Of the ninety-nine castles enumerated by Mr. Pearson as belonging to the reign of the Conqueror, at least fifty are on old sites. These are Arundel, Berkeley, Bramber, Cambridge, Carisbrook, Chester, Clare, Clifford, Caerleon, Coningsburgh, Dover, Durham, Dunster, Dudley, Eye, Ewias, Guildford, Hastings, Huntingdon, Launceston, Leicester, Lincoln, Lewes, L’wre, Marlborough, Montacute, Norwich, Oxford, Pevensey, Pontefract, Quatford, Raleigh, Richard’s Castle, Rochester, Rockingham, Shrewsbury, Striguil, Stafford, Stamford, Tickhill, Tonbridge, Trematon, Tutbury, Wigmore, Windsor, Wallingford, Wareham, Warwick, Worcester, and York. Almost as many are doubtful, and probably not more than two or three, such as Richmond, London, and possibly Malling, were altogether new. The fact is, that all these lists, however valuable they may be as showing what castles were taken possession of or re-edified or strengthened by the Normans, give no adequate idea of the fortresses already existing in England, and omit scores of earthworks as large and as strong as those occupied by the Normans in England or left behind them in Normandy, of a date long before the reign of William,—probably before the end of the tenth century. If, as said by William of Newbury, the castles were the bones of the kingdom, it must be admitted that the English skeleton was a very perfect one. Every part of England, much of Scotland, and the accessible parts of the Welsh border, were covered with strong places, which were, no doubt, defended, and well defended, with palisades, as more suitable to made ground than work in masonry such as was more or less in use for ecclesiastical purposes. If, at the Conquest, no English stronghold held out, it was not that such places were less capable of defence than those in Normandy, but that England was broken up into parties. Harold’s seat was too insecure and the few months of his reign far too brief to allow his great administrative talents to come into play; and his early death left the English without a leader. The power of the other earls was local. There was no organised opposition. Notwithstanding the assertion of Orderic that the English were mere tillers of the soil, a convivial and drinking race, they by no means submitted quietly to the Norman rule; but their efforts for freedom, boldly devised and gallantly executed, were ill-timed and ill-combined, and were in consequence put down in detail. Under such circumstances, the strongholds of the country availed little. Dover, Lewes, Arundel, Bramber, Tonbridge, Rochester, Guildford, Farnham, Wallingford, and Berkhampstede, had their strong earthworks been held in force, would have rendered William’s advance too imprudent to have been attempted; and that these and other not far distant positions were well chosen is shown by the fact that they were all adopted by the Conqueror. The conquest of England was made possible, not by the absence of strong