To chace the Pagans in those holy fields Over whose acres walk’d those blessèd feet Which, many hundred years before, were nail’d For our advantage on the bitter cross. He remained absent for about two years, during which time he assisted in the taking of Damietta; and immediately on the return from his crusading expedition he set about the erection of the Castle of Beeston, for the greater security of his palatinate against the incursions of the brave but troublesome Welsh, with whom he had previously had many encounters, bringing to his aid that Saracenic style of architecture he had found so well adapted for defence, and which is so admirably represented in the ivy-coloured walls and bastions of Beeston. Randle Blundeville was a famous warrior, and withal a mighty castle builder, for, in addition to re-edifying the castle of Deganwy, on the Conway, which had been partially destroyed during the numerous conflicts with Prince Llewelyn, he built the castles of Beeston in Cheshire, and Chartley in Staffordshire. He also founded and endowed the Abbey of Grey Friars, in Coventry, and a religious house on the banks of the Churnet, near Leek, to which latter, at his wife’s desire, he gave the name of Dieu-la-cresse—“May God increase it”—and transferred to it the Cistercian brotherhood of the Abbey of Poulton, near Chester, who had found their home there too circumscribed, and probably uncomfortably near the Welsh Marches—an act of piety he had been directed to perform, as the old monkish legends declare, by his grandfather in a vision. He believed in dreams, and he appears to have had equal faith in the piety of the monks, for it is recorded of him that, being overtaken in a storm at sea when returning from his crusading expedition, and the ship being in danger of sinking, he refused to lend a helping hand in righting it until midnight, when, as he affirmed, the monks of Dieu-la-cresse would be supplicating Heaven on his behalf; and that, consequently, God would then give him strength. The ship was saved, and, as their prayers had evidently availed so much, it may be assumed that the brethren of Dieu-la-cresse were a more than usually righteous fraternity. The castles of Beeston and Chartley were both commenced in the same year (1220), and to defray the cost of their erection the Earl “took toll throughout all his lordships of all such persons as passed by the same, with any cattel, chaffre, or merchandize.” The reason for the erection of Beeston is not far to seek. The Welsh were troublesome neighbours, for though the Red King and the English-born Henry—the “Lion of Justice,” as he was called—had tried to unite their country with England, they had been neither exterminated nor enslaved, and for long years— All along the border here The word was snaffle, spur, and spear.