ateway spanned by a circular
arch flanked by round towers. In the inner court there are gardens
and ruins of a grand hall, and in the outer the remains of a chapel
with evidences of beautifully groined vaulting, and also a winding
staircase leading to the battlements. In the dungeon of the old keep
at the south-east corner of the inner court Roger de Britolio, Earl of
Hereford, was imprisoned for rebellion against the Conqueror, and in
later times Henry Martin, the regicide, lingered as a prisoner for
thirty years, employing his enforced leisure in writing a book in
order to prove that it is not right for a man to be governed by one
wife. Then there is Glosmont Castle, the fortified residence of the
Earl of Lancaster; Skenfrith Castle, White Castle, the _Album Castrum_
of the Latin records, the Landreilo of the Welsh, with its six towers,
portcullis and drawbridge flanked by massive towers, barbican, and
other outworks; and Raglan Castle with its splendid gateway, its
Elizabethan banqueting-hall ornamented with rich stone tracery, its
bowling-green, garden terraces, and spacious courts--an ideal place
for knightly tournaments. Raglan is associated with the gallant
defence of the castle by the Marquis of Worcester in the Civil War.

Another famous siege is connected with the old castle of Taunton.
Taunton was a noted place in Saxon days, and the castle is the
earliest English fortress by some two hundred years of which we have
any written historical record.[21] The Anglo-Saxon chronicler states,
under the date 722 A.D.: "This year Queen Ethelburge overthrew
Taunton, which Ina had before built." The buildings tell their story.
We see a Norman keep built to the westward of Ina's earthwork,
probably by Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, the warlike brother
of King Stephen. The gatehouse with the curtain ending in drum towers,
of which one only remains, was first built at the close of the
thirteenth century under Edward I; but it was restored with
Perpendicular additions by Bishop Thomas Langton, whose arms with the
date 1495 may be seen on the escutcheon above the arch. Probably
Bishop Langton also built the great hall; whilst Bishop Home, who is
sometimes credited with this work, most likely only repaired the hall,
but tacked on to it the southward structure on pilasters, which shows
his arms with the date 1577. The hall of the castle was for a long
period used as Assize Courts. The castle was purchased by the Taunton