ken for the Parliament by Sir
William Waller with 300 men on April 7, 1644.

A little to the north-east of the castle stand the remains of one of
the few Norman houses that have come down to the present time. It is
thus described in the first volume of "The Domestic Architecture of the
Middle Ages" by Turner and Parker, pp. 38, 39. This volume was published
in 1851. "At Christchurch, in Hampshire, is the ruin of a Norman house,
rather late in the style, with good windows of two lights and a round
chimney shaft.[6] The plan, as before, is a simple oblong; the principal
room appears to have been on the first floor. It is situated on the bank
of the river near to the church, and still more close to the mound,
which is said to have been the keep of the castle; being between that
and the river, it could not well have been placed in a situation of
greater security. Whether it formed part of another series of buildings
or not, it was a perfect house in itself, and its character is strictly
domestic. It is about seventy feet long, and twenty-four broad, its
walls, like those of the keep, being exceedingly thick. On the ground
floor are a number of loop-holes: the ascent to the upper storey was by
a stone staircase, part of which remains; the ground floor was divided
by a wall, but the upper storey seems to have been a long room, lighted
by three double windows on each side; near the centre of the east wall,
next the river, is a large fireplace, to which the round chimney before
mentioned belongs. At the north end, there appears to have been a large
and handsome window of which part of the arch and shafts remain, and
there is a small circular window in the south gable. From what remains
of the ornamental part of this building, it appears to have been
elegantly finished and cased with squared stones, most of which are,
however, now taken away. There is a small projecting tower, calculated
for a flank, under which the water runs; it has loopholes both on the
north and east fronts, these walls are extremely thick. By the ruins of
several walls, there were some ancient buildings at right angles to this
hall, stretching away towards the keep. This was probably part of the
residence of Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon, to whom the manor of
Christchurch belonged about the middle of the twelfth century."[7]

[6] Since rebuilt.

[7] Grove's "Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 178.

[Illustration: REMAINS OF THE NORMAN HOUSE.]

This