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Castles of England at the Conquest. 43 1069-70 were again renewed. Now, York was the metropolis of the most disaffected half of the kingdom. There, if anywhere, a castle of stone would be desirable, and stone could readily have been brought by water ; and yet York Castle was constructed and made capable of being defended in a few months, and its subsidiary fortress in eight days ; and both soon after were taken and burned, and at once ordered to be reconstructed. It is clear, from the time occupied by the whole sequence of events, that these castles were not of masonry. Moreover, the masonry of the present York keep contains nothing that can be attributed to the eleventh century ; but much that is far too early to have replaced a really substantial keep or curtain of Norman date had such been built. Upon the great and artificial mound of Bayle Hill, the site of the second castle, there is neither trace nor tradition of any masonry at all.

The building of a Norman castle required both time and money. The architects, overlookers, and probably the masons, had to be imported from Normandy, and in many cases the stone for the exterior ; and as most of the existing square keeps, and very nearly all the shell keeps, are of the twelfth century, it seems probable that the Conqueror was to some extent content with such defences as he found in England ; strengthened, no doubt, very materially by the superior skill and resources of his engineers. This is quite consistent with the fact that the art of castle-building did, from the building of the White Tower, undergo a great and somewhat rapid change. It is true of William, both in Normandy and in England, as Matthew Paris observes, "ad castra quoque construenda, rex antecessores suos omnes superabat" ; and he, no doubt, as we are told by William of Jumieges, "tutissima castella per opportuna loca stabilavit." Lanfranc, writing to Roger, Earl of Hereford, before his rebellion, assuring him of William's confidence, adds, " et mandat ut quantum possumus curam habeamus de castellis suis, ne, quod Deus avertat, inimicis suis tradantur " ; and in the subsequent rebellion, it was when Ralph Guader found the men of castles against him, that he left his wife and children to make terms from Norwich Castle, while he himself fled. Lanfranc's despatch informs William, " Castrum Noruuich redditum est, et Britones qui in eo erant et terras in Anglia terra habebant, concessis eis vita et membris." Besides the Bishop and Earl Warrene, the castle contained three hundred "loricati," with cross-bowmen and many artificers of military machines. Also the same prelate charges Bishop Walcher, of Durham, " Castrum itaque