In the fifteenth year of Edward IV., the King granted Kilpeck in tail special to the male heirs of Sir W. Herbert, Lord Herbert (Earl of Pembroke), for one knight’s fee, and, 6 Edward IV., this grant was extended in tail general, failing heirs male of the body. After the earl’s death, in 1469, Edward restored Kilpeck to the Butlers in the person of John, sixth Earl of Ormond, and it descended to his elder daughter and co-heir, whose son, Sir George St. Leger, held it in 1545. After this it was sold, and came into the possession of the Pye family, of whom Sir Walter held the castle and park. He was a Royalist, and on the fall of Charles I. the Parliament first garrisoned the castle, and in 1645 dismantled it. The Pyes followed James II. into exile, and one of them bore the titular honour of Baron Kilpeck. Probably the materials of the castle were valuable, for their removal, with the trifling exceptions mentioned, has been complete, and yet the castle must have been a considerable place. KNARESBOROUGH CASTLE, YORKSHIRE. Among the various windings by which, still bearing its original British appellation, the river Nidd finds its way from its sources in Nidderdale and on the flanks of Whernside to its union with the Ouse a few miles above York, none are more remarkable than those by which it traverses the ancient forest of Knaresborough, where it lies within a deep ravine, celebrated, even in Yorkshire, for its happy combination of wood, and rock, and water. Near the middle of this part of its course a bold promontory of rock projects as a rugged cliff towards the stream, rising on its eastern bank to a height of about 230 feet. Two tributary ravines, to the north and south of the rock, isolate it from the adjacent high ground, and become broader and deeper as they descend towards the river, so that the rock is strongly fortified by nature upon its northern, southern, and western fronts. To complete the strength of the position nothing was wanting but a ditch connecting the heads of the ravines and traversing the neck of the peninsula, and this was long since executed, and with it the upper parts of the ravines were also rendered deeper and broader, so that the position, before the use of gunpowder, must have been well-nigh impregnable. By whom, or by what people, this formidable platform was first turned to account, is unknown, but no inhabitants of the district to whom security was an object could have overlooked its advantages. There is, however, no actual evidence of either British or Roman occupation, unless the rectangular area fortified by bank and ditch still to be traced through the streets of the later town can be accepted, as at Tamworth and Wallingford, as the work of semi-Romanised Britons; a people who, having acquired some knowledge of the principles of Roman castrametation, were yet unwilling or unable to include their strong places within walls of masonry.