TROUBLES AT SCARBOROUGH. 243 and strengthened the fortifications, and henceforth it became one of the royal castles. Edward I., in the earlier years of his reign, kept his court within its walls. To Scarborough his ill-fated son escaped by sea from Tynemouth, together with his favourite Piers de Gaveston. The king pressed on to York, leaving his companion to the protection of this stronghold. Presently the army of the confederate barons, headed by Pembroke, "the Jew," appeared before Scarborough. The fortress justified the trust which the king had placed in it, for the assaults of the besiegers were repulsed; but it had been insufficiently provisioned, and famine compelled the defenders to capitulate. Gaveston's career was ended; he was hurried away to Warwick, and there beheaded on Blacklow Hill, notwithstanding the terms of the capitulation, and his abject appeals for mercy. About six years later, in those days of famine and humiliation which darkened the reign of Edward II. after strife with his barons and the defeat of Bannockburn, a Scotch army, headed by Bruce, is said to have appeared at Scarborough and burnt the town. Scarborough underwent another humiliation in 1377, though this was not long unavenged. A certain Scottish rover, Andrew Mercer by name, had been captured by English ships, and was imprisoned in the castle. At that time there was war with France, and its vessels were harassing our northern coasts. Mercer's son collected a fleet of Scottish, French, and Spanish ships, and entered the harbour of Scarborough, from which he carried off several prizes. As the story goes, a rich citizen of London, Alderman Philpot, at once equipped a fleet on his own account, and hastened in pursuit. He overtook the enemy and regained the Scarborough ships, together with several Spanish vessels richly laden. In so doing he had committed a breach of the law, by raising a navy without the royal assent, and had to stand his trial, but, it is almost needless to add, was acquitted with honour. For a century and a half Scarborough seems to have been unmolested, but it figures again in the troubles which arose after the suppression of the monasteries in Henry VIII.'s time. The monks had been popular in the North, and all Yorkshire rose in rebellion. Scarborough town was surprised and captured by one of the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace, but the castle held out. Not so, however, on occasion of a later rebellion, when Sir Thomas Wyatt rose against the now dominant enemies of the Reformation. His friends secured possession of it by stratagem, by disguising a number of their men as peasants, who on market-day strolled into the castle one by one, and then, on a given signal, overpowered the sentinels and admitted the rest of the band. It was, however, soon regained, and the leader in this audacious enterprise-Thomas Stafford, a son of Lord Stafford-was in due course beheaded. From this arose the saying, "A Scarborough warning"-i.e., a word and a blow, but the blow first. After this time neither town nor castle appears to have thriven particularly well, for in the days of Queen Elizabeth we read in some documents, bearing date 1565, that "the towne of Skarbroughe is an auncient and a large towne scituate upon the Sea coste of the Northe este parte of Yorkshier, and at this daye is muche in decaye. The same towne haithe bene maynteyned heartofore onelie by fishynge. And for the mayntenance of the fishynge there haithe been kepte and contynued a peare or keye for the making of a haven * Cartwright, "Chapters of Yorkshire History," p. 257. or harborowe for defence and safetie of shippes and bootes from the raging sea, which is theare often so tempestious that no vessele may abide it, withoute the ayde of the same pere, and especiallie the wynde bearinge este or northeste." We read also that adjoining the said town there is "an auncientt castle sett upon a highe hill environed thre partes with the sea and the fourthe a verie greate and steape hill, and within the walls of the same castle there is by estemation fourtie or fiftie acres of good meadow land and pasture, and very fayre fresh water, and the same is environed so with the sea that it cannott be entred unto but through the castle." The document goes on to state how the principal trade of the town is in catching and in drying ling and cod, but that now there are only a few vessels engaged; that they lost many of their ships in the late wars, and now cannot afford either to replace them or to repair the pier, so that if the "Queens Maiestie be not pleaced" to help them with some money in their need, "the Ruyn of that towne" and of its commerce is likely to ensue. It is also related how the town was incorporated by Richard III., and had certain rights in the wool trade. Further on, they complain to Sir Robert Cecil of a rival wool-market set up by one Sir Henry Gate, which they assert had done them much harm, while their adversaries state that the market did the townsfolk more good than harm, and more than hint that the decline of their town was due to their exactions from strangers and to private peculations. From which correspondence we may conclude that, altering the spelling, the men in the sixteenth century were not very unlike those in the nineteenth, for we fancy that we have read similar conflicting evidence in the newspapers of the present day. In the Civil Wars the castle rose into some importance, for it stood a siege of nearly six months, being held by the Royalists. The town was quickly carried; a battery was erected on the North Cliff, and afterwards another inside the church, the guns playing from the east window. Legend states that one was also placed on a hill behind the town, which is said to have been named Oliver's Mount from this circumstance; the story, however, is without foundation; Cromwell was not present at the siege, and the distance is more suited to modern artillery than to ancient pieces of ordnance. Fortune for a time continued unfavourable to the assailants, and the castle maintained its ancient reputation. Its batteries destroyed the choir of the church; several assaults failed, and the commander of the Parliamentary forces died of his wounds. At last, however, as on a former occasion, famine compelled the besieged to yield, and their commander, Sir Hugh Cholmley, whose wife had shared the dangers of the siege, surrendered on honourable terms. A memorial of the siege still remains in the "siege pieces," substitutes for properly coined money, struck here, as at other towns, during this struggle. Figures of a crown and half-crown are given by Ruding in his illustrations of British coins; they appear to have been cut from pieces of plate, and are quadrangular in form. Each bears on the obverse a rude design of the castle, with the value of the coin, and on the reverse of the latter is the inscription "OBS [obsidium] Scarborough 1645." Three years SANDSIDE, SCARBOROUGH. The first defence to landward is a moat and bank called the Castle Dyke. Above it we find the castle itself crowning the hill. The outer defence is a series of plain round towers connected by a curtain wall, reminding us a little of Beaumaris. This is entered through the gateway, a high arch between two round towers, in better condition than the adjoining parts of the castle, as they were repaired after the first Parliamentary siege. The keep is connected with this outer wall; it is now much shattered, the east side only being perfect, and the adjoining halves of the northern and southern sides. It is believed to date from the reign of Henry II. The plan is similar to that of other Norman keeps, such as Rochester; it consisted of three storeys, besides the crypt, and the part which remains is about eighty feet high. It is the only important part of the castle which can be said to make a really picturesque ruin, for the rest is rather monotonous in outline. The part of the headland furthest from the sea formed the inner ward of the castle, and a narrow causeway, walled on each side, gave access to this from the mainland. It is "cut through at its deepest, and in the cut is built a lofty pier, which appears to have carried a tower and a gate, from which probably bridges dropped either way to guard the causeway."* The remainder, * Builder, Oct. 16, 1866. |