Finally, in 1611–12, after having been attached to the Crown at least from the days of Alfred, or 700 years, the castle and its _enceinte_ were granted by James I. to Francis Carter, of Guildford, who died in 1617, and whose son, John Carter, is described as dwelling in the castle in 1623. His eldest son Francis died in 1668, leaving a daughter only, and it is his brother, the second son, John Carter, whose initials, “J. C., 1699,” stand upon a tablet within and above the great gateway in Quarry Street. The castle has since remained in private hands, and is now the property of Lord Grantley. The above extracts, mainly taken from those given by Mr. Parker in his valuable volumes on Domestic Architecture in the Middle Ages, will have shown that the fittings and adornments of the castle were chiefly due to Henry III. That prince, who was a great patron of the arts, and especially of architecture and painting, paid great attention to the royal residences. Unfortunately, his decorations were for the most part confined to the hall and principal domestic apartments, but few of which anywhere have survived. At Guildford, the destruction has been peculiarly sweeping, and the only remaining structure, the keep, does not seem to have participated in the royal care. The keeps of Norman castles, inhabited but rarely, and only during a siege, even by those who built them, seem very soon to have been altogether deserted for more convenient lodgings in the lower and more spacious wards. The keep was then used as a storehouse or barrack, or, as at Guildford, as a prison, and very little was spent upon its repairs, and nothing upon its decoration. It is, however, in consequence of this neglect, that the Norman keeps, where they have not been pulled down, remain pretty much as they were originally built, or with only such additions as may easily be detected, or such diminutions as may readily be supplied. This is particularly the case with the keep at Guildford, the additions to, or alterations in, which are of the rudest character, and may readily be detected, while of the masonry of the original structure little is wanting save the parapets and angle turrets and some details connected with the approach and entrance.