164 DUFFIELD CASTLE. 



early date it would be constructed, the gables not rising above the 

 parapet walls. If the keep was strengthened or reconstructed in 

 any way during the reign of Henry II., as seems not improbable, 

 a flat lead roof, that permitted the use of military engines 

 from the summit,, would be substituted. This use of lead for 

 castle roofs came in rather suddenly towards the end of the 

 Norman period. The great keep of Windsor castle was roofed 

 with lead from the Derbyshire mines in the year n 76. This lead 

 would be carried on pack horses close by the foot of Duffield 

 castle hill, and across the ford that it commanded. Would not 

 the sight of this traffic be sure to suggest this newer and better 

 way of roofing-in his great keep to the powerful Ferrers, even 

 if the method had not already been adopted. The height of 

 Duffield keep to the top of the parapets could not have been 

 under one hundred feet, and probably somewhat exceeded it. 



Perhaps the most interesting and cunningly contrived feature 

 of these rectangular keeps is the fore-building, wherein one side 

 of the keep was materially increased in width, in order to provide 

 a well protected entrance. There never was any outer entrance 

 to the basement, which was only gained by coming down a well 

 staircase, a single one usually sufficing, and not two, as at Duffield. 

 Nor in the larger keeps was there any outer entrance to the first 

 floor, but admission was gained on the second or chief floor. 

 The fore-building was an extended structural part of one wall, 

 sometimes only a third of the breadth of the side of t$e keep, 

 though sometimes extending the whole length, and about two- 

 thirds of the height of the main building. At one end, on the 

 ground level, a straight stairway began, which ascended on a slope 

 to the other end, terminating in a landing or platform, which was 

 the vestibule of the actual entrance into the tower. Over the 

 beginning of this stairway were a low arch and a strong door; 

 half way up the stairs was often a second doorway, and sometimes 

 in this situation, and sometimes just in front of the final platform, 

 was a considerable gulf or break crossed by a drawbridge, which 

 would, as a rule, be kept drawn up to form a screen to another 

 doorway behind it. The vestibule at the head of the stairs was 



