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BARNARD CASTLE.*

Barnard Baliol, son of Guy, who came into England with the conqueror, built this castle, which he called "Castle-Barnard ;" and it remained in his family until the attainder of John Baliol, King of Scotland, when it was granted by Ed. I. to Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in whose descendants it remained for nearly two centuries. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, (afterwards Richard III.) was Lord of Barnard Castle, by a somewhat doubtful right of his wife, the Lady Anne, youngest daughter and coheir of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury and Warwick, by Anne, sister and heir to Henry Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick. The Duke of Gloucester, (Surtees, v. 4, p. 66) was "popular in the north, where he was best known. He followed the fortunes of his brother Edward, with unshaken fidelity, through many a bloody field; and when the title of York was established, his conduct won the affection of those northern counties in which, from the united influence of the great houses of Percy, Nevill, and Clifford, the Lancastrian interest had been most prevalent. How far the prospect of a crown afterwards led him to tread the dangerous paths of bloodshed and deceit, is a portion of history on which impenetrable darkness seems to have descended." "Barnard Castle," he adds, 66 appears to have been the frequent residence of Gloucester, and to owe to him much of repair and restoration. No coat or badge of the Beauchamps appears on her walls; but the boar, the cognizance of Richard, is still seen in the bay window of one of the principal chambers, (where we may well suppose the duke himself sat,) and on frag

*The opposite ground plan is taken from Grose's Antiquities of England and Wales, v. 11, p. 89: the quantity of land enclosed within the walls of Barnard Castle is stated at 6a. 3r. 30p.-1775.

ments scattered over the town,* in houses built from the ruins of the castle."

From the death of Richard the III., the castle appears to have remained in the possession of the crown; and though occasionally claimed by the prince palatine, there is no evidence to shew that it ever belonged to the Earls of Westmoreland. It was granted to the favorite Somerset, and resumed on his condemnation; and was afterwards sold to Sir Henry Vane the elder, and is now the property of his lineal descendant, William Harry, Duke of Cleveland, K.G., Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Durham.

The earliest description of Barnard Castle occurs in Leland, who truly says, that it "stondith stately apon Tese. The first area hath no very notable thing yn it, but the fair chapelle. The inner area is very large, and partely motid, and welle furnishid with toures of great logging. Ther belong two parkes to this castelle: the one is caullid Marwood; and thereby is a chace that berith also the name of Marwood, and that goith on Tese ripe up into Tesedale."

"Though the fair chapelle (says Surtees, v. 4, p. 87) has totally perished, the ground plot as described by Leland, and the division of the outward and inner area, may be still most distinctly traced. The fortress stood, probably in all its princely strength, when Sir George Bowes, in 1569, stood a siege of eleven days against the whole force of the insurgent earls."

The old ballad says:

"The outermost walls were eathe to win;
The earls have won them presentlie."

and Mr. Surtees concludes, from the ballad authority, "that

The town of Barnard Castle has been sketched by Mr. Surtees, in his happiest vein -"From whatever front observed, Barnard Castle, standing cheerfully on her southern slope, and grouping her varied buildings around and under the church and ruined castle, presents an interesting object, and not ill fulfils the idea of the capital of a wild but lovely district, half river-valley, half hill and heath and moorland. The borough itself, in the midst of much modern improvement, is sprinkled over with remaining vestiges of antiquity: here and there a house retains its ancient mullioned windows and stone gateway, or exhibits, built up in its masonry, fragments from the castle or its chapel; and, not least, the cognizance of Richard still existing, throws a gleam of interest over the anent moorland borough, which is wanting in many place of greater wealth and pretension." -Surtees, v. 4, p. 79. See also "Castle Barnard,” a poem, 1823, by G. Layton, and "A Tour in Teesdale," by Richard Garland, of Hull, both valuable and instructive companions to the visitors of Barnard Castle.

the insurgents got possession of the outer area; but were baffled before the chief strength of the place, or citadel as it might be termed, within the inner moat."

The account of the surrender of the castle, by Sir George Bowes (page 100), does not materially differ from the ballad authority; and as the treacherous part of his own garrison threw open the outer gates, Sir George would naturally be driven into the strong hold or citadel as a last defence.

To an extent of above six acres, the means of Sir George, hastily collected together, were very inadequate; yet, if his garrison had proved true; such were his acknowledged military skill, valour, and prudence, there can be little doubt that he would have baffled the attacks of the insurgents.

Mr. Surtees quotes largely from Hutchinson, and then gives the following account, which, as the editor was his constant companion, on his visitations to Barnard Castle, whilst he was preparing the fourth volume of the History of Durham, and was with him when it was written, he cannot resist the pleasure of extracting; as it conveys a clear and graphic account of the present state of these splendid ruins; and which will be materially aided by an occasional reference to the ground plan of Grose, taken in 1775 :-"Nothing but the vast strength of its walls has preserved the shell of this noble fortress from the attacks of time, neglect, and constant dilapidation. Entering the gateway leading from the main street or market, (behind the two principal inns,) the outer area where Leland places the chapel, presents the appearance of an open and nearly level close of pasturage, included by three sides of the castle wall, and divided on the north from the inner areas, by a deep moat and wall. A portion of this outer area on the east and south-east, has been inclosed for plots of garden ground, which it is necessary to enter, to trace the sweep of the walls running along the edge of the crag above Briggate, and, after forming an obtuse angle at the southern point, turning westward, still commanding the low suburb and the passage to the bridge. In this portion of the walls, as Hutchinson observes, there is no

* A native and resident of Barnard Castle, to whose history the reader is referred.— Vol. 3, p. 246,

appearance of tower or bastion, nor, it may be added, any but the most indistinct traces of building in the interior. A portion of this plot perhaps always lay open in pasturage. The inner area, or rather the two inner areas, lying north of the moat already described, have been surrounded by defences of a much loftier description. The chief strength, or dungeon-tower of the fortress, (that portion perhaps which baffled the rebel earls after they had won the outer walls,) has evidently occupied the northwestern area. The site is more elevated than any other within the walls, and encompassed on the south and east by a deep inner moat, which, with a strong wall of good masonry, divides it from the northern or orchard area. This spot, where the principal buildings both for defence and habitation seem to have stood, is now converted into garden ground. The larger area to the northeast, is still more completely covered by a thick, intricate orchard, which precludes all attempt at ascertaining the interior dispositions of the site. A large pond, nearly in the middle of the orchard, is never dry. The walls of these two inner areas are still most magnificent. To the west of the sallyport, marked in the plan as leading to the bridge, a huge rifted fragment is nodding to its fall. Then a wall of excellent masonry runs northward, with tall buttresses and two-pointed lights. Further northward a beautiful mullioned window, hung on projecting corbels, still exhibits withinside, on the soffit of its arch, the boar of Richard, with some elegant tracery, plainly marking the latest portion of the castle to be the work of Gloucester. A little further the great circular tower,* of admirable and perfect ashlar work, guards the north-western angle of the fortress. The view of the whole of this range of wall and tower from the bridge, or from the narrow terrace betwixt the castle crag and the river, is most magnificent. From the round tower, whose flight of steps and vaulted roof are still perfect, the walls turn eastward; in the centre of this northern line, a gateway leads to the flats, flanked by a semi-round tower. There is no appearance of any bastion at the north-eastern angle; but a little be

This tower is called, in some half-legible papers, the Bowes tower; and it would scem that a castle-rent was paid to support it. Sellaby paid a similar rent towards the support of the Brackenbury tower,

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