ENTRANCE TO CONINGSBURG CASTLE.

Yorkshire.

THIS Castle, the name of which signifies the King's Town, is, perhaps, the oldest specimen of its kind remaining. It is of undoubted Saxon origin, and supposed to have been erected by Hengist. He came to England with his brother Horsa, in the year 449, at the request of the Britons, who found themselves unable to resist the repeated invasions of the Picts and Scots. Hengist, after many battles with Vortimer, the son and successor of the deposed Vortigern, succeeded in making himself completely master of some of the southern counties, when he took the title of king. Forty years after his first entry into Britain, he was defeated at Coningsburg, taken prisoner, and beheaded by Ambrosius, a British general, of Roman extraction, and so great a favourite of the Britons, that he was afterwards elected king of all England. It is to this general that Geoffry of Monmouth ascribes the erection of Stonehenge, as a monument of the massacre of three hundred of the British nobles by the Saxons, although this opinion is not received by antiquarians. In one of the buttresses that support the great tower, near the top, is a beautiful and most perfect chapel, of the Saxon order of architecture; which, joined to the circumstance of an uncouth idol found in the castle, gives much weight to the supposition, that it was erected previous to the introduction of Christianity, as the worship of various idols was continued by the Saxons till the time of Ethelbert, the great grandson of Hengist; when the pure light of the Gospel first dawned upon our uncultured ancestors.

The first appearance of Coningsburg Castle is extremely imposing. The lofty keep is seen above the tall ash trees that cover the whole of the sides and summit of the mound in the vale beneath, and ascending the hill on which the castle is seated, rises a neat and picturesque village of white-washed cottages and handsome houses, ornamented with terraced gardens, along the side of the hill: at the bottom of the valley, and near the edge of the castle moat, stands a small water mill, so antique in its appearance, that a casual observer would be disposed to declare it coeval with its ancient neighbour; and, from the happy site that it occupies, it is very probable that a mill may have been in the same situation ever since the first inhabitants of the castle or village had occasion for one.

The approach to the castle winds beautifully through a grove of ash trees towards the north side, where the drawbridge of the principal entrance hung; the deep moat, that surrounds the castle on every side, is here filled up with rubbish, making an excellent pathway to the inner works. The entrance appears to have been by a covered way, the side walls of which still remain, proceeding from the drawbridge to the inner court of the castle, forming a winding path of about thirty or forty yards long, and ten feet in width. Where this path ends the remains of steps appear, as if a gateway or entrance to some building had stood there. From this point, along the whole of the north and east walls, appear the ruins of lodging rooms, storehouses, and kitchens for the accommodation of the garrison. Nearly the whole of the outer wall is standing, strengthened by the remains of eight round towers of solid stone-work. Two of these rounders form a principal feature in the view of the north entrance, and the remains of two others are seen amongst the trees to the right; one of them so far sunk that it seems to have been undermined, and is scarcely perceptible through the weeds and ivy by which it is

overgrown.

KEEP OF CONINGSBURG CASTLE.

AT the south-east corner of the mound stands the massive keep, a circular tower of extraordinary strength and height, it is supported by six square buttresses atequal distances from each other, that reach from the bottom to the top of the tower, where they are continued about ten feet above the walls. In the tops of three of these buttresses are alcoves sufficiently large to admit five or six men upright: one of these buttresses, instead of an alcove, has an oven in very good repair, and very much like the ovens now in use; but whether it was intended to cook, for the annoyance of an enemy, or the conveniency of the inhabitants, it is not easy to say. On the buttress nearest to the head of the stairs that lead on to the top of the castle, are some ruined steps, by which the warder, or centinel, might gain a greater elevation for reconnoitring. This station is much like what is called John of Gaunt's Chair on Lancaster Castle, and commands a fine view of the whole of the surrounding country; from which every movement of the village beneath, or on the river Don, winding near the foot of the castle; in every adjacent hamlet; and along the sides of the hills, might be distinctly observed, baffled by no impediments except the thick foliage of the distant woods, where, in after ages, Robin Hood performed so many of his gallant exploits. Both the tower and its buttresses are of much greater diameter below than above, expanding gradually at about twenty feet from the ground to the foundation.

The tower stands in the outer wall, so that near one-third of its circumference constitutes part of the line of outer works. The entrance to the tower is by a door facing to the south-west, at a considerable height from the ground, to which there could have been no other access but by a ladder, which the inhabitants might draw to the inside for security: at present the approach is by a flight of steps of a much later date. On each side of the door, on the outside, is a small square recess, sunk in the stone-work, at about two inches in depth and six inches square; but for what purpose this has been intended is not easily

divined, unless it was to prevent the ends of a ladder from slipping, and for such a purpose it would have been much better had the lower edges of the recesses been levelled away. In the sides of the door-way are deep lateral holes, to admit the motion of the bars backwards and forwards which secured the door. At the door the wall is about sixteen feet thick, and within the wall runs an arched staircase of excellent workmanship, to the upper rooms of the tower. The first apartment that is entered may with propriety be called the first floor, and has no admission for the light but what might have been received from above, or from the door. In the centre of the floor, which is of stone, is a circular hole, of highly-finished masonry at the rim, and which leads down to a dark vaulted room in the foundation of the castle; this vault has doubtless been the prison, and although it has been described as nearly filled with rubbish, it requires a ladder of some length to reach the bottom with safety; from this dark room, if we may believe tradition, there was a subterranean outlet, that led beneath the moat of the castle to the neighbouring country. There were three floors in the tower, including the first at the entrance, now the only one remaining, and as the roof is entirely gone, the first appearance, on arriving at the interior, is like that of a vast well, supposing the spectator to be placed at the bottom. On the second floor is a large and richly-ornamented fire-place, with a clustered column, and carved capitals on each side, supporting the chimney-piece. Near the fire-place is a square stone trough, placed in the wall, and near it a door to a small room or closet in one of the buttresses; the larger room is enlightened by a large window, opposite the fire-place, round the bottom of which is a stone seat; the top of this window is arched. In the story above this is another fire-place, not so large as the one below, but decorated in the same manner, with pillars at its sides; this room also received its light from an arched window similar to the window beneath: and a trough is also set in the wall, near the fire-place. It is on this story that the chapel, hereafter described, is placed in one of the buttresses, and which is entered by a door facing the fire-place; the entrance to this chapel is gained with the greatest danger and difficulty; the person attempting it is obliged to step carefully on a narrow ledge, carrying the body perfectly straight, and holding by large nails that have been driven into the wall for the purposes of support. The author entered this chapel by means of planks, laid upon two of the blocks which project from the walls round the tower, the supporters of the ancient floor. By these means

the passage is rendered comparatively easy, and without danger to those who can prevent themselves from looking down into the dark and yawning mouth of the dungeon below; and we could recommend to all who wish to visit this elegant and perfect specimen of Saxon architecture, to send a carpenter from the village, with a ladder and a couple of stout planks, and thus save themselves much dangerous scrambling along narrow ledges, where even the precarious support of nails driven into the walls are not always to be found. The stairs to the top of the castle are gained by a door near to that of the chapel, and at the foot of these stairs is a winding passage to a place that appears to have been the principal sink of the castle; it is placed in an angle of the tower and one of the buttresses, and overhangs that part of the mound which is outside the fortress. At the top of the tower the walls are about ten feet thick, affording a very good foot-way to the alcoves, oven, &c. in the head of the buttresses already mentioned.