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Carisbrooke Castle.

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BOUT a mile weft of Newport, the remains of this ancient caftle ftand on a steep, circular, and apparently artificial hill. This knoll was probably raised by the ancient British on the fummit of a

range of chalk hills, which command an extenfive view. No remains of thofe early times appear to exift. The keep at the north-eaft angle ftanding on a mound confiderably higher than the other buildings, and which is of a multangular form, has been ascribed to the Saxons, who had a castle here, but probably it only ftands on the fite of the Saxon keep. In the fixth century it is ftated to have been a place of great ftrength, and to have had a well in the interior no less than three hundred and ten feet deep, which has fince been filled up, there being another in the caftle-yard of nearly the fame depth. The old caftle covered lefs than two acres of ground, but, from fucceffive additions, especially in the reign of Elizabeth, its remains cover about twenty acres.

The approach to the caftle is by a gateway leading to a fecond. The smaller external gate was built by Queen Elizabeth: her initials and the date, 1598, appearing upon it. With the exception of this gate, the additions of Elizabeth appear to have been confined to the outer wall, which fhe enlarged so as to comprehend its present extent; and to the domestic buildings, none of which appear older than her time. Amongst these

CARISBROOKE; GATEWAY.

latter are shown part of the chapel in which Charles I. was confined, with the window through which he attempted to escape.

The most modern building of the whole is the chapel of St. Nicholas, rebuilt on the fite of a more ancient one, by George II., in 1738. In this chapel the mayor of Newport and the high constables are still sworn into office, either by the governor of the island or his deputy.

Advancing through the first and smaller gate, you behold the second and much grander one, flanked by two noble round towers. This was probably built by Lord Woodville, in the

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reign of Edward IV., for his arms are yet vifible upon it. This aspect of the castle is extremely picturesque. The gateway is strikingly impreffive, and the mouldering battlements, hung with luxuriant ivy, give to it the folemnity of ruin. At the fouth-eaft angle of the caftle is an ancient tower, called Montjoy's, the walls of which are in some places eighteen inches thick. But no part of the ancient remains is supposed to be of a higher date than the Norman period, erected by William Fitz-Osborne, its first Norman lord, and his immediate fucceffors. Confiderable additions were made in the reign of Henry I.

The buildings erected for the accommodation of the governor of the island, when he chooses or has occafion to refide here, are extenfive, but by no means magnificent; nor particularly cheerful, having only one window which looks out beyond the enclosure of the castle, or gives any view of the extenfive but fomewhat naked landscape which the castle commands. In fact, one of the most striking features of the Ifle of Wight at the present day is its abfence of wood. It is girdled by woodlands round its coafts, but its interior is one monotonous scene of undulating and neatly cultivated land—a land almoft without a tree. The name of Carisbrooke has been variously derived from Whitgara-burgh, the town of Whitgara, a Saxon chief, and from Caer, the old British name for a stronghold, and brook, referring to the brook in the valley below. Neither of these appear to us very fatisfactory. More probably the Whitgara was but a corruption of Hvitgård, the Scandinavian for white refidence; and Carisbrooke comes from the Saxons having added their burg to the British caer, though meaning the same thing, a castle or fort; and the burg, as in Germany, being gradually corrupted into bruck, as in Osnabruck, Innsbruck; and fo to brooke, Caerfbruck, and thence to Carisbrooke.

The well in the caftle-yard is, with much probability, ascribed to the Romans. They are known to have had poffeffion of the island in the reign of the emperor Claudius; and the work is like one of their bold undertakings. The water is drawn up by means of a large wheel, within which an afs treads, and thus produces a rotatory motion. It is, in fact, an afinine treadmill. Yet these animals feem to enjoy a wonderful longevity in their Gibeonite office. They are always set to work to fetch up water for the amusement of visitors; a lighted candle or lamp being also let down to fhow the immense depth. Formerly the visitors used to drop pins down; but this is now properly prohibited, as likely to injure the quality of the water. One of the affes, we are told, performed the office of turning the wheel for forty-five years, and another for twentyeight.

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The inhabitants of the neighbouring town of Newport appear to be allowed by the governor of Carisbrooke Castle to celebrate fome of their focial feftivities in the hall there. a late vifit by a friend of ours, women were scrubbing the floor, and persons putting up flags, in preparation for the annual banquet of an Odd Fellows' Lodge: whilft at the fame time tents were erected within the ruins, and the gaieties of a flowershow were proceeding.

In the grounds of the neighbouring vicarage, in 1859, the foundations of a Roman villa were discovered, with a beautiful teffellated pavement, which are now shown. In the neighbourhood are also veftiges of an ancient priory. Carifbrooke has the reputation of being the only ancient fortress ever erected in the island.

But the circumstance which gives its chief interest to the castle is the fact of the confinement of Charles I. there by the Parliament, from November 1647, to September of the fol

lowing year. The circumftances which led him thither have occafioned, perhaps, as much controverfy as any historical event of that troubled age. Clarendon-who is supposed not to have liked John Ashburnham, who principally induced Charles to seek refuge in the Isle of Wight, because he was more in the confidence of the king than himself-has given an account of the flight of the king, which, though confused and inconfiftent in itself, seems nearly, if not entirely, to accufe Afhburnham and Berkeley, who accompanied Charles with Major Legg, of treason to their master. Both Ashburnham and Berkeley have written narratives of the tranfaction, and Clarendon ftates distinctly that he had carefully read and considered those narratives before he compofed his "Hiftory of the Rebellion," and yet he makes various statements unwarranted by either.

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Charles was at Hampton Court, and the Parliamentary army was encamped on Putney Heath. He was under the furveillance of the army: and had been in active correspondence with the leading officers of it, endeavouring to come to terms of agreement for his restoration. Cromwell and his fon-in-law, Ireton, appeared at that time quite earnestly to defire his restoration and conditions were fubmitted to Charles by what were termed the adjutators, or "agitators," of the army. The king could not bring himself to accept them. Jealoufies sprang up amongst the officers; some of them thinking Cromwell and Ireton too much disposed to allow Charles to recover the crown on terms advantageous to themselves and dangerous to the reft. The levelling part of the adjutators declared, or were said to declare, that they would feize on Charles, and, if he did not accord with their defires, would kill him. Such were the circumstances when Charles suddenly escaped in the night with Sir John Berkeley, Mr. John Ashburnham, and Mr. William Legg, gentlemen in attendance on him, but who had lately been

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