176 DUFFIELD CASTLE. 



son could with ease be maintained within its walls in time of siege. 

 Although there seems to have been no outer defence of stonework, 

 there would no doubt have been a ballium enclosed within a 

 stockaded rampart, and round it sheds and buildings of timber. 

 Duffield, though much stronger than Tutbury, does not seem 

 to have been acceptable to the Ferrers' as a place of residence for 

 the family after the times of Engenulph, so that the State chambers 

 of the keep would be free for the occupation of the castellan and 

 officers of the garrison, and less barrack room in the base-court 

 would in consequence be required. 



It seems highly probable, as has already been stated, that the 

 king's army, under Prince Henry, was employed in the demolition 

 of the castle in 1266. What would be impossible to a small body 

 of men can often be effected by great numbers. But even an 

 army in those days, when explosives were unknown, would find 

 the pulling down of this mass of masonry a great and serious un- 

 dertaking. Fire was obviously one of the chief agents employed. 

 A thick deposit of charcoal was found on all sides of the keep ; 

 every piece of wood and timber rescued from the well were partially 

 burnt ; and in many places the stones and masonry showed un- 

 mistakeable traces of having been exposed to intense heat. It 

 would almost seem as if the forests hard by had supplied stacks of 

 fuel to make a great conflagration in the midst of and around the 

 keep. When the great joists of the floors had blazed up, and 

 when many of the poorer stones had crumbled away from the 

 intensity of the heat, the overthrow of the walls would be far 

 easier. On the north side of the keep, close to the foundations, 

 are several tons of overthrown masonry which had been dislodged 

 in a single piece. Ten or twelve men, during the excavations of 

 last summer, were kept constantly employed for many weeks in 

 wheeling away, and throwing down the steep bank on the north, 

 the rubble of concrete and masonry found on and around the site. 

 Yet some surprise has been expressed by one or two at the small- 

 ness of the debris left on the site; and a strange conjecture has been 

 offered by another, that Duffield castle was never completed, and 

 only carried a little way up. But instead of sharing in their surprise, 



