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hoped to govern this turbulent part of the country. He placed it on the neck of the lofty peninsula on which the cathedral stands. The motte of the Conqueror still remains, and so does the chapel1 which he built in the bailey; probably the present court of the castle, though crowded now with buildings, represents the outline of the original bailey. The present shell keep on the motte was built by Bishop Hatfield in Edward III.'s reign, but has been extensively modernised. There can be little doubt that up to 1345 there were only wooden buildings on the motte, as the writer was informed by Canon Greenwell that no remains of older stone-work than the 14th century had been found there. It is so seldom that we get any contemporary description of a castle, of this kind, that it seems worth while to translate the bombastic verse in which Laurence, Prior of Durham, described that of Durham in Stephen's reign:*

"Not far hence [from the north road into the city] a tumulus of rising earth explains the flatness of the excavated summit, explains the narrow field on the flattened vertex, which the apex of the castle occupies with very pleasing art. On this open space the castle is seated like a queen; from its threatening height, it holds all that it sees as its own. From its gate, the stubborn wall rises with the rising mound, and rising still further, makes towards the comfort (amæna) of the keep. But the keep, compacted together, rises again

1 This chapel is an instance of the honour so frequently done to the chapel, which was in many cases built of stone when the rest of the castle was only of timber, and was always the part most lavishly decorated. 2 The bailey was twice enlarged by Bishops Flambard and Pudsey. 3 Surtees, Durham, iv., 33. 4 Surtees Society, xx., 11-13.

5 Evidently the southern wing wall up the motte; but we need not suppose murus to mean a stone wall.

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into thin air, strong within and without, well fitted for its work, for within the ground rises higher by three cubits than without-ground made sound by solid earth. Above this, a stalwart house1 springs yet higher than the [shell] keep, glittering with splendid beauty in every part; four posts are plain, on which it rests, one post at each strong corner. Each face is girded by a beautiful gallery, which is fixed into the warlike wall. A bridge, rising from the chapel [in the bailey] gives a ready ascent to the ramparts, easy to climb; starting from them, a broad way makes the round of the top of the wall, and this is the usual way to the top of the citadel. . . . The bridge is divided into easy steps, no headlong drop, but an easy slope from the top to the bottom. Near the [head of the] bridge, a wall descends from the citadel, turning its face westward towards the river. From the river's lofty bank it turns away in a broad curve to meet the field [i.e., Palace Green]. It is no bare plot empty of buildings that this high wall surrounds with its sweep, but one containing goodly habitations. There you will find two vast palaces built with porches, the skill of whose builders the building

1 Domus, a word always used for a habitation in mediæval documents, and often applied to a tower, which it evidently means here.

2 This is the only indication which Lawrence gives that the keep was of wood.

3 "Cingitur et pulchra paries sibi quilibet ala,

Omnis et in muro desinit ala fero."

The translation is conjectural, but gallery seems to make the best sense, and the allusion probably is to the wooden galleries, or hourdes, which defended the walls.

Evidently the northern wing wall.

This is the bailey; the two vast palaces must mean the hall and the lodgings of the men-at-arms, who did not share the bishop's dwelling in the keep. These were probably all of wood, as the buildings of Durham Castle were burnt at the beginning of Pudsey's episcopate (1153) and restored by him. Surtees Society, ix., 12.

DURHAM-ELY

149

well reveals.

There, too, the chapel stands out beautifully raised on six pillars, not over vast, but fair enough to view. Here chambers are joined to chambers, house to house, each suited to the purpose that it serves. There is a building in the middle of the castle which has a deep well of abundant water. . . . The frowning gate faces the rainy south, a gate that is strong, highreaching, easily held by the hand of a weakling or a woman. The bridge is let down for egress,' and thus the way goes across the broad moat. It goes to the plain which is protected on all sides by a wall, where the youth often held their joyous games. Thus the castellan, and the castle artfully placed on the high ridge, defend the northern side of the cathedral. And from this castle a strong wall goes down southwards, continued to the end of the church.""

The original bailey of this castle covers 1 acre.

ELY, Cambridgeshire (Fig. 17).-This castle was built by William I. in 1070, when he was repressing the last struggle of the English under the heroic Hereward. The monks of Ely felt it a sore grievance that he placed the castle within their own bounds. Both this castle and the one built by William at Aldreth, to defend the passage into the Isle of Ely, had a continuous existence, as they were both refortified by Nigel, Bishop of Ely in Stephen's reign, and Ely Castle was besieged and taken by Stephen. The earthworks of this castle still exist, to the south of the Minster. There is a fine motte with

1 "Hujus in egressu pons sternitur." This seems a probable allusion to a drawbridge, but if so, it is an early one.

2 This describes the addition to the bailey made by Flambard. The part of the peninsula to the S. of the church was afterwards walled in by Pudsey, and called the South Bailey.

3 Liber Eliensis, ii., 245 (Anglia Christiana). The part cited was written early in the 12th century: see Preface.

• Stowe's Annals, 145, I.

an oval bailey, of which the banks and ditches are traceable in parts. The area of the bailey is 2 acres. Of Aldreth or Aldrey there appear to be no remains.

The value of the manor of Ely was £33 in the Confessor's reign; it fell to £20 after the devastations of the Conquest, but had risen again to £30 at the time of the Survey.'

EWIAS, Herefordshire (Fig. 17).-The brief notice of this castle in Domesday Book throws some light on the general theory of castle-building in England. William FitzOsbern, as the king's vicegerent, rebuilt this march castle, and committed it to the keeping of another Norman noble, and the king confirmed the arrangement. But in theory the castle would always be the king's. This is the only case in the Survey where we hear of a castle being rebuilt by the Normans. We naturally look to one of King Edward's Norman favourites as the first founder, for they alone are said by history to have built castles on the Welsh marches before the Conquest. Dr Round conjectures that Ewias was the "Pentecost's castle" spoken of in the (Peterborough) Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1052.3 No masonry is now to be seen on the motte at Ewias, but Mr Clark states that the outline of a circular or polygonal shell keep is shown by

1 D. B., ii., 192.

2 "Alured de Merleberge tenet castellum de Ewias de Willelmo rege. Ipse rex enim concessit ei terras quas Willelmus comes ei dederat, qui hoc castellum refirmaverat, hoc est, 5 carucatas terræ ibidem. . . . Hoc castellum valet 10l." D. B., i., 186a. As there is no statement of the value in King Edward's day, we cannot tell whether it had risen or fallen.

3 Feudal England, p. 324. The present writer was led independently to the same conclusion. Pentecost was the nickname of Osbern, son of Richard Scrob, one of Edward's Norman favourites, to whom he had given estates in Herefordshire. Osbern fled to Scotland in 1052, but he seems to have returned, and was still holding lands in "the castelry of Ewias" at the time of the Survey, though his nephew Alured held the castle. See Freeman, N. C., ii., 345, and Florence of Worcester, 1052.

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