ANCIENT CASTLES OF DEVON. 139 



which stood commonly a church or chapel. On the 

 inside of this outer bayle was another ditch, wall, 

 gate, and towers, inclosing the inner bayle or court, 

 within which the chief tower or " keep*' was built. 

 This was a very large square fabric, four or five 

 stories high, having small windows in prodigious 

 thick walls, which rendered the apartments within 

 it dark and gloomy. This great tower was the 

 palace of the prince, prelate, or baron, to whom the 

 castle belonged, and the residence of the constable 

 or governor. Under ground were dismal dark 

 vaults, for the confinement of prisoners ; which 

 made it sometimes be called " the dungeon.'' In 

 this building also was the g:reat hall, in which the 

 owner displayed his hospitality, by entertaining his 

 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 floor, 

 called the " deis ; " where the chief table stood, at 

 which persons of the highest rank dined. Though 

 there were unquestionably great variations in the 

 structure of palaces and castles in this period, yet 

 the most complete and magnificent of them seem to 

 have been constructed on the above plan. Such, to 

 give one example, was the famous castle of Bedford, 

 as appears from the following account of the man- 

 ner in which it was taken by Henry III., A. D. 

 1224, from Matthew Paris.— 



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 fire to the tower, so that the smoke 

 burst out, and the tower itself was cloven to that 

 degree, as to show visibly some broad chinks; 

 whereupon the enemy surrendered.'* 



In process of ages, those ancient castles under- 

 went very considerable alterations. After the age 



