THE CASTLE & THE CASTLE ROCK

We now come to the story of the third castle. At the Restoration the property came into the possession of the Duke of Buckingham, heir of the Earl of Rutland, who almost immediately sold it to William CAVENDISH, Marquis, and afterwards Duke of Newcastle.

From the life of this nobleman, published by the duchess in 1667, it appears that he sold some lands in Derbyshire to buy the castle, which, though a mere wreck, he determined to purchase, as the fortress had pleased his father. Before he built a new seat on the site of the ruin he paled and stocked "a little park belonging to it." In 1674, when his grace was more than eighty years of age, he removed the remaining walls of the old castle, and commenced in 1674 to erect on their site the modern edifice. The architect was MARCH, of Lincolnshire. When the duke died, in 1676, the structure had only advanced three feet above the general surface. Henry, his son and successor, in compliance with the will of his father, proceeded with the work. In three years, and at a cost of £14,002 17s. 9d., the structure was completed - according to the model prepared under the direction of the founder. The subjoined inscription was engraven on an oblong square white marble tablet in the wall over the back door of the new building: "This house was begun by William Duke of Newcastle in the year 1674 (who died in the year 1676), and according to his appointment by his last will and by the model he left was finished in the year 1679."

It was in this as yet unfinished building that the Earl of Devonshire and other noblemen met, in 1688, to concert measures for the support of William of Orange; and here, in the same year, the Princess, afterwards Queen, Anne sought a refuge from the indignities to which she had been exposed at court. (A) The founder of the modern castle designed it to be one of the most complete and best finished buildings in England. Mr. MARCH, the architect; Mr. Richard NEALE, of Mansfield-Woodhouse, on of the duke's steward; Mr. William MASON, of Newark, his grace's solicitor; and Mr. Thomas FAR, steward both to Duke William and Duke Henry, were made joint trustees for finishing the work. The revenue of an entire estate was devoted to defray the cost of the erection.

In spite of its grandeur, however, the modern castle seemed from the beginning a fated thing; a gloomy grave-like stillness prevaded it long before the mad howlings of the midnight destroyers were heard within its gates.

DEERING says "the building is on a rustic basement, which supports in front a Corinthian order, with a double staircase leading to the ground apartment. Over the door is placed an equestrian statue of the founder, with the face to the north, carved out of one single block of stone, brought from Donnington in the county of Leicestershire; the statuary's name was WILSON, an ingenious artist, of whom it is remarkable, that soon after this performance of his he was for a time spoiled for a statuary; because a Leicestershire widow lady, the Lady PUTSAY, who was possessed of a very large jointure, falling deeply in love with him, got him knighted, and married him; but he living up to the extent of his apron-string estate, and his lady dying before him, Sir William returned to his former occupation, and the public recovered the loss of an eminent artist. The east, south, and west sides of the building are encompassed with a yard paved with broad stones, and secured by a breast-wall of stone; here the ladies and gentlemen in this town walk, and take the air, both in winter and summer, to which they are more particularly invited by a convenient arcade under the south side of the castle, where in rainy or windy weather they may walk under shelter. On the north side there is a spacious green court which is likewise encompassed by a stone wall, not so high as to hinder any prospect. In this court, facing the middle of the north front, is a wooden door opening into the park. Besides the bridge which goes over that part of the ditch where the ancient fortified bridge once stood, another was built across the moat more directly opposite to the old gate of the outer ward, after this new palace was finished, for the more convenient driving a coach up to the castle; but the foundation of this was so badly secured that the north side of it fell down some few years after. This has lately been made good with earth, and is railed on each side, and covered with green sods, and is now become a pleasant way into the green court, between which and the north front of the castle there are many steps leading from east to west down into a paved yard, by which, when his grace and family are here, the tradespeople who serve the house with provisions can go into the kitchen and the other offices under the main building. At the west end of this yard there goes a door out of the rock, where his grace, the present duke, in the year 1720, caused a convenient slaughter house to be built, whither oxen, sheep, deer &c., were brought immediately from the park, and, when dressed, by the just-mentioned door through this lower yard into the kitchen and store places. At the east end of this yard is to be seen a place walled up with brick."

This was said to open the way into King David's dungeon. This cell, situated at he northern side of the castle, was one of a range of cellars dug out of the rock, and part of which were preserved for the modern mansion whilst the rest were filled up with rubbish. In 1720 the Duke of Newcastle caused the place to be opened and a search made for the carvings of the pious David described by CAMDEN; but the immense quantity of rubbish rendered the investigations unavailing. It was afterwards walled up with brick, and was devoted to various domestic purposes. It lies on the east side of the yard. Paul SANDBY, who published two views of the castle in 1776 and 1777, in the accompanying description says that Thomas Duke of Newcastle, who died in 1762, beautified the building, wainscotting the rooms with cedar. His grace had laid out a plan for the finest garden in all this part of England, which was to contain sixty acres; but the design was subsequently changed, and the contemplated monster garden remained a park.

THROSBY, in 1795, found the pictures and the principal furniture removed, "some starved tapestry" being alone left behind. Thirty or forty years earlier he was shown in the state bed-room of the castle the bed said to have been slept in by Queen Anne; but in 1795 it had vanished. Some of the rooms he found occupied by a Miss. KIRBY; others had been previously used as a boarding school. Mrs. PLUMB tenanted some of the apartments. At the dawn of the present century the interior was described by a writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine." The rooms were of noble dimensions, and were furnished in a half modern style. The drawing room, which commanded an expansive view, was adorned with heavy velvet curtains and cabinets of the time of Louis XIV. The dining room and the suite adjoining, the most ancient in the building, contained some good family pictures, several of them inserted in the panels, the heavy carved work of which served as frames. The staircase, from which most of the pictures were removed, was a fine specimen of English oak and stone-work. One or two ancient helmets and the long genealogical rolls of the NEWCASTLE family tended to heighten the air of desolation which pervaded the entire structure. The last tenants of the castle were Mr. RAWSON and Miss. GREAVES, the latter of whom left it in 1829. From that period it remained tenantless until the night of Monday the 10^th of October, 1831, when, in the riots generated by the rejection of the Reform bill, the deluded mob burned the castle to the ground. An account of this event may be found in the chapter devoted to "The Riots." The Duke of Newcastle brought an action against the inhabitants of the hundred of Browtowe, in which the castle is situated, for compensation, when he received a verdict for £21,000.

Dr. DEERING must have been in error when he said the equestrian statue over the doorway was carved out of a single block of stone, for it was observed that the person who destroyed the work at the burning of the castle, having broken off various parts as he sat behind the duke, revealed two large iron cramps in the chest of the horse, which connected the head and chest with the body. In the course of the trial for compensation at Leicester, an architect valued the horse at £250, because he was worthy a CHANTREY or a WESTMACOTT; while two others computed his worth to be worth 150 guineas, as he had become "an aged horse." It appeared, in the cross-examination of a witness, that some years before a painter had inadvertently placed his ladder against the animal, and broken off a leg, which was replaced by one of wood "coloured after the original."

We append an architectural account of the castle from Mr. HICKLIN's admirable history, to which it was supplied by Mr. H. M. WOOD, corporation surveyor: "The plan of the castle is a rectangle, with a court taken out of one of its sides. It stands with its principal front to the north east, of a length about 203 feet, with a breadth of about 94 feet; the area of the court to the south west being about 58 feet square. The principal façade has a rusticated basement story, supporting a Corinthian order, extending throughout the two upper stories, and composed of six columns in the centre, with six antae at the extremities, surmounted by an entablature en suite. The intercolumniations are also rusticated, but broken by tow tiers of windows; those on the principal floor being protected at their bases by balconies, and surrounded by architraves and pilasters, with carved keystones and trusses supporting in their turn broken or disconnected pediments, inclosing within the tympanum of each a bust, having the reputation of being sculptured after a member of the founder's family, respectively. The windows of the upper story are embellished with mantles in alto relievo, broken in the folds by the keystones, having carved on the face of each, a crest and garter, surmounted by a ducal coronet. These mantles are commonly called 'leather dressings.'

The state drawing-rooms occupied 120 feet of this front, and were accessible from the eastern terrace, as well from the western court, by a double flight of steps. This access on the west was through a Doric frontispiece, and that on the east by an Ionic. The entablature over the Ionic doorway was the fulciment to the equestrian statue, partly placed within a niche, and protected on the two sides by a large frame mould, with its mitres perfect, for returning along the top, but which top had evidently been cut away for the admission of the head of his grace the first Duke of Newcastle; the niche, with its broken frame mould, being made for the statue, and not the statue for the niche.

The drawing-rooms communicated with the ball-room, extending through the southern front, and being 84 feel long by 18 feet wide and 16 feet high. The principal stairs in the southern wing gave access to this suite of apartments, as well as to those on the west, appropriated to Queen Anne, during her majesty's visit here, and which had become celebrated from being fitted up with cedar, but more especially from having a door of that material, and being divided into panels in the bed room. These panels were oblong, with lozenges at the angles and in the centre, formed of inlaid wood, and stated by one of the witnesses to be 'white ebony.' The whole of the other fronts were of plain ashlar, save that the basement story to the south was rusticated, and similar quoins gave an indication of strength and ornament to every external angle on the west. The modillion cornice of the north-east continued entirely round the building, excepting that it was no longer enriched after returning over the angle antae of the north and south east. This cornice was surmounted by a parapet of five feet in height, relieved by a plinth, cornice, and pilasters.

In the northern wing there was also a geometrical stone stair-case, correspondent in design with that in the south, but somewhat less decorative, and descended into the sub-story, wherein were very extensive and exceedingly well arranged domestic offices; which offices opened into a sub-court, and which again, by spacious subterraneous passages, communicated through the slaughter-house, near to 'Richard's Tower,' with the park. These offices displayed to the northern windows a sea of lead, being like the castle itself, roofed flat, and covered with that metal. It is a singular fact, that about the late castle, there were upwards of 130 tons of this material, but subsequent to the fire there were found but thirty, after careful and laborious ad-measurements to ascertain the correct weight. How the difference of one hundred tons arises is inexplicable! (B) The two smaller rooms of the state suite were hung with tapestry, the u subjects being from the Old Testament, whilst that within Queen Anne's bed room was the Evangelists and Martyrs. Time had ravaged these memorials of the splendour of the 17^th Century. The ball-room and a breakfast-room were hung with gilt impressed leather. The other principal apartments were generally lined with moulded panelled wainscotting; which, with the doors, sashes, shutters, and fittings, were of oak. Within the minor apartments the humbler material of deal was employed. It is, however, a little extraordinary, that not an oak wrought floor was in the whole building. With the exception of the cedar floors, all were of deal throughout the principal and attic stories. Very little interior decoration was to be found. The marble chimney-pieces were few, plain, and of inconsiderable value. The stairs may be esteemed a main feature in this edifice; for, remembering that they were erected coeval with the great stairs of St. Paul's Cathedral, which have the reputation of being the first in this kingdom, it is no little merit to the projector, that these were constructed on a design and extent, perhaps greater than any in the neighbourhood even at this day, and certainly at the date of their production."

The tout ensemble of the mansion, when viewed from within a few feet of the north-eastern angle along the façade, was exceedingly rich; from the base of the rock, or at any distant point of view, every favorable feature vanished, and it looked painfully flat and tame. "From terraces approached on the east by a lofty flight of steps, and on the west by an acclivitous carriage drive, the building rises with a rusticated stylobate upon a plain plinth. A string course terminating this story becomes the base on which the plinth of the Corinthian columns and antae rest. This order thence proceeds to the summit of the building. The windows of the principal story are crowned with broken triangular and segmental pediments, broken for the purpose of placing busts along this front in alternate society of the sexes." An Ionic frontispiece at the door of approach on the north-east violated the singleness of design, and the deep square channellings of the intercolumniated walls gave the Italian-like villa the air of a prison. The foundations and basement story were built from the remains of the previous castle; and throughout the building Donnington, Mansfield, and Linby stone was used.

The now dismantled condition of the building was indicated by the old lady who wittily remarked: "I once paid a shilling to get a peep into Nottingham Castle; but now we can see it quite through for nothing." There the blackened and unrestored ruin yet remains - a memento of ungoverned mob-excitement; a source of expense to the ratepayers, who had to provide the costs and damages of the trial; and a mortification to the inhabitants of Nottingham, whenever a stranger makes inquiries on the matter. Like the blocked-up windows of Apsley House, the smoked and desolate walls of Nottingham Castle carry with them a severe reproof. The walls are rent with dangerous looking fissures, and a friendly notice is posted warning visiters not to approach the ruin too closely; the mutilated relics of the equestrian statue still stand over the grand entrance, but the busts have vanished from the pedestals over the windows, while the walls are covered with indignant and sarcastic inscriptions, and the initials of romantic pilgrims.

The second castle occupied a much larger area than the modern mansion; indeed, the present structure occupies little more than one third of the site of its predecessor. The modern edifice is situated on the most elevated ground. Very considerable foundations were necessary to give sufficient stability to the super-structure, and these are observable at various parts, especially at the north-western end.

The vestiges of the ancient castle include the lodge, a bastion at the east corner of Brewhouse yard, a fine round bastion at the top of Castle gate, a few traces of the old wall, the site of "Richard's Tower," and several subterranean passages.

The gateway at the entrance is an interesting relic. In the interior the architecture of the eleventh century may be clearly traced, and it seems to have been rebuilt early in the fifteenth century. The lodge was in such a dilapidated state that in 1819 it had to be repaired. The crevices made by the tooth of time were filled with bricks, stones, and brown wash; increasing the comfort of the lodge-keeper, but proving a source of regret to the archaeologist.

The fish-pond gardens were sixty years ago a marsh. The orchard and garden appears to have extended in an easternly direction from the castle ditch - embracing all the land extending thence to the site presently occupied by Red Lion street. An area of six or seven acres in the middle of the park, the banks surrounding which are yet visible, is called "Queen Anne's Gardens." About twenty-five acres of land beyond the Leen are denominated "the king's meadows," and though no longer pertaining to the crown, they still enjoy the extra-parochial privileges of royalties.

Recent discoveries have revealed the existence of several subterranean passages communicating from the old castle with different outlets in the park, by which soldiers might pass, as well as provisions and ammunition be carried, in case of a siege. In 1818 an ancient guard-house was accidentally discovered by some children at the back of Standard hill, a little to the right of the chief entrance into the park. This had been one of the old entrenchments for the defence of the castle. The guard-house was an apartment of about 20 feet square, hewn out of the solid rock; it was surrounded by benches, and was supported in the centre by a neatly-wrought column, upon the side of which were many rude drawings, initials of names, with the dates 1570, 1637, 1640, &c., the whole apparently made with the points of soldiers' weapons. On the parliamentary troops taking possession, a lofty cross work had been thrown up here for the defence of "Richard's Tower," which completely buried the guard room. Tow or three coins were found in the excavation.

In 1828, while the carriage drive into the park under the north wall of the castle was being lowered for the accommodation of the villas about to be erected in the vicinity, another discovery was made. The level of the proposed carriage road being several feet below the foundation of the wall inclosing the plantation, caused a portion of it to all. A quantity of soil was carried along with it, as well as some young trees; and, in clearing away the rubbish, one of the workmen struck his spade into a hole, which led to the discovery of an underground passage cut in the solid rock, and extending forty or fifty yards in a winding direction - the one end communicating with an ancient doorway, arched over with solid masonry, and opening into the park; the other leading to a spiral staircase, also formed in the rock, and passing under the wall, encompassing the castle yard. This passage could admit three or four persons, walking abreast, and loopholes at regular distances indicated that this part of the rock was at one period bare.

MORTIMER's Hole is the only subterranean cavern now open to inspection. The entrance to it is a few yards south-east of the castle. Descending a flight of twenty-seven steps the visiter reaches an arched gateway of the architecture of the eleventh century; another flight of twenty-two steps brings him to the vault. The descent is precipitous, and even with the aid of a lantern and a pilot somewhat difficult. Port-holes and large openings in the southern face of the rock furnish a pleasing relief, and the pilgrim may have both a breathing space and a beautiful prospect when he reaches them. Since the days of CAMDEN topographers have disputed about the history of the passage; but the researches of the late Mr. STRETTON, of Lenton Priory, architect of the castle, finally confirmed the simple statement of the ancient chroniclers. RAPIN expressly calls the way by which Sir William ELAND admitted the king "a secret passage." CAMDEN, whose description is the oldest, says "in the upper part of the castle, which rises high on the rock, we come by many steps into a subterraneous cavern called MORTIMER's Hole." It is quite clear that the passage now called MORTIMER's Hole, leading from the castle court to Brewhouse yard, at the bottom of the rock, could not have been the "secret" passage: for it is a vault seven feet high, six feet wide, and 107 yards in length, with broad steps the whole way down cut in the rock, which are now, however, so much decayed and crumbled, that what once constituted a flight of steps is merely an inclined plane. It appears to have been defended with several gates, and DEERING says that, "after the Conquest it was not doubt made use of for the purpose of conveying the meat and beer for the use of the garrison, the nearest way into the castle, it's lower entrance opening into Brewhouse yard and connecting it with the mills erected on the River Lene."

In DRAYTON's Barons' Wars this passage is said to have been hewn during the Danish invasion by some of the Saxon kings, for security in case of siege; it seems to have been the only cave known to LELAND and CAMDEN; and DEERING, in describing this way through the rock, says it was provided with six gates.

About forty-five yards below the fourth gate, he observed on the left hand "a gate bricked up, which with seven or eight steps did lead up into some works of the old tower." This passage to the left, which is closed up with rough stone so as to resemble the living rock, and not with brick as DEERING avows, was partly explored by Mr. STRETTON early in the present century, and was ascertained to have originally led into the keep which contained the state apartments; so that we have thus ample grounds to conclude that this was the secret passage known only to Sir William ELAND. The sixth and lowest gate in the main passage opened into the rock yard, now Brewhouse yard, and has long been bricked up. DEERING says the openings all the way down in the side of the rock served to convey light into the passage, and to permit the besieged to shoot down arrows upon their assailants; the port-holes in the upper part of the passage indicate that cannon was brought to play there in the civil war; and little cavities in the side of the vault are supposed to have been made to lodge cannon balls, so that they might not roll to the bottom, as is hinted by Mrs. HUTCHINSON in her account of the castle.

The view from the court yard is almost surpassed for extent and beauty in England - vieing even with the prospect from the towers of royal Windsor. From the southern terrace we look upon the Trent, overhung by the classic grove of Clifton; inclining to the eastward is the princely residence of the Duke of Rutland, Belvoir Castle; and still further in the distance recline the gently-sloping hills of Leicestershire and the glorious old forest of Charnwood. To the west lies Wollaton Hall, embowered among trees. From the eastern terrace the visiter looks down into the town, and traces the ascent of many of the best streets on the side of the opposing hill, which is crowned by St. Mary's Church. When the meadows are under water in the rainy season the prospect is peculiarly picturesque; but, at any time of the year, no stranger can be said to have seen Nottingham who has not visited the castle yard. The gates are locked, but the usual kind of silver key will draw the bolts.

The End of Chapter Three.

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