Chapter XII: Of the Edwardian or Concentric Castles (13)

At the northern point outside of, but engaged in, the wall, is the foundation of a round tower, now included in a square bastion, belonging rather to the outer ward than to this.

The postern is common to this and the outer ward, or rather at this point the two run into one, and the postern pierces the common wall. It is a narrow door having a flat top supported by two brackets, and above a round-head arch with closed tympanum. It opens in a re-entering angle of the wall, covered by the bastion, and upon the scarp, so that it must have been reached by a shifting bridge or ladder, the arrangements for working which seem indicated by some recesses for bars just within the portal. There is no portcullis; the defence was a barred door. The cill of this postern is about 30 feet below the base of the keep. It is reached by steps cut in the chalk rock, and but little worn.

The great gateway of this ward opens in the curtain to the east, and had a gatehouse almost entirely within the wall. This gate is considerably below the level of the ward. A steep descent leads to it, and the portal vault has three hanging ribs or arches, with a portcullis inside them, with a square groove. The inner half of the portal is gone; probably there was a second vault and portcullis, and an open space between. The face of the porter’s lodge is gone, but the lodge is seen to have had a plain segmental vault. Outside the gate is a curious square groove as for a portcullis, but it is stopped, and does not descend below the springing level of the gate arch.

This gate opens upon the ditch. The base of the scarp-pier of the bridge remains. The counterscarp has tumbled in. There was, probably, a central pier in the ditch. The present bridge is not original. The approach to this gate left by Cœur-de-Lion was a causeway, formed by leaving the rock uncut. It was over this causeway that the inner ward was stormed and taken.

Just within this gate was a well 270 feet deep, now blocked up.

Outside the _enceinte_ is the ditch, about 20 feet deep, and 30 feet wide at the gate, and along the south front, with vertical sides, but running out to nothing on the steep ground as its ends pass northwards.

This ditch is, in fact, in the _outer ward_, which envelopes the inner ward. This ward is oblong, about 325 feet north and south, and 200 feet east and west. Its northern half is of an irregular oval form, following the rock, and terminating in two large rectangular conjoined bastions upon the precipitous north end. The southern half is nearly rectangular; having a straight south face 125 feet long, flanked by two drum towers. From these pass off the lateral curtains, forming the east and west front, and ending in two other drum towers, of which that to the east, nearly opposite the inner-ward gateway, is gone. The curtain, from this tower northwards, is also gone. On the opposite or west side it is a mere parapet, cresting the precipice and following its outlines. From the manner in which the inner ward is placed in this ward it occupies nearly all its northern end, but leaves to the south a platform, outside the ditch, of about 140 feet by 100 feet. Here is a rectangular foundation, about 40 feet broad by 60 feet long, and divided lengthways by a wall. Its length is north and south, but here is said to have been the chapel, probably built across one end. It was the work of King John, placed upon a substructure of cellars, and in close contiguity to the castle garderobe in the west wall. “Juxta foricas, quod quidem religioni contrarium videbatur,” says the chronicler. The end walls and the east side are faced with ashlar, but there is now nothing like a chapel. Here, however, it appears to have been, and its roof was visible above the wall. These foundations are interesting, since it was here, through a window in the contiguous wall, that the ward was entered and surprised during the great siege.

No regular gateway remains in this ward. There is an opening in the south curtain which led to the great outwork, but which could scarcely have been the regular entrance. Neither could this have been on the west or north fronts. Probably, therefore, it was to the north-east, where the wall is now wanting. It is said not to have been opposite the inner gateway. At best the approach must have been little suited to wheel carriages. There was a well in the east quarter of this ward.

Mention has to be made of some curious chambers cut in the chalk of the escarpment of the ditch, from which at this time they are entered. There are three or four of these, about 80 feet in length and 7 feet high. They are carved with a sort of rough regularity, with pilasters left against the wall, and bands representing segmental arches. One large octagonal pier has a cap and base, and the latter has the water-bearing hollow of the Early English style, and is evidently original. It is probable, from what is said of these places in the account of the surprise of this ward, that they had a door towards the ditch, but they seem to have been also entered by a round hole, 4 feet across, in the roof, as was the case with the dungeons at Coucy.

The outer ward has its proper ditch, cut with vertical sides across the ridge in front of the south wall, between it and the rear of the outwork. This ditch is about 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep, but runs out to nothing when it reaches the steep ground.

The outwork, ravelin, or outer ward, is an antemural work, intended to cover the only side upon which the castle was open to an attack from level, or rather rising, ground, and to occupy what would otherwise have been a very dangerous platform.

It is in figure an isosceles triangle, having a base of 125 feet, and sides of 175 feet. Each of the three angles is capped by a round tower of 35 feet diameter, having walls 11 feet thick, and which seem to have been at least 40 feet high. Besides these, in the side walls, 60 feet in rear of the front tower, are two subordinate towers, also round, of 25 feet diameter; and again, a few feet from these, the curtain is slightly bent, so as to present an obtuse salient to the field. The work, therefore, though in general plan a triangle, has really five angles and as many towers. The front tower has a well-stair at its junction with its western curtain. The curtain is much broken down, but must have been at least 30 feet high, and, near the front, about 12 feet thick, and elsewhere 8 feet.

The rear or gorge wall is not exactly a curtain to the flanking towers. It is placed a little outside of them, on the edge of the ditch; and between it and the east tower was the gateway, the special and independent entrance of the outwork. The north side is gone, but the other side shows the springing of the portal arches and a square portcullis groove. In this gorge wall, not far from the gate, is a large arch, corresponding to that already mentioned in the outer-ward wall. This was, no doubt, a way of communication between the castle and the earthwork. This ditch was crossed by a wall at the east end, which connected the two works and protected the bridge. The west end is filled with ruins. There are now no traces of buildings in the outwork.

The towers of the outwork are of great strength, and have been faced with ashlar. The front tower especially is strong, and does not appear ever to have been mined or breached. Also the rock beneath it is undisturbed. Possibly the breach spoken of at the siege was in the adjacent curtain on the east.

In the rear of this work is the ditch already described, and along its front and flanks is another ditch, proper to the outwork, and the most formidable of all the defences. It is above 30 feet wide, and at the advanced point, where the ground rises, above 40 feet deep. The scarp and counterscarp are vertical.

Besides these regular works are others of a less regular but very formidable character, on the west side. This face of the rock towards the Seine, steep naturally, has been scarped and defended by art. Half-way down the slope is a round tower, connected, it is said, with the work above, by a gallery cut in the chalk. From the tower a wall descended to the river, so that the approaches on this side and the road between the hill and the river were effectually commanded. This wall seems to have terminated on the river bank, in a pier of which traces remain, and which supported one end of a strong dam or weir of piles, which extended across the river, and was part of the original work of Cœur-de-Lion. Several other works were stepped into the rocky slope, and especially covered the west side.

The weir crossed above the island, called formerly D’Andelys, upon which was the octangular fort, erected also by Richard, and of which traces remain. The bridges from this island, either way, to the banks, were of timber, and have left no trace behind.

Finally are to be mentioned the fortifications of the lesser Andelys, now destroyed, and the lake, fed by the waters of the Gambon, and which washed the walls of Great Andelys, and completely enveloped the lower town. These additional defences are now destroyed and the lake is drained and filled up, but indications remain sufficient to verify the detailed description of Guillaume le Breton, and to justify M. Deville in his description, and M. le Duc, in his restorations, advanced under the excellent articles “Château” and “Donjon” in his “Dictionary.”

THE CASTLE OF CHRISTCHURCH, HANTS.

The town, castle, and priory of Christchurch are placed upon the south-eastern point and edge of a tongue of moderately-high ground, which intervenes between the Stour on the west and the Avon on the east. The two rivers of Dorset and Wilts meander like their prototype,

“.... toties qui terris errat in isdem,”

and flow across broad and marshy tracts of land to unite below Christchurch in a spacious inlet of the bay which is formed, and on the south-east protected, by the headland bearing the suggestive name of Hengistbury. The position is thus strong and convenient: unapproachable, by reason of the marshes, on the east and west; presenting to the north a narrow and defencible front, and placed upon a harbour in former days very suitable for small vessels, sheltered from the prevailing west wind, and having a narrow and easily-guarded entrance from the adjacent channel. Such a position was not likely to be neglected by any people, even in the rudest age, and accordingly the Britons seem to have fortified the headland: and those who drove them out not only gave to that headland its present name, but, finding the inner position better suited to their habits, fortified it with bank and ditch, and within the area so enclosed threw up the usual mound, or burh, the ordinary indication of the residence of an early English chieftain.

The remains of the British period are confined to the double banks and ditches, which still crown the headland, and to the names of the rivers, which there unite. Of a British town or church, Aberdour, as such would have probably been called, no traces are to be found.

The earliest mention of the place in Anglo-Saxon records is in the Chronicle in A.D. 901, where it is recorded, that on the death of Alfred and the succession of Edward the Elder, Æthelwold, his uncle’s son, seized the vill at “Winburne and that at Tweoxneam,” but on Edward’s marching to Badbury, and threatening an attack on Winburne, now Wimborne, he fled into the North. This statement is repeated by Florence of Worcester, with the additional information that Tweoxneam was a royal vill. The place, under its better-known name of Twyneham, occurs in a charter by Athelstan, dated April 23rd, 939, in which, among other lands, he, the “king wielding all Britain,” gives to God and St. Mary, to St. Michael, St. Sampson, and St. Branwaladre, lands on Avene at Twynham. The character of a royal vill was long sustained, and from Domesday it appears that it had belonged to the Confessor and did then belong to King William. Long before that time, however, a religious house had been founded there, and the canons of Tuinham, or of the Holy Trinity of Thuinam, appear in the Survey as tenants-in-chief. The foundation was probably an early one. Twynburn, or Winburn, on the same Stour a few miles higher up, was founded before 705, and Wareham before 876. In the Confessor’s time, there were twenty-four canons and a dean; and in the reign of Rufus, the latter post was filled by Ralf Flambard, who is said to have rebuilt the college, which was practically re-founded by Richard de Redvers, Earl of Devon, in the reign of Henry I., and whose son, Earl Baldwin, obtained the conversion of the seculars into regular canons of the order of St. Augustin. The mill is recorded in Domesday. In all these transactions there is no mention of the castle.

The castle, however, though possibly not a structure in regular masonry until a century later than the Conquest, was certainly a burh long before that event, and probably at least as early as the ninth century, preceding, no doubt, and being the cause of, the vill, or collection of houses. It stands upon the right or west bank of the Avon river, immediately below the ancient bridge which carries the high road across it. Its eastern front stands about 16 yards from the river, and rises out of, and forms, the bank of the Mill Leat, which intervenes between the castle and the Avon. The leat commences about three quarters of a mile higher up, and terminates at the ancient Priory Mill, now called “Place Mill,” 500 yards lower down, where, having started from the Avon, it falls into the Stour. As there seems to have been but one mill, it is to be supposed that the lay and spiritual lords were in accord upon the very interesting topic of multures. At any rate, it lay with the former to cut off the supply of water.

The area of the castle was roughly rectangular, about 110 yards north and south, or parallel to the river, and 150 yards east and west,—dimensions which include the ditch, now filled up, but of which there are indications, with a breadth of 20 yards, along the north and west fronts, now Castle and Church streets. The line of the ditch along the south, or Priory, side is not traceable. The old Priory wall is wanting there, and the ground has been levelled and cultivated as a garden for above a century. Probably the ditch communicated at each end with the mill-stream, and was filled from it, involving at the deepest part not above 12 feet to 15 feet of excavation. No doubt there was a bank within the ditch, thrown up from it, and which has since been employed to fill it up. On the water front no earthworks were necessary. The leat is 25 feet broad, and the river expands suddenly below the bridge to 130 feet in width.

In the highest and north-western quarter of the space thus enclosed is the burh, attributed by Norden, with great probability, to Edward the Elder, after the suppression of the rebellion of Æthelwald in 901. This is an oblong mound, wholly artificial, and composed of chalk-gravel. It measures about 160 feet north and south by 150 feet east and west, and has a table summit about 120 feet by 90 feet; it is about 20 feet high. This mound and base court, with the circumscribing bank and ditch, and the watercourse, with, no doubt, a strong palisade, formed the original fortress, which, side by side with the Priory, afforded to the contiguous town temporal and spiritual protection. Here, upon the old site, Richard de Redvers, having before obtained a grant of the manor from Henry I., erected a castle such as was then in use. He walled in the area, placing probably his curtain along the crest of the bank and upon the edge of the mill leat. His keep he built upon the mound, and the hall and domestic buildings upon the line of the wall, along the edge of the water. He is said also to have walled the town. The masonry remaining is but scanty and confined to some fragments of the keep and the hall-house, both of which appear to be original.

The keep is peculiar both in position and in its details. It is, or has been, rectangular, and it stands upon the summit of the mound. It is very unusual, for obvious reasons, to find rectangular keeps placed upon artificial earthworks. At Guildford, where this appears to be the case, it is only partially so, the tower being built on the slope of the mound so that at least one half of it descends to the solid. It is, no doubt, possible that here, the mound being of but moderate height, the foundations may be laid below it; but more probably this is not the case, and the engineer trusted, and securely, to the immense breadth of his masonry to spread the weight and thus avoid unequal settlement. Usually, when keeps are erected on artificial mounds, they are of the shell type, as at Arundel.

This keep is also peculiar in its details. It was a rectangular tower, 50 feet north and south by 46 feet east and west. Its walls were fully 11 feet thick. There are no traces of pilasters, and the angles are chamfered off, the face of the chamfer being about 6 feet. At present only the east and west sides are standing, to a height of nearly 30 feet, and it is difficult to make out from them what were the arrangements of the building. In the west wall is one opening; on the east are two, flat-sided, 8 feet wide, about 18 feet high, and descending to the ground-level. They are closed above by very flat segmental arches—in fact, plat-bands—relieved by obtusely-pointed, if not round-headed, arches of construction in the work immediately above such details, so far as they can be seen or inferred. The low and large openings, the chamfered angles, and the absence of pilasters are utterly unlike what is usual in a Norman keep; though, from the great mass and general figure of the building, it can scarcely be other than Norman. Mitford, in Northumberland, though differing in detail from the present tower, differs quite as much from the ordinary type, and that certainly is of Norman date. The work of this keep is a sort of coarse ashlar, rough, but of good quality. Perhaps more details might be discovered but for a thick drapery of ivy, which, in this stage of its decay, serves to protect the building.

The hall, called the Constable’s House, is a rectangular building, 80 feet north and south by 35 feet east and west, placed on the margin of the leat, and rising out of it, so that its broadside forms a part of the outer line of defence towards the east. At present it is detached and stands alone, but it probably ranged with the curtain wall, of which, however, there are now no traces. There seems to have been a building connected with its south-west angle.

The building was composed of a basement and a first floor. At each end was a high-pitched gable, of which the southern only remains. The walls are 5 feet thick, and the interior dimensions therefore 70 feet by 25 feet. The basement is at the ground level and about 1 foot above the top water of the leat, the height of which is regulated by hatches. The entrance from the castle was in the west side, 16 feet from the north end. The doorway, of 5 feet opening, seems to have had a segmental head, but the ashlar has been roughly removed. In the two ends were loops: that to the south has long been closed. In the east side, towards its north end, are two loops. All these loops are mere rectangular slits, evidently intended for air, not defence. Each is placed in a splayed recess, 4 feet 6 inches wide, with a segmental head. Also in the east wall, 4 feet from the south end, is a similar recess, opening into a small door, which led into the garderobe turret. Next, north of this, 12 feet from the south end, is a door opening on the water, 7 feet wide, with a very flat arch, evidently original. The jambs are of ashlar, and they have capitals of a peculiar character. This was evidently the watergate for the admission of stores from the river, here a few yards beyond the leat and a few feet below it. The garderobe turret is a projection, 12 feet square, from the east wall at its south end, standing in the leat, and pierced below by a round-headed arch, or culvert, 4 feet broad, through which the water flows freely, and into which the garderobes discharged. This basement was evidently a store. It is said to have been crossed by a wall. Of this there is now no trace.

The first floor contained the hall, which occupied its whole area. The main entrance was at the south end, near the south-west corner, by a segmental-headed door; in the north wall is a window of two coupled lights, each under a segmental head, with exterior drips, and the whole placed within an exterior round-headed recess, the sides of which contain flanking shafts, nooked. Above, not quite over the centre, is a corbel carved as a human head. The arch-head and tympanum are highly enriched with varieties of the chevron moulding, and upon the chamfers of the lesser drips are rosettes carved with great delicacy. Though heavily draped in ivy, enough is seen of this window to show that it is late Norman, and of great beauty. There are windows similar in type, but less rich in ornament, in the side walls, two in each, and probably there were three, indicated by notches in the ivy. In the east wall, 20 feet from the north end, are the remains of a large fireplace, of which the convex back and the upper part of the circular tunnel remain, and above is a tall cylindrical chimney-shaft, probably original. A door from the south end of this wall led into the garderobe turret, which had a loop to the east. There is also a round-headed window in the south gable, which opened into the roof. There was no vaulting; the floor and roof were of timber, the latter open.

The view in Grose, taken in 1783, shows the garderobe turret to the full height of the side wall, and the great chimney-shaft unincumbered with ivy. It also shows the north-east angle unbroken, within which was then contained a well-stair. This angle has now fallen away or been removed, and its broken parts are so encumbered with ivy and rubbish that nothing has been ascertained as to what may remain; but no doubt the staircase ascended from the basement to the main floor and thence to the roof or to the ramparts of the curtain. In Grose’s time, the north wall was encumbered by a cottage and some chimneys and other additions in brick; these have now been removed. The garderobe turret was wilfully pulled down when the castle changed hands towards the end of the last century. There is a letter in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ complaining of this, and which possibly put a stop to further injuries.

It is remarkable that a building closely resembling this is found at Desmond’s Castle, at Adare, near Limerick. That castle is late Norman, with a rectangular keep, though not on a mound, as the ground is naturally high; and just below the keep, upon the bank of the river, is placed the hall-house. It has a basement on the ground level, evidently a store, with a separate entrance, and above is the hall, with a boarded floor and open roof. The garderobe turret is built out into the stream, has a culvert below, and is nearly perfect. The keep, hall-house, and gate-house are there preserved, and if, as is probable, the entrance at Christchurch was near the river at the foot of the bridge, the relative position of the buildings would be the same. An excellent plan of Desmond’s Castle will be found, with much else of a valuable character, in Lord Dunraven’s “Memorials of Adare.”

Christchurch Castle has not been the scene of any remarkable event, nor does its name occur with any prominence in the history of the country, or even of the county. The manor was first alienated from the Crown by Henry I. in favour of Richard de Redvers, whom he created Earl of Devon. In the “Monasticon” (vi., 304) is printed a grant or confirmation by this earl to the canons of Christchurch of the “Terram usque in aquam de havene, quæ est inter cimeterium et fossatum castelli, messuagium supra ipsius castelli fossatum, quod habent ex dono Gamelini.” This is the first mention of the castle, and would make it earlier than 1137, in which year Earl Richard died. As the masonry of the castle looks twenty or thirty years later, the allusion may be to the earthworks, or older castle; and the present building may be the work of Baldwin, the second earl, who granted a charter to the same effect with that of his father, confirming lands between the churchyard and the ditch of the castle (_ibid._, vi., 303). Earl Baldwin died 1155. In the rolls of Parliament, mention is made of John Randolph, a former justice, as having been warder of the castle in the time of Henry I. Baldwin’s son and successor was Earl Richard, who confirmed his gifts, and died 8 Henry II., 1161, leaving Baldwin, the fourth earl, who died childless, and was succeeded by his brother Richard, fifth earl, who also died childless. The heir was William, called De Vernon, sixth earl, brother of Richard, the third earl, and uncle to the two last earls. He flourished during the reigns of Richard I. and John. Probably during these transitions the Crown stepped in as custos, for in a plea before the Curia Regis, in 1194, a certain Roger Waspail affirms that seizin of certain lands was given to him by Earl John “in werra sua dum fuit in Castello de Cristescherche.” A little later, when Earl William was in possession, the king (2 John) confirmed a settlement made by William de Vernon, Earl of Devon, by which Plympton Castle, the caput of that honour, was to pass to his elder daughter, and Christchurch and the Isle of Wight to Joan, the younger. John was at Christchurch, either the priory or the castle, December 13, 1201. Probably this deed was drawn up before the birth of Baldwin, the earl’s son, or when it was supposed that Baldwin would die childless. As it was, it did not take effect, for though Baldwin died before his father, he left a son, Baldwin, seventh earl, who was also Earl of the Isle of Wight.

In 1210, 11 John, the king was again at Christchurch, on his way from Clarendon to Canford. Baldwin died 1245, leaving a son, another Baldwin, eighth and last earl of the House of Redvers. He died 47 Henry III., 1262-3, and is described as Baldwin de Lisle, Earl of Devon, and he died seized of the manor of Christchurch. It appears from the “Testa de Nevile” that he held that manor “de veteri feoffamento,” by what service is not recorded.

The earl’s heir was his sister Isabel, who married William de Fortibus, Earl of Albermarle, who died in 1260. Isabel succeeded to the whole estate, with the reversion of Christchurch, which was held in dower by Countess Margaret. Countess Isabel died before 1269, leaving one child, Aveline, who married Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III. She died childless, having inherited Christchurch on the death of the Countess Margaret in 20 Edward I., in which year she also died, having granted or bequeathed Christchurch and some other parts of the earldom to the king, by whom, in 1299, 27 Edward I., the “Castrum de Cristeschurche de Twynham cum burgo et Manerio de Westovre et Hundredo de Cristeschurche” were assigned as part of the dower of Queen Margaret. These possessions, as part of the earldom of Devon, were claimed, in 1315, 8 & 9 Edward II., by Hugh de Courtenay, as heir-general of Countess Isabel, but without success. The castle descended to Edward III., who placed Thomas West in it as custos.

In his third year, the king granted to Sir William de Montacute, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, the castle and borough of Christchurch-Twynam, the Manor of Westovre, and the Hundred of Christchurch. The earl died so seized, and his will is dated at Christchurch-Twynam, 20th April, 1397. With the exception of a short forfeiture by Earl John to Henry IV., the castle remained in the Montacutes until Earl Thomas, who died in 7 Henry V., and left it to his daughter and heiress, Alice, who married Richard Nevile. Probably it was regarded as a male fief, for in 32 Henry VI. was a grant of a lease for twelve years of the manor, borough, and hundred, to Richard, Earl of Salisbury, in right of the Lady Alice, his wife, at the rent of a red rose. The leasehold appears to have been extended, and eventually converted into a freehold, as the Christchurch estates were held by the son of Richard and Alice, the king-maker Warwick, and descended to his elder daughter and co-heir, Isabel, who married George, Duke of Clarence. Their son, Edward, Earl of Warwick, held Christchurch till his forfeiture and death, after which (5 Henry VIII.) his estates and the title of Salisbury were allowed to his sister Margaret, executed 1541, and who at her death or forfeiture held the manor, castle, borough, and hundred of Christchurch, which then escheated to the Crown. It is by descent from Countess Margaret, through her granddaughter Catherine Pole, that the inheritors of the Hastings baronies are now claiming the chantry erected for their Plantagenet ancestress in the priory church. They, no doubt, are the heirs-general; the heir male is the Earl of Huntingdon.

From Henry to James, Christchurch remained in the Crown. The latter sovereign granted it to trustees for the benefit of Prince Charles, whence it passed by sale through various hands, and finally was purchased by Sir George Rose in 1790. It is now the property of Lord Strathnairn.

The Priory buildings stood to the south of the church, and but scanty traces of them remain. There are considerable fragments of the containing wall to the south and east, and the fragments of two mural towers and the gateway. On the low ground on the Stour to the south-west, on the edge of the wet land called “QUOMPS,” are traces of a large fish-pond. Beyond the mill are the “convent meadows.” On the corbel shields terminating the drip-stone of the west door of the tower, are, dexter, what appears to be a “cross patonce” for de Fortibus; and, sinister, Montacute quartering Monthermer.

CLIFFORD CASTLE, HEREFORDSHIRE.

Clifford Castle is the most westward of the fortresses by which the line of the Wye is protected in its passage across the county of Hereford, and which appear to have been constructed, some long before, some shortly before, and others shortly after, the Norman Conquest, for the defence of that fertile acquisition against the ever-aggressive Welsh of Brecknock and Radnor.

As early as the first quarter of the ninth century, the Saxons, under Egbert, had reduced Wales to a nominal subjection. And that great prince, having conquered Mercia, and exercising power over all England, is not unlikely to have strengthened the Mercian frontier and the Saxon acquisitions generally on the Welsh side; and to this period may be due, not improbably, such earthworks as those at Cardiff, Caerleon, Shrewsbury, Old Radnor, and Builth, and, now partially destroyed, at Hereford, and wholly so at Worcester: earthworks which, in their main features, resemble those thrown up early in the tenth century at Tutbury, Tamworth, and Leicester by Eadward the elder and his sister, Æthelflæd.

But, whatever may then have been done, it is very certain that during the reign of the Confessor several of his Norman favourites settled in England, and that, among them, Richard Fitz-Scrob had lands in the north of Herefordshire, and there set up and gave name to Richard’s Castle. As this castle was a great cause of offence, it probably was something different from the fortified timber houses of the English Thanes, and may well have been of stone, after the rising Norman fashion. It was certainly a place of considerable strength, and was useful during the invasion of Prince Griffith, in 1052. The fashion, probably, did not extend among the English, for when the same prince invaded Archenfield, and burned Hereford city, in 1055, he entered, apparently without much difficulty, the strong place, or Gaer, by which it was defended, and of which no doubt the banks and ditches, yet remaining, and the mound, known to have been removed, were parts. Harold retook and fortified the city in 1056.

Herefordshire was at that time, and long afterwards, one of the most valuable and most threatened of the English acquisitions on the Welsh border. Before the Norman Conquest, it was under the vigorous sway of Earl Harold, who beat back the Welsh from Rhuddlan to Gloucester and Chepstow, although he was unable to prevent Caradoc ap Griffith from destroying the hunting-seat in course of construction for the Confessor at Portskewet. That Harold encouraged fortified places on these marches is pretty certain, seeing that of the small number of castles recorded in the Domesday Survey no less than ten are named as standing in the marches of Monmouth and Hereford: namely, Wigmore, Clifford, and Chepstow, of which Wigmore is reputed one of the oldest Honours in the kingdom; Monmouth; Ewyas, founded before the Conquest, and repaired before Domesday, by Alured de Marleburgh; Avretone; Caerleon, famous for its Roman walls and its mount; Ferrars Castle; Herdeslie; Waterleye. These and several others not mentioned in the Survey, but existing at the time, were strengthened and held by the Norman invaders.

Clifford Castle stands on the right bank of the Wye, at the bottom of one of those short, sharp bends so frequent along the course of this river, and which add so much to its beauty. It crowns a red sandstone cliff about 150 feet above the stream, and close to it. The scarp, naturally steep, has been recently made steeper by art, to allow of the passage of the Brecon and Hereford Railway between the castle and the river. The cliff is part of a knoll of high ground, about half a mile long, and cut by the long-continued action of the river into a semilunar figure. The highest part of this knoll is converted into a narrow tongue by a broad and deep ravine, which descends from the north nearly parallel to the Wye, and terminates in the river bank. A long, tapering ridge is thus isolated between the ravine and the river, and upon this stands the fortress. The ravine bounds the ridge on the south and east, and a natural depression of no great depth crosses the latter at the broad north end. The intermediate part is traversed by two artificial cross ditches, which run from the river to the ravine, about 100 feet deep, but still considerably above the level of either.

The central and highest part thus isolated contains the inner ward; south of this a very small but strong division constitutes the outwork; and on the north is the lower but broader expanse of the outer ward, the three being thus in a line.

The inner ward, of which alone any buildings remain, is roughly quadrangular, about 100 feet square. Along the west or river front are the hall and withdrawing-room. On the south front is a half-round tower and a curtain. The east, or ravine, side is destroyed to the ground level, as is nearly all the north end, in which was the gate-house. The hall, 20 feet by 40 feet, was on the first floor. There was a store or cellar under it, of which the east and south walls are gone. Its entrance, and any light it may have had, were probably given on the court or east side. The hall had a timber floor. It was lighted by three windows in the west or river wall. Of these, the recess of one remains, with a rather low, pointed arch. A door in the north wall led into the withdrawing-room, and one at the south end into the mural tower. The east and south walls are gone. The withdrawing-room occupied the curved angle of the ward between the hall and the gate-house; beneath it was a ground-floor. The south end of the hall, like the west side, was an outer curtain. It abutted against a half-round tower, 30 feet diameter, with walls 9 feet thick, and a gorge wall, 5 feet thick, flush with the inner face of the curtain. This tower seems to have had an under ground-floor, now filled up. The basement has a door from the court, in the gorge; another door on the west side, probably a postern, and two loops with wide recesses, opening towards the field. The upper floor also had two loops to the field, a window in the gorge, and on each side a door, one leading obliquely into the hall, and the other into a mural chamber within the curtain, and containing a garderobe, double. The floors were of timber. There is no staircase nor fireplace.

The curtain breaks off towards the south-east angle, where it seems to have expanded and probably abutted against a tower. In it is a mural chamber, a garderobe, single, on the first floor level, and which evidently opened from the destroyed tower. The two garderobes mentioned open by oblique shoots in the wall, about 5 feet from the ground, without any projection. As the whole east or ravine front is gone, it is difficult to say whether there were towers at the south-east and north-east angles; probably there were, and round ones. In the north front are two circular depressions, evidently the place of the two towers of the gate-house, and between them is the entrance. This leads from the outer ward, and crossed the ditch upon a causeway of earth, about 6 feet broad at the top, and the ascent up which from the counterscarp of the ditch to the portal is very steep. The causeway appears to be original, and has been pitched with stones on edge. At the end of this ditch, where it opened on the river bank, it is crossed by a curtain, 6 feet thick, intended to prevent enemies from crawling up the river bank and surprising the adjacent gateway. This curtain is now about 6 feet high, and probably was 25 feet or 30 feet.

The outwork, south of the inner ward, and divided from it by a very narrow but deep ditch, is not easily to be explained. It is the extremity of the ridge, of a triangular figure, 60 feet on a side, and level, showing no trace of earthwork or masonry of any kind. The three scarps are very steep indeed, and quite sharp and clean cut, the soft rock being covered with excellent firm turf. This outwork is so dangerously near to the inner ward, and at so high a level, that it must have been occupied, probably by a stockade or timber structure. It is a very curious work.

The outer ward, at the north end or root of the ridge, is 60 feet or 70 feet lower, and much broader than the inner ward. Its defence on the south is the cross ditch, over which passes the causeway to the inner ward; on the west is the river-cliff, 80 feet to 90 feet high; and on the east and north a steep scarp, partly of red rock, partly rivetted in masonry, and from 10 feet to 20 feet deep. Beyond it is the upper part of the ravine, and the natural depression connecting the ravine with the river bank. This ward is something between a square and a circle, and about 300 feet in diameter. It has evidently been defended by a curtain, probably a low one, on the east and south, or exposed, sides, and the ground, usually level, rises in a sort of ramp to what appears to be the remains of the wall. This ramp is wanting on the river and south faces, which, being covered by the river and the river ward, were probably palisaded only. About the centre of the east front is a low mound, apparently the foundations of a round mural tower.

The depressed ground in the centre of the south front indicates that the outer entrance was there; and midway between this and the causeway, leading to the inner ward, are two long heaps of earth and stone with a passage between them. They much resemble the remains of a long gate-house, between the outer and inner gate; but if so, this must have been in the middle of a wall dividing the outer ward into two, of which no trace remains.

This outer ward, never very strong, was evidently intended for the reception of villagers and cattle during the inroads of the Welsh. The earthworks, though deeper and broader than the Normans usually gave to so small a fortress, have nothing of the character of British or Saxon work, and are probably not older than the Conquest, or the reign preceding it. But of the existing masonry none can be safely called Norman. The walls are of inferior and rudely-coursed rubble; no ashlar remains, save a bold cordon or bead, which runs along the top of the lower or battering part of the wall, and this is not carried all round. The arches of the mural tower are flat-pointed. On the whole, the general appearance of the buildings points to the reign of Henry III., and none of it seems of older date. Certainly no decidedly Norman work is seen.

The ditches were substantially dry, though they may have received and retained more or less land-water.

At the base of the slope of the outwork the ravine has been deepened for a rectangular pond, probably a fish-stew, and an early drawing shows water here collected.

Looking from the inner ward upon the river, there is plainly seen, just above the castle, the line of the old mill leat, now a green ditch, and the small eyot upon which must have stood the castle mill. A ripple on the river, here somewhat expanded, shows a ford; and opposite, on the edge of a broad expanse of low, level mead, is the village of Cabalva, said in Welsh to mean a horse-ford. Thus is seen at one view the cliff and the ford which, under the Saxon sway, gave its appellation to the parish, and from which one of the most celebrated of the great English families derived its name.

Clifford, though the cradle of a great race, could have been valuable only while Herefordshire was an unsafe possession. With the settlement of the country under Edward I., it probably fell into disuse and decay. It is far too small and too inconvenient of access to be held, except for safety; and such history as it has is confined to a very early and warlike period.

The castle is reputed with Striguil or Chepstow, Ewyas, and Wigmore, to have been founded by William Fitz-Osborn, one of the companions of the Conqueror, and the first Norman Earl of Herefordshire. He was killed in 1070, and his third son, Roger de Bretuil, who succeeded to his English lands, had forfeited them before the Domesday Survey, when the castle was held by Ralph de Toni, who, by Dugdale, is said to have married Alicia, one of Roger’s daughters. However this may have been, he possessed Clifford Castle at the time of the Survey, and died 1102.

How the castle passed from De Toni is unknown, but here Simon, son of Richard FitzPons, was seated, and founded a priory, and he and his brother Richard are said by Dugdale to have adopted the surname of Clifford. Walter de Clifford, son of Richard, was a great Marcher Baron, and living in 1165. His son, Walter the second, was a still more powerful Baron. He died 1222, having married Margaret, daughter of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, and was father of a third Walter, and of Roger, ancestor of the great house of Clifford, Earls of Cumberland. He may well have been the builder of the existing castle.

Walter, who died 1263, closed the elder line. Maud, his heiress, is said to have married, first William de Longspée, Earl of Salisbury, and, second, John Giffard, of Brimmesfield, who held, probably during her life, Brunless Castle, the manor of Glasbury, and the manor and castle of Clifford, being seized of them at his death, 27 Edward I. Maud’s daughter by Longspée married Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and probably upon her mother’s death she obtained her heritage, for in the inquisition held upon De Lacy and his wife, 4 Edward II., the manor and castle of Clifford are included. The castle had probably now ceased to be of importance, for it does not again occur in the inquisitions. It is not usually regarded as having been the caput of an Honour; but Giffard’s inquisition mentions its tenants by knights’ service, and John de Solars, 4 Edward II., holds Paunteleye manor of the “Honour of Clifford,” in the county of Gloucester, which in those days was not always distinguished from other parts of the march.

The Church of Clifford throws no light upon the architecture or owners of the castle. The tower, of considerable size and solid aspect, may be moderately old, but the rest of the building has been rebuilt in the churchwarden manner prevalent in 1836, the roofs, however, having been preserved. Also, from the old building, are preserved a good coffin-lid cross in a circle, placed most unwisely as a cill to the north door; a font, or rather the octagonal bowl of one, probably of Decorated date; and in the chancel, loose on a shelf, a very fine life-sized effigy of an ecclesiastic, robed and tonsured, boldly designed and excellently executed in wood, and which deserves better care.

THE KEEP OF CLITHEROE, LANCASHIRE.

The castle of Clitheroe, the chief seat of an ancient and extensive honour, though one of the smallest, is perhaps the strongest, the oldest, and from its position one of the most remarkable, of the fortresses of Lancashire. It is placed upon the left, or eastern, bank of the Ribble, here the boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire, three quarters of a mile from the stream, and about 130 feet above it. It occupies the summit and upper part of a limestone crag, which, precipitous in parts, and very steep on its northern flank, falls, according to the dip of the rock, less steeply towards the south or south-west. Hence, the northern point was selected for the keep and upper ward, and for the lower ward and approaches the shoulder and slopes upon the south. The Roman way from Manchester, by Skipton to York, ascends the dale about half a mile east of the rock, which could scarcely have been neglected as a military post by any people who held the district in other than very peaceful times. The town of Clitheroe has sprung up at the foot of the rock upon the north-east.

The keep stands within, but close to the east side of, a small rounded area of about 80 feet by 90 feet, contained within a curtain wall, which skirts the edge of the rock. This curtain is 6 feet thick, 12 feet high inside, and from 14 feet to 20 feet outside. The circuit, which has, no doubt, been complete, is broken for about 70 feet on the southern side. This is the breadth of the neck by which the upper ward was united to the lower, and the curtain at each end of the gap is extended southwards and south-eastwards down the steep to include the latter. Thus, what is wanting is none of the exterior curtain, only the interior and cross wall between the two wards. The open space is a steep of rugged, broken rock. Probably there was a cross wall and doorway above, and a narrow flight of steps leading to it from below.

The keep is of rough rubble masonry, with ashlar quoins and dressings. It has neither plinth, set-off, nor string, and preserves its exterior dimensions to the summit. Each angle is capped by two pilasters of 9 feet breadth by 11 inches projection. They unite at the angles, which are solid. The two southern angles are supported by extravagantly-large low buttresses, of modern addition, but it is said they were preceded by buttresses somewhat similar, though of much slighter character.

The keep is 33 feet square and about 43 feet high. The walls are 8 feet thick at the base, and consequently enclose a chamber 17 feet square. This is the basement floor, and at the ground level. It is 9 feet high, and the floor, which covered it above, and is now gone, rested upon nine beams, and was therefore immensely strong. The north, south, and west walls are each pierced by a loop, set in a round-headed recess, 5 feet broad and 5 feet high to the springing. Two of these loops have been converted into open breaches, and the third, to the north, has been walled up and the recess covered with a flat lintel. This floor must have been entered from the room above by a trap and ladder. It was, as usual, a store, the value of these strong small towers depending upon their being well provisioned.

The first floor rested upon a set-off of a foot, and is therefore 19 feet square, with walls 7 feet thick. It is 23 feet high. It has in the north and south walls small square-headed loops, placed in round-headed recesses of 4 feet 6 inches opening. In its west side, close to the north end, is a doorway 2 feet 10 inches broad and 8 feet high, round-headed. In the north wall, on each side the loop, is a door. One of these, flat-topped, of 2 feet 6 inches opening and 6 feet high, leads through a small mural lobby, 4 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 2 inches, into a well-stair, 7 feet diameter, which occupies the north-east angle, and commencing at this level, ascends to the battlements by fifty-four steps. The other door, of 2 feet 11 inches opening, 8 feet high, and round-headed, leads by a passage bent at a right angle and having a barrel vault, into a plain mural chamber, 7 feet by 5 feet, also barrel-vaulted, and which, no doubt, had a loop in its west wall. This wall, however, is now broken away, so that the chamber has much the aspect of an entrance-lobby, which it certainly was not.

The second, or uppermost, floor rests upon a set-off of 2 feet, and is therefore 23 feet square, with walls 5 feet thick, and at present 11 feet high. Singularly enough, it shows no trace of any wall-opening whatever, as though it had been added in modern times for effect only, which, however, does not appear to be the case. The staircase, however, has certainly been repaired, and no doubt originally opened into this floor. The wall at the interior angle is thickened somewhat to give space for the stair. The walls may have been a foot or so higher, but scarcely more. The parapet is gone, and was probably another 5 feet. The north-east angle seems to have ended in a small square turret.

The principal entrance was evidently on the first floor, in the east wall, reached by an external stair built against the wall, and ascending from the south end. This is clear from the position and dimensions of the doorway, and from the absence of a loop on this side of the basement, where it would have been covered by the staircase.