019 



CASTLE. 



CASTLE. 



650 



much more perfect state than they now are. According to this plan, 

 the entrance through the north-east wall is by one of the two gates (c) 



South-west. 



North-east. 



SCAI.K OF FEKT. 



[Plan of Bichborough Castle.] 



called by the Romans the Porta Principal, and which became in after- 

 times the postern gate. The Praetorian gate he supposes to have been 

 on the side of the slope towards the ajstuary, which formerly bounded 

 thia side of the castle. The second principal gate was opposite the 

 first principal /gate or postern ; and the Decuman gate and the 

 Praetorian are presumed to have been nearly opposite. The form 01 

 this castle, like Burgh, is nearly a rectangular parallelogram, with rows 

 of bricks placed at intervals in the walls in a horizontal position. 

 These layers of bricks formed a fresh foundation for every succeeding 

 layer. 



Saxon castle-building was probably borrowed from the Romanised 

 Britons, who had acquired a taste and knowledge of the arts from the 

 Romans. Thus, in Pevensey, there are works that have an appearance 

 of Roman character and design, and yet are so much ruder in execution 

 than any other Roman works, that they can only be referred to a time 

 when the knowledge of the Roman arts, though yet fresh m the 

 memory of the inhabitants, might probably be on the decline. But 

 the remains of castles which can with any approach to certainty bi 

 termed Saxon are few and of little consequence. King, the grea 

 authority with the past generation of antiquaries, wrote a work (the 

 Munimenta Antiqua ') full of learning and ingenuity, but sadly want- 

 ing in judgment, and abounding in fanciful conclusions and false 

 inferences, in which he lays down very decidedly the distinctions 

 between Norman and pre-Norman castles, and gives plans and descrip- 

 tions of many of Saxon as well as of Norman date. Among many 

 others, King considers Peak Castle, Castleton, Derbyshire, to be a 

 genuine Saxon castle, from the style of its architecture and the appear- 

 ance of herring-bone masonry in the walls ; but what he regards as 

 Saxon work probably belonged to an earlier building, and there is little 

 reason to suppose that the castle, as it at present appears, is of an earlier 

 date than the first half of the 12th century. We give his plau as an 

 example of one of these so-called Saxon castles. 



[Plan of Peak Cattle, Castleton, Derbyshire.] 



The keep (a) is attached to the walls of the castle, which is also 

 fortified with one small square tower and another half tower. The 



attachment of the keep-tower to the walls of the castle is regarded by 

 writers of this school as a characteristic of the Saxon castle. The length 

 is about 200 feet by a varying width extending to about 150 feet. 



King also gives some plans and views of English castles which he 

 thinks may have been constructed after the plan of Syrian castles, to 

 which he argues they bear, in many parts of their plan, a strong resem- 

 blance. Launceston, Brunless, and others are mentioned by him as being 

 of Phoenician origin, a position which it is much easier to assert than 

 to prove. Conisborough, another singular castle, is considered by the 

 same author to be an early British work : it is beyond doubt Norman. 



There were no doubt fortresses of some strength existing in England 

 when under the Saxon rule, but the little resistance they opposed 

 to the progress of the Conqueror is a proof that they were neither 

 numerous nor of much importance ; and it is certain that nearly all 

 the castles now remaining, whether entire or in ruins, date from a 

 period subsequent to that of the Norman invasion. It would seem 

 indeed, according to Asser's statement, that Alfred built castles of 

 wood and stone, and Henry of Huntingdon states that Elfrida, his 

 daughter, built eight castles in three years. William of Malmesbury 

 describes a stone castle built by Athelstan at Exeter in 944. William 

 the Conqueror was a great builder of castles. The ' Reports ' of the 

 Records Commissioners mention thirty caatles known to have "been 

 built during his reign ; and he gave the custody of his crown castles to 

 the most powerful and trusty of his Norman followers, as constables or 

 castellans. Forty-nine castles are mentioned in Domesday Book, 

 which notices Arundel as the only one named in the time of the Con- 

 fessor. The sons of the Conqueror largely increased the number of 

 castles ; and according to Ralph de Diceto in the nineteen years of 

 Stephen's reign 1115 castles were erected. But these were strictly 

 feudal castles, the property and under the virtually uncontrolled 

 authority of the territorial nobility. The ' Saxon Chronicle' speaking 

 of this castle-building time, uses very emphatic language, " Every rich 

 man built his castles and defended them, and they filled the land full 

 of castles. And they greatly oppressed the wretched people by making 

 them work at these castles ; and when the castles were finished, they 

 filled them with devils and evil men." The practice, however, soon 

 became as inconvenient to the sovereign as to the common people. 

 Henry II. made it unlawful to erect a castle or to fortify (battefiare et 

 kirnellare) a residence : and Henry, at least, seldom granted such a 

 licence. It is almost unnecessary to remark that the building of such 

 strong edifices, which in the then state of warfare were often impreg- 

 nable, is a proof of the insecurity to life and property which prevailed. 

 Every feudal chieftain had his stronghold, round which his immediate 

 retainers rallied for the purpose of mutual defence, or to annoy and 

 plunder their neighbours. A very considerable number of old towns 

 of Europe gradually rose' around these baronial fortifications, and it is 

 interesting to trace, in the history of many of these communities, the 

 progress by which the town, originally a miserable dependence on the 

 castle, gradually obtained privileges, and charters, and wealth ; and 

 increased in strength and importance exactly in proportion as the 

 owner of the fortress lost both ; till finally the castle, from being 

 neglected and deserted, was either levelled with the ground and 

 furnished materials for house-building, or remained in ruins, an en- 

 during monument of the slow but certain victory of the once subject 

 townsmen over their lords. 



The Norman castle in its earliest and simplest form consisted in its 

 main features of a keep or stronghold, a base-court, the outer walls or 

 curtain, a gate-house, and a fosse or ditch except where the natural 

 strength of the position rendered that defence unnecessary. 



The keep was the grand feature, the centre and basis of the castle ; 

 and it appears to have been derived directly from the strong tower of 

 the Roman walled castle, or permanent station, as that corresponded to 

 the pretorium of the usual encampment. [CAMP, ROHAN.] Usually 

 the Norman keep was square or oblong, built of the ordinary rubble- 

 stone of the neighbourhood, and faced, or only dressed and groined, 

 with ashlar, and having the usual flat pilaster-like Norman buttress. 

 [BUTTRESS.] The walls at the base varied, according to the size of 

 the tower and the importance of the station, from 12 to upwards of 

 20 feet in thickness ; and diminishing to 8 or 10 feet at the summit, 

 which was crowned by a battlement of more than a foot in thickness. 

 Their strength consequently, if measured against the military imple- 

 ments then in use was enormous. Nor were the few polygonal keeps 

 of the early Norman period less strong than the square ones. Indeed, 

 an eminent civil engineer says of that of Conisborough castle (about 

 six miles from Doncaster, supposed to have been erected by William 

 de Warren about 1070), that " Vauban himself could not have con- 

 trived a tower capable of greater resistance." (Cresy, ' Eucyc. of Civil 

 Engineering.') In the walls, staircases and chambers, with connecting 

 galleries, were hollowed out at different heights, but they were xisually 

 of small size, and only lighted by loops in the lower stories : the upper 

 rooms had the ordinary Norman window. The entrance was generally 

 on the first floor, and reached by an open, narrow, and easily defended 

 staircase; or the staircase was enclosed in a small turret. As examples 

 of these square towers we may refer to those of Newcastle, Rochester, 

 Guildford, &c. Sometimes as at Conisborough, Richmond, Castleton, 

 &c., the keep formed a part of the outer walls, but it was usually 

 placed entirely within the walls, in the strongest and most defensible 

 position, it being intended as the last resort in case of the outworks 



