Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/94

78 Mediceval Military A rchitecture in England, masonry. Here the Black Prince spent his latter days, and here he died. The chief castle of Bedfordshire, the head of the Beauchamp barony, was at Bedford, where the Ouse, menaced by the Danish galleys, was protected early in the tenth century by a mound upon each bank, one of which is now removed and the other was crowned by the keep of the Norman castle. Bedford Castle is famous for two memorable sieges in the reigns of Stephen and Henry HI. Of its works, once extensive, the masonry has been removed, the fosse has also been filled up, and the mound somewhat reduced in size. Risinghoe, The Giants hill, on the Ouse below Bedford, seems to have had a shell keep, and at Tempsford is to be seen a curious but small earthwork thrown up by the Danes in 921, and taken by Edward the Elder late in the year. Whether this was the site of the subsequent Norman castle is very doubtful. There was also a castle at Odell or Wahull, the seat of the barons of that name. It is uncertain when was founded Bletsoe, a castle and the head of a Beauchamp barony. Below Bedford, on the Ouse, are the earthworks of Eaton- Socon, also a Beauchamp castle, but dismantled at an early period. The remains of the castle of Huntingdon, though reduced to banks, ditches, and a mound, nevertheless show how spacious and how strong must have been this chief seat of the broad earldom of Countess Judith and her descendants the kings of Scotland, earls also of Huntingdon. The Danes were encamped here in 921, and the burh which had been ruined was restored by Eadward in the same year. The ditches were fed from the Ouse, which expanded before the castle as a broad marsh, now a fertile meadow. Of the early military history of the castles of Connington, Kimbolton, and Bruck, but little is recorded. The castle of the Gififards, earls of Buckingham, included one of the two burhs which were thrown up on opposite sides of the Ouse, in 915, to command the river and protect the town. The castle was probably destroyed in the reign of Stephen, and the further mound levelled. The Paganels had a castle at Newport; the Hanslapes at Castlethorpe ; the Barons Bolbec at Bolbec, now Bullbanks, in Medmenham ; and there seem to have been castles at Winslow, Lavendon, and Whitchurch. West of this district came Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire. Windsor, Wallingford and Reading have been mentioned. The keep of Windsor has a late Norman base, and the foundation of a gateway is of that date, as is