Warwick was one of the greatest, and by far the most famous of the midland castles, famous not merely for its early strength and later magnificence but for the long line of powerful earls, culminating in the king-maker, who possessed it and bore its name. It was founded as a burh early in the tenth century, and the keep, said to have resembled Clifford’s Tower at York, stood upon the mound: both are now removed. The castle as usual formed a part of the _enceinte_ of the town, and the wall from the west gate to the castle stood upon an early earth bank. Near to Warwick is Kenilworth, the chief fortress of the midland, including a large area, and strongly though artificially fortified. Of the English Kenelm nothing is recorded, but the founder of its Norman work was the first of the house of Clinton, one of Henry I.’s new earls, probably the only extant family descended in a direct male line from the builder of a Norman keep of the first class. The square keep and much of the existing wall are original, but the broad lake, which added so much to its strength and is now drained and converted into meadow, was probably a rather later addition, of the age of the gatehouse on the dam, and of the curious earthwork covering its head. The central earthworks are probably very early. Of Maxtoke, also a Clinton castle, there are remains. Of the castle at Fillongley, the chief seat of the Lords Hastings till they married the heiress of Cantelupe, and removed to Abergavenny, only a few fragments remain. Ralph Gernon had a castle at Coventry. Brownsover, Sekington, and Fullbrook castles were probably adulterine, and are known only by vague tradition, and it is doubtful whether the castle of the De Castellos included the burh at Castle Bromwich or was on the site of the later manor house. The burh at Sekington is very perfect. The Limesis had a castle at Solihull, of which the moat long remained, as had the Coleshills at that place. The Birminghams had a castle in the manor of that name, near the church; there were early castles at Erdington, at Studley on the Arrow, and at Oversley, long the seat of the Butlers, whose ancestor was “Pincerna” to the Earls of Leicester. Beldesert, built by Thurstan de Montfort soon after the Conquest, received a market from the Empress Maud, and Dugdale mentions Simili Castle, probably the seat of a family of that name. Ragley was a later castle. Coventry was strongly walled.