The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-20 00:00:00

BARBICANS OF CASTLES.

In a paper read at the Lancaster meeting of arciireo-
logists, by Mr. George Gcdwin, "On the Barbican, in
connexion with our Castles," ho says—" If we look into
a dictionary for the meaning of the word barbacan, or
La, bican, we shall find it called a narrow opening left
in the walls of buildings liable to be overflowed, for the
water to come in and go out at, or to drain the water
from off a terrace; or an outer defence or fortification
to a city; a kind of watch-tower; any outwork at a short
distance from the main works; and a cleft made in the
walls of a fortress to fire through upon the enemy.' We
do not from this get a very clear idea of what a barbican
really was. The etymology of the word is doubtful. It
has been sought in barbacana, low Latin and Spanish;
barbacane, French; loch.in-einertnaver, German, &c.
Spelman, the antiquary, derives it from the Saxon burgh
and hems, a place to ♦iew or ken from. There is a street
in London, near Redcross-street, in Cripplegate, still
called Barbican,' from a watch-tower, and where, by
the way, Spelman died in 1640. John Milton lived also
at one time in Barbican. Camden, in. Britannia,'
(published 1586), says, when describing London, The
suburb also which runs out on the north-west side of
London is large, and had formerly a watch-tower or mili-
tary fence, from whence it came to be called by an
Arabic name— Barbacan.' Stow writes at the same
place—' On the west side of the Red Cross' (whence
Red Cross-street) is a street called the Barbican, because
some time there stood on the north side thereof a burgh
henin, or watch-tower of the city, called, in some language
a barbican, as a Likening is called a beacon.' As early
as 1232, according to Britton's 'Architectural Dictionary,'
we find in a charter,' Antonurali qui dicitur barbacana,
qui est mucus brevis ante murum nostri orti.' Spenser,
in the Faerie Queeno' (b. ii.), has—
' Within the kirLican a porter sate,
Day and night duly keeping watch and ward.'

And Ben Jonson uses the term in his Epithalamion,'—
, That far all-seeing eye could soon espy
What kind of waking man He had so highly set, and in what
barbican.'
The extracts I have quoted refer to the barbican mainly
as a watch-tower or outwork of defence, and this is the
idea which generally attaches to it. In a letter, however,
addressed (June, 1837) to the Society of Antiquaries,
Mr. Planche states that Oliver de la Marche says, that
at the siege of Oudenarde, A.D. 1452, Anthony bore a
great white standard embroidered with a barbacan; and
at the Pas de l'Arbre d'Or, sixteen years afterwards, the
same author describes him as issuing from his pavilion,
on a horse trapped with tawny velvet, embroidered with

large barbacans, with flames issuing out of them, and
letters of his device, all worked in gold thread. Re-
membering that barbican was explained by Roquefort
to mean not only a tower but a loop-hole, and any sort
of outwork, and that Cotgravo, under the same word,
says,—* Some hold it .to be a scutrie, scout house, or
hole;' he suggested it as probable that the figure
before us was intended to represent, not a tent, but the
barbican described by Oliver de la Marche, with flames
coming through the centre. Mr. Plancl b Ifterwards
went to the ruins of the Castle of Tuurnehem, in Artois,
the residence of Anthony, and there he found the same
badge on various poi tions of the building, notice of
which he communicated to the Gentleman's Magazine.—
Build‘r.

---------,
ALFFAT SHEEP bilOW AND FAIR.--This long-
established and m( st prosperous annual gathering of the
ruralists of Upper Annandale was held on Friday last. The
competing stock, Cheviots of course especially, were the
great object of attraction ; and the high character of the
_
show was this year, no easy matter now, fully sustained.
The animals were in splendid order, and looked all the bet-
ter that sunshine, in place of rain, played upon their
and the
fleecy
backs. In cattle the competition was very
stock shown superior. The show of tups for salee
was also
very good, though the number were notgreat as last
year. There would be about 750 tups on
the so
ground, chiefly
Cheviots ; for these there was athaeir ready sale, and the
principal portion found buyers. T
and prices ranged from 21. to 41. Inntals
nia few,
sums were given for particular a
rate quality was excellent,
for a good one was from instances
bu t
3/. to 3/. 3a. Some Cheviot
tu Dinmonts made 21. 108., and p lambs about Wm.— Ch
Dum
fries Courier.