Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/91

Castles at the Latter Part of the Twelfth Century. 75 Passing into the middle belt of country extending from the Thames and Avon to the Tees and the Lune, and from the German Ocean to the Severn, the provision for defence is found to be fully equal to that in the South. In the East Anglian province, in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridge, the chief strongholds were Colchester, Hed- ingham, Bungay, Framlingham, Castle Acre, Castle Rising, Norwich, and Cambridge. Colchester, the work of Hubert de Rye or his son, acting in some measure for the Crown, is built of Roman, or quasi-Roman, material upon a Roman site and within the area of a town mentioned in " Domesday " as fortified. It commanded the inlet of Harwich and the Blackwater, and in its rear, higher up the Coin, was the De Vere keep of Hedingham, still a very perfect structure, and unusually though severely ornate. This keep stands upon a natural mound, protected by a formidable ditch, and appended to it is an outer enclosure, older evidently than the keep. In the same county is Rayleigh, celebrated for the extent of its earthworks, and, with Clavering, attributed to Swegen or Suenus, sheriff of Essex under the Confessor, and ancestor of Henry de Essex, Henry I.'s disgraced standard-bearer. The earthworks of both places are, however, probably much earlier than the masonry. There also is Plessy, a Mande- ville restoration in masonry, with the parish church within its enclosure; Ongar, for the time the castle of Richard de Lucy ; and Stansted Montfichet, the remaining earthworks of which indicate its site. Bishops Stortford, or Weytemore, was an early manor of the Bishop of London, who there had a castle. These four last-named castles all had moated mounds. At Bures also was a moated mound eighty feet high, hence its name of Mount Bures ; also at Birch Castle, near Colchester, and at Benyngton were castles. Canewdon was either a castle or a very old fortified house, dating from the time of Henry de Essex, and at Canfield, called from its castle, " Canefield ad Castrum," the De Veres had a fortress of which the mound is still seen. Framlingham is the chief castle of Suffolk. It is attributed originally to Redwald, king of East Anglia, at the close of the sixth ceiitury. Here there is at present no keep, but the Norman walls, of unusual height, forty to fifty feet, and eight feet thick, still enclose the court, and are protected by enor- mous earthworks, deep and high and of great extent. This was the chief of the Bigot castles, said to have been built by Hugh Bigot in 1176, and to the same powerful family be- longed Bungay,"hard by the river Waveney," with grand earth- works, a mound, and the remains of a square keep. Walton,