I however, in the reign of Charles I., a little before the breaking out of the civil war, some inquiry into the state of these buildings seems to have taken place; for on the 22nd of January, 1636, a commission was issued, appointing lieutenant-eolonel Francis Coningsby, commissiona•y-general of and for all the castles and fortifications in England and Wales, with an allowance of 13s..1d. a day, to be paid out of the cheques and detidcations that should be made by him from time to time; or, in deficit thereof, out of the Treasury. Whether this office was really instituted for the purpose of scrutinizing into the state of these fin tresses, as foreseeing the events which afterwards happened ; or whether it NV:IS only formed to gratify some favourite, does not appear. During the troubles of that reign, some ancient castles were garrisoned and defended, several of which, particularly Code castle, in Dorsetshire, were afterwards destroyed, by order of the parliament : since that period, they have been abandoned to the mercy of time, weather. and the more unsparing hands of avaricious men. The last have proved the most destructive; many of these monuments of ancient having been by them demolished air the sake of the materials: by which the country has been deprived of those remains of antiquity, so essential. in the eyes of fi•eigners, to the dignity of a nation ; and which, if rightly considered, tended to inspire the beholder with a love for the now happy establishment ; by leading him to compare the present with those times when such buildings were erected : times when this unhappy kingdom was distracted by intes tine wars ; when the son was armed against the father, and brother slaughtered brother ; when the lives, honour, and perty of the wretched inhabitants depended on the nod of an arbitrary king, or were subject to the more tyrannical and capricious wills of lawless and foreign barons.
The few castles existing in the Saxon time, were, pro bably, on occasion of war, or invasions, garrisoned by the national militia, mid, at other times, slightly guarded by the domestics of the princes or great personages who resided in them ; hut after the Conquest, when all the estates were converted into baronies, held by knight's service, eastle-gua•d, coming under that denomination, was among the duties to which particular tenants were liable. F1'0111 these services the bishops and abbots, who, till the time of the Normans, had held their lands in frank-almoign, or free alias, were, by this new regulation, not exempted ; they were not, indeed.
like the laity, obliged to personal service, it being snflicient that they provided fit and able persons to officiate in their stead. This was, however, at first vigorously opposed by Anseltn, archbishop of Canterbury ; who, being obliged to find some knights to attend King William Rufus in his wars in Wales, complained of it as an innovation and infringement of the rights and immunities of the church.
It was no uncommon thing for the Conqueror, and the kings of those day s, to grant estates to men of approved fide lity and valour, on condition that they should perform eastle guard, with a certain number of inch), for sonic specified time ; and sometimes they were likewise bound by mires to keep in repair some tower or Imlwark, as was the case at Dover castle.
In process of time, these services were commuted for annual rents, sometimes styled ward-penny, and waylfre, but commonly eastlelma•d rentg ; payable on fixed (lays, under prodigious penalties, called snr-sizes. At 1:.)chester, if a man failed in the payment of his rent of eastle-guard on the feast of St. Andrew, his debt was doubled every tide, during the time for which the payment was delayed. These were afterwards restrained by an act of parliament, made in the reign of King ITenry VIII., and finally annihilated, with the tenures by knig,lit's service, in the time of Charles 11. Such castles as were private property, were guarded either by mercenary soldiers, or the tenants of the lord or owner.
Castles which belonged to the crown. or fell to it either by forfeiture or escheat (cireumstances that frequently happened in the distracted reigns of the feudal times) were generally committed to the custody of some trusty person who seems to have been indifferently styled governor or constable. also they were put into the possession of the sheriff of the county, who often converted them into prisons. That officer was then accountable to the exchequer, for the farm or produce of the lands belonging to the places entrusted to his care, us well as all other profits : he was likewise, in case of war or invasion, obliged to victual and furnish them with munition out of the issues of his county; to which he was directed by writ of privy seal. Variety of these writs, temp. Edw. III., may be seen in Aladox's ffixtory (1 The A:mho/we; and it appears, from the same authority, that the barons of the excheque• were appointed to survey these castles, and the state of the buildings and works on therein.—lZees's Cyclopedia.