In Gloucestershire, besides Bristol, which was more connected with Somerset, is Berkeley Castle, mentioned in the survey, but in its present form built for its lord by Henry II. in acknowledgment of services rendered to the Duke of Anjou, which remains marvellously little altered to the present day. Gloucester, a royal castle, stood on the Severn bank at one angle of the Roman city. It had a mound and a shell keep, now utterly levelled, and the site partially built over. It was the muster-place and starting-point for expeditions against South Wales, and the not infrequent residence of the Norman sovereigns. Sudeley and Winchcombe were early castles; the latter stood near St. Peter’s Church, and was the seat of Kenulph, a Mercian king. There were also castles at Dursley and at Brimpsfield, built by Osbert Giffard. The only Gloucestershire castle of any consequence beyond the Severn was St. Briavels, built by Milo, Earl of Hereford, probably about 1130, upon or near the site of an earlier work, represented by an artificial mound. In the reign of Henry I. it was in the hands of the Crown. It is the special head of Dene Forest, of which the constable of the castle was warden. Here were held the miners’ courts, the usages of which were very peculiar. St. Briavels formed the connecting link between Gloucester and such of the Monmouthshire castles as were in the hands of the Crown. Of smaller castles in this district may be mentioned one at Aylesmore near Dymock, one near Huntley, and others at Ruardean and Penyard. North of Gloucestershire came the castles of the more purely midland shires of Worcester, Warwick, Stafford, Northampton, Leicester, and towards the eastern seaboard, Lincoln. The castle of Worcester stood on the bank of the Severn, hard by the cathedral. The mound, now removed, was occupied with masonry by Urso d’Abitot, who, however, did not always get the best of it in his conflicts with the bishop. Also on the Severn was Hanley, long since destroyed, and Emly, also a Beauchamp seat. Hartlebury, the episcopal castle, is further inland, as is Dudley, the seat of the Barons Somery, a place of high antiquity and great natural strength.