6 HISTORICAL MEMORANDA OF 



teuil, succeeded hira in the earldom of Hereford.* This young 

 man, forgetful of his father's attachment to the king, had the im. 

 prudence, as well as ingratitude, to join Ralph de Gwader, Earl of 

 Norfolk, in 1078, because he did not consent to the marriage of his 

 sister with that nobleman. They raised a large army, in order to 

 depose him, but, being defeated, Roger's property was confiscated, 

 and his person confined. While in this situation, William, nobly 

 contemning his many contumelious expressions, made offers towards 

 a reconciliation, but his proud spirit rejected them with disdain. 

 This conduct so exasperated the king, that he was detained in con- 

 finement until his death, and the title withheld from his sons. 



On this occasion, Wigmore Castle and its lordship was bestowed 

 on its former conqueror, Ralph de Mortimer. " It is held," says 

 Blount, "to be one of the ancientest honours in England, and 

 has twenty- one townships, or manors, that owe suit to the honor 

 court ; and all the land wherein these manors lie is called Wigmore 

 land, which has two high constables, and gives name to the w^hole 

 hundred." Dugdale, in his Monaslicon, says " that Ralph built the 

 Castle of Wigmore;" and yet, not only at page 67 of the first 

 volume of his Baronage asserts, as before observed, that it was 

 erected by William Fitz-Osborne, but again, at page 139, restates 

 this in a more particular manner. He tells us, that that nobleman 

 constructed it " upon a piece of waste ground, called Merestune" 

 (iVIarshtown), and quotes Domesday to shew that Ralph de Morti- 

 mer was seized of it at his death. 



When we reflect upon the charge given to Fitz-Osborne, to 

 repel the Welsh, and his " very large possessions by the conqueror's 

 gift," it seems most likely that, he removed the ruins of the Saxon 

 fortress, and erected the present castle on a new site ; for the cha- 

 racter of its remains prove it to be of the close of the eleventh cen- 

 tury. The waste land called Meriston, is a high hill, lying be- 

 tween the town of Wigmore and the Welsh, on the summit of 

 which stands this noble piece of masonry. This was the keep. A 

 little below it are other castellated apartments of later date ; and 

 the exterior wall, which goes round the bottom of the hill, and is 

 strengthened by a wet ditch, t is of the time of Henry IH. The 



• Having the power of making laws for his own district, William Fitz- 

 Osbome ordained that, within the county of Hereford, no knight or soldier 

 should, for any offence, be fined above seven shillings, the general average 

 being twenty or twenty-five; thus encouraging a miUtary spirit, which was 

 essential to the maintenance of a border territory. 



f This is what Leland calls " a brocket sometime almost dry." Vol. vii., 

 p. 32. 



