Ten years after Edward the Third's visit here, the Scotch again besieged Carlisle, burning both it and Penrith, and plundering very heavily, as it seems from the old chronicles. But once more they were defeated by the brave natives, their leader, the renowned Sir William Douglas, being taken and laid in irons in the castle, the common fate of all prisoners in those "stern old times."
We find also that during the Wars of the Roses, Carlisle was harassed to an unprecedented extent, and doubtless, the castle all through these Wars was the scene of strange and fearful events if we knew them. The scots especially sympathized with Henry the Sixth, and made an ineffectual attempt to take Carlisle for him; and all through the reigns of Henry IV., V., and VI., the city was miserably harassed, the suburbs and adjacent parts, up to the very gates, being destroyed by fire. For all England this was a time of terror, and probably this old castle suffered greatly from the constant hostilities of the times, and doubtless many brave men and true passed these portals during all these years, for calamity also produces "thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears;" and where we stand to-day as mere conjecturers, souls, whose names have been blown by heavenly trumps, may have prayed and perished, or, in the pressure of troubles, conceived thoughts or done deeds whose praise lingered in the local heart with loving pride for many a meagre-lettered generation.
Passing on to Edward the Fourth's reign, we find his brother, the notorious Duke of Gloucester, governor of the castle. He was also sheriff of the county, and
