Observations on English Castles. 223 



keep is dropped, as no longer applicable, and around this " inner bailie" 

 two or three lines of defence are disposed concentrically. Such cas- 

 tles inclose frequently many acres of ground, and are remarkable for 

 the height of their towers, and grandeur of their gate-houses ; though in 

 solidity and consequent durability their walls are far inferior to those of 

 the pure Norman structures. 



The Norman and Edwardian, the solid and concentric, may be considered 

 as the two great types of English castles, of which all other fortified build- 

 ings are only modifications. The introduction of artillery, by rendering a 

 lofty wall an inconvenience instead of a safeguard, and by rendering all 

 kinds of architectural defences very nearly equally ineffectual, permitted 

 the introduction of a style of edifice making no pretensions to withstand 

 artillery; and in which the lofty turrets and embattled gate-ways of an 

 ancient castle were combined with the exposed roof and spacious windows 

 of a modern mansion, possessing no doubt many merits, though not the 

 theological one of congruity. 



It is not easy to devise a significant appellation for the species of castle 

 that occupied the intermediate stage between the regular concentric of Ed- 

 ward, and the castellated mansion of the Tudors. Such castles were not 

 generally concentric, nor did they contain any tower deserving the name 

 of keep. They are generally of an irregular plan, with a gate-house and a 

 number of mural and flanking towers ; and display not unfrequently a 

 profusion of heraldic and architectural decoration. Perhaps the term 

 perpendicular, which has been applied already to ecclesiastical edifices of 

 contemporary date, is on that account as unexceptionable as any. 



We shall next consider briefly certain of the most remarkable details of 

 castles of one or the other type. 



The parts whicli seem to have been considered as components of every 

 permanent Norman fortification, were, the keep ^ the tualls of the enceinte, 

 single, double, or triple; the ballia, or courts contained within them ; the 

 gate-way, usually defended by a regular work or gate-house-, posterns, or 

 entrances of smaller size; s. fosse, or ditch without the walls, and in some 

 cases also between them ; and opposite to the gate-way, upon the counter- 

 scarp of the moat, an outwork or barbican. 



The keep was always a lofty structure, variable in figure and position, 

 but usually quadrangular, polygonal, or circular; and i)laced on the high- 

 est ground, commonly near the centre of the castle. When round, keeps 

 were called Julliets, from an erroneous notion that they were erected by 

 Julius Caesar, to whose credit was usually placed the erection of all massy 

 unclaimed structures, just as to that of Cromwell was in later days their 

 destruction. 



The keep and inner bnllia contained the state apartments, council cham- 

 bers, governor's residence, and sometimes a chapel. Any remarkable 

 tower was called a donjon, and hence our term dungeon, as applied to places 



