202 REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1900 



Appendix A. 



Alnwick Castle. — From materials communicated hy Mr Shelly 

 of Alntvick. 



Alnwick Castle contains an area within its walls of about 

 five acres. It is uncertain for how long a castle may have 

 stood here, but in all probability almost as far back as the 

 Conquest. 



The castle, as it existed in the time of Eustace Fitz-John 

 and his immediate successors, would appear to have covered 

 the same amount of space as it does now. In examining 

 the curtain wall at different points, one may still discern 

 masonry dating from the time of the first De Vescy ; but 

 owing to the unsatisfactory state into which the entire building 

 drifted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it is 

 somewhat hazardous to venture an opinion upon the exact 

 date, more especially because of the patching up that occurred 

 in the middle of the 18th century, when the first Duke resolved 

 on making habitable this great border stronghold. A Norman 

 castle must have been in existence in 1309, when Henry de 

 Percy purchased the Barony from Bishop Bek; and this 

 castle, it seems clear, the first Percy lord lost no time in 

 remodelling and still further fortifying. 



Among the earlier works in the outer Bailey, those of 

 the 14th century are the l>arbican. Abbot's Tower, Falconer's 

 Tower, Armorer's Tower (Plate IX.) the two latter of which 

 were removed in 1860, when the present Falconer's Tower 

 was built in a new position. (Plate X. — View of Alnwick 

 Castle before 1860, showing the old Falconer's and Armorer's 

 Towers.) Of both Bailies the dimensions indicate that 

 the present curtain wall is almost identical with that which 

 existed in the times of the early De Yescis. 



[At page 204 will be found a plan of the Castle, 

 showing the modern alterations by the side of the older 

 arrangements.] 



At the time Bek held the Barony (1297 to 1309), the 

 castle possessed an inner and an outer gateway, both of 

 which were approached over drawbridged fosses. Clarkson's 

 Survey (1558) mentions the following towers on the walls: — 

 Arn^orer's Tower, Falgoner'^ Tower, Abbot's Tower, Garret, 



