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castles did, quite diverse from the keep towers of the castles built by the Normans. A reference to the ground plan of Nottingham castle shows its keep; situated upon, or actually constituting the north-east corner of the old wall, and not in the clear open space of the inner ballium, in which the keeps are situated in castles built by the Normans, as at Rochester and Hedingham, in Essex. This fact carries back the antiquity of the castle of Nottingham beyond the Norman era; and even had no historical mention of it come down to our time, the position of its keep alone, shows it must have been at least a Saxon castle.

Saxon castle building was perhaps in part borrowed from the Romanized Britons, who would, to some extent, have improved in their taste of this kind of architecture from their imperial masters; but that the art itself was known to the Britons before the Roman occupation of the country is an indisputable fact, for some of our castles, as Launceston, Brunless, and others, are mentioned by Mr. King in his Munimenta Antiqua, as having been constructed after the oldest plan of Syrian castle building ; and others he supposes to have been of Phænician origin, to which, in many parts, they bear a strong resemblance in their plan. Conisbrough castle, the palace of king Harold, is another of these singular castles, and considered by the same author to have been an ancient British work. The Roman castles are distinguished from those of either Saxon or Norman by the different manner of building their walls; layers of brick are seen in the Roman walls which were of rubble; while the Saxon and Norman works are usually faced with squared stone. Pevensey castle, in Sussex, is considered to have been a late Roman work, if not an Anglo Roman building; the themelii are not laid horizontally as at Richborough, and Burgh, but more like the Saxon herring bone. The plan of that at Porcester has had many alterations in later times; but the older works are far more durable than the latter. The plan of both castles are the same, which is an irregular curve with solid towers, a curved inner ballium with hollow towers, and a keep like Nottingham. The walls at Pevensey average about 10 ft. in thickness, and 20 ft. in height; had any part of the walls of our old castle been yet standing, even at this remote date, its antiquity, with considerable certainty, might have been ascertained, but as that is not the case, we can only compare its ground plan with those we have mentioned, and in this respect it agrees with them in form; therefore, so far we have strong presumptive evidence that Nottingham had its castle in the time of the ancient Britons.

The general rule by which Saxon and Norman castles may be distinguished from each other is, that the keep towers are attached to the walls in the former, while those of the latter are unattached; but there are some exceptions to this general rule. Castleton, in Derbyshire, is considered to be a genuine Saxon castle, from the style of architecture and the appearance of the herring bone masonry in the walls, and here the keep is attached, as in this at Nottingham. The keeps of Guildford and Colchester castles have some curious constructions of the herring bone style in brick work, the distinguishing mark of Saxon origin, and this manner of building it is very probable originally distinguished Nottingham's Anglo-Saxon castle.

Norman castles as fortifications were much stronger than those built by the Saxons, from which they were also distinguished by the mounds and ditches, or moates, with walls on the mounds, surmounted with battlements. The walls were also fortified at the top, with small projecting towers, called bastions. The importance attached to the castle of Nottingham, from its locality, its strength, its numerous surrounding population, and from its being so frequently the abode of succeeding kings, are circumstances that may justify the assumption that of the various castles in the kingdom, to which a succession of improvements were added after the conquest, whether they were for adding strength or ornament, Nottingham castle would necessarily be one of the first. Hence it was defended on its north and east, where alone it might be approached, with three deep ditches; the first a moat, was that nearest the castle, within the walls, over which the "stately bridge" was cast, of which Leland speaks, who visited it in the 16th century, in the reign of Henry VIII. The castle wall was outside this first ditch, and flanked with six strong towers, part of the line of this wall may yet be seen, commencing at the south-east end of the castle, to which it still forms a breast-work, about 12 paces from it; then descending the slope of the rock eastward, continues 150 paces, till it reaches to the nort-eastern boundary of Brewhouse-yard, where there is a strong lofty tower. This gave way at the time of thaw, after a severe frost, in 1832, and was rebuilt at the expense of the Duke of Newcastle, by Mr. Allen, stone mason, who entirely removed the old tower, digging up the lowest stones of the foundation, in hope of finding some coins, or plate, bearing an inscription, but nothing of the kind was discovered; the present new tower is smaller than its predecessor, which was of a magnitude and diameter equal to that venerable relique of antiquity, the tower yet standing at the top of Castlegate. From Brewhouse-yard the castle wall extended in a right

DESCRIPTION OF NOTTINGHAM CASTLE.

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line northward, to the second tower just mentioned, then by a slight curve inward, behind the present Riding school, joined the Barbacan, where there are two towers and an arched gateway, leading to the principal entrance of the castle. About 25 paces north-west this wall extended towards Standard-hill, where there was another, a fifth tower; from thence west, to the extremity of the rock by which the park on its east is bounded; then turning south, was a sixth tower, from whence, south and east, it joined as we said, in a breast-work, south and west of the castle. North east of this wall was another ditch, extending nearly parallel with Standard-hill. The late Mr. Stretton opened a part of this ditch at the time he was about erecting his house, and after his workmen had dug 15 or 20 ft down, they were still not able to find a solid foundation, and from its breadth, and the depth he had already attained, gave it as his opinion, that the bottom of the ditch was about on a level with the second entrenchment in the park.

The third ditch was opposite to the top of St. James'-street, the eastern terminus of which may be discovered by any one going along the Hollows; for a little above St. James' church, in the wall bounding that side of the road, just at the southern extent of the Hospital pleasure grounds, the crown of an arch rises about 8 in. above the flags, which when this wall was built, it was found necessary to spring, because there was no substantial foundation; this was part of the ditch which stretched north-west from this place, extending under the new western wing of the Hospital, and terminated at the reservoir of the Old Water Works Company, where the old postern used to stand. Here also the old town wall, south of Butt-dyke, joined the wall of the castle. (a)

Norman castles are distinguished by towers, as well as the outer walls, and the barbacan and towers of the old castle of Nottingham yet standing, are evidence conclusive of this Norman fortification, which defended this ancient castle.

From the extensive alterations, additions, and improvements, successively made from the time of William Peverel downward, its

(a) About the year 1797, at the time the workmen were digging out the foundation of Mr. Lowe's house, which adjoins] Mr. Fox's, at the south-west corner of Hounds-gate, after they had dug 14 ft. deep, at the south-east, they came to a solid cart road, which used to be the surface, and constituted the old road into the town on this side. This accident supplies us with the means of ascertaining the depth of the ditch outside the castle walls eastward, and may enable us to form a tolerably accurate idea of the barbacan which now appears low, because the ground has been so much raised in front of it, but formerly it was very imposing in appearance, being lofty and majestic. A similar road was discovered about 40 years ago, when digging the foundation of the Milton's Head Inn, Milton-street.

external appearance, and internal arrangement, in every respect, save the situation of the keep, which could not be altered, this Anglo-Saxon fortress was transformed into a Norman castle.

Rochester castle, which stands on a small eminence near the bridge over the Medway, is a fine specimen of a Norman castle, by whom it was probably erected on the site of a more ancient building. Here are seen the inner and outer ballium, or court, and also a Saxon mount.

Bedford castle, taken by Henry III., 1224, is considered to have been similarly surrounded, from the fact of its having been taken in four attacks: 1st. the barbacan; 2nd. outer ballium; 3rd. inner ballium; and 4th. by mining the keep, compelled the besieged to surrender.

The castles of Rochester, Hastings, Lincoln, York, Nottingham, &e., were Norman castles of the first class, and pretty much favouring each other in their general design; the plan in which they were erected, is an irregular polygon, like Nottingham, (see plate) and the keep bears a strong resemblance to Arundel, Tunbridge, Newcastle, &c., only it is more strongly fortified by nature than they.

Having made these prefatory remarks, in order that we may clear our way to the description of the subject before us, which no historian has yet attempted, having been favoured with the valuable assistance of several gentlemen, who have made Nottingham castle a subject of close study for years, and to preserve a necessary connection of subject, and simplicity of idea, we will suppose ourselves at the top of Park-street, about to visit the castle in the time of Richard III., 1485. Turning a little to the left, (south) you see the watch-houses of the picket-guard, at regular distances, in advance of the castle wall, east and north, standing on the declivity of the hill. Just in front is a deep ravine, over which is a stately stone bridge, of three beautiful gothic arches, presenting a rising platform to the gate of the castle, in front of which is a draw-bridge. Over this gate is an arch, on either side, flanked with a strong massive tower, rising 50 ft. above the level of the ditch; this arched gateway formed an outwork, called the barbacan, as seen fig. 1. Here was stationed a strong guard, night and day. From its strength, and the advantages its occupants were supplied with over an enemy from without, it is evident, to take that by storm would be attended with almost as dreadful a slaughter as the takeing of the castle itself. The present appearance of the barbacan bears evident traces of the architecture of the eleventh century, ard to have been partly re-built early in the fifteenth century; modern repairs made about twenty years ago have done much to

GROUND PLAN

Of NOTTINGHAM ANGLO-NORMAN CASTLE, of the 15th Century, with the final Improvements made to it by Richard III., according to a Ground Plan taken by Mr. Smithson, in 1617. Here are seen the Watch-houses of the Picket-guard on the slope of the hill, the Barbacan, Moat, Draw-bridges, Wells, Courts, Towers, and an Elevation of the Keep.