To Mr. Freeman my obligations are of a different and less personal character. Other historians have visited the scenes of events which they were about to describe, but no one has shown himself so familiar with the ancient divisions, civil, ecclesiastical, and military, of English ground, and with the buildings connected with them. His accomplishments as a topographer and as a master of mediæval architecture are peculiar to himself among historians, and materials which in their original form are dry and uninstructive give, in his hands, weight and substance to some of his most brilliant sketches. As a collector of some of these materials, I have often felt surprise and delight at the use to which they have been applied; and, although my work has been rather that of a quarryman or brickmaker, I am sometimes led almost to regard myself as sharing in the glory of the architect. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAPTER. I. INTRODUCTION _Page_ 1 II. EARTHWORKS OF THE POST-ROMAN AND ENGLISH PERIODS 12 III. OF THE CASTLES OF ENGLAND AT THE CONQUEST AND UNDER THE CONQUEROR 35 IV. OF THE POLITICAL VALUE OF CASTLES UNDER THE SUCCESSORS OF THE CONQUEROR 48 V. THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF CASTLES IN THE REIGN OF HENRY II. 60 VI. THE CASTLES OF ENGLAND AND WALES AT THE LATTER PART OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 68 VII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 85 VIII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED 99 IX. THE RECTANGULAR KEEP OF A NORMAN CASTLE 121 X. OF THE SHELL KEEP 139 XI. CASTLES OF THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD 147 XII. OF THE EDWARDIAN OR CONCENTRIC CASTLES 157 ALNWICK CASTLE, NORTHUMBERLAND 175 ARQUES CASTLE, NEAR DIEPPE 186 ARUNDEL CASTLE, SUSSEX 195 BARNARD CASTLE 204 BEAUMARIS CASTLE, ANGLESEY 213 BEDFORD CASTLE 217 BERKHAMPSTEAD CASTLE, HERTS 223 BERKELEY CASTLE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE 228 BODIHAM CASTLE, SUSSEX 239 BORTHWICK TOWER, MIDLOTHIAN 247 BÔVES CASTLE 256 BOWES CASTLE 259 BRAMBER CASTLE, SUSSEX 264 BRIDGENORTH, OLDBURY, AND QUATFORD, SHROPSHIRE 273 BRONLLYS TOWER, BRECKNOCKSHIRE 283 BROUGH AND BROUGHAM CASTLES, WESTMORELAND 286 BUILTH CASTLE, BRECKNOCKSHIRE 304 CAERNARVON CASTLE 309 CAERPHILLY CASTLE, GLAMORGAN 315 CARDIFF CASTLE, GLAMORGAN 336 CARLISLE CASTLE 350 CASTELL COCH, GLAMORGAN 358