More comfortable halls for residence, apart from the donjon, were built at a later date, but still placed within the castle inclosure.
The furniture even of the separate hall is scanty, though substantial. About the stone walls, amid the weapons, hang embroidered tapestries, and skins are placed underfoot for the sake of warmth. Chairs and benches, tables, chests, and wardrobes stand about the hall, and at mealtime the servants place a long trestle-table down the middle of the room.
10About this table all are seated according to rank.
Before each is placed a knife, spoon, and a drinking cup, usually of wood or horn. Forks were unknown until the end of the 13th century, and separate plates or platters were rare. So the food is eaten from a common dish with the fingers. Before and after each meal pages bring basins of water and towels for wash ing the hands. There are no napkins; pieces of bread are used for cleansing the fingers during the meal, and then thrown under the table to the dogs.
Dinner, served at midday, is announced by the blowing of horns. It is a long and substantial repast, consisting often of as many as 10 or 12 courses. Wild boar and bear roasts alternate with roasts of swan and peacock, and with fish from the lord's fish-pond.
The meats are roasted on spits before open fires, and are highly seasoned with pepper, cloves, and other spices. Even the wines are peppered and honeyed.
Amusements after Meals After the meal is over, perhaps a wandering min strel entertains the company with his songs of brave knights and fair ladies. Or they engage in games of chess, backgammon, and checkers. For outdoor amusements the nobles indulge in falconry, the tour nament, and the chase. But these soon lose their charm, and the lord becomes bored unless he can engage in war with some of his neighbors, or better still with his overlord or king.
The stone castle or château, as the French call it, grew out of a much simpler fortification. In very early times the Frankish chiefs built wooden blockhouses on mounds of earth, around which they dug a broad ditch and built a palisade. This castellum, or fortified camp, was the ancestor of the castle. The castles erected in Anglo-Saxon England, and also those first erected by the Normans, were similar to the Frankish structures. Later the wooden tower was changed for one of masonry, and the palisade was replaced by stone walls. When the king in France or England gained control over the nobles, the feudal castles were either destroyed or were taken into his hands, so that they might no longer he a menace to the peace of the country.