Chapter XXIII: Letter II: later, in an indictment to be read to the commission sitting (5)

The word "castle" (_castel_) was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote a type of fortress, then new to the country, brought in by the Norman knights whom Edward the Confessor had sent for to defend Herefordshire against the inroads of the Welsh. Richard's castle, of which the earthworks remain and which has given its name to a parish, was erected at this period on the border of Herefordshire and Shropshire by Richard Fitz Scrob. The essential feature of this type was a circular mound of earth surrounded by a dry ditch and flattened at the top. Around the crest of its summit was placed a timber palisade. This moated mound was styled in French _motte_ (latinized _mota_), a word still common in French place-names. It is clearly depicted at the time of the Conquest in the Bayeux tapestry, and was then familiar on the mainland of western Europe. A description of this earlier castle is given in the life of John, bishop of Terouanne (_Acta Sanctorum_, quoted by G.T. Clark, _Medieval Mil. Architecture_):--"The rich and the noble of that region being much given to feuds and bloodshed, fortify themselves ... and by these strongholds subdue their equals and oppress their inferiors. They heap up a mound as high as they are able, and dig round it as broad a ditch as they can.... Round the summit of the mound they construct a palisade of timber to act as a wall.... Inside the palisade they erect a house, or rather a citadel, which looks down on the whole neighbourhood." St John, bishop of Terouanne, died in 1130, and this castle of Merchem, built by "a lord of the town many years before" may be taken as typical of the practice of the 11th century. But in addition to the mound, the citadel of the fortress, there was usually appended to it a bailey or basecourt (and sometimes two) of semilunar or horseshoe shape, so that the mound stood _a cheval_ on the line of the enceinte. The rapidity and ease with which it was possible to construct castles of this type made them characteristic of the Conquest period in England and of the Anglo-Norman settlements in Wales, Ireland and the Scottish lowlands. In later days a stone wall replaced the timber palisade and produced what is known as the shell-keep, the type met with in the extant castles of Berkeley, Alnwick and Windsor.

FIG. 1.--Plan of Laughton en-le-Morthen.]

But the Normans introduced also two other types of castle. The one was adopted where they found a natural rock stronghold which only needed adaptation, as at Clifford, Ludlow, the Peak and Exeter, to produce a citadel; the other was a type wholly distinct, the high rectangular tower of masonry, of which the Tower of London is the best-known example, though that of Colchester was probably constructed in the 11th century also. But the latter type belongs rather to the more settled conditions of the 12th century when haste was not a necessity, and in the first half of which the fine extant keeps of Hedingham and Rochester were erected. These towers were originally surrounded by palisades, usually on earthen ramparts, which were replaced later by stone walls. The whole fortress thus formed was styled a castle, but sometimes more precisely "tower and castle," the former being the citadel, and the latter the walled enclosure, which preserved more strictly the meaning of the Roman _castellum_.

Reliance was placed by the engineers of that time simply and solely on the inherent strength of the structure, the walls of which defied the battering-ram, and could only be undermined at the cost of much time and labour, while the narrow apertures were constructed to exclude arrows or flaming brands.

Fig. 3.--Berkeley Castle, late Norman Shell-Keep.]

FIG. 4.--Krak-des-Chevaliers: Plan.]

At this stage the crusades, and the consequent opportunities afforded to western engineers of studying the solid fortresses of the Byzantine empire, revolutionized the art of castle-building, which henceforward follows recognized principles. Many castles were built in the Holy Land by the crusaders of the 12th century, and it has been shown (Oman, _Art of War: the Middle Ages_, p. 529) that the designers realized, first, that a second line of defences should be built within the main enceinte, and a third line or keep inside the second line; and secondly, that a wall must be flanked by projecting towers. From the Byzantine engineers, through the crusaders, we derive, therefore, the cardinal principle of the mutual defence of all the parts of a fortress. The _donjon_ of western Europe was regarded as the fortress, the outer walls as accessory defences; in the East each envelope was a fortress in itself, and the keep became merely the last refuge of the garrison, used only when all else had been captured. Indeed the keep, in several crusader castles, is no more than a tower, larger than the rest, built into the enceinte and serving with the rest for its flanking defence, while the fortress was made strongest on the most exposed front. The idea of the flanking towers (which were of a type very different from the slight projections of the shell-keep and rectangular tower) soon penetrated to Europe, and Alnwick Castle (1140-1150) shows the influence of the new system. But the finest of all castles of the middle ages was Richard Coeur de Lion's fortress of Chateau Gaillard (1197) on the Seine near Les Andelys. Here the innermost ward was protected by an elaborate system of strong appended defences, which included a strong _tete-de-pont_ covering the Seine bridge (see Clark, i. 384, and Oman, p. 533). The castle stood upon high ground and consisted of three distinct enceintes or wards besides the keep, which was in this case merely a strong tower forming part of the innermost ward. The donjon was rarely defended _a outrance_, and it gradually sank in importance as the outer "wards" grew stronger. Round instead of rectangular towers were now becoming usual, the finest examples of their employment as keeps being at Conisborough in England and at Coucy in France. Against the relatively feeble siege artillery of the 13th century a well-built fortress was almost proof, but the mines and the battering ram of the attack were more formidable, and it was realized that corners in the stonework of the fortress were more vulnerable than a uniform curved surface. Chateau Gaillard fell to Philip Augustus in 1204 after a strenuous defence, and the success of the assailants was largely due to the wise and skilful employment of mines. An angle of the noble keep of Rochester was undermined and brought down by John in 1215.

A. _High Angle Tower_
B.B. _Smaller Side Towers_
C.C. D.D. _Corner Towers_
E. _Outer Enceinte, or Lower Court_
F. _The Well_
G.H. _Buildings in the Lower Court_
I. _The Moat_
K. _Entrance Gate_
L. _The Counterscarp_
M. _The Keep_
N. _The Escarpment_
O. _Postern Tower_
P. _Postern Gate_
R.R. _Parapet Walls_
S. _Gate from the Escarpment_
T.T. _Flanking Towers_
V. _Outer Tower_
X. _Connecting Wall_
Y. _The Stockade in the River_
Z.Z. _The Great Ditches_]

The next development was the extension of the principle of successive lines of defence to form what is called the "concentric" castle, in which each ward was placed wholly within another which enveloped it; places thus built on a flat side (e.g. Caerphilly Castle) became for the first time more formidable than strongholds perched upon rocks and hills such as Chateau Gaillard, where the more exposed parts indeed possessed many successive lines of defence, but at other points, for want of room, it was impossible to build more than one or, at most, two walls. In these cases, the fall of the inner ward by surprise, escalade, _vive force_, or even by regular siege (as was sometimes feasible), entailed the fall of the whole castle.

The adoption of the concentric system precluded any such mischance, and thus, even though siege-engines improved during the 13th and 14th centuries, the defence, by the massive strength of the concentric castle in some cases, by natural inaccessibility of position in others, maintained itself superior to the attack during the latter middle ages. Its final fall was due to the introduction of gunpowder as a propellant. "In the 14th century the change begins, in the 15th it is fully developed, in the 16th the feudal fastness has become an anachronism."

The general adoption of cannon placed in the hands of the central power a force which ruined the baronial fortifications in a few days of firing. The possessors of cannon were usually private individuals of the middle classes, from whom the prince hired the _materiel_ and the technical workmen. A typical case will be found in the history of Brandenburg and Prussia (Carlyle, _Frederick the Great_, bk. iii. ch. i.), the impregnable castle of Friesack, held by an intractable feudal noble, Dietrich von Quitzow, being reduced in two days by the elector Frederick. I. with "Heavy Peg" (_Faule Grete_) and other guns hired and borrowed (February 1414). The beginnings of orderly government in Brandenburg thus depended upon the guns, and the taking of Friesack is, in Carlyle's phrase, "a fact memorable to every Prussian man." In England, the earl of Warwick in 1464 reduced the strong fortress of Bamborough in a week, and in Germany, Franz von Sinkingen's stronghold of Landstuhl, formerly impregnable on its heights, was ruined in one day by the artillery of Philip of Hesse (1523). Very heavy artillery was used for such work, of course, and against lighter natures, some castles and even fortified country-houses or castellated mansions managed to make a stout stand even as late as the Great Rebellion in England.

FIG. 9.--Beaumaris Castle: Plan.]

FIG 10.--Beaumaris Castle--View.]

The castle thus ceases to be the fortress of small and ill-governing local magnates, and its later history is merged in that of modern fortification. But an interesting transitional type between the medieval stronghold and the modern fortress is found in the coast castles erected by Henry VIII., especially those at Deal, Sandown and Walmer (c. 1540), which played some part in the events of the 17th century, and of which Walmer Castle is still the official residence of the lord warden of the Cinque Ports. Viollet-le-Duc, in his _Annals of a Fortress_ (English trans.), gives a full and interesting account of the repeated renovations of the fortress on his imaginary site in the valley of the Doubs, the construction by Charles the Bold of artillery towers at the angles of the castle, the protection of the masonry by earthen outworks, boulevards and demi-boulevards, and, in the 17th century, the final service of the medieval walls and towers as a pure _enceinte de surete_. Here and there we find old castles serving as _forts d'arret_ or block-houses in mountain passes and defiles, and in some few cases, as at Dover, they formed the nucleus of purely military places of arms, but normally the castle falls into ruins, becomes a peaceful mansion, or is merged in the fortifications of the town which has grown up around it. In the _Annals of a Fortress_ the site of the feudal castle is occupied by the citadel of the walled town, for once again, with the development of the middle class and of commerce and industry, the art of the engineer came to be displayed chiefly in the fortification of cities. The baronial "castle" assumes _pari passu_ the form of a mansion, retaining indeed for long some capacity for defence, but in the end losing all military characteristics save a few which survived as ornaments. Examples of such castellated mansions are seen in Wingfield Manor, Derbyshire, and Hurstmonceaux, Sussex, erected in the 15th century, and nearly all older castles which survived were continually improved and altered to serve as residences. (C. F. A.)

_Influence of Castles in English History._--Such strongholds as existed in England at the time of the Norman Conquest seem to have offered but little resistance to William the Norman, who, in order effectually to guard against invasions from without as well as to awe his newly-acquired subjects, immediately began to erect castles all over the kingdom, and likewise to repair and augment the old ones. Besides, as he had parcelled out the lands of the English amongst his followers, they, to protect themselves from the resentment of the despoiled natives, built strongholds and castles on their estates, and these were multiplied so rapidly during the troubled reign of King Stephen that the "adulterine" (i.e. unauthorized) castles are said by one writer to have amounted to 1115.

FIG. 11.--Caerphilly Castle. Plan.]

In the first instance, when the interest of the king and of his barons was identical, the former had only retained in his hands the castles in the chief towns of the shires, which were entrusted to his sheriffs or constables. But the great feudal revolts under the Conqueror and his sons showed how formidable an obstacle to the rule of the king was the existence of such fortresses in private hands, while the people hated them from the first for the oppressions connected with their erection and maintenance. It was, therefore, the settled policy of the crown to strengthen the royal castles and increase their number, while jealously keeping in check those of the barons. But in the struggle between Stephen and the empress Maud for the crown, which became largely a war of sieges, the royal power was relaxed and there was an outburst of castle-building, without permission, by the barons. These in many cases acted as petty sovereigns, and such was their tyranny that the native chronicler describes the castles as "filled with devils and evil men." These excesses paved the way for the pacification at the close of the reign, when it was provided that all unauthorized castles constructed during its course should be destroyed. Henry II., in spite of his power, was warned by the great revolt against him that he must still rely on castles, and the massive keeps of Newcastle and of Dover date from this period.

FIG. 12.--Caerphilly Castle. View.]

Under his sons the importance of the chief castles was recognized as so great that the struggle for their control was in the forefront of every contest. When Richard made vast grants at his accession to his brother John, he was careful to reserve the possession of certain castles, and when John rose against the king's minister, Longchamp, in 1191, the custody of castles was the chief point of dispute throughout their negotiations, and Lincoln was besieged on the king's behalf, as were Tickhill, Windsor and Marlborough subsequently, while the siege of Nottingham had to be completed by Richard himself on his arrival. To John, in turn, as king, the fall of Chateau Gaillard meant the loss of Rouen and of Normandy with it, and when he endeavoured to repudiate the newly-granted Great Charter, his first step was to prepare the royal castles against attack and make them his centres of resistance. The barons, who had begun their revolt by besieging that of Northampton, now assailed that of Oxford as well and seized that of Rochester. The king recovered Rochester after a severe struggle and captured Tonbridge, but thenceforth there was a war of sieges between John with his mercenaries and Louis of France with his Frenchmen and the barons, which was specially notable for the great defence of Dover Castle by Hubert de Burgh against Louis. On the final triumph of the royal cause, after John's death, at the battle of Lincoln, the general pacification was accompanied by a fresh issue of the Great Charter in the autumn of 1217, in which the precedent of Stephen's reign was followed and a special clause inserted that all "adulterine" castles, namely those which had been constructed or rebuilt since the breaking out of war between John and the barons, should be immediately destroyed. And special stress was laid on this in the writs addressed to the sheriffs.

In 1223 Hubert de Burgh, as regent, demanded the surrender to the crown of all royal castles not in official custody, and though he succeeded in this, Falkes de Breaute, John's mercenary, burst into revolt next year, and it cost a great national effort and a siege of nearly two months to reduce Bedford Castle, which he had held. Towards the close of Henry's reign castles again asserted, in the Baron's War, their importance. The Provisions of Oxford included a list of the chief royal castles and of their appointed castellans with the oath that they were to take; but the alien favourites refused to make way for them till they were forcibly ejected. When war broke out it was Rochester Castle that successfully held Simon de Montfort at bay in 1264, and in Pevensey Castle that the fugitives from the rout of Lewes were able to defy his power. Finally, after his fall at Evesham, it was in Kenilworth Castle that the remnant of his followers made their last stand, holding out nearly five months against all the forces of the crown, till their provisions failed them at the close of 1266.

Thus for two centuries after the Norman Conquest castles had proved of primary consequence in English political struggles, revolts and warfare. And, although, when the country was again torn by civil strife, their military importance was of small account, the crown's historic jealousy of private fortification was still seen in the need to obtain the king's licence to "crenellate" (i.e. embattle) the country mansion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--G.T. Clark, _Medieval Military Architecture in England_
(2 vols.), includes a few French castles and is the standard work on
the subject, but inaccurate and superseded on some points by recent
research; Professor Oman's _Art of War in the Middle Ages_ is a wide
survey of the subject, but follows Clark in some of his errors;
Mackenzie, _The Castles of England_ (1897), valuable for
illustrations; Deville, _Histoire du Chateau-Gaillard_ (1829) and
_Chateau d'Argues_ (1839); Viollet-le-Duc's _Essay on the Military
Architecture of the Middle Ages_ was translated by M. Macdermott in
1860. More recent studies will be found in J.H. Round's _Geoffrey de
Mandeville_ (1891); "English Castles" (_Quarterly Review_, July 1894);
and "Castles of the Conquest" (_Archeologia_, lviii., 1902); St John
Hope's "English Castles of the 10th and 11th Centuries" (_Archaeol.
Journal_, lx., 1902); Mrs Armitage's "Early Norman Castles of England"
(_Eng. Hist. Review_, xix. 1904), and her papers in _Scot. Soc. Ant.
Proc._ xxxiv., and _The Antiquary_, July, August, 1906; G. Neilson's
"The Motes in Norman Scotland" (_Scottish Review_, lxiv., 1898); G.H.
Orpen, "Motes and Norman Castles in Ireland" (_Eng. Hist. Review_,
xxi., xxii., 1906-1907). (J. H. R.)

CASTLEBAR, a market town and the county town of Co. Mayo, Ireland, in the west parliamentary division, on the river and near the lough of the same name, on the Manulla and Westport branch of the Midland Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3585. The county court buildings and other public offices occupy a square, and there is a pleasant mall shaded by fine trees. There are some breweries, and trade in linens and agricultural produce. The castle, which gives its name to the town, was a fortress of the De Burgh family; but the town itself was founded in the reign of James I., and received a charter from him in 1613. In 1641 the castle was held for the parliament by Sir Henry Bingham, but he was forced to surrender to Lord Mayo, and fell a victim, with all his garrison, to the fury and treachery of the besiegers. The massacre was afterwards avenged in 1653 by the execution of Sir Theobald Burke (by that time Lord Mayo), who had been in command along with his father at the siege. In 1798 the town was occupied for some weeks by the French under General J.J. Humbert, who had defeated the English under Luke Hutchison in a conflict which is jocularly styled the "Castlebar Races." The town returned two members to the Irish parliament until the Union. Four miles N.E. of Castlebar is Turlough, with a round tower 70 ft. high and 57 ft. in circumference, and other remains.

CASTLECONNELL, a village of Co. Limerick, Ireland, on the left bank of the Shannon, 8 m. N.E. of Limerick on the Great Southern & Western railway. It possesses a spa which was once considerably frequented, but is famous as a centre for the salmon fishing on the lower Shannon. Castleconnell is so intimately connected with this sport that it has given its name to a favourite pattern of fly-rod, in which a movable splice takes the place of the usual metal joint. The beautiful rapids of Doonas (avoided by a canal) are in the neighbourhood, and the surrounding scenery is generally attractive. There are remains of a castle from which the town took its name, which was the seat of the kings of Thomond, and was blown up by General Ginkel at the time of the siege of Limerick (1690).

CASTLE DONINGTON, a town in the Loughborough parliamentary division of Leicestershire, England, 123-1/2 m. N.N.W. from London, on the Trent Junction and Western branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 2514. It lies on the flank of the hills overlooking the Trent and Soar valleys. There are slight remains of the castle. The church of St Luke is a fine building of Early English and later date. Donington Park, a neighbouring mansion, was offered to refugees during the French Revolution in 1830, and Charles X. availed himself of this retreat. Hosiery, silk and baskets are manufactured. Castle Donington is 2-1/2 m. west of Kegworth station on the Midland main line. Kegworth (pop. 2078), on the Soar, has a hosiery and knitting industry.

CASTLE DOUGLAS, a burgh of barony and police burgh of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 3018. It is situated on Carlingwark Loch, 19-1/2 m. S.W. of Dumfries by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Its auction marts for sheep and cattle sales are the largest in the south-west of Scotland; at an autumn sale as many as 15,000 sheep and 1400 cattle are disposed of in one day. The leading industries comprise the making of agricultural implements and mineral waters, besides tanning. The Macmillan Free Church perpetuates the memory of John Macmillan (d. 1753), the Cameronian, who helped to found the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He had been chaplain to Murray of Broughton, and afterwards became minister of Balmaghie, about 3-1/2 m. N.W. of Castle Douglas. The town is the chief centre of business in East Galloway, and it is also resorted to in midsummer for its beautiful scenery and excellent fishing. Till 1765 it was only a village under the name of Causewayhead, but the discovery of marl in the lake brought it some prosperity, and it was purchased in 1792 by Sir William Douglas and called after him. Since then its progress has been continuous. Carlingwark Loch contains several islets, on one of which is a crannog, or ancient lake dwelling.

CASTLEFORD, an urban district in the Osgoldcross parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on the river Aire near its junction with the Calder, 9 m. S.E. of Leeds, on the North-Eastern and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop. (1901) 17,386. Large glass-bottle and earthenware-jar works, chemical works, and neighbouring collieries employ the inhabitants. Here was the Roman village or fort of _Lagecium_ or _Legeolium_; and though visible remains are wanting, a number of relics have been discovered.

CASTLE-GUARD, an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain baronies, and divided among their knight's fees. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their knights. In both cases the obligation was commuted very early for a fixed money payment, which, as "castle-guard rent" lasted on to modern times.

See J.H. Round, "Castle-Guard," in _Archaeological Journal_, vol.
lix., and "Castle-ward and Coinage," in _The Commune of London._
(J. H. R.)

CASTLEMAINE, a town of Talbot county, Victoria, Australia, 78 m. by rail N.N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 5704. The gold-mines here were among the first discovered in the colony, and dredging for gold is carried on in Barker's and Forrest creeks, at the junction of which the town stands. Slate and flagstone are largely quarried in the district, which also produces wine and much fruit, especially apples. Castlemaine has a reputation as a health resort in cases of pulmonary complaints.

CASTLE RISING, a village of Norfolk, England, 4 m. by road N.E. of King's Lynn. The Norman castle for which it is famous stands on slightly elevated ground overlooking, to the west, the low marshy coast of the Wash. Its site is enclosed by artificial ramparts of earth and a dyke which is crossed by an ancient bridge. The keep is square and massive, and fairly perfect, and it is not difficult to reconstruct the arrangement of the rooms. In some parts, especially the entrance, the Norman carving is very rich. The foundations of a small chapel with apsidal eastern termination have been discovered outside the castle. The village of Castle Rising is the decayed remnant of a town of no little importance. Its church of St Laurence is late Norman, with much rich ornamentation; it shows traces of considerable alterations in the Early English period, but is an admirable example of the earlier style.

It is a matter of dispute whether Rising was or was not an early Saxon settlement; in Domesday Book the manor is given as having belonged to Archbishop Stigand, from whom it had passed to Odo of Bayeux, whose estates were confiscated in 1088. Granted to William de Albini, whose son built Rising Castle, it passed first to Robert de Montalt, and then by sale to Isabel, queen of England, in 1332, remaining in the possession of the crown until Henry VIII. exchanged it for other lands with the duke of Norfolk. In 1269 an inquisition found that the lord had the return of all writs. In 1275 Robert de Montalt died seised of the manor and vill with the assize of bread and ale. An inquisition of 1379, although it makes no mention of the borough, states that the lord has the rents of assizes, and perquisites of the courts with view of frank-pledge. A mayor is first mentioned in 1343, and a borough existed in the 15th century. A survey of 1589-1590 declared that Castle Rising was an ancient borough by prescription according to the grant made to Hugh de Albini by Henry III. In 1589-1590 the recorder was chosen by the lord of the manor. The mayor, the only member of the corporation, whose sole duty was the holding of the assize of bread and ale, was chosen by the burgesses and presented at the court leet for confirmation. Castle Rising became a parliamentary borough in 1558, but was disfranchised in 1832 and the corporation abolished in 1835, although a mayor was elected for special purposes until 1883. Having no manufactures, the trade of the town depended entirely on its fairs and markets; but these have been long obsolete.

CASTLETON, a village in the High Peak parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, 17 m. W.S.W. of Sheffield, and 2 m. from Hope station on a branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 547. Lying itself at an elevation of about 600 ft., it is surrounded on the north, west and south by hills from 1400 to 1700 ft. in height, rising sharply, and in parts precipitously. The village is celebrated for its situation in the midst of the wild Peak country, for the caves and mines in the neighbourhood, and for the Castle of the Peak, the ruins of which are strongly placed on a cliff immediately above the village. The Peak Cavern or Devil's Hole, penetrating this cliff, is the most magnificent in Derbyshire. For many generations the entrance to this cave has served as a workshop, held free of rent, to families employed in rope and twine making. Speedwell Cavern is not far distant, at the entrance to the fine pass of Winnats, by which Castleton and the Vale of Hope are approached from the west. The beauties of this cavern, in which occurs the so-called bottomless pit, are in part readily accessible by boat, but the approach to the inner or Cliff cavern is so difficult that it has rarely been explored. Among several other caves is that known as the Blue John Mine, from the decorative fluorspar called "Blue John" which is obtained here. The church of St Edmund, Castleton, retains a fine Norman chancel arch, and the vestry contains a valuable library. At Brough near Castleton was a Roman fort, established to hold in check the hillmen of the Peak. It was connected by roads with Buxton, Manchester and Rotherham. The Castle of the Peak, or Peveril Castle, is famous through Sir Walter Scott's novel _Peveril of the Peak_. Early earthworks, which, extending from below the castle in a semicircle, enclosed the town, can still in great part be traced. Before the Conquest the site was held by Gernebern and Hundinc, and was granted by the Conqueror to William Peverell, by whom the castle was built. On the forfeiture of William Peverell, grandson of the first holder, it was granted by Henry II. to Prince John who, in 1204, made Hugh Nevill governor of the castle. In 1216 William Ferrers, earl of Derby, took it from the rebellious barons, and was made governor by Henry III., who in 1223 granted a charter for a weekly market at the town. In 1328 the castle was given to John of Gaunt on his marriage with Blanche of Lancaster, and thus became parcel of the duchy of Lancaster. The castle has often been used as a prison, and from its position was almost impregnable.

CASTLETOWN (Manx, _Bully Cashtel_), a town of the Isle of Man, 10 m. S.W. of Douglas, by the Isle of Man railway. Pop. (1901) 1975. It is picturesquely situated on both sides of a small harbour formed by the outflow of the Silver Burn into Castletown Bay. It was the legal capital of the island until 1862. In the centre of the town stands Castle Rushen, which is said to owe its foundation to the Danish chief, Guthred, in 947-960, though the existing building, which is remarkably well preserved, probably dates from the 14th century. Until the 18th century it was the residence of the lords of Man, and until 1891 served as a prison. The massive keep is square, and is surrounded by an outer wall, with towers and a moat. The council chamber and court-house were built in 1644. In the neighbourhood of the castle is the old House of Keys, where the members of the Manx parliament held their sessions until the removal of the seat of government to Douglas. A lofty Doric column commemorates Cornelius Smelt, lieutenant-governor of the island (d. 1832), near which there is a remarkable sun-dial with thirteen faces, dating from 1720. King William's College, situated a mile to the north-east of the town, was opened in 1833; but a complete restoration was rendered necessary by fire in 1844, and it was subsequently enlarged. It is the chief educational establishment in the island. At Hango Hill near the town William Christian, receiver-general, who had surrendered the castle, and with it the island, to the parliamentary forces in 1651, was executed in 1663 at the instance of the countess of Derby, who had undertaken to defend it for the king. A small shipping trade is maintained.

CASTOR and POLLUX (Gr. [Greek: Poludeukes]), in Greek and Roman mythology, the twin sons of Leda, and brothers of Helen and Clytaemnestra. They were also known under the name of Dioscuri ([Greek: Dioskoroi], later [Greek: Dioskouroi], children of Zeus), for, according to later tradition, they were the children of Zeus and Leda, whose love the god had won under the form of a swan. In some versions Leda is represented as having brought forth two eggs, from one of which were born Castor and Pollux, from the other Helen. In another account, Zeus is the father of Pollux and Helen, Tyndareus (king of Sparta) of Castor and Clytaemnestra. In Homer, Castor, Pollux and Clytaemnestra are said to be the children of Tyndareus and Leda, Helen the daughter of Leda by Zeus. The Dioscuri were specially reverenced among people of Dorian race, and were said to have reigned at Sparta, where also they were buried. They were also worshipped, especially in Athens, as lords and protectors ([Greek: anakes, anaktes]). Sailors in a storm prayed to them (Horace, _Odes_, i. 3) and sacrificed a white lamb, whereupon they were wont to appear in the form of fire at the masthead (probably referring to the phenomenon of St Elmo's fire), and the storm ceased. Later, they were confounded with the Samothracian Cabeiri. In battle they appeared riding on white horses and gave victory to the side they favoured. They were the patrons of hospitality, and founded the sacred festival called Theoxenia. They presided over public games, Castor especially as the horse-tamer, Pollux as the boxer; but both are represented as riding on horseback or driving in a chariot. In Sparta their ancient symbol was two parallel beams [Greek: dokana] connected by cross-bars, which the Spartans took with them into the field (Plutarch, _De Fraterno Amore_, 1; Herodotus v. 75); later, they were represented by two amphorae with snakes twined round them. Their most important exploits were the invasion of Attica, to rescue their sister Helen from Theseus; their share in the hunting of the Calydonian boar (see MELEAGER) and the Argonautic expedition, and their battle with the sons of Aphareus, brought about by a quarrel in regard to some cattle, in which Castor, the mortal (as the son of Tyndareus), fell by the hand of Idas. Pollux, finding him dead after the battle, implored Zeus to be allowed to die with him; this being impossible by reason of his immortality, Pollux was permitted to spend alternately one day among the gods, the other in Hades with his brother. According to another fable, the god marked his approval of their love by placing them together in the sky, as the Twins or the morning and evening star (Hyginus, _Poet. Astronom._ ii. 22). Like the Asvins of the _Veda_, the bringers of light in the morning sky, with whom they have been identified, the Dioscuri are represented as youthful horsemen, naked or wearing only a light chlamys. Their characteristic attribute is a pointed egg-shaped cap, surmounted by a star.

Though their worship was perhaps most carefully observed among people of Dorian origin, Castor and Pollux were held in no small veneration at Rome. It was the popular belief in that city from an early period that the battle of Lake Regillus had been decided by their interposition (Dion. Halic. vi. 13). They had fought, it was said, armed and mounted, at the head of the legions of the commonwealth, and had afterwards carried the news of the victory with incredible speed to the city. The well in the Forum at which they alighted was pointed out, and near it rose their ancient temple, in which the senate often held its sittings. On the 15th of July, the supposed anniversary of the battle, a great festival with sumptuous sacrifices was celebrated in their honour, and a solemn parade of the Roman knights (_transvectio equitum_), who looked upon the Dioscuri as their patrons, took place. (Apollodorus iii. 10. 7, 11. 2; Homer, _Odyssey_, xi. 299; Hyginus, _Fab._ 77. 155; Pindar, _Nem._ x. 60, 80 and schol.; Diod. Sic. iv. 43; Plutarch, _Theseus_, 32, 33; Theocritus, _Idyll_, xxii.)

See Maurice Albert, _Le Culte de Castor et Pollux en Italie_ (1883),
with special descriptions and representations in art, on coins, vases
and statues; S. Eitrem, "Die gottlichen Zwillinge bei den Griechen"
(treating of the divine beings mentioned in pairs in Greek mythology),
in _Videnskabs-Selskab Skrifter_ (Christiania, 1902); W.R. Paton, _De
Cultu Dioscurorum apud Graecos_ (Bonn, 1894); L. Myriantheus, _Acvins
oder arische Dioskuren_ (Munich, 1876); J.R. Harris, _The Dioscuri in
the Christian Legends_ (1903), and _The Cult of the Heavenly Twins_
(1906); W. Helbig, "Die Castores als Schutzgotter des romischen
Equitatus," in _Hermes_, xl. (1905); C. Jaisle, _Die Dioskuren als
Retter zur See bei Griechen und Romern, und ihr Fortleben in
christlichen Legenden_ (Tubingen, 1907); L. Preller, _Griechische und
romische Mythologie_; articles by A. Furtwangler in Roscher's _Lexikon
der Mythologie_, and by M. Albert in Daremberg and Saglio's
_Dictionnaire des antiquites._

CASTOR OIL, the fixed oil obtained from the seeds of the castor oil plant or Palma Christi, _Ricinus communis_, belonging to the natural order Euphorbiaceae. The botanical name is from Lat. _ricinus_, a tick, from the form and markings of the seed. The plant is a native of tropical Africa, but it has been introduced, and is now cultivated in most tropical and in the warmer temperate countries. In size it varies from a shrubby plant to a tree of from 30 to 40 ft. in height according to the climate in which it grows, being arborescent in tropical latitudes. On account of its very large beautiful palmate-peltate leaves, which sometimes measure as much as 2 ft. in diameter, it is cultivated as an ornamental plant. In the south of England, with the habit of an annual, it ripens its seeds in favourable seasons; and it has been known to come to maturity as far north as Christiania in Norway. Plants are readily grown from seed, which should be sown singly in small pots and placed in heat early in March. The young plants are kept under glass till early in June when they are hardened and put out. The fruit consists of a three-celled capsule, covered externally with soft yielding prickles, and each cell develops a single seed. The seeds of the different cultivated varieties, of which there are a great number, differ much in size and in external markings; but average seeds are of an oval laterally compressed form, with their longest diameter about four lines. They have a shining, marble-grey and brown, thick, leathery outer coat, within which is a thin dark-coloured brittle coat. A large distinct leafy embryo lies in the middle of a dense, oily tissue (endosperm). The seeds contain a toxic substance, which makes them actively poisonous; so much so that three have been known to kill an adult.

The oil is obtained from the seeds by two principal methods--expression and decoction--the latter process being largely used in India, where the oil, on account of its cheapness and abundance is extensively employed for illuminating as well as for other domestic and medicinal purposes. The oil exported from Calcutta to Europe is prepared by shelling and crushing the seeds between rollers. The crushed mass is then placed in hempen cloths and pressed in a screw or hydraulic press. The oil which exudes is mixed with water and heated till the water boils, and the mucilaginous matter in the oil separates as a scum. It is next strained, then bleached in the sunlight, and stored for exportation. A considerable quantity of castor oil of an excellent quality is also made in Italy; and in California the manufacture is conducted on an extensive scale. The following is an outline of the process adopted in a Californian factory. The seeds are submitted to a dry heat in a furnace for an hour or thereby, by which they are softened and prepared to part easily with their oil. They are then pressed in a large powerful screw-press, and the oily matter which flows out is caught, mixed with an equal proportion of water, and boiled to purify it from mucilaginous and albuminous matter. After boiling about an hour, it is allowed to cool, the water is drawn off, and the oil is transferred to zinc tanks or clarifiers capable of holding from 60 to 100 gallons. In these it stands about eight hours, bleaching in the sun, after which it is ready for storing. By this method 100 lb. of good seeds yield about 5 gallons of pure oil.

Castor oil is a viscid liquid, almost colourless when pure, possessing only a slight odour, and a mild yet highly nauseous and disagreeable taste. Its specific gravity is .96, a little less than that of water, and it dissolves freely in alcohol, ether and glacial acetic acid. It contains palmitic and several other fatty acids, among which there is one--ricinoleic acid--peculiar to itself. This occurs in combination with glycerin, constituting the greater part of the bulk of the oil.

The active principle to which the oil owes its purgative properties has not been isolated. It is, indeed, probable that it is formed in the intestine, as a result of some decomposition as yet unknown. The dose is from a drachm to an ounce. The pharmacopoeial mixture is best avoided, being almost uniquely nauseous. By far the best way to administer the oil is in capsules. It acts in about five hours, affecting the entire length of the bowel, but not increasing the flow of bile except in very large doses. The mode of its action is unknown. The oil will purge when rubbed into the skin or injected _per rectum_. It is an invaluable drug in temporary constipation and whenever a mild action is essential, as in pregnancy. It is extremely useful for children and the aged, but must not be employed in cases of chronic constipation, which it only aggravates, whilst relieving the symptoms.

CASTREN, MATTHIAS ALEXANDER (1813-1853), Finnish ethnologist and philologist, was born at Tervola, in the parish of Kemi in Finland, on the 20th of November (December 2, 1813). His father, Christian Castren, parish minister at Rovaniemi, died in 1825; and Matthias passed under the protection of his uncle, Mathias Castren, the kindly and learned incumbent of Kemi. At the age of twelve he was sent to school at Uleaborg, and there he helped to maintain himself by teaching the younger children. On his removal to the Alexander University at Helsingfors in 1830, he first devoted himself to Greek and Hebrew with the intention of entering the church; but his interest was soon excited by the language of his native country, and he even began before his course was completed to lay the foundations of a work on Finnish mythology. The necessity of personal explorations among the still unwritten languages of cognate tribes soon made itself evident; and in 1838 he joined a medical fellow-student, Dr. Ehrstrom, in a journey through Lapland. In the following year he travelled in Russian Karelia at the expense of the Literary Society of Finland; and in 1841 he undertook, in company with Dr Elias Lonnrot, the great Finnish philologist, a third journey, which ultimately extended beyond the Ural as far as Obdorsk, and occupied a period of three years. Before starting on this last expedition he had published a translation into Swedish of the Finnish epic of _Kalevala_; and on his return he gave to the world his _Elementa grammatices Syrjaenae_ and _Elementa grammatices Tscheremissae_, 1844. No sooner had he recovered from the illness which his last journey had occasioned than he set out, under the auspices of the Academy of St Petersburg and the Helsingfors University, on an exploration of the whole government of Siberia, which resulted in a vast addition to previous knowledge, but seriously affected the health of the adventurous investigator. The first-fruits of his collections were published at St Petersburg in 1849 in the form of a _Versuch einer ostjakischen Sprachlehre_. In 1850 he published a treatise _De affixis personalibus linguarum Altaicarum_, and was appointed professor at Helsingfors of the new chair of Finnish language and literature. The following year saw him raised to the rank of chancellor of the university; and he was busily engaged in what he regarded as his principal work, a Samoyedic grammar, when he died on the 7th of May 1853.

Five volumes of his collected works appeared from 1852 to 1858,
containing respectively--(1) _Reseminnen fran aren_ 1838-1844; (2)
_Reseberaitelser och bref aren_ 1845-1849; (3) _Forelasningar i Finsk
mythologi_; (4) _Ethnologiska forelasningar ofver Altaiska folken_;
and (5) _Smarre afhandlingar och akademiska dissertationer_. A German
translation was published by Anton Schiefner, who was also entrusted
by the St Petersburg Academy with the editing of his manuscripts which
had been left to the Helsingfors University and which were
subsequently published.

CASTRENSIS, PAULUS, an Italian jurist of the 14th century. He studied under Baldus at Perugia, and was a fellow-pupil with Cardinal Zabarella. He was admitted to the degree of doctor of civil law in the university of Avignon, but it is uncertain when he first undertook the duties of a professor. A tradition, which has been handed down by Panzirolus, represents him as having taught law for a period of fifty-seven years. He was professor at Vienna in 1390, at Avignon in 1394, and at Padua in 1429; and, at different periods, at Florence, at Bologna and at Perugia. He was for some time the vicar-general of Cardinal Zabarella at Florence, and his eminence as a teacher of canon law may be inferred from the language of one of his pupils, who styles him "famosissimus juris utriusque monarca." His most complete treatise is his readings on the _Digest_, and it appears from a passage in his readings on the _Digestum Vetus_ that he delivered them at a time when he had been actively engaged for forty-five years as a teacher of civil law. His death is generally assigned to 1436, but it appears from an entry in a MS. of the _Digestum Vetus_, which is extant at Munich, made by the hand of one of his pupils who styles him "praeceptor meus," that he died on the 20th of July 1441.

CASTRES, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Tarn, 29 m. S.S.E. of Albi on a branch line of the Southern railway. Pop. (1906) town, 19,864; commune, 28,272. Castres, the busiest and most populous town of its department, is intersected from north to south by the Agout; the river is fringed by old houses the upper stories of which project over its waters. Wide boulevards traverse the west of the town, which is also rendered attractive by numerous fountains fed by a fine aqueduct hewn in the rock. The church of St Benoit, once a cathedral, and the most important of the churches of Castres, dates only from the 17th and 18th centuries. The hotel de ville, which contains a museum and the municipal library, occupies the former bishop's palace, designed by Jules Mansart in the 17th century; the Romanesque tower beside it is the only survival of an old Benedictine abbey. The town possesses some old mansions of which the hotel de Nayrac, of the Renaissance, is of most interest. Castres has a sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce, a branch of the bank of France and two hospitals. There are also communal colleges for boys and girls, a school of artillery and school of draughtsmanship. The industrial establishments include manufactories of earthenware and porcelain and metal-foundries, and tanning, leather-dressing, turnery, the making of wooden shoes and furniture, the weaving of woollen and other fabrics, dyeing, and the manufacture of machinery, paper and parchment are carried on.

Castres grew up round a Benedictine abbey, which is believed to have been founded in the 7th century. It was a place of considerable importance as early as the 12th century, and ranked as the second town of the Albigenses. During the Albigensian crusade it surrendered of its own accord to Simon de Montfort; and in 1356 it was raised to a countship by King John of France. On the confiscation of the possessions of the D'Armagnac family, to which it had passed, it was bestowed by Louis XI. on Boffilo del Giudice, but the appointment led to so much disagreement that the countship was united to the crown by Francis I. in 1519. In the wars of the latter part of the 16th century the inhabitants sided with the Protestant party, fortified the town, and established an independent republic. They were brought to terms, however, by Louis XIII., and forced to dismantle their fortifications; and the town was made the seat of the _chambre de l'edit_, or chamber for the investigation of the affairs of the Protestants, afterwards transferred to Castelnaudary (in 1679). The bishopric of Castres, which had been established by Pope John XXII. in 1317, was abolished at the Revolution.

CASTRO, INEZ DE (d. 1355), mistress, and perhaps wife, of Peter I. (Pedro), king of Portugal, called _Collo de Garza_, i.e. "Heron's Neck," was born in Spanish Galicia, in the earlier years of the 14th century. Tradition asserts that her father, Don Pedro Fernandez de Castro, and her mother, Dona Aldonca Soares de Villadares, a noble Portuguese lady, were unmarried, and that Inez and her two brothers were consequently of bastard birth. Educated at the semi-Oriental provincial court of Juan Manuel, duke of Penafiel, Inez grew up side by side with Costanca, the duke's daughter by a scion of the royal house of Aragon, and her own cousin. After refusing several crowned heads in marriage, Costanca was at last persuaded to accept the hand of the infante Dom Pedro, son of Alphonso the Proud, king of Portugal. In 1341 the two girls left Penafiel; Costanca's marriage was celebrated in the same year, and the young infanta and her cousin went to reside at Lisbon, or at Coimbra, where Dom Pedro conceived that luckless and furious passion for Inez which has immortalized them.

The morality of the age was lax, and more especially so in Spain and Portugal, where the looseness of the marriage tie and the example of the Moors encouraged polygamy. Pedro's connexion _par amours_ with Inez would of itself have aroused no opposition. He might even have married her, after the death of his wife in childbirth in 1345. According to his own assurance he did marry her in 1354. But by that time the rising power of the Castro family had created the most brutal hatred among their rivals, both in Spain and Portugal. Alvaro Gonzales, Pedro Coelho, and Diogo Lopes Pacheco persuaded the king, Alphonso, that his throne was in danger from an alliance between his son and the Castros, and with all the brutality of the age they urged the king to remove the danger by murdering the poor woman. The old king listened, refused, wavered and ended by yielding. He went in secret to the palace at Coimbra, where Inez and the infante resided, accompanied by his three familiars, and by others who agreed with them. The beauty and tears of Inez disarmed his resolution, and he turned to leave her; but the gentlemen about him had gone too far to recede. Inez was stabbed to death and was buried immediately in the church of Santa Clara.

The infante raised at once the flag of revolt against his father, and was only appeased by the concession of a large share in the government. The three murderers of Inez were sent out of the kingdom by Alphonso, who knew his son too well not to be aware that the vengeance would be tremendous as the crime. They took refuge in Castile. In 1357, however, Alphonso died, and the infante was crowned king of Portugal. Peter the Cruel, his nephew, reigned over Castile; and the murderers were given up as soon as required. Diogo Lopes escaped through the gratitude of a beggar to whom he had formerly done a kindness; but Coelho and Gonzales were executed, with horrible tortures, in the very presence of the king.

The story of the exhumation and coronation of the corpse of Inez has often been told. It is said that to the dead body, crowned and robed in royal raiment, and enthroned beside the king, the assembled nobles of Portugal paid homage as to their queen, swearing fealty on the withered hand of the corpse. The gravest doubts, however, exist as to the authenticity of this story; Fernao Lopes, the Portuguese Froissart, who is the great authority for the details of the death of Inez, with some of the actors in which he was acquainted, says nothing of the ghastly ceremony, though he tells at length the tale of the funeral honours that the king bestowed upon his wife. Inez was buried at Alcobaca with extraordinary magnificence, in a tomb of white marble, surmounted by her crowned statue; and near her sepulchre Pedro caused his own to be placed. The monument, after repeatedly resisting the violence of curiosity, was broken into in 1810 by the French soldiery; the statue was mutilated, and the yellow hair was cut from the broken skeleton, to be preserved in reliquaries and blown away by the wind. The children of Inez shared her habit of misfortune. From her brother, however, Alvaro Perez de Castro, the reigning house of Portugal directly descends.

See Fernao Lopes, _Chronica del Rey Dom Pedro_ (1735); Camoens, _Os
Lusiadas_; Antonio Ferreira's _Ines de Castro_,--the first regular
tragedy of the Renaissance after the _Sofonisba_ of Trissino; Luis
Velez de Guevara, _Reinar despues de morir_, an admirable play; and
Ferdinand Denis, _Chroniques chevaleresques de l'Espagne et du
Portugal_.