Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and Present Part 4

In a late volume of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, we find this interesting page of research upon the names of provisions, which throw some light upon the mode of living among the higher and lower cla.s.ses of our population. "Bread, with the common productions of the garden, such as pease, beans, eggs, and some other articles which might be produced in the cottage-garden or yard, retain their Saxon names, and evidently formed the chief nourishment of the Saxon portion of the population. Of meat, though the word is Saxon, they ate probably little; for it is one of the most curious circ.u.mstances connected with the English language, that while the living animals are called by Anglo-Saxon names, as oxen, calves, sheep, pigs, deer, the flesh of those animals when prepared for the table is called by names which are all Anglo-Norman--beef, veal, mutton, pork, venison. The butcher who killed them is himself known by an Anglo Norman name. Even fowls when killed receive the Norman name of poultry. This can only be explained by the circ.u.mstance that the Saxon population in general was only acquainted with the living animals, while their flesh was carried off to the castle and table of the Norman possessors of the land, who gave it names taken from their own language.

Fresh meat, salted, was h.o.a.rded up in immense quant.i.ties in the Norman castles, and was distributed lavishly to the household and idle followers of the feudal possessors. Almost the only meat obtained by the peasantry, unless, if we believe old popular songs, by stealth, was _bacon_, and that also is still called by an Anglo-Norman name."

FOOTNOTES:

[19] _Host and Guest._ By A. V. Kirwan. 1864.

[20] Miss Baker's _Northamptons.h.i.+re Glossary_.

II. Castle Life.

ENGLISH CASTLE-BUILDING.

The history of building of Castles in England and Wales may be divided into periods of transition, changing with the exigencies and requirements of the age, and its character of civilization.

The Castles of England consist of those erected by the Romans; of British and Saxon castles erected previous to, and Norman castles erected after, the Norman Conquest; also of the more modern stone and brick castles, erected from about the reign of Edward I. to the time of Henry VII.

The Roman castles in this country are numerous, and some of them still in very perfect condition, such as Burgh Castle and Richborough. More popularly known is Pevensey, once a maritime town of considerable importance, the site of which is now fixed with all but certainty, as that of the strong old city, Anderida, though this distinction has been claimed by no less than seven Suss.e.x towns. Abundance of Roman bricks have been found here, affording strong presumption of there having been originally a Roman fortress on the spot. But the celebrity of Pevensey (for, though reduced to a village, it has an undying name in our history) rests upon its having been the place of debarkation of William, Duke of Normandy, on his successful invasion of this land in 1066. It was, therefore, the first scene of the Norman Conquest, the most momentous event in English history, perhaps the most momentous in the Middle Ages. Here William landed from a fleet of 900 s.h.i.+ps, with 60,000 men, including cavalry; and having refreshed his troops, and hastily erected a fortress, he marched forward to Hastings, and thence to Battle (then called Epitou), where, on the 14th of October, he obtained a decisive victory over King Harold. Southey, upon the conjoint authorities of Turner, Palgrave, and Thierry, gives such a version of the Normans landing at Pevensey, as to decide its having been a Roman station. "They landed," he says, "without opposition, on the 28th of September, between Pevensey and Hastings, at a place called Bulverhithe.

William occupied the _Roman castle_ at Pevensey; erected three wooden forts, the materials of which he had brought ready with him for construction; threw up works to protect part of his fleet, and burnt, it is said, the rest, or otherwise rendered them unserviceable."[21]

Upon his accession, the Conqueror gave the town and castle to his half-brother, Robert, Earl of Mortagne in Normandy, whose descendant, William, was deprived of all his possessions, and banished the realm, by Henry I. for rebellion. That monarch granted them to Gilbert de Aquila, in allusion to whose name this district was afterwards styled the Honour of the Eagle.

The outer work of the castle contains many Roman bricks and much herring-bone work. The outer walls, the most ancient part of the fortification, inclose seven acres, and are from twenty to twenty-five feet high. The moat on the south side is still wide and deep; on the other side it has been filled up. The entrance is on the west or land side, between two round towers, over a drawbrige. Within the walls is another and much more modern fortification, approaching a pentagonal form, with nearly five circular towers, moated on the north and west. It is entered from the outer court by a drawbridge on the west side between two towers. The princ.i.p.al barbican, or watch tower, is not at the entrance, but towards the north-east corner. The walls are nine feet thick, and the towers were two or three stories in height. The castle was of great strength: it withstood the attacks of William Rufus's army for six days, protecting Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who ultimately yielded only for want of provisions; and it afterwards successfully resisted the siege of King Stephen, who personally superintended the attack, but met with so gallant an opposition from Gilbert, Earl of Clare, that he was obliged to withdraw his force, leaving only a small body to blockade it by sea and land. It once more resisted hostile attacks, when it was fruitlessly a.s.sailed in 1265, by Simon de Montfort, son of the renowned Earl of Leicester. Again, when Sir John Pelham was in Yorks.h.i.+re, in 1339, a.s.sisting Henry, Duke of Lancaster, to gain the crown, the castle, left under the command of Lady Jane Pelham, was attacked by large bodies of the yeomen of Kent, Surrey, and Suss.e.x, who favoured the deposed King Richard, but was bravely and successfully defended by Lady Jane Pelham.

Pevensey castle remained as a fortress till the reign of Elizabeth: two ancient culverins, one of which bears her initials, are yet preserved; after which its history is not traced till the Parliamentary survey of 1675, when the fortress was in ruins, and the ground within the walls was cultivated as a garden. The demesne and castle are now held by the Cavendish family, under a lease from the Duchy of Lancaster, which was originally granted to the Pelhams by Henry IV., son of the famous John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, to whom the Honour of the Eagle had been given, on his surrender of the great earldom of Richmond.

It is remarkable that no mention is made of Pevensey Castle in the Saxon times; but if not erected by the Romans, it was certainly built from the remains of an older fortress. The Saxons most probably adapted the Roman inclosures to their modes of defence; and it appears that they often raised a mound on one side of the walls, on which they erected a keep or citadel.

We are indebted to the Saxons but for few social improvements; since, in the words of the Wilts.h.i.+re antiquary, John Aubrey, "They were so far from having arts, that they could not even build with stone. The church at Glaston (bury) was thatched. They lived skittishly in their houses, they ate a great deal of beef and mutton, and drank good ale in a brown mazzard, and their very kings were but a sort of farmers. The Normans then came, and taught them civility and building."

In various parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, there are numerous encampments or castles, mostly occupying the summits of hills, which have been ascribed to the aboriginal inhabitants. Amongst the most remarkable are the Hereford Beacon, on the Malvern hills, in Worcesters.h.i.+re; the Caer-Caradock, near Church Stretton, in Shrops.h.i.+re; Moel Arthur, in Flints.h.i.+re; Chun Castle, in Cornwall; and the magnificent hill-fort, Maiden Castle, or the Castle of the great Hill, within three miles of Dorchester.

Maiden Castle had four gateways of stone; in excavations have been found round stones, probably sling stones, and pottery, denoting its original occupation by Britons; how the fortress was supplied with water has not been traced. This famous earthwork is considered of a period anterior to that of the Britons and Romans: the extent of the work is one mile, and the ramparts are, in some places, sixty feet high. Another famous earthwork in Dorset is Poundbury, a Roman encampment, though it has been set down as Danish, and an Anglo-Saxon camp of council.[22]

Before we leave the Roman period, we may remark that the manufacture of bricks and tiles must then have been known in England, because it was practised in such perfection by our conquerors during their occupation, as is evident in the numerous remains of their buildings.[23] It has, however, been a.s.serted that up to the reign of Elizabeth, the houses of the gentry throughout England were built entirely of timber; whereas, of the mansions of earlier date than that reign, which remain entire or in part to this day, three-fourths, at least, are built of stone or brick.

The latter material is stated by Bagford and others to have been first introduced in the reign of Henry VII. Yet, Endure Palace, in Oxfords.h.i.+re, erected by William De la Pole, and Hurstmonceux Castle, in Suss.e.x, both of which are of brick, are attributed to the reign of Henry VI. Oxburgh Hall, in Norfolk, was erected in the reign of Edward IV.

Leland mentions the walls of Hungerford, as early as the reign of Richard II., being of that material; and Stow records Ralph Stratford, Bishop of London, inclosing the burial-ground of Charter-house, for those that died of the plague in 1348, with a wall of brick. That roofing-tiles were in use before the time of Richard I. is proved by the order made in the first years of that reign, Henry Fitzalwayne being Mayor of London, that the houses of that city should be covered with "brent tyle," instead of "strawe," or reeds. The ancient name for bricks appears to have been wall-tiles, to distinguish them from floor-tiles, used for paving.

William the Conqueror lost no time in erecting strong castles in all the princ.i.p.al towns in the kingdom, as at Lincoln, Norwich, Rochester, &c.

for the double purpose of strengthening the towns, and keeping the citizens in awe. The Conqueror's followers, among whom he parcelled out the lands of the English, imitated their master's example by building castles on their estates; and so rapidly did they increase, that in the reign of Stephen, or within a century after the arrival of the Conqueror, there are said to have been 1115 castles completed in England alone.

One of the earliest was Conisborough Castle, built by William, the first Earl of Warren, about six miles west of Doncaster: the remains, as far as can be traced, extend about 700 feet in circ.u.mference; but the chief object is a n.o.ble round tower, strengthened by six ma.s.sive square b.u.t.tresses, running from the base to the summit. The extreme thickness of the walls is 15 feet; of each b.u.t.tress 23 feet; and the entrance is 24 feet from the ground, up a flight of steps. In the centre of the first floor is a round hole, which is the only entrance to a lower apartment, or dungeon. This Castle is chosen by Sir Walter Scott for one of the princ.i.p.al scenes of his romance of _Ivanhoe_.

Many of the castles of this age were of great size. Instead of a single tower, they consisted of several towers, both round and square, united by walls, inclosing a s.p.a.ce called a courtyard, the entrance to which was generally between two strong towers. The whole building was surrounded by a moat or ditch, across which a drawbridge led to the ma.s.sive doors, which were covered with plates of iron, and in front of them, an iron portcullis--like a harrow, such as we see in the arms of the city of Westminster--was let down the rough, deep grooves in the stonework; whilst overhead projected a parapet, resting on corbels, with openings through which melted lead or hot water could be poured, or stones thrown on the heads of the a.s.sailants, who should attempt an entrance by forcing, or, as was the usual mode of attack, by setting fire to the door.[24] The gateways of Caerlaverock, Conway, Carisbrooke, and Caernarvon castles, present good specimens of this kind; as do the Middle Tower, and the b.l.o.o.d.y Tower, in the Tower of London: the latter has the most perfect portcullis in the kingdom.

A princ.i.p.al tower or keep rose prominently above the rest, and generally from an artificial mount. It contained the well of water, without which the garrison, when besieged, could not hold out in this their last place of refuge. The keep also had its subterranean prison, and several stories of apartments communicating by a staircase, either in the walls, or built outside the tower.

As the railway traveller journeys along the South Eastern line, he will see close to the Tunbridge station, the towered entrance-gate of the castle built by Richard de Tonbridge, a follower of the Conqueror. The whole building was moated, and the exterior walls inclosed an area of about six acres. There remain only two ma.s.sive towers flanking an arched gateway, with walls of great thickness, and having no other openings than long narrow slits, called _oilets_, through which, when besieged, archers shot their arrows. In front of this entrance was formerly a drawbridge, thrown across the moat, which, when raised, formed a strong door, closing up the archway. This opening was again guarded by two portcullises and two thick doors. The towers appear to have been divided into four stories, or floors, the lower being dungeons or prisons, and the upper formed into a large and n.o.ble hall, extending the whole width and depth of the two towers. It was lighted by two large windows towards the inner court. The towers are supposed, from their style, to have been built in the reign of King John, or Henry III. The windows were not glazed, but had iron bars; the floor and ceiling were of immense thickness, the latter three feet. Branching from this tower-entrance, are certain walls to the right and left; the first extending up the side of a lofty hill, whereon was the keep-tower, or chief residence of the baron: to this, it is presumed, he retreated when other parts of his castle had been taken by an enemy.

The following account of the siege of Bedford Castle by Henry III., given in Camden's _Britannia_, is interesting, as containing a summary of the princ.i.p.al portions of the building, and the several stages of the attack:--"The castle was taken by four a.s.saults: in the first was taken the barbican; in the second, the outer bail (ballium); at the third attack, the wall by the old tower was thrown down by the miners, where, with great danger, they possessed themselves of the inner bail through a c.h.i.n.k; at the fourth a.s.sault, the miners set fire to the tower, so that the smoke burst out, and the tower itself was cloven to that degree, as to show visibly some broad c.h.i.n.ks; whereupon the enemy surrendered."

The most perfect of our northern castles now existing, is Raby, the stately seat of the Duke of Cleveland, the history of which is traced through eight centuries and a half. Raby, pointing by its name to a Danish origin, is first mentioned in connexion with King Canute, who, after making his celebrated pilgrimage over Garmondsway Moor to the shrine of St. Cuthbert, there offered it, with other possessions, to the saint. Bishop Flambard wrested the rich gift from the monastics, but restored it again on his death-bed. It continued in the peaceful possession of the monks till 1131. In that year they granted it, for an annual rent of 4, to Dolphin, son of Ughtred, of the blood-royal of Northumberland. Whoever the original founder might have been, Dolphin's descendant, Robert filius Maldred, was Lord of Raby when, early in the thirteenth century, he married Isabel Neville, by the death of her brother the last of that line. From their son Geoffrey, who a.s.sumed his mother's surname, the history of the Nevilles may be said to date. To his descendant, John Lord Neville, they owed Raby. Some portion of the older fabric is thoroughly incorporated with the new, so as to present the work and ideas of one period, and a perfect example of a fourteenth-century castle, without any appearance of earlier work or later alteration whatever. Its apparent weakness of site has been pointed out; but though not set on a hill, it had the defence of water, which was drawn off centuries since. But the real defences of Raby lay beyond the mere circuit of its own walls and waters. They are to be found in the warrior spirits of its lords and in the border castles of Roxburgh, Wark, Norham, Berwick, and Bamburgh, which they commanded continuously as warders and governors from the days of Robert Neville, in the thirteenth century, to the time of Queen Elizabeth. Apart from the question of the site, the stately castle itself is of great strength, and skilfully disposed.

Pa.s.sing through a fine gate-tower, the bailey (immediately within the outer ward) is entered. The castle itself consists of a quadrangular ma.s.s of great dignity and splendour, with an open court in the centre.

One side of the court, or the quadrangle, is occupied by two halls, one above the other, of such stupendous proportions that carriages are admitted to drive across the quadrangle _into_ the lower hall. The sides of the quadrangle have the kitchen and offices springing from one end of the hall, and the princ.i.p.al chambers of the castle from the other, according to the usual distribution of the age.

Although a view of most of those fortresses which are destined chiefly for the purposes of war or defence, suggests to the imagination dungeons, chains, and a painful a.s.semblage of horrors, yet some of these castles were often the scenes of magnificence and hospitality,

"Where the songs of knights and barons bold In weeds of peace high triumph hold;"

or where, in the days of chivalry, the wandering knight or distressed princess found honourable reception; the holy palmer repose for his wearied limbs; and the poor and helpless their daily bread.

Leland considered Raby as "the largest castle of logginges in all the north country." At different periods alterations have been made, according to the more modern ideas of comfort and convenience, without materially affecting its external form, so that it recalls to the mind the romantic days of chivalry. The embattled wall with which it is surrounded, occupies about two acres of ground. At irregular distances are two towers, named from their founders, the Clifford Tower and the Bulmer Tower. The halls are large and grand. In the upper, or Baron's hall, ninety feet in length, and thirty-four in breadth, the baronial feasts were held; and here,

"Seven hundred knights, retainers all Of Neville, at their master's call, Together sat in Raby's Hall."

When the British Archaeological a.s.sociation visited Raby in the autumn of 1865, the Duke of Cleveland, as the President of the a.s.sociation, entertained some 200 guests at a sumptuous dinner, in which venison, venison pasties, and grouse were paramount. The kitchen is on a scale to correspond with the enormous festivals of the seven hundred knights: it is a square of thirty feet, having three chimneys, one for the grate, a second for stoves, and the third (now stopped up) for the great cauldron. The roof is arched, and has a small cupola in the centre; it has likewise five windows, from each of which steps descend, but only in one instance to the floor; and a gallery runs round the whole interior of the building. The ancient oven is said to have allowed a tall person to stand upright in it, its diameter being fifteen feet; according to Pennant, it was one time converted into a wine-cellar, "the arches being divided into ten parts, each holding a hogshead of wine in bottles."

"The park and pleasure grounds belonging to this magnificent castle are upon the same extensive scale, with woods that sweep over hill and sink into valley, and command a constant change of beautiful prospects."[25]

Durham Castle is another n.o.ble pile of the north. The outer gateway is a Norman arch; traces of Norman work are seen in the courtyard; and we then reach the hall, which, as left by Bishop Hatfield, was at least a third longer than it is at present. It owes it curtailment to Bishop Fox (1494-1502), who erected a kitchen and other offices at the lower end.

This kitchen remains in its original form, with wide-yawning fireplaces still applied to their original purpose; and the b.u.t.tery hatches in old black oak have the motto of "_Est Deo gracio_," in black-letter, carved upon them. A tapestried gallery, with an elaborate Norman doorway, leads to Bishop Tunstall's chapel; and in another apartment, now the senate-room of the University of Durham, is some curious tapestry of the history of Moses. The keep, now refaced and restored, was rebuilt by Bishop Hatfield. The castle is commonly said to be no older than William the Conqueror; but a fortress must have existed from a much earlier period, and the mound is artificial. The Norman chapel of the castle, its most ancient portion, is usually a.s.signed to King William I., though of the time of Rufus. The pavement of herring-bone is, no doubt, coeval.

The whole of Durham Castle is now in excellent preservation, and the union of the past with the present is well maintained; for the old keep, which commands beautiful views of the Wear and the outlying country, is parcelled out into rooms, which are occupied by the students of the University. The great hall of the castle is hung with old paintings, chiefly the portraits of bishops and ecclesiastics connected with the see. At the lower end of the apartment, about half way between the roof and the ground, are two niches, at opposite sides, built for the minstrels of the period, and from which they regaled the guests.

The legendary histories of our castles would take us too far afield for our limits. Sometimes, in these legends, the very names of the Teutonic mythic personages are preserved. Thus, a legend in Berks.h.i.+re has retained the name of the Northern and Teutonic smith-hero, Weland, the representative of the cla.s.sical Vulcan. The name of Weland's father, Wade, is preserved in the legend of Mulgrave Castle, in Yorks.h.i.+re, which is pretended to have been built by a giant of that name. A Roman road, which pa.s.ses by it, is called Wade's Causeway; and a large tumulus, or cairn of stones, in the vicinity is popularly called Wade's Grave.

According to the legend, while the giant Wade was building his castle, he and his wife lived upon the milk of an enormous cow, which she was obliged to leave at pasture on the distant moors. Wade made the causeway for her convenience, and she a.s.sisted him in building the castle by bringing him quant.i.ties of large stones in her ap.r.o.n. One day, as she was carrying a bundle of stones, her ap.r.o.n-string broke, and they all fell to the ground, a great heap of about twenty cart-loads,--and there they still remain as a memorial of her industry. Another castle in Yorks.h.i.+re, occupying an early site, was said, according to a legend related by Leland in the sixteenth century, to have been built by a giant named Ettin. This is a mere corruption of the name of the _eotenas_, or giants of Teutonic mythology.

One of our most celebrated castles of defence is Corfe Castle, in Dorset, a remarkable specimen of mediaeval military architecture. The earliest notice of this fortress is in an Anglo-Saxon charter of the year 948. In 981 Corfe was the scene of the murder of King Edward the Martyr. After the death of his father, Edgar, Elfrida, his widow, headed a faction in opposition to the accession of Edward, and continued her intrigues until her unscrupulous ambition at last led her to the perpetration of a deed which has covered her name with infamy. This was the murder of her step-son by a hired a.s.sa.s.sin, as he stopped one day while hunting, at her residence, Corfe Castle; he was stabbed in the back, as he sat on his horse at the gate of the castle, drinking a cup of mead. The 18th of March, 978, is the date a.s.signed to the murder of King Edward, who was only in his seventeenth year when he was thus cut off. He is retained in the calendar of the Anglican Church as a saint and martyr. The castle, which was the strongest fortress in the kingdom, formed an irregular triangle, the apex of which was connected by a narrow isthmus with the high ground, on which the town of Corfe stands.

The isthmus had been cut through, and the ditch thus formed was spanned by a stately bridge of arches leading to the princ.i.p.al entrance of the fortress. Only the south side and parts of the east and west sides of the keep are standing, and large ma.s.ses of prostrate walls lie in confusion around. The keep is Norman, believed to have been built by the Conqueror. King John kept his treasure and regalia here, and used the castle as a state prison. Twenty-four n.o.bles concerned in the insurrection by his nephew, Arthur, Duke of Brittany, were, save two, it was said, there starved to death. King John caused Prince Arthur to be murdered, and sent his sister, the beautiful Princess Eleanor, prisoner to Corfe, where she remained several years.

Edward II., when he fell into the hands of his enemies, was, for a time, imprisoned here. In 1635, the castle and manor came into the possession of Sir John Bankes, Lord Chief Justice of England, and ancestor of the present owner. In the great Civil War, Corfe Castle was strongly defended for the king, by Lady Bankes, wife of the Lord Chief Justice, with the a.s.sistance of her friends and retainers, and of a governor sent from the king's army. The castle was one of the last places in England that held out for Charles I. In the year 1645, it was captured by the Parliamentary forces through treachery, and reduced to the shapeless but picturesque fragments that now remain. Lady Bankes's heroic defence is narrated in the _Story of Corfe Castle_, a volume of stirring interest; and the event is a favourite subject with our historical painters. The ruins of Corfe are extensive, and from their very high situation, form a very striking object. "The vast fragments of the King's Tower," says Hutchins, "the Round Tower, leaning, as if nearly to fall, the broken walls, and vast pieces of them tumbled into the vale below, form such a scene of havoc and desolation, as strikes every spectator with sorrow and concern. The abundance of stone in the neighbourhood, the excellence of the cement, harder to be broken than the stones themselves, have preserved these prodigious ruins from being embezzled and lessened."

In the age of Edward III. the castles differed from those of previous periods. The confined plan of the close fortress expanded into a mixture of the castle and the mansion; comprising s.p.a.cious and magnificent apartments, the hall, the banqueting-room, the chapel, with galleries of communication, and sleeping chambers. The keep was entirely detached, and independent of these buildings. Such was the royal palace of Windsor, erected by Edward III.; and such were the splendid baronial castles of Warwick, Ludlow, Stafford, Harewood, Alnwick, Kenilworth, Raglan, and many others. The last-mentioned is one of the most perfect examples we are acquainted with, of the union of vast strength and security, with convenient accommodation and ornamental splendour. The keep is a perfect fortress in itself, and encircled by a range of minor towers and moat. Its masonry is unrivalled.[26]

Of one of these s.p.a.cious castles we give a descriptive outline, chiefly from the paper read by Mr. J. H. Parker, on the visit of the Archaeological Inst.i.tute to Windsor, in July 1866. Amongst the royal and palatial edifices of Europe, that of Windsor holds a very high rank, and is, in a manner, to England what Versailles is to France and the Escurial to Spain; and while it is infinitely superior to both in point of situation, it far exceeds them, and indeed every other pile or building of its cla.s.s, in antiquity. From having been the residence of so many of our kings, its history is, to a certain extent, identified with that of the kingdom itself from the time of the Conquest. The castle stands on an outlying promontory of chalk, commanding the winding sh.o.r.es of that part of the Thames, with a rich valley, which seems to have pointed it out as a natural position for a fortress in primitive times, when the natives wished to protect their country from invasion.

The wide and deep entrenchments, and the high artificial mounds, indicate an early date. There are also roads at the bottom of the fosses, with a wide bank between them, on which several keeps were erected, first of wood and afterwards of stone. A subterranean pa.s.sage leading from the bottom of the outer foss, at a depth of thirty feet, to the bottom of the inner foss, at a depth of fifteen feet (the present pantries), cut in a very rude manner through the solid chalk, has a vault of the time of Henry II. carried on chalk walls, built over a small part of it as far as the Norman buildings extended only: the doorways are of the same period, one of which is quite perfect, and opens into the inner foss. If Windsor Castle had been built in the fifth century by King Arthur, as was believed by Edward III. and the chronicler Froissart, the roads would have been on the level. They are more likely of the time of Caractacus or Julius Caesar. Edward the Confessor is believed to have resided chiefly at Old Windsor, where some of the ancient earthworks certainly belong to a period before the Norman Conquest. William himself is said to have built a castle at Windsor, but there is no evidence of it. The Domesday Survey rather proves that there was one previously existing, which had been inhabited by Earl Harold in the time of the Confessor. Henry I. is said by Stow, writing in the fifteenth century, to have built New Windsor chiefly of wood; some of the fragments of stone carving found in the castle may be of his time.

Stephen built nothing here, but Windsor is mentioned in the treaty of Wallingford as a fortress of importance. The name "Norman Tower," as given to one part of the pile, is erroneous, as the Norman keep is nothing more than earthworks surmounted by a wooden structure. The earliest date which can be a.s.signed to any stone masonry which has been discovered at Windsor is the reign of Henry II. In the time of Henry II.

the first mention of the castle is made in the Pipe Rolls. The outer wall of the south front of the upper ward remains, with the lower part of the king's gate, its hinges, and portcullis groove; the upper part was destroyed, and the whole concealed in other buildings by Wyatville, in the restoration works under George IV. In the reigns of Richard I.

and John only necessary repairs were made.

With Henry III. the history of the existing castle may be said to begin.

The whole of the lower ward was then first built of stone, and many portions of the existing walls are found to be of that period. The Clewer Tower--now known as the Curfew Tower--remains almost unaltered, and exhibits in good condition a prison of the above period.

The King's Hall is now the Chapter library, but the chambers of the King and Queen have been destroyed. Plans and drawings of them have been preserved; and the measurements agree with the orders of the kings, as recorded in the public rolls.