Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/553

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and by the town which has sunk to a village, lies between the castle and the stream that flows beneath the height. The site is a lordly one, and is almost the more striking because it commands no other great object such as those which are commanded by those castles which were raised to protect or to keep down a city. When the forest was still a forest in every sense of the word, the aspect of the castle of Rockingham, one of the wilder retreats of English kingship, must have been at once lonelier and busier than it is now.

At Rockingham then the Assembly met, a fortnight before Easter. The immediate place of meeting was the church within the castle. The church has perished, but its probable site may be traced among the buildings to the north of the mound. But it is hard to understand how the narrow space of a castle-chapel could hold the great gathering which came together at Rockingham. The King and his immediate counsellors sat apart in a separate chamber, while outside were a numerous body, among whom we hear of the bishops and nobles, but which is also spoken of as a vast crowd of monks, clerks, and laymen. It may be that, according to an arrangement which is sometimes found elsewhere, but of which there is no present trace at Rockingham, the great hall opened into the chapel, so that, while the church was formally the place of meeting, the greater space of the hall would be open to receive the over-*flowing crowd. The time of meeting was the early