Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/99

Castles at the Latter Part of the Twelfth Century, 83 In Leicestershire, Leicester Castle, the seat of its powerful and turbulent Norman earls, stood, and in part still stands, be- tween the Soar and the Roman Ratae, the walls of which are said to have been destroyed in 1173. Of Hinckley, the seat of the Grantmaisnils, and the " caput " of their Honour, the mound alone remains by the side of the Roman way. The castle was probably dismantled by Henry H. Groby, a Ferrers castle, has long been reduced to a small mound, and Mount Sorrel, once so strong, is utterly destroyed. By a convention at Mount Sorrel in the reign of Stephen, between Robert, Earl of Leicester, and Ralph, Earl of Chester, already cited, it was agreed that Ralph Gernon's castle of Raunston should be destroyed and Whitwick strengthened, but that no new castle should be built between Hinckley, Donnington, Leicester, Belvoir, Okeham, and Rockingham. Should any be so built, the two earls agreed to demolish the works. Sauvey Castle was an early w^ork. Of Castle Donnington, the house of the Zouches of Ashby, the early history is obscure. The main castles of Lincolnshire were Lincoln and Axholme. Axholme, built in the fens of that name, was a place of immense strength, and the head of a barony of the Mowbrays, a race always on the side of disorder. The castle has long been destroyed, and the fen, to which it owed much of its strength, is drained. Lincoln Castle has been more fortunate. The hill of Lincoln has been thought to retain traces of British occupation, and its Roman buildings and English earthworks are very remarkable. Soon after the Conquest 166 houses were destroyed to make room for the castle itself, and 74 more to give space around it. Its enormous banks occupy an angle of the Roman station, and contain parts of the ruined wall and gate, both Roman. The great mound, the larger of tv/o, is occupied by the original shell keep, which, placed at the foot of the cathedral, towers high above the city, and overlooks the broad plain beyond. Often visited by the Norman kings, Lincoln Castle is specially famous for the great battle fought beneath its walls in 1141, in which Stephen was taken prisoner by Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and his men from Glamorgan. There was a Mowbray Castle at Epworth, now destroyed, and one at Kenefar, laid level by Henry, Bishop of Lincoln, in the reign of Henry II. Bourne or Brun was in 870 the seat of a Saxon Thane, whose mound, after the Conquest, was occupied by the Lords Wake. It was at one time an impor- tant place, and the remaining earthworks show its area to have been considerable. Bolingbroke Castle, once the " caput" of an Honour, is now destroyed. Stamford-on-the-Welland G 2