Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/510

 420 NOTES AND QUERIES. tr2s.vm.MA*2i,i2i. who were imprisoned in the Tower by Edward I. on a charge of robbing the Royal Treasury at Westminster Abbey. Was it not the Abbot himself and nearly the whole convent who were for a short time confined in the Tower ? The substitution of large windows for the original Norman slits in the Keep has often been re- gretted. Mr. Bell quotes Sir George Young- husband's statement that apian dated 1721 exists in the Office of Works which still shows the old windows, and thereby takes off some of the likelihood of Sir Christopher Wren's being respon- sible for the alteration. Wooden staves fitted with iron rings and knobs, used by our men in the Great War in trench forays, have been laid beside the maces in the armouries of the Keep. Mr. Bell dwells at length on More the ever memorable farewell between him and his daughter near the portcullis of the Bloody Tower ; and on the last hours of Fisher, sleeping soundly two of the last four hours of life. He is extraordinarily kind to Anne Boleyn ; and brings out strongly the pathos of the few square feet of ground 1 8ft. X 1 2ft. before the altar of St. Peter ad Vincula. Certainly a strangly mingled company reposes there ; but as a man on whom a curse rested, however other- wise unworthy, thereby gained dignity, so even poorer and meaner characters seem to acquire a certain grace and awefulness when gathered into the dark shadow of the Tower. It is part of the success of Mr. Bell's book that he brings this home to one afresh. Norwich Castle. By Walter Bye. As our author remarks in his preface, Norwich Castle has received but little serious attention from historians. A want of trustworthy material largely accounts for this neglect. But with the publication of the Calendars of Public Records the situation has been changed, and Mr. Rye, whose qualifications for the task are well known to every antiquary, has here begun to take stock of, and draw conclusions from, the new matter accumulated. H e sums up in his first chapter the old histories of the Castle. The oldest mentions of it assign its building to the Conqueror : somewhat later it was attributed to William Rufus. From the sixteenth century onwards accounts for which the authority is unknown refer its foundation to Saxon times or even farther back. Till the middle of the nineteenth century the building was stoutly declared to be Saxon, but since then the Norman origin has found favour again, and the Keep is now generally supposed to have been erected in the early twelfth century. In connexion with its origin we have the interest- ing question of the service of the Castle guard. Mr. Rye though he has the formidable authority of Dr. Round against him is inclined to think that lands belonging to churches and monasteries were, as a rule, held only on defensive services ; and he certainly maintains his contention well. A further interesting point on which he brings evidence forward is the commutation of garri- son duties for money payment. The erection of the Castle Mound presents two main points of interest : its date and the place whence material was drawn. Mr. Rye would agree to the Mound being assigned to Saxon or Danish times, and would on the whole prefer to suppose it made of earth brought down from higher ground (spur of high land at Ber) rather than carted up from the excavation of the moat. In chapter iv., on the bridge and the moat, Mr. Rye is able to bring forward evidence from the Pipe Roll in support of the twelfth-century date of the Keep and the bridge. On the ques- tion of a wet versus a dry moat he holds that the moat was filled with water, and that land water from the neighbouring higher levels to the south and south-east would have sufficed for the purpose. Perhaps the most interesting chapters are those on the fabric and repairs to the Castle and on the Governors, where Mr. Rye brings forward much material gathered from the original sources in which he has been delving and new to students. From the Patent and Close Rolls may be drawn the names of numerous prisoners committed to the castle, and Mr. Rye supplies notes of about a score of them imprisoned between 1206 and 1349. In the following chapter, as also in an article, reprinted as Appendix from The Essex County Standard, on Eudo Dapifer and the Chronicle of St. John's Abbey, Colchester, Mr. Rye brings forward a number of considerations by way of correcting statements in the work of the late Prof. Freeman and Dr. Round. Mr. Rye is a vigorous defender of the accuracy and value of the Chronicle and, without entering into a dispute which would lead far beyond the space available for this notice, we may say that, all allowance being made for the personal equation, his case is pretty strong. John Dryden and a British Academy. By Prof. O. F. Emerson. (Humphrey Milford. For the British Academy. Is. 6d. net.) DRYDEN' s interest in the foundation of an Academy " as they have in France " has not left traces which amount to very much. Evelyn's " indi- gested thoughts " make a far more considerable contribution to the enterprise. A sentence in the ' Dedication ' to ' The Rival Ladies ' ; an argument in the ' Dedication ' of ' Troilus and Cressida,' and two further allusions virtually comprise it all. Yet it is worth setting these out, giving their occasions and concomitants and tracing what a mind of such a quality, and so good a master of English, held about the English of his day and its capabilities. Prof. Emerson has done this very well, and his work carries in our eyes some heightening of interest from its transatlantic origin. Notices to Comsponbcnte. EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of * Notes and Queries ' " Adver- tisements and Business Letters to "The Pub- lishers" at the Office, Printing House Square, London, B.C. 4; corrected proofs to The Editor, ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear th^name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but ai a, guarantee of good faith.
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