one; in Otterpool, one; in Bonnington, one; in Horton, one; in Street, one; in Trinston, one; in Rucking, one; in Orlestone, two; in Kenardington, one; in Sillowsbridge, one-half; in Woodchurch, one-half; in River, one. In Essex, in Renes, Toleham, and Dunham, four knights' fees; in Rolvenden, six; in Lachydown, four; in Markshall and Renes, four; in Benested, one. In Norfolk, in Barton, one knight's fee; in Bodęham, or Boddenham, three; in Grayton, four and one-half; in Chebrain, five. In Suffolk, in Thorney and Woodcroft, two knights' fees; in Clopton, one; five fees and onetenth (the name of the lands not known.) The total of the knights' fees was fifty-six and one-half, and one-tenth part of a fee.

In re-building this new entrance into the Castle, he adopted the plan introduced by Gundulph, the Bishop of Rochester; and he is said to have been the first, who ventured to have a spacious arched passage into the Castles, which he secured with drawbridges, portcullisses, and massy gates. These he considered as preferable to the low gate-ways, and the contracted passages, adopted by the Saxons; when they first sought the aid of the mason, to secure their fortresses with stone walls.

The foundations for the front of this gate-way, and for the piers of the bridge, are laid below the bottom of the ditch, which is, at this place, sunk deep in the solid rock; and it plainly shews, that labour, materials, and expence, were considered as secondary objects by the Constable, in the execution of his plan.

The entrance to the Saxon vallum is between two thick parallel stone walls, and it is arched over with stone. There are two towers on each side of the gate-way, to command the ascent of the hill, and the passage to the bridge.

The entrance into the Castle was secured by two portcullisses, and thick gates; and when the bridge was raised up into the recess in the wall to receive it, these barriers rendered the passage perfectly safe.

It would have been much easier to have made a breach in the curtain, than to have forced a passage at the bridge; for the assailants would have been exposed to a shower of arrows, at this place, from a concealed enemy.

On the left hand side, under the arch, going into the Castle, there is a door in the wall, which leads to a room on the ground floor, which was originally a place of defence, and the porter's lodge.

In peaceable times, the porters used this room, where they exhibited to strangers an old key of the Castle gates, and an ancient horn and sword, which, tradition says, was Julius Cæsar's; but it may be doubted, whether it has a higher antiquity than Edward the Second, or Third; as it resembles a sword used about that time.

The horn has also been considered as old as the Romans, and to have been used by them while building the Castle, to give notice to the masons, when to begin, and when to leave their work. As such tales can only be received by the ignorant and the credulous, they hardly deserve mentioning, unless it be to discredit them.

On the opposite side of the arched passage there is a room, which was also a place of defence in the time of the confederate knights; but it has since been used for other purposes. After the Warden of the Cinque Ports declined holding a court of appeals, at Shepway, that place was soon deserted, and they removed the Records, the Doomsday Book of the Ports, and their other Manuscripts, to Dover Castle, as a place of safety; and they were deposited in this room. Many of the records were written on parchment; and about the beginning of the last century, the room was left open, and tailors were suffered to take away parchments, to cut up for measures, and every one made what havock he pleased with them.

The negligence of those who had the command in the Castle, at that time, is highly censurable, in not taking more care of such ancient writings; for they contained an account of the rights and privileges of

the inhabitants of the Cinque Ports, and the services they owed to the King, from a very remote period.

A person, high in office in the Castle, foreseeing what would happen, he employed a transcriber, to copy some of the Customals, and other papers, containing a relation of passed transactions; which copies have reached us in good preservation, and they contain authentic documents of the privileges of the Ports, and their ancient towns; their old plan of government; and their proceedings in their courts of law in the different Ports, and their two principal towns, in actions of debt and trespass, and other pleas, ecclesiastical and civil.

Sandwich seems to be the only Port, in which the magistrates preserved their ancient Customal; for in the other Ports, and their ancient towns, they have either been destroyed, or suffered to perish, by being deposited in a damp and insecure place. After passing through the arched passage, there is, on the right hand of the back front of the Constable's apartments, a large flight of stone steps, with iron railing, to the hall over the gate-way, which is about twenty-five feet by thirtytwo, and arched over with stone.

In the hall, the Constable held his courts, and settled all controversies which happened in the garrison; and the pay of the stipendiaries, for services done in the Castle. It was there he issued his orders; transacted public business with the Marshal; held conferences with the confederated knights; and feasted his retainers as a feudal baron.

There is a communication from the hall to the towers on each side of it. The apartments on the left hand, at the top of the stairs, which were anciently a porter's lodge, and a place for defence, are now made a kitchen; and the small room, on the right, a butler's pantry; and the large one, a bed chamber.

At the upper end of the hall, there is a flight of steps, leading to a gallery over the gate-way, which is in the clear about thirteen feet by thirty-seven This room has undergone many alterations. In the year 1580, there were new fire places made, both in the hall, and in the

gallery; and the workmanship is in the stile of that age. Sashed windows have supplanted the narrow slips in the walls; and the rooms, which were dark and dismal, are now light and comfortable.

The hardy warriors of the feudal age, did not construct their rooms for pleasure, or for prospect; but for security, and for defending themselves, and keeping at a distance a besieging enemy. By turning an arch, on each side of the gate-way, two additional rooms have been added to the gallery; and from which there is a beautiful view of the sea, the town, the harbour, and the adjacent country, which is richly diversified with hills and vallies, within a distinct view.

rooms.

There was an embattled terrace over the gallery, and above the arched roof of the hall, which is now converted into three lodging The manor of Allington was given for the service of ward in it. A person, by the name of Phillips, held also Tunstal, in Kent, by the service of castle-guard tenure, to keep ward in this tower; and he was to find double the number of men allotted to the other towers.

These manors seem to have been given after the first establishment; as they are not included in the grant to John de Fienes. They were probably added in the time of King John, or in the turbulent reign of Henry the Third.

It was the ancient custom with the feudal barons, to have a sentinel on the terrace over the gate-way, to sound his horn, on the appearance of strangers; and there was a place for such a person on Allington Tower, which has since been called the Dovecote. The horn, mentioned at the porter's lodge, might have been used in the time of Hubert de Burgh, to give notice of any alarm in the night, from this lofty situation; as it might have been heard over the Castle.

Opposite to the gate-way, in the interior ditch, is the entrance to a souterrain, cut in the solid rock, through the Saxon vallum, into the exterior ditch under the bridge. During the war with the French Consul, a caponnier was made at this place, by building up the spaces left by the Norman masons, between the piers of the bridge; and, in

this concealed place, they have all the usual contrivances for annoying a besieging enemy. On the south side, a large mound has been raised, near the bridge, at no small expence, for a platform, on which they may mount a few pieces of cannon.

About the year 1800, a breast-work was begun, on a small scale, at the foot of this artificial hill, by the side of the new road. The raising of these works, and the alterations made at this place, have buried the greatest part of the line of approach cast up by the Dauphine of France, when he besieged the Castle.

The Origin of the Title of Constable; the Court of Law held within the Precincts of the Castle; and the ancient Plan of Defence.-Several authors of reputation have considered the Comestabuli of the Romans, the Stalhere of the Saxons, and the Constable of the Normans, as different words, denoting the same military officer, who exercised the duties of a commander in chief; and who had the power of holding a court, to hear and determine such offences as were purely military.

The title of Constable was unknown in the Cinque Ports, and probably in England, prior to the Norman conquest; and it seems to have been of French extraction, and introduced by William the First, after he fixed himself on the throne. He appointed Odo, his halfbrother, Constable of Dover Castle; and if he was not invested with all the authority of the great Constable of France, he very soon assumed it.

The duties of this high officer, either when acting by himself, or jointly with his Marshal, in his own franchises, were similar to the functions of the Lord High Constable of England; and as it is something more than a matter of curiosity, it may be necessary to inquire particularly into his original power and jurisdiction, and the restrictions which were afterwards enacted to limit his authority, and to determine the extent of it.