Castle Rising, probably so called from its position on ground that is

high or rising compared with the low levels of the district, stands

about two miles from the estuary of the Wash upon its eastern or

Norfolk shore. Half a mile north of the village a large tract of low

land is traversed by the Babingley river, and it is evident that before

this part of the country was drained and reclaimed by tillage, the

approaches to the village upon at least three sides, the north, west

and east, must have been almost impracticable. These considerations

probably governed those who chose Rising as a residence. The soil is

light and sandy, like that of the Dunes of Holland, but contains just

enough of vegetable mould to support a growth of turf. The trees are

chiefly ash and willow of very large size, and upon the slopes of the

castle are some noble and very ancient thorns. The richness of the

vegetation in and about the village is in favourable contrast with the

dreary and barren heath land by which it is surrounded.

The earthworks are on a large scale, and probably the remains of a

great English residence, the centre of a large estate; circumstances

which no doubt led to the adaptation of this position for the Norman

fortress whence the village has derived the prefix to its more ancient

name.

The central and principal division of the fortress is composed of an

irregular oval area about 67 yards east and west by 80 yards north and

south, contained within a broad and lofty bank, which, in its turn, is

surrounded by a very formidable ditch. Outside this ditch, covering the

east face, is a subsidiary work, also within a bank and ditch. It is

in form nearly a parallelogram, but its sides are somewhat irregularly

convex, and its angles rounded. Its north end is about 60 yards and its

south 70 yards broad, and its length of front 90 yards; but the ends

are inclined, so that where it abuts upon the main ditch it is about 80

yards.

This is balanced by a corresponding earthwork on the west point of the

central work. This earthwork is about 100 yards north and south by 30

yards broad, and is also contained within a bank and ditch. The ditches

of these earthworks do not actually run into the main ditch. A narrow

causeway of earth is left between them. The whole exterior girth of the

ditch is reported to be 10,803 yards. The central earthwork is about 30

feet high from the inclosed area, and outside is about 60 feet above

the bottom of the ditch. It is about 15 feet wide at the top, and,

being composed of light soil, has a considerable slope. The banks of

the outworks are not so high, being about 20 feet inside and 40 feet

outside. Those to the east are, however, higher, and at the points

nearly as high as those of the centre. The westward work is altogether

of a lighter character, though still of great strength. The works cover

about 13 acres. They are wholly artificial.

The main entrance was from the north, along the edge of the

counterscarp of the main ditch, and it thus entered the eastern

outwork. Near its centre the road crossed the ditch by a bridge, and

entered the central ward by a notch in its eastern bank. The western

outwork seems to have been entered from the central ward by steps up

and down the bank, connected probably with a light bridge over the

ditch. It may be that it was only used for cattle.

[Illustration: CASTLE RISING KEEP.]

It has been thought that these earthworks are of somewhat different

dates, and that the central is the oldest. The circle, or irregular

oval, with a bank and ditch, with or without a mound, is a not uncommon

form of earthwork in England, and is probably the work of the English

in the seventh and eighth centuries. That is to say, where the work is

on a low site, and the form not governed, as in British works, by the

outline of the ground. These English enclosures rarely stand alone.

Usually there were one or more appendages outside, and abutting upon

the main ditch, as at Laughton and Kilpeck, probably additions, but

not much later than the main work. They were usually also at no great

distance from the parish church. From the tendency of the outworks at

Castle Rising to the rectangular form, they have been supposed, by good

authority, to be Roman, and the Romans had no doubt a settlement at

Brancaster, about fifteen miles to the north. But Roman works seldom

are composed of earthworks of this magnitude, the Roman custom, where

great security was needed, having been to build a wall. Also, if the

outworks only be Roman, the central work must be British, which is

scarcely consistent with what is known of the defences of that people.

Most probably the central is an English work, and the outworks either

of the same date, or early additions by the same people. But, be the

principal origin what it may, it is clear that here, as at Norwich,

Clare, Hedingham, and Castle Acre, the Norman invader, having grasped

the estate of the English lord, proceeded, as in Normandy, to combine

the new fashion of castle-building with the old defences.

[Illustration: UPPER FLOOR]

The keep, the chapel, and the gatehouse, the only parts in early

masonry of which anything now remains, were probably among the

works earliest executed. The _Keep_ is a very noble example of the

rectangular Norman type. Not that its area, still less its height,

would place it in the first rank, but to considerable dimensions it

adds a degree of ornament rarely bestowed upon military buildings, and

though a ruin, its parts are unusually well preserved, and excellent

both in materials and workmanship. Like Hedingham, it stands within,

but not in the centre of, the inner ward. It almost touches the slope

of the western bank, and is about thirty yards from the gatehouse

and the eastern bank. Between the north and south banks it is nearly

midway. It is in plan rectangular, measuring at the base 75 feet east

and west, by 64 feet north and south, and, to the rampart walk, 50

feet high. Each face is flanked by two pilasters, 7 feet broad by 6

inches projection. These meet at, but do not cover, the angle, and the

nook so formed is occupied by a shaft, not quite detached, and similar

shafts take the place of the other angles of each flanking pilaster.

Intermediate, on the north and south faces, are three pilasters of 3

feet breadth, and there is one on the east face, all dying into the

parapets. The west face is of a complex character. Upon it are two

large recesses, 9 feet broad and 2 feet deep, of which one is arched

over the near parapet level. There are, besides, four recesses, each

of 4 feet opening, by 2 feet 6 inches deep, arched over a little below

the first-floor level. All these five recesses have their soffits

pierced by the vents of garderobes. The wall has only one slight

set-off near its summit. The flanking pilasters have none, the others

mostly two, but very high up. There was a square turret at each angle,

now nearly gone. At the base of these turrets, the nook-shafts ceased,

and the turret angle was solid. The parapet is gone. Considerably

below its base were round holes, apparently to take off the water. The

walls at the base are, the north and east sides, 7 feet, the south

6 feet 6 inches, and the west 6 feet thick, and this thickness is

preserved to the top, or very nearly so. The east face is covered by

the forebuilding, here very perfect. This prolongs the north front

by 20 feet, and the south by 9 feet. The keep has a basement at the

ground level, and a first floor. At two points, however, the upper

floor is subdivided so as to give a partial second floor. Part of the

forebuilding also, as at Rochester, has a second floor. The entrance

is in the south end of the building, in which a straight stair rises

to the main door of the keep, which is at the first-floor level. There

are well-staircases, 7 feet diameter, in the north-east and south-west

angles of the keep, ascending by seventy-six steps from the base to

the summit, and communicating with the first floor. It is, however,

to be observed that the base of the well-stair is about 4 feet above

the ground-level, so that it is entered by a stair of five steps,

projecting into the rooms. This seems to have been the case at Dover,

before the floor was raised. It is difficult to discover the reason for

it.

The keep is divided into a north and south chamber by a cross-wall, 6

feet thick, which ascends to the roof. The two chambers are 58 feet

long; the north 25 feet, and the south 16 feet broad. The _north

chamber_ was again divided, equally, longways, by an arcade of four

lofty arches, of 11 feet span, springing from corbels in the wall, and

from three square piers, 3 feet broad by 4 feet. The spandrel walls

of this arcade supported the joists of the floor above. The three

eastern arches and their two piers are gone. The western pier gives

off two lateral arches north and south, dividing the end bay into two

square spaces, which are vaulted and groined and carry upper chambers,

shortening by so much the upper great room or hall. This lower room is

aired rather than lighted by three loops in the north and two in the

west wall, placed high up and in splayed recesses, round-headed. There

is also in the north wall a small lobby at the foot of the well-stair,

from which there seems to have been a passage rising 3 feet into a

mural chamber 8 feet above the ground. In the west end of the great

chamber an interior door at the ground-level has been broken. It has

a pointed head, and is an insertion. Probably it represents a loop. A

round-headed doorway of 4 feet aperture opens in a segmental recess

in the cross-wall into the south chamber. The door opened towards the

north, and was barred on that side. The recess is groined. The well is

in the floor of the north chamber, between two of the piers, under the

second arch from the east. It is 4 feet diameter, with a pipe of ashlar

rising about 3 feet above the ground-level.

The _south chamber_ was crossed by three plain broad arches, springing

from corbels high up in the wall, and carrying the joists of the floor

above. The eastern bay, however, is vaulted and groined, and supports

the chapel. The other two arches are broken away. This chamber has four

loops to the south and one to the west. Its well-stair also has a small

lobby in the wall, 5 feet above the floor. In the east end of the south

wall is a door ascending four steps, which opens into the staircase of

the forebuilding. Although this door, in its present state, appears not

to be original, it may be really so. There is one in a somewhat similar

position at Dover.

The first floor is also divided into two main chambers by the

cross-wall, and each is shortened by the rooms cut off, from one at

the east, and from the other at the west, end. The great chambers are,

the north, 47 feet by 23 feet, and the south, 42 feet by 15 feet. The

north room was the _hall_. It was entered from the vestibule of the

forebuilding by a handsome main door, of 6 feet opening, near the

north end of the east wall. Close to it, in the same wall, is a second

round-headed door, which descends by ten steps upon the staircase of

the forebuilding. This door is evidently an insertion in the place

of a loop. A third and small door, segmental, opens into a narrow

mural passage leading over the middle gate of the fore-building, and

by a branch into the chapel. In the cross-wall, a door opens into the

south chamber, and near it is a deep round-headed recess, 5 feet from

the floor, perhaps a cupboard, and again a recess, 8 feet broad and 5

feet deep, at the floor-level, possibly for a brazier of charcoal, but

without a flue. Near the east end of this same wall is a small window,

a Decorated insertion, and near it a segmental door, both opening

into the ante-chapel. The north wall is pierced by a gallery, 3 feet

6 inches broad, of five bays, between each of which is a plain arch,

reducing the way to 2 feet 9 inches. Two of these bays have coupled

exterior windows, one pair square-headed, the other round-headed and

trefoiled, and on each cusp a disc, as in the recess at Coningsburgh,

producing a heavy effect. The fifth bay has a loop. Four of these bays

open by large arches, at the floor-level, into the great chamber, of

which this gallery thus formed a part. The eastern bay communicates

with the well-stair. It is groined, and its side towards the chamber

seems to have been partially closed, and there are three small shafts

which seem to have opened into the mural chamber below. They cannot be

for garderobes, and their use is obscure. This bay has a very handsome

window, of two lights, coupled, and the shaft common to the two is

worked in a rather remarkable fret or knot. These windows had shutters.

There is no trace of glass. The gallery, which is 62 feet long, has a

loop at its west end, and a rude opening, probably once a window, of

three small lights, near that end in the north wall. The north-west

aisle is occupied by a cylindrical shaft, 5 feet 6 inches diameter,

which commences with the floor-level, and is open like a fireplace.

At the roof-level it is gathered in with brick, and ascends as a

chimney-shaft. In its sides are four loops, in two tiers, besides six

small round-headed niches higher up, probably for the escape of smoke

and steam. At this end the gallery opens into a lofty vaulted chamber,

in the east wall of which an opening has been broken into the hall,

and in the south wall is a curious low segmental recess, of 10 feet

span and 3 feet rise, partly walled up, and in the upfilling some small

niches. The great height of this chamber, the vaulted roof, the shaft

and steam-holes at one corner, the niches round it, and its position

next to the hall, point it out as the kitchen.

In the west end of the hall a door leads into a room corresponding with

the kitchen, to the south of it. This is 8 feet by 12 feet, and has

three niches in its west and two in its east wall. In its north and

south walls are arches of relief, like that of the flat recess in the

kitchen. The reason for these three arches, turned in three parallel

walls, is not apparent. Two of these might serve to direct the weight

of the wall above from the vault below upon the piers, but the third is

in the cross-wall, which is solid. The south room had a timber roof,

and was probably a sort of still-room, for light cooking or pastry.

Between these two rooms a door from the hall opens into an =∟=-shaped

vaulted passage, ending in a mural vault, 10 feet by 5 feet, in the

west wall of which are two loops and two double garderobes.

The roof of the hall was of timber, resting on six pairs of principals,

of which the corbels that carried the hammer-beams remain. Some are

carved as male or female heads, and one represents an animal. The pitch

of the gable is marked upon the east wall, across which, at the level

of the corbels, is a bold band of chevron work, and upon this rests a

window of 2 feet 6 inches opening, which gave light from an upper mural

gallery into the roof. In this gable a second opening, 7 feet wide, has

been made into the same gallery. This larger window cuts the chevron

band, descending somewhat below it. It was evidently an insertion to

give more light to the hall, and is opened on one side instead of in

the place of the small window, in order that it may be clear of the

forebuilding.

The _south chamber_ was entered from the hall by a doorway 5 feet

broad, placed in a large recess 5 feet deep. In the south wall are two

round-headed windows, trefoiled, with discs on the cusps, and between

them a fireplace and chimney-shaft have been inserted, probably during

the Tudor period. There is also a sort of cupboard in this wall, and

a door opening into a lobby 7 feet by 3 feet 4 inches, which opens

upon the south-west well-stair. In the east wall is a small door,

a Decorated insertion, opening into the chapel. In the north wall,

besides the door from the hall, are a cupboard and a small segmental

door, opening into a mural garderobe in the west wall. In the west

end are two small doors opening into mural chambers, each containing

a garderobe lighted by a loop. It will thus be seen that all the

garderobes are upon the west front, and there seem to have been others

in the battlements above them. The south chamber had a lofty open roof

like that of the hall, but high up in its west gable a window has been

opened as though to suit an added interior gallery or balcony at the

level of the room above the chapel at the opposite end. This window,

however, is the only indication of such an insertion, nor are there

any other windows or any traces of floor-joists, only below the window

are some joist-holes. This window is of two lights, lancet-shaped and

trefoiled. In the central spandrel is a peculiar ornament composed of

four loops, which outside are replaced by a small circle. This window

stands in a full-centred recess which may be original, but the window

itself is an insertion.

Walled off at the east end of the chamber is the _ante-chapel_, 9 feet

by 13 feet, and vaulted. It is placed partly in the cross-wall and

partly in the south chamber. It has a door and window into the hall,

of which the latter seems an insertion. Also are seen a door and two

loops, of hour-glass section, in the opposite or south wall opening

into the chapel. In the east wall is a door, whence a narrow passage

leads upon the roof of the forebuilding over the middle gate.

The _chapel_, which could be entered from the hall either through the

ante-chapel or round it by a mural passage, has but one original door,

which is in its north wall. A second door has been opened, in the

early English period, in the west wall. The chapel is 13 feet east

and west by 14 feet, and has a flat timber ceiling. The southern side

has a deep recess, let into the wall of the keep, and in it are the

remains of a triple window, probably formed of three loops. In the two

jambs of this arch are side recesses. High up in the north wall are

the two hour-glass loops from the ante-chapel. The chapel has been

much injured; but there are remains of a handsome arcade with detached

shafts upon the lower half of the west and north walls, and in the

south is what seems to have been a coupled window. In the east wall is

a handsome arch of 7 feet 6 inches span, with shafts in front of the

piers with carved caps. This opens into a sort of chancel, 5 feet deep

by 9 feet wide, with nook-shafts. It is vaulted, groined, and ribbed.

There is no boss, but about the intersection of the ribs is some rude

carving, from which a lamp seems to have been suspended. There is a

window to the east, now broken down, but which was probably composed of

three coupled lights, and in the south wall is a recess with a loop.

An attempt has been made, apparently in the Tudor period, to insert a

fireplace in the north wall.

From the first floor the south-west well-stair leads to the roof

only; but the north-east stair, in its way to the roof, has two side

openings, of which the first, 2 feet 4 inches wide, leads by a narrow

passage up fourteen steps towards the ramparts of the vestibule tower.

This is now blocked by the inserted vault, with which that building is

covered in. Eight steps above this lower opening a second leads into a

gallery in the east wall. Above this opening, seventeen more steps lead

to the ramparts of the keep, which are 22 feet above the level of the

first floor. The eastern gallery is vaulted, and 32 feet long. From one

side of it a door enters the second floor of the forebuilding tower,

and beyond it, also in the east or outer side, is a loop. In the west

side are two openings, already described, which open into the gable

end of the hall roof. At its south end this gallery makes a turn at

right angles, and ends in a small bedchamber, 18 feet by 14 feet, which

is over the chapel, and has a window to the south. As the parapets

are gone, and the ramparts not accessible, the roof above the kitchen

cannot be examined; but there does not appear to have been any second

floor in that quarter.

The _forebuilding_ is a very perfect and a very good example of this

peculiar appendage to a Norman keep. It is composed of three parts,—a

lower staircase, an upper staircase, and a vestibule tower. At its

south end is the outer gateway, at the ground-level, in line with the

southern face of the keep. The portal is full-centred, and flanked by

two columns beneath a plain abacus, from which springs the arch with a

bold roll-moulding. There is no portcullis. The door opened inwards,

and was strongly barred. The wall is 6 feet thick, and the vaulted

passage through it, inside the doorway, is segmental and groined.

Within, the passage is 8 feet wide, and contains the lower staircase

of fifteen steps. In the inner face of the wall, over the doorway, is

a large, deep recess, probably to lighten the weight on the entrance

arch. On the right or outer wall, high up, is a loop, and on the left,

at the fourth step, a large door, already mentioned, opens into the

southern chamber. It seems to be of late Decorated date, and probably

represents an original loop, or it may be a doorway. At the head

of this first staircase is the middle or second doorway, of 5 feet

opening, also full-centred, with flanking columns. The head, also, has

a bold roll-moulding. The wall in which it is placed is 4 feet thick,

and the landing 5 feet deep. The portal is recessed, and in the soffit

in front of it is an opening, 2 feet broad by 6 inches deep, a shaft

or _meurtrière_ from the top of the wall, where is a walk. This seems

to have had high parapets, and a loop looking down the staircase. The

opening was for the defence of the portal. This door also was barred.

Within it rises the second staircase, in the same line, of nineteen

steps, 8 feet wide, and ascending to the upper and inner doorway, the

door of the vestibule. On the right is a second loop, on the left a

clumsy doorway ascending to the hall, already mentioned, and evidently

an insertion. The staircase is solid, containing no vault or chamber

below. It was roofed with timber, at two levels, of a low pitch,

divided by the wall of the middle gate, and leaning against the keep

wall.

The doorway at the stairhead much resembles those below. It is set in a

deep recess, has flanking shafts, and a roll-moulding round the head.

There is no portcullis. The doorway opens into a chamber 14 feet by

15 feet, which is the vestibule to the main entrance of the keep, and

at the level of its first floor. It has two windows to the north, two

to the east, and to the south the staircase door and a window, which

rakes the exterior of the outer wall of the staircase. These windows

seem to have been of 12-inch opening, but have been enlarged. They are

placed in deep recesses, as in an arcade. In the west wall is the great

entrance—a noble archway—deeply recessed, and flanked with four shafts

on either side. The exterior arch is 10 feet span, the doorway itself 6

feet. The plinths are unusually high, being 3 feet. The caps are fluted

and cushioned. The outer arch is full-centred, the actual doorway

segmental. The arch bands are worked in chevron and other mouldings.

Close north of the great entrance a plain narrow door opens into the

adjacent well-stair, but this is clearly an enlarged loop, which was

intended to light the staircase. The original covering of this room,

like its present floor, was of timber, but this has been replaced by an

ill-executed vault of the early Decorated period. It is arranged in two

bays, the dividing rib springing from pilasters let into the north and

south walls. Each bay is crossed diagonally by two ribs, springing from

corbels of half-octagon figure. The vaulting obscures and spoils the

old Norman details of this very handsome chamber.

Below the vestibule is the ground floor, probably a prison, a mere pit,

14 feet by 16 feet, and 21 feet high, aired by two loops very high up

in the east wall, and possibly by a third in the south wall. In the

west wall, the wall of the keep, is a lofty recess beneath the keep

entrance, within which a hole has been broken. At present this chamber

is entered by a door at the ground-level in the south wall, but this is

certainly an insertion. The original entrance must have been by a trap

and ladder from the vestibule floor.

The second floor of the vestibule tower was 16 feet square, and had

four round-headed windows of 2 feet opening, now converted into

shoulder-headed windows. There are two in the north, two in the east,

and one in the south faces, each in a plain flat-sided recess, 3 feet

broad. In the west wall, where is the entrance from the mural gallery,

is a recess, 12 feet broad and 2 feet deep, above the grand entrance

of the keep. Its angle is replaced by a nook-shaft, the particulars of

which show that though the walls and the position of the windows are

original, the floor-level has been raised, and a fireplace inserted in

the south wall. Like the vestibule, this room has had its flat timber

roof replaced by a high-pitched vault in two bays, groined and ribbed,

and with a dividing rib. All the ribs spring from semi-octagonal piers

inserted into the old walls. This vault appears outside in the form of

a high-pitched roof. It is of the age of that below.

The material of this keep is, in substance, flint rubble, coursed,

but it is faced largely with ashlar; and far more attention has been

paid to ornamentation than is usual with military buildings. The

forebuilding is faced wholly with ashlar, and richly ornamented.

Over the outer portal are broad bands of hatched and chevron work,

filling up an arcade of two arches, above which is a circle, with a

centre carved as a head. The south-eastern angle is occupied by a

nook-shaft. The east front, the wall of the staircase, is even more

richly wrought. Here are two arcades at different levels, corresponding

to the level of each staircase roof, and above is a line of circles,

with centres carved as heads. There is a notion that the mural passage

over the middle doorway ended in a postern high up in this wall,

whence a ladder could be dropped; but there seems no ground for this

improbable opinion. Had there been such a postern, the two loops on

the stair would have been arranged for its defence; whereas they are

too high up to be used, save for light and air. It is curious that

the forebuilding should be so much more ornate outside than the keep;

whereas at Dover and Rochester, where also it contained a chapel,

its outside is remarkably plain. The subordinate staircases, that

is, those at the two angles, are clumsily arranged, and there is no

arrangement by means of a landing to suit the steps to the level of the

floors supplied. No doubt the main stair was that chiefly in use. The

keep bears a close resemblance to that of Norwich, especially in the

position of its kitchen, north gallery, and chapel. The forebuilding

also is on the same plan. The arches generally are full-centred, though

a few of the doorways are segmental. Where the mural galleries are at

all expanded in breadth, and in the door recesses of the cross-wall

and of the outer entrance, the vaulting is lightly groined; and this,

which occurs also in the Tower of London and at Rochester, produces a

good effect, and takes off from the sameness of the barrel-vault. In

the kitchen are piled up a heap of fragments of carved stones found in

or about the castle. They are in all the styles—Norman, early English,

Decorated, and a few Perpendicular. Probably some came from the chapel

of St. Nicholas; many of them can scarcely have belonged to the keep.

If Castle Rising was built by the architect of Norwich keep, it must

be early Norman, for Norwich was besieged 1076, at the revolt of

Earl Guader, and Harrod supposes the present keep to have been then

standing; but the ornamentation of Castle Rising looks much later, and

on the whole there is no reason to refuse assent to the tradition which

attributes it to William d’Albini, who died 1176. As usual, there are

no subterranean chambers. Though the three doorways of the forebuilding

had not, as at Dover, each a tower, each had a distinct defence, the

outer from the battlement over the portal, the middle also from a

battlement pierced by a shaft, and communicating with the keep, and the

inner as a part of the vestibule tower.

The _gatehouse_ stands near the centre of the east side of the keep

ward, in the earth bank which has been cut away to allow it to be

built. It is 325 yards from the north-east angle of the keep, and of

the same age. It is of the usual Norman pattern, a rectangular tower

pierced by a passage, with an arch of 12 feet opening at each end, set

in the walls, of which the outer is 6 feet, and the inner 5 feet thick.

The arches are quite plain, without rebate or chamfer. The passage

between the two is also 12 feet wide and 13 feet long, and had a flat

timber roof, the floor of the chamber above, now removed. The outer

arch has a portcullis groove, 3½ inches broad by 4½ inches deep, and

square. In the north wall are two shallow recesses, of 4 feet span

by 1 foot 10 inches deep. In the south wall is one similar recess,

and a door of 2 feet 6 inches opening, which seems to have led into a

well-stair in the south-west angle of the building. In front of the

outer gateway the approach, 15 feet wide, lies between two walls, of

which the southern still projects 15 feet. They probably protected the

drawbridge, and between them was the bridge-pit. Beyond these walls

is the great ditch of the place, here about 80 feet broad and 30 feet

deep, crossed by a bridge in masonry, of two arches, of which the inner

one is walled up. The open arch seems of Tudor date, but the piers look

original. The outer end of the bridge rests upon the counterscarp of

the ditch, about the centre of the eastern ward.

The gatehouse stood on the ground level, and, therefore, lower than

the curtain of the _enceinte_, which was built on the crest of the

earth bank. The original curtain, if one there was, as is probable,

is entirely gone, and has been replaced by a brick wall of the age of

Henry VII., also nearly all gone. Of this wall there remain, on the

south side of the gate, about 12 yards. It is 2 feet thick, but within

was lined by an arcade 3 feet thick, which carried the rampart walk,

as at Southampton. These arches are 8 feet span, and four-centred,

with piers 3 feet broad, and within each arch or recess was a loop.

There remain three arches and a half. Besides this there is a fragment

of curtain south-west of the keep, and traces of foundations along the

bank.

In the central ward, a few yards north of the keep, is a well, and

further north are the remains of the great chapel. This was composed of

a nave, choir or presbytery, and apse. The nave is about 12 feet broad

and 25 feet long. The arch into the presbytery was 5 feet broad, and

across it is the base of a stone screen with a door of 3 feet. There

was a south door and a north window. The font stood in the centre,

near the west end. The presbytery was 8 feet long by 9 feet broad,

with a loop to the south, and an arch of 6 feet opening into the apse.

The apse was rounded, and 8 feet broad by 9 feet long, and had loops

splayed internally to the north and east, and probably to the south.

It is said that the very early Norman font, now in the parish church,

came from hence. The masonry of what remains of this building is of

a rude character, and it is probably older than the keep. This is

supposed to be the chapel of St. Nicholas mentioned in the records. At

present its remains are niched into the bank, and it has the appearance

of being the older of the two, though this can scarcely be the case.

The sand of the bank is liable to be shifted by the wind, and as late

as the commencement of the present century the central ward was much

encumbered with it, and the keep more or less buried, so that this is

probably the cause of the half-buried condition of the ruins of the

chapel.

The keep, chapel, and gatehouse are the only remains of Norman masonry

at present seen above ground. The inner ward must have contained

domestic buildings on a large scale, fit for the reception of royalty,

but the foundations which remain on the south of the keep seem very

late, probably of the Tudor period. They are said to be those of the

constable’s lodgings. There is no trace of masonry of any kind in the

two outer wards.

The parish church, standing in the village of Castle Rising, is a fine

example of the late Norman style. Its west front, especially, is very

rich, and it has a good central tower. The chancel is rather later. The

font is very massive. Its square bowl is covered with carvings of an

early character, and it stands upon a plain cylinder, properly copied

from the original support. The bowl is said to have come from the

castle.

Rising, or rather Snettisham, in which manor it is contained, was a

part of the estate of Edwyn, a Dane, and a follower of Canute. So says

Dugdale. In Domesday it is entered as a “bervite” of the manor of

Snettisham. “_Huic manerio jacet una bervita Risinga._” It had belonged

to Archbishop Stigand, and, on his forfeiture, William gave it to

Bishop Odo, then Earl of Kent. After Odo’s fall, Rufus granted it to

William d’Albini, the royal “pincerna,” or butler, son of Roger, and

whose younger brother Nigel was ancestor of the great house of Mowbray.

The son of William was “William with the Strong Hand,” the celebrated

Earl of Arundel, and Lord of Buckenham, in Norfolk, who married Adeliza

of Louvaine, the Dowager Queen of Henry I., and is the reputed builder

of the keep before 1176.

Their son, a third William, died 1190, leaving a fourth William, who

died 1221, and whose eldest son, a fifth William, died childless in

1224, when Rising came to his brother Hugh, who left four sisters,

co-heirs, of whom Cecily had Rising, and married Roger, Lord Montalt.

Their eldest son, John Montalt, died childless, and was followed by his

brother Robert, who died 3 Edward I., leaving Roger, who died childless

25 Edward I., and Robert, who succeeded. This Robert de Montalt was

a very considerable person, both as a warrior and a statesman. He is

locally celebrated for the winning of a very important law-suit against

the corporation of Lynn for the tolls of that port and market in the

reign of Edward II. Having no issue, he, in 1 Edward III., sold the

reversion of Castle Rising to the Crown, for the benefit of Queen

Isabella, the “She-Wolf of France,” with remainder to John of Eltham,

the king’s brother. In 1331 Isabella came into possession, and here

lived in retirement to within a year of her death, which occurred at

Hertford in 1358. Edward, with his queen, here visited his mother, in

the fourteenth year of his reign.

John of Eltham having died childless, the castle came to the Black

Prince, and became part of the duchy of Cornwall, and so descended to

Richard II., who exchanged it with John, Duke of Bretagne, who held it

in 1397, and occasionally resided there. It was afterwards recovered

by the Crown, and granted to Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, from

whom it passed to Edward IV., who again annexed it to the duchy, but

the castle was probably then in a ruinous state. In the time of Henry

VII. it seems to have been repaired. The roof of the keep was then

covered with tiles, with great gutters of lead. In the reign of Henry

VIII. it was again in decay, and the keep and gatehouse were roofless,

and it would seem that the constable’s lodging was the only habitable

part. Finally, the king exchanged the castle manor and chase of Rising

with Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and in 1693 it came to another

Thomas Howard, ancestor of the Earls of Suffolk and Berks, one of whose

descendants still holds it. As late as the 31st of Elizabeth there was

a curtain-wall upon the bank which was in danger from the burrowing of

the conies, and there was also a gatehouse and a bridge 90 yards long

and 7 yards broad. Under the castle, by the tenure of castle-guard,

were held the manors of Hunstanton, Reydon, and the Wottons.

CHÂTEAU-GAILLARD, ON THE SEINE.

Château-Gaillard, though a French castle, is here introduced as being

the work of an English king, and a very remarkable example of the

military architecture of the close of the twelfth century.

Château-Gaillard, the “Saucy Castle” of Cœur-de-Lion, the work of one

year of his brief reign, and the enduring monument of his skill as

a military engineer, is in its position and details one of the most

remarkable, and in its history one of the most interesting of the

castles of Normandy. Although a ruin, enough remains to enable the

antiquary to recover all its leading particulars. These particulars,

both in plan and elevation, are so peculiar that experience derived

from other buildings throws but an uncertain light upon their age;

but of this guide, usually so important, they are independent, from

the somewhat uncommon fact that the fortress is wholly of one date,

and that date is on record. Moreover, within a few years of its

construction, whilst its defences were new and perfect, with a numerous

garrison and a castellan, one of the best soldiers of the Anglo-Norman

baronage, it was besieged by the whole disposable force of the most

powerful monarch of his day; and the particulars of the siege have been

recorded by a contemporary historian with a minuteness which leaves

little for the imagination to supply, and which, by the help of the

place and works, but little changed, enables us to obtain a very clear

comprehension of the manner in which great fortresses were attacked and

defended at the commencement of the thirteenth century.

Château-Gaillard crowns the almost precipitous head of a bold and

narrow promontory of chalk, which, isolated on either hand by a deep

valley, stands out from the broad table-land of Le Vexin, at a height

of 300 feet above the deep and rapid Seine, which washes and has for

ages threatened to undermine its base.

The course of the Seine through Normandy, from below the conflux of the

Epte to the sea, is one rapid succession of bold and graceful curves,

the concavities of which, bluff and precipitous, are attacked by the

advancing stream, in strong contrast to the opposite banks, which,

deposited and encircled by it, are low and fertile, and studded with

ancient villages, churches, and manor-houses, rising through a mantle

of rich, smiling verdure.

At the bottom of one of the grandest of these reaches, on the margin of

a vast amphitheatre, stands the saucy boast of Cœur-de-Lion. Right and

left are the bold bluffs of the chalk range, masked with turf, green as

that of Sussex or Kent, varied by the occasional protrusion of a cliff

of chalk, and relieved by a band of vegetation covering up the foot of

the steep, and intervening between the high ground and the river. In

front, beyond the innumerable islands of the Seine, is the tongue of

rich low land known as the peninsula of Bernieres, a village, which,

with Toeni and Venables—names familiar in Anglo-Norman history—is seen

in the foreground. The valley on the right, or east, and immediately

below the castle, is that of the Gambon, upon which are the towns of

Great and Little Andelys; the former the birthplace—or within a mile of

the birthplace—of Nicholas Poussin and Brunel; the latter half-a-mile

lower down, upon the junction of the stream with the Seine, and

under the immediate command of the castle, and contemporary with its

foundation.

Château-Gaillard is composed of two principal parts, the castle proper

and the outwork: the one covering the whole head of the promontory, the

other occupying the only level ground, being the root of the ridge,

from which the fortress could be attacked on equal terms.

The castle proper is composed of a keep; an inner ward, of the

_enceinte_ of which the keep forms a part, and which has its own

ditch; and an outer ward, within which the inner ward is placed, the

two uniting, or nearly so, at the north end. This division of the

fortress is therefore concentric. The outwork, in advance of the ditch

of the outer ward, has a ditch of its own, and presents its salient or

strongest part towards the south.

The keep is a tower of which one half, in plan, is round, and the

other projects into the ward as a right angle, or spur—a form of tower

well known in French castles. It is 48 feet in diameter, or 55 feet

taken at the spur. The walls are 11 feet thick, at the spur 18 feet,

and the circular interior is 26 feet. At this time it is composed of

a basement and a first floor; nor does there appear to have been a

second below the ramparts. In the basement is one window towards the

west, or exterior, and a rough aperture towards the east, or the inner

ward. There are marks as though this had been a door of 4 feet 6 inches

opening; but if so, it was doubtless not original. This keep is not

likely to have had an entrance on the ground floor.

The first floor has two windows towards the west, and a door to the

north. The windows being on the cliff side, and inaccessible, are

moderately large. They are of two lights, flat-headed, beneath an

equilateral arch. Their internal recesses are slightly pointed. The

doorway, also flat-headed, occupies the space of a window-light. In

the other space is a loop, commanding the approach. Both are beneath a

round-headed arch, the tympanum being closed.

There are neither mural chambers nor a staircase within the keep. The

floors and stairs were of wood. There is no fireplace, nor visible

garderobe, and no well. The spur is solid.

The exterior is very peculiar. The lower two-thirds batters

considerably all round, so as to add strength to the base, and cause a

missile dropped from above to be projected outwards upon an assailant.

About half-way up this slope there commences from corbels a series of

buttresses, which expand laterally as they rise, but have vertical

faces. They are, in fact, machicolations, but commencing low down; and,

like ordinary machicolations, are connected by a series of arches,

carrying the parapet, behind which was a passage for projectiles,

as, for example, at Avignon. These exaggerated machicolations give a

considerable increase of space to the top of the keep, but they are

confined to its inner two-thirds, the outer side being sufficiently

secure without them. As the upper part of the keep has been removed,

the arches are gone, and only the buttresses remain. One of these

defences overhung the entrance.

From a curious representation of the castle in stone in the church

of Great Andelys, there is evidence that the keep was surmounted by

a second and smaller tower within the rampart walk, and this again

by another within that, rising like the tubes of a telescope. These

probably were of timber.

A narrow flight of steps, commencing at the ward level, and carried up

the outside of the keep, ascended, with two turns, to the entrance.

Part of this narrow and dangerous staircase remains. There are also

traces of a lean-to building on the east side of the keep, probably an

addition.

The material of the keep is flint rubble, grouted in a copious bath of

mortar, and faced inside and out with ashlar. The stones are about 1

foot 6 inches long by 6 inches high, and are a hard and durable variety

of chalk, with occasional flints. The material is probably local. The

workmanship, though plain and without ornament, is good. The joints are

moderately open, enough to admit an ordinary lead-pencil.

The inner ward is something of the shape of the human ear, the keep

standing in the west or hollow side, and the lobe being to the north or

north-east. This ward measures about 200 feet north and south by 100

feet east and west. Its _enceinte_ wall is one of the curiosities of

the castle. It is in girth about 500 feet. Of this the keep, a round

tower, and an intermediate building, occupy about one-third on the

north-west quarter, and the remaining two-thirds includes some plain

wall, a gateway, and seventeen segmental buttresses of 9 feet in the

chord, placed upon the curtain 3 feet apart. The wall, about 8 feet

thick, is plain within. By means of this arrangement great strength was

given to the wall, and a series of flanking defences provided on the

only face on which the ground admitted of any attack being directed.

This part of the wall was probably about 30 feet high, and stood upon

a vertical scarp of about 20 feet more. The battlements are gone, so

that it does not appear how the wall was crested. A wall similarly

buttressed, and of rather earlier date, existed at the Castle of

Cherbourg, and there is something a little like it at Caerphilly.

The keep has already been described. It stands in the line of this

_enceinte_, on the west side, which it protects. Annexed to the keep,

on the north side, and also a part of the _enceinte_, is a rectangular

building, probably the lodging of the castellan. It is about 30 feet

wide, and 40 feet long, having a basement excavated in the chalk rock.

It is of two floors, with fireplaces and segmental arches, and has an

appendage on the north, perhaps for offices. It has windows in the

curtain looking over the cliff towards the river. Stairs from hence

descend to the postern, and the keep stair lies between this building

and the keep.

At the northern point outside of, but engaged in, the wall, is the

foundation of a round tower, now included in a square bastion,

belonging rather to the outer ward than to this.

The postern is common to this and the outer ward, or rather at this

point the two run into one, and the postern pierces the common wall. It

is a narrow door having a flat top supported by two brackets, and above

a round-head arch with closed tympanum. It opens in a re-entering angle

of the wall, covered by the bastion, and upon the scarp, so that it

must have been reached by a shifting bridge or ladder, the arrangements

for working which seem indicated by some recesses for bars just within

the portal. There is no portcullis; the defence was a barred door. The

cill of this postern is about 30 feet below the base of the keep. It is

reached by steps cut in the chalk rock, and but little worn.

The great gateway of this ward opens in the curtain to the east,

and had a gatehouse almost entirely within the wall. This gate is

considerably below the level of the ward. A steep descent leads to

it, and the portal vault has three hanging ribs or arches, with a

portcullis inside them, with a square groove. The inner half of the

portal is gone; probably there was a second vault and portcullis, and

an open space between. The face of the porter’s lodge is gone, but the

lodge is seen to have had a plain segmental vault. Outside the gate is

a curious square groove as for a portcullis, but it is stopped, and

does not descend below the springing level of the gate arch.

This gate opens upon the ditch. The base of the scarp-pier of the

bridge remains. The counterscarp has tumbled in. There was, probably,

a central pier in the ditch. The present bridge is not original. The

approach to this gate left by Cœur-de-Lion was a causeway, formed by

leaving the rock uncut. It was over this causeway that the inner ward

was stormed and taken.

Just within this gate was a well 270 feet deep, now blocked up.

Outside the _enceinte_ is the ditch, about 20 feet deep, and 30 feet

wide at the gate, and along the south front, with vertical sides, but

running out to nothing on the steep ground as its ends pass northwards.

This ditch is, in fact, in the _outer ward_, which envelopes the inner

ward. This ward is oblong, about 325 feet north and south, and 200

feet east and west. Its northern half is of an irregular oval form,

following the rock, and terminating in two large rectangular conjoined

bastions upon the precipitous north end. The southern half is nearly

rectangular; having a straight south face 125 feet long, flanked by

two drum towers. From these pass off the lateral curtains, forming the

east and west front, and ending in two other drum towers, of which

that to the east, nearly opposite the inner-ward gateway, is gone. The

curtain, from this tower northwards, is also gone. On the opposite or

west side it is a mere parapet, cresting the precipice and following

its outlines. From the manner in which the inner ward is placed in

this ward it occupies nearly all its northern end, but leaves to the

south a platform, outside the ditch, of about 140 feet by 100 feet.

Here is a rectangular foundation, about 40 feet broad by 60 feet long,

and divided lengthways by a wall. Its length is north and south, but

here is said to have been the chapel, probably built across one end.

It was the work of King John, placed upon a substructure of cellars,

and in close contiguity to the castle garderobe in the west wall.

“Juxta foricas, quod quidem religioni contrarium videbatur,” says the

chronicler. The end walls and the east side are faced with ashlar, but

there is now nothing like a chapel. Here, however, it appears to have

been, and its roof was visible above the wall. These foundations are

interesting, since it was here, through a window in the contiguous

wall, that the ward was entered and surprised during the great siege.

[Illustration: PLAN OF CHÂTEAU-GAILLARD.]

No regular gateway remains in this ward. There is an opening in the

south curtain which led to the great outwork, but which could scarcely

have been the regular entrance. Neither could this have been on the

west or north fronts. Probably, therefore, it was to the north-east,

where the wall is now wanting. It is said not to have been opposite the

inner gateway. At best the approach must have been little suited to

wheel carriages. There was a well in the east quarter of this ward.

Mention has to be made of some curious chambers cut in the chalk of

the escarpment of the ditch, from which at this time they are entered.

There are three or four of these, about 80 feet in length and 7 feet

high. They are carved with a sort of rough regularity, with pilasters

left against the wall, and bands representing segmental arches. One

large octagonal pier has a cap and base, and the latter has the

water-bearing hollow of the Early English style, and is evidently

original. It is probable, from what is said of these places in the

account of the surprise of this ward, that they had a door towards the

ditch, but they seem to have been also entered by a round hole, 4 feet

across, in the roof, as was the case with the dungeons at Coucy.

The outer ward has its proper ditch, cut with vertical sides across

the ridge in front of the south wall, between it and the rear of the

outwork. This ditch is about 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep, but runs

out to nothing when it reaches the steep ground.

The outwork, ravelin, or outer ward, is an antemural work, intended to

cover the only side upon which the castle was open to an attack from

level, or rather rising, ground, and to occupy what would otherwise

have been a very dangerous platform.

It is in figure an isosceles triangle, having a base of 125 feet, and

sides of 175 feet. Each of the three angles is capped by a round tower

of 35 feet diameter, having walls 11 feet thick, and which seem to

have been at least 40 feet high. Besides these, in the side walls,

60 feet in rear of the front tower, are two subordinate towers, also

round, of 25 feet diameter; and again, a few feet from these, the

curtain is slightly bent, so as to present an obtuse salient to the

field. The work, therefore, though in general plan a triangle, has

really five angles and as many towers. The front tower has a well-stair

at its junction with its western curtain. The curtain is much broken

down, but must have been at least 30 feet high, and, near the front,

about 12 feet thick, and elsewhere 8 feet.

The rear or gorge wall is not exactly a curtain to the flanking

towers. It is placed a little outside of them, on the edge of the

ditch; and between it and the east tower was the gateway, the special

and independent entrance of the outwork. The north side is gone, but

the other side shows the springing of the portal arches and a square

portcullis groove. In this gorge wall, not far from the gate, is a

large arch, corresponding to that already mentioned in the outer-ward

wall. This was, no doubt, a way of communication between the castle

and the earthwork. This ditch was crossed by a wall at the east end,

which connected the two works and protected the bridge. The west end is

filled with ruins. There are now no traces of buildings in the outwork.

The towers of the outwork are of great strength, and have been faced

with ashlar. The front tower especially is strong, and does not appear

ever to have been mined or breached. Also the rock beneath it is

undisturbed. Possibly the breach spoken of at the siege was in the

adjacent curtain on the east.

In the rear of this work is the ditch already described, and along its

front and flanks is another ditch, proper to the outwork, and the most

formidable of all the defences. It is above 30 feet wide, and at the

advanced point, where the ground rises, above 40 feet deep. The scarp

and counterscarp are vertical.

Besides these regular works are others of a less regular but very

formidable character, on the west side. This face of the rock towards

the Seine, steep naturally, has been scarped and defended by art.

Half-way down the slope is a round tower, connected, it is said, with

the work above, by a gallery cut in the chalk. From the tower a wall

descended to the river, so that the approaches on this side and the

road between the hill and the river were effectually commanded. This

wall seems to have terminated on the river bank, in a pier of which

traces remain, and which supported one end of a strong dam or weir of

piles, which extended across the river, and was part of the original

work of Cœur-de-Lion. Several other works were stepped into the rocky

slope, and especially covered the west side.

The weir crossed above the island, called formerly D’Andelys, upon

which was the octangular fort, erected also by Richard, and of which

traces remain. The bridges from this island, either way, to the banks,

were of timber, and have left no trace behind.

Finally are to be mentioned the fortifications of the lesser Andelys,

now destroyed, and the lake, fed by the waters of the Gambon, and

which washed the walls of Great Andelys, and completely enveloped the

lower town. These additional defences are now destroyed and the lake is

drained and filled up, but indications remain sufficient to verify the

detailed description of Guillaume le Breton, and to justify M. Deville

in his description, and M. le Duc, in his restorations, advanced under

the excellent articles “Château” and “Donjon” in his “Dictionary.”

THE CASTLE OF CHRISTCHURCH, HANTS.

The town, castle, and priory of Christchurch are placed upon the

south-eastern point and edge of a tongue of moderately-high ground,

which intervenes between the Stour on the west and the Avon on the

east. The two rivers of Dorset and Wilts meander like their prototype,

“.... toties qui terris errat in isdem,”

and flow across broad and marshy tracts of land to unite below

Christchurch in a spacious inlet of the bay which is formed, and on

the south-east protected, by the headland bearing the suggestive

name of Hengistbury. The position is thus strong and convenient:

unapproachable, by reason of the marshes, on the east and west;

presenting to the north a narrow and defencible front, and placed upon

a harbour in former days very suitable for small vessels, sheltered

from the prevailing west wind, and having a narrow and easily-guarded

entrance from the adjacent channel. Such a position was not likely to

be neglected by any people, even in the rudest age, and accordingly the

Britons seem to have fortified the headland: and those who drove them

out not only gave to that headland its present name, but, finding the

inner position better suited to their habits, fortified it with bank

and ditch, and within the area so enclosed threw up the usual mound,

or burh, the ordinary indication of the residence of an early English

chieftain.

The remains of the British period are confined to the double banks

and ditches, which still crown the headland, and to the names of the

rivers, which there unite. Of a British town or church, Aberdour, as

such would have probably been called, no traces are to be found.

The earliest mention of the place in Anglo-Saxon records is in the

Chronicle in A.D. 901, where it is recorded, that on the death of

Alfred and the succession of Edward the Elder, Æthelwold, his uncle’s

son, seized the vill at “Winburne and that at Tweoxneam,” but on

Edward’s marching to Badbury, and threatening an attack on Winburne,

now Wimborne, he fled into the North. This statement is repeated by

Florence of Worcester, with the additional information that Tweoxneam

was a royal vill. The place, under its better-known name of Twyneham,

occurs in a charter by Athelstan, dated April 23rd, 939, in which,

among other lands, he, the “king wielding all Britain,” gives to

God and St. Mary, to St. Michael, St. Sampson, and St. Branwaladre,

lands on Avene at Twynham. The character of a royal vill was long

sustained, and from Domesday it appears that it had belonged to the

Confessor and did then belong to King William. Long before that time,

however, a religious house had been founded there, and the canons of

Tuinham, or of the Holy Trinity of Thuinam, appear in the Survey as

tenants-in-chief. The foundation was probably an early one. Twynburn,

or Winburn, on the same Stour a few miles higher up, was founded

before 705, and Wareham before 876. In the Confessor’s time, there

were twenty-four canons and a dean; and in the reign of Rufus, the

latter post was filled by Ralf Flambard, who is said to have rebuilt

the college, which was practically re-founded by Richard de Redvers,

Earl of Devon, in the reign of Henry I., and whose son, Earl Baldwin,

obtained the conversion of the seculars into regular canons of the

order of St. Augustin. The mill is recorded in Domesday. In all these

transactions there is no mention of the castle.

[Illustration: THE CASTLE OF CHRISTCHURCH.]

The castle, however, though possibly not a structure in regular masonry

until a century later than the Conquest, was certainly a burh long

before that event, and probably at least as early as the ninth century,

preceding, no doubt, and being the cause of, the vill, or collection

of houses. It stands upon the right or west bank of the Avon river,

immediately below the ancient bridge which carries the high road across

it. Its eastern front stands about 16 yards from the river, and rises

out of, and forms, the bank of the Mill Leat, which intervenes between

the castle and the Avon. The leat commences about three quarters of a

mile higher up, and terminates at the ancient Priory Mill, now called

“Place Mill,” 500 yards lower down, where, having started from the

Avon, it falls into the Stour. As there seems to have been but one

mill, it is to be supposed that the lay and spiritual lords were in

accord upon the very interesting topic of multures. At any rate, it lay

with the former to cut off the supply of water.

The area of the castle was roughly rectangular, about 110 yards

north and south, or parallel to the river, and 150 yards east and

west,—dimensions which include the ditch, now filled up, but of which

there are indications, with a breadth of 20 yards, along the north

and west fronts, now Castle and Church streets. The line of the ditch

along the south, or Priory, side is not traceable. The old Priory wall

is wanting there, and the ground has been levelled and cultivated as

a garden for above a century. Probably the ditch communicated at each

end with the mill-stream, and was filled from it, involving at the

deepest part not above 12 feet to 15 feet of excavation. No doubt there

was a bank within the ditch, thrown up from it, and which has since

been employed to fill it up. On the water front no earthworks were

necessary. The leat is 25 feet broad, and the river expands suddenly

below the bridge to 130 feet in width.

In the highest and north-western quarter of the space thus enclosed is

the burh, attributed by Norden, with great probability, to Edward the

Elder, after the suppression of the rebellion of Æthelwald in 901. This

is an oblong mound, wholly artificial, and composed of chalk-gravel. It

measures about 160 feet north and south by 150 feet east and west, and

has a table summit about 120 feet by 90 feet; it is about 20 feet high.

This mound and base court, with the circumscribing bank and ditch,

and the watercourse, with, no doubt, a strong palisade, formed the

original fortress, which, side by side with the Priory, afforded to the

contiguous town temporal and spiritual protection. Here, upon the old

site, Richard de Redvers, having before obtained a grant of the manor

from Henry I., erected a castle such as was then in use. He walled in

the area, placing probably his curtain along the crest of the bank and

upon the edge of the mill leat. His keep he built upon the mound, and

the hall and domestic buildings upon the line of the wall, along the

edge of the water. He is said also to have walled the town. The masonry

remaining is but scanty and confined to some fragments of the keep and

the hall-house, both of which appear to be original.

The keep is peculiar both in position and in its details. It is, or

has been, rectangular, and it stands upon the summit of the mound. It

is very unusual, for obvious reasons, to find rectangular keeps placed

upon artificial earthworks. At Guildford, where this appears to be the

case, it is only partially so, the tower being built on the slope of

the mound so that at least one half of it descends to the solid. It is,

no doubt, possible that here, the mound being of but moderate height,

the foundations may be laid below it; but more probably this is not the

case, and the engineer trusted, and securely, to the immense breadth

of his masonry to spread the weight and thus avoid unequal settlement.

Usually, when keeps are erected on artificial mounds, they are of the

shell type, as at Arundel.

This keep is also peculiar in its details. It was a rectangular

tower, 50 feet north and south by 46 feet east and west. Its walls

were fully 11 feet thick. There are no traces of pilasters, and the

angles are chamfered off, the face of the chamfer being about 6 feet.

At present only the east and west sides are standing, to a height of

nearly 30 feet, and it is difficult to make out from them what were

the arrangements of the building. In the west wall is one opening; on

the east are two, flat-sided, 8 feet wide, about 18 feet high, and

descending to the ground-level. They are closed above by very flat

segmental arches—in fact, plat-bands—relieved by obtusely-pointed, if

not round-headed, arches of construction in the work immediately above

such details, so far as they can be seen or inferred. The low and

large openings, the chamfered angles, and the absence of pilasters are

utterly unlike what is usual in a Norman keep; though, from the great

mass and general figure of the building, it can scarcely be other than

Norman. Mitford, in Northumberland, though differing in detail from

the present tower, differs quite as much from the ordinary type, and

that certainly is of Norman date. The work of this keep is a sort of

coarse ashlar, rough, but of good quality. Perhaps more details might

be discovered but for a thick drapery of ivy, which, in this stage of

its decay, serves to protect the building.

The hall, called the Constable’s House, is a rectangular building, 80

feet north and south by 35 feet east and west, placed on the margin of

the leat, and rising out of it, so that its broadside forms a part of

the outer line of defence towards the east. At present it is detached

and stands alone, but it probably ranged with the curtain wall, of

which, however, there are now no traces. There seems to have been a

building connected with its south-west angle.

The building was composed of a basement and a first floor. At each

end was a high-pitched gable, of which the southern only remains.

The walls are 5 feet thick, and the interior dimensions therefore 70

feet by 25 feet. The basement is at the ground level and about 1 foot

above the top water of the leat, the height of which is regulated by

hatches. The entrance from the castle was in the west side, 16 feet

from the north end. The doorway, of 5 feet opening, seems to have had

a segmental head, but the ashlar has been roughly removed. In the two

ends were loops: that to the south has long been closed. In the east

side, towards its north end, are two loops. All these loops are mere

rectangular slits, evidently intended for air, not defence. Each is

placed in a splayed recess, 4 feet 6 inches wide, with a segmental

head. Also in the east wall, 4 feet from the south end, is a similar

recess, opening into a small door, which led into the garderobe turret.

Next, north of this, 12 feet from the south end, is a door opening on

the water, 7 feet wide, with a very flat arch, evidently original. The

jambs are of ashlar, and they have capitals of a peculiar character.

This was evidently the watergate for the admission of stores from

the river, here a few yards beyond the leat and a few feet below it.

The garderobe turret is a projection, 12 feet square, from the east

wall at its south end, standing in the leat, and pierced below by a

round-headed arch, or culvert, 4 feet broad, through which the water

flows freely, and into which the garderobes discharged. This basement

was evidently a store. It is said to have been crossed by a wall. Of

this there is now no trace.

The first floor contained the hall, which occupied its whole area. The

main entrance was at the south end, near the south-west corner, by a

segmental-headed door; in the north wall is a window of two coupled

lights, each under a segmental head, with exterior drips, and the whole

placed within an exterior round-headed recess, the sides of which

contain flanking shafts, nooked. Above, not quite over the centre,

is a corbel carved as a human head. The arch-head and tympanum are

highly enriched with varieties of the chevron moulding, and upon the

chamfers of the lesser drips are rosettes carved with great delicacy.

Though heavily draped in ivy, enough is seen of this window to show

that it is late Norman, and of great beauty. There are windows similar

in type, but less rich in ornament, in the side walls, two in each,

and probably there were three, indicated by notches in the ivy. In

the east wall, 20 feet from the north end, are the remains of a large

fireplace, of which the convex back and the upper part of the circular

tunnel remain, and above is a tall cylindrical chimney-shaft, probably

original. A door from the south end of this wall led into the garderobe

turret, which had a loop to the east. There is also a round-headed

window in the south gable, which opened into the roof. There was no

vaulting; the floor and roof were of timber, the latter open.

The view in Grose, taken in 1783, shows the garderobe turret to the

full height of the side wall, and the great chimney-shaft unincumbered

with ivy. It also shows the north-east angle unbroken, within which was

then contained a well-stair. This angle has now fallen away or been

removed, and its broken parts are so encumbered with ivy and rubbish

that nothing has been ascertained as to what may remain; but no doubt

the staircase ascended from the basement to the main floor and thence

to the roof or to the ramparts of the curtain. In Grose’s time, the

north wall was encumbered by a cottage and some chimneys and other

additions in brick; these have now been removed. The garderobe turret

was wilfully pulled down when the castle changed hands towards the end

of the last century. There is a letter in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_

complaining of this, and which possibly put a stop to further injuries.

It is remarkable that a building closely resembling this is found at

Desmond’s Castle, at Adare, near Limerick. That castle is late Norman,

with a rectangular keep, though not on a mound, as the ground is

naturally high; and just below the keep, upon the bank of the river,

is placed the hall-house. It has a basement on the ground level,

evidently a store, with a separate entrance, and above is the hall,

with a boarded floor and open roof. The garderobe turret is built out

into the stream, has a culvert below, and is nearly perfect. The keep,

hall-house, and gate-house are there preserved, and if, as is probable,

the entrance at Christchurch was near the river at the foot of the

bridge, the relative position of the buildings would be the same. An

excellent plan of Desmond’s Castle will be found, with much else of a

valuable character, in Lord Dunraven’s “Memorials of Adare.”

Christchurch Castle has not been the scene of any remarkable event,

nor does its name occur with any prominence in the history of the

country, or even of the county. The manor was first alienated from the

Crown by Henry I. in favour of Richard de Redvers, whom he created

Earl of Devon. In the “Monasticon” (vi., 304) is printed a grant

or confirmation by this earl to the canons of Christchurch of the

“Terram usque in aquam de havene, quæ est inter cimeterium et fossatum

castelli, messuagium supra ipsius castelli fossatum, quod habent ex

dono Gamelini.” This is the first mention of the castle, and would make

it earlier than 1137, in which year Earl Richard died. As the masonry

of the castle looks twenty or thirty years later, the allusion may be

to the earthworks, or older castle; and the present building may be

the work of Baldwin, the second earl, who granted a charter to the same

effect with that of his father, confirming lands between the churchyard

and the ditch of the castle (_ibid._, vi., 303). Earl Baldwin died

1155. In the rolls of Parliament, mention is made of John Randolph,

a former justice, as having been warder of the castle in the time of

Henry I. Baldwin’s son and successor was Earl Richard, who confirmed

his gifts, and died 8 Henry II., 1161, leaving Baldwin, the fourth

earl, who died childless, and was succeeded by his brother Richard,

fifth earl, who also died childless. The heir was William, called De

Vernon, sixth earl, brother of Richard, the third earl, and uncle to

the two last earls. He flourished during the reigns of Richard I. and

John. Probably during these transitions the Crown stepped in as custos,

for in a plea before the Curia Regis, in 1194, a certain Roger Waspail

affirms that seizin of certain lands was given to him by Earl John “in

werra sua dum fuit in Castello de Cristescherche.” A little later,

when Earl William was in possession, the king (2 John) confirmed a

settlement made by William de Vernon, Earl of Devon, by which Plympton

Castle, the caput of that honour, was to pass to his elder daughter,

and Christchurch and the Isle of Wight to Joan, the younger. John was

at Christchurch, either the priory or the castle, December 13, 1201.

Probably this deed was drawn up before the birth of Baldwin, the earl’s

son, or when it was supposed that Baldwin would die childless. As it

was, it did not take effect, for though Baldwin died before his father,

he left a son, Baldwin, seventh earl, who was also Earl of the Isle of

Wight.

In 1210, 11 John, the king was again at Christchurch, on his way

from Clarendon to Canford. Baldwin died 1245, leaving a son, another

Baldwin, eighth and last earl of the House of Redvers. He died 47 Henry

III., 1262-3, and is described as Baldwin de Lisle, Earl of Devon, and

he died seized of the manor of Christchurch. It appears from the “Testa

de Nevile” that he held that manor “de veteri feoffamento,” by what

service is not recorded.

The earl’s heir was his sister Isabel, who married William de Fortibus,

Earl of Albermarle, who died in 1260. Isabel succeeded to the whole

estate, with the reversion of Christchurch, which was held in dower by

Countess Margaret. Countess Isabel died before 1269, leaving one child,

Aveline, who married Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III. She died

childless, having inherited Christchurch on the death of the Countess

Margaret in 20 Edward I., in which year she also died, having granted

or bequeathed Christchurch and some other parts of the earldom to the

king, by whom, in 1299, 27 Edward I., the “Castrum de Cristeschurche de

Twynham cum burgo et Manerio de Westovre et Hundredo de Cristeschurche”

were assigned as part of the dower of Queen Margaret. These

possessions, as part of the earldom of Devon, were claimed, in 1315,

8 & 9 Edward II., by Hugh de Courtenay, as heir-general of Countess

Isabel, but without success. The castle descended to Edward III., who

placed Thomas West in it as custos.

In his third year, the king granted to Sir William de Montacute,

afterwards Earl of Salisbury, the castle and borough of

Christchurch-Twynam, the Manor of Westovre, and the Hundred of

Christchurch. The earl died so seized, and his will is dated at

Christchurch-Twynam, 20th April, 1397. With the exception of a short

forfeiture by Earl John to Henry IV., the castle remained in the

Montacutes until Earl Thomas, who died in 7 Henry V., and left it to

his daughter and heiress, Alice, who married Richard Nevile. Probably

it was regarded as a male fief, for in 32 Henry VI. was a grant of a

lease for twelve years of the manor, borough, and hundred, to Richard,

Earl of Salisbury, in right of the Lady Alice, his wife, at the rent of

a red rose. The leasehold appears to have been extended, and eventually

converted into a freehold, as the Christchurch estates were held by

the son of Richard and Alice, the king-maker Warwick, and descended

to his elder daughter and co-heir, Isabel, who married George, Duke

of Clarence. Their son, Edward, Earl of Warwick, held Christchurch

till his forfeiture and death, after which (5 Henry VIII.) his estates

and the title of Salisbury were allowed to his sister Margaret,

executed 1541, and who at her death or forfeiture held the manor,

castle, borough, and hundred of Christchurch, which then escheated

to the Crown. It is by descent from Countess Margaret, through her

granddaughter Catherine Pole, that the inheritors of the Hastings

baronies are now claiming the chantry erected for their Plantagenet

ancestress in the priory church. They, no doubt, are the heirs-general;

the heir male is the Earl of Huntingdon.

From Henry to James, Christchurch remained in the Crown. The latter

sovereign granted it to trustees for the benefit of Prince Charles,

whence it passed by sale through various hands, and finally was

purchased by Sir George Rose in 1790. It is now the property of Lord

Strathnairn.

The Priory buildings stood to the south of the church, and but

scanty traces of them remain. There are considerable fragments of

the containing wall to the south and east, and the fragments of two

mural towers and the gateway. On the low ground on the Stour to the

south-west, on the edge of the wet land called “QUOMPS,” are traces

of a large fish-pond. Beyond the mill are the “convent meadows.” On

the corbel shields terminating the drip-stone of the west door of

the tower, are, dexter, what appears to be a “cross patonce” for de

Fortibus; and, sinister, Montacute quartering Monthermer.

CLIFFORD CASTLE, HEREFORDSHIRE.

Clifford Castle is the most westward of the fortresses by which the

line of the Wye is protected in its passage across the county of

Hereford, and which appear to have been constructed, some long before,

some shortly before, and others shortly after, the Norman Conquest, for

the defence of that fertile acquisition against the ever-aggressive

Welsh of Brecknock and Radnor.

As early as the first quarter of the ninth century, the Saxons, under

Egbert, had reduced Wales to a nominal subjection. And that great

prince, having conquered Mercia, and exercising power over all England,

is not unlikely to have strengthened the Mercian frontier and the Saxon

acquisitions generally on the Welsh side; and to this period may be

due, not improbably, such earthworks as those at Cardiff, Caerleon,

Shrewsbury, Old Radnor, and Builth, and, now partially destroyed,

at Hereford, and wholly so at Worcester: earthworks which, in their

main features, resemble those thrown up early in the tenth century at

Tutbury, Tamworth, and Leicester by Eadward the elder and his sister,

Æthelflæd.

But, whatever may then have been done, it is very certain that during

the reign of the Confessor several of his Norman favourites settled

in England, and that, among them, Richard Fitz-Scrob had lands in the

north of Herefordshire, and there set up and gave name to Richard’s

Castle. As this castle was a great cause of offence, it probably was

something different from the fortified timber houses of the English

Thanes, and may well have been of stone, after the rising Norman

fashion. It was certainly a place of considerable strength, and was

useful during the invasion of Prince Griffith, in 1052. The fashion,

probably, did not extend among the English, for when the same prince

invaded Archenfield, and burned Hereford city, in 1055, he entered,

apparently without much difficulty, the strong place, or Gaer, by

which it was defended, and of which no doubt the banks and ditches,

yet remaining, and the mound, known to have been removed, were parts.

Harold retook and fortified the city in 1056.

Herefordshire was at that time, and long afterwards, one of the most

valuable and most threatened of the English acquisitions on the Welsh

border. Before the Norman Conquest, it was under the vigorous sway of

Earl Harold, who beat back the Welsh from Rhuddlan to Gloucester and

Chepstow, although he was unable to prevent Caradoc ap Griffith from

destroying the hunting-seat in course of construction for the Confessor

at Portskewet. That Harold encouraged fortified places on these

marches is pretty certain, seeing that of the small number of castles

recorded in the Domesday Survey no less than ten are named as standing

in the marches of Monmouth and Hereford: namely, Wigmore, Clifford,

and Chepstow, of which Wigmore is reputed one of the oldest Honours

in the kingdom; Monmouth; Ewyas, founded before the Conquest, and

repaired before Domesday, by Alured de Marleburgh; Avretone; Caerleon,

famous for its Roman walls and its mount; Ferrars Castle; Herdeslie;

Waterleye. These and several others not mentioned in the Survey, but

existing at the time, were strengthened and held by the Norman invaders.

Clifford Castle stands on the right bank of the Wye, at the bottom of

one of those short, sharp bends so frequent along the course of this

river, and which add so much to its beauty. It crowns a red sandstone

cliff about 150 feet above the stream, and close to it. The scarp,

naturally steep, has been recently made steeper by art, to allow of

the passage of the Brecon and Hereford Railway between the castle and

the river. The cliff is part of a knoll of high ground, about half a

mile long, and cut by the long-continued action of the river into a

semilunar figure. The highest part of this knoll is converted into a

narrow tongue by a broad and deep ravine, which descends from the north

nearly parallel to the Wye, and terminates in the river bank. A long,

tapering ridge is thus isolated between the ravine and the river, and

upon this stands the fortress. The ravine bounds the ridge on the south

and east, and a natural depression of no great depth crosses the latter

at the broad north end. The intermediate part is traversed by two

artificial cross ditches, which run from the river to the ravine, about

100 feet deep, but still considerably above the level of either.

The central and highest part thus isolated contains the inner ward;

south of this a very small but strong division constitutes the outwork;

and on the north is the lower but broader expanse of the outer ward,

the three being thus in a line.

The inner ward, of which alone any buildings remain, is roughly

quadrangular, about 100 feet square. Along the west or river front are

the hall and withdrawing-room. On the south front is a half-round tower

and a curtain. The east, or ravine, side is destroyed to the ground

level, as is nearly all the north end, in which was the gate-house.

The hall, 20 feet by 40 feet, was on the first floor. There was a

store or cellar under it, of which the east and south walls are gone.

Its entrance, and any light it may have had, were probably given on

the court or east side. The hall had a timber floor. It was lighted

by three windows in the west or river wall. Of these, the recess of

one remains, with a rather low, pointed arch. A door in the north wall

led into the withdrawing-room, and one at the south end into the mural

tower. The east and south walls are gone. The withdrawing-room occupied

the curved angle of the ward between the hall and the gate-house;

beneath it was a ground-floor. The south end of the hall, like the west

side, was an outer curtain. It abutted against a half-round tower, 30

feet diameter, with walls 9 feet thick, and a gorge wall, 5 feet thick,

flush with the inner face of the curtain. This tower seems to have had

an under ground-floor, now filled up. The basement has a door from the

court, in the gorge; another door on the west side, probably a postern,

and two loops with wide recesses, opening towards the field. The upper

floor also had two loops to the field, a window in the gorge, and on

each side a door, one leading obliquely into the hall, and the other

into a mural chamber within the curtain, and containing a garderobe,

double. The floors were of timber. There is no staircase nor fireplace.

The curtain breaks off towards the south-east angle, where it seems to

have expanded and probably abutted against a tower. In it is a mural

chamber, a garderobe, single, on the first floor level, and which

evidently opened from the destroyed tower. The two garderobes mentioned

open by oblique shoots in the wall, about 5 feet from the ground,

without any projection. As the whole east or ravine front is gone,

it is difficult to say whether there were towers at the south-east

and north-east angles; probably there were, and round ones. In the

north front are two circular depressions, evidently the place of the

two towers of the gate-house, and between them is the entrance. This

leads from the outer ward, and crossed the ditch upon a causeway of

earth, about 6 feet broad at the top, and the ascent up which from the

counterscarp of the ditch to the portal is very steep. The causeway

appears to be original, and has been pitched with stones on edge. At

the end of this ditch, where it opened on the river bank, it is crossed

by a curtain, 6 feet thick, intended to prevent enemies from crawling

up the river bank and surprising the adjacent gateway. This curtain is

now about 6 feet high, and probably was 25 feet or 30 feet.

The outwork, south of the inner ward, and divided from it by a very

narrow but deep ditch, is not easily to be explained. It is the

extremity of the ridge, of a triangular figure, 60 feet on a side,

and level, showing no trace of earthwork or masonry of any kind. The

three scarps are very steep indeed, and quite sharp and clean cut, the

soft rock being covered with excellent firm turf. This outwork is so

dangerously near to the inner ward, and at so high a level, that it

must have been occupied, probably by a stockade or timber structure. It

is a very curious work.

The outer ward, at the north end or root of the ridge, is 60 feet or 70

feet lower, and much broader than the inner ward. Its defence on the

south is the cross ditch, over which passes the causeway to the inner

ward; on the west is the river-cliff, 80 feet to 90 feet high; and on

the east and north a steep scarp, partly of red rock, partly rivetted

in masonry, and from 10 feet to 20 feet deep. Beyond it is the upper

part of the ravine, and the natural depression connecting the ravine

with the river bank. This ward is something between a square and a

circle, and about 300 feet in diameter. It has evidently been defended

by a curtain, probably a low one, on the east and south, or exposed,

sides, and the ground, usually level, rises in a sort of ramp to what

appears to be the remains of the wall. This ramp is wanting on the

river and south faces, which, being covered by the river and the river

ward, were probably palisaded only. About the centre of the east front

is a low mound, apparently the foundations of a round mural tower.

The depressed ground in the centre of the south front indicates that

the outer entrance was there; and midway between this and the causeway,

leading to the inner ward, are two long heaps of earth and stone with

a passage between them. They much resemble the remains of a long

gate-house, between the outer and inner gate; but if so, this must have

been in the middle of a wall dividing the outer ward into two, of which

no trace remains.

This outer ward, never very strong, was evidently intended for the

reception of villagers and cattle during the inroads of the Welsh. The

earthworks, though deeper and broader than the Normans usually gave

to so small a fortress, have nothing of the character of British or

Saxon work, and are probably not older than the Conquest, or the reign

preceding it. But of the existing masonry none can be safely called

Norman. The walls are of inferior and rudely-coursed rubble; no ashlar

remains, save a bold cordon or bead, which runs along the top of the

lower or battering part of the wall, and this is not carried all round.

The arches of the mural tower are flat-pointed. On the whole, the

general appearance of the buildings points to the reign of Henry III.,

and none of it seems of older date. Certainly no decidedly Norman work

is seen.

The ditches were substantially dry, though they may have received and

retained more or less land-water.

At the base of the slope of the outwork the ravine has been deepened

for a rectangular pond, probably a fish-stew, and an early drawing

shows water here collected.

Looking from the inner ward upon the river, there is plainly seen, just

above the castle, the line of the old mill leat, now a green ditch, and

the small eyot upon which must have stood the castle mill. A ripple on

the river, here somewhat expanded, shows a ford; and opposite, on the

edge of a broad expanse of low, level mead, is the village of Cabalva,

said in Welsh to mean a horse-ford. Thus is seen at one view the cliff

and the ford which, under the Saxon sway, gave its appellation to the

parish, and from which one of the most celebrated of the great English

families derived its name.

Clifford, though the cradle of a great race, could have been valuable

only while Herefordshire was an unsafe possession. With the settlement

of the country under Edward I., it probably fell into disuse and decay.

It is far too small and too inconvenient of access to be held, except

for safety; and such history as it has is confined to a very early and

warlike period.

The castle is reputed with Striguil or Chepstow, Ewyas, and Wigmore,

to have been founded by William Fitz-Osborn, one of the companions

of the Conqueror, and the first Norman Earl of Herefordshire. He was

killed in 1070, and his third son, Roger de Bretuil, who succeeded to

his English lands, had forfeited them before the Domesday Survey, when

the castle was held by Ralph de Toni, who, by Dugdale, is said to have

married Alicia, one of Roger’s daughters. However this may have been,

he possessed Clifford Castle at the time of the Survey, and died 1102.

How the castle passed from De Toni is unknown, but here Simon, son

of Richard FitzPons, was seated, and founded a priory, and he and

his brother Richard are said by Dugdale to have adopted the surname

of Clifford. Walter de Clifford, son of Richard, was a great Marcher

Baron, and living in 1165. His son, Walter the second, was a still

more powerful Baron. He died 1222, having married Margaret, daughter

of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, and was father of a third Walter, and of

Roger, ancestor of the great house of Clifford, Earls of Cumberland. He

may well have been the builder of the existing castle.

Walter, who died 1263, closed the elder line. Maud, his heiress, is

said to have married, first William de Longspée, Earl of Salisbury,

and, second, John Giffard, of Brimmesfield, who held, probably during

her life, Brunless Castle, the manor of Glasbury, and the manor and

castle of Clifford, being seized of them at his death, 27 Edward I.

Maud’s daughter by Longspée married Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and

probably upon her mother’s death she obtained her heritage, for in the

inquisition held upon De Lacy and his wife, 4 Edward II., the manor and

castle of Clifford are included. The castle had probably now ceased

to be of importance, for it does not again occur in the inquisitions.

It is not usually regarded as having been the caput of an Honour; but

Giffard’s inquisition mentions its tenants by knights’ service, and

John de Solars, 4 Edward II., holds Paunteleye manor of the “Honour of

Clifford,” in the county of Gloucester, which in those days was not

always distinguished from other parts of the march.

The Church of Clifford throws no light upon the architecture or owners

of the castle. The tower, of considerable size and solid aspect, may be

moderately old, but the rest of the building has been rebuilt in the

churchwarden manner prevalent in 1836, the roofs, however, having been

preserved. Also, from the old building, are preserved a good coffin-lid

cross in a circle, placed most unwisely as a cill to the north door; a

font, or rather the octagonal bowl of one, probably of Decorated date;

and in the chancel, loose on a shelf, a very fine life-sized effigy of

an ecclesiastic, robed and tonsured, boldly designed and excellently

executed in wood, and which deserves better care.

THE KEEP OF CLITHEROE, LANCASHIRE.

The castle of Clitheroe, the chief seat of an ancient and extensive

honour, though one of the smallest, is perhaps the strongest, the

oldest, and from its position one of the most remarkable, of the

fortresses of Lancashire. It is placed upon the left, or eastern, bank

of the Ribble, here the boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire,

three quarters of a mile from the stream, and about 130 feet above

it. It occupies the summit and upper part of a limestone crag, which,

precipitous in parts, and very steep on its northern flank, falls,

according to the dip of the rock, less steeply towards the south or

south-west. Hence, the northern point was selected for the keep and

upper ward, and for the lower ward and approaches the shoulder and

slopes upon the south. The Roman way from Manchester, by Skipton to

York, ascends the dale about half a mile east of the rock, which could

scarcely have been neglected as a military post by any people who held

the district in other than very peaceful times. The town of Clitheroe

has sprung up at the foot of the rock upon the north-east.

[Illustration]

The keep stands within, but close to the east side of, a small rounded

area of about 80 feet by 90 feet, contained within a curtain wall,

which skirts the edge of the rock. This curtain is 6 feet thick, 12

feet high inside, and from 14 feet to 20 feet outside. The circuit,

which has, no doubt, been complete, is broken for about 70 feet on the

southern side. This is the breadth of the neck by which the upper ward

was united to the lower, and the curtain at each end of the gap is

extended southwards and south-eastwards down the steep to include the

latter. Thus, what is wanting is none of the exterior curtain, only

the interior and cross wall between the two wards. The open space is

a steep of rugged, broken rock. Probably there was a cross wall and

doorway above, and a narrow flight of steps leading to it from below.

[Illustration]

The keep is of rough rubble masonry, with ashlar quoins and dressings.

It has neither plinth, set-off, nor string, and preserves its exterior

dimensions to the summit. Each angle is capped by two pilasters of 9

feet breadth by 11 inches projection. They unite at the angles, which

are solid. The two southern angles are supported by extravagantly-large

low buttresses, of modern addition, but it is said they were preceded

by buttresses somewhat similar, though of much slighter character.

The keep is 33 feet square and about 43 feet high. The walls are 8 feet

thick at the base, and consequently enclose a chamber 17 feet square.

This is the basement floor, and at the ground level. It is 9 feet high,

and the floor, which covered it above, and is now gone, rested upon

nine beams, and was therefore immensely strong. The north, south, and

west walls are each pierced by a loop, set in a round-headed recess,

5 feet broad and 5 feet high to the springing. Two of these loops

have been converted into open breaches, and the third, to the north,

has been walled up and the recess covered with a flat lintel. This

floor must have been entered from the room above by a trap and ladder.

It was, as usual, a store, the value of these strong small towers

depending upon their being well provisioned.

The first floor rested upon a set-off of a foot, and is therefore 19

feet square, with walls 7 feet thick. It is 23 feet high. It has in the

north and south walls small square-headed loops, placed in round-headed

recesses of 4 feet 6 inches opening. In its west side, close to the

north end, is a doorway 2 feet 10 inches broad and 8 feet high,

round-headed. In the north wall, on each side the loop, is a door. One

of these, flat-topped, of 2 feet 6 inches opening and 6 feet high,

leads through a small mural lobby, 4 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 2 inches,

into a well-stair, 7 feet diameter, which occupies the north-east

angle, and commencing at this level, ascends to the battlements by

fifty-four steps. The other door, of 2 feet 11 inches opening, 8 feet

high, and round-headed, leads by a passage bent at a right angle and

having a barrel vault, into a plain mural chamber, 7 feet by 5 feet,

also barrel-vaulted, and which, no doubt, had a loop in its west wall.

This wall, however, is now broken away, so that the chamber has much

the aspect of an entrance-lobby, which it certainly was not.

The second, or uppermost, floor rests upon a set-off of 2 feet, and is

therefore 23 feet square, with walls 5 feet thick, and at present 11

feet high. Singularly enough, it shows no trace of any wall-opening

whatever, as though it had been added in modern times for effect only,

which, however, does not appear to be the case. The staircase, however,

has certainly been repaired, and no doubt originally opened into this

floor. The wall at the interior angle is thickened somewhat to give

space for the stair. The walls may have been a foot or so higher, but

scarcely more. The parapet is gone, and was probably another 5 feet.

The north-east angle seems to have ended in a small square turret.

The principal entrance was evidently on the first floor, in the

east wall, reached by an external stair built against the wall, and

ascending from the south end. This is clear from the position and

dimensions of the doorway, and from the absence of a loop on this side

of the basement, where it would have been covered by the staircase.

The small door of the west wall of the same floor seems to have led

upon the rampart of the adjacent curtain, here only 11 feet from the

keep. There is such a door at Arques and at Rochester, and also at

Helmsley and Adare. This keep contains no fireplace nor garderobe, nor

ornament of any kind.

The lower ward has been so altered for domestic purposes, and is so

built over, as to be very obscure. It was at least eight or ten times

the area of the upper ward, and descended 280 feet down the slope, with

an extreme breadth of 150 feet. The modern dwelling-house is built upon

the south-east curtain, and no doubt represents, and probably contains,

part of the old domestic buildings. Buck gives a view of the southern

front of this ward, and shows a large round tower upon one of the

angles not now seen.

A convenient ascent skirts the foot of the west curtain, or rather of

the cliff upon which it stands, and enters at the upper end of the

lower ward, just below the keep. This, however, is probably modern. The

old way seems to be represented by the road from the town, which rises

on the other or eastern side.

About a furlong to the south of, and much below the castle is a steep

straight bank of earth with an exterior ditch, probably an outwork

covering the foot of the hill.

The castle is the property of the Duke of Buccleuch, whose steward for

the Honour of Clitheroe resides here, and allows visitors to enter the

keep unchallenged. The chief rents and royalties of the Honour are

vested in the Duke, and are said to be valuable. All is neatly kept,

and is in as substantial repair as becomes a ruin; but his Grace’s

most commendable zeal does certainly a little obscure the fabric it

preserves, and it is to be regretted that the new work was not made

more clearly distinguishable from the old.

The name of Clitheroe, though evidently old, and said in part to be

British, does not occur in Domesday. Whittaker is of opinion that the

place is included in Bernulfeswic, now Burnoldswick, a parish about

six miles north-east of the castle, and that it is referred to as the

Castelry of Roger of Pictavensis or of Poictou. It is stated that “in

Bernulfeswic Garnel held twelve carucates, paying geld to Berenger de

Todeni. The manor is in the Castelry of Roger the Poitevin.” Usually

Roger is identified with the Castle of Lancaster, but at that time

Lancaster Castle was not built, and that lordship did not belong to

Roger. Roger was a large tenant in chief in the shires of Chester,

Derby, Notts, and Lincoln. In Yorkshire and Lancashire he then held

but little. The mesne lord, De Todeni, was one of the family who had

Belvoir; Dugdale says, the son of Robert de Todeni, who built it. He

does not again appear in connexion with this part of England.

Roger is thought to have granted the fee to Roger de Buisli, from

whom, or from Albert Greslei, it came to the De Lacys of Pontefract,

lords of Blackburnshire, of whom Robert de Lacy is said to have held

it under De Buisli. This De Lacy, whose history belongs to Pontefract,

is the reputed founder of Clitheroe keep in the reign of Henry I., and

certainly the building is not of later date. From that time Clitheroe

shared with Pontefract the honour of being the seat of the De Lacy

power, and so remained until their estates merged in the earldom and

duchy of Lancaster, and this again in the Crown. The founder probably

also endowed the chapel of St. Michael within the castle, probably

in the lower ward, and which is mentioned in the reign of Henry I.

A claim, however, to represent this chapel is set up for the parish

church, though this building could never have been within the castle.

Clitheroe, like other strong places in Lancashire, was held for the

king in the Parliamentary struggles, and in 1649 the castle was ordered

to be dismantled.

Charles II. granted the castle and honour to General Monk, whose son,

Christopher Duke of Albemarle, left it to his wife, Lady Elizabeth

Cavendish, who again left it to her second husband, Ralph Duke of

Montague, from whom it has descended to the present owner.

THE CASTLE AND BARONY OF CLUN, SHROPSHIRE.

The church, village, and castle of Clun are situated near the centre

of a spacious amphitheatre of lofty but fertile hills, the summits

and upper slopes of which are covered with young and luxuriant

plantations, while in the lower parts are occasionally single trees,

chiefly oak, elm, and beech, of vast size and great age, the reliques

of an ancient demesne, and still standing out and to be distinguished

amidst the denizens of the hedgerows, which, though often of large

size, all belong to the period of enclosures and cultivation. Across

this rich and smiling land, amidst hamlets, churches, manor-places,

farmhouses, and cottages, with frequent orchards and gardens, green

pastures and root crops, and waving corn-fields, the river Clun pursues

its sinuous course, giving life and fertility to the scene, which,

indeed, is throughout imbued with an aspect of peace and—perhaps rather

indolent—prosperity.

The ancient forest of Clun covered a large tract of upland, extending,

with a radius of about five miles, to the north and west of the seat

of the barony. Its border is that of the county of Salop, and runs

along the elevated ridge which, from Bishop’s Moat, on the east, to

Castell-cefn-fron, on the west, divides that county from Montgomery,

and the water-shed of the Clun from that of the Hafren or Upper Severn.

From this latter river the ridge is distant about five miles, and the

intervening country is mountainous and broken. The natural division

is, in part, strengthened by an artificial work, known as Saeson bank,

and placed considerably to the west of Offa’s Dyke, which, here very

perfect, runs north and south about three miles west of Clun, and thus

bisects the forest and the barony. Which of these earthworks is the

earlier is doubtful, but probably the Dyke. Connected with the Saeson

bank, and at right angles to it, are two short spurs, the age and

object of which are not very evident.

The forest was never very thickly wooded in its upper and more exposed

parts, but that it was always scantily inhabited is evident from the

fact that it contains but one parish church, that of Mainstone, which

stands on the very line of the Dyke, about six miles north of Clun, on

the edge of a small brook—the Ffridd. From its singular position may be

drawn the inference that it is later than the Dyke.

The water-courses of the forest contribute to form four rather

considerable streams, which finally unite to become the river Clun,

which thence descends eastwards down a deep and rather narrow valley,

by Clunton, Clunbury, and Clungunford, to Leintwardine, where, after a

course of about twelve miles, it joins the Teme, the river of Ludlow,

and of Tenbury.

The Barony of Clun, called also the Honour and the Hundred, was more

extensive than the forest, and included lands of a more settled

character to the east and south. Obley, Pentrehodre, Hobendrid,

Hobbaris, Larkenhope, Eileston, and Manulton, were members of the manor

of Clun, which was co-extensive with the Hundred; and in the “Welshery”

attached to it were the hamlets of Aderdely and Bickton, Hodicote,

and Newcastle. It appears, in the twelfth century, to have contained

five vills and sub-manors, the borough town of Clun, and the manor of

Tempsett. Clun was also an ecclesiastical centre. Its noble parish

church of St. George was set over the chapels of St. Thomas of Clun,

St. Mary of Waterden, St. Swithun of Clunbury, St. Mary of Clunton, St.

Mary of Opperton, and the chapels of Edgton and Sibdon. The whole were

attached to the great abbey of Wenlock. Many of these chapelries have

become independent parishes, and the Hundred of Clun has disappeared as

a county division, being absorbed in that of Purslow. In 1837, 8,600

acres of the old forest were enclosed by Act of Parliament, and in

1869, 1700 more.

About a furlong below the point at which the collective waters from the

forest combine to form the Clun, that stream, there of considerable

volume, makes a sharp and sudden bend, in the hollow of which, upon its

left or convex bank, is placed the castle. The space thus partially

enclosed and protected by the river is about 600 yards in length, and

is occupied by a cluster of knolls or tumps of a soft, friable rock,

which has been carved and scarped for the purposes of defence, so as

to present, with its decomposed and grass-grown surface, much of an

artificial aspect. Amongst these knolls stands out one higher and of

even a more artificial appearance than the rest. It forms a conical

mound, about 40 yards in diameter at its table top, with very steep

sides, and in height above its surrounding ditch about 60 feet; and the

ditch, again, is about 30 feet above the bed of the river. The ditch

covers the mound upon its southern and eastern sides, but to the north

and west the slope descends direct to the river level, presenting a

very formidable appearance. The more exposed part is further protected

by three works in earth, beyond the ditch; of which the larger, to the

south-west, is of irregular figure, and about 40 yards deep by 70 yards

broad, having four irregular sides, of which the inner is concave,

and forms the counterscarp of the main ditch. Towards the river this

platform is scarped towards the mound and the adjacent platform; its

protection is a ditch, about 7 yards deep by 16 to 18 yards broad. The

top is level, save that along the edges of the three outer sides is a

narrow bank—a sort of parapet, on which was probably a stockade. At one

point, where the platform approaches the mound, is a small spur, as

though the ruin of the pier of a bridge, and which was evidently the

main entrance to the keep or principal mound. The road to this bridge

ascended the platform from the village on the south.

To the east of this is a second platform, of the same height, and about

14 yards deep by 30 yards broad, its larger face being concave, and

applied to the main ditch. Its top is level, and has no trace of bank

or parapet.

The third earthwork, of no great size, stands to the east of the keep

mound, and abuts upon its ditch to the west, and on the river to the

north. These two sides are prolonged, and the fork or hollow angle

between them is occupied by a depression, formerly a large pool, having

a sluice-gate towards the river. Between the bank of this pool and the

southern platform is a ditch, which seems to have been used as a hollow

way leading to the river front of the mound.

Between the mound and west platform and the river are two lunated

patches of meadow about 90 yards deep, the one 70 yards and the other

140 yards long; they were probably employed as a safe pasture in

ordinary times for the garrison cattle, which, in case of attack, could

readily be taken up the platforms, or driven along the castle ditches

into the precincts of the town.

Such are the earthworks as they are now seen, and in general features

much, no doubt, as they were seen when the Norman Picot took

possession of his dangerous grant. They belong to the class known as

burhs, or moated mounds, and date from the ninth or tenth century. By

whom they were thrown up, or, rather, carved out, is unknown; but it

may safely be asserted that they represent the chief residence of one

of those Englishmen who invaded and settled upon the Welsh territory,

and whose duty it was to defend the western and often-attacked border

of the Mercian kingdom. The occupant of such a position must have been

a bold and powerful leader; though whether he lived before or after the

formation of Offa’s Dyke is doubtful. Possibly a careful examination

of the Saeson bank ridge, where it is crossed by the Dyke, might throw

a light upon this point, and the researches should extend to Crugyn

or Castle Hill, on Bishop’s Castle racecourse, to Bishop’s Moat,

Caer-din, Tomen, Castell-cefn-fron or Bryn Amlwg, and some other camps

and tumuli on each side the border. Besides these are others, both

camps and tumuli, and a remarkable upright stone or maenhir within the

forest, all, no doubt, of British date. It must be borne in mind that

Clun, though an exposed part of the Mercian territory, was covered to

the north-west and north by the English settlements along the Upper

Severn, of which there are ample traces from Kerry to Welshpool, on

both sides of the Dyke. Looking at the extension of the barony of Clun,

westward of the Dyke, to a natural boundary, it seems probable that the

barony was founded when the Dyke was no longer the Mercian border, and

the English had pushed their settlements up the valley of the Severn.

This also would be more consistent with the figure of the earthworks

of Clun and of the adjacent district, which resemble those thrown up

by Æthelflæda and Edward the Elder early in the tenth century, and of

which Wigmore is a recorded example.

[Illustration: THE CASTLE OF CLUN.]

The position and estate of Clun, like those of many similar domains in

England and within the Marches, were at once taken possession of by

the Norman followers of the Conqueror, and held by Picot de Say as a

military fief dependent upon Roger de Montgomery at Shrewsbury. Whether

De Say or his immediate successors fortified the mounds with masonry

after the manner then coming into use in Normandy, or whether they

contented themselves with such defences, probably of timber, as they

found ready to hand, is not known, but if they had at once built a keep

and walls in the Norman manner, it is exceedingly improbable that no

trace of works usually so substantial should even now remain, and still

more so that they should have been decayed by the middle of the twelfth

century, which is probably the date of the older part of the masonry

now standing, and which it will be proper next to describe.

The _Keep_.—This is a large rectangular tower built on the lower

edge and up the eastern slope of the mound, and therein resembling

Guildford. Its dimensions are 42 feet north and south by 68 feet east

and west, and the walls at the base are about 11 feet thick, and rise

to about 6 feet at the summit. It is of three stages; the first

resting on the basement, with its sill about 5 feet below the top

level of the mound. The floors are of timber, resting upon sets-off in

the side walls. The whole tower is about 80 feet high, its base being

about 30 feet above the river. The west wall is entirely gone. The two

eastern angles are capped each by two pilasters, 14 feet broad and

1 foot projection, meeting at a solid angle, and carried up without

break or diminution to the summit, where they may have supported square

turrets. The eastern curtain, between them, has a battering base, and a

plain cordon at the first-floor level. The walls are perfectly plain,

of coursed masonry, the stones probably hammer dressed; but, being

of a perishable character, they are much blistered and decayed. The

basement, 40 feet by 45 feet, has a floor about 20 feet above the outer

ground level, now covered up with rubbish. There is a small window to

the south, and a small square air-hole to the north, high up, as from a

dungeon. In the same side, near the middle, is a full-centred doorway,

2 feet 2 inches broad, once closed by a stout door, and opening upon

the slope of the mound. It leads into a passage 3 feet 6 inches broad,

which entered the chamber, but had on its left a mural staircase of

sixteen steps, which led to the first floor. Many of the steps remain,

but the inner wall, and most of the hanging arches of the vault, are

gone.

The first floor, 23 feet by 45 feet, had two windows to the south, one

to the east, and to the north two, with a fireplace between them. The

windows are broken into mere apertures, but the recesses are 5 feet to

6 feet broad. The fireplace has a round back and a vertical tunnel. The

hood is broken away. There are no mural chambers, but outside, on each

face of the eastern angles, are two sham loops.

The second floor has also five windows above, rather larger than those

below, and a fireplace in the same position. In each jamb of the east

window recess is a small door, which, by a passage, leads into a mural

chamber in the two eastern angles. Each, on each of its two outer

faces, has a small window.

The third floor has two windows to the north, one to the east, and

two to the south, but here the position of the fireplace is between

them. From the east window recess are two passages, opening into two

chambers, each with two small windows above those of the second floor.

The second floor was the stateroom, and the third apparently bedrooms

belonging to it. The staircase may have been in the west wall. Of

the window recesses, some have arches obtusely pointed, others are

segmental. No doubt there was a door in the west wall, opening from the

mound. The recesses of the windows of the second and third floors had

each an ashlar rib, the only sort of ornament now visible. The keep,

though of large size and substantially built, suffers in appearance

from the badness of the material, its rough workmanship, and the very

sparing use of ashlar in its details.

The summit of the mound was encircled by a curtain wall, of which the

upper part of the keep formed a part, so that with the rectangular

seems to have been combined a sort of shell keep, a most unusual

arrangement. Of this shell there remain two fragments; one, a

considerable one, towards the north-west, is composed of two nearly

half-round towers, or rather bastions, with their converse faces

outwards, and a short curtain connecting them, which seems to have

been the end of a hall, and to contain some later insertions. The

bastions are, no doubt, later than the keep. The other fragment is to

the south-west, about 12 feet long by 6 feet thick, and 20 feet high.

This also formed part of the general _enceinte_, but connected with

it is a small circular mound, thrown up on the edge of the greater

one, and wholly artificial. It is about 21 feet across at the top,

and 12 feet to 13 feet high, and possibly carried a small tower; near

it a depression seems to indicate the position of the well. The whole

surface of the mound is rough and scarred, as though the area had been

covered with buildings, as at Tamworth, and of which the foundations

had been dug up.

The entrance to the mound could only have been on the western side

ascending from the south-west. All the other sides are absolutely

impracticable, and this has been so cut about that every vestige of a

road is gone. On the platforms are no traces of walls. They may have

had gatehouses of some sort, but the outer defences were probably

always of timber.

The greater part of the borough, town, or rather village of Clun, is

placed to the east—that is, in the rear of the castle; but there are

houses on both banks of the river, which is spanned by an ancient

bridge of five ribbed arches, with recesses above over the projecting

piers. In this direction, a furlong from the castle, is the fine and

mainly Norman church of St. George, with a western tower, strong

enough to stand a siege, and in pattern resembling those of More and

Hope-Say. About a hundred yards beyond or south of the church is a very

remarkable ravine, natural, but which has, at that point, been scarped,

and the earth thrown inwards to form a bank. This ravine commences some

way above the church, and, becoming deeper and more steep, conveys a

considerable brook into the Clun, a little below the town. This ravine

adds immensely to the strength of the place.

Clun is a borough by prescription, having two bailiffs and a recorder.

Recently it possessed a Hundred court for the recovery of small debts,

and a court leet. The bailiffs also held a civil court. The Fitz-Alan

charter, recognising its prescriptive rights, dates from the reign

of Edward II. In the town is an ancient almshouse, founded by Henry

Howard, Earl of Northampton, in 1614; and below it, upon the river, the

traces of a very considerable millpool, now dry.

Clun is entered in Domesday as held by Picot. Edric had held it. Picot

held large possessions (twenty-seven mansions) in the then Hundred of

Rinlau, besides Conodovre, Basecherc, and Lentevrde, under Earl Roger

de Montgomery. It appears from Mr. Eyton’s researches that Picot was

a to-name, and that the grantee, as Robert de Say, with Adeloya his

wife, and Robert and Henry, his sons, is named in a charter relating

to St. Martin of Seez, of the probable date of 1060, and is there

described as “Robertus de Sai qui cognominabatur Picot.” Sai was a vill

near Exmes, the chief seat of the Norman viscounty of Earl Roger, who

was the patron of the house of Seez.