a fortres, or place rendered defensible either by nature or art. It frequently signifies with us the principal mansion of noblemen. In the time of Henry II. there were no less than 1115 castles in England, each of which contained a manor.

**Castles**, walled with stone, and designed for residence as well as defence, are, for the most part, according to Mr Grose, of no higher antiquity than the conquest: for although the Saxons, Romans, and even, according to some writers on antiquity, the ancient Britons, had castles built with stone; yet these were both few in number, and, at that period, through neglect or invasion, either destroyed, or so much decayed, that little more than their ruins were remaining. This is attested by many of our historians and antiquaries, and assigned as a reason for the facility with which William made himself master of this country.

This circumstance was not overlooked by so good a general as the Conqueror; who, effectually to guard against invasions from without, as well as to awe his newly acquired subjects, immediately began to erect castles all over the kingdom, and likewise to repair and augment the old ones. Besides, as he had parcelled out the lands of the English amongst his followers, they, to protect themselves from the resentment of those so depoiled, built strong-holds and castles on their estates. This likewise caused a considerable increase of these fortresses; and the turbulent and unsettled state of the kingdom in the succeeding reigns, served to multiply them prodigiously, every baron or leader of a party building castles; insomuch, that towards the latter end of the reign of king Stephen, they amounted to the almost incredible number of 1115.

As the feudal system gathered strength, these castles became the heads of baronies. Each castle was a manor; and its captain, owner, or governor, the lord of that manor. Markets and fairs were directed to be held there; not only to prevent frauds in the king's duties or customs, but also as they were esteemed places where the laws of the land were observed, and as such had a very particular privilege. But this good order did not long last: for the lords of castles began to arrogate to themselves a royal power, not only within their castles, but likewise its environs; exercising jurisdiction both civil and criminal, coining of money, and arbitrarily seizing forage and provision for the subsistence of their garrisons, which they afterwards demanded as a right: at length their insolence and oppression grew to such a pitch, that, according to William of Newbury, "there were in England as many kings, or rather tyrants, as lords of castles;" and Matthew Paris styles them, very nests of devils and dens of thieves. Castles were not solely in the possession of the crown and the lay barons, but even bishops had these fortresses; though it seems to have been contrary to the canons, from a plea made use of in a general council, in favour of king Stephen, who had seized upon the strong castles of the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury. This prohibition (if such existed) was however very little regarded; as in the following reigns many strong places were held, and even defended, by the ecclesiastics: neither was more obedience afterwards paid to a decree made by the Pope at Viterbo, the fifth of the kalends of June 1220, wherein it was ordained, that no person in England should keep in his hands more than two of the king's castles.

The licentious behaviour of the garrisons of these places becoming intolerable, in the treaty between king Stephen and Henry II. when only duke of Normandy, it was agreed, that all the castles built within a certain period should be demolished; in consequence of which many were actually razed, but not the number stipulated.

The few castles in being under the Saxon government, were probably, on occasion of war or invasions, garrisoned by the national militia, and at other times slightly guarded by the domestics of the princes or great personages who resided therein; but after the conquest, when all the estates were converted into baronies held by knight's service, castle-guard coming under that denomination, was among the duties to which particular tenants were liable. From these services the bishops and abbots, who till the time of the Normans had held their lands in frank almoign, or free alms, were, by this new regulation, not exempted; they were not indeed, like the laity, obliged to personal service, it being sufficient that they provided fit and able persons to officiate in their stead. This was however at first stoutly opposed by Anselm archbishop of Canterbury; who being obliged to find some knights to attend king William Rufus in his wars in Wales, complained of it as an innovation and infringement of the rights and immunities of the church.

It was no uncommon thing for the Conqueror and the kings of those days, to grant estates to men of approved fidelity and valour, on condition that they should perform castle-guard in the royal castles, with a certain number of men, for some specified time; and sometimes they were likewise bound by their tenures to keep in repair and guard some particular tower or bulwark, as was the case at Dover castle.

In process of time these services were commuted for annual rents, sometimes styled ward-penny, and wayte-fee, but commonly castle-guard rents, payable on fixed days, under prodigious penalties called surfares. At Rochester, if a man failed in the payment of his rent of castle-guard on the feast of St Andrew, his debt was doubled every tide during the time for which the payment was delayed. These were afterwards restrained by an act of parliament made in the reign of king Henry VIII. and finally annihilated, with the tenures by knight's service, in the time of Charles II. Such castles as were private property were guarded either by mercenary soldiers, or the tenants of the lord or owner.

Castles which belonged to the crown, or fell to it either by forfeiture or escheat (circumstances that frequently happened in the distracted reigns of the feudal times), were generally committed to the custody of some trusty person, who seems to have been indifferently styled governor and constable. Sometimes also they were put into the possession of the sheriff of the county, who often often converted them into prisons. That officer was then accountable at the exchequer, for the farm or produce of the lands belonging to the places entrusted to his care, as well as all other profits; he was likewise, in case of war or invasion, obliged to victual and furnish them with munition out of the stores of his county; to which he was directed by writ of privy seal.

The materials of which castles were built, varied according to the places of their erection; but the manner of their construction seems to have been pretty uniform. The outsides of the walls were generally built with the stones nearest at hand, laid as regularly as their shapes would admit; the insides were filled up with the like materials, mixed with a great quantity of fluid mortar, which was called by the workmen grout-work.

The general shape or plan of these castles depended entirely on the caprice of the architects, or the form of the ground intended to be occupied; neither do they seem to have confined themselves to any particular figure in their towers; square, round, and polygonal, oftentimes occurring in the original parts of the same building.

The situation of the castles of the Anglo-Norman kings and barons, was most commonly on an eminence, and near a river; a situation on several accounts eligible. The whole site of the castle (which was frequently of great extent and irregular figure) was surrounded by a deep and broad ditch, sometimes filled with water, and sometimes dry, called the fosse. Before the great gate was an outwork, called a barbacan, or antemural, which was a strong and high wall, with turrets upon it, designed for the defence of the gate and draw-bridge. On the inside of the ditch stood the wall of the castle, about eight or ten feet thick, and between 20 and 30 feet high, with a parapet, and a kind of embrasures, called crennels, on the top. On this wall at proper distances square towers of two or three stories high were built, which served for lodging some of the principal officers of the proprietor of the castle, and for other purposes; and on the inside were erected lodgings for the common servants or retainers, granaries, storehouses, and other necessary offices. On the top of this wall, and on the flat roofs of these buildings, stood the defenders of the castle, when it was besieged, and from thence discharged arrows, darts, and stones, on the besiegers. The great gate of the castle stood in the course of this wall, and was strongly fortified with a tower on each side, and rooms over the passage, which was closed with thick doors of oak, often plated with iron, and with an iron portcullis or grate let down from above. Within this outward wall was a large open space or court, called, in the largest and most perfect castles, the outer bailey, or bailiwick, in which stood commonly a church or chapel. On the inside of this outer bailey was another ditch, wall, gate, and towers, including the inner bailey or court, within which the chief tower or keep was built. This was a very large square fabric, four or five stories high, having small windows in prodigious thick walls, which rendered the apartments within it dark and gloomy. This great tower was the palace of the prince, prelate, or baron, to whom the castle belonged, and the residence of the constable or governor. Underground were dismal dark vaults, for the confinement of prisoners, which made it sometimes be called the dungeon. In this building also was the great hall, in which the owner displayed his hospitality, by entertaining his numerous friends and followers. At one end of the great halls of castles, palaces, and monasteries, there was a place raised a little above the rest of the floor, called the dais, where the chief table stood, at which persons of the highest rank dined. Though there was unquestionably great variations in the structure of castles, yet the most perfect and magnificent of them seem to have been constructed nearly on the above plan. Such, to give one example, was the famous castle of Bedford, as appears from the following account of the manner in which it was taken by Henry III. A.D. 1224. The castle was taken by four assaults. "In the first was taken the barbican; in the second the outer bailey; at the third attack, the wall by the old tower was thrown down by the miners, where, with great danger, they possessed themselves of the inner bailey, through a chink; at the fourth assault the miners set fire to the tower, so that the smoke burst out, and the tower itself was cloven to that degree, as to show visibly some broad chinks: whereupon the enemy surrendered." See a representation of a castle in Plate CXXVII., where 1 is the barbican, 2 the ditch or moat, 3 the wall of the outer bailey, 4 the outer bailey, 5 the artificial mount, 6 the wall of the inner bailey, 7 the inner bailey, 8 the keep or dungeon.

Before the accession of James VI. to the throne of England, the situation of Scotland was such, that every baron's house was more or less fortified, according to the power and consequence of its lord, or according to the situation of the castle. Near Edinburgh or Stirling, where the inhabitants were more polished in their manners, and overawed by the seat of government, no more was necessary than towers capable of resisting the curiosity of robbers and thieves, who never durst stop to make a regular investment, but plundered by surprise, and, if repulsed, instantly fled away. Such was Melville Castle. It anciently consisted of a strong built tower of three stories, embattled at the top, and was sufficiently strong to resist a sudden attack, unaided by artillery, or other engines of war. But, when further removed, as in Perthshire, Invernesshire, or Aberdeenshire, then it was necessary to be better defended, and the aids of a peel or dungeon, with outer walls, moat, and wet ditch, barnakin, &c., added to enable the powerful lord to resist the formidable attack of his powerful adversary. The history of Scotland, so late as the reign of the Stuart family, affords a number of melancholy instances of inveterate feuds among the greater and lesser barons of that period; by which every mode of fortification then in use was seldom adequate to the defence of the castle against the storm or blockade of the enraged chieftain. The castle of Doune seems to answer this description of fortification, and has made several gallant defences, in the annals of Scotland. The third kind of fortresses we meet with in Scotland are those situated on the borders of England, or on the sea-coasts of the kingdom, and in the western isles, and very remote places. Many of the old castles in Scotland were situated on an island, in a deep lake, or on a peninsula, which by a broad deep cut was made an island. Of this kind was Lochmaben, in the Stewartry. Castle.

Swartry of Annandale, the castle of Closeburn in the shire of Nithsdale, the castle of the Rive, situated on the river Dee, in the shire of Galloway, Lochleven castle, and many others.

This kind of fortres was only accessible in a hard frost, or by boats which were not easily transported, by a people destitute of good roads and wheel-carriages. In fact, they could only be taken by surprize or blockade; the first very difficult, the second very tedious; so that, before the use of artillery, they might be deemed almost impregnable. On that account, their situation was very desirable in the inland parts of Scotland.

On the sea-coasts of Scotland we generally find the strongest and most ancient, as well as the most impregnable castles. These had to defend themselves from the invasion of the foreign enemy, as well as the attacks of the domestic foe. Thus we find the barons, whose lands extended to the sea-coast, perched, like the eagle, on the most inaccessible rocks that lay within their possessions. Of this kind were Slains castle, Tantallon, and Dunottar on the east coast, and Dunvegan in the isle of Sky, with Dunolly on the west coast. These must have been most uncomfortable retreats, except to a barbarous people, or when a pressing danger forced the baron to seek his safety in the only possible retreat left him.

ancient writers, denotes a town or village surrounded with a ditch and wall, furnished with towers at intervals, and guarded by a body of troops. The word is originally Latin, castrum, a diminutive from castrum. Castrum originally seems to have signified a smaller fort for a little garrison; though Suetonius uses the word where the fortification was large enough to contain a cohort. The castrum, according to Vegetius, were often like towns, built on the borders of the empire, and where there were constant guards and fences against the enemy. Horlsey takes them for much the same with what were otherwise denominated stations.

Castle-field, is also an appellation given by the country-people in the north to the Roman castrum, as distinguished from the castra stativa which they usually call chesters. Horlsey represents this as an useful criterion, whereby to discover or distinguish a Roman camp or station. There are several of these castra on Severus's wall; they are generally 60 feet square; their north side is formed by the wall itself which falls in with them; the intervals between them are from six furlongs and an half to seven; they seem to have stood closest where the stations are widest. The neighbouring people call them castles or castle-fields, by which it seems probable that their ancient Latin name had been castrum. Some modern writers call them mile-castra, or military castra: Horlsey sometimes exploratory castles. In these castra the aranea had their stations, who were an order of men whose business was to make incursions into the enemies country, and give intelligence of their motions.

the sea language, is a part of the ship, of which there are two: the forecastle, being the elevation at the prow, or the uppermost deck towards the mizen, the place where the kitchens are. Hindcastle is the elevation which reigns on the stern, over the last deck, where the officers cabins and places of assembly are.

Castle (Edmund). See Castle.

Castle-Bar, a borough and market-town, capital of the county of Mayo in Ireland, is a well-inhabited place, and carries on a brisk trade: it has a barrack for a troop of horse; and there is here a charter-school capable of receiving fifty children, and endowed with two acres of land, rent-free, by the Right Honourable Lord Lucan, who has also granted a lease of twenty acres more at a pepper-corn yearly.