JittnimenAt A» lig no, vol. iii. p. 211, has taken consi derate pains to prove that the fortress at Castleton, in Derby shire, is of as high antiquity.
Alfred the Great, however, seems to have been the first of our princes with whom the building of castles became an object of national policy. Though, if Asser's authority may he received, they were not exactly what the reader, at the first mention of their name, might take them for ; since they were composed not only of stone. but of wood ; Asser de Reb. gestis p. 17, 18. Elfieda, too, his daughter, gover ness of Nercia, who seems to have been the only person in the kingdom who properly complied with the commands, and imitated the example, of her illustrious father, and who in herited more of the wisdom and spirit of Alfred than any of his children, not only followed his steps by fighting many battles w ith the Danes, but built not less than eight castles in the space of three years, to check their incursions. Ilen. Hunt. Mist. p. 20•1. A still more remarkable instance of the knowledge of castle-building at a short period'subsequent to this, may be found in William of Malinesbury, chap. vi. when he mentions the rebuilding of Exeter by Athelstan, who died in 941. " Urbein irti !lir ilium," says the historian," pain con lain ina hc geniis repurgio deficcurerat, t urri bus muni v it, mum ex quadratis lapidibus cinxit." And from the few remains of the fortifications of this period, we find, that the walls pre cisely answer Malmesbury's description. They were faced with these tour-squa•e stones both within and without, and the intermediate space between the facings was tilled up with rubble or rough flint-stones, mixed together with a strong and permanent cement. it is to this period too, that the most judicious of our writers have referred the castle at Colchester, which has been already mentioned. Its form is four-square, flanked at the four corners with strong towers, and it is about two hundred and twenty-four yards in eireum ferenee on the outside, all projections and windings included ; the four sides nearly facing the four cardinal points. Some have even gone so far as to call this venerable ruin British ; others, as we have already said, have attributed it, with a greater share of plausibility, to the Romans ; but Camden and our better writers ascribe it to Edward the Elder, who repaired the walls and rebuilt the town, in the beginning of the 10th century.
Still, however, the paucity of strong posts in the island during every period of the Anglo-Saxon history, may be constantly observed. And it is more. than probable that to
this defect we may attribute the defeat of Harold ; since it became necessary that all should be risked upon the issue of a single battle. The Conqueror, himself, was evidently sen sible that the want of fortified places in England had greatly facilitated his conquest, and might, at any time, also facilitate his expulsion. Ile therefore made all possible haste to remedy the defect, by building magnificent and strong castles in all the towns within the royal demesnes. " William," says Matthew Paris, "excelled all his predecessors in building castles, and greatly harassed his subjects and vassals with these works." Matthew' Paris, Hist. p. 8. col. 2. And his earls, barons, and even prelates, imitated his example ; and it was the first care of every one who received a grant of an estate from the crown, to build a castle upon it for his defence and residence. The disputes about the succession, in the following reigns, kept up this spirit for building great and strong castles. William Rufus was still a greater builder than his father ; and Henry I. was not idle in adding to their number. " Ruths," says Henry Knyghti in, col. 2373, " was much addicted to building royal castles and palaces, as the castles of Dover, Windsor, Norwich, Exeter, the palace of Westminster, and many others, testify ; nor was there any king of England before hint that erected so many, and such noble edifices." Though of one or two of these, William Rufus was only the improver. But the rage for building castles never prevailed so much in any period of the English history as in the tut-Indent reign of Stephen, between 1135 and 115•. 1n this reign, says the writer of the Saxon Chronicle, p. 238, every one, who was able, built a castle ; so that the poor people were worn out with the toil of these buildings, and the whole kingdom was covered with castles. And this last expression will hardly appear too strong, when we are informed, that, besides all the castles before that time in England, no fewer than eleven hundred and fifteen were raised from the foundaticm, in the short space of nineteen years. — Rad. de Dieeto, col. 528. " Stephen," says I lolinshed, vol. iii. fol. 50, " began to repent himself, although too late, for that lie had granted license to so many of his subjects to build castles within their own grounds." An art. I )r. H en ry )1/Se (ThStory of Vol. vi.