CHESTER.--The statement of Ordericus, that William I. founded this castle on his return from his third visit to York, is sufficiently clear.[352] The very valuable paper of Mr E. W. Cox on Chester Castle[353] answers most of the questions which pertain to our present inquiry. The original castle of Chester consisted of the motte, which still remains, though much built over, and the small ward on the edge of which it stands, a polygonal enclosure scarcely an acre in extent. On the motte the vaulted basement of a tower still remains, but the style is so obscured by whitewash and modern accretions that it is impossible to say whether the vaulting is not modern. The first buildings were certainly of wood, but Mr Cox regarded some of the existing masonry on the motte as belonging to the 12th century; and this would correspond with the entry in the _Pipe Rolls_ of 102_l._ 7_s._ 0_d._ spent on the castle by Henry II. in 1159.[354] The tower, nicknamed Cæsar's Tower, and frequently mistaken for the keep, is shown in Mr Cox's paper to be only a mural tower of the 13th century, probably built when the first ward was surrounded with walls and towers in masonry.[355] The large outer bailey was first added in the reign of Henry III.[356] It is further proved by Mr Cox that Chester Castle stood outside the walls of the Roman city. The manor of Gloverstone lay between it and the city, and was not under the jurisdiction of the city until quite recent times.[357] This disposes of the ball set rolling by Brompton at the end of the 13th century, and sent on by most Chester topographers ever since, that Ethelfleda, when she restored the Roman walls of Chester, enlarged their circuit so as to take in the castle. We have already referred to this in Chapter III. Chester, as we have seen, was originally a royal castle. And though it was naturally committed to the keeping of the Norman earls of Chester, and under weak kings may have been regarded by the earls as their own property, no such claim was allowed under a strong ruler. After the insurrection of the younger Henry, Hugh, Earl of Chester, forfeited his lands; Henry II. restored them to him in 1177, but was careful to keep the castle in his own hands.[358] The city of Chester, Domesday Book tells us, had greatly gone down in value when the earl received it, probably in 1070; twenty-five houses had been destroyed. But it had already recovered its prosperity at the date of the Survey; there were as many houses as before, and the ferm of the city was now let by the earl at a sum greatly exceeding the ferm paid in King Edward's time.[359] This prosperity must have been due to the security provided for the trade of Chester by the Norman castle and Norman rule. [Illustration: FIG. 13. Clifford, Hereford. Clitheroe, Lancs. Corfe, Dorset.]