The city front is in striking contrast to the exterior elevation and consists of a timber and plaster dwelling built in front of the Bar on columns, and apparently erected in the time of Queen Elizabeth. The Bar suffered severely during the siege of York, owing to its proximity to Garrow Hill, which was secured by the Parliamentarians during the great Civil War for their batteries, which kept up a destructive fire on the Bar. The barbican was repaired four years after the surrender of the city, for over the arch is a shield with the city arms and the date 1648. Fishergate Bar was the entrance to the city from Selby, and the walls from this Bar to Fishergate Tower commanded the narrow approach to the castle. The Bar consists of a round arch between two wide buttresses, each with passage through. Adjoining the eastern buttress was a rectangular guardroom. The arch is of two orders, continued to the ground with rounded groove for a portcullis. Over the arch is a panel containing the city arms and an inscription. An insurrection broke out in 1489 amongst the peasantry in Yorkshire. At Topcliffe the rebels murdered the Earl of Northumberland and then invested York, burning the gates of Fishergate Bar. The rebels were eventually defeated and one of the leaders beheaded at York. Fishergate Tower is provided with a garderobe, and when built adjoined a wide water area. Adjoining, on the land side, was a postern under a pointed archway, which has the jambs grooved evidently to accommodate a portcullis. York Castle was constructed originally by William the Conqueror, who built between the two rivers a mound, and set on it a wooden watch-tower, surrounded with a _bailey-court_. In order to keep the castle and other ditches full of water, the Normans placed a dam across the River Foss, which was thus considerably widened, and formed into an efficient defence where it adjoined the city. In the rising against the Jews at the coronation [Illustration: FISHERGATE POSTERN FROM THE WALLS] of Richard I, Benedict of York was fatally injured. The anti-Semitic feeling spread to York, the house of Benedict was plundered and his widow and family murdered. This atrocious act naturally alarmed the Jews in York, who gathered their treasures and rushed to the castle for safety. The governor had to leave them for a while, and when he wished to reenter, the panic-stricken Jews refused him admission. An assault on the fortress was ordered. The Jews, finding themselves unable to hold the citadel, set fire to the wooden erections, and killed themselves.