from fierce and threatening foes. The one opposite is Pampudding Hill, a
smooth, grassy mound, on which the daughter of the great Alfred, Queen
Ethelfleda, built a fortress. According to Florence of Worcester, what
we now call Bridgnorth was then _Brycge_. In his time, as in that of
Leland, who so well described its position, the Severn ran nearer to the
frowning cliffs on which the town is built than at present.

The discriminating eye of the outlawed Belesme was not slow to perceive
the advantages nature had given to the place, when he sought to raise a
fortress that should shield him from the wrath of his royal master, and
he removed the materials, it is said, of his house at Quatbrigia--a
bridge having, it is supposed, succeeded the ford--to _Brycge_,
afterwards Bridgnorth, or the bridge north of the one at Quatford.
Florence of Worcester says: "Earl Robert carried on the works night and
day, exciting Welshmen to the speedy performance of his wishes by
awarding them horses, lands, asses, and all sorts of gifts." With such
aids, and advantages of site, the Norman earl erected a castle that held
out three weeks against a large force marshalled by Henry, who, as an old
Saxon chronicle states, came here "with all his army" to besiege it. It
stood a second siege when Hugh de Mortimer espoused the cause of Stephen,
and was attacked by Henry II., whose life was saved by the zeal of an
attendant, who received a well-aimed arrow intended for the king. It was
taken by the confederate barons, and retaken by Edward II., who
afterwards marched to Shrewsbury, where the proud Mortimers humbled
themselves and sued for mercy. It served not only as a garrison and a
prison, but, from its position on the frontier of Wales, very often as a
royal residence. King John came with a splendid retinue, of which the
bishops of Lincoln and Hereford, the earls of Essex, Pembroke, Chester,
Salisbury, Hereford, and Warwick formed part; upon which occasion the
entertainment is said to have cost, for the three days it lasted, a sum