DUFFIELD CASTLE. 



161 



was at last finished, and the reward of the labour, beyond the 

 good stones that were recovered on the way down, seemed but to 

 be small, for beyond a few pieces of small pottery and one very 

 large fragment, and the wooden blade of a once iron-tipped 

 spade, nothing was found at the bottom, save the disjointed and 

 crushed staves of the well bucket and its iron handle. 



However, even a bucket that has lain buried eighty feet 



deep in the ground 

 ever since the Battle 

 of Chesterfield, more 

 than six centuries ago, 

 possesses some inter- 

 est of its own, and is 

 here represented after 

 having been carefully 

 restored to its former 

 shape by a local 

 cooper, who has fitted 

 it round a new light 

 inner case. It will 

 be noticed that the 

 two thin iron bands 

 round the circumfer- 

 ence are missing ; 

 only a few small bits of those were found. The outside depth 

 of the bucket is n inches, and the diameter i2f inches. 



The well was a most important and essential accessory of a 

 Norman keep ; the fortress being specially designed to withstand 

 a siege. Sometimes the mouth is on the ground level ; more 

 frequently, for additional security, the well pipe is contained 

 within the wall and opens into a small special well chamber. At 

 Rochester it is in the cross wall, the pipe ascending to the summit, 

 with an opening at each floor. At Arques, in Normandy, where 

 the well is near one angle, a pipe has been built over it, raising 

 the mouth to the first floor. This is what, we feel sure, was done 

 at Duffield, judging from the condition of the upper sides of the 

 1 1 



