The fourteenth century was prolific in castles, chiefly of the smaller class, upon the Scottish border and in Scotland. In England Dacre, Dunstanborough, and Spofforth were built early in that century; the Palace Castle of St. David’s was built in 1342, Caesar’s Tower at Warwick about 1360, and Guy’s Tower in 1394, two magnificent works. Gradually, however, pure castles fell into disuse, and such structures as Bolton and Wressill and Sheriff-Hutton took their place, affecting generally the form of a square court, round which the buildings were ranged, and which was entered by a regular gatehouse. In these, however, the castellate character was employed more from custom than from necessity, and the external windows are large, and the walls of very moderate thickness. Many of the royal castles were left to decay, and others were employed as prisons and handed over to the counties. A short Act of the 13 R. II. orders “that the King’s castles and gaols should be joined to the bodies of the counties, and, where severed, should be reunited.” Castle-building was from a very early time considered as a royal prerogative, though in the reigns immediately succeeding the Conquest, it was so great an object to hold the country, that the claim seems to have been allowed to slumber. The wholesale destruction of the adulterine or unlicensed castles which followed upon the death of Stephen showed the revival of the prerogative, and, in the reign of Henry III., a regular form of licence, “licentia crenellare,” had to be granted before a house could lawfully be fortified. The earliest known of these licences was granted by Henry III. to the Bishop of Winchester in 1257-8, to enable him to fortify the Isle of Portland. Henry granted 20 of these licences; Edward I., 44; Edward II., 60; Edward III., 181; Richard II., 60; Henry IV., 8; Henry V., 1; Henry VI., 5; and Edward IV., 3. A very complete list of these licences, prepared by Sir J. Duffus Hardy, has been printed by Mr. Parker. Of the 382 given by him, only four relate to castles of importance; Belvoir, Bungay, Dudley, and Whitchurch, all of which had been fortified before legal memory. Most of the others relate to manor-houses, some to bishops’ palaces and cathedral closes, some to monasteries, some to houses in cities, and some to castles probably then first built, or perhaps rebuilt on a larger scale. Such were Apley, Aldworth, Amberley, Bodiam, Bolton, Bothal, Cowling, Dunstanborough, Ford, Harewood, Naworth, Penrith, Rose Castle, Stokesay, Shirburne, Tanfield, Tongue, and Wardour, most of which are still standing, and two or three inhabited.