. The castle seems to have passed by an exchange to Bartholomew de Badlesmere, a great lord, who in 1321 was away in the North plotting with other barons the fall of Despenser, while his wife and children remained in the castle, the Constable being a certain Walter Colepeper.