Edward III., the Commons petitioned the king to allow his subjects to fortify and crenelate without the usual license, but without effect. The crenelles had frequently two holes worked in the sides to allow the insertion of a bar for supporting a shutter when the wind blew in that quarter. On one side the hole was simply worked in the wall, on the other it took the form of a groove. This is commonly visible in those little towers (turritella), or square bartizans, which rise above the general line of the towers, and which were used as watchtowers, under the various names of bicocha, botorris, turella, turicula, chiffa, schiffa, gachilis, specula, garita, garriz,* and guerite in the Expense Roll for building Caernarvon Castle there is mention made of the garritor, and of the garretories, or watch-towers. On the tower at the east end of this magnificent building this is still visible, as well as in various parts of the castle at Alnwick.† Though the military structures it is necessary to mention next are not later than Dunstanborough, just described, they will not inappropriately claim attention before noticing others. There are three in Tyndale remarkable alike for their situation as well as architectural pretensions. The first of these is Thirlwall, placed on the banks of the Tippall. It looks more gloomy and forbidding than these ruined fortresses usually are; it is chilling by its dismal aspect, its harsh and massive walls, its interior overgrown with rank vegetation, and its floors slippery with slimy and irridescent lichens. Here are the dark corridors of Caernarvon, with their shouldered headings, and but little else, to indicate the period of erection. As Edward I. was here on the 20th of September 1306, on his road from Haltwhistle to Lanercost, it is probable the castle was then built, most likely by one of the Thirlwall family. The external ashlars have all been brought from the great Roman wall,--a wholesale system of spoliation which, if not commenced at the not far distant abbey and sepulchral garth of Lanercost, might have been begun in the fortress of Irthington, built by Hubert de Vallibus, the first baron of Gilsland, seeing he, or his son Robert, exhibited the same evidence of their Et in operacione castelli domorum castelli Dunelm. et unius porte culeicie et unius garriz, 181.5s. 8d. Magn. Rot. Pip. 14 John. See author's History of Caernarvon Castle,-Archæological Journal, vol. vii. p. 254. destructive hands when they built the chancel of the little neighbouring church. His castles of Triermain and Bewcastle, though now entirely divested of their facing, were in all likelihood built from the same sources. The second castle is Haughton on the North Tyne, a little below Chipchase and Wark. In point of situation this is pre-eminently fortunate. At the first view it appears to have arisen by enchantment in the sweetest spot amongst the many lovely ones of this lonely. district. A nearer examination discloses its architectural importance. The figure is a double square, with two parallel vaults of a simple construction running on the basement from end to end. The south front has been the most ornamental; though at present the north side, with its projecting garderobes and corbelling, is the most picturesque. It is simple in its internal arrangements, and offers but little detail for examination. Judging from the configuration and general characteristics, it is probable that it was erected very early in the reign of Edward I. An ornamental doorway on the south side, partially concealed, gives countenance to this supposition. There is much about this castle that resembles the features of Acton Burnell, though it is a little less florid in style. According to charters which have been printed by Hodgson in his History of Northumberland, from the originals in the possession of Sir J. E. Swinburne, William king of Scotland, in 1177, granted to Reginald Prath of Tyndale a third part of the vill of Haluton, which Ranulph the son of Huctred had granted to the said Reginald in free marriage with his daughter, to be holden by the payment of a sparrow-hawk or sixpence annually at Werc in Tyndale. This Reginald re-granted all these lands and their appurtenances to William de Swyneburn, betwixt the years 1236 and 1245, by the payment of two gilt spurs or twelvepence annually to the said Reginald, and one sparrow-hawk to the king, on the feast of St. Michael of Werc. Reginald, in 1256, covenanted to put William de Swyneburn in full possession. The business was confirmed by Alexander III. in 1267, and at the instance of Queen Margaret his consort, a grant was made to him of Haluton, Strother in Tyndale, and the other adjoining lordships, for the annual payment of one pair of white gloves or twopence at Werk in Tyndale, in 1273. Having now got full possession, there is no doubt he immediately commenced building the castle. The third, if it can strictly be called a castle, is Aydon. This is so completely surrounded by wood, and in such a secluded spot, that it is rather difficult to get a sketch that is capable of showing its entirety. Properly speaking it is a specimen of domestic architecture, there being little beyond the contrivances peculiar to the houses of the period. Taken as a whole, it is a most singular example of the time. As this building has been admirably illustrated by Mr. Jewitt in the Domestic Architecture of England, and as correctly described, I shall only refer the reader to that work for more detailed information, merely stating my own concurrence in the supposition that it was built by Peter de Vallibus at the very close of the thirteenth century. It seems most likely to have been erected between 1280 and 1300. Amongst the border castles erected about this time was the truly beautiful one of Naworth. It is a small irregular quadrangle, defended on three sides by a deep ravine, and originally on the fourth, or side of approach, by a moat, gatehouse, and drawbridge. The first possessor was a Dacre, who filled the office of sheriff for Cumberland, 20 Hen. III. He was successively governor in the 32d year of Scarborough,* Pickering,t and of Carlisle Castle, in From the following entries on the Great Roll of the Pipe it is evident that the keep of Scarborough Castle was commenced in 1161: 7 Hen. II. In operacione castelli de 8 Hen. II. In operacione castelli, 90l. 14 Hen. II. In operacione, 577. 15s, 5d. 21 Hen. II. In operacione 1 portæ et 1 barbekan in castello de Scardebure, 40s. 4 John. In custodia et operacione, 141. 15 John. In reparacione, 421. 6s. Of the castle of Pickering there are 4 John. In operacione, 11 marc dimid. See note at end of chapter. 52 Hen. III., when he died. In the constableship of this his son Ralph succeeded him. William, who came next, obtained license to crenelate Dunwalloght, 1 Edward II. Ralph, the great-grandson of William le Dacre, having procured the usual permission, crenelated Naworth in 9 Edw. II. ;* so that here we have a building of undoubted date. The Chancellor's Tower, under less certain evidence, would have seemed, by its rude construction, to have been earlier. The prison and its door, as well as the minor arrangements of the interior, are highly curious. Lord William's Tower is of the same age; and the library still preserved within it is the most interesting memorial of a great man's mind and studies that has ever descended to us. An unhappy fire, in 1844, caused much injury to the hall; but the accurate knowledge possessed by Anthony Salvin, Esq., has effected very perfect restorations; he has united the late Tudor with the earlier style in a way that evinces great skill in this kind of architecture. By introducing thus briefly an account of Naworth into the present sketch of border fortresses, it may appear that I consider it of less interest than others which have, by their connection with Northumberland, claimed a larger notice. But Naworth is one of those places so bound up with every poetic and chivalrous aspiration, that it demands little description or tribute. It is one of England's choicest architectural monuments, and happily belongs to a nobleman whose talents enable him to understand its value, as his virtues entitle him to so proud a heritage. Not far from hence is a lonely fortified house, at Askerton, also built by the Dacres, and, though of a later age, deserving examination. Bewcastle, rugged and solitary, still further on the borders, stands the ruined representative of the ancient power of the lords of Gilsland. This, as well as the adjacent church, and the cross so celebrated for its Runic inscription, were all erected at the same time, and most probably by Robert or by Ranulph de Vallibus, the third and fourth barons of Gilsland, as all three seem to belong to the reign of King John, or the very commencement of that of Henry III. For the same reasons I shall say but little of Langley Castle, the head of the barony of the same name; a much *The license of crenelation is given at the end of the chapter. more imposing structure, admirable in the regularity of its masonry, and presenting the appearance of a Norman keep when viewed at a little distance on the west side. Judging from its style, this must have been erected by Sir Thomas de Multon, whose ancestors took the maternal name of De Lacy, between 1345 and 1365.* Subsidiary to these castles were the domestic dwellings of smaller proprietors, whose constant apprehension of danger and of inroads from the Scots compelled them to erect peles or bastel-houses, which, partaking of some of the characteristics of the usual fortress, such as the thickness of the walls and the crenelated parapets, became places of resistance and security against the enemy. They commonly consisted of a basement and two floors; had a corbelled battlement, and a barmekin or attached enclosure for cattle: these were generally driven in, on the intelligence that the enemy was approaching. It was not customary to apply for a license to crenelate when any of these peles were about to be erected, since there is no notice taken of them on the Patent Rolls. The name itself, though recognised as applicable to this peculiar class, is but seldom mentioned. I have only met with it in the following instances. In the 14th of Edward II. the royal pele of Clipstone is spoken of;t and in the 20th of the same reignt Roger de Mauduyt is ordered to mend and repair the castle of Prodhou (Prudhoe), of which he was constable, as well as to construct a certain pele without the gates of the said castle, spending the sum of twenty marks thereon out of the issues of his bailiwick. As there are no vestiges of any buildings having existed at Prudhoe beyond the fosse, it is far from being improbable that the pele alluded to was the barbican of which mention has already been made, as being evidently the work of this reign, and in all likelihood built by the masons employed at Dunstanborough and Alnwick castles. The sum too would be about equivalent to the work. Such a building, however, could never have been of the character which these peles have in the present application of the word. The chief structures of this nature lie in Tyndale; and The manor of Langley, lately purchased from Anthony Bek, was confirmed to H. de Percy, 4 Edw. II.-Calend. Rot. Pat. p. 71. † Abbrev. Rot. Orig. vol. i. p. 254. Ibid. vol. i. p. 299. |