BOOKS OF THE MOMENT

THE CASTLES OF BRITAIN

[COPYRIGHT HIS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE

New York Times.]

FREntaic MYERS said rightly that words were often centres of emotional forces quite apart from their original meaning. Certainly the word " castle " is one of them. The romantic element in every human heart, or, at any rate; in the heart of every English-speaking person,- is touched at once by the

word. Its associations in the realm of history, in fairyland, and in a hundred delightful nursery tales are overwhelming.

We see the knight's flag flying from the turret of the great keep. We hear the bugle horn sounded by the warder on the wall to show that people are approaching. Again, we hear a horn sound outside the privy postern, or a mandoline touched below the lady's bower. The King of the Fairies had a castle, and so did Queen Morgan la Fe, the Queen of the Waste Lands, and the Queen of North Gaelis. Chivalry has its physical as well as its spiritual home in a Castle equipped with bastions, turrets, and crenellated walls.

But the fascination and significance of the word " castle " does not stop 'here. It is a focus of history, of lavi, and of sovereignty, for all who know anything about the development of our race. The shell that we find inland remembers always its august abodes and carries with it to our ears the sound of humming waters. Think of the origin of the word. It is a diminutive of Castrum—the Camp—those perching places for the eagles which the Romans spread throughout the habit- able earth. Roman camps crowned the hills of Judaea and looked upon the sacred hill of Zion. From the camp on Mount Scopus Titus watched the awful tragedy of the siege which Josephus has made immortal.

As the traveller ascends the Nile and nears the Second Cataract, he sees on his left a splendid Roman camp crowning a hillside. He will find the remains of similar castra in Asia Minor, in Palmyra, behind the Wall of Hadrian, in Wales, and scattered broadcast in every part of England. In a word, " castle " through " castrum " brings the whole might and majesty of Rome before our eyes. With the ring of the word comes the very tramp of the legionaries. But even that is not all, for the Romans and those who came after them rightly bestowed the name of Castle on the great primitive earthworks of neolithic, and possibly even of paleolithic, man. Take Maiden Castle in Dorset. It owes nothing to the Romans, though they may have occupied it. Yet it has always been called a castle. " Maiden " means probably the dark fOrt on the hilltop. But Maiden was too good a false analogy to be missed by our ancestors, for when joined to Castle it seemed to connote an invincible stronghold—the virgin fort that was never taken. There are hundreds of other primitive earth- works to be found in England which bear the name of castle, and yet are as mysterious as Stonehenge. I remember seeing one of these just within the County of Surrey, on the edge of the Weald of Sussex. Its very name is a portent- Thunderfield Castle. Inflamed by the name upon the Ordnance Map, I sought it out, thinking to come upon some old grey

walls, the sort of plane which Sir Walter Scott might have loved and lifted into a novel. Instead, I found, away from all high-roads, but with many mysterious green lanes approaching it, a whole series of prehistoric ditches and " wan waters " like those in the Border Ballads. In the centre of the biggest pond was a small island. And that was all there was of Thunderfield Castle. But at any rate here was a title waiting for an archaeologist of wealth and consequence. Fancy calling oneself "Lord Thunderfield of Thunderfield Castle in the County of Surrey I " There is one more strange thing to be recorded about the word " castle:" It has been 'abscirlied by a very impoitant fiction, or semi-fiction, of the Common Law. The Mediaeval or Tudor judge who declared that " an. Englishman's house

is his castle" was not merely indulging in rhetoric. He was stating one of those general constitutional principles which

have made England the free Democracy that she is. A castle was originally a physical -fragment of sovereignty. You could make no building into a castle merely by fortifying it or bytealling it a castle. To possess a castle and to eastellate or crenellate your towers and walls you must have the king's licence. If you did not have such licence, it was what was pictureopiely and pointedly called " an adulterine castle," and could be and usually was plucked down about your ears. If, however, the king gave you a licence to make your house into a castle, or, again, if he made you and your heirs male " Castellan " of one of his own castles, you enjoyed special rights and privileges. Unless and until the licence was properly and jiidicially revoked you might for a time keep the king himself, or, at any rate, his officers, waiting at the gate. Thus the possessor of a castle was in a unique position and, while inside his piece'of sovereignty, almost inviolable. He could shut his door and keep out the Sheriff, and -possibly even the king's Justices in Eyre, so long as his licence was not taken from him. The revolutionary judge of whom I have spoken, by declaring that every Englishman's house was his castle, transferred to the average citizen and his average dwelling a something which made it almost a sanctuary, a place not to be entered easily or lightly, a place behind whose barred doors he could hide himself and keep out intruders. To this day the police cannot go into a man's house uninvited without a very special kind of warrant.

But I am putting myself rather too much in the position of ' the man waiting outside the Castle gates, and I must hasten to get inside, for I am invited from many quarters. The present publishing season has given us a whole crop of castle books. The most complete and interesting of them is the account of Bodiam Castle in Sussex, a historical and • descriptive survey made by the late Lord Curzon of Kedleston. Lord Curzon was an expert in castles and collected them as other men collect postage stamps or birds' eggs. He left two to the nation, and, had he lived, would, no doubt, have added more. Bodiam was indeed a priceless gift. ' It was never modernized or rebuilt and also, so far as the outside walls are concerned, was never allowed to become a complete ruin. Seated on an island in an artificial lake, or, if you prefer it, surrounded by the broadest of water-filled moats, it is one of the most fascinating castles in all England. It is a castle which excites both head and heart. Everything seems to have been arranged for scenic effect. The great walls and towers rise straight out of the water and are reflected in it. Again, it possesses an architectural charm of a very high order, for Bodiam was built when the art of castle building had reached its zenith, and when a touch of domesticity had been added to the grimness of pure fortification.

Lord Curzon tells its how he bought the castle, how he made a physical survey, and ultimately how he collected all that could be known of the history of the castle. It is an admirable and thorough piece of work. - Before I leave his book I must say how excellent is also the production and what perfect examples of photography are the illustra- , tions. The book is a credit to all concerned, whether for type, laying-out of the pages, or illustration.

Among the other castle books just published is Wingfield: its Cliterch, Castle and College. This is a scholarly and very interesting book. The pages dedicated to the Castle are full of interest, as is also the story of the De La Pole family. . ThmEnglish Castles, though not a work of profound scholar- ship, is a good chronicle and the illustrations, often taken from old- drawings and water colours, are attractive.

A very impressive example of the Scottish Castle is to be found is Dr. Gordon Barron's The Castle of Dunnottar and its History. The pictures of this craggy stronghold are admirable examples of history conveyed through the camera. The motto chosen for the book is : " They half -said : Quhat say t.hay : Lat game say "—a formula the first statement of which is often attributed, though apparently wrongly, to Bishop Berkeley.

J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.,