NOTES ON BERWICK CASTLE 34& 



sub ecclesia usque in Twoda: et dimidium unius piscaturce 

 et septimam partem molendini, et quadraginta solidos de censu 

 de burgo per unumquemque annum." This proves that Berwick 

 was a burgh before 1113, and we cannot be far wrong in 

 dating the foundation of the protecting royal castle a few 

 years before that year — probably soon after 1107, when 

 Alexander I. as King, and David as Earl, commenced to 

 reign in Scotland proper, and in Lothian and Cumbria. The 

 romantic and stormy history of the Castle is well known, and 

 requires no recapitulation here. These notes are only thrown 

 together to clear up, so far as possible, its origin in its 

 simplest form, as successive Kings added towers and enlarged 

 its area from time to time. Further, in 1121,* the great 

 Castle of Norham was founded by Bishop Flambard to check 

 the incursions of the Scots, and no doubt also as a counter- 

 move to the erection of a strong Castle at Berwick. It is 

 safe to say that the great Scottish stronghold to protect the 

 rising burgh was erected before the Northumbrian one of 

 Norham. When Elizabeth, in 1560, owing to the introduction 

 of gunpowder and the use of more powerful projectiles, resolved 

 to abandon the decaying and obsolete Edwardian fortifications, 

 and surround the town proper by ramparts up-to-date in the 

 new Italian model, the Castle became isolated, and ceased 

 to be the chief key to the defences. Though still partially 

 occupied, the Castle gradually fell into decay ; and when 

 King James I. crossed the Tweed to assume the throne of 

 Britain, it ceased to be of any military importance. King 

 James I. granted the Castle, with all the lands within the 

 Bounds which were not owned by the freemen, to his 

 favourite,! George Home, Earl of Dunbar, who was in 1604 

 created Lord Home of Berwick, and appointed Governor of 

 Berwick and Warden of the East Marches. On his death 



* The great Norman Keep at Newcastle-upon-Tyne was founded by 

 the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose, in 1080; and another 

 Border fortress, Carlisle Castle, in 1092, by William Rnfus. This was 

 the Castle-building age. 



t His splendid marble memorial monument (the grandest memorial 

 in Scotland) in Dunbar Parish Church has in recent years been 

 beautifully restored through the munificence of the late Marquis of 

 Bute and others. 



