Ivanhoe: A Romance
and desecrated the holiest offices of the priestly function, by
celebrating them for the benefit of thieves, robbers, and murderers,
amongst ruins and in caverns of the earth, without regard to canonical
form, and with torn and dirty attire, and maimed rites, altogether
improper for the occasion.
NOTE TO CHAPTER XLI.
Note J.—Castle of Coningsburgh.
When I last saw this interesting ruin of ancient days, one of the very
few remaining examples of Saxon fortification, I was strongly impressed
with the desire of tracing out a sort of theory on the subject, which,
from some recent acquaintance with the architecture of the ancient
Scandinavians, seemed to me peculiarly interesting. I was, however,
obliged by circumstances to proceed on my journey, without leisure to
take more than a transient view of Coningsburgh. Yet the idea dwells so
strongly in my mind, that I feel considerably tempted to write a page
or two in detailing at least the outline of my hypothesis, leaving
better antiquaries to correct or refute conclusions which are perhaps
too hastily drawn.
Those who have visited the Zetland Islands, are familiar with the
description of castles called by the inhabitants Burghs; and by the
Highlanders—for they are also to be found both in the Western Isles and
on the mainland—Duns. Pennant has engraved a view of the famous
Dun-Dornadilla in Glenelg; and there are many others, all of them built
after a peculiar mode of architecture, which argues a people in the
most primitive state of society. The most perfect specimen is that upon
the island of Mousa, near to the mainland of Zetland, which is probably
in the same state as when inhabited.
It is a single round tower, the wall curving in slightly, and then
turning outward again in the form of a dice-box, so that the defenders
on the top might the better protect the base. It is formed of rough
stones, selected with care, and laid in courses or circles, with much
compactness, but without cement of any kind. The tower has never, to
appearance, had roofing of any sort; a fire was made in the centre of
the space which it encloses, and originally the building was probably
little more than a wall drawn as a sort of screen around the great
council fire of the tribe. But, although the means or ingenuity of the
builders did not extend so far as to provide a roof, they supplied the
want by constructing apartments in the interior of the walls of the
tower itself. The circumvallation formed a double enclosure, the inner
side of which was, in fact, two feet or three feet distant from the
other, and connected by a concentric range of long flat stones, thus
forming a series of concentric rings or stories of various heights,
rising to the top of the tower. Each of these stories or galleries has
four windows, facing directly to the points of the compass, and rising
of course regularly above each other. These four perpendicular ranges
of windows admitted air, and, the fire being kindled, heat, or smoke at
least, to each of the galleries. The access from gallery to gallery is
equally primitive. A path, on the principle of an inclined plane, turns
round and round the building like a screw, and gives access to the
different stories, intersecting each of them in its turn, and thus
gradually rising to the top of the wall of the tower. On the outside
there are no windows; and I may add, that an enclosure of a square, or
sometimes a round form, gave the inhabitants of the Burgh an
opportunity to secure any sheep or cattle which they might possess.
Such is the general architecture of that very early period when the
Northmen swept the seas, and brought to their rude houses, such as I
have described them, the plunder of polished nations. In Zetland there
are several scores of these Burghs, occupying in every case, capes,
headlands, islets, and similar places of advantage singularly well
chosen. I remember the remains of one upon an island in a small lake
near Lerwick, which at high tide communicates with the sea, the access
to which is very ingenious, by means of a causeway or dike, about three
or four inches under the surface of the water. This causeway makes a
sharp angle in its approach to the Burgh. The inhabitants, doubtless,
were well acquainted with this, but strangers, who might approach in a
hostile manner, and were ignorant of the curve of the causeway, would
probably plunge into the lake, which is six or seven feet in depth at
the least. This must have been the device of some Vauban or Cohorn of
those early times.
The style of these buildings evinces that the architect possessed
neither the art of using lime or cement of any kind, nor the skill to
throw an arch, construct a roof, or erect a stair; and yet, with all
this ignorance, showed great ingenuity in selecting the situation of
Burghs, and regulating the access to them, as well as neatness and
regularity in the erection, since the buildings themselves show a style
of advance in the arts scarcely consistent with the ignorance of so
many of the principal branches of architectural knowledge.
I have always thought, that one of the most curious and valuable
objects of antiquaries has been to trace the progress of society, by
the efforts made in early ages to improve the rudeness of their first
expedients, until they either approach excellence, or, as is more
frequently the case, are supplied by new and fundamental discoveries,
which supersede both the earlier and ruder system, and the improvements
which have been ingrafted upon it. For example, if we conceive the
recent discovery of gas to be so much improved and adapted to domestic
use, as to supersede all other modes of producing domestic light; we
can already suppose, some centuries afterwards, the heads of a whole
Society of Antiquaries half turned by the discovery of a pair of patent
snuffers, and by the learned theories which would be brought forward to
account for the form and purpose of so singular an implement.
Following some such principle, I am inclined to regard the singular
Castle of Coningsburgh—I mean the Saxon part of it—as a step in advance
from the rude architecture, if it deserves the name, which must have
been common to the Saxons as to other Northmen. The builders had
attained the art of using cement, and of roofing a building,—great
improvements on the original Burgh. But in the round keep, a shape only
seen in the most ancient castles—the chambers excavated in the
thickness of the walls and buttresses—the difficulty by which access is
gained from one story to those above it, Coningsburgh still retains the
simplicity of its origin, and shows by what slow degrees man proceeded
from occupying such rude and inconvenient lodgings, as were afforded by
the galleries of the Castle of Mousa, to the more splendid
accommodations of the Norman castles, with all their stern and Gothic
graces.
I am ignorant if these remarks are new, or if they will be confirmed by
closer examination; but I think, that, on a hasty observation,
Coningsburgh offers means of curious study to those who may wish to
trace the history of architecture back to the times preceding the
Norman Conquest.
It would be highly desirable that a cork model should be taken of the
Castle of Mousa, as it cannot be well understood by a plan.
The Castle of Coningsburgh is thus described:—
“The castle is large, the outer walls standing on a pleasant ascent
from the river, but much overtopt by a high hill, on which the town
stands, situated at the head of a rich and magnificent vale, formed by
an amphitheatre of woody hills, in which flows the gentle Don. Near the
castle is a barrow, said to be Hengist’s tomb. The entrance is flanked
to the left by a round tower, with a sloping base, and there are
several similar in the outer wall the entrance has piers of a gate, and
on the east side the ditch and bank are double and very steep. On the
top of the churchyard wall is a tombstone, on which are cut in high
relief, two ravens, or such-like birds. On the south side of the
churchyard lies an ancient stone, ridged like a coffin, on which is
carved a man on horseback; and another man with a shield encountering a
vast winged serpent, and a man bearing a shield behind him. It was
probably one of the rude crosses not uncommon in churchyards in this
county. See it engraved on the plate of crosses for this volume, plate
14. fig. 1. The name of Coningsburgh, by which this castle goes in the
old editions of the Britannia, would lead one to suppose it the
residence of the Saxon kings. It afterwards belonged to King Harold.
The Conqueror bestowed it on William de Warren, with all its privileges
and jurisdiction, which are said to have extended over twenty-eight
towns. At the corner of the area, which is of an irregular form, stands
the great tower, or keep, placed on a small hill of its own dimensions,
on which lies six vast projecting buttresses, ascending in a steep
direction to prop and support the building, and continued upwards up
the side as turrets. The tower within forms a complete circle,
twenty-one feet in diameter, the walls fourteen feet thick. The ascent
into the tower is by an exceeding deep flight of steep steps, four feet
and a half wide, on the south side leading to a low doorway, over which
is a circular arch crossed by a great transom stone. Within this door
is the staircase which ascends straight through the thickness of the
wall, not communicating with the room on the first floor, in whose
centre is the opening to the dungeon. Neither of these lower rooms is
lighted except from a hole in the floor of the third story; the room in
which, as well as in that above it, is finished with compact smooth
stonework, both having chimney-pieces, with an arch resting on triple
clustered pillars. In the third story, or guard-chamber, is a small
recess with a loop-hole, probably a bedchamber, and in that floor above
a niche for a saint or holy-water pot. Mr. King imagines this a Saxon
castle of the first ages of the Heptarchy. Mr. Watson thus describes
it. From the first floor to the second story, (third from the ground,)
is a way by a stair in the wall five feet wide. The next staircase is
approached by a ladder, and ends at the fourth story from the ground.
Two yards from the door, at the head of this stair, is an opening
nearly east, accessible by treading on the ledge of the wall, which
diminishes eight inches each story; and this last opening leads into a
room or chapel ten feet by twelve, and fifteen or sixteen high, arched
with free-stone, and supported by small circular columns of the same,
the capitals and arches Saxon. It has an east window, and on each side
in the wall, about four feet from the ground, a stone basin with a hole
and iron pipe to convey the water into or through the wall. This chapel
is one of the buttresses, but no sign of it without, for even the
window, though large within, is only a long narrow loop-hole, scarcely
to be seen without. On the left side of this chapel is a small oratory,
eight by six in the thickness of the wall, with a niche in the wall,
and enlightened by a like loop-hole. The fourth stair from the ground,
ten feet west from the chapel door, leads to the top of the tower
through the thickness of the wall, which at top is but three yards.
Each story is about fifteen feet high, so that the tower will be
seventy-five feet from the ground. The inside forms a circle, whose
diameter may be about twelve feet. The well at the bottom of the
dungeon is piled with stones.”—Gough’s “Edition Of Camden’s Britannia”.
Second Edition, vol. iii. p. 267.
FOOTNOTES
1 (return)
[ The motto alludes to the Author returning to the stage repeatedly
after having taken leave.]
2 (return)