They accordingly arrived at Newcastle on the evening of July 12, 1174, and marching again by early dawn on the morrow, they accomplished four-and-twenty miles before five in the morning, and came up with part of the enemy. Notwithstanding the difficulties they had to encounter through a heavy fog, they warily prosecuted their journey. Some of the party were disposed to return; but Bernard de Baliol exclaimed that rather than retreat he would proceed alone. Upon this they declared their readiness to share his fate, and the fog which had hitherto offered such a disheartening impediment to their enterprise suddenly clearing away, they found themselves, to their surprise, under the battlements of Alnwick. William, at the head of little more than threescore soldiers, was unsuspiciously encamped in an open plain. He even fancied he beheld his own party advancing; but the banner they carried speedily undeceived him. This was the time of youthful chivalry, of natural valour, and personal daring, and the heart of the Lion was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of its romantic principles. His courage increased with his difficulty, and crying out, "Now shall we see who are good knights," he dashed impetuously upon his foes. his foes. He was unhorsed at the outset, and taken prisoner with his attendants.* The English, having obtained so signal a prize, returned the same evening to Newcastle, the royal captive being consigned to the charge of Ralph de Glanville, who subsequently removed him to the castle of Richmond.† From hence he was carried to Northampton, and, like Hubert de Burgh, justiciary of Henry II., brought before the monarch with his legs bound under the body of the horse that carried him; treatment as humiliating to his exalted station as it was unworthy of the notions Ralph de Glanville entertained of administering the functions of high justiciary of England.‡ * Amongst the principal combatants were Robert de Stuteville, Ranulf de Glanville, Bernard de Baliol, and William de Vesci. The Chronicle of William of Newbury furnishes the fullest particulars we possess of this important engagement. Recedat, inquit, qui voluerit; ego autem, etiamsi nullus sequatur, procedam et perpetuam mihi maculam non inuram.”* Hist. c. xxiii. 66 † Mane enim facto Willelmus rex Scottorum apud Alnewic capitur, et ad Richemund cum moerore ducitur, et in custodiam ad tempus ibi reverenter reservatur. Chronica de Mailros. p. 87. By the advice of Ranulf de Glanville, Henry II. caused several ancient laws for the good government of the realm to be drawn up and established. (Rog. Hoveden, p. 600.) There has It would be fruitless labour to attempt ascertaining whether there was any castle built at Alnwick by the first earls of Northumberland. All its possessors preceding the Conquest may prudently be supposed to have had no concern in what is visible of the present structure. There were indeed two Normans, Robert and Yvo de Vesci, who came over with the Conqueror, and who obtained extensive grants of land for the services they had rendered him. Yvo received the daughter and sole heir of William Tysen, lord of Alnwick and of Malton, two large baronies, both of them having belonged to Gilbert Tysen his father. It has been said that this William was slain fighting on the side of Harold at the battle of Hastings; but this is uncertain. It must remain equally uncertain whether either of the Tysens, or Yvo the son-in-law of the latter, built a castle in Northumberland. At all events, there is nothing whatever in the present appearance to support the conjecture. But when we come to Eustace Fitz-John, the next possessor, who married Beatrix, the heiress of Yvo de Vesci, there are strong presumptive reasons for supposing he laid the plan, if he did not actually carry out the whole configuration of the building. Ailred of Rievaulx describes him as one of the chief peers of England. He was in intimate friendship with Henry I., had vast estates bestowed on him by that monarch; he moreover shared his councils, and was constituted by him governor of Bamborough and other castles in the north. When Henry died, he espoused the cause of the Empress Matilda, and assisted David, king of Scotland, against Stephen. The historian Richard of Hexham says that he delivered up Alnwick Castle to the king of the Scots, to protect himself from the usurper's attacks. It was already described by this writer as the strongest and best-fortified castle in the north of England. Considering the ample wealth of Eustace Fitz-John, his long tenure of the barony of Alnwick, since he died at an advanced age, and had consequently full opportunity for erecting such a princely edifice, knowing also that his piety urged him to been much dispute whether the system originated with the chief-justicier himself, or whether it was but a transcript of the laws of the Anglo-Saxon kings: but it is now pretty clear that the code he drew up was derived from the Norman laws. found in 1147 the religious retreat for the Præmonstratentian monks in the immediate vicinity, it seems highly probable he was also the builder of the castle. But besides such inferences as these, which may reasonably be drawn from the preceding argument, the architectural character evidently partakes of the style of his age. The outline of the surrounding walls, and more particularly the form of the central keep, circumambient with its cylindrical towers, indicates its erection at a period when the heavy quadrangular fortress of the Normans had yielded to an undulating figure. Nor, indeed, is there any thing at all analogous to its circumfluent outline, excepting Chateau-Gaillard, erected by Richard Coeur-de-Lion, or the four-clustered tower known as Clifford's, at York.* Both of these, it is true, are Though Chateau-Gaillard has been adduced as an analogous example, the comparison only holds good as respects the inveched contour of the curtain-walls of the keep. In both cases these are crimpled, the French would say bosselées; whilst Clifford's Tower and the two trefoil towers of Barnewell Castle in Northamptonshire, form either portions of it, or the keep itself. Two castles appear to have been built at York before the Conqueror had penetrated so far north. He strengthened them early in his reign, and placed there a garrison of five hundred soldiers. These fortresses were very effective in menacing the Northumbrians. There is not, however, any architectural feature about the building now called Clifford's Tower which indicates this date, though there can be little reason for doubting that it is erected on the site of one of the earlier of the castles, whilst the mound and the fosse (this is mentioned in Domesday) are conformable to the general plan adopted by the Norman engineers. Nor yet is there any architectural evidence before the reign of Ric. I. that can strictly be applied to the existing remains. This evidence, however, conclusively shows that Clifford's Tower was erected at this particular period; for not only is the style conformable to what existed at that time, but an entry on that great national record, the Great Roll of the Pipe, shows that the sheriff of the county was allowed in the 2 Ric. I. as much as 179/. 3s. 4d. for works on the moat and the castle. The fortress being in the hands of the crown for this and several succeeding reigns, we hence derive the following authentic information connected with its history: In operacione castelli de Euerwich, vjs. et Phil. Puintel in Einestorp ad custod. cast. de Euerwich, 20s. per dimid. annum. In operacionibus motæ et cast., 1791. 3s. 4d. Magn. Rot. Pip. 2 Ric. I. In operacione cast. de Euerwich, 28l. 138. 9d. Magn. Rot. Pip. 3 Ric. L In operacione cast. de Euerwich, 131. 48. Magn. Rot. Pip. 6 Ric. I. And in the same manner the expenses of repairs upon the castle of York thus continue on this invaluable record, and may be more briefly given: 1 John. Works on the castle of York, 17s. 7d. John. Ditto, 12l. 4s. 10d. 4 John. Ditto, 11 marcs. 9 John. Expenses of the King of Scot- 13 John. In operacione pontium et do- After this reign the particulars are more fully entered on the Clause Rolls; and I give the following extracts in illustration of the early history of this singular building: 1201. In reparation of the castle, 1048. Rot. Canc. 3 John. 1204. The king orders the sheriff of York to make all the dam he can, and to form it with stone and lime for strengthening the castle of York. This meaning of the unusual term attactus seems to be borne out by a subsequent entry on the Clause Rolls, 9 John, relating to the castle of Ex |