Rochester Castle by Esther Singleton

ARTHUR SHADWELL MARTIN

The Romans, who always had a keen eye for favourable defensive sites, / were scarcely likely to miss the high ground in the great bend of the / Medway not far from where it falls into the Thames. The Watling Street / from Dover to London passed the river, moreover, at this point and / received protection from the Roman camp. The Saxons and Danes also / maintained the Castle of Hrofa here. The usual timber fortifications / were constructed in an oblong enclosure of about seven acres, including / a large conical mound of the Eastern chalk range called Bully Hill. / It must even at that date have been a place of some strength, because / when it was besieged by the Danes in 885, it was able to hold out long / enough for Alfred to come to its relief. At the Conquest, the Normans / recognized the strength of the position and added their own improved / methods of fortification, enclosing a quadrangular space close to the / river with a strong curtain wall and afterwards building a massive / square keep in the enclosure. The Saxon works were left outside and / used merely as an outpost, as was the case at Warwick and Canterbury. / The original quadrangular enclosure had a wall-circuit of 580 yards, / the North and South walls measuring 160, and the East and West 130 / each. The East front faced the cathedral which even at that day was / venerable. The West wall ran along the river front. The other three / walls were defended by a broad and deep moat, traces of which still / remain. Much of the outer wall, with square open towers recurring at / intervals also exists.