Castle Richmond

“ All the while we have been lingering in the market-place the great keep has been looking at us over some old red roofs, and urging us to go on at once to the finest sight that Richmond can offer, and, resisting the appeal no longer, we make our way down a narrow little street leading out to a walk that goes right round the castle cliffs at the base of the ivy-draped walls. If this walk were at Harrogate or Buxton, we can easily imagine that its charms would be vitiated by some evidences of a popular recognition of its attractiveness. ”

“ I have indeed for many years almost abandoned the effort to think, trusting myself, with the narrowest thread of a plot, to work the matter out when the pen is in my hand. But my mind is constantly employing itself on the work I have done. Had I left either Framley Parsonage or Castle Richmond half-finished fifteen years ago, I think I could complete the tales now with very little trouble. I have not looked at Castle Richmond since it was published; and poor as the work is, I remember all the incidents. ”

“ The castle, which is the most striking feature of Richmond, stands on an almost perpendicular rock, 100 feet above the level of the Swale, and in its best days must have been practically impregnable. The structure is now in ruins, though the Norman keep with pinnacled corner towers is still intact, the walls being over 100 feet high and 11 feet thick. At the south-east corner is the ruin of a smaller tower, beneath which is a dungeon 15 feet deep, and at the south-western corner is another lofty tower. ”

“ The shouldering of secular buildings against the walls of churches is a sight so familiar in parts of France that this market-place has an almost Continental flavour, in keeping with the fact that Richmond grew up under the protection{18} of the formidable castle built by that Alan Rufus of Brittany who was the Conqueror’s second cousin. ”

“ This view of Richmond has been praised so [73] much that one fears disappointment. Yet one is not disappointed. Richmond is not only beautiful: it has that other quality—so much more important than beauty in woman or town—the quality of charm. Richmond is lovable.
It was the Normans who first took advantage of this fine position for a fortress: the Saxon owners of the place were the Earls of Mercia, and had no castle here, for Gilling, their headquarters in the north, was only a few miles away. ”

“ Is it not well that a man should earn his own bread? Is it not the lot of all good men?" But still the old man murmured with his broken voice, "My poor boy, my poor boy!"
The hopes and aspirations of his eldest son are as the breath of his nostrils to an Englishman who has been born to land and fortune. What had not this poor man endured in order that his son might be Sir Herbert Fitzgerald of Castle Richmond? ”

“ The great castle of North Yorkshire is Richmond, so called by Earl Alan, who obtained in 1070 the possessions of the English Edwin, and removed the seat from the adjacent Gilling, where the earthworks long remained, to a stronger position on the Swale. The Norman Castle was built in 1071: it includes a large area, most part of which is defended by a natural cliff. The containing wall is mostly original, and within its substance is a curious small Norman chapel. The rectangular keep is placed at the weakest part of the circuit next to the town, and in front of it are the remains of a barbican. ”

“ Prendergast possessed, and therefore it may be said that Sir Thomas had chosen his surgeon judiciously. None of the Castle Richmond family, except Sir Thomas himself, had ever seen this gentleman, nor had Sir Thomas often come across him of late years. But he was what we in England call an old family friend; and I doubt whether we in England have any more valuable English characteristic than that of having old family friends. Old family feuds are not common with us now-a-days—not so common as with some other people. ”

“ It had not angered her that her child was loved by the only man she had ever loved herself. She had stroked her daughter's hair that day, and kissed her cheek, and bade her be happy with her better, richer lover. And had she not been right in this? Nor had she been angry even with Owen. She could forgive him all, because she loved him. But might there not even yet be a chance for her when Clara should in very truth have gone to Castle Richmond? ”

“ I know not where is to be found a land more rich in all that constitutes the loveliness of scenery.
Within this district, but hardly within that portion of it which is most attractive to tourists, is situated the house and domain of Castle Richmond. The river Blackwater rises in the county Kerry, and running from west to east through the northern part of the county Cork, enters the county Waterford beyond Fermoy. ”

“ Somers soon resigned to him the chair at those committee meetings at Berryhill and Gortnaclough, and it was acknowledged that the Castle Richmond arrangements for soup-kitchens, out-door relief, and labour-gangs, might be taken as a model for the south of Ireland. Few other men were able to go to the work with means so ample and with hands so perfectly free. ”

“ The tenants there had more means at their disposal, and did not depend so absolutely on the potato crop; but even round Castle Richmond the distress was very severe.
Early in the year relief committees were formed, on one of which young Herbert Fitzgerald agreed to act. His father promised, and was prepared to give his best assistance, both by money and countenance ”

“ INTRODUCTION
"Castle Richmond" was written in 1861, long after Trollope had left Ireland. The characterization is weak, and the plot, although the author himself thought well of it, mechanical.
The value of the story is rather documentary than literary. It contains several graphic scenes descriptive of the great Irish famine. Trollope observed carefully, and on the whole impartially, though his powers of discrimination were not quite fine enough to make him an ideal annalist. ”

“ The small ward indicated in the old maps is therefore most likely a barbican, of later date than the 12th century keep, which is probably rightly attributed by the Genealogia cited above to Earl Conan, who reigned from 1148-1171. [608] Some entries in the Pipe Rolls make it almost certain that it was finished by Henry II., [Pg 195] who kept the castle in his own hands for some time after the death of Conan. [609] There are some indications at Richmond that the first castle was of stone and not of earth and wood. The walls do not stand on earthen banks ”

“ No doubt the circumstances of each are different. The position of Richmond on the Swale, its ancient Norman keep, early and curious chapel, and the considerable remains of its hall and other domestic buildings, no less than the rank and warlike character of its earlier lords, have invested it with a peculiar and unrivalled interest. At York, the castle, spacious in area, and strong, if not striking in position, played no inconsiderable part in the Norman Conquest ”

“ While keeping his state in Nottingham Castle, Richard heard of Richmond's landing at Milford Haven, and soon after learned, with indignation, that Rice ap Thomas had proved false; that Sir Gilbert Talbot, with two thousand retainers of his nephew, the young Earl of Shrewsbury, had joined the invaders; that, after leaving Shrewsbury, Richmond had pursued his way through Newport to Stafford, and from Stafford to Lichfield, and that men were rapidly gathering to his standard. Vowing vengeance, the king issued orders that his army should forthwith march southward to Leicester. ”

“ He sleeps—it is asserted—along with his knights, in a now undiscoverable cavern beneath the Castle of Richmond, whence he will issue in the fulness of time, scatter the enemies of [4] England like chaff before the wind, as he so frequently dispersed the hordes of Teuton pagans, and place England on a higher eminence among the nations of the earth than it has ever previously attained. This enchanted cave has been seen but once, and by one man only. It happened in this wise:—
Once on a time there dwelt in Richmond one Peter Thompson. ”

“ The strength of the castle, however, was not forgotten. No English castle, even when Bamburgh and Richmond are remembered, presents a more formidable defence than the curtain, pierced by a few spare openings and by the narrow western windows of Bek’s hall, which revets and crowns the cliff above the Wear; while, in the fourteenth century, Bishop Hatfield (1345-81) replaced the older keep by a new and probably more lofty polygonal shell. ”

“ There were exceptions, and certainly several English castles have stonework of the period of the Conquest. London and Colchester (47) had rectangular donjons from the first. At Richmond (93) the stonework of part of the curtain and of the lower part of the rectangular tower-keep is unquestionably of the eleventh century, when the castle was constructed by Alan of Brittany. In several other places, in the curtain at Tamworth (48) and in part of the curtain at Lincoln, there is eleventh century stonework. But more will be said of these cases later. ”

“ But in the second of Richard III. being still prisoner in that castle, and observing what hopes of aid Henry Earl of Richmond had from the French and others, in order to gain the crown; he and Sir James Blount, the Governor of the castle, and Sir John Fortescue, Porter of the gates of Calais, got thence, and came to Montarges, to the Earl of Richmond, who received him with much joy, being a person of great nobility and integrity, and very expert in military affairs ”

“ Each of the dales of the North Riding had its strong castle. In Wensleydale was Middleham, south of the Ure. Richmond, from its cliff at the mouth of Swaledale, commanded a vast tract of country, reaching to the Hambleton hills and the forest of Galtres, north of York. Barnard Castle stood in a strong position on the Durham bank of the Tees. The castles of the eastern part of the North Riding were Skelton and Castleton, both in Cleveland, and belonging to the house of Bruce. Helmsley stood at the entrance of Ryedale; Pickering and Malton were on the Derwent, and Scarborough guarded the coast. ”

“ A moulded plinth, as at Bamburgh, is of very rare occurrence. At Norwich and Castle Rising a wall is arcaded or recessed: this, however, is quite contrary to the usual practice. String-courses, where they were used, were generally confined to the buttresses, as at Kenilworth; although in a few cases, as at Richmond, they were continued along the wall. The necessary window openings were few and small. Here, however, a distinction must be made. It has been remarked already that the donjon of a castle sometimes formed the residence of its lord as well as a strong tower in time of war. ”

“ The name given to a fine species of Normandy apple grown at Ribstone, Yorkshire, from pips originally planted on his estate by Sir Henry Goodriche.
Richmond. When Edward I. built himself a sumptuous palace on the south bank of the Thames he gave it the name of Sheen, the Saxon for “resplendent.” This being consumed by fire in 1479, Henry VI., rebuilt it, and then called it Richmond, after the beautiful seat in Yorkshire whence he took the title of his earldom. Richmond signifies a rich prospect from the hill occupied by its ancient castle. ”

“ The only entrance is by a door on the south face, from which a narrow stairway leads to the floor above. The ground floor was vaulted in the reign of Edward I., the same as that at Newcastle. A chapel was built, about 1278, adjacent [Pg 100] to it, by John, Earl of Richmond, who was killed at Lyons in 1304, and various other domestic buildings occur near it. A circular barbican protects the main entrance to the Castle, while in the south-east angle of the enceinte wall an imposing rectangular tower has been built, containing the remains of an ancient postern. ”

“ Owen of Hap House was once more Owen of Hap House only, but still in her eyes heroic, as it behoved a man to be. He would not creep about the country with moaning voice and melancholy eyes, with draggled dress and outward signs of wretchedness. He might be wretched, but he would still be manly. Could it be possible that to her should yet be given the privilege of soothing that noble, unbending wretchedness? By no means possible, poor, heart-laden countess; thy years are all against thee. ”

“ It was a thousand pities that a bad word should ever have been spoken of Owen Fitzgerald; ten thousand pities that he should ever have given occasion for such bad word. He was a fine, high-spirited, handsome fellow, with a loving heart within his breast, and bright thoughts within his brain. It was utterly wrong that a man constituted as he was should commence life by living alone in a large country-house. But those who spoke ill of him should have remembered that this was his misfortune rather than his fault. ”

“ And then most men would have gone home, leaving the woman triumphant, and have repented bitterly as they sat moody over their own fires, with their wine-bottles before them. But it was not so with Owen Fitzgerald. His heart was to him a reality. He had loved with all his power and strength, with all the vigour of his soul,—having chosen to love. But he would not now be enticed by pity into a bastard feeling, which would die away when the tenderness of the moment was no longer present to his eye and touch. His love for Clara had been such that he could not even say that he loved another. ”

“ To Lady Desmond, Clara was a child; how then could she be more to him? And yet now it was too plain that he had looked on Clara as a woman. In what light then must he have thought of that woman's mother? And so, with saddened heart, but subdued anger, she continued to gaze through the window till all without was dusk and dark.
There can be to a woman no remembrance of age so strong as that of seeing a daughter go forth to the world a married woman. If that does not tell the mother that the time of her own youth has passed away, nothing will ever bring the tale home. ”