Oxford Castle

"Mr. Harvey, of Oxford"

1859

Wood engraving

From The Book of the Thames from its Rise to its Fall, 92

Text and formatting by George P. Landow.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of Pittsburgh and the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Commentary by the Halls

Of Oxford Castle there remains only a solitary tower; but the mound, planted with evergreens, still rises at its northern side. will be seen in our engraving (for the sketch we are indebted to Mr. Harvey, of Oxford), the old mill and its dependant dwellings are in harmony with the old walls with which they have been so long associated. The castle was begun by Robert D'Oyly in 1071, and finished in 1073, "to keep in order the neighbouring parts, especially the city of Oxford, which gave great affronts and proved troublesome to King William." It was famous from that time to the Civil Wars, when it had lost much of its strength and value; afterwards it gradually became a ruin, which ranks among the most interesting relics of the venerable city.

"Time's gradual touch
Has moulder'd iuto beauty many a tower,
Which, when it frown'd with all its battlements,
Was only terrible."

The old castle could tell many strange stories from its palmy days, immediately following the Conquest, to the commencement of the present century, when this tower was the jail of the county. Perhaps the most remarkable of its incidents is that which relates to the Empress Maud, who, being besieged there by the army of King Stephen, contrived to escape thence into Abingdon, The river was frozen over, and, accompanied by three trusty knights, all clad in ghostly white, she issued from its postern gate at dead midnight, and, crossing the ice, passed the sentinels of the enemy unohserved.

There is little doubt, however, that a castle a residence of some kind or other, existed at Oxford long prior to the Conqnest, and, prohably, on the site which the castle now occupies, and also that it was a royal dwelling, in which Offa, and Alfred and his sons resided; indeed, many Saxon remains have been from time to time discovered by digging in the immediate neighbourhood, and it is clearly ascertained by ancient records that a tower was standing in the time of King Ethelred. [92-93]

Bibliography

Hall, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. The Book of the Thames from its Rise to its Fall. London: Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Cp., 1959. Internet Archive version of a copy in the William and Mary Darlington Memorial Libray, the University of Pittsburgh. Web. 10 March 2012.

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Last modified 10 March 2012