and commands a view of boundless extent, to the north and west.  It has not hitherto suffered much diminution from its original height; the fury of the winds being resisted less by the thickness of the walls than by the strength of the cement.  The upper windows have Saxon arches, but are apparently of a later date than any other part of the building west of the keep, the stones of which being placed herring-bone fashion prove it to be of the earliest style.  The Chapel is of a very late date, as appears from its obtuse Gothic arches; and I have really an idea that almost all the changes of architecture, from the reign of Edgar to that of Henry the Seventh, may be traced in this extensive and stupendous ruin.

“We could not view without horror the dungeons which remain in some of the towers:  they recalled to our memory the truly diabolical cruelty of King John, by whose order twenty-two prisoners, confined in them were starved to death.  Matthew of Paris, the historian, says, that many of those unfortunate men were among the first of the Poitevin nobility.  Another instance of John’s barbarous disposition was his treatment of Peter of Pontefract, a poor hermit, who was imprisoned in Corfe Castle for prophesying the deposition of that prince.  Though the prophecy was in some measure fulfilled by the surrender which John made of his crown to the Pope’s Legate, the year following, yet the imprudent prophet was sentenced to be dragged through the streets of Wareham, tied to horses’ tails."[2]

    [2] Maton’s Observations, vol. i. p. 12.

The exact period when this fortress was erected is unknown; though some circumstances render it probable that it was built by King Edgar.  That it did not exist previously to the year 887, or 888, the time when the Nunnery at Shaftesbury was founded, is certain, from an inquisition taken in the fifty-fourth of Henry the Third; wherein the jurors returned, “that the Abbess and Nuns at Shaston (Shaftesbury) had without molestation, before the foundation of the Castle at Corfe, all wrecks within their manor of Kingston, in the Isle of Purbeck.”  Mr. Aubrey, in his Monumenta Britannica, observes, he was informed, “that mention was made of Corfe Castle in the reign of King Alfred; yet it seems very improbable that this should be the fact; for if it had actually existed in the time of that monarch, it would surely have been more publicly known.  The short reigns that succeeded would not allow time for so extensive an undertaking; but Edgar enjoyed more peace than almost any of his predecessors, was superior in wealth and power, and a great builder; he having founded, or repaired, no fewer than forty-seven monasteries.”  To him, then, the origin of this castle may with the greatest probability be ascribed, as his second wife, Elfrida, resided here at the commencement of her widowhood.  During this residence was committed the foul murder on King Edward, Edgar’s son and successor, of which William of Malmesbury relates the ensuing particulars.