Bill of Demolition. 245 culty of finding any other site for it, for Tattersall's work (see p. 237) clearly shows that the two were separate, while this mention of the Great Hall with the Inner Gate-House, almost forbids the supposition that they had an exterior flight of steps between them as would have been the case had the Great Hall been part of the Round Tower. The probability therefore is that the "Great Hall" was in the Court yard, near the Kitchen, and that the prefix "Great" was given to distinguish it from the original "Hall" in the Keep. It may be noted that Drake in his diary of the 1645 siege, mentions the fact of the garrison on one occasion assembling in the Hall to consult, and on another, of their being there for service. This latter was the case on the last Friday that they held out. Most of the names of the persons engaged in the demolition of the Castle are those of strangers, but there is one townsman, Richard Lyle, who received 5s 4d" for the loan of his Beam and weights for weighing of Lead," about whom a few words may be said. He purchased from the demolition commissioners timber to the amount of £2 11s, and was a mercer in Pontefract, in so good a way of business as to require for the use of his trade a special coinage of copper farthings; of the 13 such coins issued in Pontefract, Richard Lyle's being the only one issued by a mercer. It had on the obverse, a tower with four battlements, and the legend "Richard Lyle," and on the reverse, the initials R.M.L. (for Richard and Mary Lyle), with 246 Bill of Demolition. the legend "In Pontefract." He was also churchwar den at the time the church was re-built out of the funds obtained from the dis-mantlement of the Castle. A subsequent note in Gent says, under 1651 :— The Date of the aforesaid Account of Pontefract Castle is on the 9th of April this Year: But on the 2d Day after it was sign'd, as appears in the Original, by what follows. The 11th of April, 1651. WE, the Trustees, authorized by Order of the Committee of the West-Riding of the County of Y O R K, for the demolishing of PONTEFRACT Castle, by their Order, dated the 4th of April, 1649, in Pursuance of an Order of the Honourable House of Commons, in Parliament assembled, dated the 27th of March, 1649, in that Behalf made; do declare the Account before-mentioned to be a full and true Account of our Receipts and Payments, and all the Actings concerning that Service. Witness our Hands, Jo. WARD B. ROBERT MORB MATTHEW FRANCK. EDWARD FIELDE. JOHN JAMSDEN. CHRISTOPHER LONGE. JOHN SKURR. Two of the names that occur in Gent's transcript are obvious mistakes, but we have transcribed it literally, though we may mention that his Cuthwaite (p. 243) should be Outhwaite, and his Jamsden in the above should be Ramsden. And thus was this magnificent erection dis-mantled and demolished, the £1000 obtained by the sale of the materials being expended partly on the repair and renovation of "St. Giles's Chappell,* and partly on the "re-edifying an habitation for the minister." * The repairs commenced in July, 1649, and from July 15th in that year for about two months, the parish baptisms are recorded to have been performed "in the Chappell of Trinity Hospitall." This last-named building has, however, been disused, and was about a century ago, converted into dwelling-houses. Shortly after, and during the rest of this century and the next, the Main Guard was used as a prison for debtors and West Riding offenders, an order of sessions, dated 5th October, 1671, fixing the fees payable to the gaoler by the prisoners according to their degree of Knight, Esquire, Yeoman, or Artificer. And in 1763 it was used as a place of detention for French prisoners of war. Moreover we have seen, under date 1 April, 1707, an order of the Pontefract Town Council, that the Lead Pipes "yet ungot between Broad Land End and the Castle" be got up towards the repairs of the Conduit, in the Market Place; thus giving us a glimpse of the manner in which the Castle was, in its palmy days, supplied with water from the upper part of the town, by means of leaden pipes from the Water House through Micklegate, Market Place, and Ropergate. But all that now remains of the former glories of the Castle, whether as fortress or prison, is so many heaps of stones, striking though desolate, while the crumbling sandstone has become a loamy soil well adapted to the growth of that root with which the name of Pontefract is so commonly associated. Nunc Glycyrrhiza crescit, Ubi Castellum fuit. The luscious liquorice now grows, From Dugdale Mon. Ang. 11. 372 (Ellis v. 120.) Num. 1. Carta Roberti de Laceio primi Fundatoris. [Ex Cartulario de Pontefracto, fol. 1, penes Thomam Widrington, militem, tem. An. 1652.] ROBERTUS de Laceio omnibus hominibus suis Francis et Anglis et omnibus fidelibus sanctæ ecclesiæ salutes. Sciatis me consilio T. Venerabilis archiepiscopi Eboraci et aliorum religiosorum virorum domum quandam religionis fundasse in dominio meo in Kyrkebi monastici ordinis in honore sancti Johannis Apostoli et Evangelistæ quam propter bonum odorem et honestam famam ordinis Cluniacensis, monachis de Caritate, filiis videlicet Cluniacensis ecclesiæ subjeci. Quorum monachorum de Caritate venerabilis prior Wilencus consilio communi totius conventus sui, mihi quosdam de fratribus suis ad domum illam regulariter custodiendam transmisit, et sigillo suo ordini Cluniacensi & eædem Ecclesiæ de Caritate eandem domum confirmavit. Et ego pro salute mea et domini mei Willielmi regis primi, et Hylberti patris mei et Hawisia matris meæ et omnium antecessorum et hæredum meorum, donavi prædictæ ecclesiæ Sancti Johannis et monachis meis ibidem Deo servientibus ad victum et sustentationem in servitio Dei, et confirmo hac carta mea, et hoc sigillo meo, situm ipsius loci ubi habitant, cum tota terra de Brakenhil. Insuper plenariam custodiam hospitalis de sancto Nicholao ubi priùs habitaverunt, intus et foris ad dispositionem suam in usus pauperum. Insuper de dominio meo Witewde et Maram, Ledestun, et medietatem de Ledesham cum tota ecclesia ejusdem villæ, et Doddewrthe cum omnibus ad easdem villas pertinentibus, videlicet in bosco, in plano, in pascuis, in pratis, in stagnis, in aquis, et modendinis. Et unam carucatam terræ in Altoftes, ét in Kyrkeby unam carucatam terræ de donatione |