853 



CASTLE. 



CASTOR FIBER. 



654 



itaelf. The Themdii (e<p&uu, layers of bricks) are seen in parts of the 

 Roman walls, which, like all the walls of Roman castra, are of rubble ; 

 while the Norman works are usually faced with squared stones. 

 Pevensey Castle, in Sussex, is also considered to be in part a late 



Chnrch on the site 

 of the Sacellum. 



A'urlA. 



Soutt. 



[Plan of Porchwter Castle, Hant*.] 



Roman work, if not an Anglo-Roman building. The Thcmelii are not 

 laid horizontally, as at Richborough and Burgh, but more like the 

 Saxon herring-bone. Like Porchester, it has had many subsequent 

 additions in later times. The earlier works are far more durable than 

 the later constructions. The plan is an irregular curve with solid 

 towers, and a curved inner balllum with hollow towers, and a keep. 

 The plan given in King's ' Munimenta ' is very incorrect, having nearly 

 the form of a circle, while the real shape approaches to that of a 

 triangle with the ends round. The walls at Pevensey average 10 feet 

 in thickness and 20 feet in height. 



The Norman castle formed before the invention of gunpowder an 

 almost impregnable stronghold ; but it was at best a gloomy and 

 uncomfortable abode. When the triumphs of Edward III. secured 

 internal as well as external peace and security, and the arts of peace 

 began to be cultivated, the want was felt of dwellings of a more 

 domestic character, and better fitted for the growing splendour of 

 private life. To the castles, halls and apartments of a more luxurious 

 character were added, and various alterations were made. But another 

 class of abode began to be erected, midway in character between the 

 stern feudal castle of the past and the stately mansion of a future 

 generation. These were the Castellated Mansions, in which, while 

 comfort and even elegance were sought after, security was not neg- 

 lected. Something of the appearance as well as the name of a castle 

 was retained, but little of its dreariness. It was thought sufficient if, 

 by means of its moat and drawbridge, it strong towers and pierced 

 turrets, its treble portcullised doors, and its thick embattled walls, it 

 could withstand the casual attack of a marauding band, though it 

 might not be capable of enduring a regular siege. Of this class and 

 tiiue is Hever Castle, Kent, erected by William de Hever, lord of the 

 manor, who obtained a licence from Edward III. to erect his manor- 

 house at Hever " more castelli." The building is a quadrangle inclosing 

 a court-yard, and is surrounded by a moat. The principal front con- 

 sists of the great entrance gateway, which is a large and lofty stone 

 structure, flanked by two square towers. Answering in some measure to 

 the Norman keep, this part was made of great strength. The approach 

 was by a drawbridge (now replaced by a fixed wooden bridge). Over 

 the gateway impend bold machicolations. The towers are not only 

 embattled, but pierced with oilets and loopholes. Within the gateway 

 are three strong doors, one behind each other, and each defended by a 

 portcullis ; and in the gate-house were guard-rooms, fitted with all 

 necessary appliances. 



The progress may easily be traced from buildings of this kind to 

 the purely domestic palatial mansions of recent years, through the 

 beautiful ' halls " and " castle* " still embattled and built with con 

 siderable show of strength, and, indeed, an was proved by some of 

 them in the civil-war of the reign of Charles I., capable of resisting 

 a considerable force for Home time, bvit really constructed as private 

 dwelling-houses. As examples of this kind may be cited, Aydon 

 Castle, Northumberland; 1'enshtirst, Kent; Ludlow Castle, Shrop- 

 shire ; Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk ; and many others, till as we descend, 



every feature of a defensive kind disappears. To trace this progress, 

 however, does not fall within the province of the present article. The 

 last stage of the " castle " proper, is perhaps marked by brick buildings 

 like Herstmonceaux Castle, near Pevensey, Sussex, which is of brick, 

 and perhaps the oldest existing edifice constructed of brick after the 

 re-introduction of that material. It was built in 1440 by Sir Roger 

 de Fiennes, treasurer to Henry VI., pursuant to a licence obtained from 

 that monarch " to embattle and fortify his manor-house at Herstmon- 

 ceaux." The castle is much on the plan of that at Hever. It is square 

 in plan, the sides being 214 feet, the front 206, and it is surrounded 

 with a moat. The front consists of a grand central gate-house, with 

 machicolated towers on each side of the gateway, over which are 

 machicolations, and within were portcullises. At the angles, and also 

 at the sides, are lofty embattled towers. Another of these brick 

 castles is Tattershall, in Lincolnshire, erected about 1455, which con- 

 sists of a large square brick tower, with polygonal turrets at the angles. 

 Others occur at Thornbury , Caistor, and elsewhere. Thornbury, begun 

 in 1540, and Longford erected in 1591, were the last mansions erected 

 in England with any pretence to a military character prior to the 

 imitative castles of the last and present centuries. 



Mr. G. T. Clark, in a very able paper on Castles, in vol. i. of the 

 ' Archseological Journal,' states the number of castles which are known 

 to exist, either perfect or in ruins, in the United Kingdom, to be, in 

 England, 461; Wales, 107; Scotland, 155: Ireland, 120; in all 843; 

 but it is very difficult to obtain a complete list, and he is no doubt 

 within the mark in saying that the true number is probably near 1000. 



Few parts of Europe contain so many ruins of castles as the banks of 

 the *Rhine. They are almost all built on an irregular plan, and 

 adapted to the nature of the rugged sites on which they are placed. 

 The most remarkable both for their size and history are the castles of 

 Ehrenbreitstein and Heidelberg. 



There are very many ruins of fine castles in Normandy and in the 

 Pays des Vosges. Switzerland has also its castles, but they are on a 

 smaller scale. The French castles were occasionally bastilles, like 

 Villebon, the castle of the Due de Sully. 



For further information on castles the reader is referred to Britton's 

 ' Architectural Antiquities,' Dallaway's account of castles in his ' Dis- 

 course on Architecture in England ; ' ' Ancient Castles of England and 

 Wales,' engraved by W. Woolnoth, with descriptions by E. W. Brayley, 

 jun. ; Mr. Clarke's paper on Castles in the ' Archaeological Journal,' 

 already referred to ; the article Castle in the ' Dictionary of the 

 Architectural Publication Society ; ' Billing's ' Baronial Antiquities of 



in the king's library of the British Museum ; and notices of castles in 

 the ' Archajologia,' the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' and the ' Archicological 

 Journal,' and 'Journal of the Archaeological Association.' On the 

 Castles of France, and the student must remember they are the proto- 

 types of the castles of England, a most careful account will be found 

 in the ' Dictionnaire ' of M. Viollet le Due, article Chateau ; and very 

 full and valuable accounts in M. de Caumont's ' Cours d'Antiquites,' 

 vol. v., and ' Architecture Civile et Militaire,' p. 261 to the end. 



CASTOR, or a Geminorum, one of the bright stars in the head of 

 the twins from which the constellation gets its name, being the nearer 

 of the two to the pole. [GEMINI.] This is a remarkable double star ; 

 that is to say, consists of two stars so close together as to be insepa- 

 rable to the naked eye, which are nearly equal, and compose the 

 appearance of the third magnitude. The two are, however, easily 

 separated by a moderately good telescope. Sir J. Herschel has deter- 

 mined the elements of the orbit in which each star moves round the 

 other. (' Mem. R. Astron. Soc.,' v. p. 196.) He calls the star "the 

 largest and finest of all the double stars in our hemisphere, and that 

 whose unequivocal angular motion first impressed on my father's mind 

 a full conviction of the reality of his long-cherished views on the 

 subject of the binary stars." By observations of Bradley and Pound, 

 Maskelyne, W. Herschel, Professor Struve, his own, and Sir J. South, 

 he has deduced the following elements of the elliptic orbit of each star 

 round the other; major semiaxis, 8'086" ; eccentricity, '7582 ; incli- 

 nation of the real orbit to the apparent orbit on the sphere of the 

 heavens, 70" 3'; position of node, 58 6'; perihelion measured from 

 node on orbit, 97 29' ; period of revolution, 253 years; the last period 

 of closest approach was 1855. 



CASTOR FIBER (Linn.), the Beaver. Into a cavity situated at the 

 posterior part of the trunk, both in the male and female animal, the 

 urinary organs and anus open, and in this are also lodged two pear- 

 shaped bags, which receive the secretion of certain glands, which is 

 termed castor. The bags are united by a ligament supposed to be 

 their excretory duct. The secretion is at first in a liquid state about 

 the consistence of syrup, but it ultimately becomes solid, losing some 

 of its odour and activity. As met with in commerce it is of two kinds, 

 the Russian and American. The American is of two sorts, both im- 

 ported by the Hudson's Bay Company, yet one is called the Hudson's 

 Bay castoreum, the other is called Canadian ; the first is the best. 

 The Russian is the rarest and most esteemed ; it is more carefully 

 managed from the time of its excision, being first dried in smoke, and 

 often wrapped in swine's bladder. The bags of Russian castor are in 

 pairs of unequal size, from 3 to 4 inches long, and 1J to 2 inches 



