MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 29 



but, au reste, the days of castle-building are departed. Castles were 

 essentially a feature of feudalism, and it would be meaningless to 

 revive them. Nevertheless, it is interesting to trace in the compass 

 of a few pages the successive steps made by generations of men, 

 through centuries of time, towards the protection of their possessions 

 or the acquisition of new territory. Until the middle of the four- 

 teenth century, the defence was stronger than the attack, the bal- 

 ance of power, in the absence of gunpowder, being in favor of the 

 massiveness of the architecture. Thus, in Norman times, the de- 

 fence relied mainly upon its passive force, the height of the walls 

 defying all attempts at escalade, the strength of the gates resisting 

 all efforts at forcing them. But towards the end of the fourteenth 

 century, the attack became superior to the defence, and so it has re- 

 mained, the converging fire of besiegers having advantage over the 

 diverging fire of the besieged. Not only this, but the whole scheme 

 of warfare has been altered by the application of modern appliances. 

 In old times, the attack and defence were subdivided into parts, 

 and thence into parts again ; each tower of a castle being a separate 

 fort, and again each story of that tower capable of separate and 

 strong defence ; so that the action took place on sites crowded with 

 infinity of unexpected contrivances, and depended in great meas- 

 ure upon individual prowess. The use of gunpowder demanded a 

 wider range, an enlarged field of operations, and united action. The 

 futility of the axiom that whatever defends should be defended, was 

 perceived by Machiavelli, who laid down as a primary rule the inad- 

 visability of any complexity of the kind in the construction of for- 

 tresses. 



M. Viollet-le-Duc has chosen for especial illustration the Chateau 

 Gaillard, the fortress built by Richard Cceur de Lion on the Seine 

 for the protection of the capital of his Norman territory, Rouen. 

 With all due deference to the French architect and antiquary, this 

 must be considered as essentially an English castle as that of New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne. The details, which are amply illustrated, prove 

 that the lion-hearted monarch was a most skilful architect, engineer, 

 and master of defence. This is one of the new lights by which to 

 read history, for which we should express ourselves indebted to M. 

 Yiollet-le-Duc. The castle was built under the immediate super- 

 intendence of Richard, and, with all its subtle contrivances and 

 defences, was completed in a twelvemonth ; when he is said thus to 

 have apostrophized it: " Qu'elle est belle, ma fille d'un an!" 

 The outworks were so extensive that a town, known as Petit An- 

 deley, arose within their enclosure. The enceinte of the principal 

 portion of the castle presents a variety to the usual mode of building- 

 prevalent, which must be ascribed to the genius of Richard. It con- 

 sisted of massive masonry arranged in a succession of segments of a 

 circle, connected by a series of short curtains of an even length. The 

 keep also differed from the common type. It was a mighty tower, 

 strengthened by a girth of reversed pyramids, through^ the broad 

 bases of which, on a level with the summit of the tower, were machi- 

 colations for close defence ; and these were surmounted with a crenel- 

 lated parapet, which was pierced with loop-holes. Notwithstanding 

 the immense strength of this fortress, it fell before the skill of the 

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