Nottingham Castle

“ Our run from Nottingham to Oxford was uneventful, for we roved rather at random for the day through the delightful Midland country. At Nottingham one will find the Victoria is quite up to the standard of station-hotel excellence in England and the rates refreshingly low. The city itself will not detain one long, for the great wave of modern progress that has inundated it has swept away most of its ancient landmarks. The old castle, once the key to the Northlands, has been superseded by a palatial structure which now serves as museum and art gallery. ”

“ The citizens of Nottingham, pleased with the energy shown by Colonel Hutchinson, elected him Governor of Nottingham Castle. It was a high post for a man only twenty-seven years of age, but Colonel Hutchinson soon proved that he was well fitted for it The castle, although standing in an excellent position, was in a dilapidated condition and required much strengthening before it could be considered strong enough to withstand a determined attack. ”

“ So the fun began and continued through the long summer days, when grown people stayed indoors and wondered what the children found to do out in the heat from morning till night. But in that distant corner of the garden, where, under the shelter of [5] a crooked apple tree, the forest rovers had their trysting place, the weather was never too warm. The unoccupied house became transformed into Nottingham castle, and was never approached without delicious thrills of terror. Excitement ran high on the day when Robin was released from the jail—otherwise a small rustic arbor—by his trusty followers. ”

“ The castle was “slighted” at the conclusion of the war, and became ultimately the property of the Duke of Newcastle. He cleared away the ruins, and upon the site built a mansion, the design of which some ascribe to Sir Christopher Wren. If so, it is far from being among the happiest efforts of that great man. How ugly it is those who do not know it may see from Turner’s early sketch of Nottingham, which gives an excellent notion of the leading features of the town before its later development. ”

“ Scarped cliffs of grey sandstone support the gardens and terraces of the castle, in the rear of which the town rises from the valley in alternating lines of trees and houses, broken here and there by the steeple or tower of a church. But in olden times, when the valley plain was free from railways, factories, and chimneys, Nottingham must have been a singularly picturesque town. Then the view from the valley of the Trent, especially from near the influx of the Leen, must have been a worthy subject for an artist. ”

“ May 29th.—After breakfast, this morning, I wandered out and lost myself; but at last found the post-office, and a letter from Mr. Wilding, with some perplexing intelligence. Nottingham is an unlovely and uninteresting town. The castle I did not see; but, I happened upon a large and stately old church, almost cathedralic in its dimensions. On returning to the hotel, we deliberated on the mode of getting to Newstead Abbey, and we finally decided upon taking a fly, in which conveyance, accordingly, we set out before twelve. ”

“ A parliament was summoned to meet in October 1330 at Nottingham, where the king and Montacute resolved to strike their decisive blow. Great circumspection was necessary. Mortimer and Isabella took up their quarters in Nottingham Castle along with the king, and Mortimer's armed following of Welsh mercenaries held strict guard and blocked up every approach to the king. But the castellan, William Holland, was won over by Edward and Montacute, and showed to the latter an underground passage by which access to the castle could be obtained. ”

“ William knew the importance of celerity in quelling a revolt, especially when supported by such powerful leaders. He advanced, therefore, with rapid marches towards the north. On his way he gave orders to fortify Warwick Castle, which he committed to the government of Henry de Beaumont, one of his nobles; while Nottingham Castle was entrusted to William Peverell, another Norman leader. Using the utmost expedition, the Conqueror reached York before the promised succour had arrived or the English were prepared for resistance; the city threw open its gates to the Conqueror. ”

“ Moreover she was often troubled concerning the safety of her relatives. Her eldest brother, Sir Allen Apsley, of whom she was exceedingly fond, was fighting gallantly for the king, and believing that the Parliamentarians would triumph, she feared that if he escaped death on the battle-field, it would only be to suffer imprisonment and the confiscation of his estate.
At last, in 1644, the Earl of Newcastle sent a messenger to Colonel Hutchinson calling upon him to surrender Nottingham Castle to the Royalists, a demand that was promptly refused. ”

“ Nottingham we arrived at after crossing the Roman road called Foss: it is a pleasant and beautiful town. They have a great manufacture here for stockings, which they weave in looms from the invention of a neighbouring clergyman. Their ale is highly valued for softness and pleasant 53taste: the cellars in the town are hewn out of the rock two or three story deep, to fourscore steps sometimes. The castle is a goodly building on a high perpendicular rock; seems to have been modelled after some of Inigo Jones’s draughts: many good pictures there: it commands a vast prospect. ”

“ As far as Nottingham you will travel very soon, and then as far as Doncaster, therefore it will be but impertinent to give you an account of the road or anything concerning it. I will only tell your Grace I saw Nottingham [121] Castle, [236] where there is beauty and magnificence worthy the wisdom and the riches of your ancestors. As we came nearer to this place, the country grew more wild, but not less beautiful ”

“ It has now p. 174a population of about thirty thousand. We could see first of all, it was well fortified. The castle has a fine appearance in the distance, as it stands on a rocky eminence; something like our castle here in Nottingham. There is a fine old parish church (the religious element is well represented wherever we find ourselves) . It is a manufacturing centre, especially for mats, but also wax tapers. There are several large breweries. This town was surrounded by the Germans in the great Franco-German war of 1870. ”

“ The evidence of the Rolls and Wardrobe Accounts disproves this to a great extent. It was at Nottingham Castle that Mortimer was taken, October 19, 1330. On the 18th of January following, 36 pounds 6 shillings 4 pence was paid to Thomas Lord Wake de Lydel, for the expense of conducting Isabel Queen of England, by the King’s order, from Berkhamsted Castle to Windsor Castle, and thence to Odiham Castle. (Issue Roll, Michs., 5 Edward the Third.) On the 6th of October, 1337, she dates a charter from Hertford Castle ”

“ In London we have the White tower, probably much extended from William’s early plan, and not completed till his son’s reign. But the stone fortresses of London and Exeter were exceptional. When we come to his northern castles, we find that at Warwick, York, Lincoln, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Shrewsbury, the plan of the castle consists of a bailey or enclosed space,46 with a tall mount on the line of its outer defences, and on a side or at an angle of the enceinte remote41 from the main entrance. At Nottingham the plan of the early castle is not so easy to make out. ”

“ Nottingham enjoyed possibly the largest brewing and malting business in the country, and those trades were nearly wholly carried on in chambers and cellars and kilns cut out of the living rock. Mr. W. Stevenson, author of "Bygone Nottinghamshire," writes to me: "Last week I was with an antiquarian friend exploring an ancient passage in the castle rock, originally made as a sally-port to the castle, but at some later period when bricks came on the scene, converted or enlarged into a set of malt offices with malt kilns complete. ”

“ The presence of the double castle at York has been a great temptation to those who would identify the castle with the burh. The fortification of both banks of the river is, on the face of it, so like the system adopted by Edward the Elder, that the York castles have been often quoted as burhs of Edward the Elder’s date, and it has been concluded that similar earthworks must have existed at Nottingham, Stamford, and so on. ”

“ Mayhap it were better to journey by Newark, where be the dungeons I have told thee of; and so, when thou hast viewed that castle, journey on southward to Nottingham, where the king hath another castle which oft holdeth many prisoners. He keepeth there certain children, the hostages he demandeth of their fathers. And no man knoweth when they will die, for that is a matter of the king's pleasure. ”

“ The Peoples’ Charter had its stronghold here, and all radical reforms are sure to find sympathy and support among the People of Nottingham. I should think no equal population in the kingdom would sing “Britons never, never will be slaves,” with more spirit, or, perhaps, with more understanding. Their plucky, English natures became terribly stirred up in the exciting time of the Reform Bill, and they burned down the magnificent palace-castle of the old Duke of Newcastle, crowning the mountainous rock which terminates on the west the elevated ridge on which the town is built. ”

“ To give an idea of the speed with which these fortresses could be made, we find that in a brief campaign of less than two months, in 1068, the king founded eight of considerable importance, including those at Nottingham, Warwick, Lincoln, Huntingdon, and York; in the following year the erection of a second castle at York only occupied eight days, and Baile Hill, the mount of the defence in question, sufficiently testifies to the magnitude of the work. ”

“ In some cases a “new borough” is clearly a new suburb, doubtless having its own fortifications, built specially for the protection of the Norman settlers in England, as at Norwich and Nottingham. [228]
That even in the 12th century a motte was considered an essential feature of a castle is shown by Neckham’s treatise “De Utensilibus,” where he gives directions as to how a castle should be built; the motte should be placed on a site well defended by nature; it should have a stockade of squared logs round the top ”

“ At Hertford, Buckingham, Bedford, Stamford, Nottingham, there were two burhs, but there never has been more than one castle. When the Conqueror wrought a castle on either side of the river at York, he did not repeat Edward the Elder’s tactics literally: he applied them to a form of fortification of which Edward knew nothing. If the test by which the Norman castle is identified with the Saxon burh fails in these instances, we are obviously forbidden to make the identification in the cases of single burhs like Warwick or Tamworth. ”

“ Adam of Usk (p. 14) mentions the presence of Kent and others who coveted the condemned earl's lands. Nottingham was at once granted the castle and lordship of Lewes, of which he had been given the custody as early as 26 July, and all the forfeited lands of Arundel in Sussex and Surrey, except Reigate (Dugdale, i. 129) . On the day of Arundel's death the king issued a writ, addressed to Nottingham as captain of Calais, or his deputy, to bring up the Duke of Gloucester before parliament to answer the charges of the appellants (Rot. Parl. iii. 377 ; Fcedera, viii. 15) . ”

“ Again, many barons threw up castles in the centre of, or adjacent to, pre-existing towns, the subsequent fortifications of which became an integral part of the whole scheme of defence, as at Warwick, Nottingham, and Leicester. Wherever a castle was built for the double purpose of overawing a town and defending it against a common enemy, it is generally found placed upon the city defences or immediately adjacent thereto ”

“ It is a considerable town, well situated; the site of the ancient castle is very striking, tho’ it is greatly destroyed by the modern mansion which the bad taste of a Duke of Newcastle allowed to be erected within the old walls. [302] The Trent is rather a large river; the bridge we crossed was handsome and well built. Ld. H. called upon the Mayor and Recorder; the Corporation are chiefly Dissenters, and strongly attached to the Opposition. They testified their respect for the memory of Mr. Fox by sending a deputation from the town of Nottingham to walk at his funeral. ”

“ With only eighty men, Colonel Hutchinson determined to hold it against the enemy until not a man remained alive. His force should have been much larger, but many of his men had on the previous evening quitted the castle without permission and entered the town. While enjoying themselves the Cavaliers arrived and made them prisoners.
Among the Parliamentarians who were taken prisoners in Nottingham were the surgeons, and the defenders of the castle entered into the fight with the unpleasant belief that if they were wounded there would be no one to attend to their wounds. ”

“ The constable of the castle is Sir William Mounson Lord Castlemayne, who receaveth a revenue out of the Dutchy lands of £500. per annum, in part of payment of £1000. yearely given by the king to the Countesse of Nottingham his lady.
“One thinge is not to be passed by affirmed as a certaine trueth by many of the inhabitants of the towne upon their owne knowledge, which is, that the castle is haunted by a certain spirit in the likenesse of a hare; which att the meeting of the auditors doeth usually runne betweene their legs, and sometymes overthrows them, and soe passes away. ”

“ Nantwich Castle was in ruins before the reign of Henry VII., when the stones were removed and made use of for the purpose of enlarging the south transept of the church, which was called Kingsley’s aisle. Newhall was in the parish of Audlem and not far from Nantwich, and was also destroyed by the Welsh, probably at the same time as Shocklach and Oldcastle. Leland, in his Itinerary, speaks of “Newhaull Tower, where there be motes and fair water.” Maiden Castle was an old British fortification on the Broxton Hills, and defended the pass between Bickerton Hill and Raw Head. ”