226 Observations on English Castles. 



and two thick j the rere wall the same height, and a foot and a half thick; 

 and the walk two and a half wide. The parapet was rarely an unbroken 

 line of wall, but was commonly cut away at intervals into embrasures, the 

 intermediate masses of wall being called merlons. The edges of the em- 

 brasures and summits of the m.erlons were sometimes surmounted by a stone 

 coping, the bead of which was placed so as to intercept any arrow that 

 might strike it; and upon the merlons at Chepstow and Alnwick, stone 

 figures of soldiers are placed. The merlon was sometimes solid, but more 

 frequently pierced by a simple or cruciform loop, the limbs of which ter- 

 minated in circles called oillets. 



Sometimes, as over gate-ways, or upon the summits of towers, primarily 

 with a view to the direct annoyance of the enemy, and secondarily to widen 

 the rampart walk, a device called a machicolation was employed. Upon 

 the summit of the wall, from its exterior face, projected a row of corbels or 

 brackets, upon which the parapet, advanced by one or even two feet was 

 placed ; and thus a series of square holes were formed, from whence any 

 person below might be securely annoyed. This contrivance adds much to 

 the general effect of a tower, as may be seen at Warwick, Raglan, or 

 Thornbury. In false machicolations the parapet is not advanced above 

 half its own thickness, so that there are no holes. 



Contrary to what obtains in modern fortification, the art of attacking 

 these castles was inferior to that employed in their defence. 



The machines in use much resembled those of the Greeks and Romans ; 

 and the reader of Caesar or Polybius will be able to form a very tolerable 

 idea of a Gothic siege. 



The balista, catapulta, and mangonel, constituted the chief of their 

 engines of artillery, by the aid of which stones of a very large size were 

 projected, some of which are occasionally picked up about old castles ; and 

 now and then they threw dead carcases of animals, and according to Frois- 

 sart, upon one occasion, a living prisoner. 



With moveable towers and rams they were also familiar, and with the 

 use of the Greek fire. 



Mines were sprung by pulling away the props with ropes. Woolsacks 

 were also sometimes suspended from the wall, to deaden the strokes of the 

 ram. Upon the exterior of the gate-house at Warwick, there still remain 

 certain large hooks, said to have been placed there for that purpose. 



The cross-bow was a principal weapon, as being more easily worked, and 

 with less exposure of the person, than the long bow. This weapon was 

 anathematized in 1139, by the second Lateran council, as hateful to God, 

 and unfit for the use of Christians. Richard the first reintroduced them 

 into general use, and was, singularly enough, slain by an arrow from one 

 of them. 



The materials of which castles are constructed, are generally the stones 



