from which the last Norman Earl of Shrewsbury issued with the keys of the
gates to make submission to Henry I. Although the masonry of the jambs
of this noble gateway is singularly irregular, it has, through a period
of nearly 800 years, retained its strength unshaken amid the ravages of
time and war. It was formerly defended by a portcullis and towers.
The keep consists of two large round towers, embattled and pierced,
connected by a square building of about 100 feet in length.
[Picture: Gateway of Castle]
The interior is much altered from its original appearance, and now forms
a handsome private residence, modern pointed windows having been placed
therein when it was repaired by Sir William Pulteney, about the close of
the last century. The drawing room is supposed to have been the guard
chamber in the time of Charles I. The castle still retains one mark of
its ancient dignity, for in the area of the inner court the knights of
the shire are nominated, and when the result of the election is declared,
are girt with their swords by the Sheriff. On the north-east side of
this court is a postern, built in the time of Charles I.; and the
battlements of the western wall have an interior platform, and are
curiously pierced with narrow eyelets for the convenience of the
cross-bowmen, around which time has wove its ivy mantling.
On the south side within the court is a mount, {16} rising upwards of 100
feet above the bed of the river. The summit is surrounded by a wall, and
crowned by a watch tower, which forms a bold and beautiful object. The
tower was rebuilt during the repair of the castle, from a design and
under the superintendance of the late Thomas Telford, Esq. who was then
residing with Sir William Pulteney. In this elevated tower Mr. Telford
wrote the beautiful poem to his countryman Burns, and thus alludes to its
site near the river Severn:—
No distant Swiss with warmer glow
E’er heard his native music flow,
Nor could his wishes stronger grow
Than still have mine;
When up this ancient mount I go
With songs of thine.
The sides of the mount are richly planted, and the summit commands a view
of unrivalled beauty, with the most extensive amphitheatre of mountains
of which perhaps the island can boast, inclosing within its wide sweep an
eminently fertile, finely wooded, and beautifully diversified champagne
country. ’Tis here that, after the eye has wandered from object to
object, from the foreground to the most extreme distance with delight,
that the words of _Cowper_ naturally occur, as if written upon such as
spot—
“Oh, scene surpassing fable, and yet true!”
It is now difficult to form an adequate idea of the original extent of
this fortress; but it is certain that the castle formerly occupied a much
larger space than is now marked out by its walls, the ballium (or outer
court) extending within the town probably as far as the water-lane. The
northern and north eastern sides were defended by a deep ditch or vallum
encompassing the base of the bold and natural elevation on which the
castle stands, having a communication with the river, but it is now
filled up and forms a thoroughfare.
The remains of a duplicate rampart is distinguishable on the western
side; and other outworks and towers might have stood near the front of
the present county gaol, the Severn being a protection towards the east.
In auncient tyme our elders had desire,
To buyld their townes on steepe and stately hill;
To shewe that as their hearts did still aspyre,
So should their works declare their worthie will.