Bishop Henry de Blois, of Winchester,
bethought him of turning the old Roman Camp into a fortified castle. The
three Norman kings had wisely hindered the building of castles, but these
sprung up like mushrooms under the feeble rule of Stephen.

The tenants must have toiled hard, judging by the massiveness of the
small remnant, all built of the only material at hand, chalk to make
mortar, in which flints are imbedded.

This fragment still standing used to be considered as part of the keep,
but of late years better knowledge of the architecture of castles has led
to the belief that it was part of the northern gateway tower. I borrow
the description of the building from one written immediately after the
comments of a gentleman who had studied the subject.

Henry de Blois, King Stephen's brother, Bishop of Winchester, probably
wished for a stronghold near at hand, during his brother's wars with the
Empress Maud. He would have begun by having the nearly circular
embankment thrown up with a parapet along the top, and in the ditch thus
formed a stockade of sharp pointed stakes. Within the court, the well,
300 feet deep, was dug, and round it would have been the buildings needed
by the Bishop, his household and guards, much crowded together. The
entrance would have been a drawbridge, across the great ditch, which on
this side was not less than 60 feet wide and perhaps 25 deep, and through
a great gateway between two high square towers which must have stood
where now there is a slope leading down from the inner court, into the
southern one. This slope is probably formed by the ruins of the gateway
and tower being pitched into the ditch.

The Castle was then very small, and did not command the country except
towards the south. The next work therefore would be to throw out an
embankment to the south, with a ditch outside. The great gap whence
Hursley House is seen, did not then exist, but there was an unbroken
semicircle of rampart and ditch, which would protect a large number of
men. In case of an enemy forcing this place, the defenders could retreat
into the Castle by the drawbridge.

The entrance was on the eastern side, and in order to protect this and
the back (or northern side) of the Castle, an embankment was thrown up
outside the first moat, and with an outer moat of its own. Then, as, in
case of this being carried by the enemy the defenders would be cut off
from the main southern gateway, a square tower was