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the Gesta has many points of interest. He describes the castle as standing on a very high mound (editissimo aggere) hedged in by an insurmountable wall, which was defended by "Cæsarian" towers built with the very hardest mortar. This must refer to Roman towers which may have existed on the Roman part of the wall. Whether there was a stone wall on the other two sides, facing the city, may be doubted, as the expenditure entered to Henry II. in the Pipe Rolls suggests that he was the first to put stone walls on the banks, and the two ancient towers which still exist appear to be of his time. The chronicler goes on to say that after Stephen had taken the promurale and broken down the bridge, there were several days and nights of fighting before he could win the castle, which was eventually forced to surrender by the drying-up of the wells. The mining operations which he describes were no doubt undertaken with the view of shaking down the Roman wall at the angle where it joins the artificial bank of Baldwin de Molis. Possibly the chamber in the rock with the mysterious passages leading from it, which is still to be

1 The whole of this passage is worth quoting: "Castellum in ea situm, editissimo aggere sublatum, muro inexpugnabile obseptum, turribus Cæsarianis inseissili calce confectis firmatum. Agmine peditum instructissime armato exterius promurale, quod ad castellum muniendum aggere cumulatissimo in altum sustollebatur, expulsis constanter hostibus suscepit, pontemque interiorem, quo ad urbem de castello incessus protendebatur, viriliter infregit, lignorumque ingentia artificia, quibus de muro pugnare intentibus resisteretur, mire et artificiose exaltavit. Die etiam et noctu graviter et intente obsidionem clausis inferre ; nunc cum armatis aggerem incessu quadrupede conscendentibus rixam pugnacem secum committere; nunc cum innumeris fundatoribus, qui e diverso conducti fuerunt, intolerabile eos lapidum grandine infestare; aliquando autem ascitis eis, qui massæ subterranæ cautius norunt venus incidere, ad murum diruendum viscera terræ scutari præcipere: nonnunquam etiam machinas diversi generis, alias in altum sublatis, alias humo tenus depressas, istas ad inspiciendam quidnam rerum in castello gereretur, illas ad murum quassandum vel obruendum aptare." Gesta Stephani, R. S., 23.

2 Pipe Rolls, 1169-1186.

seen in the garden of Miss Owthwaite, at the point where the ditch ends, is the work of Stephen's miners.1 The description of his soldiers scrambling up the agger on their hands and knees (quadrupede incessu) will be well understood by those who have seen the castle bank as it still rises from that ditch.

The present ward of Exeter Castle, which is rudely square in plan, covers an area of 2 acres, which is as large as the whole area of many of the smaller Norman castles. The castle was allowed to fall into decay as early as 1549, and since then it has been devastated by the building of a Sessions House and a gaol. No plan has been preserved of the former buildings in this court, though the site of the chapel is known.

There is no statement in Domesday Book as to the value of Exeter.

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EYE, Suffolk (Fig. 17).—This castle was built by William Malet, one of the companions of the Conqueror, who is described as having been half Norman and half English. Eye, as its name implies, seems to have been an island in a marsh in Norman times, and therefore a naturally defensible situation. The references in the Pibe Rolls to the palicium and the bretasches of Eye Castle show that the outer defences of the castle at any rate were of wood in the days of Henry II.

That

1 The difficulty about this, however, is that passages branch off from the central cave in every direction.

2 Oliver's History of Exeter, p. 186.

3 [Willelmus Malet] fecit suum castellum ad Eiam. D. B., ii., 379. For Malet, see Freeman, N. C., 466, note 4.

4 "In operatione castelli de Eya et reparatione veterarum bretascharum et 2 novarum bretascharum et fossatorum et pro carriagio et petra et aliis minutis operationibus 207. 18s. 4d. Pipe Rolls, xix., 19 Henry II. The small quantity of stone referred to here can only be for some auxiliary work. The bretasches in this case will be mural towers of wood. "In emendatione palicii et 1 exclusæ vivarii et domorum castelli 20s." 28 Henry II.

there were works in masonry at some subsequent period is shown by a solitary vestige of a wing wall of flints which runs up the motte. A modern tower now occupies the summit. The bailey of the castle, the outline of which can still be traced, though the area is covered with buildings and gardens, was oval in shape, and covered 2 acres.

The value of the manor of Eye had gone up since the Conquest from £15 to £21. This must have been due to the castle and to the market which Robert Malet or his son William established close to the castle; for the stock on the manor and the number of ploughs had actually decreased.1 A proof that there is no deliberate register of castles in Domesday Book is furnished by the very careful inventory of the manor of Eye, where there is no mention of a castle, though it is noticed that there are now a park and a market; and it is only in the account of the lands of the bishop of Thetford, in mentioning the injury which William Malet's market at Eye had done to the bishop's market at Hoxne, that the castle of Eye is named.

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GLOUCESTER.-"There were sixteen houses where the castle sits, but now they are gone, and fourteen have been destroyed in the burgus of the city," says Domesday Book. Gloucester was undoubtedly a Roman chester, and Roman pavements have been found there." The description in the Survey would lead us to think that the castle was outside the ancient walls, though

1 D. B., ii., 319, 320.

2 D. B., i., 162. "Sedecim domus erant ubi sedet castellum, quæ modo desunt, et in burgo civitatis sunt wastatæ 14 domus."

3 Rudge, History of Gloucester, p. 7. Haverfield, Romanisation of Britain, p. 204.

4 It is, however, possible that by the burgus may be meant a later quarter which had been added to the city.

Speed's map places it on the line of the wall of his time, which may have been a mediæval extension. The castle of Gloucester is now entirely destroyed, but there is sufficient evidence to show that it was of the usual Norman type. There was a motte, which was standing in 1819, and which was then called the Barbican Hill;1 it appears to have been utilised as part of the works of the barbican. This motte must originally have supported a wooden keep, and Henry I. must have been the builder of the stone keep which Leland saw "in the middle of the area; for in 1100 Henry gave lands to Gloucester Abbey "in exchange for the site where now the keep of Gloucester stands." The bailey had previously been enlarged by William Rufus. Possibly the framea turris or framework tower spoken of in Henry II.'s reign may refer to the wooden keep which had been left standing on the motte." The walls of Gloucester Castle were frequently repaired by Henry II.," but the word murus by no means implies always a stone wall, and it is certain that the castle was at that time surrounded by a wooden stockade, as a writ of a much later period (1225) says that the stockade which is around our castle of Gloucester has been blown down

1 Fosbroke's History of Gloucester, pp. 125, 126. Stukeley, writing in 1721, says: "There is a large old gatehouse standing, and near it the castle, with a very high artificial mount or keep nigh the river." Itin. Cur., i., 69. "Of al partes of yt the hy tower in media area is most strongest and auncient." Leland, Itin., iii., 64.

3 In excambium pro placea ubi nunc turris stat Gloucestriæ, ubi quondam fuit ortus monachorum." Mon. Ang., i., 544. The document is not earlier than Henry II.'s reign.

4 Round, Studies in Domesday, p. 123.

5 "In operatione frame turris de Glouec, 20l. Pipe Rolls, i., 27. In the single Pipe Roll of Henry I. there is an entry "In operationibus turris de Glouec," 71. 6s. 2d., which may be one of a series of sums spent on the new stone keep.

• Pipe Rolls, 1177, 1180, 1181, 1184.

and broken by the wind, and must be repaired.1 Wooden bretasches on the walls are spoken of in the Pipe Rolls of 1193, and even as late as 1222.2

The value of the city of Gloucester had apparently risen at the time of the Survey, though the entry being largely in kind, T. R. E., it is not easy to calculate.

HASTINGS, Sussex (Fig. 18).—In this case we have positive contemporary evidence that the earthen mound of the castle was thrown up by the Normans at the time of the Conquest, for there is a picture in the Bayeux Tapestry which shows them doing it. A number of men with spades are at work raising a circular mound, on the top of which, with the usual all-inclusiveness of mediæval picturing, a stockade is already erected. A man with a pick seems to be working at the ditch. The inscription attached is: "He commands that a castle be dug at Hestengaceastra. There is no need to comment on the significance of this drawing and its inscription for the history of early Norman castles; what is extraordinary is that it should have been entirely overlooked for so long. In no case is our information more complete than about Hastings. Not only does Domesday Book mention the castellaria of Hastings,* but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also tells us that William built a castle there, while the chronicle of Battle Abbey makes the evidence complete by telling us that "having taken possession of a suitable site, he built a wooden castle there." This of course means the

1 Close Rolls, ii., 88b.

2 "In reparatione murorum et bretaschiarum," 20/. 75. 11d. Pipe Rolls, 1193. 3 "Jussit ut foderetur castellum ad Hestengaceastra." 4 D. B., i., 18a, 2. "Rex Willelmus dedit comiti [of Eu] castellariam de Hastinges."

5 "Dux ibidem [at Pevensey] non diu moratus, haud longe situm, qui Hastinges vocatur, cum suis adiit portum, ibique opportunum nactus locum, ligneum agiliter castellum statuens, provide munivit." Chron. Monast. de