upon the civil wars, and no part has been blown up. It has, however,
been freely used as a quarry by the people around; and, with its
iron and timber, much of its ashlar has been rudely detached and
stolen. There is but little evidence of any material addition to, or
alteration in, the work of Edward I., which is singular, seeing that
the place was long the seat of an assize, and the judges lodged here.
It was then also a prison, and the windows were heavily barred, the
bars forming shallow cages in front of the windows, as in some of the
Italian palaces. Any later work introduced for the judicial or prison
arrangements has either fallen down or been removed. The quarry whence
the castle was built is pointed out on the hill-side, a short distance
to the south-east. Although the present castle certainly is not older
than the reign of Edward I., probably about 1280, the Welsh claim to
have been the founders of an older fortress on the same spot, called by
them Caer Gollwyn, from Collwyn ab Tangno, a Welsh chief who lived A.D.
877. Possibly a spot so inviting might have been occupied by a camp;
but all that is now seen, whether of earthwork or masonry, is evidently
not older than the thirteenth century. In 1404 the castle is said to
have been taken by Owen Glyndwr; and Margaret of Anjou was sheltered
here in 1460, in memory of which event the south-east tower for some
time bore her name. There does not seem to be any detailed account of
the siege of 1468, when the governor was Dafydd ab Ievan ab Einion,
the same who had received Queen Margaret, and whose boast it was, that
as he had held a castle in France till all the old women in Wales
had heard of it, so he would hold his Welsh trust till it had become
equally well known in France. He seems to have redeemed his pledge by
standing a long siege, and yielding at last, on honourable terms, to
Sir Richard Herbert, the commander for Edward IV. Harlech was held for
Charles I., and surrendered on articles to General Mytton in 1647.
The borough seal represents a castle triple towered, but the design
is evidently conventional. The first constable was Hugh de Wonkeslow,
appointed about 1283 by Edward I.; the last was the late W. W. E.
Wynne, Esq., of Peniarth, as good a man as he was an eminent antiquary.
HASTINGS CASTLE, SUSSEX.
The Rape of Hastings is the most eastern of the six divisions of
the county of Sussex which are supposed to derive their somewhat
peculiar name from the early occupation of the district by emigrants
from Jutland. The Rape of Hastings, probably, is so called from its
principal town, which was also the seat of its lords both before and
after the Norman Conquest. Like the other rapes, it had its river and
its forest, its castle and its castelry, often designated as an Honour.
The river, the Rother, is the common boundary of Kent and Sussex,
and joins the sea at Rye. The forest, long since disafforested and
enclosed, is represented by frequent patches of woodland, scattered
over the least fertile parts of the district, and by the numerous
and well-timbered parks by which it is characterised. The town once
possessed a small port, now silted up. It was situate at the mouth of a
stream, which still brings down its inconsiderable tribute, flowing at
the foot and to the west of the castle hill.
The origin and etymology of the name of Hastings are lost in obscurity.
It is so uncommon, that it has been supposed to come from Haesten,
the celebrated pirate and Danish Viking, who infested the southern
coasts of England and the valley of the Seine in the ninth century,—a
period when warriors of Northern descent gave their names to their
possessions, instead of, like their descendants of two centuries later,
reversing the practice. Mr. Lower, familiar with Sussex topography,
has suggested that the small stream of the Asten, a few miles west of
Hastings, may play some part in its etymology, and that Hasting, or the
Haesten-Ceaster of the English, may have stood upon its margin. It has
also been regarded as the seat of the Hastinges, a tribe said to have
been warred upon by Offa of Mercia in 792. Another not less interesting
point connected with the place is the fact that it gave name to the
ancient family who long ago bore the title of Pembroke, and still bear
that of Huntingdon.
The castle occupies the narrow, acute, and very steep extremity of a
ridge of the Wealden formation, which here terminates abruptly to the
seaward at a height of about 180 feet above the seashore, and seems
intended by nature for a defensive position. The ridge is a spur from a
range of larger and more elevated character which extends from the high
ground of Battle, by Ore, south-eastwards to the sea, and has to its
west and south a large tract of broken and highly-fertile picturesque
land known as the hop garden of Sussex, and within which are the
well-known seats of Hurstmonceaux, Ashburnham, Battle, and Crowhurst,—a
tract which presents to the sea an open frontier of about twenty-two
miles from Hastings to the marsh of Pevensey, defended anciently by
the two castles of those names, and more recently by twenty or thirty
martello towers, in which our fathers, three quarters of a century
ago, placed an expensive confidence.
[Illustration: HASTINGS.]
The ridge and promontory of Hastings remain unencumbered by modern
buildings, and are occupied only by the castle and its outworks. The
older part of the town, with its two parish churches of St. Clement
and All Saints, occupies a deep valley to the east of the castle,
while round the nose of the rock the remains of the old port have been
superseded by the new town, a fashionable watering-place. Much of this
town stands within the parish of St. Mary de Castro, the parish church
having been the chapel of the castle, and collegiate. The town seems
to have been partially walled, and certainly had four gates. Hastings,
though now affording no accommodation for shipping, is still a cinque
port, and its ancient consideration is attested by the fact that in
1229, Seaford, Pevensey, Bulverhythe, Hidney, Iham, Beaksbourne,
Greenhythe, and Northeye, were its subordinate members, and _tamquam
membra_ were Rye and Winchelsea.
The castle is composed of two wards, separated by a formidable ditch
cut through the sandstone rock about 400 feet, across the ridge, with
a breadth of 60 feet, and to a depth of 30 to 40 feet. The inner
ward lies to the west of this ditch, between it and the point of the
promontory. The outer ward lies to the east, and is again protected
by an outer and considerable, though less clearly-defined, ditch of
greater length than the former, and also crossing the ridge. There
was also another ditch cut as a sort of step in the steep northern
slope, and covering that side of the place, and chiefly intended for
the defences of the inner ward. Between the east end of this ditch and
the north end of the great cross ditch was the original entrance to
the inner ward, the approach to which wound up the steep north-western
slope of the rock.
The _Inner Ward_ is in figure nearly a right-angled triangle,
containing about 1½ acres, the north side 154 yards, and the east side
87 yards in length, while the hypothenuse curves inwards, reducing the
breadth of the ward at one point to 16 yards. The cliff which forms the
boundary has been either scarped or has fallen away, so that it is at
present precipitous, and its face has been patched with modern masonry
and brickwork. It is said that this side was once straight, and has
been cut away to make room for the gasworks and a crescent of houses
below, so as to diminish the castle area. This may be so, but the
encroachment cannot have been considerable. A wall for defence on this
front could never have been needed: probably it was only a low parapet.
Along the north front the ground, though very steep, is not absolutely
precipitous, and along the crest of the slope are the remains of the
curtain wall, about 6 feet to 9 feet thick, and in parts 20 to 30 feet
high. Upon this wall is a rectangular tower, about 12 feet by 20 feet,
having a ground and upper floors in which are parts of three windows
of Norman date. Connected with this tower are said to be traces of a
small postern, and there is certainly a mural passage, 18 feet long,
ending in a garderobe. East of this tower is a turret, square at the
base, but which above seems to have been cylindrical. It contains a
well-stair connected with the chapel. The wall is continued round
the east front across to the cliff. At the angle it is still 20 feet
to 25 feet high, but further on it has been reduced to 10 feet. In
this front, overlooking the ditch, are the bases of three half-round
buttress towers, 20 feet diameter. Their ground floors have been
vaulted; all above is removed. Between the two most northern of these
are still to be seen the jambs of an Edwardian gateway, of 9 feet
opening, with a square portcullis groove, and rebates for a door
immediately behind it. In this part of the curtain are the remains of
some mural cells. The gateway must have communicated with the outer
ward by a bridge across the ditch, probably of timber, since there is
no trace of masonry in the rock. This entrance is now disused, and the
entrance in use is in the north side between the chapel tower and the
north-east angle, protected by a late tower, about 20 feet square with
very slight walls and a flanking wall, also slight, and projecting
about 20 feet. This is thought to have been the original gateway of the
ward, and may have been so, though the other entrance between the two
flanking half-round towers has at present more the aspect of a main
entrance.
The eastern, naturally the weakest side of the inner ward is further
defended by a broad, artificial bank or ramp of earth from 20 feet to
30 feet broad and 8 feet to 10 feet high, piled up against the back
of the wall, which, in fact, is a revetment. At the north-east angle
of the ward this bank is expanded into a mound about 20 feet high
above the inner area. The curtain traverses this mound, of which about
two-thirds is within its circuit.
No doubt this mound was the keep of the English fortress, and the bank
and ditch its main landward defences, but, save the curtain, there is
no trace of any masonry upon it, nor does the Norman castle appear to
have been provided with any regular keep, either shell or rectangular.
Probably, as at Exeter, the whole inner ward was the keep.
There are at present no traces of a hall, kitchen, or regular lodgings
within the castle, but placed against the north wall are the remains
of the chapel, or rather of the free collegiate church, composed of a
nave and chancel. The nave was 30 feet by 64 feet, the curtain forming
the north wall. There seem to have been a west door and one, or perhaps
two, south doors. At its east end a handsome highly-pointed arch opened
into the chancel, and still remains very perfect. The jambs are square,
the angles replaced by delicate shafts, a quarter engaged, with caps
and bases of Norman type. The abacus is part of a moulded string, and
the arch, though the section is square, as in the Norman style, is
richly moulded. The central member of the arch is a bold rib, springing
from two brackets or corbels carved in foliage. The general character
of the whole is very late Norman, passing into early English. In the
north wall, at its east end, are the remains of the arches of three
sedilia, and near the middle of the wall, in a sort of buttress, is a
piscina, probably a perpendicular insertion. Near the north-west angle
is the cylindrical base of the font. In the east wall, on each side
of the chancel arch, is a flat-topped doorway of rude workmanship, as
though intended to be concealed by hangings. The northern door opens
into the well-stair of the turret, the southern into a vestry.
The chancel was about 18 feet broad by 28 feet long. Of its walls only
a few traces remain. It communicated on the north side with a small
chamber, perhaps a garderobe, and on the south side with the vestry.
The vestry, called also the chapter-house, is a small, nearly square
chamber, 12 feet by 15 feet, with a plain Norman recess in its east
wall, and the jambs of a door, evidently Norman, opening into what
seems to have been a sort of lean-to cloister resting on the south wall
of the nave. The cloister itself is gone; but in the nave wall are
traces of an arcade. Here are three graves inclosed in pieces of stone
placed edgeways, and a much worn _dos-d’âne_ coffin-lid. The breadth
of the nave is wide for a single span, but if there were aisles, there
must have been two, the arches being central, and in that case very
narrow ones, even for a Norman church. The floor of the chancel is
three steps above that of the nave.
The curtain wall along the north front and over the mound is apparently
of Norman date, as is most of the east wall; but its buttress-towers
and the gateway are probably insertions of the reign of Henry III. or
Edward. The chapel may be later than the north wall, probably of the
reign of Henry II. or John.
The old part of the masonry is coursed rubble, with occasional
pebble-stones, faced with bold, open-jointed ashlar, the blocks being
rudely dressed. In one part, near the church, is a little herring-bone
work, though probably not older than, if so old as, the rest. The
quoins and window-dressings, where preserved, are good ashlar. Various
fragments of cut stone are collected and heaped up; of these, a few are
late Norman, some good early English, some Perpendicular. A late Norman
crypt has been discovered in the town.
It may be doubted whether William or his feudatories, the Earl of Eu or
de Tiliol, added defences in masonry to the works already existing. At
least, there is no evidence that they did so, and the oldest masonry
now seen is certainly not very early Norman, though too early to
have allowed time for the decay of any previous masonry of the same
architectural period.
The chapel was probably founded in the reign of Henry I., and though
the castle was erected, and for some time held, under the Crown, by the
powerful Earls of Eu, it was never a great baronial residence, being
in that respect far inferior to Arundel or Lewes, but was probably
maintained only as a strong, though small, post to cover embarkations
for, or disembarkations from, Normandy.
The _Outer Ward_ is contained between the inner and outer lines of
ditch; within the latter is a considerable bank of earth, which rises
at the north-east angle and is continued across the northern end, that
being naturally the weakest part of the inclosure. It does not appear
where was the entrance of this ward, but possibly near the south-east
angle. There are no traces of masonry here, so that the defences of the
outer ward may have been a stockade only.
From the position of this fortress, it is most probable that, like
Dover, it may originally have been a British work, the entrenchments,
including the promontory and the south ditches, being the defences
landward. The mound, however, placed at an angle of the inner ward,
upon the bank, and covering the approach, is almost certainly a later,
and no doubt an English, work.
Whatever may be the origin of Hastings as a defensive work, its known
history commences towards the end of the sixth and the beginning of
the eighth centuries in the times of Offa and Athelstane, when it was
a place of some consequence, and contained a mint. Coins, indeed, were
minted here as late as the reign of Henry I.
The termination “ceaster,” which it then bore, shows it to have been
fortified. Towards the middle of the eleventh century it was plundered
by the Danes, and towards the middle of that century it was the men of
Hastings who, after the murder of Beorn by Swegen, captured his ships
and slew his accomplices in the murder, though Swegen himself escaped.
Hastings also played a part in the Norman Conquest, though not that
popularly assigned to it as the scene of the battle. William landed
at Pevensey, and thence moved rapidly to Hastings in search of food.
There Odo of Bayeux, as one of his lieutenants, ordered a fortress
to be thrown up, “ut foderetur castellum,” and thence, according to
the same authority, the Bayeux tapestry, William marched against
Harold. William, we are told, on reaching the port, selected a proper
site, and fortified it rapidly with a castle in timber, “ligneum
castellum.” This, we must suppose to be a replacing or restoration of
whatever there was standing on the old site. It can scarcely have been
a palisade on the low ground below the castle rock. He then placed
Humphrey de Tilliol, brother-in-law of Hugh de Grantmaisnil, to execute
his orders, “qui Hastinges a prima die constructionis ad custodiendum
susceperat.” Wace’s description applies more to Hastings than to
Pevensey, which was already walled in:—
“Un chastel ì ont fermé
De bretesches è de fossé.”
De Tilliol’s occupation was confined to the construction or restoration
of the defences: the castle and castelry, manor, and superiority of
the whole Rape were granted by William to Robert, Earl of Eu, one of
the most powerful of his Norman adherents. This grant of the castelry
is recorded in Domesday, and a castelry involves the existence of a
castle. The Earls of Eu held possession for five generations in the
male line. No doubt either Earl William, who succeeded in 1090, or
Earl Henry, who died in 1139, executed some works in masonry at the
castle,—probably the wall of the _enceinte_, much of which still
remains. Either the first or second earls founded within the castle a
free chapel and college, with a dean and secular canons, and to this
Henry, the third earl, added a considerable endowment by charter in the
reign of Henry I. The college survived the castle, and flourished when
the latter became a ruin. Thomas à Becket held the deanery, and William
of Wykeham one of the prebends. The college endured to the 38 Henry
VIII., when it was dissolved and the property alienated to Sir Anthony
Brown. After the extinction of the Eu earldom, the patronage vested in
the Crown. The charter of Earl Henry is recited in a confirmation, 22
Edward I.
In 1088 the castle probably had been made strong, for it was the
boast of William of St. Calais, Bishop of Durham, that he secured
Hastings for William Rufus. It was the place of muster for the powerful
military force with which that king proposed to invade Normandy. At
that time Anselm and many bishops and barons were present in and
about the castle and were detained there from Candlemas, in 1094, for
six weeks by contrary winds, during which time the king was present
at the completion and consecration of his father’s Abbey of Battle.
Immediately afterwards, Robert Bloet was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln
within the chapel of the castle, and here also Bishop Herbert of
Thetford was deprived of his see. It was in the castle of Hastings
also, on this occasion, that Rufus once more refused attention to the
reasonable remonstrances of Anselm, who left him unblessed to depart
on his Norman expedition. The Earls of Eu, by no means always faithful
vassals of the Crown of England, seem latterly to have neglected the
castle, which was inferior to Pevensey as a muster-place for troops
and had become of but moderate value. Henry, the fifth earl, who died
in the reign of Richard I., left an only daughter, Alice, who married
Ralph de Essoudun, who in her right became Earl of Eu, and so died in
1211. Their son, William, elected to become a subject of France, and,
29 Henry III., his possessions in England escheated to the Crown, and
were granted to Prince Edward. As early as 1227 King Henry allowed to
Robert de Aubeville 10 marcs, half his salary, as keeper of the castle.
The college was retained by Henry in his own hands. In 5 Edward III.,
the dean and canons petitioned to have the castle wall restored, it
having been injured by the sea. In 1372, the castle was granted to John
of Gaunt, and in the reign of Richard II. it was a ruin and probably so
remained. The early English work, especially connected with the chapel,
was probably executed by Henry III. on his acquisition of the barony.
By Henry IV. the castle was granted to Rafe Neville, Earl of
Westmoreland, with reversion to Sir John Pelham, who again transferred
it, in 1412, to Sir Thomas Hoo, created Baron Hoo and Hastings in
1447. He died without issue male about 1453. The feoffees of Sir
Thomas sold the castle and other property, in 1461, to Sir William
Hastings, who in that year was summoned to Parliament as Lord Hastings
of Hastings. By his descendant, Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, the castle
and its appendages were sold, in 1591, to Sir Thomas Pelham, in whose
descendant, now Earl of Chichester, they remain vested. Those who
wish to understand thoroughly the position of Hastings as regards the
landing, first movements, and subsequent advance of Duke William upon
English soil, will do well to consult the very lucid and quite original
account of the battle of Senlac, given in Mr. Freeman’s “History of the
Conquest.”
HAWARDEN CASTLE, FLINTSHIRE.
The Hundred of Atiscross, in which Hawarden is an important parish, is,
in Domesday, included in the county of Chester; and in that Hundred, as
in very many parts of the Welsh border, the Saxons, as is well known
from history and still evident from the prevailing names of places,
early and in strength established themselves. But although the power
of the Earls of Chester and the perfectly Saxonised condition of the
peninsula of West Chester gave the invaders a secure hold over the
open country on the west bank of the Dee, their sway was contested
on the higher and more rugged ground, and though such names as Hope,
Northop, Holywell, Whitford, Newmarket, Soughton, and Ryden show that
they had settlements in the central and northern parts of Flintshire,
the presence of a still larger number of Welsh names shows that their
occupation was actively contested and the very reverse of secure.
The length and severity of the struggle is also made evident by the
number and magnitude of the various military earthworks which still
attract attention. Such of these as are situated on the summits of
hills, are of irregular form and bear Welsh names, may safely be
attributed to the Welsh; while those of English origin, usually on more
accessible ground, have a tendency to a circular form, and in some very
marked instances are characterised by a mound or _motte_.
Hawarden, the Haordine of Domesday, and in Welsh called “Penard
Halawg,” said to mean “the steep head of the marsh,” is, as its name
declares, a Saxon settlement, and its fortress, so long preserved,
presents in a remarkable degree the features of a well-known class
of earthworks found both in England and in Normandy. The parish,
containing about 16,000 acres, occupies the eastern or English end
of the first high ground that rises west of the Dee. It includes the
commencement of a wooded ridge, which runs for some way parallel to the
estuary, and then trends inland to be lost in the higher country around
Northop.
The castle stands at the south-west end of a considerable area of
level sward, upon which is built the later house of Hawarden, and
which, with a ravine bounding it on the south and west, is included in
the park.
The ground occupied by the castle and its earthworks covers an
irregular circle of about 150 yards diameter. It rises steeply about 50
feet from the level area, and almost abruptly 150 feet to 200 feet from
the ravine that protects it on the south, south-east, and west.
At the central and highest point of this ground, composed in part
of rock and in part of the red sandy soil of the district, has been
formed, by scarping down with perhaps some little addition in height,
a conical mound, the flat top of which is about 70 feet diameter,
having steep slopes all around. On the north-east side, or that towards
the house, the descent is about 30 feet, at which level is a platform
occupied by the main ward of the fortress, and beyond it, near the foot
of a further but gentle slope, a broad and deep ditch, dry and wholly
artificial, which sweeps round this the weakest side and cuts it off
from the area already mentioned.