Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/96

80 MedtcBval Military Architecture in England, early castles ; the latter stood near St. Peter's Church, and was the seat of Kenulph, a Mercian king. There were also castles at Dursley and at Brimpsfield, built by Osbert Giffard. The only Gloucestershire castle of any consequence beyond the Severn was St Briavels, built by Milo, Earl of Hereford, probably about 1 1 30, upon or near the site of an earlier work, represented by an artificial mound. In the reign of Henry I. it was in the hands of the Crown. It is the special head of Dene Forest, of which the constable of the castle was warden. Here were held the miners' courts, the usages of which were very peculiar. St. Briavels formed the connecting link be- tween Gloucester and such of the Monmouthshire castles as were in the hands of the Crown. Of smaller castles in this district may be mentioned one at Aylesmore near Dymock, one near Huntley, and others at Ruardean and Penyard. North of Gloucestershire came the castles of the more purely midland shires of Worcester, Warwick, Stafford, Northampton, Leicester, and towards the eastern seaboard, Lincoln. The castle of Worcester stood on the bank of the Severn, hard by the cathedral. The mound, now removed, was occupied with masonry by Urso d'Abitot, who, however, did not always get the best of it in his conflicts with the bishop. Also on the Severn was Hanley, long since de- stroyed, and Emly, also a Beauchamp seat. Hartlebury, the episcopal castle, is further inland, as is Dudley, the seat of the Barons Somery, a place of high antiquity and great natural strength. Warwick was one of the greatest, and by far the most famous of the midland castles, famous not merely for its early strength and later magnificence but for the long line of powerful earls, culminating in the king-maker, who possessed it and bore its name. It was founded as a burh early in the tenth century, and the keep, said to have resembled Clifford's Tower at York, stood upon the mound : both are now re- moved. The castle as usual formed a part of the enceinte of the town, and the wall from the west gate to the castle stood upon an early earth bank. Near to Warwick is Kenilworth, the chief fortress of the midland, including a large area, and strongly though artificially fortified. Of the English Kenelm nothing is recorded, but the founder of its Norman work was the first of the house of Clinton, one of Henry I.'s new earls, probably th^ only extant family descended in a direct male line from the builder of a Norman keep of the first class. The square keep and much of the existing wall are original, but the broad lake, which added so much to its strength and is now drained and converted into meadow, was probably a