DUFFIELD CASTLE. 175 



bones of the limbs and ribs, Mr. Mello noticed that the leg bones 

 {femora, tibia, and humeri) have been invariably artificially split 

 open for the purpose of extracting the marrow, and that some of 

 the ribs show knife cuts on their surface. 



IX — Extent of the Castle, and its Demolition. 



When the foundations of the great keep were being exposed, it 

 was not unnaturally expected that some traces of the enceinte, or 

 curtain walls of the ballium, together with the bastion entrance, 

 would be capable of discovery. But so far, though neither time 

 nor money were spared, all trace of them in masonry has escaped 

 observation. Not only were the most likely places tested imme- 

 diately in and around the castle field, but in one place, at some 

 little distance to the south-east, where persistent late tradition 

 affirmed that massive foundations had existed, several men were 

 at work for two or three days cutting a long trench down to the 

 natural soil. But no masonry was anywhere found. A current 

 idea that the buildings of the castle extended over the top of the 

 next knoll to the south, and that some old paving found when 

 digging the foundations of the new Duffield Vicarage was connected 

 therewith, cannot for a moment be accepted by anyone who has 

 studied Norman military architecture. The keep was emphatically, 

 not only the centre, but the chief consideration in castle building 

 of that period, and though it is true that for the most part they had 

 walls (against which would be low lean-to buildings) enclosing an 

 outer and inner court, with strong defensive work at the gateway, 

 still it must always be remembered that the ordinary notion of a 

 castle with towers at frequent intervals round a considerable circuit, 

 almost rivalling in strength the tower or towers, and other defences 

 of the central block of buildings, was a much later development, 

 and never prevailed until Edwardian days. 



With regard to Duffield, so far as explorations have at present 

 been carried out, we are forced to the conclusion that nothing 

 further of note was attempted in stone, save the immense central 

 keep. A mere question of cubic area shows that a powerful garri- 



