Charles Henry Ashdown

“ Not far from Llandeilo, a village near Carmarthen, stand the remains of a Concentric Castle around which local tradition has woven a web of romance, asserting that all history is lost in remote antiquity and leading the imagination to run riot in conjuring up the identity of its former inmates. Upon the south side the walls stand upon a precipice with a sheer drop of probably 500 feet, while a climb of over 200 feet is necessary to reach the northern face. ”

“ Conway Castle, one of the most impressive and majestic of medieval fortresses in Britain, is situated in a romantic and picturesque spot at the mouth of the river Conway. It presents a perfect ideal of a fortress and a fortified town, the massive accompanying walls of the latter forming an integral portion of the defence as a whole. The town walls are over a mile in length and are in a singularly good state of preservation ”

“ Such projectiles would almost demolish a house, and were nearly as formidable as modern shells; their great weight would batter every portion of a medieval castle except the very thickest of walls. The platforms of earth thrown up by besiegers to sustain their great engines remain in many places intact to-day; thus round Berkhampstead Castle are eight, upon which the trebuchets of the Dauphin were erected in 1216, when he battered the castle into submission in about a fortnight. ”

“ Hence the earthwork and the parapet of rock, singly or combined, may be regarded as the first of all castellation, with an origin so remote as to be practically coeval with man's first appearance upon earth. These simple means of defence are found in every country occupied by primitive races; in America they are numerous and undoubtedly point to a high antiquity, and the same holds good in many parts of Asia and Europe. ”

“ Within these lordly halls the noble owners held high revel, while troops of servitors, henchmen, and servants of every degree swarmed in the passages and halls in marked contradistinction to the old time grim men-at-arms, bearded archers, and steel-clad retainers of the feudal fortress.
There was naturally a period of transition during which the characteristics of the Castle predominated over the domestic influences, and those which sprang into existence during the reigns of Henry IV. and V. very ably show this feature. ”

“ The great Keep is naturally the chief object of interest; it is 113 feet in height, and about 70 feet square. The thickness of its walls varies from 12 feet at the base to 10 feet at the top, where the angle turrets rise over a dozen feet above the main battlements. It is divided, like the Tower of London, into two portions by a transverse wall rising to the total height, and carrying in its centre the main shaft of the Castle well, which was arranged to deliver water at every floor. ”

“ One feature of its construction was a hinged platform which fell outwards upon the battlements and over which the assailants endeavoured to enter the fortress. The besieged hindered the approach of this terror by digging pitfalls for the wheels, shooting incendiary missiles, making sallies for its destruction by fire, or concentrating such a body of men upon the walls that none could live under the hail of missiles poured into it. ”

“ Pembroke Castle, with the town walls supporting it, is perhaps the most important pile to be found in this district; it embodies additions of varying dates in its massive walls and towers. The great gatehouse and circular Norman Keep are undoubtedly its chief attractions at the present day when, although shattered by powder after Cromwell's capture by means of starvation, and much subsequent spoliation, it presents one of the most imposing aspects to be found in the kingdom. ”

“ Through the almost universal habit of perusing medieval romances the general public has formed a mental picture of the hero and his followers riding round a castle and summoning it to surrender, or challenging the garrison to emerge from their retreat and essay mortal combat in the open. As the engineer and captain of the sappers and miners, the director of the artillery, the designer of movable towers, and the general head of the various artifices [Pg 189] calculated to bring the besieged to their senses, the hero is less well known. ”

“ It is to every kind of historical student that this book is addressed, especially to those who endeavour to make the dry bones of history live—the author, the artist, and the actor. It is, also, for all who take an intelligent interest in history, and who would wish to see the shifting panorama of men move before their eyes in the right colours and clothes. ”

“ But Anglo-Saxon writers did not use the two words strictly, and thus hesitancy and confusion have been produced. It is now being generally accepted that the usual form of burh or borough was that of a rectangular enclosure surrounded by a rampart and an external ditch, the area being of any dimensions up to 20 or 30 acres or more. This arrangement is probably exemplified in the earthworks at Wallingford.
It is obvious that the inherent weakness in this very elementary system of defence lies in the inability to adequately man all the ramparts at once because of their great extent ”

“ The enclosure was directly derived from the rectangular castra of Roman times, descended through the Anglo-Saxon burh and the Norman bailey. Probably of all the military structures which the world has seen, the Rectangular Keep is the grandest in impressive appearance and dimensions, combined as it is with simplicity of outline; it is also the most durable in workmanship by its adamantine strength and structural proportions. The walls are generally from 8 to 14 feet thick, and, at the base, sometimes even 20 feet, while a few still standing are reputed to have the ground floor solid. ”

“ That a series of defences independent and complete in themselves
should be presented in turn to an assault, the capture of one by no means entailing that of another.
The castle-builders of the second half of the thirteenth century rigidly adhered to the principles embodied in the first clause given above; they did not produce a structure of the Motte and Bailey, or the Keep and Base-court types, with little regard to the situation and configuration of the ground, but made their plans with the utmost care, embracing every advantage which the site presented. ”

“ The gateway is one of the finest and most impressive in existence; the towers which flank it rise over 80 feet in height, cylindrical at the upper parts and superposed upon 50 feet of octagonal bases, with smaller turrets rising still higher above them. A magnificent range of machicoulis with crenellation above protects the towers and the curtain between, the merlons being pierced with [Pg 166] oillets. A moat, long since dry, encircles the building, a bridge spanning it at the principal entrance. ”

“ There is no reason why a book dealing with antiquarian subjects should be written in the dry-as-dust method; that it should be clear stands to reason; that it should be as complete as possible is a justification of its being ”

“ The Saxon king Edward, however, carried the place by assault and burnt the fleet. The discomfited Danes, much lessened in numbers, retreated up the river, and near the junction of the Ivel with the main stream threw up a smaller burh which now bears the name of Gannock's Castle, near Tempsford. The fort is an oblong area enclosed within a single fosse, and, what is very significant in face of later developments, a mound of earth stands within it near a corner, where the only entrance to the fort is found. ”

“ The Shell Keep represents the second development of the Norman Castle, and consists of a circular or polygonal ring of stone walling erected upon the motte in the position formerly occupied by the wooden palisading. The substitution of masonry for perishable material was a natural and logical sequence, but in the hurried rush of events immediately following upon the Conquest there was no time for erecting such a defence. A hastily thrown-up mound also would not bear the weight, and it was necessary to allow the earth to consolidate before imposing it. ”

“ The main idea of the architect when planning Carnarvon Castle appears to have been to render attacks upon the general line of the enceinte impossible of success, by reason of the galleries and the thickly-set mural towers, and thus to lead the assailants to concentrate upon the chief entrance. This, however, was protected primarily by the town walls, then by a formidable moat, two massive towers, a narrow entrance furnished with no less than four portcullises, with two inner obstructions of a similar nature to be overcome ere the entrance was forced. ”

“ A large proportion of the Roman wall surrounding the oval site is still in excellent preservation; it is strengthened by fifteen drum towers of great solidity. The height ranges between 20 and 30 feet, and upon the summits may still be perceived some of the strengthening Norman masonry. The inner castle is a remarkable feature of the enclosure; it is supposed to have been erected at the end of the thirteenth century, and one of the towers dates from the time of Edward II. It forms an irregular pentagon, each angle being strengthened by a massive drum tower ”

“ There is an opening in the centre of the ramparts which is probably of later date, conjecturally Roman. An ancient plan shows a spring in the open space, but it does not appear at the present time. A rough wall was constructed round the edges of the precipices to confine sheep, but the original fortress was doubtless defended by a thick and massive rampart, there being no lack of material for such a protection, while the usual timber and stone breastwork would crown it. ”

“ Bamborough Castle, grim, grey, and imposing, by its vastness and massive proportions, stands upon a rocky height of igneous formation on the coast of Northumberland. It is by nature a promontory fortress, and as such was seized by Ida and his Angles in 547, and who thence extended his sway over what subsequently became the kingdom of Bernicia. The castle is mentioned in 774, and was twice taken by the Danes. In 1095 the dramatic siege occurred with which Bamborough will be for ever associated. ”

“ After the middle of the fifteenth century castles were no longer built, and we have to look to the fortified manor-house such as was designed by the Lord Cromwell above mentioned at Wingfield, Derbyshire, or that at Exburgh in Norfolk; these when surrounded by moats were capable of being placed in a good state of defence, and many a thrilling tale is told of the sieges they underwent during the Civil War when the stout resistance they made was nearly or quite equal to the defence of the massive ramparts and cyclopean bastions of the earlier castle-builder. ”

“ Beaumaris Castle was erected by King Edward I. about 1295, and approximates more to the concentric ideal than perhaps any other castle in Britain. The outer enceinte is an almost regular octagon, strengthened by towers at each of the angles and in the centre of each curtain, excepting the one in which the entrance gateway is placed. The inner enceinte is square in shape and of very great height, thus commanding [Pg 123] the ramparts of the outer; it has the usual towers, of immense strength, and is finished with a grand array of battlements. ”

“ In the upper valley of the Wye the efficiency of castles was of great importance, inasmuch as they guarded one of the great lines of incursion from the heart of Wales into the Marches; here Edwardian additions may be seen at Builth where a donjon was placed upon a motte which had already been encircled by a Shell Keep, while a circular rampart surrounding the whole bailey made a very presentable representation of the concentric ideal. ”

“ Another fact is apparent when dealing with this subject: the earthwork is much more durable than any other form of castrametation, in fact it is almost indestructible so far as meteoric agencies are concerned, whereas the parapet suffers not only from disintegration by the weathering influences of rain, frost, wind, and heat, but also from the tendency to lose its original shape through having no natural or artificial coherence between the separate parts. Thus undoubted examples of prehistoric ramparts are comparatively rare when compared with the wealth of existent earthworks. ”

“ The fort is advantageously situated upon the trading route between the inhabitants of the Great Forest of Anderida, covering the Weald of Sussex, and the maritime population of the southern littoral; and this fact appealed not only to Neolithic man but also the men of the Bronze and Iron Ages, who occupied it in succession. It is a camp of the plateau type with an inner vallum rising nearly 50 feet above the fosse and 20 above the inner area. General Pitt Rivers estimated that 5000 men would be required to man the ramparts effectually. ”

“ Of the precise date of the first Shell Keep erected in these islands we have no definite record; it is very doubtful if any saw the light during the reign of William the Conqueror or Rufus, although many examples could be found at that time upon the Continent. We know that certain Castles, such as Carisbrooke, Lincoln, and Totnes, had developed Shell Keeps prior to the termination of the reign of Stephen, and that Windsor, Berkeley, Arundel, and a number of others were furnished with the same not very long after, so that the age of the Shell Keep may roughly be ascribed to the twelfth century. ”

“ By the arrangement of the walls two baileys are formed, the inner and outer, and the Castle affords an example of a fortress built upon the concentric ideal where the ground does not modify the detail in any way.
Carnarvon Castle may be confidently claimed as the finest example of its type in Europe. It stands upon a site previously unoccupied and was commenced by King Edward I., who raised the walls sufficiently high to cover the garrison, and completed by his son, Edward II., who carried the walls and towers to their present altitude. ”