Taunton Castle]
We will journey to the West Country, a region of castles. The Saxons
were obliged to erect their rude earthen strongholds to keep back the
turbulent Welsh, and these were succeeded by Norman keeps.
Monmouthshire is famous for its castles. Out of the thousand erected
in Norman times twenty-five were built in that county. There is
Chepstow Castle with its Early Norman gateway spanned by a circular
arch flanked by round towers. In the inner court there are gardens
and ruins of a grand hall, and in the outer the remains of a chapel
with evidences of beautifully groined vaulting, and also a winding
staircase leading to the battlements. In the dungeon of the old keep
at the south-east corner of the inner court Roger de Britolio, Earl of
Hereford, was imprisoned for rebellion against the Conqueror, and in
later times Henry Martin, the regicide, lingered as a prisoner for
thirty years, employing his enforced leisure in writing a book in
order to prove that it is not right for a man to be governed by one
wife. Then there is Glosmont Castle, the fortified residence of the
Earl of Lancaster; Skenfrith Castle, White Castle, the _Album Castrum_
of the Latin records, the Landreilo of the Welsh, with its six towers,
portcullis and drawbridge flanked by massive towers, barbican, and
other outworks; and Raglan Castle with its splendid gateway, its
Elizabethan banqueting-hall ornamented with rich stone tracery, its
bowling-green, garden terraces, and spacious courts--an ideal place
for knightly tournaments.
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