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88 MedicBval Military Architecture i7i Englana. their name. The town was also walled. Near Richmond are the scanty and late remains of Ravenswath, a Fitz-Hugh castle, and lower down the Swale was Bedale, the castle of "Le beau Bryan de Fitz-Aleyne," now entirely gone, though the site is still pointed out. The warlike habits of the Lords are, how- ever, represented by a curious portcullis closing the door of the belfry in the parish church. Middleham Castle, on the edge of its celebrated moor, was founded by Ribald, brother to Earl Alan, and ancestor in the female line of the great family of Neville, under whom the Norman keep received its handsome addition and gained its fame. Masham, a castle of the Scropes, is now a mere ruin. Drax seems to have been held by Ralph Paganel as early as the reign of Stephen. Merhall, in Weston, a castle of the Barons Lancaster, is reputed to have been demolished by King John. Killarby, Albruck-on-Tees, and Cawdwell were early castles, as were Armanthwaite, Bowes, Hatlesey, Sigston, and Whorlton. Of Gleaston, the moot-hill remains, which is thought to have been surmounted by a keep ; and Hornby was also a Lons- dale castle. The passes of the Lune were, however, more celebrated for their defensive earthworks, due to the Danes or the English, than for Norman castles. Coningsborough, on the Don, is no less from its position than its architecture one of the most remarkable of Yorkshire castles. Its grand cylindrical tower, supported by buttresses of great depth and height, is superior in design and work- manship to that of Pembroke, and almost rivals Coucy. It stands on the summit of a steep rocky knoll, and has been inserted into an earlier Norman wall, which is built upon the steep edge of the rock and encloses a court of moderate area. Upon the slope are the remains of the entrance and fortified approach, and at the base of the hill is a ditch, or rather a ravine, and on one side beyond it an outwork in earth. Pro- bably the hill has been occupied as a place of strength from a very early time, but the masonry is the work of the Warrens Earls of Surrey, and is worthy of their greatness. Knares- borough Castle, on the Nidd, visited by Henry II. in 1181, occupies the top of a rocky promontory. Here the keep, though of Norman form and dimensions, is of Decorated date, and remarkable for the excellence of its details. The adjacent town has also been fortified, though apparently by a ditch and bank only. Pontefract, another celebrated Yorkshire castle, is also peculiar. Here the castle encloses a large and elevated platform of rock, scarped and revetted all round, and at one end of which, enclosing an earthen mound, is the cir- cular keep. Much of its masonry is of the eleventh or the