DONCASTER CHURCH,

YORKSHIRE.

DONCASTER derives its name from the river Don, on the banks of which it is situated. It is a place of great antiquity, and was of considerable importance during the time the Romans were in Britain. Antonius informs us in his Itinerary, that the Crispinian horse were stationed here, and that the governor of the province resided in the castle for the purpose of being near the town walls to repel the incursions of the Scots and Picts. The castle, a place of immense strength, together with the town, was destroyed by fire in the year 759. It appears that this fortress was never rebuilt, and the precise spot on which it stood is now scarcely known.

A convent was founded at Doncaster by Henry III. likewise a hospital for lepers; but no remains of either are at this time existing.

The Church is a superb Gothic building, and greatly admired for the richness and symmetry of its tower. The whole fabric indeed is decorated with all the profusion of ornament which characterizes the English style of architecture. Its form is collegiate; the extreme length 154 feet, its breadth sixty-eight: the height of the roof is seventy-eight feet; the tower rises 141 feet

DONCASTER CHURCH.

from the ground. This Church is dedicated to St. George, and supposed to stand upon the area of the ancient castle, and to be built with materials taken from the demolished fortress the period of its erection is difficult to ascertain.

Doncaster is governed by a mayor, recorder, aldermen, and common-council. In the time of James II. a charter was granted to the town, which was brought to the town hall with great pomp, attended by a train of 300 horsemen. Here is a magnificent mansion for the residence of the chief magistrate; and it is worthy of remark, that this appearance of state at Doncaster is of earlier authority than that of the city of York, and even of the metropolis itself.

GUILDFORD,

SURRY.

GUILDFORD is pleasantly situated on the side of a chalk hill close by the river Wey, and was, in the time of the Saxons, a place of considerable note: the great king Alfred frequently resided here, as did many of our succeeding monarchs.

The castle, on account of its great antiquity, claims particular attention; but neither its founder nor the era of its construction are known. The first time it occurs in history is a little before the conquest in the year 1036, when prince Alfred, the son of king Ethelred, coming out of Normandy with his brother Edward, at the desire of his mother Emma, in hopes of obtaining the crown, was met near this place by Godwin, earl of Kent, who, with all the semblance of respect and honourable treatment, invited him to partake of refreshment in the castle. Here Godwin threw off the mask; Alfred was immediately seized, conducted to Ely, and, after his eyes had been put out, was shut up in a monastery for life: his attendants were tortured with great cruelty, and twice decimated, that is, out of every ten, nine were killed. Six hundred Normans, it is said, were thus murdered.

In the year 1216, when Lewis, the dauphin of France,

GUILDFORD.

came into this country, on the invitation of the barons, he in a short time possessed himself of this castle. In the tenth of Henry III., William de Coniers was governor of it for the king, as were afterwards Elias Maunsell, about the thirtieth, and William de Aguillon in the fifty-third of the same reign; and in 1299, the twenty-seventh of Edward I., it was assigned to Margaret, the second wife of that king, in part of her dowry.

Guildford castle had been used as a common gaol, at least as far back as the thirty-fifth of Edward I., when Edward de Say, keeper of the king's prisoners there, petitioned the king in parliament that the prisoners should be removed to some stronger place, this castle being too weak for the safe custody of so many of them. In the forty-first of Edward III., it was given to the sheriff of Surry for the county gaol, and as a dwelling-house for himself; it occasionally served as a common gaol for the county of Sussex, down to the reign of Henry VII. In the year 1611, the castle was granted by James I. to Francis Carter of Guildford, whose only daughter and heir married Goodyer, esq. of Halton, Hants: this lady had two daughters, joint heiresses; one married to

Tempest, esq. the other

to Rolfe; Tempest had a son, and Rolfe a daughter, who married the reverend Mr. Loveday. It is now the property of William Tempest, esq. of Guildford, a descendant of the above heiress.

The castle stands to the south of the High Street,

GUILDFORD.

on an eminence commanding the valley through which flows the Wey, and is itself commanded towards the south by a hill considerably higher than the building. From the foundations of many walls, we are inclined to believe that this castle has once been very extensive. Two cellars, one belonging to the Angel Inn, and the other to a house nearly opposite, are evidently a portion of the vaults connected with the castle; one of these belonging to the private house is about eight feet high, supported by several short massive columns, from which spring arches in various directions, all built of squared chalk. The most perfect portion of the castle now remaining is the ancient keep; it is nearly square, the walls are about ten feet thick; in the wall are cavities which shew the remains of several apartments; in one of them, on the second story, are several rude figures deeply scratched in the chalk, supposed to be the work of some prisoner confined here. The keep is built for the most part with stone, cemented with a hard mortar; on the ground floor there were neither windows nor loop-holes, in the upper stories was one window on each side, the rest are supposed to be more modern. The present entrance into the keep, appears to have been made after the castle was used as a dwelling-house; the original entrance may still be seen in the middle of the west front at a considerable height from the ground, and must have been approached by a staircase on the outside; this arch is peculiar on account of its being a pointed one, and