Fotheringhay Castle.

FOTHERINGHAY CASTLE .

A PAPER BEAD AT A MEETIXG OF TILE LEICESTERSHIRE ARCHITECTURAL AXE AuciiiEOhOGiCAL SOCIETY , HELD KTHE Tow : ; LinrtAEY , GUILD HALL , LEICESTER , ox THE 27 TII OF MAT , 1878 , BY THE EEY . J . B . DICKSON , LL . D . "Dioschonstc aller frauon , welche leben , Istaueh die Jainmernsivurdigste von alien . " SciiiLlEit .

rjPHE name of Fotheringhay , which the present Vicar warns me not to spell -L avithout the "h , " has , like most names of places , undergone various changes in the course of time . In "Domesday Book" we have it Fotheringeia . Ley land writes it , Fodcringeye . In the same context , I may observe in passing , he spells Church , Chirch , showing that onr word conies from the same source as the Hi gh German Kirohe , the Plat-Dentsch , Kerk , and the

Scotch Kirk , all derived , if not from Crux , certainly from KYPIAKH . It is odd that in the same passage Lelaml , forgetting or careless about ,., how he had spelt the name of tiro village and castle , writes Foderingey , without the final "e . " It is also written , Fndringhey , Fodringeye , Fodriugey , Foderingaye , and , finally , it has settled into Fothevingay , or Fotheringhay . It is a marked , instance of the uncertaint y of ancient spelling before words became crystallised into permanent forms . Fotheringhay seems to come from Feclan , to feed , and Ha , or Hay , a meadow . The only authentic description of the Castle I have come across is contained in a survey in the 21 st year of James I . It consisted

of two principal parts . T 3 ie first a , keep on the hig her mound , and the second a large fortification on the lower . The first was- reached through a double moat , and consisted of two stories , called upper aud lower chambers , containing " goodly lodgyugs . " From this you descended b y a broad staircase to the lower fortification in which the . " Great Hull " was situated . The K " en and a Mill brook formed part of the double ditches . Besides the Mill brook there was a pond—both have disappeared . Tho Castle I find must have been

standing in 1624 , 38 years after M . iry ' s death , and 21 years after the accession of her son to the throne of England .. That it was ordered to be demolished by James , I had long believed , hut after searching in vain for any historic proof to that effect , I have come to the conclusion that no such order was ever issued by him . Popular instinct , generally rig ht , said it should have been so clone by Jameshence the tradition . The real destroyersanimated

, , by no penitential sentiment , were the owners of the Castle and Manor at a later date . It became , in fact , a quarry for building pin-poses . The onl y pictnre in existence of this Castle is said to he at Windsor . I . have experienced a difficult y in determining where the "Hall of Presence , " as distinct from the " great hall , " was situated . Sir Waller Scott says Mary was beheaded in the same hall in which she was tried . But this must be a mistake . For after

passing from her own chamber in Hie keep to flic room in which she was fried , she there !' nund Shrewsbury , Kent , Paulet , Drnrv . and others ready to accompany her to the " great hall . " If was in this room , "the presence chamber , " tho scene took p lace belwoeu her and Kent , when she implored ] n ' m to grant her < : lie presence of her ladies in Lev last moments . Afterwards she said , " AJlmts done , " "Let us go , " and descended , as a historian says , the " great staircase to the hail . " By the term " great staircase" wc might suppose the ' hall of presence " in which she \ vas tried we .- , not on ihe h >\ vor hei ght , but on the upper in the keep . But even Archdeacon Bonnev . according to the n 2