side. At command, the Duke of Norfolk, who led the van, began the attack by falling on the advanced guard of the enemy, commanded by the Earl of Oxford. Norfolk made a great impression, but no other leader seconded him. Of a sudden Richard put spurs to his horse, and shouting "treason," galloped into the midst of the enemy. His quick eye caught a glance of Henry, and desperate as seemed the case, he cut his way to Henry's standard, killed Sir William Brandon, the standard bearer, made Sir John Cheney bite the dust, and was directing a deadly thrust at his rival, when a whole host closed upon him, threw him from his horse, and dispatched him with many wounds. Lord Stanley picked up the crown, and placed it on the head of Henry, the victors shouting, "long live king Henry." The body of Richard was stripped, thrown across a horse, and taken to the town of Leicester, where it was exposed three days to the public view, and then buried in the church of the Grey Friars.

Such was the fate of Richard III., after he had reigned only two years and two months. We may perhaps be excused if we notice a fact concerning the Clifton family, which hitherto has been unremarked by any historian, which is that Sir Gervase Clifton fell in the interest of the Red Rose at Tewkesbury, and yet it is said another Sir Gervase Clifton was taken into Edward's royal favour, which was the White, and was made one of the esquires of his body. After the death of Edward IV., Sir Gervase was created a knight of the bath, and for singular and faithful services, Richard III. by letters patent, Aug. 24th, 1483, gave him numerous grants of land in this and other counties, so that this family must have changed sides after the battle of Tewkesbury. Sir Gervase adhered to the fortunes of Richard III. and marched with him to Bosworth from Nottingham castle. Sir Nicholas Byron, of Claypole, a Lancastrian, was Clifton's intimate friend, and before the fight spent a day together at Clifton hall, when they entered into a solemn pledge, that which ever should gain the victory, the survivor should protect the interests of his vanquished friend.

Sir John Beaumont gives the following beautiful narration of the accidental encounter of these two friends, in his poem of the "Battle of Bosworth Field:"

"If in the midst of such a bloody fight,

The name of friendship be not thought too light,
Recount, my muse, how Byron's faithful love
To dying Clifton did itself approve.

For Clifton fighting bravely in the troop,
Receives a wound, and now begins to droop,

SIR GERVASE CLIFTON AND SIR NICHOLAS BYRON.

Which Byron seeing, though in arms his foe,

In heart his friend, and hoping that the blow
Had not been mortal, guards him with his shield,
From second hurts, and cries, Dear Clifton yield,'
Thou hither cam'st, led by sinister fate
Against my first advice, yet now, though late,
Take this my counsel.' Clifton thus replied,
It is too late, for I must now provide

To seek another life; live thou, sweet friend,
And when thy side obtains a happy end,
Upon the fortunes of my children look;
Remember what a solemn oath we took,
That he whose part should prove the best in fight,
Would with the conqu'ror try his utmost might,
To save the other's lands from rav'nous paws,
Which seized on fragments of a luckless cause.
My fathers fall (a) our house had almost drown'd,
But I by chance abroad, in shipwreck found,
May never more such danger threaten mine;
Deal thou with them, as I would do for thine.'
This said his senses fail, and powers decay,
While Byron calls, Stay worthy Clifton, stay,
And hear my faithful promise once again,
Which if I break, may all my deeds be vain.'
But now he knows that vital breath is fled,
And needless words are uttered to the dead;
Into the midst of Richard's strength he flies,
Presenting glorious acts to Henry's eyes,
And for his service he expects no more

Than Clifton's son from forfeits to restore."

471

Fourth Richard Plantagenet, of Shrewsbury, second son of king Edward IV., enjoyed all the honours of the Mowbrays, in right of his wife, he was also earl marshall, and had the baronies of Mowbray, Seagrave, and Gower, together with the vast inheritances of that family. He was made knight of the garter by his father, but with his elder brother, king Edward V., was murdered by his uncle Richard III., who usurped the throne under that title, 1483. He and his wife both died issueless.

The vast inheritance of the Mowbrays came next to the Howards and Berkeleys, in respect of Margaret and Isabella, daughters of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. Sir John Howard, son of Sir Robert

(a) This alludes to the unfortunate Sir Gervase Clifton, at the battle of Tewkesbury, when fighting against Edward of York. See p. 385.

Howard, and Margaret, co-heiress of Thomas de Mowbray, was created Duke of Norfolk, the 28th Jure, and the 1st of Richard III. as also earl marshall of England at the same time.

CHAPTER VI.

"The castle! what a theme for minstrel's lay,
Of olden time-how full of ancient story,
When banners flash'd upon its turrets grey,
And chivalrous emprize was in its glory,

And knighthood's star shed forth its brightest ray

O'er hearts that warmly glow'd, though heads were hoary,
When conquering William, with his foreign bands,
Subdued proud Albion, to divide her lands.

Oh! who has gazed (when twilight spread on high
Each deepening shade that darker made the scene,)
Upon that building, traced against the sky,
Nor called to mind the things which once had been,
Till on the breeze they've heard the warden's cry,
And harper's strains to please a sinful queen,
And then, as thought the flame of memory fann'd,
They've seen young Edward, and his gallant band.

There too, proud Richard, marshall'd his brave band
And march'd them forth to Bosworth's well fought field,
When crown, and throne, and power and kingly land
And life itself hung on his sword and shield.
But vain the prowess of his single hand,
The tyrant was at length compelled to yield,
For as he grappled with his strong arm'd foe,
A mightier tyrant laid the usurper low.

I think upon the days of civil strife,

When from the bow the swift wing'd arrow sped,
And kinsmen met with deadly hatred strife,
And brother's hand with brother's blood was red:
Upon that rock what sacrifice of life!

A moloch's altar covered with the dead,
Whilst deep below, within its hollow caves
Were living victims buried in their graves."

OBSERVATIONS ON CASTLE ARCHITECTURE.

473

Hitherto we have abstained from any attempt of a description of this celebrated fortress, the origin of which is hidden from us in the depths of ancient time. Nottingham castle is repeatedly mentioned in the period of Saxon dominancy, and very difficult indeed would be the task of that historian, who might attempt to prove that on the site of the present castle, there did not exist some kind of monument as early as the time of the ancient Britons. But at the conquest either the old British fortress was rebuilt, or so repaired, enlarged, and strengthened, that its conformation was changed, by the vast additions it received in the reign of the Conqueror, from which time it may be contemplated as a first-rate Norman castle.

Improvements to it were made in subsequent reigns, but this building did not receive its final touches of embellishment until the time of Richard III., when it united the splendid magnificence of a palace, with the secure impregnability of a castle. As the pencil of the artist has not given us the form, nor the pen of the historian left a description of the castle, the labour and peril attending an effort to supply one, though imperfectly at this distant period, is considerably enhanced; in prosecuting this short but difficult work, instead of taxing our imagination to give form and size to that which after all would be a mere fiction, we propose to follow the more patient and laborious process of collecting and comparing its partial descriptions by Leland and others, with other castles of a like antiquity and yet standing, or of which historians have given us a fuller description. Those who may not have access to large libraries-means to purchase extensive volumes, or have not much time for reading, the following brief analysis of this kind of architecture, and the uses for which it was employed, may not be considered altogether uninteresting, but prepare the mind more clearly to perceive, and the better to understand, the subsequent description of our castle.

Castellum, (lat) a diminutive of castrum, is an encampment, a tower or towers, strongly constructed, and intended as a place of safety. Numerous castles, for the most part in ruins, still remain in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the east. The castles of Britain consisted of those erected by Britons before the invasion of the Romans, which were invariably built on the summit of a hill, or on the top of a rock, of which there are many examples in England, Scotland, and Wales; and Nottingham is one. We think it is an error, supposing as some do, that those towns which have not the word chester, or cester, proceding or added to them, are not places where Roman castles might have

been built, or that those which have, are undoubtedly of Roman origin. We are not threading the labyrinths of conjecture when we say, the advantages of the position were the chief inducement for the Roman general to found his camp, and not whether the place had or had not been similarly occupied by the natives before that time. It is reasonable to suppose the Roman castra were often founded on the site of British works, and amongst the most remarkable are the Herefordshire Beacon, on the Malvern hills; the Caer Carodock, near Church Stretton, in Shropshire; Moel Arthur, in Flintshire; Chun castle, in Cornwall; Maiden castle, in Dorsetshire; and Richborough, in Kent, perhaps the earliest Roman castle constructed in this island, and has been conjectured to have been erected in the time of Claudius, and completed by Severus, still retaining the leading features of one of the most perfect of the stationary castles built by the Romans in England. The basement of the sacellum, or small temple, used for depositing the ensigns, forms an important feature in this castle, and in the walls are four gates; the entrance through the north-east wall, is one of the two gates, called by the Romans parta principalis, and which became in after times denominated the postern gate. The prætorian gate is supposed to have been on the side of the slope, toward the destuary, which formerly bounded this side of the castle. The second principal gate was opposite to the first, or principal gate or postern, the Decumen gate, and the Prætorian, are presumed to have been nearly opposite to each other. The form of our castle, like Burgh, is nearly a parallelogram, or square, with rows of bricks placed at intervals in the walls in a horizontal position, and these layers of bricks formed a foundation for every succeeding layer.

Porcester castle, another Roman station, is of a rectangular form, with hollow circular towers at the angles and sides, and presents examples both of Saxon and Norman adaptation, and castle building within its walls; the area of this castle is 620 ft. by 610 ft., at the north-west angle is the Saxon keep, 57 ft. by 58 ft. Mr. King supposes an addition to have been made by the Normans after their manner, forming an inner ballium, or court, within the outer ballium.

The keep may be considered the citidal of the castle, and was the residence of the chief governor; the keep of the Saxon and Norman castles, was the same to them, as the prætoriun was to the Romans, and where the sacellum of the Romans was, most probably the christian's church was afterward situated.

The keep of Porcester stands adjoining to, and even upon the wall of the castle area itself, as most of the keeps in the Saxon