NOTTINGHA M. 
remains, are engraved in the Gentleman’s Magazine 
For 1818. 
The prefent caftle is altogether different from the an¬ 
cient one, having been defigned only for the refidence of 
the family of the duke of Newcaftle, by whom it was 
erefted. It is a large edifice on a ruftic bafement, which 
iupporfs an ornamented front of the Corinthian order, 
with a grand double flight of fteps leading to the principal 
range of apartments. Over the door, on the north-eaft 
front here alluded to, is an equeftrian ftatue of the foun¬ 
der, fculptured in one folid block of ftone. The other 
tides of the building are har.dfome, but lefs ornamented 
than this ; and furrounding the whole is a noble terrace, 
which has long been a favourite promenade of the fafhion- 
ables of Nottingham, and is certainly one of the fineft 
to be found in the vicinity of any town, as it commands 
fevetal extenfive and varied views. The interior of the 
caftle was once elegantly fitted-up, and difplayed much 
magnificence; but all the apartments, having been neg¬ 
lected for many years, now contain nothing worthy the 
attention of the ftranger or the tourift. 
Mortimer’s hole, above-mentioned, is a moft extraor¬ 
dinary work of the labour of our anceftors; but the pre- 
cile' purpofefor which it was formed and ufed is unknown. 
The entrance to it has been provided with no lefs than 
fix gates, befides the fide one on the left hand, fince dil- 
ccvered to be the fecret pafl'age by which king Edward 
was admitted into the fortrefs, as already noticed. The 
diftance between the firfi and fecond gate was about 48 
feet, from this to the third 42 feet, and from the third to 
the fourth 45 feet; 159 feet below this flood the fifth 
gate; and 27 feet kill lower, was the fixth and laft gate, 
which opened into the rock-yard, but is now filled-up; 
fo that the whole length of this once well-fiecured paflage 
was 107 yards, or 321 feet. It is feven feet high, and fix 
feet wide, and had all the way down broad fteps cut in 
the rock; and likewife openings in the fame to admit light, 
and alio to ferve the foldiers to (hoot their arrows through. 
In the upper part thefe holes have been much enlarged, 
and regularly conftructed as port-holes for cannon, which 
were placed here during the civil "wars. There are befides, 
in this part of the vault, many excavations, about a foot 
in height, breadth, and depth. Thefe are conjectured to 
have been made to lodge cannon-balls, to prevent their 
rolling to the bottom. 
The park furrounding thexaflle is but fmall, contain¬ 
ing only 130 acres, and is at prefent in a very negleCfed 
flate. It has no deer, and but very few trees; and in¬ 
deed, is only peculiarly deferring of notice on account of 
its Caves, or Papifl-Holes as they are vulgarly called, 
which ftand weft from the caftle, in the face of a clifF al- 
moft clofe to the river Leen. 
Concerning thefe curious monuments, there are no re¬ 
cords or documents of any fort extant, by which their ori¬ 
gin might be afeertained; nor is there, perhaps, fuch an 
affemblage of apartments in any rock in Europe. We 
cannot hefitate, however, in referring the formation of 
them to the moft ancient times; and, as the whole is left 
to conjeClure, they may be aferibed, in their rudeft ftate, 
without a violation of probability, to the aborigines of 
the ifland, when, before the invafion by Julius Caefar, 
they made their habitations among rocks and woods ; or 
in the period of their fucceeding invaders, from whofe 
irrefiftible power the Britons, vanquiftied and difmayed, 
might have efcaped, and here fought for (helter in fecret 
caves, furrounded by woods, which, inthofe times, might 
have been to the enemy impervious. In more peaceful 
days, thefe rude abodes, which had been the afylum of 
terrified fugitives, may have been converted to the ufe of 
religion, and occupied by anchorets, or by communities 
of holy perfons, before that period had arrived when the 
minds of men had become more enlightened, and the in- 
tercourle of fociety, aflifted by mutual want, had inftruCt- 
ed them to look out for more comfortable habitations, 
and to raife monafteries. The cell of the hermit was not 
259 
invariably feparated and folitary. The perfecutions of 
Decius and Valerian, we are told, drove numbers of pious 
Chriftians to a life of prayer and abftinence, in wild 
places, remote from towns ; and it is a faCt not to be quefi- 
tioned, that feveral ancient eremites, as St. Antony, &c. 
though they abftrafted themfelves from general fociety, 
and lived reclufe in deferts, were yet accompanied by other 
perfons of fimilar habits and caft of temper. 
In thefe excavations, which conftitutea moft Angular 
and grotefque appearance when viewed in the extent of 
the whole front of the rock, are to be traced an afl'em- 
blage of perforations : among them is a kitchen, hol¬ 
lowed through the fandy ftratum to the upper furface; 
there is likewife the appearance of a dove-cote, with a 
great variety of cells, one of which may be considered as 
having been a chapel. With the exception of the more 
magnificent ftrufture at Stonehenge, there is none in the 
kingdom fo curious perhaps as this, or more deferving of 
antiquarian infpeftion; and, thus pradtifed in the living 
rock, it is faid (though the affimilation is probably no¬ 
thing but the effedt of fancy, or of a confufed recol- 
ledtion) that it bears a ftrong refembiance to the chapel 
formed in the rocks at Bethlehem, and other places in the 
Holy Land. Like thofe excavated places of worihip, this 
has pillars hewn out of the folid mafs of (tone in the 
ruder ftyle of Gothic architecture, which give their lap- 
port to a vaulted roof, fafhioned alfo into compartments 
of a fimilar caft. On the face of the rock fteps are yet vi- 
fible, which may be inferred to have led to an upper 
apartment now mouldered away ; as, indeed, has been 
the cafe with a confiderable part of this edifice, the joint 
compolition of nature and of art. From the appearance 
which it now makes, there is little to convey to the fpedta- 
toran idea of its having been the continued abode of man. 
In the rudeft ftate of fociety, we find, in a degree accommo¬ 
dated to the climate of the country, appropriate conve¬ 
niences, and effectual (belter from the inclemencies of the 
feafons ; but here we fee no veltiges either of one or the 
other : there are no cells of retirement, nor rooms of 
any defeription which are not expofed to the weather. 
In the hermitage at Warkworth in Northumberland-, and 
in the fequeftered retreats at Wetherel, on the river 
Eden, near Carlifle, we are in admiration at the fnugnefs 
and comfortable difpofition of the feveral rooms ; and it 
would therefore be abfurd to fuppofe that principles, 
which mull be acknowledged to be general, and to have 
been univerfally adopted by men in fimilar fituations, 
(houid not have occurred to the reclufes who had exca¬ 
vated for themfelves places of abode, or of concealment, 
amongft thefe rocks at Nottingham. There is analogy in 
molt things, and from common ufage we are warranted 
in our determinations on a particular inftance; from 
fuch reafoning then we cannot hefitate to conclude, that 
very much of the external part of the Rock Holes has, 
by time, or fome other as efficient caufe, been removed; 
and that what is now feen as the fuperficies of the rock, 
was, in former times, the inner walls of rooms in feve¬ 
ral places. 
Thus fingujarin their nature, and unique in theirappear- 
ance, it may be confidered rather as an odd circumftance, 
that thefe excavations ihould have been fo little deferibed 
or made known to the world. By the ingenious Dr. Tho- 
roton they have been noticed in his provincial Hiftory; 
and from the few remarks which he has made on them, it 
might have been fuppofed, that the attention of the cu¬ 
rious would have been attracted to further inveftigation, 
and to a more minute antiquarian refearch. Dr. Stukeley 
lays, “ what is vidble at prefent is not of fo old a date 
as the time of the Britons, yet I fee no doubt that it is 
founded upon theirs. The altar is a natural rock, and 
there has been painting upon the wall; afteeple, I fuppofe, 
where a bell hung, and regular pillars. The river, here 
winding about, makes a fortification to it, for it comes 
to both ends of the cliff', leaving a plain before the mid¬ 
dle. The way to it was by gates cut out of the rock, 
having 
