entrance in masonry, evidently of 13th century date; and as the scanty masonry remaining of the castle is similar in character, it is probably all of the same date. The area covered by the motte and the two original baileys is 3 acres; that of the whole series of earthworks, 15 acres. Acre was only a small manor in Saxon times; its value at the time of the Survey had risen from 5 to 9.1 CHEPSTOW (Estrighoel or Strigul), Monmouthshire.— Notwithstanding the fact that there is another castle of the name of Strigul about 9 miles from Chepstow (known also as Troggy Castle), it is clear that Chepstow is the castle meant by Domesday, as the entry speaks of ships going up the river, a thing impossible at Strigul. The castle occupies a narrow ridge, well defended by the river on one side, and on the other by a valley which separates it from the town. There are four wards, and the last and smallest of all seemed to the writer, when visiting the castle, to mark the site of a lowered motte. This opinion, however, is not shared by two competent observers, Mr Harold Sands and Mr Duncan Montgomerie, who had much ampler opportunities for studying the remains. This ward is now a barbican, and the masonry upon it belongs clearly to the 13th century; it occupies the highest ground in the castle, and is separated from the other wards, and from the ridge beyond it, by two ditches cut across the headland. The adjoining court must have belonged to the earliest 1 D. B., ii., 160b. 2 "Castellum de Estrighoiel fecit Willelmus comes, et ejus tempore reddebat 40 solidos, tantum de navibus in silvam euntibus." D. B., i., 162. Tanner has shown that while Chepstow was an alien priory of Cormeille, in Normandy, it is never spoken of by that name in the charters of Cormeille, but is always called Strigulia. Notitia Monastica, Monmouthshire. See also Marsh's Annals of Chepstow Castle. part of the castle, as it contains a very remarkable early Norman building (splendidly restored in the 13th century) which is regarded by most authorities as the original hall of William FitzOsbern. It must, however, have combined both hall and keep, otherwise the castle was not provided with any citadel, if there was no motte.1 What is now the second ward has a Norman postern in the south wall, and may have been the bailey to the keep. All the other masonry is of the late Early English or the Perpendicular period, and the entrance ward is probably an addition of the 13th century. The shape of all the baileys is roughly quadrangular, except that of the fourth, which would be semicircular but for the towers which make corners to it. The whole area of the castle is 1 acres. We are not told what the value of the manor was before William FitzOsbern built his castle there, but from the absence of this mention we may infer that the site was waste. It paid 40s. in his time from ships' dues, 16. in his son Earl Roger's time, and at the date of the Survey it paid the king 12/2 Chepstow was not the centre of a large soke, and it appears to have owed all its importance to the creation of William FitzOsbern's castle. CHESTER. The statement of Ordericus, that William I. founded this castle on his return from his third visit to York, is sufficiently clear. The very valuable paper of Mr E. W. Cox on Chester Castle* 1 I must confess that in spite of very strong opposing opinions, I see no reason why this building should not be classed as a keep. It is of course a gross error to call Martin's Tower the keep; it is only a mural tower. 2 D. B., 162, 1a. 3 "Cestriæ munitionem condidit." P. 199 (Prévost's edition). 4 Chester Historical and Archæological Society, v., 239. answers most of the questions which pertain to our present inquiry. The original castle of Chester consisted of the motte, which still remains, though much built over, and the small ward on the edge of which it stands, a polygonal enclosure scarcely an acre in extent. On the motte the vaulted basement of a tower still remains, but the style is so obscured by whitewash and modern accretions that it is impossible to say whether the vaulting is not modern. The first buildings were certainly of wood, but Mr Cox regarded some of the existing masonry on the motte as belonging to the 12th century; and this would correspond with the entry in the Pipe Rolls of 102l. 7s. od. spent on the castle by Henry II. in 1159. The tower, nicknamed Cæsar's Tower, and frequently mistaken for the keep, is shown in Mr Cox's paper to be only a mural tower of the 13th century, probably built when the first ward was surrounded with walls and towers in masonry. The large outer bailey was first added in the reign of Henry III. It is further proved by Mr Cox that Chester Castle stood outside the walls of the Roman city. The manor of Gloverstone lay between it and the city, and was not under the jurisdiction of the city until quite recent times. This disposes of the ball set rolling by Brompton at the end of the 13th century, and sent on by most Chester topographers ever since, that Ethelfleda, when she restored the Roman walls of Chester, 2 1 Pipe Rolls, ii., 7. Ranulph, Earl of Chester, died in 1153, and the castle would then escheat into the king's hands. 2 This work seems to have been completed in the reign of Edward II., who spent £253 on the houses, towers, walls, and gates. Cal. of Close Rolls, Edward II., ii., 294. 3 Close Rolls, 35, Henry III., cited by Ormerod, History of Cheshire, i., 358. 4 See Mr Cox's paper, as above, and Shrubsole, Chester Hist. and Arch. Soc., v., 175, and iii., New Series, p. 71. enlarged their circuit so as to take in the castle. We have already referred to this in Chapter III. Chester, as we have seen, was originally a royal castle. And though it was naturally committed to the keeping of the Norman earls of Chester, and under weak kings may have been regarded by the earls as their own property, no such claim was allowed under a strong ruler. After the insurrection of the younger Henry, Hugh, Earl of Chester, forfeited his lands; Henry II. restored them to him in 1177, but was careful to keep the castle in his own hands.1 The city of Chester, Domesday Book tells us, had greatly gone down in value when the earl received it, probably in 1070; twenty-five houses had been destroyed. But it had already recovered its prosperity at the date of the Survey; there were as many houses as before, and the ferm of the city was now let by the earl at a sum greatly exceeding the ferm paid in King Edward's time. This prosperity must have been due to the security provided for the trade of Chester by the Norman castle and Norman rule. CLIFFORD, Herefordshire (Fig. 13). It is clearly stated by Domesday Book that William FitzOsbern built this castle on waste land. At the date of the Survey it was held by Ralph de Todeni, who had sublet it to the sheriff. In the many castles attributed to William FitzOsbern, who built them as the king's vicegerent, we may see an indication that the building of castles, even on the marches of Wales, was not undertaken without royal license. In the reign of Henry I. Clifford Castle had already passed into the 1 Benedict of Peterborough, i., 135, R. S. 2 D. B., i., 262b. 3 "Willelmus comes fecit illud [castellum] in wasta terra quam tenebat Bruning T. R. E." D. B., i., 183a, 2. |