arches, about 2 feet broad and 5 feet high, with equilateral arched
heads, closely resembling those below. One opens to the south-east and
one to the north-west. The latter has over its outer opening an angular
drip, or hood, or pediment, like that over the great entrance below.
Here also is a fireplace, and exactly above that in the lower room, and
similar to it, only the jambs are rather shorter. The hearth-stone was
supported upon a kind of bressummer, formed by a table projecting about
18 inches from the wall below, and appearing as a carved moulding in
the lower room. There is a set-off of about 6 inches at this level, to
support the floor.
Following the staircase, the third floor is entered by a lobby similar
to the one below. The stair is lighted by loops, those near the bottom
being flat-topped, those above lancet-pointed. There is one long loop
divided by a transom, which forms a part of the set-off on the outside.
The third floor has no fireplace, but it has two windows, similar
to the others, opening north-east and south-west. The roof seems to
have rested upon one main beam, stiffened by spars at either end,
the supports of which remain in the shape of two stout plain stone
corbels. Thus stiffened, the platform above would have carried an
engine of almost any weight. The wall is about 8 feet 6 inches thick
at the summit; its thickness above the cordon is, in fact, uniform. To
give greater strength to the masonry along the course of the staircase
and about the lobbies, the wall is thickened internally by a sort of
pilaster, the sharp edge of which remains.
Tretower is a rare, probably a solitary, example of a rectangular
Norman keep, which has been gutted, and its central part occupied by
an early English round tower. The space between the tower and the keep
walls was then roofed in, probably in two floors. The alterations in
the exterior Norman wall, blocking up the doors and windows, &c., were
probably made when the inner tower was built.
The material of the keep is a hard variety of old red sandstone. The
workmanship is good coursed rubble plastered within. The door and
window quoins and the fireplaces are of ashlar, well worked, though
plain, as is the whole building. The arches of the doors and window
recesses are drop. Those of the windows are equilateral, and many of
the loops lancet. The inner tower is wholly of one date, apparently
late in the early English period.
It is said that Tretower was a residence of the Welsh Lords of
Brecknock before the Norman era. If so, they were attracted by the dry
gravel tump, covered on three sides by a morass. The Norman occupants
seem to have constructed a square tower or keep on the knoll, having,
on one side, a base-court, probably also walled in. Late in the reign
of Henry III., the Norman keep was gutted, and a central stone tower
built, and the triangular base-court enclosed by a curtain and mural
towers.
CRICKHOWEL CASTLE.
This castle stands in the suburb of the town of Crickhowel, between it
and the Usk, on the left bank of that river, and about a furlong from
the parish church.
Its principal and most interesting feature is a large conical mound,
wholly artificial, about 50 feet high, and on its table top 60 feet
diameter north and south, and 50 feet east and west. This mound has
been surrounded by a ditch, traces of which remain on the east, south,
and west sides. Towards the north it is encroached upon by a pond and
some cottages. Appended to the mound, on its east side, and outside of
its ditch, is an enclosure of irregular shape, roughly rectangular,
but rounded towards the north-west, and including about two acres. It
is contained within a low bank, the exterior slope of which has been
scarped, and seems to have descended into an exterior ditch. This was
the base-court or ward of the castle, the mound being the keep. On
the south face of this ward, where the bank would have abutted upon
the ditch of the mound, are the remains of two conjoined towers, one
rectangular and one round. The loop-like windows of the former are
evidently of Decorated date, and the two towers seem of the same age.
Upon the north-east corner of the ward, on the counterscarp of the
ditch of the mound is part of a round tower, which, with some heaps of
earth about it, seems to be the remains of the gatehouse of the keep,
which also was probably connected with a protected staircase ascending
the mound, the way up which must have been on this side. These are the
only buildings actually remaining upon the _enceinte_ of the ward, but
it is evident that a wall was carried round its edge, of which the
bank probably contains and conceals the foundation. Buck’s drawing,
taken in 1741, shows this curtain, and upon its three angles three drum
towers, of which one covered the outer entrance, and is opposite to
the gatehouse of the keep. The summit of the mound is much broken up,
and there are traces of the foundations of buildings which formerly
stood here, and which seem to have been contained within a circular or
polygonal shell which formed the keep.
It is evident that Crickhowel, like Caerleon, Cardiff, Abergavenny,
Brecon, and Builth, was a moated mound with appended base-court, upon
which the Normans, on seizing the estate, constructed a castle. The
earliest masonry was probably of the date of Henry II., but enlarged
and rebuilt in the reign of Henry III.
* * * * *
BLAEN-LLYFNI, or Blaen-Llevenny Castle, in Brecknockshire, stands above
the Llyfni river, a tributary to Llangorse Lake. It was posted to guard
the important pass of the Bwlch, above and a little within which it
stands. It was in plan a parallelogram, contained within four curtain
walls with towers at the angles, and apparently a gatehouse towards
the north-east. Part of the north wall is standing, but the remainder
is a heap of ruins. The castle occupied a natural tump; about 20 feet
above the outer level and around it is a ditch, in parts wet. The
castle stands on a slope, which, towards the north, is very steep and
very strong. It was built by, and long belonged to, the Norman lords of
Brecknock; and on the occurrence of an attainder or minority was held
by the Crown; hence it is not only mentioned in local story, but occurs
from time to time in the records of the realm. It seems of the age of
Henry III., or perhaps somewhat earlier. In Buck’s time, 1741, much of
the curtain remained and parts of the tower.
TUTBURY CASTLE, STAFFORDSHIRE.
The high broken ground of Needwood Forest, contained between the Trent
and the Dove, is brought to a termination eastward by the union of
those streams upon the confines of the three shires of Derby, Stafford,
and Leicester. About five miles above this confluence, upon the right
or Staffordshire bank of the Dove, stand the town and castle of
Tutbury, once, according to Leland, a residence of the Saxon lords of
Mercia, and named, it is said, from the god Thoth, who presides over
Tuesday, and is thought to have been worshipped in the enclosure of the
castle. This etymology is supported by Wednesbury; but, however this
may be, Tutbury was certainly an ancient stronghold, and possesses in
that respect unusual natural advantages.
The castle crowns the head or northern termination of a considerable
ridge of new red sandstone rock, which projects from the high ground of
Hanbury and Needwood, and forms an abrupt promontory above the broad
and level meadows of the Dove. On the south or landward side the hill
is partially severed from its parent ridge by a cross valley, within
and about which is built the ancient town of Tutbury, celebrated from
the days of John of Gaunt until the end of the last century for its
attachment to the barbarous sport of bull-running.
The natural position of the castle is strong and well-defined, and
has been turned to account from a very remote period, and materially
strengthened by Norman and pre-Norman art.
Upon its west, south, and eastern sides the head of the ridge has been
further protected by a broad and deep ditch, which thus covers about
two-thirds of its circumference. Towards the north, where the hill
projects upon the meadows, the ditch ceases, and this front, rising
steeply about 100 feet, has been rendered steeper by art, and is
further protected by a wide expanse of wet land, traversed by a very
ancient and broad mill-leat, and by the sinuous channel of the Dove.
Upon the east and north-east fronts, where the area of the promontory
was inconveniently large, two extensive semilunar spaces have been left
outside the ditch. They are, in fact, outworks upon a large scale,
useful for pasturing cattle in turbulent times, somewhat lower than,
and commanded by, the main works; covering the ditch, and scarped,
though not revetted, towards the field. They are separated by a deep
ravine, up which the main approach to the castle ascended from the
north-east, the direction of the Dove bridge, and probably of an
earlier ford. On this, the east front, the contents of the ditch have
been thrown inwards, crowning the scarp by an artificial bank about 15
feet or 20 feet in height.
Upon the south-west and west side the earth has been employed to form
a large mound, about 40 feet high, and 70 feet across at its truncated
summit, and which renders this front almost impregnable.
The space between the east bank and the west mound, forming the south
front, is occupied by the castle buildings, which, built upon the
natural soil, crown the scarp of the ditch, and overlook the town.
Opposite, also from the bank to the mound, is the north front, almost
precipitous, and defended, therefore, by neither ditch nor bank. The
space thus enclosed forms the base-court of the castle, and covers
about three acres. It is in plan an irregular circle.
The best view of these magnificent earthworks is from the summit of
the mound, which not only predominates over the court of the castle,
to its east, but westward rises very steeply about 140 feet from the
meadows. The counterscarp of the ditch is here seen to terminate on the
north-west, at the base of the mound in a sharply-defined falciform
ridge.
The masonry which has been added to these earlier defences is composed
of a group of buildings on the south front, flanked by curtains which
run, on the one hand, westward towards the mound, and, on the other,
eastward, along the top of the bank by which that face is defended.
This curtain is 6 feet thick at the top of its plinth, about 6 feet
from the ground, to which level it is now reduced. There is evidence
that it was about 20 feet high, with a rampart accessible from its
flanking towers, and by a double flight of open steps from within. At
one point is the vault of a large garderobe, marked in the “Vetusta”
drawing by a bartizan turret. This east curtain is broken by a lofty
rectangular mural tower, of which the interior wall with a square
angle-turret only remains, and which faced the turn of the road up
to the castle, on the opposite side of the ditch. The bank has been
removed here, so that the tower is built upon the original soil,
and its basement entered from the court on a level. This tower is
Perpendicular in style, and has evidently been blown up by gunpowder.
At the north end of this curtain, at the north-east corner of the
court, is the great gatehouse, a rectangular building pierced by a
portal, and with lateral lodges. Above were other chambers of more
pretention and larger size. This gatehouse is almost all outside the
wall. Its south face rakes the ditch, and has a small projecting
balcony at the first-floor level, communicating by a shaft with the
basement lodge. Its north face looked towards the Dove; only its south
and east walls remain. It had no flanking towers, the wall on one side
of the gate being pierced by a loop. To it has been added, outside,
flanking the gate and blocking up the loop, two thick solid cheeks of
wall, from the front of which the drawbridge fell across the moat. The
gatehouse seems to be of late Decorated date, its window recesses have
half-round heads, and a window above the portal has something like
Decorated tracery still remaining, and rudely indicated in the drawing
given in the “Vetusta Monumenta.” The portal has a flat segmental arch,
and outside this is a low drop arch, part of the additions. The details
of the drawbridge, to judge from the holes cut in the stone, were
peculiar. Two portcullis grooves remain.
The masonry of the drawbridge has been removed, and the ditch here
solidly filled up with earth. The road from below, to reach this gate,
is continued for some way along the crest of the ditch, within reach of
the walls. Lower down it is commanded by the two demilunes. From the
gatehouse westward the edge of the steep north front was crested by a
curtain wall, probably low and light, of which there are slight traces.
Upon the summit of the mound is a ruined round tower, evidently an
erection of very modern times, probably as a summer-house, or an
object in a view. There is said to have been an earlier building here,
destroyed before the reign of Elizabeth, probably by John of Gaunt, and
likely to have been a polygonal shell of masonry. It was called Julius
Tower, Juliet being a not uncommon name for such structures.
The castle buildings have been broken down, but what remains is as
sharp and fresh as though lately executed. The outer wall and altered
windows remain of the great hall, 61 feet long by 29 feet broad, and
a group of state apartments at the east end. Here are two very fine
crypts, no doubt cellars,—fitting receptacles for the very best of
drinks,—entered from the court by handsome doorways and six or eight
descending steps. They have been covered with barrel vaults, one of
which was ribbed transversely and diagonally, with large carved bosses,
probably of the time of Richard II. Above these are handsome rooms,
with flush flat-topped chimney-places, with mouldings set with flowers
and the “hart lodged,” and what may be a conventional pomegranate.
These buildings are in the best and purest Perpendicular style, and
the profiles and details of the mouldings are admirably suited to that
fine but sometimes rather friable material, red sandstone, here of very
superior quality.
In the court is a deep well, still in use. At the west end of the great
hall is a brick building, probably the work of some Crown steward or
lessee, about the time of Queen Anne or George I.
So far as can be observed, the castle exhibits no trace of Norman
masonry. All the structures, walls, tower, gatehouse, hall, and
apartments are nearly or quite of one date, and are probably the work
of John of Gaunt, who resided here very frequently, and in regal state.
This is very remarkable, because Tutbury is mentioned in Domesday, was
the caput of a very important Norman honour, and the principal seat of
the great Norman family of Ferrars, earls of Derby, from the Conquest
to their ruin towards the close of the reign of Henry III., since which
time it has been, for the most part, in the Duchy of Lancaster.
Shaw, in his “History of Staffordshire,” gives two most exaggerated
drawings of this castle. Another, on a larger scale, a view from the
east side, taken in the reign of Elizabeth, is engraved in the “Vetusta
Monumenta,” vol. i., pl. 39. This, amidst much absurd perspective,
shows the gatehouse and east tower, what may be a chapel east window in
the state apartments, and a round tower at the east foot of and built
into the mound, besides a west curtain with three mural towers upon it.
Tutbury was held for the king, and taken by the Parliament in the wars
of Charles I., and subsequently, by order of the House, reduced very
nearly to the condition in which it is now seen.
It may be mentioned that an addition to both the defences and the
resources of the castle has been provided in the leat, known as the
Fleam, in part only an artificial channel, which leaves the Dove about
a mile above the castle, is led beneath its walls where it still works
a large and very powerful mill, and finally returns to the river some
way down, after a parallel course of about three miles.
Although the temporal evidence of the splendour of the house of
Ferrars has disappeared, the memory, as usual, of their ecclesiastical
beneficence has been preserved. The parish church of St. Mary, once the
church of the Ferrars Abbey of Tutbury, still stands a stone’s throw
from the castle wall, and seems anciently to have been included within
the outer defences. It was founded by Henry de Ferrars, in the reign
of Rufus, and has a Norman nave, clerestory, and aisles; and its west
end is one of the most perfect and richest Norman fronts in existence.
This structure, which had been much misused, was happily placed under
the judicious care of Mr. Street, who was engaged to restore the Norman
parts, and add a large semi-circular apse to the chancel. This is
probably the chapel of St. Mary within the castle, in which (18 Edward
I.) Edmund Earl of Lancaster founded a special mass.
Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Tutbury Castle, under the care of
George Earl of Shrewsbury, then constable.
URQUHART CASTLE, INVERNESS-SHIRE.
About half-way between the two extremities of Loch Ness, the loch is
suddenly reduced by about one-third of its ordinary breadth by the
projection from its western shore of a bold headland, under cover
of which the glens of Urquhart and Moriston open upon the loch, and
contribute to it, across a marshy deposit of gravel and peat, their
respective waters.
The headland which is thus partially isolated between these waters
and the loch is moderately lofty, and slopes down steeply towards its
extremity at the north-east, again to rise and finally to terminate in
an oval and rugged knoll of rock, which stands out from 50 feet to 100
feet above both the water and the contiguous land. Upon and covering
this knoll is placed Castle Urquhart, which is thus a very prominent
object from Lochness, and combines, in a very remarkable degree,
natural and artificial defences upon its _enceinte_ and within its area.
The rock, open at each end, and along its north-eastern side towards
the loch, is protected on the land side by a deep and broad ditch,
quarried across the neck of the peninsula from shore to shore, not,
indeed, to the level of the water, by from 10 feet to 12 feet, but to
a depth which at one point gives a precipitous height of 30 feet to 40
feet to the face forming its scarp.
In general plan, the castle, like the rock it stands upon, is an
irregular oval, reduced to something of an hour-glass figure by the
indentation of a small cove near its centre. At the north and most
prominent end is the rectangular keep. On the landward front is the
gatehouse, and in the side opposite appears to have been a small tower.
The _enceinte_ is completed by curtain walls, ranging in thickness and
height from 4 feet to 9 feet, and from 20 feet to 40 feet, according as
they supported buildings within, or occupied weak or strong points in
the defence.
The entrance is by a causeway of masonry, 12 feet broad, having a
roadway between parapets, and about 80 feet long from the counterscarp
to the scarp of the ditch. At about 40 feet from the counterscarp,
and 6 feet beyond the centre of the ditch, there, 10 feet deep, is an
opening of 20 feet, formerly occupied by a drawbridge, beyond which the
parapets are higher, and probably formed part of some kind of advanced
work, for the management and protection of the bridge. This part of the
defence occupied the remainder of the causeway proper, about 20 feet,
the ditch here being 80 feet broad, and a platform of 20 feet, with a
rise of 6 feet, intervening between the end of the causeway and the
gate.
The gate is removed about 6 feet to the south of the line of the
causeway, so as to check a rush upon it. It is a plain round-headed
portal of 9 feet opening, between two half-round towers, and above it
is the usual small look-out window of the portcullis chamber. Just
within the gateway is the square groove, in which hung the portcullis,
and beyond is a barrel vault, ribbed at intervals, for gates, and
having a lodge door on the left hand. The passage ends in a plain but
good round-headed gateway, the coigns and ring stones of which are of
excellent ashlar, and which is set in the inner face of the gatehouse.
This is a rectangular building, with two half-round towers flanking its
outer entrance, and on each side of the central passage is a chamber
also barrel-vaulted, but having semi-circular and semi-domed west ends.
One of these rooms, as mentioned, opens from its side into the passage,
and the other from its end, into the court. The gatehouse had an upper
floor, also vaulted, and apparently also a second floor, of which
traces remain. Fragments of a chimney-shaft which has fallen from its
front, encumber the causeway.
Emerging from the gatehouse, the rugged character of the interior
comes at once into view. On the right is a path between two knolls
of rock; that on the left moderately high, and not quite extending
to the waterward curtain; that on the right high and steep, and its
perpendicular face forming the landward curtain, the wall crowning
which is 9 feet thick. At the south-east end, where the two ridges
unite, is a small circular eminence, which may have been a beacon. This
part of the outer ward is a fortress in itself, and upon its highest
ground are traces of buildings. A fragment of the waterward curtain
still stands about 30 feet high, and 6 feet thick; but there are no
traces in this quarter of mural towers.
The gatehouse opens upon the narrowest part of the ward, where it is
indented by a small cove. The curtain was carried round this cove, and
contained a postern, whence a path led down to the water, here shielded
by the cliff. There is a window in the curtain,—a part probably of a
building for the protection of the postern and the galleys below.
The way from the gatehouse towards the left leads to the keep. It rises
by a steep curve between, on the right, a high wall of some ruined
building, and on the left a curious knoll of rock, scarped steeply into
a rectangular figure, about 30 feet high, and on the top of which are
foundations of a building, 15 feet by 30 feet, which must have been
as tall as the upper floor of the gatehouse, and have commanded the
adjacent curtain, from which it is separated by a narrow hollow way.
Following the curved road, a cross wall is reached, which cuts off the
inner from the outer ward, and formed an outwork to the keep. This
ward is three-sided,—a sort of quadrant, the keep being at the apex.
The land and waterward curtains form the two sides, and the base is a
shallow curved ditch, in which is built the wall, and against it are
two buildings like barracks. Between their inner ends was the entrance.
This ward was exceedingly small, and is now thickly encumbered with
ruins.
The keep is an excellent example of the stern rectangular Scottish
fortalice of the fifteenth century. It is about 40 feet square, of
four stages, and built on the steep, so that its basement is above
ground on the outer, and below it on the inner, or court side. This
basement is 16 feet by 18 feet within, barrel vaulted, with walls 10
feet to 16 feet thick, with a loop rising to the light on the land
side. It was evidently the prison. The door is opposite to the loop,
and opens into a small lobby, having on the left the foot of the
well-stair, and in front a postern, 4 feet wide, flat topped, and
closed by a door, which opened on a small platform about 25 feet above
the loch, which is reached by a steep winding path. The turnpike stair
is 8 feet in diameter, and is contained in the north-east angle of
the tower, opening upon each floor, and finally upon the battlements.
It makes no external projection, but is seen within, cutting off an
angle from each floor. The basement and the highest floor are the only
vaulted chambers.
The first floor is lighted by a segmental arched window to the court,
and by small square-headed loops towards the water. These vary from 6
inches to 2 feet in breadth of opening, and each has, a little below
it, an oeillet-hole, which opens from the window-seat. No fireplace
remains, but the east wall is destroyed, in which it may have been.
This chamber seems to have been entered only by the well-stair.
The second floor has also openings under flat segmental arches, and
on the south side is the main door, opening about 20 feet above the
ground, and reached either by wooden steps or some other means now
destroyed.