CASTLE, in a modern sense, is a place fortified either by nature or by art, in a city or country, to keep the people in their duty, or to resist au enemy. In the more extensive interpretation of the word, it includes the various methods of encampment, but in its stricter meaning, it is usually applied to buildings walled with stone, and intended for residence as well as for defence. Few branches of historical research have been so little attended to. as that which relates to mil itary archi tecture. Castles, indeed, such as we now see them, were of late introduction to the world. Whether we may rank them with the accommodations of life brought by the crusaders from the East, is doubtful : but this much seems tolerably certain, that it was in France, England, Germany, Switzer land, and Savoy, that the system of castellation first prevailed. In Italy, till the Normans got possession of Naples and Sicily, castles were comparatively few. We may at least date their general adoption in Europe with the feudal system.
The early British fortifications seem to have been little more than mere entrenchments of earth. C:esar, however, penetra ted not for to know the true nature of the British fort resses ; and in his work, De Bello Galileo (lib. v. section 17), has given only the description of a lowland camp. In all parts of England, there is a vast number of strong entrench ments of a very peculiar kind, situated chiefly on the tops of natural hills. and which can be attributed to none of the dif people who have ever dwelt in the adjacent country, but the ancient Britons. That they may have been used at different times, and occupied upon emergencies, by the sub iequent inhabitants of the island, is no more than probable ; but there are many, and undoubted reasons, for deeming them the strong posts and thstnesses of the aboriginal settlers, where they lodged their wives. formed their garrisons, and made their stand. That the Britons were accustomed to fortify such places, we have the authority of Tacitus, who, describing the strongholds formed and resorted to by Carac ta•us, says, " Tune montibus arduis, at si qua clementer acc•di poterant, in modum ralli saxa prastruil."—Annal. lib. xii. sect. 33. One of these entrenchments still makes a formidable appearance on a mountain hanging over the vale of Nannereh, in Flintshire, called Moel-Arthur. But their situation being so high that they could have no supply of water except from the clouds, they were often liable to be untenable fur a considerable time together.
One of the most important of these fastnesses in our own country, is the llerefordshire Beacon, situated on a spot that could not but he an object of the utmost attention to the original inhabitants of those territories, which afterwards were deemed distinctly England and Wales, from the very division here formed. It is on the summit of one of the highest of the Malvern hills, and is known by the name just mentioned. It has been by turns attributed to the Romans, the Saxons. and the Danes, but its construction as a strong hold shows it was designed as a security for the whole adjacent country on any emergency. Another of these fort resses is at Bruff in Staffordshire, which has been described by Mr. Pennant, in his Journey from Chester, p. 47, and
exactly answers the account of Tacitus. It is placed on the summit of a hill, surrounded by two deep ditches, and has a rampart formed of stone. Other instances are adduced by Mr. Pennant, in his Tour in Ifrales, and by Mr. King, in the first volume of the Munimenta Antigua : but a stronger instance than all, perhaps, is given by Mr. Gough, in the Addition• to Camden, vol. ii. p. 404, where he shows that the true Cacr Caradoc, the very fortress alluded to in the sen tence we have quoted, which, if not the royal seat of Carac tacus, seems to have been at least his stronghold, was in Shropshire, two miles south of atm, and three from Coxal, being a large camp, three times as long as it is broad, on the point of a hill, accessible only one way, and defended on the north side by very deep double ditches, in the solid rock ; whilst on the east, the steepness of the ground renders it impregnable. On the south it has only one ditch, for the same reason : and the principal entrance is on the west side, fenced with double works; whilst to the south-west it is even fenced with triple works. The most extraordinary, how ever, of all these kinds of fortresses, is situated in Caer narvonshire, called Tre'r Caeri, or The Town of Fortresses. The plan and elevation of this ancient stronghold and abode is given by Mr. Pennant, in his Tour in Wales, vol. ii. p. 206. On the accessible side it was defended by three rude walls of stone ; the upper ones being lofty, about fifteen feet high, and sixteen broad ; exhibiting a grand and extensive front. The space on the top is an irregular area; but the whole is filled with cells, some round, and some oval, and some also oblong or square. Several of the round ones were fifteen fi‘et in diameter ; which brings to mind the houses of the aneient Gauls, described by St rah° ; and of those that were oblong, there was at least one even thirty feet in length. Of the same kind of tbrtresses were Penmaen Mawr, in Caernar vonshire; Warton Crogg, in Lancashire ; Old Oswestrv, in Shropshire ; the irregular encampment of Maiden Castle, near Dorchester: and probably Old Sarum, whose character was new-modelled hy the Romans. Mr. King, in the Munimenta Antigua, (33, considers the dens in the mountains and the thickets, of Scripture, as strongholds or hill-fortresses of the kind described. When Samson had made a great slaughter of the Philistines. we arc told he went and dwelt in the top of the rock Elam ; where we find, afterwards, three thousand men of ,Judah went up to confer with him. That hill-fortresses were used in the earliest ages, there can be little doubt. The Israelites, when their land was invaded by Jabin, the king of Canaan, in consequence of an exhorta tion from Deborah the prophetess, assembled to make their stand upon Mount Tabor. Among the Indians of South America, strongholds, of a similar nature to those of Britain, have been frequently discovered. Ulloa's Voyage to South America, vol. i. p. 503-504. And a very curious instance of the attack and surrender of one in Sogdiana, in Asia, in the time of Alexander the Great, is related by Quintus Curtius, lib. vii. chap. xi. The anecdote is worth the reference of the reader.