The Castles of Old England

The Castles of Old EnglandAuthor(s): Charles TurnerSource: The Monthly Illustrator, Vol. 4, No. 12 (Apr., 1895), pp. 26-32Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25581998 .

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THE CASTLES OF OLD ENGLAND

By CH1ARLES TURNER

I/istroatedfrom receridtph/otogo(/azs.

Two tlhousand years withini historic times is a far cry, and yet, if we go back

over all that period, we shall find the origin of onie class of English castles, then

and nlow existing, still further buried in the mists of anl antiquity so remote that

no light but conjecture can ever pierce it. WVe knaow that whlen the galleons of

Julius CTesar, half a century before the Christian era, carried the pick of the Romanl

conquerors of Gaul over the Channel, the Britonis poured forth from their hill-fort

on the cliffs of Dover to dlo battle with the Roiimaii legions; wve know niot lho manny

genierations that fort had already beeni in existence. The Romans paid tribute to

the military genius of the anicient Britons who had selected a position natur-ally so

strongo, anid planted within its circular ramparts the lpharos or beaconlio-ght that has

*- ~~~~~. .4..

PVNE'CASTL.E

stood four-square to the winds of heaveni throuigh all the twenty centuries since,

anid still rears its massive form--a consl)icuous landmark in the g-reat grioup of

military buildings withi which those centuries have enicrusted the cliffs of Dover.

So little, inideedl, has eithier the British earthwork or the Roman tower suffer-ed from the ravenin, toothl f tome that while staling wvithin them both and gazing

i~~ ~~~b I- I-5 ||!!|

over to the coast of Gaul, wvithiin sighlt on any clear dlay, it does niot seemi to be so

very far back wheni Cicero wrote to Atticuis, in quite ani every-day g-ossipy sort of

way, of CTesar's baffled hiopes. It is only when awvay fromi the sturdy masonriy and

its glamour, th-at it seems possible all this took j)lace half a century before the siep

herds, tendin their flocks by night, followied the Star to Bethlehem.



The Castles of Old England 27

*.....: . . .: .... . -. . .. . .

HASTINGS CASTLE

Caesar's conquest was only a question of outposts; rather the desire to add

another title to his long line of foreign conquests, than to subdue a nation. A

hundred years elapsed before that serious business was begun by the Emperor

Claudius (A. D. 47), To his determination to subdue the district within which

.... .. ......... i>

iASRLECTI CAS'T'LE



28 The Castles of Old England

DOVER CASTLE

C sar's fragmentary efforts hiad failed, we ow-e the second of the castles shion in our ill ustrations-Peensey, the Romain Anidericla.

Tlhe plan of Clatidius, or more probably that of Flavius Vespasiani, w lom he deptuted to carry otut the conquest, differed widely from CTesar's. He began in the miietlhodical manniier so characteristic of that race of coniquLerors, by selectilng the most vulnerable spot on the whole southern coast, a marshy inilet inito wNhich hlis slips could steer, on1 a coast so flat that they could niot be seen until their niear approach ; whereas, at Dover the cliffs wouLld eniable approaching vessels to be discovered almost as sooni as they had left the opposite shores.

THE OATEWAY OF CARISBPOOKE CASTLE



The Castles of Old England 29 Havinig effected a landinig, the Flavian expedition indicated its intention of

stoppinig by erectinig the oblonig squLare walls of that eniclosure which to-day, after

eighlteeni hunidred years, shows as slharp anid clean-cut as if erected yesterday, the

1~~S

HURSTMTONCIEUX CASTLE

trowel - marks of the Ro man masons. It cost the

Roomiians nine years to ef

fect a conquest of this small corner, and it took

the Saxons, on their de

parture, at the end of the

fifth century, a much lon ger time to break dow n

the military strength of the

Britons, who fought be hind the walls at Pevensey w hich the Romans had

built so well. Five hun

clred further years elaps ecd, and Pevensey again be

came the pivot oni which the military fate of Eng land revolved, for here it

was, in Io66, that WVilliam of Normandy landed the six hulndred vessels of the

expeclition that by one near - by battle anid the

death of Haroldl transferred the crown of England to hiim. William's masterful military eye was niot likely to overlook the importance of this key of the highway to Normandcly, and to him, or rather to his half-brother Rober-t de AMoreton, wve owe the Norman castle at Pevensey, more fitted to the military science of the age tlhani the openi camp of the Romains, wlithiln whliclh, ancl of the materials of a por tioni of which, however, it was built.

WVilliam of Normandy was a miani of swift judgment and Luinerring military in

CARRPHi 1LLY CASTIEI



30 Tlhe Castles of Old England stinlct. He had no sooner svept Harold from his path than he proceeded scien tifically to buckle himself to the soil by a series of castles of great strenigth, anid the battle-field of Senlac was scarce covered with the grass of the following spring ere the Nvest cliff at Hastings, corn manding one of the very few haveens on the southi coast, was covered with the towvers and keep, the ruins of which form so pic t uresque a crown to the heiglhts above that most delightful of suimmer resor-ts.

TFle northern portcullised enitrance and many of the tovers of the east and the Nvest walls, still attest its strenigth and beauty.

The honor of Hastinigs was held b)y the Dukes of Brittany, but the custody of its castle always remainied in the Crowni.

Two priests whlo stand out witlh more than usual distinctness in the line of English worthies served in the chapel within its precinicts, for Tlhomas a Becket was one of its dcans aind WVilliamii of \Wykham aniother of its dcignitaries.

PEIBFROKE ASL

Bodiain is a type of quite another class of castles, arisingo out of aniothier period of hiistory anid other hiabits entirely. Those whio are familiar withi Conan Doyle's dlelighitful hiistorical niovel, " 'thle WVhite Company," will rem-ember the existence in the fouirteenith century3 of nuimerous bands of freebooters, ledl, ofteni, by mieni of

gr-eat position too, who harried and plunclered niorthiern- Franice unmercifuIlly. SuIch ani one wvas Sir Edlward Dalyngrudge, one of the hieroes of Cressy and Po'ic

tiers, whio had gYrowvn richi and old oni the booty of Fr-ance, anid whlose ideal was to

retire to Merrie Eniglanid and build him a mi-oatedi castle in which he mig-ht live secure and imagine, at least, that he was surrounided by wvar's alarm. King Richi

ard IL. gave him, in 1386, a license to build Bodiam,i and onie cani fancy the old

veterani, with the memories of miany a hard nut hie hiad cracked in France, building

himself a castle that should be perfect and impreg-nable ; anid so arose, over the

1_ * 11 | l _ I _~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_



The Castles of Old England 3I

/4~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~g

* 4~~~~~~~~~~J

. . .. . .

RUFUS CASTLE

moat, the causeway protected by a barbican, the walls high, wide, and thick, round towers and square, the great doorway, triple portcullised, and within, the offices for the brave old knight and his scarred and battered veterans who among the peace ful, low-swelling hills of Sussex, had little left to do. but bare their arms and fight

.... ..... ...... B R CASTL.

4 ',' -~~~~~~~M541 '"VA",

BARNARD CASTLE



32 The Castles of Old Enoland their battles over anid over in story. It is a sightly ruin and instructive, too

type of a period in Englishl histo-ry that tested sturdy manihood atid laid deep the foundclations of muchI that, in later days, carried the baanner of St. George safe

throuyglh many a lhard-foughlt fight.

HuLrstmonicieux is of still another type. A castle, in the sense of Bodiam, it

canl scarce be called, except by coLurtesy; its righlt to that grim title comes from

some antecedent builclinlg to that wve now see.

The HurstimonicieuLx of to-day, or ratlher the dismiianitled ivy-covered ruins so

callecl, was at no time more tlhani a very noble and fairly strong residence, built

with glreat splendor by Sir Roger de Flennies in the reigni of Henry AVI., of pious

memory, in the fifteenith centuLry.

AVithin its ample wvalls were eniclosedI four courts, two large antd two small,

A

24 ~ 4~t

BODIANI CASTLF

really of prolportions cap-able of piretty garclen cultivation, and the ogalleries, of

fices, chapel, aind other accessoiies for the acconimoclationi of the immense reti nue with-i which it had become the fashion of great territorial lords to surrounld the mselves.

In the period of its pristine beauty Hurstmoncieux must have been a brave show

anid a right pleasant hiome, thoughl little passecl out of it more formiidable than a

hawking party.

Carisbrooke, in the Isle of Wi(gt, is a combiinationi of Dover anti Hurstmon

cieux; it rivals the frst in antiquity, being British antd Romatn in its or-igin antl feudal in its development. It is not, like Dover, onie of tlhe modern Gibraltars of

England, for since the time wvhen it wvas the prison of King Charles I., it has per

fornied no state funictioun; as a picturesque relic of many ages of English history, however, it is a noteworthy memiiorial of the past.



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The Castles of Old England