<g>Goodrich Castle</g>, once a stronghold of the Marshalls, whose names have
been so often recorded in connection with the abbey. It stands on a
finely wooded promontory, round which the river Wye flows in a
semicircular direction. By whom it was originally founded is unknown,
though the near affinity of its name to that of ‘<g>Godricus Dux</g>,’ who
occurs as a witness to two charters granted by King <g>Canute</g> to the abbey
of <g>Hulm</g>, has given birth to a not improbable conjecture that he was the
founder. The <g>Keep</g> is evidently of a date antecedent to the Conquest; but
the surrounding works are principally Norman, though various additions
and alterations may be distinguished as the workmanship of different
periods, even down to the time of Henry VI.
In its general outline, this castle forms a parallelogram, with a round
tower at each angle, and a square ‘keep’ standing in the south-west part
of the enclosed area. The common thickness of the exterior walls is
somewhat more than seven feet; the length of the longest sides--that is,
those towards the south-east and north-west, including the projections
of the towers--is about 176 feet; and that of the south-west and
north-east sides about 152 feet.
[Illustration]
<g>The keep</g> stands somewhat in the same manner as those of Porchester,
Pevensey, and Castleton, close to the outward wall of the castle; and,
like them, it has no window on the outside next the country. It had
evidently three rooms or floors, one above the other; all of them,
however, were very small, being only fourteen feet and a half square;
and the room on the first floor had no sort of internal communication
with the dungeon beneath--which had not even a single loophole for light
and air, but was connected by a very narrow passage to a still smaller
dungeon, strongly secured under the platform belonging to the steps of
the entrance, and having a very small air-hole on the same side. “The
original windows are Saxon; that in the middle of the upper story seems
to have remained just as it was from the very first, without any
alteration; and the manner in which the two large side columns stand,
somewhat _within_ the arch, is consistent with the fashion adopted by
the Saxons, and continued even to the time of Edward the Confessor. The
large zigzag ornament on each side, between the columns, is in the rude
form in which it was generally used by the early Saxons; and so also is
that of the zigzag moulding, or band, that is carried by way of ornament
quite across the tower, just under the window; and it is very
remarkable, that the middle projecting buttress is carried no higher
than this ornament.”[190]--See the preceding wood-cut.
The window in the apartment beneath is similar in its general
construction; but the columns which support the arch are somewhat
higher, and a semicircular moulding of zigzag is carried beneath the
arch; the middle part of the window, however, has been altered--a stone
frame for glass having been inserted, of the style and age of Henry the
Sixth, and probably in the time of the celebrated Earl Talbot, whom
tradition represents as having his <g>own chamber</g> in this tower. In the
second apartment is a fire-hearth, and, in an angle of the wall, a
circular staircase leads to the upper story. “To this staircase is a
most remarkable doorway; it has one large transom stone, as if to aid
the arch to support the wall above, and in this respect it resembles
several other Saxon structures, in which this singular fashion seems to
have been uniformly adopted, until it became gradually altered by the
introduction of a flattish _under-arch_, substituted in the room of the
transom stone.”[191]
<g>The principal entrance</g> was by a flight of steps on one side, distinct
from the main building, and ascending to a platform before the doorway
leading to the second chamber. The entrance to the dungeon, or lower
apartment, was under “a very remarkable sort of pointed arch, formed of
flat sides, which seems, from the appearance of the wall around it, and
from its peculiar style, to have been inserted many ages after the tower
was built, and in the time of <g>Edward</g> III.; a suspicion that appears to
be most strongly confirmed, by the circumstance, that about the
twenty-second year of Edward the Third, Richard Talbot, its then lord,
obtained the royal license[192] for having in his castle a prison for
male-factors, having also the cognizance of pleas of the crown, &c.,
within his lordship of Irchinfield. The bottom of the keep-tower would
undoubtedly, as usual, be the place where such a prison would be
established; and on that occasion it should seem that this new and
strong door-frame was first constructed, whilst the very annexation of
the lordship of Irchinfield, or Urchenfield, to the possession of this
keep-tower, both of which his lordship appears to have been possessed of
before this license was granted, shows the exceedingly high antiquity of
this castle, since Urchenfield was, indeed, the very place where St.
Dubricius founded his college of Religious, about A.D. 512, to live,
like the original Eastern recluses, by the work of their own
hands.”[193] The body of the keep is an exact square of twenty-nine
feet.
<g>In</g> describing the additions made to this fortress in the Norman times,
and during the successive reigns to the time of Henry the Sixth, we
shall follow Mr. King, and begin with the strongly-fortified <g>entrance</g>,
which, commencing between two semicircular towers of equal dimensions,
near the east angle, was continued under a dark vaulted passage, to an
extent of fifty feet. “Immediately before the entrance, and within the
space enclosed by the fosse, was a very deep pit, hewn out of the solid
rock, formerly crossed by a drawbridge, which is now gone, but which
evidently appears to have exactly fitted, and to have closed, when drawn
up, the whole front of the gateway between the towers. About eleven feet
within the passage was a massive gate, the strong iron hinges of which
still remain: this gate and the drawbridge were defended on each side by
loopholes, and overhead by rows of machicolations in the vaulting. Six
feet and a half beyond this was a portcullis, and about seven feet
further a second portcullis; the space between these was again protected
by loopholes and machicolations. About two feet more inward was another
strong gate, and five feet and a half beyond this, on the right, a small
door leading to a long narrow gallery, only three feet wide, formed in
the thickness of the wall, and which was the means of access to the
loopholes in the eastern tower, as well as to some others that commanded
the brow of the steep precipice towards the north-east.” These works
appear to have been thought sufficient for general defence; but a
resource was ingeniously contrived for greater security, in case they
had all been forced: “for a little further on are many stone projections
in the wall on each side, like pilasters, manifestly designed for
inserting great beams of timber within them, like bars, from one side of
the passage, which was about nine feet ten inches wide, to the other, so
as to form a strong barricade, with earth or stones between the rows of
timber, which would in a short time, and with rapidity, form a strong
massy wall.” Beyond these the passage opened into the great inner court
of the Castle.
<g>Chapel.</g>--The ruins of the chapel run parallel with the entrance on the
left; the style of the broken ornaments, and particularly of those about
its great window, show this to have been repaired and adorned even so
late as the reign of Henry the Seventh. In one part is a very remarkable
niche, and near it a smaller one, for holy water. On the opposite side
is also another niche for the same purpose. Beneath the chapel was a
deep vault, and over it a chamber, with a fireplace, which still appears
projecting from the wall. Adjoining the chapel, and near the entrance,
is a small octagonal watch-tower, which rises above the other buildings,
and commands a fine view over the surrounding country.
The buildings between the chapel and the south or garrison tower, to the
upper part of which a passage, or covered-way, led along the top of the
outer wall, are mostly in ruins. Here appear to have been the stables.
The garrison tower adjoins the entrance to the keep; its foundation is a
square of about thirty-six feet; but the three outward angles diminish
as they ascend, and form triangular buttresses, so that the upper part
of the tower is circular. The walls are at least eight feet in
thickness. The entrances to this tower were so continued, that there was
access to it from every part of the walls. It contained three floors,
and in each of them a fire-hearth. The interior forms an irregular
octagon, about twenty feet in diameter from the angles, and about
seventeen from side to side.
<g>Great Tower.</g>--The wall that extended between the keep and the west tower
is in ruins. This tower, which is also greatly dilapidated, appears of
more modern construction than the former, and is probably of the time of
the Edwards. Its outward form is circular; but the interior is somewhat
of an octangular figure, but very irregular, its general dimensions
being thirty-three feet long, and twenty-five feet broad. In this
appears to have been the great <g>kitchen</g>; the fireplace is still
distinguishable, with a recess and loophole on each side. Here was a
small doorway, or sally-port, communicating with a sort of outer
_ballium_, which runs on the north-west side, and was enclosed by an
outer wall. On this side also, and ranging between the west tower and
the north or Ladies’ tower, were the state apartments.
<g>The Hall</g> was a magnificent room of the time of Edward the First, as
clearly appears from the style and architecture of its remains, and
particularly from its long, slender, and narrow windows. This apartment
was sixty-five feet long, and twenty-eight feet broad. Some years ago it
contained a single beam of oak, “without knot or knarle,” sixty-six feet
long, and nearly two feet square throughout its whole length. On the
north-west side is the great fireplace; and behind it, projecting into
the outer <g>ballium</g>, a vast mass of solid stonework, or buttress, which,
in its upper part, appears to have had some little apartment, or
guard-chamber. The hall communicated towards the north with a kind of
withdrawing or retiring room, about twenty-nine feet by seventeen and a
half, in which appears to have been a window looking into the hall. From
this second apartment, a passage led into what seems to have been the
great
<g>State-room</g>, which was fifty-five feet and a half long by twenty broad.
At the upper end, or towards the north, are two beautiful pointed
arches, springing from a well-wrought octagon pillar in the middle of
the apartment, and resting on corbels at the sides. Here seem to have
been two large windows; but the walls are so much broken, or closely
mantled with ivy, that this cannot with certainty be affirmed. The
architecture of this part of the building is of the time of <g>Henry</g> the
Fifth or Sixth. At the north angle of this room is an opening leading
into the north or <g>Ladies’ tower</g>, which is so situated on the brow of a
high and steep precipice, as to be the most defensible part of the
castle. From the apartment within, which is a neat octagon, about
fifteen feet in diameter, is a most beautiful view over the adjacent
country. From the common appellation of this tower, there can be little
doubt of its having been appropriated as a “Ladies’ bower.” Beyond the
state-room, in the north-east wall, is a square recess and loophole,
supposed to have been formed for the lodging and seat of the warden.
<g>Such</g> was the original construction of Goodrich Castle; but almost every
part has yielded to the iron tooth of age, and to the more speedy
demolition of war. The ruins, however, are extremely grand; the massive
towers are finely mantled with ivy; and even the great moat is
embellished with the luxuriant foliage of tall forest-trees. From the
adjoining woods the crumbling turrets have a very striking and
interesting effect; and seen from the water, the view has been truly
characterized as “one of the grandest upon the Wye.”
Whoever was the original founder of this Castle, “whether Godricus Dux,
who witnessed King <g>Canute’s</g> charters, or any chieftain prior to him,” it
is certain that the earliest authenticated record yet discovered, is of
A.D. 1204, when it was given by “King John to William Strigul, Earl
<g>Marshall</g>, to hold by the service of two knights’ fees.” His son Walter,
Earl of Pembroke--as noticed in a former page of this volume--died here
in December, 1245. It was afterwards conveyed by a female to William de
<g>Valentia</g>, Earl of Pembroke, whose third son, Aymer de Valence, became
his heir, and was murdered in France in 1323. From him it passed to the
Talbots, by the marriage of Elizabeth Comyn, daughter of Joan, his
second sister, with Sir Richard, afterwards Lord Talbot, who procured
the license from Edward the Third to have a prison here. This Richard
was a renowned soldier and statesman; and is thought to have expended a
considerable part of the ransoms, obtained from his prisoners taken in
the French wars, on the reparation and improvement of Goodrich Castle.
His descendant, John Talbot, the great Earl of Shrewsbury, who was
killed at the battle of Castillon, in the year 1453, was first buried at
Rouen; and in enumeration of his titles on the monument raised to his
memory, he is styled “Lord of Goderich and Orchenfield.” His successors
were equally distinguished for bravery, and were frequently employed in
offices of great trust. George,[194] the sixth earl, had the custody of
Mary, Queen of Scots, committed to his charge. That these places were
really alienated is improbable, as Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury,
was in possession of this castle and manor at the period of his death in
the 14th of James the First. Elizabeth, his second daughter and
co-heiress, conveyed them in marriage to Henry de Grey, Earl of Kent, in
whose family they continued till the year 1740, when, on the death of
Henry, Duke of Kent, they were sold to Admiral Griffin.
In the civil wars between Charles I. and his Parliament, Goodrich Castle
was alternately possessed by both parties. It was first seized by the
Parliamentary army; but afterwards fell into the hands of the Royalists,
who sustained a siege of nearly six weeks against Colonel Birch. The
colonel began the siege on the 22nd of June, 1646. On the third of
August, as appears from Whitelocke, “Colonel Birch entered some of the
works of Gotherich Castle, whereupon the garrison hung out a white flag
for parley, which Birch refused, and went on storming, until they all
submitted to mercy. In the castle, besides the governor, were 50
gentlemen and 120 soldiers, with arms, ammunition, and provisions.” On
the twenty-fifth the Parliament gave orders that the Countess of Kent
should be informed that there was a _necessity_ for demolishing the
castle; and that “on the demolishing thereof, satisfaction should be
made to her. On the first of March following, they finally resolved that
the castle should be totally disgarrisoned, and _slighted_. The breaches
of the Ladies’ tower, which is the most effectually ruined, were said to
have been chiefly occasioned by the battering of the cannon during the
siege.”[195]