Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/110

94 Mediceval Military Architecture in England Wales the Norman keep is not usual ; the castles are, for the most part, later in date and more complex in plan ; and the small square private tower, the distinctive feature of the North, is there hardly to be found. Northumber- land has much to show the traveller in many ways, from the Roman wall onward, but the feature which is especially characteristic is that it is the land of castles." Northumberland is said to have contained sixty castles, but this must include many fortified houses and castles of the private gentry. Alnwick, better known as the seat of the earls of Northumberland than from its builder and early lords, is a very fine example of a baronial castle. The keep or central ward includes an open court, entered by a Norman gateway encrusted by a Decorated gate- house, and round which, incorporated with the curtain, were the hall, kitchen, chapel, and the lord's lodgings. Most of the court has been rebuilt, but the old lines and much of the old foundations have been preserved, and the effect is probably not unlike that of the original Norman court. The concentric defences, walls, towers, and barbican are old, though not original. The castle stands between the town and the Alne, beyond which is the park. The builder seems to have been Eustace de Vesci in the late Norman period, before 1157. Three miles to the north is the tower of Highfarland. Wark worth, built by one of the Fitz- Richard family in the reign of Henry II., was much injured by William the Lion, who laid siege to it in 1 176, but still retains large remains of the original work. Tynemouth, an island fortress, seems to have been a seat of Earl Waltheof ; it was long afterwards a Percy castle. Prudhoe, a castle of the Umfravilles, built in the middle of the eleventh century, has a small Norman keep, and most of the original curtain wall. The additions include a barbican and a curious chapel over the gateway. The original castle was attacked without success by William of Scotland in 1 174. The castle of Newcastle, high upon the bank of the Tyne and included within the walls of the town, was built by Robert Curthose in 1080, and is a very perfect example of a rectangular Norman keep, with a curious oratory within the fore -building and a great number of mural passages and chambers, so that in many respects it has the appearance of being half a century later than its recorded date. It is also well preserved, saving some injudicious alterations made many years since, and it is accessible to every visitor, being in the hands of the local antiquarian society, and under the