CASTLE CAEY. 89 



barony; but the naine of Cary seems to indicate the 

 existence of a stronghold here, as at Caer-narvon, Caer- 

 leon, Caer-philly, and Gaer-hill in this neighbourhood, in 

 tinies anterior to tbe Norman Conquest. Tbe eartbworks 

 on the hill-top, which I have already described, may 

 possibly bave been the site of the Caer, or original strong- 

 hold of Cary. 



That a Castle, however, existed in Norman times, and 

 on the site already alluded to, which is denoted by the 

 mounds above the lake, is quite certain. We hear of two 

 difFerent sieges which it sustained, one in the year 1 1 38, 

 and the other in the year 1153. In the civil wars which 

 afflicted this country at the beginning of the reign of 

 Stephen, William Perceval Lovell, then Lord of Cary, 

 took the part of the Empress Maude, the daughter of the 

 late King Henry I, and of her son, afterwards Henry II, 

 against what they deemed the Usurpation of Stephen. 

 Stephen had seized the throne on the death of bis uncle, 

 King Henry, pretending a claim through bis mother, 

 Adela, Countess of Blois, a younger daughter of William 

 the Conqueror, and putting aside the rights of the daugh- 

 ter of the late King Henry I, and of his grandson, Prince 

 Henry. Arnong the barons who then confederated against 

 Stephen with Lord Lovell of Cary, William de Mohun, 

 and others, we find in the genealogy of the Hussey family 

 (which was exhibited to the meeting at Bruton) the name 

 of Godfrey Lord Hussey, an ancestor of Mr. Hussey 

 Hunt, of Compton Castle. 



Henry of Huntingdon (a writer of the 12th Century) says 

 that "In the third year of Stephen's reign, 1138, the 

 rebcllion of the English nobles burst forth with great fury. 

 Talbot, one of the rebel lords, held Hereford Castle in 

 Wales against the king ; which y e king besicged and took. 



\oi.. vii., 1856-7, PAET n. L 



