RYEGATE CASTLE,

SURRY.

THIS Castle stood on the north side of the town, behind the principal street. Of its ancient history we know but little, and of its original foundation still less. The slender accounts of it that have reached our times, ascribe its origin to some of the earlier earls of Warren and Surry. Certain it is, that under the earls of Warren here was a castle of considerable note, which seems to have been one of the capital seats of their barony in England. William earl of Warren, who possessed it in king John's time, is the first of his family spoken of by Dugdale as the proprietor, who, however, acknowledges his title to it to have been derived from his earliest ancestors.

The site of this structure is now the property of lord Somers. It is an eminence, surrounded by a ditch of considerable breadth and depth on the south and west sides. On the summit of the hill, which contains an area of an acre and thirty-eight poles, and is formed into a lawn of a very fine turf, is erected a summer apartment, in a taste corresponding with the original design of the spot; and, on the east side, without the ditch, is a gateway of the antique form, with the following inscription over it:

RYEGATE CASTLE.

NE.

Will'i comitis Warren

Veteris hujusce loci incolæ
Fidique libertatum nostrarum Vindicis

MEMORIA

Temporum injuria

cum ipso Castello

INTERCIDERET

Propriis R. B. impensis
H. S. E.

Anno MDCCLXXVII.

In the centre of the area is the entrance, by a flight of steps covered with a small building of a pyramidical form, to the depth of eighteen feet, and in a suitable style, and. then regularly, without steps, twenty-six feet more, and the whole length 235 feet, into a cave or room 123 feet long, thirteen wide, and eleven high to the crown of the arch; in one part of which is a crypt of near fifty yards in length, with a seat of stone at the end, which extended the whole length of the room on both sides. This cave served probably the different purposes of its lords, as a repository for their treasures and military stores, and a place of safe custody for their prisoners. The arch is broken and the cavity stopped, which is supposed to have made a private communication with the town. In 1802. a spur of an extraordinary size was found here at the depth of three feet in the ground.

FOUNDATIONS.