CAS

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CAS

After the age of Edward I. we find another kind of castleintroduced, approaching nearer to the idea of modern palaces.The first of these was that at Windsor, built by Edward III .who employed William of Wykeham as his architect. Thisconvenient and enlarged style of building was soon imitated,on a lesser scale, by the nobles of the realm ; and tworemarkable instances, wherein convenience and magnificencewere singularly blended at this period, may be found in thecastles of Harewood and Spotford, in Yorkshire . The im-provements at Kenilworth afford another instance of the! great enlargement which our castles, during this age, wereaccustomed to receive: and Naworth, in Cumberland, isanother of the best specimens that can probably be referredi to. Caistor, in Norfolk, affords the style of Henry theSixth’s reign. It was built by Sir John Fastolf , who diedin 1459.

To these venerable piles succeeded the castellated houses;mansions adorned with turrets, and battlements; but utterly| incapable of defence, except against a rude mob, armed withi clubs and staves, on whom the gates might be shut; yet stillj mansions almost quite devoid of all real elegance, or com-| fortable convenience, and fitted only to entertain a herd ofretainers wallowing in licentiousness. At the same time,j however, they discover marks of economy and good manage-

■ ment, which enabled their hospitable lords to support suchj rude revels, and to keep up their state, even better than

many of their more refined successors. Of these buildings' one of the most perfect and most curious, now remaining,

■ is Haddon House, in Derbyshire ; castellated and embattled,

; in all the apparent forms of regular defence; but reallyI without the least means of resistance in its original construc-tion. The description Mr. King has given of it, Archceol.

I vol. vi. p. 347, is, however, too long to be extracted, andtoo curious to be abridged.

After this kind of building, the magnificent quadrangularhouses of the reign of Henry VIII . succeeded; of whichthe most beautiful and genuine models, perhaps, were thosej of Cowdray, in Sussex, and Penshurst, the seat of thej Sidney family, in Kent.

! Without referring to the stately buildings of Elizabeth’sreign, it may be enough to say, that here ends the historyj of the English castle. The block-houses of Calshot, Hurst,Sandown, Sandgate, and South Sea, are the last instances ofsuch buildings ever intended for a stand, and seem stronglyto mark the revolution which has taken place in our defensivesystem of war.

The total change in military tactics brought about by theinvention of gunpowder and artillery; the more settled stateof the nation, Scotland becoming part of the dominions ofthe kings of England; the respectable footing of our navy,whose wooden walls secure us from invasions; and the abo-lition of the feudal system,—all conspired to render castles oflittle use or consequence, as fortresses: so the great improve-ments in arts and sciences, and their constant attendant, theincrease of luxury, made our nobility and gentry build them-selves more pleasant and airy dwellings; relinquishing theancient dreary mansions of their forefathers, where the enjoy-ment of light and air was sacrificed to the consideration ofstrength; and whose best rooms, according to our modernrefined notions, have more the appearance of gaols anddungeons for prisoners, than apartments for the reception ofa rich and powerful baron.

However, in the reign of Charles I. , a little before thebreaking out of the civil war, some inquiry into the stateof these buildings seems to have taken place; for on the22nd of January, 1636, a commission was issued, appointinglieutenant-colonel Francis Coningsby, commissionary-general

of and for all the castles and fortifications in England anWales , with an allowance of 13s. 4d. a day, to be paid ouof the cheques and defalcations that should be made by hit®from time to time; or, in default thereof, out of the Treasury*Whether this office was really instituted for the purpose oscrutinizing into the state of these fortresses, as foreseeingthe events which afterwards happened; or whether it "' aSonly formed to gratify some favourite, does not app ear ‘During the troubles of that reign, some ancient castlewere garrisoned and defended, several of which, particularlyCorfe castle, in Dorsetshire , were afterwards destroyed, byorder of the parliament: since that period, they have bee®abandoned to the mercy of time, weather, and the mo r ®unsparing hands of avaricious men. The last have pr° ve .the most destructive; many of these monuments of ancic®magnificence having been by them demolished for the sa»^of the materials: by which the country has been deprived 0those remains of antiquity, so essential, in the eyes ®foreigners, to the dignity of a nation; and which, if right/considered, tended to inspire the beholder with a love fornow happy establishment; by leading him to compare the p r ®sent with those times when such buildings were erecte •times when this unhappy kingdom was distracted by i nte3 jtine wars; when the son was armed against the father, a ®_brother slaughtered brother; when the lives, honour, and p l0perty of the wretched inhabitants depended on the nod of a ^arbitrary king, or were subject to the more tyrannical a ®capricious wills of lawless and foreign barons.

The few castles existing in the Saxon time, were, P r °bably, on occasion of war, or invasions, garrisoned by 4national militia, and, at other times, slightly guarded 1the domestics of the princes or great personages who reamin them; but after the Conquest, when all the estates w e ,converted into baronies, held by knight’s service, castle-g ua ^coming under that denomination, was among the dutie 3 ^which particular tenants were liable. From these serv>the bishops and abbots, who, till the time of the Norm® ’had held their lands in frank-almoign, or free alms, were,this new regulation, not exempted ; they were not, in - eD tlike the laity, obliged to personal service, it being suffi c * - rthat they provided fit and able persons to officiate in 1

stead.

This was, however, at first vigorously oppose 11

nmliUietirm r»f Pontpi'lnirv , wlin hpincr oblige

to

Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury; who, being -g

find some knights to attend King William Rufus in his .in Wales , complained of it as an innovation and infringe 111of the rights and immunities of the church. t j,e

It was no uncommon thing for the Conqueror, a ^kings of those days, to grant estates to men of approvedlity and valour, on condition that they should perform c9 ‘' e ;guard, with a certain number of men, for some specified t> ^and sometimes they were likewise bound by their tenurkeep in repair some tower or bulwark, as was the caDover castle. , {ot

In process of time, these services were commute . ^annual rents, sometimes styled ward-fenny, andbut commonly castle-guard rents; payable on fi xe “, te r,under prodigious penalties, called sur-sizes. At Rochif a man failed in the payment of his rent of castle-g^.j^on the feast of St. Andrew, his debt was doubled everj^ggeduring the time for which the payment was delayed. ^ jriwere afterwards restrained by an act of parliament, idV] 1the reign of King Henry VIII. , and finally annihil ate ’ jj.the tenures by knight’s service, in the time of Cha r ^.^grSuch castles as were private property, were guardedby mercenary soldiers, or the tenants of the lord or o'Castles which belonged to the crown, or fell to it ei p e aforfeiture or escheat (circumstances that frequently bapr