door
the inscription, "This made Roger." His grandson added the eastern part.
The castle was frequently laid waste by the Scottish Bands, and during
the Wars of the Roses. The Earl of Cumberland entertained James I.
within it, in 1617, on the occasion of the king's last return from
Scotland; but it seems to have "layen ruinous" from that date, and to
have suffered much during the civil wars in the reign of Charles I. In
1651-52 it was repaired by Lady Anne Clifford, Countess Dowager of
Pembroke, who wrote thus--"After I had been there myself to direct the
building of it, did I cause my old decayed castle of Brougham to be
repaired, and also the tower called the "Roman Tower," in the same old
castle, and the court-house, for keeping my courts in, with some dozen
or fourteen rooms to be built in it upon the old foundation." (_Pembroke
Memoirs_, i. p. 216.) After the time of the Countess Anne, the castle
was neglected, and much of the stone, timber, and lead disposed of at
public sales: the wainscotting being purchased by the neighbouring
villagers.

_Her thirty years of winter past,
The red rose is revived at last._

This refers to the thirty years interval between 1455 (the first battle
of St. Albans in the wars of the Roses) and 1485 (the battle of Bosworth
and the accession of Henry VII.)

_Both roses flourish, red and white_,

Alluding to the marriage of Henry VII. with Elizabeth, which united the
two warring lines of York and Lancaster.

_And it was proved in Bosworth-field._

The battle of Bosworth Field, in Leicestershire, was fought in 1485.

_Not long the Avenger was withstood--
Earth helped him with the cry of blood._

Henry VII.--who, as Henry, Earl of Richmond, last scion of the line of
Lancaster, had fled to Brittany--returned with Morton, the exiled Bishop
of Ely, landed at Milford, advanced through Wales, and met the royal
army at Bosworth, where Richard was slain, and Henry crowned king on the
battlefield. The "cry of blood" refers, doubtless, to the murder of the
young princes in the Tower.

_How glad is Skipton at this hour--
Though lonely, a deserted Tower._

Skipton is the "capital" of the Craven district of Yorkshire, as Barrow
is the capital of the Furness district of Lancashire and Westmoreland.
The castle of Skipton was the chief residence of the Cliffords.
Architecturally it is of two periods: the round tower dating from the
reign of E