Observations on English Castles. 2 ] 9 



interior summit of another. Hence the introduction, at an early period in 

 the history of the world, of towers, disposed at regular intervals along the 

 walls, by which not only did the wall itself receive an accession of strength, 

 but the defenders obtained a number of salient points, whence they could 

 enfilade, or direct their weapons along the face of the intermediate or cur- 

 tain wall. By this means the curtain, or that part of the line of defence 

 least capable of withstanding the strokes of the ram, became that best 

 capable of being defended by missiles; while the towers, which had not the 

 advantage of being thus flunked, were, from their circular form and solid 

 material, in but little danger of destruction. If therefore we suppose a 

 square, or still better a polygon, to be fortified with towers at its angles, 

 it is evident that the exterior of each curtain wall, midway between its 

 flanking towers, will be the points upon which most weapons admit of 

 being directed, and that the points on the exterior of each flanking tower, 

 midway from its containing curtains, will on the contrary be those upon 

 which fewest missiles can be directed ; or, in other words, that if from the 

 centre of the place we draw straight lines, passing through each of its 

 angles, and midway through each of its sides, the prolongations of the for- 

 mer lines will be the safest, and those of the latter the most exposed, di- 

 rections in which an enemy can approach. 



Lines drawn from the centre of a place, through its salient angles, are 

 called capitals; they are the lines of approach at present employed. 



It does not, however, appear that the system of approach by capitals 

 was at all understood before the introduction of artillery. 



The old system of fortification, by curtains and angular or intermediate 

 mural towers, seems to have been in use both among the Greeks and 

 Romans, and by them to have been found or perhaps introduced into many 

 parts of Asia, as it certainly was into Gaul and Britain. 



But this system reached its perfection under the Norman monarchs of 

 England, whose castles, before the introduction of gunpowder, were forti- 

 fied with a mixture of rude strength and ingenuity, the remains of which 

 still command our admiration. We shall, in illustration of our subject, 

 bestow a page or two upon the history and description of these structures. 



The etymology of the Latin word castrum, whence our term 'castle' is 

 derived, was said by Julius Feretus to be casth, chastely, 'quia ibi omnes 

 casth vivere debent.' However just this etymology might have appeared 

 to honest Julius, certainly history has very much belied the inhabitants of 

 our English ' castra," if the 'caste' applied in any degree to them. 



It is now an established fact, that, with the exception of the Roman cas- 

 tra, before the Norman conquest there were few or no castles deserving that 

 name in Britain, a sufficient reason for the rapidity with which William 

 over-ran the whole kingdom, the complete subjugation of which he could 

 scarcely have so suddenly atchicved, had many of those strongholds ex- 

 isted, whose ruins have descended to our own time. 



