so 11111(.11 practised as architecture was in this must have been lunch improved. That it really was so, will appear from the following, very brief description of the most common and structure of a royal castle, or of that of a great earl, baron, or prelate, in this period ; and as these castles served both for residence and defence, this description will serve both for an account of the domestie and military architecture of those times, which cannot well be scparatt.d.
The situation of the castles of the .,\Iiglo-Norman kings and barons was most commiknly on an eminence, and near a river; a situation on several accounts eligible. The hide site of the castle (which was frequently of great extent and irregular firure) was surrounded by a deep and broad ditch. sometimes tilled with water, and sometimes dry. called the fussy. Rebore the great gate was an outwork, caller) a or antonoral, Which was a strong and high wall, with turrets upon it, designed for the defence of the gate and drawbridge. On the inside of the ditch stood the wall of the castle. about eight or ten feet thick, and bt tween twenty and thirty feet high, with a parapet, and a kind of embrasures, called crennels, on the top. On this wall. at proper distances, square towers, of two or three stories were built, which served for lodging some of 111' principal officers of the proprietor of the castle, and for other purposes ; and on the inside were erected lodgings Iii' the common servants or retainers, storehouses, and other necessary offices. On the top of this wall, and on the flat roofs of these buildinf_rs, stood the defenders of the castle, h it was besieged, and from thence discharged arrows, darts, and stones, on the besiegers. The great gate of the castle stood in the course of this wall, and was strongly fortified with a ti ver on each side, and rooms over the passage. winch was ebksed with chick fidding-doors of oak, ofti a plated with iron, and with an iron portcullis, or grate, let down from Within this outward wall was a large open spare, or court, r ailed, in the largest and most perfect castles. the hay/c or halliirni, in which stood commonly a ell or chalk•'. t ht the inside of this outer bayle was another ditch, i•ate. and towers, enelusing the inner Lay le, or court, w fi n hich the chief tower, or keep, Was Tllis was a v k.y lain• square fabric, or five stories high. having small windows in prodigious thick walls, whir h rendered the •s;elrtments within it dark and gloomy.
This great tower N the palace of the primes. prelate, or baron, to whom the I .a.t1c belonged. and the residence of the constable or governor. Under ground were dismal dark vaults, for the confinement of prisoners. Nvhich made it some times be called di.: dulereon. In this building,. also, was the great hall, in which the owner displayed his hospitality, by entertaining, his numerous friends and followers. At one end of the great halls of castles, palaces, and monasteries, there was a place raised a little above the rest of the tliko•, called the dues, where the chief table stood, at which persons of the highest rank dined. Though there were unquestionabl v great variations in the structure of castles and palaces in this period, yet the most ikerfoet and magnificent of them seem to have been constructed till the above plan. Such, to give one example. was the Omens castle of Bedford, as appears from the following account of the manner in which it was taken by I hairy ill. A. a. born Paris, Hist. .,dnql. p. 22 1-2. The castle was taken by four assaults. In the first was taken the barbacan ; in the second, the outer ballia ; at the third attack, the wall by the old tower was thrown down by the miners, where, with great danger, they possessed themselves of the inner ballia, through a chink; at the fourth assault, the miners set the to the towel', su that the smoke burst out, and the tower itself' was cloven to that degree, as to show visibly sikine broad ebb ks ; where upon the enemy surrendered." As Britain ahonnrled in this period ill fortified towns and castles, much of the art of war, of course, consisted in defending and assaulting strong places; and a knowslvire of the application or them ill this period may lie obtained from the relation of the siege of Exeter castle hv king Stephen, in the year 1 1 36. See the (i'esto Reyis aped Duchesn, p. 9:; t. It is perhaps the most consummate specimen or the military skill of that age with which we are acquainted. And it may be enough to observe, that after this ;Leee. had lasted three months, and king Stephen Intl expended lipim it in machines, arms, and other no less than 1 5,000 marks, equal in efficacy to 150.1100 pounds of our money. the besieged were obliged to surrender tire want of water. henry's Dist. of Biituia, vol. vi. p. 21 7.