BOOK V. different kind from the rest of the castle; and having, in order to increase the deception, machiolations over it at a great height, as if to defend it from attacks." On the west side of the keep, leading towards the south, or Quarry street, still remains the outer gate of the castle, where was a portcullis, with the date 1669, and the initials J. C., as having been rebuilt by John, grandson of Francis Carter, to whom this ancient edifice was granted by James I. The site at present occupied by these ruins is about five acres; but, if we may judge from the remains of walls and other works, it must formerly have been very extensive. The cellars of the Angel inn, on the north side of the High street, and those of a private dwelling directly opposite to it on the south side, are supposed to have been part of the vaults belonging to the castle. Both are nearly of the same dimensions, and exhibit the same style of architecture, being about eight feet high, and twenty feet square, supported by short massive pillars, the one of stone, and the other of squared chalk, from which spring arches crossing in different directions.

Caverns. In Quarry street, about two hundred yards southwest of the castle, is a suite of caverns excavated from the chalky cliff.* From the entrance, which faces towards the west, there is a small descent into a cave about forty-five feet long, twenty wide, and nine or ten feet high, from whence, on either hand, are two lower passages, nearly closed up by the fragments of fallen chalk but by a plan made by Mr. Bunce, in 1763, that on the north side stretches towards the north-west seventy-five feet, opening by degrees from two to

These caverns being considered in a dangerous state, access to them is now prohibited, and the entrance closed up. Smith's Rambles round Guildford, p. 30.

twelve feet; from this passage run five cavities of diffe- CHAP. I. rent sizes their breadths are various, but all widen gradually from the entrance, from two to twenty-two feet. On the south side is another passage, opening into a large cave, shaped somewhat like the letter L; its breadth is upwards of thirty, and the length of its two sides together about one hundred and twenty feet.

The founder of the castle, and the date of its construction, are alike unknown. Mr. King, in the sequel to his Observations on Ancient Castles, seems inclined to consider the keep at least as a Saxon fortress, constructed during the time of the heptarchy. It is somewhat extraordinary that the Domesday survey should have omitted to make mention of it. The first time that it occurs in history is in the year 1036, when it was the theatre of a sanguinary transaction. Harold, surnamed Harefoot, having been seated on the throne by the intrigues of Goodwin earl of Kent, in opposition to the sense of the people, which favoured Hardicanute, son of the late king, then absent in Denmark; his mother, Emma, an ambitious woman, fearful of losing her influence, conceived the design of procuring the crown for her son, Alfred, or his brother, Edward, the issue of her first marriage with King Ethelred. For this purpose she obtained Harold's permission to send for them from Normandy; and on their arrival in England, the king, through the persuasion of Goodwin, who suspected Emma's intentions, gave them an invitation to spend a few days at his court. The mother, fearful of some design, suffered but one of her sons to go, and Alfred set out, attended by a numerous retinue of Normans. Near Guildford he was met by Goodwin, who, with all the semblance of respect, invited him to partake of some refreshment in the castle. No sooner

BOOK V. had he reached it, than Goodwin threw off the mask; Alfred was immediately seized, conducted to Ely, and, after his eyes had been put out, shut up in a monastery for life. His attendants were tortured with horrid cruelty, and six hundred of them put to death.

Manor of
Poyle,

In 1216, when Louis, dauphin of France, came over to England, on the invitation of the barons, he soon possessed himself of this castle. In the twenty-seventh year of Edward I. (1299) it was assigned to Margaret, second wife of that king, as part of her dowry; but we find it used as a common goal in the thirty-fifth year of the same reign, when Edward de Say, keeper of the king's prisoners here, petitioned that they might be removed to some stronger place, this castle being too weak for the safe custody of so many. It continued to be applied to the purpose of a gaol down to the reign of Henry VII. after which there is a chasm in the history of this castle, till it was granted by James I. in 1611, to Francis Carter, of Guildford, in whose descendants it was vested, till it lately became, by purchase, the property of the duke of Norfolk.

The manor of Poyle took its name from Walter de la Puille, who, in 1279 (in the seventh year of Edward I.), held certain lands, which had been granted by William the conqueror to the Testard family, and which, having passed through several hands, came at last into his possession. In the third year of Charles I. (1603), Henry Smith, to whom the Poyle estate came, by purchase, conveyed the fee and inheritance of the same to Robert, earl of Essex, and others, in trust, that the rents, &c. of the same should be received by the mayor and approved men of Guildford, for the time being, to be by them distributed among the poor of the town, according to orders made and instructions given by him in his life-time. The