Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/117

Castles at the Latter Part of the Twelfth Century. 101 entry : — " Quod unus magnus turris ligneus qui edificatur in castro Salop corruit in terram tempore domini Uriani de St. Petro turn vicecomitis et meremium cjusdem turris tempore suo et temporibus aliorum vicecomitum preterea existencium ita consummatur et destruitur quod nichil de illo remansit in magnum dampnum domini Regis et deteracionem ejusdem castri." Was this a wooden keep upon the mound ? " Ouod- dam Barbican " is also mentioned, and we are told the "dampnum mote " amounted to 60 marcs, which damage the jurors do not attribute altogether to the Abbot's Mill, for thirty years earlier the mote of the castle was injured. This can scarcely mean the ditch, for which fossa" is the word used. It is evidently the mound. The castle formed part of the town wall, and occupied an angle of its area. Both castle and town were included within the foldings of the deep and broad Severn, and indeed often needed its protection. In advance of Shrewsbury and placed along the most exposed border of the county, and sometimes a little beyond it, were seventeen castles, all strong and of early foundation, though not all of equal importance. Of these, to the south, the principal were Cleobury, Ludlow, Richard's Castle, Wig- more, Knighton, and Knucklas or Heyhope, some within and others a little to the outside of the dyke. To the west were Clun, Bishop's Castle, Montgomery, Cause, Abberbury, and Knockyn, and to the north Oswestry, Whittington, Elles- mere, and Whitchurch. Of these castles Ludlow stood next to Shrewsbury in im- portance, and was fully its equal in strength, and far its superior in dimensions and architectural display. It was, indeed, a superb Norman castle, the work of Roger de Lacy, in the reign of Rufus, and before it Stephen was foiled and very nearly captured in 1 1 39. The rectangular keep, some of the mural towers, and most of the lower part of the con- taining wall are original. The curious circular chapel, though Norman, is rather later, and the magnificent hall, kitchen, and lodgings are later still. The castle is built on the eastern bank of the Lug, which here flows down a deep rocky ravine ; the town also was strongly walled. Cleobury, to the east of Ludlow, attributed to Roger de Mortimer in 1074, is more probably the work of a later lord in the reign of Stephen. It was taken by Henry II. in 11 55. Wigmore, of which the castelry is mentioned in " Domesday," the chief seat of the great border family of Mortimer, is actually in Hereford- shire, but belongs to the Shropshire fortresses. It occupies a rocky ridge, defended by a natural ravine and steep slopes. The small mound that bore its keep remains, and below is