Chapter XI: Part 11

The sub-basement consists only of the dungeon. [A. Fig. _a._] The entrance is by a sunken doorway, approached by a descending flight of steps. It is placed 14 feet from the western turret, and the top of the doorway arch shows just above the ground level. The doorway opens into a vaulted passage, down which twelve steps lead to a second doorway, that of the dungeon. This may be described as a square of 23 feet, of which the two north-eastern angles are cut off, reducing one end to a sort of apse of three faces of 9 feet 6 inches each. In the centre is a plain cylindrical pier, 3 feet diameter, with a chamfered base, but no cap, from the head of which branch out twelve ribs, plain and substantial, with a slightly hollow chamfer. They are arranged in groups of three, separated by four rather wider openings, of which two, including the two right angles, are traversed by diagonal ribs, so that the plan of the vault is an octagon. There is an air-hole 3 feet square in the north wall, whence a passage, slightly zigzag, and 14 feet long, ended in a loop, now broken down. There seems also to have been a garderobe, as the mouth of a sewer is seen outside at the foot of the wall, 10 feet below the loop.

The basement floor contains three chambers, entered from the inner ward by three doors. [A. Fig. _b._] Of these a narrow one of 2 feet opening placed close to the turret leads by a vaulted passage 3 feet long into the record-room. [B. Fig. _a._] This is an L-shaped chamber, of which the arms are 6 feet 6 inches broad, and on the longer sides 12 feet, and on the shorter 5 feet 6 inches, one limb being a few inches the larger. In the north-west wall is a loop for air. Each limb is crossed by a plain chamfered rib, and the square space thus formed, common to the two limbs, is crossed diagonally by a single rib. This chamber was recently used as a debtor’s prison.

Next to the record-room, and nearer the centre of the front, is a large window, of which the ashlar casing and tracery have been removed, and the cill cut down to convert it into a door. At present the aperture is 6 feet broad and 13 feet to the crown of the arch. Close to, but beyond this, is the original doorway, now blocked up, but quite perfect. It was of 5 feet opening with a low drop arch, and over it a good Decorated drip stone or hood moulding. This door led into the kitchen. [B. Fig. _a._]

The kitchen may be described as a square of 24 feet, having applied to its north-east side an apse of three faces of 8 feet each; or it may be called a rectangle of 24 feet by 30 feet, with two of its angles cut off so as to form an apse.

This chamber is also vaulted after a peculiar fashion. Twelve feet from the apsidal end is an octagonal pier, from the head of which spring eight ribs at equal angles. At 6 feet from the pier, that is, at the crown of the vault, each rib is met by two others, sixteen in number, which spring from eight half piers or responds in the angles of the wall. There are, however, actually only six of these wall piers, two being replaced by a different arrangement, rendered necessary by the oblong form of the chamber, which leaves a space 6 feet by 24 feet to be covered in. Of this space one third, being the western angle, is solid, and, in fact, contains one limb of the record-room. The remainder is divided into two square bays, vaulted diagonally. Between this compartment and the larger one stands a second pier, which receives the thrust of three ribs from the main pier, and has five ribs besides of its own. The general result is not unpleasing, but the vaulting is exceedingly complex, containing eight rhombs and eighteen triangles, great and small. The height to the crown of the vault is 12 feet. Besides the great window towards the inner ward is a small opening, probably a loop, though now enlarged, towards the ditch. The fireplace occupies one of the north-western bays. It is 7 feet broad, and the grate stood in a half-round recess of 3 feet 6 inches radius, with a vertical flue in the wall. From the kitchen open two smaller chambers and a well-stair. One of these, plainly vaulted, and 11 feet by 7 feet, is placed in the south-east wall. It is entered by a small door from the side of the kitchen, and near the door is a loop, also looking into the kitchen. This was probably the cook’s bedroom.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.]

A second chamber, 8 feet by 9 feet, also vaulted, is placed in the north wall, and is entered by a small and much mutilated doorway and a short oblique passage. This chamber has a loop towards the ditch, and a garderobe, the outlet from which seems to join that from the dungeon.

The staircase is contained within the wall at the south angle of the chamber, and is lighted by two loops from the inner ward. It is entered from the kitchen by a small door opening into a straight passage, whence the well-staircase rises. This leads to both the first and second floor, and has a stone hand-rail carved in the wall. It is 2 feet 6 inches radius.

There remains only in the basement to be mentioned the Porter’s Lodge. [B. Fig. _a._] It is composed of a couple of cells, at present occupied by the keeper of the castle. The outer cell is entered by a small door very near to the passage between the outer and inner ward. The hollow angle formed by the junction of the cross wall with the keep is crossed by a squint, or oblique arch, which supports a bartizan turret above, and affords a sort of hood over the door. The outer cell, vaulted, measures 12 feet by 9 feet. One angle is filled up. There is a small two-light window towards the inner ward. From this cell a door opens into an inner cell, 7 feet by 8 feet, also vaulted, and with a small window or sort of loop, now broken down, which is formed in the south-east wall, and seems to have opened beneath the first arch of the bridge which carried the ascending road from the outer ward to the level of the first floor of the keep.

The first or main floor of the keep presents its chief peculiarities. [B. Fig. _b._] It is, or was, a rectangular chamber 24 feet 6 inches by 31 feet, and 19 feet high to the boarded floor of the room above. The north-west end, which is tolerably perfect, is wholly occupied by a segmental arched recess with a handsome moulding. It is 2 feet 9 inches deep, and contains a sort of table or shelf 2 feet high and of 1 foot projection, the upper part of which is hollowed into a narrow trough, as though for animals to drink from, had it been a little broader. It is much broken, so it does not appear whether it was provided with a feed-pipe and drain. What it was intended for it is difficult even to guess. The wall is broken, and within it is seen the flue from the kitchen fireplace below. Above, a weather-moulding in the wall shows that at some time there was a low-pitched roof.

Of the adjacent north-east side only about 12 feet remains. It is chiefly occupied by a large fireplace, 7 feet broad by 4 feet deep. It was flat-topped and quite plain. The wall has been broken down and the flue is disclosed. Next south of this is the jamb of a bold arched recess which runs through the wall, 14 feet deep, and must have contained a large window opening over the ditch.

With the eastern angle is also gone the south-eastern side. Much of this must have been occupied by a large doorway, of which the south-west jamb remains, and its external and internal mouldings, in the Decorated style and of a very elaborate character. The wall was 10 feet 6 inches thick, and in its centre, half-way between the two moulded arches, is a rectangular portcullis groove. It is evident that this was a regular gateway, fortified in the usual manner, and, as what remains of the arch shows, of a large size.

The south-west wall, which is tolerably perfect, contains at its north end a door of the same size as that just described, saving that there is no portcullis, which, this being the inner gate, was not needed. The wall is here 11 feet thick, giving a very deep recess 10 feet broad, in which the doorway was placed. It is panelled and 15 feet high to the arch crown; the recess narrows to 7 feet 6 inches width, which was that of the doorway. The doorway is richly moulded, and the mouldings are continued down to the cill, showing that it was a door, and not, as some suppose, a window. There was, however, tracery in the head, of which a fragment remains, but not enough to show the pattern. In the jambs are a set of stanchion-holes, too large for the rods by which window-glass was usually supported, and which are evidently the remains of the bars inserted when the keep was used as a prison. The outermost hollow of the mouldings contains a band of delicate ball-flowers. There is also a handsome drip supported by two heads as corbels.

Outside the doorway, in the wall on either hand, are two square grooves 7 inches broad and about 6 inches deep, and 11 feet apart. They commence at the stringcourse, which corresponds with the cill of the doorway, and are 6 feet high. Above this, 10 feet 6 inches from the stringcourse, and 12 feet apart, are two similar grooves, 7 feet 6 inches long, and which, therefore, reach a little above the level of the top of the doorway arch. It is evident that these two pair of grooves were connected with the drawbridge, the lower pair probably receiving the ends of the parapet rail, and the upper the struts supporting the beams of the bridge.

Next to this door recess, in the inside of the chamber, is a small plain fireplace, placed in a tall pointed recess, like a doorway, and beyond this again is a lower recess, but broader, and also pointed, in which is a plain, square-headed window, 4 feet high by 1 foot broad, looking towards the inner ward. In the jamb of the recess is a side door, leading by a short passage into the well staircase from the kitchen, which also, at this level, has a loop towards the inner ward.

The floor of this chamber at present rises about 2 feet, or 1 in 26, from the outer to the inner gate. This, however, may be a modern arrangement, intended to carry off the water from the asphalt with which the floor has been paved.

Outside the outer gate of this chamber, towards the south, is a small mural chamber, lighted by a very handsome window, 2 feet 6 inches broad, with tracery in the arched head and a handsome drip-stone above, looking towards the inner ward. This chamber opens upon a sort of lobby, now mostly destroyed, outside the great gate, and provided with a small doorway of its own, fitted with a portcullis, and from this descends a small staircase with a ribbed and vaulted roof, which communicated with the lodge connected with the entrance from the outer to the inner ward. This was evidently a postern for such foot-passengers as came after the great gates were closed, and who did not wish to enter the main or guard-chamber of the keep. From this lobby ascended a well-stair to the upper story, rather larger than the other one, which was close beside it in the wall. The position of the larger staircase is marked by a sort of bartizan or projecting round turret, which commenced at the first floor level, and was lighted from the inner ward. Most of this is broken away, and only traces of it remain.

Of the upper floor but little remains save the wall towards the inner ward. In this wall is an excellent trefoil-topped window of one light beneath a square head. This is placed in a recess of the wall, vaulted and ribbed.

Near it a small door opens upon the head of the staircase from the lower floor and the kitchen. The other staircase from the postern is destroyed.

It appears from what has been described that the main floor of the keep was in fact a passage by which the principal entrance led from the outer to the inner ward. As the level of the first floor is 17 feet above that of the inner ward, and something more above that of the outer, the approaches were upon arches leading up to the gateways. The outer bridge no doubt was built against and protected by the curtain of the outer ward. That the road rested upon arches is evident from a trace of a skewback or springing stone below the gateway, and from the position of the window of the inner cell of the porter’s lodge. There is similar evidence of another bridge from the inner gateway down to the level of the inner ward, and excavation there would probably show the pier bases. How there came to be two fireplaces in what must have been the guard-chamber, and what was the use of the trough, are questions as yet unanswered. So far as I know, this is the only example of a main entrance so raised and carried through the keep. This keep is, in fact, a gatehouse.

There remains to be noticed the fragment of a building attached to the southern angle of the keep, and from which evidently sprang the wall which ran between the outer and the inner ward. [B. Fig. _a._] This seems to have been an oblong, divided into two compartments. One, of which much of two sides remains, was 11 feet square, vaulted and ribbed, the fans spreading from the four angles. This was entered on one side from a small Decorated door of 2 feet 3 inches opening, which led into a bent passage. The face towards the inner ward seems to have contained a second small door, by the side either of a window or a larger door. From this chamber a door probably led, through the second chamber, now removed, to the base of the winding steps already mentioned as ascending to the eastern entrance to the keep. The designs of the mouldings of this appended building are peculiarly delicate and graceful, and well executed.

This keep is probably the latest example of a rectangular keep as well as a singular one of a keep with its main floor employed as a gatehouse. Its ornaments and details generally are in the late Decorated style, and of the reign probably of Edward II., though it is by no means likely that the work was due to Gaveston. Ashlar masonry is freely employed outside and inside the building, and the details throughout are admirable. It is probable that the addition of the solid buttresses to the curtain was the work of the builder of the keep. The masonry and material correspond. The portcullis grooves are alike, and the solitary stringcourse on one of the bastions is nearly, if not quite, of the pattern of that employed on the keep. It is much to be desired that the inhabitants of Knaresborough would obtain the castle as a promenade, reopen the ditch, or part of it, restore the bridge leading to the outer gate, excavate the foundation of the north-east angle of the keep and of the bridge covering the way into the prison, and check the progress of weather and exposure in the upper portions of the keep. A moderate sum would execute all that is required, and the result would add to the comfort and augment the attractions of the town.

LEEDS, OR LEDES, CASTLE, KENT.

Leeds Castle is a very peculiar structure. It stands upon three rocky knolls, of which two are islands in a lake of 15 acres, and the third occupies the central part of the artificial bank by which, as at Kenilworth and Caerphilly, and in some degree at Framlingham and Ragland, the waters are or were retained.

The central and larger island is girt by a revetment wall, having half-round bastions, and rising about 15 feet out of the water. This was the wall of the outer ward. About 40 feet within, and concentric with this, are indications of the wall of the inner ward, which was about 8 feet thick and 20 feet high. At each end, connecting the two walls, and occupying the space between them, were the gatehouses, of which that to the south remains, and is a very curious structure. It represents, probably, a late Norman work; but its oldest recognisable part is a doorway of the time of Henry III., surrounded, however, by masonry apparently of that of Edward, his son. A bretache is mentioned in a Survey of 1314, but the present corbels overhanging the gateway, and upon which the timber work rested, appear to be of the age of Richard II., and probably date from 1386. The Constable’s room, placed in the rear, and at the level of the portcullis chamber, is entered through a doorway, the valve of which is original and peculiar, being composed of planks of a taper section, the narrow edge of one fitting into a groove in the back or broad edge of the next.

The domestic buildings occupied the north end of the two wards, and are replaced by a modern house, excepting only a vaulted cellar, which may be late Norman, and is certainly the oldest known masonry in the place, and a bracket which supported the ancient oven, and is placed near what (17 Henry VI.) is described as “Una coquina juxta pedem pontis de la Gloriet,” which kitchen was not long since removed.

In this ward also, or rather partly in this and partly in the outer ward, near a building of the age of Henry VIII., is a very remarkable bath,—“balnea domini regis apud Ledes,” as it is designated, which was constructed for the use of Edward I. in 1291–2. This is now used as a boathouse. It communicates with the lake by a passage in which are still seen the grooves for the portcullis, and the recesses for the oblique gates by means of which the water was retained or excluded. Mr. Wykeham Martin’s investigations of the accounts relating to this bath are very curious. The hundred Reigate stones, 2 feet square, which are there specified, just tally with the area of the chamber.

Thus far the castle is, or has been, a concentric structure, after the plan much in use in the latter part of the reign of Henry III. and throughout that of Edward I. Its peculiarities are caused by the circumstances of its position, and remain to be described. Of these the chief is the keep, or Gloriette, a shell of wall rising from the deep water around it to a considerable height, and containing apartments round a central court, an arrangement usual in Norman shell keeps. This shell contains the chapel, no doubt the “major capella” of the records, the kitchen, and amidst much work of the date at least of Edward I., more that is of that of Henry VIII., and even of recent date. This island is thought to have been the original stronghold of those who first appropriated the spot, but the oldest work now seen dates from Edward I., and the style of the chapel points to about 1280. It contains, however, an excellent low side window, open 17 feet above the water, probably an insertion by Richard II. There is also a postern at the level of the water, part of which appears old, as does an adjacent garderobe. The basement, by which the ground-floor is raised about 12 feet above the water, is solid, and probably very old, for no occupant of these islands for the purpose of security could have neglected this site. Edward, no doubt, remodelled this work with the rest of the castle, and possibly rebuilt the whole of the outer wall. Sir Henry Guildford, custos here for Henry VIII., seems to have removed part of the earlier building, and to have built a spacious hall, a large fragment of which is the present kitchen. During the reign of Charles II. these additions were much injured by fire, so that most of the buildings next the court are modern. Still the general type and arrangement was evidently preserved; and there is little doubt but that this structure represents a late Norman shell, if not an earlier Saxon house of timber. A handsome clock-tower, to which the term Gloriette is sometimes confined, contains a very early clock, and is of the date of Henry VIII., guarding the covered bridge which connects the keep with the larger island. This bridge is of two openings, and has two stories, and was originally a drawbridge, the pit being contained between the side walls, and dropping into the water. It is called in the accounts “pons gloriettæ.”

The term “Gloriette” is not of frequent occurrence, and its meaning has not been precisely defined.[1] It was first brought under notice in the ancient miscellanea of the Exchequer relating to Corfe Castle, amongst which Mr. Bond cites a document dated 8 Edward I., that mentions “Camera que vocatur Gloriette.”[2] It was probably like “Butavant” and “Cocaygne,” one of the towers of the _enceinte_ of the castle, and may have been of somewhat greater elevation. Scarcely any vestiges remain. The name seems sometimes to denote the whole of the buildings near the Queen’s Tower and Hall; in that part of the castle there existed a chapel called the chapel of the Gloriette. It appears that the Gloriette tower at Corfe was newly built by Richard II., about 1379.[3] Amongst the conventual buildings also of Christ Church, Canterbury, there was a “New Lodgyng, juxta antiquam Priorum mansionem vocatam Le Gloriet.” Professor Willis informs us that it was the upper chamber at the north end of the range of buildings, known as the “Privata Camera,” or “Prior’s Mansion.”[4] A building on an elevated spot in the palace grounds at Schönbrunn, commanding an extensive view of Vienna, is called “La Gloriette.”

The third great division of the castle, also very peculiar, is the barbican, or tête-de-pont, which is placed on the counterscarp of the lake, here reduced to 50 feet in width, and at the outer end of the bridge which carries the road of approach into the great island. It is composed of three parts, which were isolated by three wet ditches, of which one is the river Len, and having three entrances, one from each wing of the dam, and one, the main one, central, from the south. Each approach had its drawbridge, gateway, and portcullis, and the three met upon a small central plot, open towards the fortress, and whence sprung the bridge leading up to the great gateway. This is the bridge that was broken down by the great horses and heavy wagons of Aymer de Valence. It is of two arches, the inner of which was open between the parapets for the pit of the drawbridge. One division of the barbican contains the mill, a strongly-fortified building, in advance of which were the barriers which are known to have covered the southern approach, and to have been standing in 1385. They were no doubt mainly of timber, though there are traces of foundations in masonry. This triple composition of a barbican has not been elsewhere observed. The object of its lateral gates was the defence of the dam, which might otherwise have been mined and cut through. Also those who came either from the east or the west could only have reached the south gate by a wide detour, for the causeway along the dam was defended on the outside as well as the inside by water, the lake to the south-east being of large area, and known as the “stagnum exterius,” while, to the south-west, was a deep watercourse and marsh formed by the Len.

The late Mr. Wykeham Martin, whose investigations of his hereditary fortress were a labour of love, seems to have established firmly, on sound critical grounds, the date of its several parts. He shows the high probability of its occupation by at least a Saxon lord, and the changes it has undergone from the Crevecœurs, Leyburns, and the Plantagenet and Tudor monarchs, who, from Edward I. to Edward VI., held it in possession.

Like many Saxon strongholds, Leeds is thought to date from the ninth century. It was held, probably by a Norman arrangement, by castle-guard tenure under Dover. To Bishop Odo, who obtained it at the Conquest, is attributed some Norman work in the church, but the earliest masonry in the castle, probably represented by the curious vaulted cellar, is thought to be the work of Robert de Crevecœur, who founded Leeds Priory in 1119, and afterwards removed three canons into the chapel of his castle. A later Robert shared in the defeat of Lewes, and was in consequence obliged to yield up Leeds in exchange with Roger de Leyburn, a powerful Kentish baron, father of that William whose unscrupulous boldness is well described in the Roll of Caerlaverock, which designates him as “A valiant man, without ‘but’ or ‘if.’”

Out of the disputes between the dispossessed and the dispossessor Edward seems to have established a title by the strong hand. He gave to the fief the character of a royal manor, was a frequent visitor at the castle, and appears to have completely remodelled the fortress of the Crevecœurs, giving it the aspect which in many points it presents at this day. By Edward it was settled upon the queen, part of whose funeral charges were incurred here in 1291. Here also the king founded a chantry in the castle chapel for her soul’s health, and it was about this time that he caused the bath to be constructed.

Upon Edward’s second marriage Leeds was again settled upon his queen, and for several reigns this continued with some exceptions to be the practice. It was also much used for the reception of visitors of distinction who rested here on their way from Dover to London.

In 1321 the king’s defences were put upon their trial. The castle seems to have passed by an exchange to Bartholomew de Badlesmere, a great lord, who in 1321 was away in the North plotting with other barons the fall of Despenser, while his wife and children remained in the castle, the Constable being a certain Walter Colepeper.

One night in midsummer, Queen Isabella, with a large retinue, presented herself at the gates demanding hospitality. The Constable, dreading her designs, boldly refused it. “Nor queen, nor any other, should enter without his lord’s order.” The “She-wolf of France” ordered an instant attack, in which several of her people were killed, whose skeletons, bearing marks of violence, have recently been discovered before the barbican. The attack failed, and her Grace had to lodge as best she might outside. Of course, this event had its consequences. The king proclaimed a levy _en masse_ through four counties and raised besides the “posse comitatus” of Kent. The muster place was Leeds Castle, the day the 23rd of October. Thither at the appointed time came the king and his brother and a large force, the command of which was given to Aymer de Valence, who pressed the siege vigorously. Badlesmere attempted a diversion, also by the display of a force, much inferior, however, in numbers, at Kingston, where he was on the 28th of October. All attempts at a negotiation between Badlesmere and the king failed. The castle held out till the 1st of November, when this, its only known siege, ended in a surrender, apparently to the king in person. The brave Constable and twelve others were hanged, and Lady Badlesmere and her family committed to the Tower. It was thought that the execution of Badlesmere himself, when taken afterwards at Boroughbridge, was partly in revenge for his having, in writing, sanctioned Colepeper’s resistance.

Edward, having thus recovered the castle, was frequently there, his last visit being on the 15th of June, 1326.

Edward III. settled the castle upon his queen, and it was placed with other royal buildings under the surveyorship of William of Wykeham, who in 1359 seems to have laid out £16. 6s. 8d. upon it, of which sum £5 went to replace glass windows blown in by a hurricane, 24s. to repair Aymer de Valence’s injuries to the bridge, and 70s. was spent upon the old chapel. In 1367 occurs a curious charge for habergeons, basnets, and other harness for a body of archers, for materials for making armour, and for the carriage of two beds from Leeds to Canterbury for the use of the Count of Flanders, and of six to Leeds from Sittingbourne. The castle cannot boast of any attentions from Edward III. in person.

Leeds formed a part of the settlement of Anne of Bohemia, the queen of Richard II., who was himself much here. A list of the military stores of the place in 1385 is preserved, and includes the following curious items relating to the defences of the great gate or barbican:—“Duas portas nudas vocatas portes colys, et viginti pikes cum viginti platis de ferro, quatuordecem platas de ferro longas, viij platas de ferro curtas, centum sexaginta et quinque clavos de ferro pro eisdem portis dictis portes colys novo ferrando, unum circulum ferreum pro barreris juxta molendinum, unum magnum crowe, unum parvum crowe de ferro, unum magnum slegge, unum parvum slegge, unam magnam cathenam, unam parvam cathenam, sex forcipes, unum vertinuel, sex vyles, unum cable, unum nayltol,” etc. The “nudæ portæ” were, of course, open timber gratings upon which the iron was to be plated. The barriers near the mill show them to have been in advance of the centre entrance, and the crows, sledge hammers, chains, and files would all be necessary for the setting up of portcullis or drawbridge.

Ten years later, 15th of July, 1395, Richard from hence despatched the proxies who were to plight his troth to the French king’s daughter, and at the same time received a visit from Froissart, who was a great favourite, and accompanied the king to Eltham, where he was to discuss the French match with the magnates of the realm.

It was also at Leeds, and at the same time, that Richard signed two mandates, one for the expulsion of the Lollards from Oxford, and the other directing the University to sit in judgment upon the “Trialogus” of Wycliffe. Leeds was also one of the places to which Richard was carried after his deposition.

Henry IV. was at Leeds in 1401, but he seems to have granted the castle to Archbishop Arundel, who thence followed up Richard’s edicts against the new heresy, by citing in 1413 Sir John Oldcastle to appear before him in “the greater chapel of Leeds Castle,” where also, on his non-appearance, he passed upon him for contumacy the sentence which led to his martyrdom in the following reign.

In that reign, 4 Henry V., 1416, Leeds gave hospitality to the Emperor Sigismund on his return from London to Dover, when its resources must have been taxed to house the very splendid retinue provided for him. Two years later a royal but enforced visitor here was Joan, mother of the Duke of Brittany and stepmother to the king. Her stay at this time as a prisoner was short, but she resided here after her liberation in the next reign.

On the accession of Henry VI., Katherine of Valois was put in possession of Leeds, but Henry was there in 1436–1438, and ordered certain repairs to the roof of the keep. In 1441, Duchess Eleanor of Gloucester was tried for sorcery in the chapel by Archbishop Chichele.

Under Edward IV. Leeds ceased to be assigned to the queen consort, and remained vested in the king, but the castle was no longer visited by royalty, and seems to have been allowed to fall into decay until the reign of Henry VIII., under whom Sir Henry Guildford resided here, and seems to have made considerable alterations, especially in the keep.

Edward VI. alienated Leeds from the Crown in favour of Sir Anthony St. Leger about 1550, whose descendants, after 1618, sold it to Richard Smith of the Strangford ancestry, whose heir, after 1631, resold it to Thomas Colepeper of the family of the former constable. The Smith occupation was marked by the construction of a handsome Elizabethan mansion at the north end of the larger island. The Colepepers, created barons in 1644, farmed the castle, in 1655, to the Government for the safe keeping of about 600 French and Dutch prisoners, under the general charge of John Evelyn, who records himself to have “flowed the dry moat, made a new drawbridge, and brought spring water into the court of the castle to an old fountain.” The prisoners, however, much damaged the building and set fire to part of the keep.

The Colepeper heiress carried the estate to her husband Thomas, fifth Lord Fairfax. Robert, the seventh lord, repaired the dwelling-house and laid out the park, and here, in 1778, entertained George III. and his queen, the latest of very many royal visits to the place.

Lord Fairfax left the castle to his sister’s son, Dr. Martin, known later as Dr. Fairfax, who died 1800, and was succeeded by his brother, General Martin, on whose death, in 1821, it descended to Fiennes Wykeham, representative of the younger branch of the Wykehams of Swalcliff, where they held lands as early as the Domesday Survey, and whose son, Charles Wykeham Martin, was the author of the history of the castle.

LEICESTER CASTLE.

The town of Leicester stands upon moderately high ground, and on its western side is divided by a narrow valley from the opposite elevations of Glenfield and Braunstone. This valley gives passage to the Soar, the river of the county, which, flowing northwards, meanders through the meadows of the Abbey of St. Mary de Pratis, and thus, before agriculture had drained these lands, securely covered the western and northern, and, to a certain extent, the southern fronts of this very ancient and once well-fortified place.

Down the western valley, but outside the stream, and along the edge of the higher ground, was carried the Fossway, which thus, on its passage from Bennones or High Cross towards Lincoln, left the old Roman “Ratæ Coritanorum,” known to us as Leicester, about a furlong to its east.

Whether Ratæ be an original Roman, or a Latinised British name, is uncertain. Ratcliffe and Ratby occur in the district, and at the latter is a large camp of doubtful origin. Upon the language to which “Rat” belongs, depends the question of the British origin of the town.

Ratæ, if not founded, was occupied and fortified, by the Romans. The line of the wall, on the usual rectangular plan, has been traced upon the north, south, and east sides, the western defence being formed by the river, and both city and suburb are fruitful in pavements and other Roman remains. There is, however, some doubt as to whether the wall actually reached the water at the south-west angle. If, as is supposed, though upon very insufficient evidence, the fragment of Roman masonry known as the Jewry wall was really a part of the town wall, it follows that the wall was present on the west side, and there was a space between that defence and the river, and that the castle, which occupies the south-west angle, was outside the town.

Ratæ, under the name of Leicester, was also a town of great importance among the Saxons, and was nearly central in the kingdom of Mercia. It is mentioned in a Saxon charter of 819, and is said to have given the title of earl to Leofric, A.D. 716, to Algar in 838, and to other Algars and other Leofrics, and to Leofwin, the Saxon line ending with Earl Edwin, who was slain in 1071. The town, during the Danish interregnum, was one of the five burghs; and the castle, like those of Tamworth and Tutbury, is said to have been either founded or restored by Æthelflæd in 913–4, though for this solid evidence is wanting. Nevertheless, that Saxon Leicester was the seat of a very important earldom is very certain, and the residence of the lords was most probably the castle.

The town and castle were placed by the Conqueror in charge of Hugh de Grentmaisnil, lord of the neighbouring Honour and castle of Hinkley, where also is a fine mound; and whose son Yvo was vice-comes of the county under Henry I. The actual property of the Grentmaisnils, in Leicester, was one-fourth of the town; but it does not appear how this and much more of the other parts were acquired by Robert de Bellemont, Earl of Mellent, who became Earl of Leicester, and died 1118, in possession of the castle and Honour. “Juxta et infra castellum,” which may conveniently be rendered, “outside, but just beneath the castle wall,” was a collegiate church, of Saxon foundation, dedicated to St. Mary. This Robert was probably the builder, between 1106 and 1118, of the castle, including the hall, the chapel, and a tower upon the mound.

Robert Bossu, the second earl, took the part of Henry I. He strengthened and enlarged the castle. He was the founder of St. Mary de Pratis, outside the town; and, to endow this, he diminished the ecclesiastical staff, and diverted some of the lands from his father’s foundation by the castle. He died 1167.

Robert Blanchmains, his son, the third earl, married Petronilla, the heiress of the Grentmaisnils, his predecessor at Leicester, and with her obtained Hinkley, Groby (where also is a mound), and other possessions. He is reputed to have enlarged and strengthened the castle, and his constable, Anketel Mallory, held it against Henry II. until he surrendered it by the earl’s command. Also Mallory surrendered, on the same day, the castles of Groby and Mountsorrell. Both castle and town were taken, the town wall was demolished, and it is said that the part between the north and east gates was never rebuilt.

Robert Fitzparnell, the fourth earl, died childless in 1204, when Leicester Castle, and in 1206 the earldom, came to Simon de Montford, who had married Amicia, his sister and co-heir. Upon the death at Evesham of their son Simon in 1264, and his attainder, the earldom and castle were granted to Edmond, second son of Henry III., Earl of Leicester and Lancaster, and the castle has since descended with the Lancaster property, and is still a part of the duchy of that name.

Henry, Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, founded the Hospital of the Newark contiguous to the castle in 1322, and the works were completed by Henry, his son, Duke of Lancaster, in 1354. The hospital contained four acres. It reached the river, and covered the castle on the south side, and at this time one approach to the castle is across the Newark, through its handsome gatehouse.

The earls and dukes of Lancaster must have restored the castle, as they resided here very frequently, and with their usual display. When John of Gaunt granted certain privileges to the city in 1376, he reserved the castle and its mill, and the rents and services of the castle court, and its office of porter. In the castle he entertained Richard II. and his queen with great splendour in 1390.

In 1414, when Henry V. held a Parliament in the hall of the Grey Friars, he resided at the castle, and it was in the great hall of the castle that was held the Parliament of 1425–6, the Commons meeting in an apartment below it, which, however, could scarcely be the case literally, as the hall is on the ground level. It is just possible that the modern brick vaults and cells constructed under the floors of the hall for the purposes of police may replace an older substructure, into which opened the existing cellar.

Henry VI. was here in 1426, and in 1444 the castle and Honour were included in his marriage settlement. In 1450 a third Parliament was held at Leicester, but whether in the castle hall is not recorded. Edward IV. was here in 1463 and 1464, but from this period the castle seems to have been neglected, and to have fallen into great decay.

Leland, who visited Leicester about 1512, says,—“The castelle stonding nere the west bridge is at this tyme a thing of small estimation, and there is no apparaunce other [either] of high waulles or dykes. So that I think that the lodgings that now be there were made sins the tyme of the Barons’ war in Henry III. tyme, and great likelyhood there is that the castelle was much defaced in Henry II. tyme, when the waulles of Liercester were defacid.” (Itin., i., p. 16.)

Speed gives a rough perspective view of the castle and town, which, however, is very indistinct as regards the former. In 1633 Mr. Herrick, of Beaumanor, was directed by the king to remove the ruinous parts and sell their material; to repair the castle house, which contained the records of the Honour of Lancaster, and to preserve the vaults and stairs leading to it, for the use of the keep of the castle. Upon this an inquisition was taken in 1633–4, and the value recorded of the materials, “excepting the Sessions Hall and the vault under the old castle, and the stairs leading to it.” This inquisition gives several details, chiefly of parts now removed; and mentions as to be repaired “John of Groat’s kitchen, divers outhouses belonging to the Great Sessions Hall, and the ruinous pieces at the south end of the same hall; also the south gate, and the wall from this gate to the Soar, which divides the castle from the Newark; also a wall next the porch of the church.” By “keep” is no doubt meant the hall. The south gate and wall to the Soar remain, as does a wall next the (south) porch of the church.

In the civil wars, the castle was held for the king. It then fell to the Parliament; was retaken by the king in 1645, and finally yielded to the Parliament after Naseby. In the struggles the south gate was probably reduced to its present ruined condition.

In 1781, Mr. Rogers Ruding had a lease of the premises from the duchy, which specifies the south gate evidently that remaining towards the Newark, the castle house, several tenements, the mount, and the appendages to the castle, and stipulates for the holding of sessions in the great hall.

The castle stands at the south-western angle of the town, upon ground close to, and about 20 feet above, the right bank of the Soar, the three channels of which unite below the castle. The nearest of these streams is the artificial leat which supplied the castle mill, and does still supply its modern representative. From the line of the castle wall the ground slopes rapidly, and terminates in a strip of level land that forms the margin of the mill leat, therein closely resembling the river front of Taunton Castle on the Tone.

The castle seems to have been composed of a mound on its south-west quarter; a hall and other buildings on the west or river front; the church of St. Mary de Castro opposite to the hall; and on the east side a gatehouse between the church and the mound; another gatehouse close north of the church, and a wall which runs east of the church, and forms a part of the eastern boundary of its churchyard. There is also the mill which, though modern, covers the ancient site.

The area within which these remains are included is known as “The Castle View.” This evidently represents the precinct of the Norman, and probably of the Saxon castle, and has been preserved as a distinct and, in part, extra-parochial district, vested in the duchy of Lancaster. The Castle View is nearly square, and may include four or possibly five acres. In 1861 it was returned as “The Liberty of the Castle View,” and contained 29 houses and 131 persons. The boundaries are the line of the ancient circumscribing ditch, or nearly so. On the south they divide the castle from the Newark, just including the mound. On the east they take the line from the present south gatehouse, by the old wall, and thence by the edge of the road down to the mill, including the house and garden attached to the Sessions House. The ditch is everywhere filled up, but in the garden north of the Hall the line of the wall is marked by a step of from 8 to 10 feet.

This line includes St. Mary’s, which was once the collegiate church or chapel of the castle. If it be that the castle was enlarged by Robert Bossu, it is probable that the older defence just excluded the church, and took the line of the present upper gatehouse, cutting off the churchyard and church, and placing the latter “juxta et infra” the castle wall. St. Mary’s was made parochial in 1400, the rest of the View remaining extra parochial, and it is not impossible that this was a restoration to the church of its ecclesiastical position before it was included within the Norman military precinct.

The mound, though broad, is at present less lofty than is usual in the more important Saxon castles, having been lowered 40 years ago by 12 or 15 feet. It is now about 30 feet high and 100 feet diameter upon its circular top, which is quite flat, without a trace of old building upon it. It has now no ditch, and is connected with no ancient wall; but, though probably within the ancient _enceinte_, it may, as at Warwick and Tamworth, have actually formed a part of it. The original well still remains in the mound and is in use.

The present hall was a part of the castle proper. It is an oblong structure, like Oakham and Winchester, composed of a nave and two narrow aisles. The nave lies north and south, and is about 60 feet by 25 feet, having gables at either end, and an open high-pitched roof. Since 1633, and perhaps earlier, it has been used for judicial purposes, and divided into three parts,—a civil and criminal court, and between them an entrance lobby, and above it a grand-jury room. To enlarge the courts, the old oaken posts or piers, with carved Norman caps, have been removed, the east aisle rebuilt or cased, and the west aisle walled off for retiring-room and passages. Its older parts also are concealed by panelling and partition-walls. The original south wall of the nave remains. In it are two round-headed windows, resting upon a string-course, or set-off in the wall, with a plain chamfered moulding. The windows are small and plain, and the recesses have but little splay. These are flanked by two slender detached octagonal shafts, possibly replacing cylindrical ones, with Norman capitals, and the head of each recess is surrounded by a single bold band of chevron moulding. There is a third and small window above, near the apex of the gable, with a recess of about 2 feet opening, all quite plain. Below is a small Norman door, but apparently a very recent insertion. It may, however, represent a way into the kitchen, which was at this end.

The opposite or north end wall, forming the side of the civil court, appears also to be old, but is so plastered and pointed as to be inscrutable from the inside. It contains a large round-headed window, probably a modern insertion. From the outside the base of the wall seems original, and there is the jamb of a window in end of the east aisle.

The wall of the west aisle, towards the river, is original, and is flanked at each end by a buttress, probably of Decorated date. In drawings of the last century this building is shown as an aisle, but it has been raised, and now forms a judge’s retiring-room behind each court, and a staircase between them. In the basement are offices. This aisle contains one original window near the south end, flat pointed, with plain jambs, and a head adorned by a single chevron band. The jambs have been renewed in brick.

The hall-floor is on the ground level, but it has been largely excavated, and now contains a number of cells and vaulted passages to them beneath the court. These vaults show nothing ancient.

Until recently there were some small inferior buildings at the south end of the court. These are now replaced by a barristers’ room. The kitchen stood here till 1715, when it was removed. Beneath the site of the kitchen is a very fine vault, perhaps 40 feet long by 15 feet wide, the west wall of which is the original outer wall of the castle. The vault is of excellent ashlar, slightly four-centred and evidently Perpendicular work. At the north end is a door, now walled up, steps beyond which led up to the hall. At the other end is also a door. This was evidently a cellar and a fine one.

In the garden north of the hall, no doubt, stood the principal apartments of the old castle. Here was the Castle House of the seventeenth century. Norman rectangular keep there was certainly none.

The gatehouse towards the Newark opens from the castle, its front being outwards. It is small, having a portal passage, a lodge, and a turnpike stair, and on the upper floor, now a ruin, a portcullis chamber, and two other rooms. Its arches are four-centred. It has the broad hollow moulding of the Perpendicular period, and a square portcullis groove behind the outer entrance. Within was a door, opening inwards. The central part of the portal was boarded over. The structure is good, very early Perpendicular, the work, no doubt, of an Earl of Lancaster.

The upper or north gatehouse is framed of timber, and probably of Tudor date. It stands close north of the west end of the church, with which it was, until recently, connected by certain timber houses, used by the prebendaries. These have been pulled down.

Parts of the church are Norman, and the north aisle seems of the date of the hall of the castle, and, therefore, a part of the work of Robert de Bellomont. There is a small door in the west wall of the aisle, that may very well have opened from the base court of the castle.

In this court, in front of the hall, is a small knoll, in which were recently found two skeletons, headless, the head placed on the breast of each. This was, therefore, the place of execution in front of the hall of trial.

Should the Courts of the county of Leicester ever be lodged in a more central or more convenient building, it is to be hoped that the castle hall will be divested of its unseemly additions, and restored to its original dimension and pattern, when, probably, some correct information would be discovered as to the vaults and foundations of the buildings of the eleventh century.

Leicester Castle, mutilated as it is, is yet a very fine specimen of a Norman fortress on an earlier site. The latter represented by the mound, the former by the hall and chapel, form together a good example of the Norman practice of placing the castle proper on the level ground, and treating the mound as a part of the external defences.

Too much praise cannot be bestowed upon Mr. William Napier Reeve, the deputy constable of the castle, for his care of the hall intrusted to his charge. The bâton used on all solemn occasions by the Constable or by himself is part of one of the original Norman posts that supported the roof of the nave; and the post, from its great size, must certainly have been an old tree when the castle was built, and therefore have been in growth when the mound, the work of Æthelflæd, was thrown up.

LEYBOURNE CASTLE, KENT.

This castle, the lords of which played a considerable part in the earlier troubles of the thirteenth century, when two of the name were summoned as barons, stands by the road-side near its parish church of the same name, between Snodland and West Malling, in Kent, and at no great distance from the ancient Neville seat of Birling.