PONTEFRACT CASTLE AND KING RICHARD IL
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—On the occasion of a visit some time ago to Pontefract Castle, I was surprised to see that nothing is done to locate- the historic associations of the place, and that no one on the spot is able to explain or point to anything. I had, not long before, been in France (Touraine), and could not fail to, be struck by the contrast. In outward appearance Chinon, on the Vienne, somewhat resembles our Pontefract in being a mere shell of a castle, but all its historic associations are religiously guarded, and one is still shown the exact spot where Henry II. of England died, and the very room in which Charles VII. of France received Jeanne d'Apc. But at Pontefract no tablet, no plan, and no guide tell one any- thing. I was more particularly concerned to see the site of the imprisonment and, according to Shakespeare, the death. of King Richard IL—surely a sufficiently pathetic and, dramatic association for any place. But the porter stared blankly, and no tablet or indication was anywhere observ- able. Does there not exist in this country any society or association interested in these things, and willing and able to incur the slight trouble and expense of putting up-nom- memoration tablets ? The present moment, if any,. is 'an appropriate one for the case in point. Next year will be the five hundredth anniversari of the fall of Richard IL, and -public interest in thia King (whom Sir Walter Besant recently described as the most fascinating figure in the long line of our Monarchs) is likely to be awakened by the contemplated re- vival at the Lyceum of Shakespeare's Richard 11.—I am, Sir, &c.,
P.S.—Not far from Abergele, in North Wales, a tablet has been let into a castle-wall on the high-road to mark the spot where Richard IL fell into the power of his rival, and a similar tablet might still more appropriately be set up at Pontefract Castle.
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