DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1457#0184
15(5 EXPLANATION
the time of Edward II.; but I cannot help suspecting
all this to be a mistake; for, though it may be true with
regard to the outworks, and the many great buildings
enclosed within the limits and outward walls of this
castle, which were formerly very extensive and nume-
rous, that a great part of them were built and com-
pleted by those two powerful lords; yet as to the keep,
or master tower (the only considerable part now re-
maining), the style of its architecture is, in many
respects, so different from that of the towers erected
in the reigns of William Rufus, and Henry I. and II.
and the ornaments are so different from those which
were in use in the reign of Edward II. (when pointed
arches had long been introduced, and were esteemed
the most elegant of any), that I cannot but think the
building of much greater antiquity, and completely
Saxon, though it is possible the staircase might be
repaired, or even rebuilt, by Thomas de Brotherton,
whose arms are to be seen on a part of the wall. In
short, as to the main body of the building, I take it to
be the very tower which was erected about the time of
king Canute, who, though himself a Dane, yet un-
doubtedly made use of many Saxon architects, as the
far greater number of his subjects were Saxons; and
I am rather induced to form this conclusion, because I
can find no authentic account whatever of the destruc-
tion of the castle built in Canute's time, either by war
or by accident; or of its being taken down in order to
erect the present structure, as is supposed by some.
Observations on Ancient Castles. Archasologia. vol
iv. p. 396, 397,
the time of Edward II.; but I cannot help suspecting
all this to be a mistake; for, though it may be true with
regard to the outworks, and the many great buildings
enclosed within the limits and outward walls of this
castle, which were formerly very extensive and nume-
rous, that a great part of them were built and com-
pleted by those two powerful lords; yet as to the keep,
or master tower (the only considerable part now re-
maining), the style of its architecture is, in many
respects, so different from that of the towers erected
in the reigns of William Rufus, and Henry I. and II.
and the ornaments are so different from those which
were in use in the reign of Edward II. (when pointed
arches had long been introduced, and were esteemed
the most elegant of any), that I cannot but think the
building of much greater antiquity, and completely
Saxon, though it is possible the staircase might be
repaired, or even rebuilt, by Thomas de Brotherton,
whose arms are to be seen on a part of the wall. In
short, as to the main body of the building, I take it to
be the very tower which was erected about the time of
king Canute, who, though himself a Dane, yet un-
doubtedly made use of many Saxon architects, as the
far greater number of his subjects were Saxons; and
I am rather induced to form this conclusion, because I
can find no authentic account whatever of the destruc-
tion of the castle built in Canute's time, either by war
or by accident; or of its being taken down in order to
erect the present structure, as is supposed by some.
Observations on Ancient Castles. Archasologia. vol
iv. p. 396, 397,