The Project Gutenberg eBook, Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Vol. II (of 2), by George Thomas Clark

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MEDIÆVAL MILITARY
ARCHITECTURE
IN
ENGLAND.

By GEO. T. CLARK.

VOL. II.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

. . . . . Time

Has moulder’d into beauty many a tower,

Which, when it frown’d with all its battlements,

Was only terrible. . . . . —Mason.

LONDON:
WYMAN & SONS, 74–76, GREAT QUEEN STREET,
LINCOLN’S-INN FIELDS, W.C.

1884.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. II.

MEDIÆVAL MILITARY ARCHITECTURE.

DESCRIPTIONS.

“ . . . . . Time

Has mouldered into beauty many a tower,

Which, when it frowned with all its battlements,

Was only terrible. . . . . —Mason.

DOLFORWYN CASTLE.

DOLFORWYN CASTLE, MONTGOMERY.

DOLFORWYN, or “The Maiden’s Meadow,” is a name evidently transposed from the meads of the adjacent Severn to the ridge occupied by the castle, which rises 500 feet or 600 feet above, and half a mile west of, the river, from which it is separated by an intervening hill. The approach is by a steep road, which becomes still more so near the top of the ridge, and finally skirts along, and is commanded by, the works of the castle.

These works are very simple in plan, and of rude construction. A platform about 200 yards long by 100 yards broad occupies the centre of the ridge. Its rocky sides are scarped and revetted all round to a height of about 10 feet, and upon this wall was built a curtain of from 20 to 30 feet more, and about 5 feet thick. At each end a cross ditch was quarried in the rock, so as to isolate the castle from the equally high ground beyond. Probably there were no bridges across these ditches, and the entrance seems to have been by a plain doorway in the curtain upon the northern face of the works. The curtain appears to have been quite plain, without either buttress or pilaster or flanking tower, save at the eastern end of the area, near the centre, where are the remains of a circular tower about 30 feet in diameter with walls 5 feet thick. The curtain to the south, or most exposed, side is broken away; on the opposite side it is more perfect, and contains a doorway, broken, and now a mere hole in the wall. Within is a fragment of a building into which probably the gateway opened. The platform is very irregular, partly natural, chiefly from the heap of rubbish covering up the foundations of the domestic buildings. The building is not unlike Dinas Brân and Dinas Powis, and is probably of the age of Henry III. or Edward I., early in the reign. The material is the tile-stone of the country laid in courses. There is no sign of ashlar.

Dolforwyn has no history. All that is known is that it was granted by Edward I. [7 Edward I.] to Roger Mortimer of Wigmore as “the Castle of Dolvoron,” with the territories of Keddewy and Kery, to be held by the service of three knight’s-fees. In 14 Edward I. the castle was still held by a Mortimer, for Richard Labaunk was in prison at Wigmore, by reason of arrears in his account to Edmund de Mortimer whilst constable of his castle of Dolfnovan. He was liberated on bail. In 18 Edward I., Bogo de Knovill, being constable of Montgomery Castle, had a pardon for £90 due on his farm of lands of Kery and Kidgewenny. This, however, was from the king, who seems to have resumed possession. Dugdale says the castle was built by David ap Llewelyn, who flourished 1240–46, but the Welsh attribute it to Bleddyn ap Cynfin between 1065 and 1073. Bleddyn may have had some kind of stronghold here, as a place very convenient for a raid upon the flat country, then held by the English; but he certainly did not build the existing walls. These are not unlikely to have been the work of Roger Mortimer, and their destruction probably followed at the first convenient opportunity. The name of the castle has not been found in the Mortimer inquisitions, nor is it mentioned save as above, among their possessions, or those of any other landowner. After the settlement of Wales it would cease to possess any value.

DOVER CASTLE, KENT.

“Est ibi mons altus, strictum mare, litus opacum,

Hinc hostes citius Anglica regna petunt,

Sed castrum Doveræ, pendens a vertice montis,

Hostes rejiciens, litora tuta facit.”

—De Bello Hastingensi Carmen, i. 603.

THE tract of chalk which forms and gives character to the isle of Thanet and the south-eastern portion of the county of Kent, rises towards the sea to a line of cliffs upon which the promontories of the North and South Foreland and of Dover are the most conspicuous. The cliff line, however, is not continuous. It is broken at intervals by various valleys and gorges, down which the waters from the interior find their way to the sea, producing havens which in former days and for vessels of light burthen were much in request. Of these waters the chief is the Stour, which at no very remote period, near to the present Canterbury, fell into the head of a considerable estuary, the waters of which, guarded by the ancient fortresses Regulbium, Rutupiæ and Lemanis, maintained Thanet as an island, and gave to the trade of the period free access to the interior of the district. This estuary was not exempt from the general tendency to become silted up. Before the Norman Conquest the waters had receded from Canterbury to the parish thence named Stourmouth, and Thanet from an island had become a peninsula. The process of silting up has been since continued, and the mouth of the Stour carried many miles lower. The river, after a very winding course, falls into and in part forms what remains of the ancient English port of Sandwich, opposite to the anchorage known as the Small Downs.

About three miles to the west of the South Foreland, another and much smaller stream, fed from the lower chalk and greensand, flows down a deep valley, and, reaching the sea between two considerable heights, has given origin to the port, town, and castle of Dover, so called, without doubt, by derivation from a British name represented in the Roman times by Dubris. The town and port lie deep in the valley. Of the heights, a part of that to the west has been rendered famous by Shakespeare, and has long borne his name. That to the east is known as the Castle Hill, so called from the fortress by which, under some form or other, it has been crowned from a very remote period. A position so convenient and so capable of defence would, upon any shore, have attracted the notice of the very earliest inhabitants; for not only was the height strong and the port convenient, but these advantages were found at the point at which the island approached nearest to the Continent, and at which those who crossed the straits, whether as friends or foes, would first make the land, and, if not obstructed, would come ashore. The position, therefore, was of far more than local importance, and would be sure to receive the attention not only of the chiefs of the Cantii, but of the rulers, if such there were, of the whole of Britain. It is therefore probable that haven, town, and fortress date from very nearly the first settlement of the country.

Although the Western or Shakespeare’s Cliff is part of a larger range, the Castle Hill is better suited for defence. It is, in fact, an isolated knoll about 1,000 yards north and south, and 500 yards east and west, the summit being a steep and narrow ridge. Towards the south its boundary is the sea cliff, 320 feet high, and to the west the deep valley of the town. To the east and north are other valleys, less deep but by no means inconsiderable, and the sides of which are steep. Moreover, the whole hill is of chalk, that is to say, of a material easily scarped and capable of retaining any general outline to which it may be cut.

But though, on general grounds, a very remote antiquity may safely be attributed to both town and fortress, it is difficult to find any precise or special evidence on which to rest the claim. Here, as at Durovernum or Canterbury, the Roman form indicates a British origin, and, if the ancient name of the stream be indeed, as asserted, the Dour, may well be derived from it, and the Castle Hill is just the place upon which a British camp is likely to be found. The commerce of the Britons, known to have been carried on with activity through the Cornish ports and the Isle of Wight, has also been claimed for the route through Dover. The actual present traces of British occupation in this southern country are indeed very scanty, and confined to a few names of rivers and hills, a very few of towns or villages, and to occasional entrenchments upon high ground, and of an irregular outline. The great roads, whatever their remote origin, in their present form carry the stamp of Rome upon every mile of their course, and the oldest known works in masonry are due to the same people, while the general topography, all that relates to property and self-government, hundreds, lathes, rapes and tythings, parish and hamlet, grange and farm, and the crowd of bourns, dens, hams, hangers, hirsts, ings, tons, wolds and worths point with overwhelming force to the English settlers. Even the tenure in gavelkind, claimed as a British custom, and known in Wales by the expressive name of “Randyr” or “partible” land, is by most legal antiquaries regarded as Teutonic.

Although Cæsar does not mention Dover by name, there can be no doubt that his fleet lay before it in August, B.C. 55, the period of his first invasion of Britain. Dr. Guest has clearly demonstrated that the Portus Icius whence he sailed was a small and now silted-up haven between Cape Gris Nez, the Ician promontory, and Wissant, whence a ten hours’ course brought him in the morning abreast of Dover. Here he found the natives, in great numbers and armed, drawn up to oppose his landing. He therefore anchored in Dover Wick, the roadstead east of the town, to give time for his slower ships to arrive, and thence proceeded to Deal, where he probably landed with two legions, or from eight to ten thousand men. Dr. Guest has pointed out that the word Icius coincides closely with the Irish name for the English Channel, “Muir n’Icht,” “the Ician Sea,” “icht” being a form of “uch” or “ucha,” upper in height, which plays so important a part in the names of places in Wales and the north of Scotland. It was natural that the Channel should be named from its most remarkable feature, and to this day its name in Dutch is “De Hofden,” or “the heights.”

Cæsar stayed but three weeks in the country, and may not have visited Dover; but as, when he returned in the following year with a much larger force, he seems to have embarked and landed at the same points, he must have been familiar with the aspect of the port from the sea. As on this occasion he traversed Kent and crossed the Thames, he probably left no dangerous force behind him at Dover, which he does not mention, and which clearly was not then made a rallying point by the Britons. Had the heights been held in force, he would probably in the first instance have reduced them, or at any rate have mentioned the fact in his narrative. During the century that followed Cæsar’s appearance, Rome took no active part in British affairs, but it is probable that a considerable trade sprang up between the island and the Continent, and the Britons made great advances in commerce and civilisation. Towns were founded and coins struck. The next military invasion took place, A.D. 43, ninety-eight years after the first appearance of Cæsar, and under the reign of Claudian, and command of Aulus Plautius, who landed with four legions. The Cantii then held a tract nearly corresponding to the present county of Kent. Durovernum had been founded amidst its indigenous alders, and Camalodunum, beyond the Thames, was the chief city of the Trinobantes. Where Plautius landed is not precisely known. Probably at several points on the open beach between Rich borough and Laymen. Whether the Britons mustered north or south of the Thames is also unknown; but, when Claudian followed his lieutenant, the way lay open to that river, and he marched at once upon Camalodunum, where the Trinobantes were put to flight. Plautius probably subdued the country as far west as the Axe and the Tamar, and his progress may, it is thought, be traced by the remains of his rectangular camps opposed to those of larger area and irregular outline thrown up by the retiring Britons. As, in the year A.D. 40, Caligula had caused a lighthouse to be set up on the heights of Boulogne, it is not improbable that Plautius was the builder of the corresponding tower at Dover.

Ostorius Scapula is said to have occupied with a camp the Castle Hill. He, Suetonius Paulinus, and Agricola were busied mainly with the midland and northern parts of the island, and the southern province, Britannia Prima, seems to have been at peace. Roads were laid out, towns built, the metals were smelted, and agriculture prospered. Dubris (Dover), Durobrivis (Rochester), Rutupiæ (Richborough), Lemanis (Lymne), Regulbium (Reculver), and Anderida (Pevensey), came afterwards into notice as towns or havens. The Watling Street, which ran from Canterbury by Rochester northwards, seems to have been commenced at Dover. There were indeed roads from Canterbury to Lymne and to Richborough, but Dover would be the port reached by the production of the road in a straight line from Canterbury. In the reign of Valentinian, A.D. 364–7, a cohort of the Second Legion of 1,100 men was stationed at Dubris, where stamped tiles show them to have built a bath, and which is mentioned as a port in the Iter of Antoninus and as a town (civitas) by the geographer of Ravenna. In the time of Constantine, Dubris was one of the six ports south of Thanet, under the Count of the Saxon shore, the others being Rutupiæ, Regulbium, Lemanis, Anderida, and Adurnus (Portsmouth). It is, however, not included in the list of the twenty-eight towns existing when the Romans retired from Britain, of which Rutupiæ was one. Still, even if Dubris were one only of three heads of the Watling Street, its importance under the Roman sway was considerable.

To the Roman period is to be referred the burial-ground laid open near the edge of the cliff in 1797, and the bath discovered on the brook west of St. Mary’s Church. No mention is made of a Roman fortress, nor was it in accordance with the practice of that people to place a permanent camp, still less a military station, upon a height so inaccessible as the Castle Hill. The existing earthworks show no traces of Roman outline, nor, when they had possession of the whole district, was there any need to fortify the lighthouse. The lighthouse alone, of the works upon the hill, can with certainty be pronounced to be Roman, but this, of course, implies the existence and employment of the port. All that the topographer can affirm is that the earthworks do not now present, and, so far as description may be relied on, do not appear ever to have presented, anything of a Roman character.

Kent was probably the part of Britain first invaded by the Northmen, and certainly the first actually subdued and settled. It was the only independent state established and maintained by the followers of Hengist, the Jutes, a people who did not contribute largely to the conquest of Britain, neither did they occupy any considerable portion of the conquered country; but what they did retain became and still remains intensely Teutonic, and their early supremacy, during the conversion of the English to Christianity, is marked by the fact that their chief city became, as it has since remained, the ecclesiastical metropolis of the island. Dover was a considerable Jutish port, and before long was regarded as the key of England. Very probably the inner earthworks still to be seen, though too much altered to be recognisable, were the work of this people, and the collegiate church of St. Martin, founded in the town by Wihtræd, King of Kent (690–725), is said to have been removed by him from the Castle Hill. In the time of Alfred, Dover was placed in the bailiwick of Stouting, and the lathe of St. Augustine. Its history, however, properly so called, does not begin till the reign of the Confessor, whose charter to the Cinque Ports, which John is said to have inspected, was confirmed by many later kings.

In September, 1051, Eustace, Count of Boulogne, brother-in-law to King Edward, paid a visit to the English Court at Gloucester, and returning through Canterbury there rested his escort, and thence went to Dover on his way homeward. Before entering the town, he and his men put on their coats of mail, and attempted to take free quarters in the houses of the burghers. This led to a fight in which much blood was shed, and the Count finally, being expelled the town, returned to Gloucester with his complaint. The subsequent tale has often been told. Godwin, then Earl of Kent, took part with his injured countrymen, and withstood the strong Norman interest about the king, and was, in consequence, banished. Godwin proposed, says Malmesbury, “Ut magnates illius castelli blande in curia regis de seditione convenirentur.” Whether “castellum” can be taken for more than the fortified town is uncertain. It is not probable that Eustace would have ascended to the castle, since he sought quarters in the town. On the whole this passage can scarcely be taken to prove the existence at that time of a regular castle on the hill. Nevertheless, the existence of such a castle at that time is exceedingly probable, for in 1064–65 Harold, says William of Poitiers, swore to Duke William that, on the death of the Confessor, “se ... traditurum interim ipsius militum custodiæ castrum Doveram, studio atque sumptu suo communitum, item per diversa loca illius terræ alia castra.” Eadmer is more precise. In his account Duke William insists, “et insuper castellum Dofris cum puteo aquæ ad opus meum te facturum.” Malmesbury says, “Castellum Doroberniæ (Dubris) quod ad jus suum pertineret.” Here there can be no mistake as to what is meant. A well in the town could be of no special value, but a well on a chalk hill 290 feet above the water springs was an addition to the castle worthy of special notice. Such a well, moreover, was a very laborious work, and must have taken some time to complete. Harold’s oath is no doubt involved in a good deal of doubt and uncertainty, but the tale may at least be taken to show that there was, before the Norman conquest, a castle upon the hill, now crowned by the Norman keep, and that it had been strengthened by Harold. Malmesbury here, as in his account of the fray with Count Eustace, for Dover puts Canterbury, evidently in error.

Domesday Book opens with Dover. “Dovere tempore regis Edwardi,” &c. That king held two parts of half its rents, and Earl Godwin the other third, that is, the earl’s penny. The burgesses provided the king with twenty ships annually for fifteen days, in each twenty-one men. The king’s messengers also had certain valuable privileges, showing that the port lay in the usual route to the Continent. There was a mill at the entry to the port, much in the way of the shipping. The castle is not mentioned, but we read of the Gildhalla, or Guildhall, of the burgesses. The town, though thriving, had recently been burned, and the rent reduced in consequence.

The Normans landed, as their Teutonic ancestors had landed centuries before them, beneath the ancient walls of the Roman Anderida, which, under the name of Pevensey, had become an English, and was to become ere long a Norman fortress. Pevensey is a haven no longer, but within its circuit may still be seen huge fragments of Roman and Norman masonry, and the simpler, but, at least, equally durable mound of its English occupants, a grand and striking composition, and, to the instructed observer, eloquent of great events. William took possession of the ruins, and, on the following day, marched upon the battlefield, hastily fortifying with wood and earth the hill of Hastings in support of his position. After the battle Romney first felt the weight of the Conqueror’s hand, and he then turned to Dover. The castle was, says William of Poitiers, impregnable, and the town even then considerable; but the people, though assembled in vast numbers, had no leaders, and town and castle were at once surrendered, though in the transfer, either by design or accident, much of the town was burned. William paused here eight days, detained by sickness among his troops. He treated the people with great lenity, placed a Norman garrison in the castle, to the defences of which he added, and then proceeded towards the Thames, receiving the submission of Canterbury and Rochester on his way. Kent was placed under the command of Bishop Odo, who held Dover as its military centre. This continued to be its position, and in 1074, when the fierce Jutish blood broke out, and the men of Kent, headed by Eustace of Boulogne, rose against William, their first object was to gain Dover Castle, to which they laid siege. Its defences, whether English or Norman, were strong, but the attack was sharp. Bishop Odo and Hugh de Montfort, who had the castle in charge, were absent, but they exerted themselves in the county, and the castle was relieved. Towards the end of the reign the town is said to have been walled, and to have had ten gates. Its position, as the most important of the Cinque Ports, seems to have been established, to which its castle largely contributed. The five ports were Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich. Winchelsea and Rye were among the members. Their service was to provide fifty-seven ships annually, of which number Dover furnished twenty-one.

Important as the castle continued to be under the reigns of the Plantagenet and Tudor kings, its history does not possess any very particular interest. It was not the scene of any very remarkable event, and, though accounted the key of the kingdom, was not in any very intimate manner bound up with its history. It has always been held by the Crown and governed by a constable, usually a man of eminence, of which officials Lyon gives a list of 138. Three barons of the house of Fiennes held the office under the Conqueror, Rufus, and Henry I., and in their time seem to have been built the outer curtain and many of its towers. Walchelin Magminot, placed in office by Stephen, held the place against him in 1137, and in 1138 surrendered it to the queen, just before the battle of the Standard. Stephen died at Dover, probably in the castle, and Mr. Puckle has fought gallantly for the recent discovery of his remains. Henry II. is supposed to have built the keep and the wall of the inner ward in 1154, soon after his accession to the crown, and, if so, it was probably the actual work of one of the Barons Fiennes, who held the office of constable in that reign. Of these lords, the last, James Fiennes, was constable at the accession of Richard I., and in 1191 received, as a prisoner in the castle, Geoffrey, Henry II.’s natural son, on his way to take up the archbishopric of York. He was taken from the sanctuary of St. Martin’s church, and imprisoned by order of the Bishop of Ely, the chancellor. For this outrage Fiennes was suspended, and eventually the chancellor was excommunicated and banished. In 1198 the constable was one of the five officers appointed to inspect the treasures of the church of Canterbury. In the reign of John, the constable was Hubert de Burgh, to whom it fell to defend the castle against Prince Louis and the French invaders. Louis made great attempts to win over De Burgh to his party, but without success, and upon his final refusal he laid siege to the castle. Trebuchets and petraria, and much siege artillery were brought over from France, and a covered way was run along the slope outside the castle ditch on the north-west quarter. Wooden towers (Malvoisins) also were erected on the edge of the ditch to quell the fire from the walls, which were actually shaken by strokes of the ram. Also a small colony was established in temporary huts, so as to give the siege the aspect of a blockade. Hubert, however, was a true and loyal subject of England. He regarded his charge as held under his sovereign, whoever that sovereign might be, and his castle as the “clavis Angliæ et repagulum.” He returned attack for attack, stone for stone, until the death of John, by removing much of the cause of dissatisfaction, led to the retirement of the French from the country. The great spur-work in advance of the northern gateway, and which still, though much altered, remains, is probably the work of De Burgh, no doubt suggested to him by the direction of the French attack. Henry III. was here in state in 1255, on his way from Spain, and in 1259 the castle was in the hands of the barons, who refused to allow his brother Richard, King of the Romans, to enter the place until he had sworn to adopt their cause. Henry recovered the castle in 1261 from Hugh le Bigot, but was unable to hold it, and was refused admission when, with his brother and the Earl Mareschal, he presented himself before the gate in 1263. In the great struggle, Henry held the Tower of London, and the barons the castle of Dover. After Lewes, the Princes Edward and Henry were for a time held in durance in Dover. In 1265, when the prince had the upper hand, and Kenilworth had fallen, fourteen nobles of the royal party were imprisoned in the keep of Dover. Here they defended themselves, turning the tables upon their captors, who, attacked from without by Prince Edward, and thus placed between two fires, surrendered the castle. The Countess of Leicester, who was within it, was allowed to retire to France.

On his return from Palestine, after his father’s death, in the summer of 1274, Edward I. landed at Dover. He again visited the castle in 1278, 1296, and 1299. Dover was his usual port when he visited or returned from the Continent, and in his time the castle was maintained and strengthened, and some of its most considerable parts, such as the Constable’s Gate and St. John’s Postern, are of the conclusion of the reign of Henry or early in that of Edward, and most probably the latter.

Edward II. was here in the January following his father’s death, and here he embarked for Boulogne on the occasion of his marriage in 1308, and here he received the queen. Edward III. was not infrequently at Dover, but is more likely to have lodged in the Maison Dieu than in the castle. He probably drew troops from hence when he sailed from the port on his celebrated secret expedition to Calais in 1348. In the reign of Henry V. the Emperor Sigismond was received at the castle as a visitor, and from hence the king embarked his army for France in 1421, as did Henry VII. in 1491.

Henry VIII. suppressed the Maison Dieu, the celebrated foundation of Hubert de Burgh, within which very many kings and princes had been entertained, but the castle was an object of his special care, and was repaired and garrisoned. Henry also built the blockhouses of Sandown, Deal, Walmer, and Sandgate, and placed them under the charge of the Constable of Dover. Three bulwarks also were constructed under the cliff and upon the pier of the harbour. Later on the castle fell into neglect, and in the reign of Charles I., being garrisoned by a small force, and but little cared for, it was taken by surprise and held for the Parliament. In 1648 the Kentish royalists made a vigorous effort to recover it, but were repulsed by Algernon Sydney, then its governor.

DESCRIPTION.

Dover Castle is called by Matthew Paris “the very front door of England,” and described by William of Poitou as “Situm est id castellum in rupe mari contigua quæ naturaliter acuta undique ad hoc ferramentis elaborate incisa, in speciem muri directissima altitudine, quantum sagittæ jactus permetiri potest consurgit, quo in latere unda marina alluitur.” It presents a good combination of the defences of several architectural periods, the general result being a concentric fortress, the growth of many centuries, and which, a century ago, presented much both of earthwork and masonry of great and unmixed antiquarian interest. More recently, however, the works have been delivered over to the military authorities of the country, and the result has been a series of alterations, additions, and removals, necessary, it is in all courtesy to be presumed, for the defence of the country, but very destructive of the ancient features of the fortress. The ancient earthworks have been scarped, extended, retrenched, and tunnelled, barracks and magazines have been built, the keep has been converted into storerooms and water-tanks, and in its basement are two powder magazines. In its present condition, and having regard to the strict regulations, prohibiting even the use of the pencil, under which the whole is placed, an accurate examination of what remains of the ancient works, whether in earth or masonry, is almost impracticable.

The British camp was oblong, following the figure of the hill. It was composed of a deep and broad ditch, the contents of which were in part thrown inwards and upwards so as to form a bank. The area thus enclosed measured within the bank about 875 yards by 350 yards, the latter being its diameter at the cliff, by which it is cut off, the northern end running to a point. This main ditch has probably been deepened and more or less altered during the Norman period, and it is now connected with various bastions, hornworks, and caponnières, but its general outline is sufficiently clear, and it may, from internal evidence, be presumed to be British. Within the area, rather nearer to its northern end, a second earthwork, also composed of bank and ditch, has been thrown up. This includes the lighthouse tower, and is therefore called the Roman ditch, but there is nothing about it of a Roman character, and it is far more probable that it was the work of the English, and formed the inner defence of the castle which Harold undertook to surrender. The space between this and the great earthwork forms the outer ward of the Norman castle; the inner work has been divided into two parts. That to the south, containing the lighthouse, forms the middle ward; that to the north contains the keep, and is the inner ward. The lighthouse has been employed as a belfry to the adjacent church of St. Mary, which is the subject of an excellent memoir by Mr. Puckle, though he can scarcely be admitted to establish its connexion with the British church. The two are undoubtedly the oldest buildings within the castle area.

The Keep and Inner Ward are Norman, of the reign of Henry II., but the curtain and most of its towers have been refaced or rebuilt, a great part recently, but more or less on the old lines. The plan is an irregular polygon, about 120 yards each way, with fourteen rectangular mural towers of no internal projection, and not rising above the curtain, which, however, is lofty. Two of those to the south-west take their name from Magminot and one from Gore. The walls were of flint rubble, quoined with ashlar, and battering outside at the base, the top of which is marked by a bold cordon of stone. Upon the sides of some of the towers are bold machicolated openings from garderobes. The keep stands detached in the centre of the ward, and within the area, built against the walls, are several buildings, as Arthur’s Hall, the guard chamber, and the officers’ quarters, some of early English character, others modern.

There are two entrances, the north, or King’s Gate, and the south, the Duke of Suffolk’s, or Palace Gate. The gateways are vaulted passages, with a flat segmental arch, opening externally between two square flanking towers. There is a groove for a portcullis, and the vaults have an early English import. Each of these gates is defended by an additional work. A sort of hornwork is thrown out in advance, enclosed within a wall with towers, and with a second gate placed obliquely to the first, to allow the approach to be commanded. The north, called the King’s Gate, is tolerably perfect. The southern outwork is nearly destroyed. It had two gates, one to the south, connected with which was the tower containing a well, and one to the east, called King Arthur’s Gate, close to which was the Armourer’s Tower, and near this was Earl Godwin’s Postern. The masonry of this inner ward was probably of the date of the keep. It was included within a broad and deep ditch, now incomplete, on the southern front.

The Middle Ward includes the southern half of what was probably the English earthwork. Its southern two-thirds is rounded, but at its base are, or were, walls and towers connecting it right and left with the curtain of the outer ward, which it thus divided into two parts. In advance of this work were three towers: two, to the east and west, Clinton and Mortimer, were square. Both seem to have been of Norman date. The central tower to the south was circular, and was called Valence. It was, no doubt, later, probably of the reign of Henry III. The foundations of Clinton Tower were laid open and removed in 1794. A fragment of Mortimer’s Tower remains. Valence Tower was destroyed in the last century. The gatehouse of the ward is called Colton Gate. It is Norman, but an octagonal story has been added to the square base. The curtain connecting these towers is gone, and the lofty south bank has been scarped, and its outline changed. In this ward is a well 380 feet deep, once covered by a tower.

The Outer Ward is contained within a curtain, much of which is reduced by an internal ramp to a parapet wall. Upon the three landward sides it is narrow, and chiefly occupied by the ditch of the middle and inner wards. Upon the remaining or southern side it expands and includes a large space between the middle ward and the cliff. Its circuit is only not complete because its walls rest at either end upon the cliff. The plan of the wall is irregular, with an occasional angle or shoulder for raking the ditch. Exteriorly it rises from the outer dry ditch, and upon it are twenty-seven towers of various dates, figures, and dimensions, square, circular, and multiangular. Most of those on the western face are simply hollow bastions, and have no internal projection. Those on the eastern face are mostly mere sentry-boxes, or bartizan turrets of small dimensions. Upon the seaward front, where the cliff is perpendicular, there is no wall. The ingenuity of the engineer has been exercised on the landward and weaker sides. Five of the towers are connected with gates. These towers, commencing at the south-west angle of the ward, near the cliff, are: 1. Canon’s or Monk’s Gate, now destroyed; in it was a well. 2. Rokesley’s Tower, semicircular. 3. Fulbert de Dover’s Tower, square; near which was long the office of the “bodar,” or sergeant-at-arms, to whom all civil warrants of arrest for debt or breach of the revenue laws were addressed. Fulbert’s Tower was also his prison. 4. Hirst’s Tower, semicircular; it commands a shoulder or re-entering angle in the wall. 5. Arsick’s Tower, semicircular. 6. Gatton Tower. 7. Peverill’s, Beauchamp’s, or Marshall’s Tower. This is also the gatehouse between the two divisions of the outer ward, which was strong, with a ditch on the south front, and a drawbridge. It was also the marshal’s prison. 8. Port, Gosling, or Queen Mary’s Tower, having been repaired by that sovereign. 9. Fiennes’s Tower, or the Constable’s Gate. This is one of the grandest gateways in England. It is in plan a triangle with its obtuse angle presented to the field. The angles at the base fall within the line of the curtain, and are capped by two large drum towers. The salient angle in like manner is capped by an oblong tower, rounded at each end and flat in the centre, through which the entrance passes. These three towers are large and lofty, and are connected by an embattled curtain. Within the triangle a central tower rises to a still greater height, and commands the whole. The entrance passage is broad and vaulted, and provided with gates and a portcullis. Within, it opens upon the level of the outer ward; without, it terminates abruptly upon the scarp of the ditch, there about 50 feet deep. From this gateway a bridge communicates with the opposite bank. A single lofty pier rises from the centre of the ditch, and from it an arch springs to the outer abutment, carrying a regular roadway and parapets. In the opposite direction the parapets alone spring, as two arches, from the pier to the gateway, and serve to steady the pier, but the roadway is omitted, and its place supplied by a drawbridge. This arrangement is not uncommon, but is here specially necessary, owing to the height and consequent weakness of the pier. Upon the counterscarp of the ditch is a tête-de-pont, from which a steep road descends by a traverse towards the town. This gate, though open, is but little used. The ordinary gate is modern, and near the site of Canon’s Gate. The Constable’s Gate is of the Decorated period. Its interior is said to be very curious, but is not shown.

Sixteen towers, including Clopton, Godsfoe, Magminot (4), and Crevequer’s Towers (2), protect the north-west face. Clopton is a hexagon; the name of Magminot is borne by four towers. The two towers bearing the name of Crevequer mark the position of the great postern, a very curious work. Passing from the north gate of the inner ward, a range of arches cross the ditch and the outer ward, and terminate abruptly in a large low pier with salient angles to the right and left. Opposite to the pier, and no doubt at one time connected with it by a drawbridge, rise a pair of circular towers (Crevequer), connected by a heavy curtain and flanked by lesser towers (Magminot) at short distances, all forming part of the enceinte of the outer ward. Towards the field the curtain has a salient angle, and from its base a covered gallery descends into the outer ditch, and there reaches St. John’s, a drum tower built in the middle of it. The gallery passes through the first story of the tower, and terminates in the counterscarp, in a circular chamber cut in the chalk, and from this chamber three tunnels radiate to different parts of the glacis, of which one formerly led to a distant postern, and another still communicates with the old spur-work, attributed to Hubert de Burgh, and converted into a modern ravelin. Two other tunnels, apparently of Edwardian date, leave the main gallery under the castle wall, and the basement floor of St. John’s contains two sally ports, opening into the bottom of the ditch. The modern access to these galleries is by a shaft sunk in the pier of the old drawbridge, but the old entrance was nearer the curtain. The French siege of 1216 was directed upon this quarter. The approaches were made from the west below the Constable’s Gate, and under cover of a trench and breastwork. While the attack was impending Sir Stephen de Pencester brought a reinforcement into the castle by the postern under Godwin’s Tower. De Burgh, taught by experience, threw up the advanced work which still, under a changed form, covers the northern end of the castle, and it was to reach this in safety that the gallery from St. John’s Tower was executed.

Fitzwilliam’s Tower (18), placed about 80 yards east of the north gate, was connected with a second postern, not unlike the last, and now connected with a caponnière. Beyond this are 19 and 20, two watch turrets, and farther on 21, Albrinci’s or Avrenches’ Tower. This contains a third postern of peculiar arrangement. It is a low, polygonal structure, placed on a shoulder on the ditch, so as to rake its continuation southward. It was reached by a covered gallery from the south gate of the inner ward, which is continued through its basement so as to open on the counterscarp of the main ditch. Connected with this gallery was Veville or Pencester’s Tower, placed upon the curtain which on this side closed the connexion between the two divisions of the outer ward. Of the remaining towers, five in number, three are called Ashford’s, and near one of them was another well. This part of the defence has been completely remodelled. The names of the several towers are those of the knights by whom they were built, or whose duty it was to defend them, for to no castle in Britain, not even to Richmond, was the practice of tenure by castle guard so extensively applied as to Dover, and very numerous and valuable were the Kentish manors so held, amounting to 230½ knight-fees, of which 115¼ were attached to the office of Constable.

The Keep.—This is a very fine example of a late Norman keep. It is very nearly square, being, at the base above the plinth, 98 feet north and south by 96 feet east and west, with a forebuilding 15 feet broad by 115 feet long, which covers the east side and the south-east angle of the main structure. The angles are capped by pilasters 19 feet broad and of 5 feet projection, which meet to form a solid angle, and, rising to the summit, become the outer faces of four square turrets. On each of the three free faces is an intermediate pilaster, 15 feet broad by 5 feet projection, which rises to the same height with the parapet, and forms a bay in its line. There is a battering plinth, 6 feet high, from which the pilasters rise, and the total height of the wall is 83 feet, and of the turrets 12 feet more, or 95 feet. The base of the keep is 373 feet above high-water mark. The top of the plinth is marked, on the face of the pilasters, by a bold cordon or roll, and there are two sets-off of 6 inches common to both walls and pilasters, one at the first and the other at the second-floor level. The walls are of unusual thickness, even for a Norman keep. That to the west, between the pilasters, is 21 feet reduced to 19 feet at the first and to 18 feet at the second floor. The north wall is 17 feet, the south 19 feet, and the east 18 feet. The cross wall, which runs north and south, and divides the building nearly equally, is 11 feet at the base, and reduced to 7 feet and 6 feet at the top story.

The main entrance is in the east face, near its north end, at the second-floor level. The forebuilding which covers it is the finest in England. It is in fair preservation, all but its roofs and part of its east wall, which are modern. As at Rochester, it is of masonry inferior to the keep, at least outside, and there is no cordon at the base of its pilasters, but it contains within more ornamental work than the keep, with which it is so intimately connected that it cannot be an addition. In the north-east and south-west angles of the keep are well-staircases remarkably commodious and well lighted. They are 14 feet 6 inches in diameter, the stairs being 6 feet 6 inches and the newel 1 foot 6 inches. They rise from the basement to the roof by 114 steps, and communicate with each floor, the two lower by lobbies, the upper and upper gallery by branching passages. From the north-east lobbies doors open into the two tiers of vaults below the upper part of the forebuilding. The extraordinary thickness of the walls is intended to allow of the construction of a very unusual number of mural chambers, of which there are altogether twenty-seven. Besides the main entrance there seems to have been one at the first-floor level, also from the forebuilding. Others have since been made, one probably in the fourteenth century, direct into the basement, and another very recently into the base of the south-western staircase. Besides these, divers loopholes have been converted into doors, to give external entrance to the basement mural chambers which are used as water-tanks and powder-magazines.

DOVER CASTLE.

DOVER KEEP.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

GENERAL REFERENCES.

  1. Main Entrance,
  2. Inserted Door,
  3. Modern Door,
  4. Main Chambers,
  5. Vaults,
  6. Lower Vestibule,
  7. Lower Chapel,
  8. Wells.

FIRST FLOOR.

BASEMENT.

The basement.—There is some doubt about the original level of this floor. At present it is 9 feet above the ground outside, but it contains two doors, the sills of which are 6 feet or 8 feet below the floor, and on opening the ground near the centre of the keep a pavement was found at the same level, so that the floor may have been filled in with earth and raised. If so, however, there must have been some kind of stair to supplement the well staircases, for the floor of their lobbies is certainly at its original level. The cross-wall between the two chambers is pierced by three plain round-headed arches of 11 feet opening.

The east chamber, 50 feet by 20 feet, has in its north end a deep recess, and a loop up to which the sill is stepped, while the arch overhead rises as the recess contracts. It is evident that the recess at the south end was similar, but has been converted into a doorway. This is the opening in general use, from the first landing of the exterior staircase. The wall here is 24 feet thick, and there are rebates for two doors, with bars within each. The arches are segmental and the angles rounded off. The alteration seems to have been made in the Decorated period, with a trace of later work. Close east of this door, and 6 feet below it, is another door, now partially concealed, which led into a vault 28 feet by 15 feet, occupying the south-east angle of the building. In its south wall a door leads into a second vault, 23 feet by 15 feet, below the lower vestibule and chapel. Each vault had a loop towards the east. They are now used as water-tanks, and reached by external openings. Returning to the east chamber, in its east wall are two doors, one at its north end and one near the middle, now blocked up. The northern door opens into the lobby of the north-east staircase, and from it a door led into a vault 28 feet by 12 feet, in the forebuilding, now used as a magazine, and entered through the outer wall. The middle door probably led into another vault, of which nothing is known. Thus at the ground level of the forebuilding there are three, if not four vaults, all originally entered from the keep. They are about 6 feet high to the arch-springing.

The west chamber, 50 feet by 16 feet, has a large recess and loop in each end, and in the west wall two doors, one opening into the lobby of the south-western staircase, where is the modern door, and the other, now blocked up, which led into a mural chamber 39 feet long by 12 feet broad, now a powder-magazine, and entered from the outside.

The first floor also contains two main rooms which communicate by a small door near the north end of the cross-wall.

The east chamber, 53 feet by 22 feet, has a recess 7 feet wide in its south end, which ended in a loop, now converted into a window. In its right or west jamb is a fireplace; in its left a door opening into a mural chamber 18 feet by 11 feet, with a loop to the south, and from the east end of which a door opens upon a staircase of the forebuilding. This door and the window above it are of Tudor date, but there are indications that there was an original door here, of which the Tudor frame is a replacement. In the exterior wall is an arch of relief in fine ashlar, which matches in size with the vault within, and looks as though intended to protect an original door. In the east wall of the great chamber is a door opening into the lobby, in which six steps descend to the north-east staircase. From this lobby a door leads into a vault 24 feet by 12 feet, with a recess in its north and south walls, and a loop in its east end. From this a short passage leads into a second vault, 17 feet by 2 feet, with a loop to the north. These two vaults are placed below the upper vestibule and great guard-room of the forebuilding. In the north wall of the great chamber, at the east end, a small door opens into a mural gallery, 16 feet by 4 feet, with a loop to the north, and which ends in a chamber 5 feet by 6 feet, also with a loop to the north. Above this gallery is a recess 7 feet wide, raised about 10 feet from the floor, to clear the gallery. Its loop is replaced by a modern window.

The west chamber, 52 feet by 20 feet, has also a 7-feet recess in its south end, with a modern window, and in its east jamb a door opening into a mural chamber, 13 feet by 9 feet, with a south loop, and a fireplace in the east wall. This, and the fireplace already mentioned, are placed back to back, and, though with Tudor fittings, may possibly be original. In the north wall of the great chamber is a high recess and window, similar to that in the east chamber. In the west wall are four openings; that at its north end opens into a chamber in the north-west angle, 23 feet by 10 feet, with loops to the west and south. From it branches a passage 18 feet by 4 feet, in the north wall, which leads under the high window recess to a chamber 7 feet by 6 feet. Both passage and chamber have loops to the north. Next follows a window recess of 6-feet opening at the floor level, rising by four steps to the modern window; then a door opening into a mural chamber, 20 feet by 9 feet, with a fireplace in the east wail and two loops to the west. Finally is a door opening upon the lobby which leads to the south-west staircase, rising three steps, and having a loop to the west. Besides the three fireplaces in mural chambers, there were two others under arches of 12 feet span, one in the centre of each face of the cross-wall. These, however, are closed up. In the same wall, at the north end, is a door between the two chambers.

DOVER KEEP.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

SECOND FLOOR GALLERY.

SECOND FLOOR.

The second floor is the main or state floor of the building, and that into which opens the great entrance. As in the keeps of London, Rochester, and Hedingham, it had two tiers of windows, the upper passing through a mural gallery. Early in the present century this floor was covered in by two large brick vaults, slightly pointed. The object was to convert the ramparts into a platform for cannon. This clumsy addition completely conceals the upper half of the walls and destroys the effect of two very fine chambers.

The east chamber, 55 feet by 24 feet, is entered on the east side, near the north end, by a large, full-centred doorway, flanked outside by nook shafts. From this a vaulted passage, 5 feet broad, traverses the wall, here 16 feet thick, and descends by eight steps into the main chamber. This inconvenient height was evidently given to secure headway for the vault below the vestibule. In the entrance passage, on the left or south side, a door opens into the well chamber, a vault, 16 feet by 8 feet, with a loop to the east upon the great staircase. At the south end of the vault, upon a step, is the well, 4 feet diameter and 289 feet deep, lined, as far as can be seen, with ashlar. In the east wall is a recess for a spare bucket. Near the entrance, at the north end of the east wall of the great chamber, a door leads into a curved passage which descends eleven steps into the north-east staircase. At the south end of the same wall a large arch, 5 feet above the floor, opens into a mural chamber 8 feet by 7 feet. This arch has been reduced by modern brickwork, to support the great vault. In the same chamber a loop opens upon the grand staircase, and in the south wall is a door and a descent by eight steps towards the chapel. It is possible that the loop was originally a small door leading into the upper floor of the middle tower of the forebuilding, and that thence, in Tudor days, a small wooden gallery led to the north door of the ante-chapel. In the south end of the great chamber is a window recess of 7 feet, opening with nearly flat sides. In its west jamb is a fireplace, in the east a door leading into a mural vault 18 feet by 12 feet, over that by which the first floor is entered. This vault has a loop to the east upon the great staircase, on the north the eight steps, already mentioned, and in the south wall a narrow door and mural passage leading to the robing-room and ante-chapel. In the north end of the great chamber, near the north-east corner, a door opens into a chamber 7 feet by 5 feet, which lies in the north wall below the window recess, here of 8 feet opening.

The west chamber, 55 feet by 21 feet, has in its south end a window recess 7 feet broad, in the east wall of which a door opens into a mural chamber 14 feet by 9 feet, with a loop to the south and a fireplace in the east wall. In the west wall of the great chamber is a window recess 5 feet wide, commencing at the floor level, and there are three doors. That at the north end opens into a chamber, 22 feet by 9 feet, in the west angle, with loops to the west and north. From this opens a passage in the north wall 17 feet long, which ends in a chamber 11 feet by 5 feet; chambers and passage have loops to the north. Near the centre of the west wall of the great chamber a door opens into another mural chamber, 22 feet by 14 feet, with two loops to the west and a fireplace in the east wall. Another door leads, by a curved passage with a loop to the west, into the south-west staircase. In the great cross-wall is a door near its north end, and in each of its faces two large fireplaces, now walled up. In the north wall is a high window or recess of 8 feet opening.

The main gallery, though it threads the wall nearly all round, lies at different levels, and at one point is stopped. It is entered from the two staircases. That at the north-east gives off two branches, of which one rises by fourteen steps, with a loop to the north, and enters a passage in the north wall 16 feet long, having a loop to the north, and to the south an opening, now blocked up, into the great chamber. The passage ends in a chamber 18 feet by 8 feet, in the north wall of which is a loop, and near it a deep recess for a garderobe; and in the south wall is what seems to be the mouth of a gallery threading the cross-wall, where, however, it would be stopped, or very much reduced, by the shafts of the fireplaces. The other branch from the north-east staircase rises by six steps, when it gives off a branch to the east of nine steps, which lead to the roof of the upper tower of the forebuilding. The main passage then curves and rises ten steps more, in all sixteen steps, when it enters the substance of the east wall, where it is 60 feet long and 4 feet 7 inches broad, and has a door to the east, opening on the middle tower of the forebuilding, and a loop, and opposite to these are two openings in the west wall, which formerly opened into the great chamber, and now are blocked by the brick vault. The passage then turns and lies for 67 feet in the south wall. In its east end is a loop; in its south wall, there 10 feet thick, a door opening upon the roof of the lower tower of the forebuilding. In the same wall are two, and probably three loops, opposite to two of which seem to have been openings into the great chamber. The third is much broken. In the inner wall is a recess, probably the mouth of the cross-wall gallery. At its west end the main gallery descends twenty steps to reach the south-east staircase. From this staircase, at twenty steps higher up, a door opens into the gallery, which is continued along the west wall 68 feet. It has three loops in the outer wall, opposite to two of which are apertures, now closed, which looked into the great chamber. This gallery is continued 15 feet, with a width of 6 feet, in the north wall.

The roof of the keep is now an artillery platform, pierced on the south by six and on the west by five embrasures, the top of the pilasters forming a bay in the centre of each face. The two other faces are solid, and protected by guns “en barbette.” Of the four turrets, which are 21 feet square, with two entrances on each face, the two to the south have entrance stairs, and doors from the stair-head open in the side of those at the north-east and south-west angles. The north-west turret seems to be entered by an opening in its east face. Though these turrets have been much pulled about, their substance seems original.

The forebuilding covers the whole of the east and about 45 feet of the adjacent south face of the keep. Its breadth ranges from 15 feet to 23 feet. It was strengthened by three towers, one over the north end or top of the staircase, one over the south-east angle or bottom, and one on the east front over the middle of the staircase. The middle tower, in which was the middle doorway, is unusual. These rose to about four-fifths of the height of the main building, and their battlements were reached, as has been shown, by doors from the upper gallery. The object of this forebuilding was to contain and protect the great staircase, and in it are three vestibules, a lower and upper chapel, and an ante-chapel, several mural chambers, and a well. The entrance at this time begins from the ground on the south front by an open staircase of ten steps, probably modern, as the original ascent seems to have been against and parallel to the keep wall. At the top of these steps is a landing, upon which opens the present entrance into the basement floor. The staircase then turns to the right and rises eleven steps, still open, having on the left the keep and on the right the flanking projection of the forebuilding, in which is the lodge, and above it the robing-room. In front is a lofty doorway, 7 feet wide, with a segmental arch, quite plain, and above it a loop which opens from the chapel passage. This was the lower entrance, and was closed by a barred door. Entering the doorway, eleven steps under cover lead to the lower vestibule, which is thirty-two steps, or 20 feet, above the ground. This vestibule is a handsome chamber, 15 feet by 12 feet, with an arcade of two arches in its south wall, each pierced for a loop. In the west wall, near the entrance, is the door of the lodge, a plain barrel-vaulted chamber, 13 feet by 6 feet, having a loop to the west. In the east wall of the vestibule is an arch of 7 feet opening, springing from coupled columns and flanked by two others. The head is moulded with the chevron pattern. This arch opens into the lower chapel, 14 feet by 13 feet, which occupies the south-eastern angle of the building, and is so placed that the altar could be seen if desired by each person who entered the keep. In its north and south walls are arcades of two arches, divided by a pier carrying two nook shafts and a third shaft in the centre. In the south-east arch is a loop, and opposite to it a cupboard. In the east end is also a loop, placed in a recess flanked by two shafts. The floor of this chapel is one step above the vestibule. The ceiling of both was flat, and of timber. Beneath chapel and vestibule is the vault already described. The walls of this part of the forebuilding are from 2 feet 6 inches to 5 feet thick.

From the vestibule a doorway, the second, opens in the north wall. This has a segmental head, and is original, but it has been reduced in breadth, probably when the basement door was opened, by the insertion of new jambs. It opens into a vaulted passage, 6 feet wide and 5 feet long, being the thickness of the north wall of the lower tower. It is occupied by three steps and a landing, from which four steps ascend into the middle vestibule. This is a chamber 25 feet long by 15 feet broad, having a modern roof and two modern windows in its east wall, which has been in part rebuilt. On the left, on entering, is a Tudor doorway, and above it a square-headed window of two lights, of the same date. This opens into a mural chamber already described, and thence into the first floor of the keep. A large arch of relief is seen above in the wall, and it is probable that there was always a door here.

Beyond this door the staircase rises by twelve steps to a broad landing at the end of the vestibule. Besides the Tudor doorway and window, on the same side, higher up, are loops from two mural chambers of the second floor of the keep, and in the south wall over the stairs a small door, not now used, which opens into the ante-chapel. In the north wall of this vestibule, a doorway of 5 feet opening, the third in order upon the stairs, opens into a passage 6 feet wide, which pierces the wall of the middle tower, here 6 feet thick, the whole tower being 14 feet. From this doorway a flight of twenty steps, 8 feet wide, ascends into the upper vestibule, to a large landing 19 feet by 14 feet. The vestibule itself is 25 feet by 14 feet, and lies between the middle and upper tower of the forebuilding. In the east wall, which has been rebuilt with the roof, are two modern windows. In the south wall a narrow passage, 10 feet long by 3 feet broad, leads to the outer well, the ashlar pipe of which is 4 feet diameter. It seems to have been used in modern times as a cesspit, and is choked up. The well is placed in the centre of the tower, which seems to have been a mass of masonry. At present the wall round the well has been broken away so as to form a rude chamber. It cannot now be ascertained whether the well stopped at this level, as is probable, or was carried up to the roof of the tower. In the north end of the vestibule, looking down upon the staircase, a door leads into a vaulted guard-chamber, 16 feet by 10 feet, with loops to the north and east, and a deep recess in the west wall. In the west wall of the vestibule is the great door of the keep and a loop from the well-chamber. There are traces on this wall of ashlar, as though it was originally intended to vault and groin this vestibule.

In the forebuilding, on the level of the second floor of the keep, remain to be mentioned the robing-room, ante-chapel, and chapel. They are placed in the lower tower of the forebuilding over the lodge, vestibule, and lower chapel, and were entered only from the keep, through the mural chamber already described. From this chamber a passage, only 2 feet 5 inches broad, lies in the wall over the outer doorway, and from it a loop opens over the staircase, outwards. This passage, 17 feet long, ends in two small doors, right and left, one entering the robing-room, the other the ante-chapel. Originally this was the only way into the chapel, and a very stout person could scarcely have reached it. The Plantagenet princes, though mostly big in the bones, were rarely corpulent. The robing-room is over the lodge. It is 10 feet by 7 feet, vaulted, groined, and ribbed; the ribs are of plain roll section, and there is no boss. They spring from nook shafts at the four angles. There are loops, or rather small windows, of a foot opening to the west and south, flanked by small columns. The ante-chapel, 16 feet by 13 feet, has an arcade of two arches in the north and south walls, and a loop in the north-east space, converted into a small door, so as to give a separate entrance. In the east wall an arch of 8 feet span opens into the chapel. It springs from coupled columns, flanked on each face by two others, and the arch has a chevron moulding. The floor was of timber, and rested on five beams. The roof is vaulted, groined, and ribbed, and the moulding a roll with a band of dog-tooth. The chapel is 14 feet by 13 feet. It is peculiar in its position, being placed over the base of the entrance stair, instead of, as at Middleham, at its head. It also has an arcade of two arches in the north and south walls, with nook shafts in pairs at the angles behind which, from a corbel capital, spring the ribs of the vaulted roof. These are of a roll section with a band of the dog-tooth ornament, and a central flowered boss. There is a small east window, and also south of it a piscina with a trefoiled head and projecting basin, now broken off. This seems a Decorated addition. There are two loops in the south wall, and one in the north near the east end, and in the other north bay a cupboard. The floor was of timber, resting upon four joists.

The material of this keep is chiefly the rag stone of the country worked as rubble, not very regularly coursed. Ashlar, mostly of Caen stone, is used freely for the door and window dressings and the quoins. The joints are close. The pilasters are of unusual breadth and projection. The chapels and the lower vestibule are highly ornate, with much of the chevron and roll mouldings, and occasionally of the dog-tooth. The arches are sometimes segmental, but more commonly full centred. There is no portcullis in the building; the entrances were closed with doors only, secured with wooden bars. None of the loops that open on the staircase could be used in its defence. Excepting about the main door there is no ornamentation in the keep itself. Doors, windows, and fireplaces seem to have been quite plain. This is the only known keep in which there is a second well, and it is difficult to understand why there should be two so near together, the expense of making which must have been so great. The upper gallery is of very rude masonry indeed; the lines of the passages do not coincide with the general direction of the walls, and the execution is very inferior. It is unfortunate, with ample buildings all round, that the authorities should pervert this very curious keep to vulgar and dangerous uses. The stores should be kept elsewhere, and the brick vaulting and additions be removed. The external breaches and doors in the walls should be closed, the second well cleared out, and the whole building as far as possible restored to its original condition. It might then be fitted up as a museum of arms, and every part, including the ward, made accessible. The reputed date of this keep is 1153, when the foundations are said to have been laid by Henry, grandson of Henry I., shortly before he succeeded to the throne. This coincides sufficiently well with the evidence of the building itself, which is late in the Norman style.

The general view here added is taken from the north, and shows the constable’s gate and bridge, and in the foreground the towers and curtains of the outer ward on this side. Immediately behind them are seen the square towers and the curtain of the inner, or Norman ward, and within all rises the keep, applied to the east side of which are seen the three towers of the forebuilding.

DUNSTER CASTLE, SOMERSET.

THE Castle of Dunster is of high antiquity, and for many centuries was a place of great military consideration in the western counties. It was the caput of an extensive Honour, and the chief seat of a line of very powerful barons. The hill upon which it stands is the north-eastern, or seaward extremity of a considerable ridge, from which it is cut off by a natural depression, and thus forms what is known in West-Saxon nomenclature as a tor. The tor covers above ten acres of ground, and is about 200 feet high, with a table top in area about a quarter of an acre. It stands upon the western edge of a deep and broad valley, which contains the park, and below the castle expands into a tract of meadow about a mile in breadth, skirting the sea from Minehead to below Carhampton. The park is traversed by a considerable stream, the Avill, one head of which springs from Croydon Hill, and the other, flowing past Wootton-Courtenay, rises about six miles distant under Dunkery Beacon. The home view, one of exceeding richness, is limited and sheltered on the south and west by the Brendon Hills and the high ground rising towards Exmoor. To the east it includes the vales of Cleeve and Williton, bounded by the Quantocks. Seaward on to the north the eye ranges over Bridgwater Bay to the headland of Brean Down and Worle, and commands the west or opposite coast from Penarth Point to Aberavan and Swansea.

West, and at the foot of the castle hill, and under the immediate control and protection of the old fortress, is the town of Dunster, a small and compact cluster of old-fashioned houses, many with timber fronts, in the midst of which is the parish church, once connected with the priory, the foundation of one of the early Norman lords. The eastern or monastic part of the building now forms the private chapel of the Luttrells, and contains several of their tombs.

DUNSTER CASTLE.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.

  1. Tor and Keep.
  2. Lower Ward and House.
  3. Ancient Entrance and Later Gatehouse.
  4. Approach from the Town and Priory.
  5. The Park.

The fancy cloths once known as “Dunsters” have long ceased to be fabricated, and of the fulling mills the ruins have well-nigh perished. The haven at which these manufactures found shipping is also silted up, and the privileges conceded to the townspeople, being now shared by the community at large, are no longer commemorated, and are known only because the charters granting them have been preserved. Of the neighbouring hills, “Gallocks” is thought to be so called because there the high judicial powers of the lords were exercised in the view of all men, and “Grabhurst,” the castle ridge, is said to be named from an entrenched wood, though this use of the word “graff” is unknown or unusual in English nomenclature, and “Hirst” or “Hurst” belongs rather to Sussex and Kent than to Somerset. The fact is that the hill in old deeds is spelt “Grobefast,” and is at this time colloquially “Grabbist.” Near it is a lofty detached hill known as “Conygaer,” crowned by a tower of the last century. At present it is thickly planted, but no camp has been discovered there, such as the name might indicate. The castle mill remains. It is placed on the verge of the park, upon the stream, and concealed and protected by the castle.

The castle is composed of two parts, due to the natural disposition of the ground; these are the tor or keep, and the lower ward. The tor is in form oval, and its summit, naturally flat, has been further levelled by art, as the slopes also have been trimmed, and rendered almost impracticable for direct ascent. The summit measures about 35 yards east and west, by 70 yards north and south. The keep, which stood here, has disappeared, and its existence, long a matter of tradition, may now be deduced from a sewer and some foundations in the south-west corner laid open a few years ago. The present surface was laid down as a bowling-green in the last century, and a summer-house constructed at the north-east corner, in which is a window in the Perpendicular style taken from some earlier structure.

The artificial scarping of the hill sides is confined to the upper 80 or 100 feet. At this level are two platforms or shelves, one, a small one, towards the south, the other much larger, also chiefly natural, towards the north, and which forms the lower ward. The lower ward is of a semilunar or semioval figure, the hollow side being formed and occupied by a portion of the skirts of the tor. It measures about 33 yards north and south by 126 yards east and west, and covers about half an acre of ground. The outer or convex edge, steep by nature, has been cut into a low cliff, supported by a retaining wall, which, with its flanking towers and superstructure of parapet, protected this ward. At the foot of this wall, part of which supports the present house, the slope recommences, and, though now terraced by roads and paths, formerly descended unbroken to the base of the hill.

The keep was probably either circular or polygonal, approached as at Lincoln by a direct flight of steps from the lower ward. Its gateway seems to have been defended by a portcullis, as one is mentioned in the records, which could not have been in the earlier gateway or the later gatehouse. The buildings and inhabited part of the old castle were in the lower ward or its north-eastern quarter, upon the enceinte or curtain wall, and on the site, generally, of the present house. The wall was strengthened and flanked by half-round towers, of which the lower part of several remain incorporated into the later building and connected with fragments of wall, now a part of the house, and betrayed by their excessive thickness. One of these walls has a core of the natural red sandstone rock, enclosed in masonry, but traceable by an occasional exudation of dampness. The gateway of this ward remains between two of these flanking towers. It is 9 feet broad, with plain chamfered jambs, and a low stiff drop arch. There was no portcullis, and probably no drawbridge, the only defence being a door composed of bars of oak, 4 inches square and 4 inches apart, forming a grating, planked vertically outside with inch-and-a-half oak plank. Upon each oak bar was laid a bar of iron, and the whole fabric was spiked together with iron fastenings, having diamond-shaped heads. The meeting line of the two valves was guarded by an iron bar. In the right valve, on entering, is a wicket-gate 3 feet 8 inches high by 2 feet 6 inches broad, fastened with a huge iron lock in a wooden shell. This very curious specimen of carpenter’s and smith’s work, though of later date than the gateway, is old, not unlike that of Chepstow Castle, and probably of the time of Henry VIII. or Elizabeth. The gateway itself belongs to those of Henry III. or his son. In the last century the gates were permanently closed, and behind them was built a wall backed with earth. The gateway has recently been restored as far as possible to its original condition, and now gives access by steps to the lower ward.

The mural towers flanking the gateway are parts of circles, 16 feet 6 inches external diameter, and the lower 12 feet are original. One contains a curious vaulted basement with the usual three loops, and in the rear a doorway which opened into the ward. The other, or eastern flanker, had a basement chamber until recently filled with earth, and had also three loops, of which two are still visible outside. This tower was connected with a building in its rear, the foundations of which are original, and now form a part of the offices. Also upon the retaining wall, but about 20 yards beyond, and to the south-west of the old gateway, is another similar flanking tower, of which the upper story remains, and a part of a doorway. This tower is open in the rear. The towers, curtain, and entrance gateway are, in substance, all of one date, and what ashlar remains is of good quality and well jointed. The superstructure has been renewed recently.

The approach to the castle was steep, as it still is, from the town up to the old gateway, to enter which the road made a sharp turn. Just below the gateway, upon this approach, has been built a gatehouse, which projects from and is connected with the curtain, being incorporated into the tower, flanking the old curtain on the west side. This structure, the great gatehouse, still remains perfect, and, though evidently intended more for ornament than defence, makes a most appropriate approach to the castle, and gives to the whole structure much of a mediæval and something of a military character. This building is rectangular, 63 feet broad by 23 feet deep, and about 45 feet high, sixty-two steps leading to its battlements. It is pierced by a passage 10 feet 6 inches broad, having a plain pointed waggon vault, and at each end a not very highly pointed arch, with good moulded jambs continued round the head. There are no lodge doors opening into the archway, and neither portcullis nor drawbridge. The fronts are plain, save that the exterior has two flanking buttresses, and over the entrance is a rectangular panel containing nine coats of arms in three rows—one, four, and four. The interior front is flanked by two half-hexagonal turrets, of which that at the outer end contains a well-stair, entered from the outside by a small four-centred doorway, and communicating with each floor, and with the battlements. The corresponding turret is built upon one of the old mural towers which flanked the gateway of the lower ward. It contains a small chamber, probably a garderobe, on each floor. Against the outer end of the building are two buttresses, a large and small one, probably added to support the wall which then stood upon a steep slope and showed signs of settlement. The gatehouse is of three stages. The basement has a chamber on each side of the main passage, entered, one by the well-stair, the other by an exterior door. That next the well-stair is 14 feet 6 inches by 9 feet 8 inches, and has a window to the front. That on the other side of the archway is 21 feet 6 inches by 16 feet 3 inches, and is entered from the outside by a small doorway, probably an insertion. Opening from this chamber are two closets, and a well-stair ascends to the two floors above.

The first floor contains two rooms, 22 feet 10 inches by 16 feet 6 inches, and 21 feet 6 inches by 16 feet 6 inches, and 13 feet high. In its inner end are two closets.

The second, upper, or principal floor, was formerly of two rooms, but has recently been converted into a handsome hall, 47 feet by 16 feet 6 inches, with an open roof. It has five windows and a fireplace, and is entered on the level from the lower ward by a doorway, which seems an insertion of the date of Henry VIII., and which has the head of the well-stair on one side, and beyond, on each side, a closet. The windows of the gatehouse are mostly of two lights, divided by a transom into four, with the upper lights cinquefoiled and in the head quatrefoiled. The summit is embattled, and at the four angles are turrets, of which the two to the outer or front face are apparent only.

The shields on the exterior panel are, in the upper line, 1. Luttrell with crest and supporters. Below, in the next line, 2. Luttrell impaling Courtenay; 3. Luttrell impaling Beaumont of Sherwell; 4. Luttrell impaling Audley; 5. Luttrell impaling Courtenay of Powderham. In the lower row, 6. Luttrell impaling Hill; 7. Luttrell impaling blank; 8 and 9 blank. The Luttrell supporters were two swans chained and collared, derived from Bohun through Courtenay. The date of this gatehouse is uncertain. It has been thought to be the “novum ædificium castri de Dunster,” with the construction of which the accounts show Henry Stone to have been charged in the 9th of Henry V., but the lower part is of the style prevalent under Richard II. The door from the lower ward into the lobby is scarcely earlier than Henry VII. or VIII.

It is probable that the gatehouse was for some time used in combination with the gateway by its side, until the latter was closed. The approach and entrance, however inconvenient, were strong, and almost precluded any regular attacks by battering-machines, or even by escalade.

The history of Dunster commences with Domesday, in which it is recorded that William de Mohun holds Torre, and there is his castle. Aluric held it in the time of King Edward. “Ipse [Willielmus de Moion] tenet Torre. Ibi est castellum ejus. Aluric tenuit T.R.E.” These words are very appropriately inserted over the great chimney-piece in the hall. The Exeter Domesday also confirms the holding both of Mohun and Aluric. Who Aluric was is unknown. That he was a considerable Englishman none can doubt, but the name was common, occurring sixty-four times in Domesday, as does Alric, probably the same name, twenty-six times.

Mohun no doubt found the tor strongly fortified, after the English manner, for not only was it a frontier fortress against the western Celts, but it must have been exposed to the piratical invasion of the Northmen, who gave name to the opposite islands of the Holms, and the not very distant port of Swansea. The place was, in fact, a natural burh on a large scale, such as Æthelflæd and Eadward the Elder were wont to throw up artificially on a smaller scale in the early part of the tenth century. There was the conical hill with its flat top for the aula or domus defensabilis, and the courtyard below for the huts and sheds of the dependents and cattle.

William de Mohun was no mere adventurer. He was a great baron of the Cotentin, having the castle of Moion in la Manche. He fought at Hastings with a knightly following, and received from the Conqueror from sixty to seventy manors in Somerset, Devon, Dorset, and Wilts. These manors were in his time, or in that of his successor, combined into an Honour, as was the case with those attached to the chief seats of Plympton, Totnes, and Barnstaple. Dunster became the caput honoris.

The Honour of Dunster was one of about eighty-six in England, though in what they differed from baronies is not precisely understood. The nucleus of either was almost always an estate held before the Conquest, added to largely by the Norman who conquered it. In all cases it extended into more than one county, and was held of the king in capite by homage, fealty, and military service. By the laws of Henry I., every lord could summon his liegemen before the court, “et si residens est ad remotius manerium ejusdem honoris unde tenet, ibit ad placitum, si dominus suus summoneat eum.” The Honour is not a jurisdiction mentioned in Domesday, unless it be in a passage relating to Cornwall where it is recorded, “Hæ terræ pertinent ad honores chei;” chei being a place. The term is said to have been first used by the Conqueror in his charter to the Abbot of Ramsey. Most of the Honours seem to have fallen into disuse by the alienation of the manors composing them, as was the case with Dunster, although the records show that for many centuries the rights were maintained by the lord of the castle in full rigour.

To what extent the Mohuns were content with the earlier defences of the castle is unknown, but it is remarkable that no mouldings or fragments of Norman ornament have been dug up in or about the building, although there is original Norman work in the parish church. From the configuration of the ground the lines of the old fortress must have been where they still are, so that there would be no reason for pulling down the earlier works to enlarge the area; and yet it is difficult to suppose that works as durable as was the case with those of the Norman period could have fallen to decay by the reigns of Henry III. or Edward I., the date of the oldest extant parts. However this may be, it is certain that the castle of the Mohuns was one of the most important of the western fortresses; and in the lawless days of Stephen it was held for the empress against the king, during the great revolt of 1138, its lord being then William de Mohun, the second baron.

William, indeed, was not content with passive resistance. He is described as the “Scourge of the West,” ravaging and plundering the country up to the gates of Barnstaple, where he was held in check by Henry de Tracy. He is said to have been created earl either of Dorset or Somerset, or both, by the empress in 1140; but this creation rests on very uncertain authority, and has never been admitted as valid. The earldoms of that period were very irregular, and some were afterwards set aside. This lord founded the Augustine Priory of Brewton, in Somerset, and, according to the Black Book of the Exchequer, he held forty-four knights’ fees. It is not improbable that to him is due the circular or polygonal keep, which was common at that time where a castle possessed a mound, and which is known to have stood on the summit of the tor.

No mention of the castle occurs till the reign of John, who held the castle and Honour during the minority of Lord Reginald, when the fines, &c., for the Honour were levied by the king’s officers. In the Chancery roll of 1201–2, Nicholas Puinz accounts for 15s. 2½d., half a year’s pay allowed to the janitor of the castle, and the same to the watchman; and these payments are repeated by Reginald de Clifton, who, in 1204, was ordered to place Reginald de Moyon in possession of the castle of Dunster and the heritage then in his custody. A very little before this, the coming of age of Reginald, Hubert de Burgh was in charge, and had accounted “de finibus militum” of the Honour; and 25th February, 1202, John called upon the knights and free tenants to contribute through De Burgh for strengthening the castle. “Our castle,” the king calls it, probably not merely as holding it in wardship, but as asserting the general rights of the crown to all castles. A second Reginald seems to have founded a mass for the weal of his ancestors, to be said daily by a monk or a secular priest, to be provided by the prior, in the upper or St. Stephen’s chapel, in the castle, or during war in the chapel of St. Lawrence, within the priory. If the same was neglected, power was reserved to distrain upon the goods of the prior. Leland mentions St. Stephen’s chapel as connected with the keep. There seems also to have been a second chapel, as usual, in the lower ward. Upon the death of Lord Reginald, about 1213, the Honour again fell into the hands of the Crown during a long minority. Henry Fitz Count was placed in charge, and Alice the widow was allowed dower and “maritagium.” It is curious that John does not appear to have visited Dunster, although he was at Stoke-Courcy.

Henry III., in 1220, placed the forest of Dunster in charge of Peter de Maulay. He retained the castle in his own hands, and there occur several charges for the payment of Roger and William de Vilers, as “balistarii regis,” who dwelt in the king’s castle of Dunster. A specific order in 1222 places the Mohun lands in Carhampton in charge of William Briwer, probably next of kin to the widow, but reserves to the king’s hands the castle and vill of Dunster. Soon after, Watchet market, being unlicensed and injurious to Dunster, was put down (Close Roll I., 137, 418, 605). The above were not the only persons to whom from time to time this valuable wardship was committed.

Of the condition of the castle at the close of this wardship, nothing is on record; but the wealth of the family was much augmented by the match of Reginald, King John’s ward, with a Briwer co-heiress, and either his son Reginald, the founder, 1246, of Newenham Abbey, who died 41st Henry III., 1256, or his grandson John, who died 7th Edward I., 1278, the last baron by tenure, might have built the curtain and mural towers containing the lower ward, of which the bases remain. The keep was probably left unaltered, and indeed, from the great and inconvenient height at which it stood, could have been but little used. The purely defensive parts of castles, when not inhabited by the owner, were usually but little cared for, and the allowance for a porter and a single watchman shows that in this respect Dunster was no exception.

In 1376, John de Mohun, the eighth baron and the tenth in lineal descent from the founder of the family, died, leaving daughters only, and a sale of the castle and the rest of the property was effected by his widow Joan Burghersh. The purchaser was another widow, Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon, and widow, first, of Sir John de Vere, and afterwards of Sir Andrew Luttrell, of Chilton, a cadet of the barons Luttrell of Irnham. Elizabeth was a lady of high rank, of kin, through the Bohuns, to Edward III., and with the command of great wealth. Her son, Sir Hugh Luttrell, became the new lord of the castle and Honour, and probably built the great gatehouse.

The Luttrells were steady Lancastrians, and their representative, Sir James, took knighthood on the field of Wakefield, and fell in the second battle of St. Alban’s, when his estates were confiscated, 1st Edward IV., though only to be restored, 1st Henry VII., in the person of his son, Sir Hugh. Sir Hugh Luttrell stood high in the favour of Henry VII., and seems to have lived at Dunster in great splendour. To a second Sir Hugh, Leland attributes the great gatehouse, and he may have completed or repaired it, and opened its south door leading upon the lower ward. Probably he also inserted the armorial panels over the entrance portal, the last of which, complete, bears his coat impaling that of Margaret Hill, his wife. He also repaired the chapel of St. Stephen. Leland describes the donjon, or keep, as having been “full of goodly buildings,” which, however, had disappeared even before his time. The inhabited part of the castle was then, as now, in the north-east angle of the lower ward. Sir Andrew, Sir Hugh’s son and successor, “built a new piece of the castle wall by the east.”

The next possessor who left his mark upon the castle was George Luttrell, Sheriff of Somerset in 1593. He built the market-house in the town and the older part of the present dwelling-house, which bears date 1589, incorporating with it much of the curtain wall, towers, and walls of the older and more distinctly military building. The entrance to the ward seems to have remained as before, through the gateway between the flanking towers.

During the wars between Charles and the Parliament, the Luttrells sided warmly with neither party, and were out of favour with both. Its owners at this time were Thomas Luttrell, who died 1644, and George, died 1655. In 1643 a Royalist garrison, under Colonel Wyndham, took possession, and the castle was visited by Prince Charles, whose chamber is still pointed out. In 1646 Blake laid siege to the castle for the Parliament, and battered it from the north-west, behind the Luttrell Arms. It was surrendered by Wyndham in April, 1646. A few iron cannon balls, memorials of this siege, have been found.

The government, although they apologised for the military occupation of the castle, levied a local rate for pulling it down. Probably this referred only to the upper part of the curtain wall on either side of the gatehouse. It is said that the gatehouse was injured, but its present condition shows that the injury could not have been of a very serious character.

A century later the accounts show that the Luttrells raised the surface of the lower ward, probably about fourteen feet, evidently with earth obtained by scraping the adjacent slope of the tor. This, which involved the closing up of the old gateway, was probably combined with the construction of a new approach, which passed below and outside of the gatehouse, wound round the castle and the tor, and entered the lower ward at the new level. Matters thus remained until the accession of Mr. George Luttrell in 1869, when, under the judicious advice of Mr. Salvin, a great addition was made to the Elizabethan house, a new tower was constructed on the west front, and the foundation and pavements of buildings along the north front, and connected with the entrance gate and the gatehouse were laid open, and the walls restored and rebuilt, and a terrace formed along a part of the curtain. The approach for carriages was also much improved, though, as before, at the cost of avoiding the great gatehouse.

The ancient walls incorporated with the later residence prove that there must have been very considerable buildings upon the ground now occupied by it, but there is some reason to suppose that both hall and chapel stood near the site of the later gatehouse, and, therefore, to the right or west of the original entry. If this be so, the extent of buildings in the lower ward must have been very considerable indeed, as in the other direction they certainly extended, as does the present house, to the foot of the tor, and were flanked by it. Nevertheless, considerable as the alterations have been, and handsome and convenient as are the rooms of the present mansion, it represents very fairly the original fortress, and, like it, is sheltered by the tor, and predominates over the park, the town, and the sea-coast, commanding a very extensive view, and, as becomes the representative of so important a military post, is itself visible from the tract of country of which it was sometimes the terror, but more frequently the protection.

THE KEEP OF DURHAM.

THE Castle of Durham is now given over to the use of the Northern University, and is in great part occupied by the students. Parts of it only are open to visitors, and any description of its details, under the present restrictions, would be of little value.

In a recent volume of the publications of the Surtees Society, Mr. James Raine, the worthy son of a distinguished sire, has given to the archæological world a very curious poem, now first printed, entitled “Dialogi Laurentii Dunelmensis Monachi ac Prioris,” a work of the time, and which records the intrusion of William Cumin into the see of Durham. This was a period of extreme interest in that important see, once including the city of Carlisle and the territory of Teviotdale, and at the date of the poem still holding the Castles of Durham and Norham, fortresses of the first rank, even in a district which contained Bamborough.

The strife between Stephen and Maud, severe all over England, was nowhere conducted with greater severity than upon the Tyne, the Tees, and the Wear. David of Scotland, Maud’s uncle and active supporter, unsubdued by his defeat at Northallerton, claimed the earldom of Cumberland in his own right, and that of Northumberland in right of his wife. Durham alone stood in his path, and its bishop, Geoffrey Rufus, strong in his impregnable castle, steadfastly adhered to Stephen. His death in 1140–41 enabled a certain William Cumin, an adherent of David, to obtain by force and fraud possession of the castle and the temporalities of the see, although he failed to secure his election to the bishopric. The result was a severe contest between Cumin and the lawful bishop, William de St. Barbe, in the course of which the cathedral was occupied by soldiery, and its monks were ill-treated and slain. It was not till 1144 that Cumin was put down, and peace restored to the house and patrimony of St. Cuthbert.

Laurence, who was born at Waltham and brought up in its holy house, came to Durham during the episcopate of Flambard, who probably completed the castle, the masonry of which, at least, was begun during the reign of the Conqueror. As an ordinary monk, he was celebrated for his facility in metrical composition. He became first precentor, and then a chaplain, to the bishop. The episcopal seat and church of Durham has been described as

“Half church of God, half fortress ’gainst the Scot,”

and the bishops themselves partook largely of this double character. In the bishop’s household, Laurence saw much of secular life. He became a hunter of the wolf and boar, a fisherman, and a judge of horse-flesh; and, if not actually a warrior, he certainly understood the principles of military defences. At the death of Bishop Rufus his connexion with the episcopal household ended, and he took an active part against the intrusion of Cumin and in the election of St. Barbe. He was for some time expelled from the monastery; but after his return became prior in 1149. On St. Barbe’s death, in 1152, he led in the election of De Puiset, Stephen’s nephew, and supported him against the Archbishop of York, by whom he was excommunicated and sentenced to a penitential flagellation at the door of Beverley. Nevertheless, he stood firm to the election, and was one of those who accompanied De Puiset to Rome, and witnessed his consecration by the Pope. He did not, however, live to return to England, but died in France; and his bones only were laid at Durham.

The Dialogues are but one of several of his poems. They may be referred to the first half of the twelfth century, when their author was probably resident within the castle with Bishop Rufus, and must have been very familiar with that nearly completed structure.

The castle still retains many of the features and some of the buildings described in the poem. The ditch which cut off the fortress from the cathedral is, it is true, filled up, and the pasture ward to the east is built over and obscured, but the south gate, though rebuilt, stands on the old site, and is still the main entrance; and the wall on the right on entering still extends towards the keep. The keep itself is a late work; but the mound upon which it stands is a part of the original fortress, and the masonry is laid on the old lines, and in outline the tower no doubt represents pretty clearly the work of Flambard. A strong wall still connects the keep with the lodgings of the castle, and forms the front towards the river. The chapel also remains but little altered, and the walls and arches of the dormitory are original. The well is still seen in the open court, and is, or was recently, in use. Notwithstanding various repairs, rebuildings, and additions, there can be but little doubt that the Castle of Durham resembles in its general aspect the fortress of the Conqueror and of Flambard; nor is there in England any more remarkable example of a Norman castle of the shell-keep type. The publication of the description of it by Laurence possesses, therefore, a peculiar charm; and this must be the excuse for the following attempt at its translation. The poem is here and there very obscure, and occasionally scratches Priscian’s head; and it may be that I have misapprehended one or two lines in the original:—

DESCRIPTIO ARCIS DUNELMENSIS, “LAUR. DUNELM.,” I.L., 367.

Arx in eo regina sedens sublime minatur,

Quodque videt totum judicat esse suum.

Murus et a porta tumulo surgente severus

Surgit, et exsurgens arcis amœna petit.

Arx autem tenues condensa resurgit in auras,

Intus sive foris fortis et apta satis.

Intus enim cubitis tribus altius area surgit,

Area de solido facta fidelis humo.

Desuper hanc solidata domus sublimior arce

Eminet insigni tota decore nitens.

Postibus inniti bis cernitur ipsa duobus,

Postem quippe potens angulus omnis habet.

Cingitur et pulchra paries sibi quilibet ala,

Omnis et in muro desinit ala fero.

At pons emergens ad propugnacula promptos

Et scandi faciles præbet ab æde gradus.

Cumque venitur eo via lata cacumina muri

Ambit, et arcis ita sæpe meatur apex.

Arx vero formam prætendit amœna rotundam,

Arte, nitore, statu, fortis, amœna, placens.

Hinc in castellum pons despicit, atque recursus

Huc et eo faciles pons adhibere solet:

Largus enim gradibus spatiatur ubique minutis,

Nec se præcipitat sed procul ima petit.

At prope murus eum descendit ab arce reflectens

In zephyrum faciem flumen ad usque suam.

Cujus ab āēra largo sinuamine ripa

Se referens arvum grande recurvus obit.

Obditus et siccis aquilonis hiatibus arcem

Exsurgens repetit fortis ubique feram.

Nec sterilis vacat aede locus quem circinat alti

Ambitus hic muri; tecta decora tenet.

Consita porticibus duo magna palatia præfert

In quibus artifices ars satis ipsa probat,

Fulget et hic senis suffulta capella columnis,

Non spatiosa nimis, sed speciosa satis.

Hic thalami thalamis sociantur, et aedibus aedes,

Et datur officio quælibet apta suo.

Hic vestes, ibi vasa nitent, hic arma coruscant,

Hic (sic) æra latent, hic caro, panis ibi.

Hic fruges, ibi vina jacent, hic potus avenæ,

Hic et habet propriam munda farina domum.

Cumque sic hinc domus atque domus jungantur, et aedes

Ædibus, inde tamen pars ibi nulla vacat.

Castelli medium vacat æde, sed exhibet altum

Ille locus puteum sufficientis aquæ.

Queen-like the castle sits sublime, and frowns

O’er all she sees, and deems the whole her own.

Straight from the gate the gloomy wall ascends

The mound, and thus the stately keep attains.

A close-built citadel, piercing the clear air,

Outside and inside strong, well fitted to its use.

Its base, of heaped-up earth three cubits raised,

Solid and firm, the floor does thus support;

On which firm base the supereminent keep

Rises, unrivalled in its glittering sheen.

On twice two timbers stayed, are seen to rest

The buildings there, for each main angle one:

While round each half circumference are wings,

Each ending in a formidable wall.

Springing from these a bridge, by easy steps,

To the high battlements an access forms,

Where the broad wall all round gives ample path,

And thus the summit of the keep is gained.

Stately that keep! a circle in its form,

Splendid and strong by art, and by position fair.

Thence, downward to the castle, leads the bridge,

And offers easy access to and fro;

For broad its path with many a shallow step,

The base attaining by a gradual slope.

Hard by, the wall, thrown backwards from the keep,

Faces the west towards th’ encircling stream,

On whose high bank continued, it enfolds

With a bold sweep an ample pasture there;

From parching northern blasts protected thus,

And so curves round to the stern keep again.

Nor does the space within the wall embraced

Stand without buildings: such there are, and good.

Two porches to two palaces belong,

Of which the work to th’ artist brings no shame.

Here, too, a chapel fair six columns boasts,

Nor large, nor small, but fitted to its needs.

Here beds lie near to beds, and halls to halls,

Each for its province suitably disposed:

Robes here, bright vessels there, here glittering arms,

Here bread, there flesh, and tempting coin concealed,

And corn and wine laid down, and barley beer,

And the clear flour here finds its proper bin.

Thus on one side house joins to house, and hall

To hall. The other too is occupied.

The court alone is free, and there is seen

The well, full deep, with water well supplied.

EATON-SOCON CASTLE, BEDFORDSHIRE.

THE Ouse, rising in the shires of Northampton and Bucks, and finally falling at King’s Lynn into the head of the Wash, flows deep and sluggish past Bedford, St. Neots, and Huntingdon, intersecting broad tracts of low and level land, now fertile meadow, but formerly almost impassable swamp, opposing great difficulties to the march of an invading force, especially if advancing from the eastern coast. At Eaton-Socon, between Bedford and Huntingdon, and a little above the town of St. Neots, the Ouse impinges upon the rising ground to the west, upon which stand Eaton Church and Village, and which afforded facilities for the construction of a large and lofty earthwork.

This earthwork, known as the Castle Hill, is placed upon the west or left bank of the river, about 30 yards from its present brink, and a furlong or so from the fine parish church. It is possible that when the earthwork was first formed, the course of the stream lay at the foot of the banks. At present there is a large mill upon the river, a few yards above the castle, the leat of which is reunited to its parent stream opposite to the south-eastern edge of the fortress.

The appended sketch shows the general plan of the place. It is, roughly speaking, a triangle, the east side, of 160 yards, resting upon the river, and the north side, of 140 yards, projecting from it at a right angle. The third side, or hypothenuse, is convex and irregular; measured upon the curve, it is in length about 220 yards. The area, complete, is about 3½ acres.

The work is composed of three parts—an Inner, Northern, and Outer ward. The inner and north wards lie side by side upon the river, separated by a cross ditch. The two are contained within another ditch, which communicated at each end with the river. Beyond this, covering the south-western front, is the outer ward, and beyond this again the outer ditch, which commences at the south-east corner in the mill leat, covers the south-western front, and at the north-western angle sweeps round to join the ditch already mentioned, and thus, through it, to communicate with the river at the north-east corner of the work.

The Inner Ward is about 45 yards north and south, or along the river front, by 54 yards east and west. Its figure is a rectangle, with the angles so rounded off that its aspect is almost as much that of a circle as of a square. Towards the river is a steep slope of about 20 feet. On the other sides a similar slope falls towards the ditch. On the crest of the slope on these three inland sides is a bank of earth about 8 feet to 12 feet high, especially strong at the north-west corner. The entrance was at the south-east corner. The inner area or platform of the ward is about 15 feet above the level of the exterior soil. On this platform, about 8 yards from the north-east corner, is a low circular mound about 5 feet high and 40 feet diameter upon its table-top. It may have been somewhat higher. It has no ditch of its own. The ditch of this ward is from 40 feet to 50 feet broad, and still contains water.

EATON SOCON, BEDS.

North of this is the North Ward, above 35 yards north and south, by 80 yards east and west. This also has a ditch about 40 feet broad, on the west and north fronts. From the inner ward it is separated by the cross ditch common to the two, and towards the river is a steep slope about 20 feet high. Besides these defences, the slope on the west and north is crested by a steep bank of earth, and towards the south, or inner ward, is one somewhat slighter.

The Outer Ward is in figure long and curved. Its breadth ranges from 29 yards at the north end down to 22 yards near the south-east end, beyond which it terminates upon the mill leat in a point. This ward is separated from the other two by a common ditch, which communicates with the cross ditch, and thus at three points, directly or indirectly, with the river. The south-eastern end opens at the junction of the leat with the river. The leat covers this end of the ward, and from the leat springs the outer ditch, from 40 feet to 50 feet broad, which covers the outer front of the ward, and at its northern end, sweeping round by a sharp angle, is continued till it joins the north ditch, of which it thus forms a part. The entrance was at the south-east corner, where a modern causeway crosses this outer ditch. The road thence skirts the edge of the outer ward, along the margin of the leat, and thence, by a second causeway, crosses the inner ditch, and, ascending the slope, gains the inner ward. No doubt these causeways represent drawbridges. It does not appear how the inner and north wards communicated. The bridge between the latter and the outer ward was probably at the south-west corner of the northern. The ditches are in parts reduced in depth, and evidently were originally fed from the river. There is not a trace of masonry, but depressions in the bank of the north ward seem to indicate towers at its north-east and north-west angles. It is convenient to use the term angle, but the lines are more or less curved and irregular, and are largely rounded where they meet. The plan has, in fact, nothing of the squareness of a Roman work, and the rounding of the angles is quite different. It is probable that the tendency to sharpness in its outline is due to the walls and towers of the work in masonry, which, though now gone, is reported to have been at one time present.

Eaton, or Eiton, appears in Domesday as held in capite by the Bishop of Bayeux, but there is no mention of a castle either then or at any later time. The Beauchamps, its later lords, do not there appear as Bedfordshire landowners. In the “Liber Niger,” however, about 1165, Simon de Beauchamp held a barony, under which Hugh de Beauchamp held one knight’s fee.

This Hugh was of Eaton. He was the eldest son of Oliver, a cadet of Milo de Beauchamp, of Bedford. Oliver and Hugh were founders of Bismead Priory, in Eaton parish. Hugh was a considerable baron. He was Custos of Rhuddlan Castle 3 Henry II., and, 22 Henry II., one of those who conveyed Henry’s daughter to Palermo, on her marriage with the King of Sicily. He was slain in Palestine, 33 Henry II., and succeeded by Roger, his brother, and he by a third brother, William, whose son John inherited, and, 6 Henry III., was seized of the family manors of Eaton and Sandy. His son was William, living 42 Henry III., father of Ralph, summoned as Lord Beauchamp of Eaton, and who died 21 Edward I., holding one fee in Sandy and Eaton, no doubt that held by Hugh, his ancestor. He held Eaton in capite, “per baroniam.” His son, Roger de Beauchamp, of Eaton, was the last summoned. He was aged 21 at his father’s death, and his descendants have not been followed up.

44 Edward III., John de Goldington and Jocosa his wife, John Hemmyngford and others, were seized of a third part of Eaton juxta St. Neots, and half of Sandy. 1 Henry IV., Sandy was held by Katherine, wife of Sir Thomas Engayne; and 1 Edward IV., Lord Zouch had Eaton. Long after the extinction of the barons, the barony remained, and Wyboldeston Manor was held of it by Sir John de Greystock. In the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, Eaton was held by the Lords Vaux of Harrowden, who sold it in 1624. They were cadets of Vaux of Gillsland, and are said to have inherited Eaton from the Beauchamps.

Although the manor of Eaton is not unfrequently mentioned in the records, we never hear of the Castle, nor is the addition of “Socon” ever used. Leland writes of “Eiton a good village in interiore ripa” [of the Ouse] ... “where be seen vestigia castelli between the church and the ripe, and almost hard on the ripe.... The ruins of Eiton Castle long to Lord Vaux.” In Leland’s loose language these terms may apply to the earthworks only. It is, however, probable, from present appearances, and from the place having for six descents been the chief, if not the only seat, of barons of the realm, that there was a castle, and Speed, writing a little later, names Woodhill, Tempsford, Eaton, and Ampthill, as the castles of Bedfordshire. It is possible that a very moderate excavation would lay bare the foundations, though no doubt, building materials being scarce in these parts, those who dismantled the castle would make a clean sweep of the masonry.

The position is a very strong one, and the earthworks much resemble those of Huntingdon, and are probably of the same age. The mill is no doubt a very old one, though this does not apply to the present structure.

THE CASTLE OF EWIAS HAROLD, HEREFORDSHIRE.

THE “Castellaria Aluredi Ewias” of Domesday was a tract, the particulars of which are not known, but which no doubt lay among those lines of hill and valley which converge like the fingers of a hand upon the Worm and the Monnow, between the Golden Valley and the Black Mountain, and form the south-western portion of the county of Hereford. The actual castle, “Castellum Ewias,” stands about six miles within the border, and about three miles outside or west of the presumed line of Offa’s Dyke at this point. The country is hilly, but fertile, well worth the defence, for which it affords many natural advantages. The immediate position is chosen with great skill, though it required an immense application of human labour to make it an almost impregnable fortress against the fierce and active hordes of Welshmen whose alienated patrimony it was intended to grasp. While the Mound of Builth remains an evidence of English rule, that of Ewias can scarcely be regarded as the advanced post, the “Castle Dangerous” upon the British territory; but it must nevertheless at all times have been a post of very great danger, and have borne, with Kilpeck, the brunt of the ordinary and frequent attacks of the men of South and West Wales upon Hereford.

In selecting the position advantage was taken of a tongue of high land, broad towards the west and north, but which came rapidly to a narrow and almost abrupt termination in a point about 300 feet above and within the junction of the two adjacent streams. Of these the larger flows along the northern front of the position, and the smaller down a deep valley along its southern front. The two meet a few score yards below the high ground; and upon the left or further bank of the larger stream, and a short distance above the junction, is the church, and attached to it the village, to which the castle and its English lord have given the distinguishing name.

It was decided to convert the point or eastern end of the high ground into the proposed strong place, and to form thus, in the northern fashion, an isolated mound. With this intent a broad and deep ditch was cut across the ridge, curved so as to embrace about one-half of the future elevation. At its north end the ditch was carried straight down the hill-side towards the brook. At its south end it came to rather a sharp conclusion, running out upon a natural bank and slope. Here, however, it was in some sort resumed at a lower level, and ended in a shallow ditch at the southern or principal entrance to the castle. The part thus isolated by the ditch formed the circular base of a mound of about 120 yards diameter and about 30 feet high. This the addition of the soil from the ditch raised to about 70 feet, and thus gave it, in the military sense, a command over the adjacent part of the original ridge. On its opposite, or eastern side, the mound does not descend at once towards the junction of the waters, but at its foot is a broad semicircular platform, which covers its east, north-east, and south-east fronts, and from the outer or convex edge of which descends a steep slope towards the water, which slope is again succeeded by inclinations of a far more gentle character, not included in the military works.

A fair general idea of this stronghold may be given by supposing a circular platform of 200 yards diameter to be bordered on the east and adjacent sides by a steep natural slope falling from its edge, and on the west and adjacent sides by a steep artificial slope falling to its edge. Then on the western margin is placed a conical table mound, 60 feet or 70 feet high, and about 120 yards diameter at the base, which necessarily converts the western slope into the further side or counterscarp of a ditch, and reduces the eastern side to an open crescent-shaped platform. Such is the original plan of the Castle of Ewias, and such its present appearance after the complete removal of the masonry which for about 600 years adorned or encumbered its earthworks.

The top of the mound is oval, about 34 yards north and south by 40 yards east and west. Upon it has stood a shell-keep, either circular or many-sided, about 30 yards diameter. Although no masonry remains, the outline of the keep is plainly indicated by the trench which has been dug while the foundations were being grubbed up. The keep seems from this to have stood, not in the centre, but nearer the eastern margin of the mound, probably to allow room for a couple of exterior towers, or perhaps a gatehouse, which seems to have stood where now are some circular pits. Towers would be well placed on this the weakest side, so as to give a still greater command over the approach along the high ground. There is no trace of any regular ascent to the keep,—no mark of an original winding path up the mound, that now in use being evidently very modern. The side is so steep that no wheeled carriage could ascend it, and scarcely any heavily-laden horse. Probably the way up lay by a direct flight of steps, as at Hawarden and Carisbrook.

There is no trace of a well. The material of the keep was evidently a hard schistose bed of the old red sandstone, fragments of which are seen in the excavations.

The outer ward or crescent-shaped platform, below and west of the keep, runs out to a point towards the southern end, but to the north or north-west it is stopped at a breadth of about 42 yards by the prolongation of the keep ditch. The breadth of the ward at its greatest is about 60 yards. Along the north-west front it is strengthened by large earth-banks thrown up from the contiguous ditch, but elsewhere the natural slope of from 30 feet to 40 feet, steeply scarped, needed neither ditch nor bank. This ward had a curtain wall along its outer edge, of which the foundation diggings remain open. The north-west end was continued up the mound, and probably the circuit on the opposite side was completed in a similar way, so as to make the mound and keep, as at Tamworth and Durham, a part of the general enceinte. A group of excavations shows that this ward contained a considerable number of domestic buildings placed in its north-eastern and eastern part, near to the curtain wall. At the foot of the mound to the north is a sort of notch in the line of bank, possibly indicating a postern. The main approach evidently rose gradually from the village bridge, and skirted the foot of the eastern slope of the outer ward nearly to its south end, where it turned inwards and entered that ward by a roadway or slight cutting.

There is no trace of masonry to be seen within or about the castle enceinte; the material seems to have been in request as building-stone, and to have been everywhere collected and even grubbed up with most covetous care. There is a limekiln on the south side, near the line of the entrance, no doubt built of the materials of the castle, and a sort of house, now a shed, between it and the brook, but the material shows no mark of the tool and no old mortar.

There are some mounds between the castle and the brooks, possibly thrown up on the occasion of some attack by the enemy. On the other or high side there are no outworks nor any indications either of attack or defence.

There are no remains of the priory save what are included within the parish church. This is a good-sized building, recently repaired or restored, and in excellent order. It is composed of a tower, nave, south porch, and chancel. The nave has been so completely restored that little of old work is to be seen in its walls or roof. It is probably in substance of Decorated date, judging from the buttresses on the south side. The porch is new. The chancel has in the north wall a sepulchral recess, of Decorated pattern, covering the original recumbent figure of a female with her hands in prayer, holding what looks like a covered cup. In the south wall are two lancet windows of one light, under pointed recesses, and between them a late Decorated window of two lights, trefoiled, with a plain four-sided opening in the head. The whole is in a round-headed recess. The arch into the nave is new.

The tower is the best part of the church. It is of large size, square, and short for its size, probably having had another story. It rests upon a bold plinth, about 5 feet 6 inches high, at the top of which is a bold half-round cordon, with a band. The south-west angle is covered by the pilaster buttresses, of 8 feet 6 inches breadth, and a foot projection, which die into the tower, near the present summit. In this angle is a well-stair. In the south side is an unusually large door, of 8 feet opening, with high lancet arch. In the centre of the flat jamb on each side is a half-column, 2 feet diameter, with a water-bearing moulding, and a sort of bell-cap, with several bands of moulding above it. The arch is plainly chamfered, and the cordon of the tower is carried round it as a hood. Above this is a clumsy window of two lancet lights under a pointed head, very plain. Above this again is a small broad window, with a trefoiled head, and above all an early English window of three lights, with three-quarter shafts before each mullion, with bell-caps. In the nooks of each jamb are two similar shafts, seven in all. The head is a drop-pointed arch, plainly chamfered. There is a window similar to this in the north wall. The church contains nothing earlier than this mixture of the early English with the Decorated style. The masonry of the castle was probably, from its plan, of a late Norman, or transitional date. The earthworks are of the regular Herefordshire type; attributable to the English of the early part of the tenth century. They resemble generally, in the presence of a mound, those of Kilpeck and Builth, Caerleon and Cardiff, of Brecon, Abergavenny, and many places in this county or district. No doubt this and the similar works were thrown up when the early Saxon inroads were made into Wales, and were the strongholds of the invading chiefs.

Ewias Harold certainly does not bear the name of its founder, and that founder was probably as completely forgotten in the eleventh century as now.

There are two places called Ewias in Herefordshire, distinguished by the names of their eleventh-century owners, as Ewias Lacy and Ewias Harold. Both are mentioned in Domesday, and both as the seats of a castelry, a sort of Honour or superior lordship attached to the castle. Under the lands of the church of Hereford, we are told that “in the manors of Dodelegie and Stane are ten hydes, all waste save one in Dodelegie. Of the nine, one part is ‘in castellaria Aluredi Ewias,’ and the other in the King’s enclosed land.”

Another entry explains that Alured was Alured de Merleberge or of Marleborough, a great tenant in chief, especially in Wiltshire. We read, “Alured de M. holds the castle of Ewias of William the King. For that king conceded to him the lands which William the Earl [Fitzosbern of Hereford] had given to him. Who refortified [refirmaverit] this castle.” Of it held seven knights, whose Christian names are given, besides other persons. The castle was then valued at £10. Agnes, the daughter of Alured, married Turstan of Wigmore.

How or when Alured gave up the castle does not appear; but in 1100 it was held by a certain Harold, also a large tenant in Domesday, though not in Herefordshire. He is called “Heraldus filius comitis Radulphi,” and as such held Sudeley, in Gloucestershire. Earl Ralph, called the Timid, was the Earl of Hereford who was beaten by the Welsh and English forces in 1055, when his son was a mere child. Ralph was a considerable man by descent, being great-grandson of Æthelred and great-nephew to the Confessor. Harold probably obtained some of his father’s possessions when he came of age, and Ewias may have been part of them. He and his descendants were liberal donors to St. Peter’s, Gloucester, in its behalf founding the Priory near the Castle of Ewias.

The names and order of Harold’s sons are preserved in the Gloucester Cartulary, and they correct Dugdale and all other authorities. They were Robert, Roger, John (to whom his father gave Sudeley, and whose issue were barons), Alexander, and William. Robert de Ewias, the eldest, is described in the “Gesta Stephani” as “vir stemmatis ingenuissimi.” According to the “Liber Niger,” he held in capite upwards of forty-seven fees, the mesne tenants of which were twenty knights. Dugdale mentions only twenty-two fees, and confounds him with a second Robert, his son, also Lord of Ewias. The elder Robert had by his wife Sybilla, Robert, and Richard de Ewias, who left a daughter and heiress, Sybilla, who married Philip Spenser, and left issue.

Robert de Ewias, the third owner of the castle, and the second baron, married Petronilla. He was living 1194–6. He also left a Sybilla, daughter and heiress of Ewias. She married, first, Robert de Tregoz; second, William de Newmarch, whom she married during her father’s lifetime, in the reign of Richard I. He was living 11 John. Third, Roger de Clifford, probably the second brother of William de Clifford. From this match spring the Earls of Cumberland. Newmarch had no children. Sybilla was dead 20 Henry III., and was followed by her son, Robert de Tregoz, slain at Evesham 1265. He was father of John and Henry, father of a line of barons who ended about 1405.

John de Tregoz died 1300, leaving two co-heirs, Clarice and Sybil. Clarice, who died 29 Edward I., married Roger la Warre, and had John, aged 23, in 1300; and Sybil married Sir William de Grandison, ancestor in the female line of the St. Johns, Viscounts Grandison. In the partition, John la Warre had the “body of the castle,” of which, 4 Edward III., he enfeoffed John de Cleydon. He died 21 Edward III. John, his eldest son, died before him, and as early as 12 Edward III. he had enfeoffed his grandson, Roger la Warre, and Elizabeth his wife, with Ewias Castle and Manor.

Roger la Warre died 44 Edward III., seized of Ewias Harold, and was succeeded by John, his son. 13 Richard II., Sir John de Montacute, sen., is seized of Ewias Harold, and three Wiltshire fees in the Honour of Ewias, and Teffont-Ewias, in Wiltshire, besides other Ewias lands in Herefordshire. 18 Richard II., these same lands were held by Margaret, wife of Sir John Montacute, Bart.; and 10 Henry IV., by Thomas de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury.

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.

Whether the city walls were built concurrently with the castle is unknown. Probably they were, for the water-gate, removed in 1815, had certainly a Norman arch, as had, though later, and in the transition style, Broad Gate, of which also Lysons gives a view. These walls crossed the ditches, and abutted upon that of the castle. That from the east gate, seen in the Club Garden, has been rebuilt; but the north-west wall is very perfect, and though the buttresses on its outside are of Decorated date, as were most of the gates of the city, the substance of the wall is original, and very strong. In its base, where it crosses the ditch, it contains a hollow place, much enlarged, and said to have been a dungeon, which is absurd. It probably was a culvert or sluice-gate, to allow the ditch to be drained and cleared out, for though these ditches could scarcely have permanently contained water, a wet season would have converted them into a pond.

FILLONGLEY CASTLE, CO. WARWICK.

THE CASTLE YARD.

THE scanty remains of this, the seat of the family of Hastings before they rose to their earldom of Pembroke, and now known as Castle Yard, are placed about a quarter of a mile south of Fillongley Church upon a small triangle of land formed by the beds and junction of two brooks which flow down from the south and the south-east to meet and form the point of the triangle to the north.

In the space thus protected towards the north, west, and east, was constructed a rudely oval shell of masonry about 50 feet east and west by 80 feet north and south, traces of which are seen in five masses of stone rubble-work, of which four are overthrown and a fifth remains in its proper place. A light ridge connects these detached masses, and indicates the line of the curtain of which they formed a part. The fragment standing in its place seems to have been connected with a curved recess, or, perhaps, a well-stair, but the others have been overthrown by gunpowder. The whole was on a small scale, and there are no visible traces of towers or gatehouse. The earth and rubbish heaped up in the interior of the area may cover foundations, and, no doubt, a light excavation here would disclose the plan of the whole structure and the place of the entrance, which, probably, was towards the east.

Outside the walled area the ground falls slightly, and there are traces at about 30 yards’ distance, towards the south, of a ditch and internal bank protecting this, by nature, the weakest side. The valley towards the east is occupied by one of the brooks which flows a few feet only from and below the wall. There is no trace of any second or outer circle of masonry, so that probably the castle was composed of a single ring wall, possibly set with turrets, but if so, of no great size.

The whole castle must have been a very inconsiderable place, though from the steepness of the little valleys between which it stands, and the marshy character of the ground watered by the brooks, it evidently possessed much passive strength, and if garrisoned by determined men, could have held out for some time.

Fillongley is unnoticed in any record older than the Conqueror’s Survey. We learn from Domesday that “Filungelei” contained two hides of land, of which one half-hide belonged to the Bishop of Coutances, and was held by Lewin; a second by the monks of Coventry; a third by a certain Alsi, who held it from before the Conquest; and a fourth by Robert le Despenser, which, though of less value, contained the church. Alsi may have resided upon the Castle hill. The half-hide held by the monks is identified with Old Fillongley, on the western side of the parish, and was held of them in the reign of Henry III. by Gerard de Alspath, whose name is preserved in Alspath Hall, in the south-west quarter of the parish. He held it as a fourth part of a knight’s fee. A part of this holding passed in some way from the ownership of the monks, who, in the time of Edward III., held in it one-eighth of a fee of Lord Hastings. Part of Le Despenser’s share passed to the Marmions, and thence, it would seem, to the Earls of Leicester, one of whom probably enfeoffed of it either Walter or Hugh de Hastings, one of the earlier members of that family, who long continued to hold it of the Marmions and Le Despensers. Thus the family of Hastings were of Fillongley in the reign of Henry I., and it speedily became their chief residence in Warwickshire, and the nucleus of a considerable estate. John de Hastings, 29 Edward I., had a license to crenellate “manerium suum et villam de ... Filungeleye,” though the castle is probably considerably older. With the church was the advowson which, in the reign of Edward III., Lawrence Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, sold to Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon. Fillongley, though it appears in the inquisitions of the Hastings family, is not mentioned as a castle, being, in fact, too inconsiderable to be claimed by the Crown, and so entered upon the public records, but it seems to have remained the chief, if not the only, residence of the family, until Henry de Hastings, in the reign of Henry III., married Joan de Cantelupe, who became a very great heiress, so that John, their son, the recipient of the above license, inheriting the castle of Abergavenny, resided there, as did occasionally his descendants. On the death of the last Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, Fillongley passed with much of his property to the Beauchamps, and so to the Nevilles, who held it when Dugdale wrote his very valuable history.

FILLONGLEY CASTLE.