round. Antiquarians also infer that in the drawing it was intended to
represent the great keep-tower as standing upon the top of the mount,
and not by the side of it.[3]

Some discoveries made in 1794, throw much light on the history of the
castle, and warrant a conclusion that in its area were several
buildings. Wells were then cleared out, and among the rubbish were found
horses' bones, dogs' bones, horse-shoes, and human skeletons; the
appearance of the latter is not easily accounted for, unless they were
the bodies of malefactors, who had been executed on the gallows placed
near the castle, in later ages, that might have been flung in here,
instead of being buried under the gibbet. We must however pass over many
interesting facts, and content ourselves with a mere reference to the
empress Maud being besieged here in 1141, and her miraculous flight with
three knights, all escaping the eyes of the besiegers by the brightness
of their raiment; Maud having just previously escaped from the castle of
the Devizes, as a dead corpse, in a funeral hearse or bier. The reader
will not be surprised at the decay of the castle, when he is informed
that it was in a dilapidated state in the reign of Edward III.

The castle was situate on the west side of the city of Oxford, on the
site of the present county gaol. In 1788 little remained except the
tower, which was for some time used as the county prison, and part of
the old wall could then be traced 10 feet in thickness. In the
castle-yard were the remains of the ancient sessions-house, in which, at
the _Black Assize_, in 1577, the lieutenant of the county, two knights,
eighty esquires and justices, and almost all the grand jury, died of a
distemper, brought thither and communicated by the prisoners; and nearly
one hundred scholars and townsmen fell victims to the same disorder.