THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| Vol. XII. No. 328. | SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1828 | [PRICE 2d. |
ANCIENT PLAN OF OXFORD CASTLE.
By these mysterious ties the busy pow'r
Of mem'ry her ideal train preserves
Intire; or, when they would elude her watch,
Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste
Of dark oblivion.
AKENSIDE
Gentle, courteous, and patient reader—to understandthe above plan, it is requisite that you carry your mind's eye backto those troublous times when men enjoyed no protection, but inopposing force to force; and to a period when every man's housewas his castle, though not in the metaphorical sense we havesince been accustomed to apply these words, viz. to the protectionand security of British subjects.
Few portions of our island have been more amply illustrated, byantiquarians, than OXFORD; and from one of these we learn that aKeep Tower, or Castle, existed here a considerable time before theconquest; for Alfred lived here; and Harold Harefoot was crownedand resided here; and one of Alfred's sons struck money here.Hearne has likewise identified this fact by the very ancient andoriginal arms of Oxford, which have a castle represented, with alarge ditch and bridge. Upon the same authority we learn that Offa"built walls at Oxford," and by him, therefore, a Saxon castle wasoriginally built at Oxford.
Leland, Dugdale, and Camden, on the other hand, affirm that thecastle at Oxford was built by Robert D'Oiley, who came into Englandwith William the Conqueror; and the Chronicles of Osney Abbey,preserved in the Cottonian library, even ascertain the precise dateof this great baron's undertaking, viz. A.D. 1071. No question,therefore, can remain, but that this illustrious chieftain eitherrepaired or rebuilt the castle; but as we have shown, upon equalauthority, there was a Saxon castle, fit for a royal residence atOxford, long previous to D'Oiley's time. About the year 1794,several Saxon remains were discovered here; but our engravingrepresents the castle in Norman times, with Robert D'Oiley'smagnificent additions, and is a facsimile of a plan by Ralph Agas,in 1538, which, allowing a little for bad or unskilful drawing, maybe taken as a perfect specimen of Norman military architecture, andwill, we are persuaded, be received by our readers as [pg 114] apopular and interesting illustration of the warlike character ofthe age in which the castle was erected.
For the description we are indebted to a MS. account of AnthonyWood, in the Bodleian library, who informs us that at one of itsentrances was "a large bridge, which led into a long and broadentry, and so to the chief gate of the castle, the entry itselfbeing fortified, on each side, with a large embattled wall; andhaving several passages above, from one side to the other, withopen spaces between them, through which, in times of storm,whenever any enemy had broken through the first gates of thebridge, and was gotten into