Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/106

 90 MedicEval Military Architecture in England. small but strong square keep of which stands on the point of a steep promontory of rock, and must have been nearly inaccessible to assault. Upon Earl Roger's fall, Clitheroe came to the Lacys. The great castle of Lancashire is at Lancaster, well placed high above the broad water of the Lune, and within the area of a Roman castrum, whence it derives its name. Here, as at Carlisle, the railway is so laid out as to show the castle to great advantage. The castle is attributed to Roger of Poitou, but the Norman keep, a grand structure, ninety feet high, appears somewhat later, as is the Edwardian gateway, also a superb specimen of military architecture. Unfortunately, being a prison, the whole is closed against antiquarian visitors. There was a castle at Liverpool said to have been built by the same Roger in 1076. MerhuU and Kirkby are Lancashire castles attributed to Gilbert Fitz-Reinfrid. There seems to have been a castle at Manchester, on the Irwell, just outside the old town, in Leland's time, and one at Greenhalgh, and one near Rochdale, probably at Castleton, where was the burh of the English lord. At Halton is also a lofty burh, as usual near the church, indi- cating the site of the " aula " of the English lord, and of the keep of his Norman successor. Castlehead in Atterpole, near Cartmel, is also reputed an early castle. The castles ot Holland, Hornby, Peel, Thurland, Ulverston, and Glaiston are probably of later date. Cheshire, the palatine earldom of Hugh, named, probably by his posterity, " the Wolf," standing upon the Welsh border, demanded and was supplied by many strong places. Chester, the seat of the earldom, represents the Roman Deva, the Castra Legionum ; and the Norman castle, with a small and early rectangular keep occupying one corner of the area, stands on the verge of the river Dee. Near to Chester in Wirrall was Shotwick, of which the earthworks remain, and higher up upon the Dee was Holt. Beeston is almost the only remark- able fortress in the county. It stands on the platform of an inaccessible rock. The masonry is probably late, but the deep well may be a part of the Norman castle. All the fifteen barons of the palatinate, feudatories of Earl Hugh, had castles, but these, representing private estates, mostly continued to be occupied and became fortified houses. The sites and more or less of the remains are to be seen of Halton and Kinderton, the castles of William Fitz-Hugh and Venables ; Shipbrook of the Vernons ; Nantwich of Piers Malbanke ; Malpas of Robert Fitz-Hugh ; and Dunham of Hamo de Massy. There were also castles at Frodsham, Oldcastle, Uttersford, Pulford, Dodleston, Shockleach, Nantwich, Stockport, Burton, Uller-