The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles

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J. Murray, 1912 - 408 pages

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Page 86 - For it is the custom of the nobles of that region, who spend their time for the most part in private war, in order to defend themselves from their enemies, to make a hill of earth as high as they can, and encircle it with a ditch as broad and deep as possible. They surround the upper edge of this hill with a very strong wall of hewn logs, placing [small] towers on the circuit, according to their means. Inside this wall they plant their house or keep, which overlooks the whole thing.
Page 88 - In this storey also the watchmen and the servants appointed to keep the house took their sleep at some time or other. High up on the east side of the house, in a convenient place, was the chapel, which was made like unto the tabernacle of Solomon in its ceiling and painting. There were stairs and passages from storey to storey, from the house into the kitchen, from room to room, and again from the house into the loggia, where they used to sit in conversation for recreation, and again from the loggia...
Page 87 - In the storey above were the dwelling and common living rooms of the residents, in which were the larders, the rooms of the bakers and butlers, and the great chamber in which the lord and his wife slept. Adjoining this was a private room, the dormitory of the waiting maids and children. In the inner part of the great chamber was a certain private room, where at early dawn or in the evening or during sickness or at time of blood-letting, or for warming the maids and weaned children, they used to have...
Page 12 - King Alfred repaired London, and all the English submitted to him, except those who were under the bondage of the Danishmen ; and then he committed the town to the keeping of Ethelred, the ealdorman.
Page 43 - West-Saxons, and of Alfred his brother, that they would help them, that they might fight against the army. And then they went with the West-Saxon power into Mercia as far as Nottingham, and there met with the army within the fortress; and besieged them therein: but there was no great battle; and the Mercians made peace with the army.
Page 37 - Ocean, the first thing which strikes us is, that, the north-east and south-east monsoons, which are found the one on the north and the other on...
Page 22 - In the eleventh century the word castel was introduced into our language to mark something which was evidently quite distinct from the familiar burh of ancient times.
Page 373 - Nulli licuit in Normannia fossatum facere in planam terram nisi tale quod de fundo potuisset terram jactare superius sine scabello, et ibi non licuit facere palicium nisi in una regula et illud sine propugnaculis et alatoriis.
Page 383 - borduris. make on the same tower on the south side, at the top, deep alures of good and strong timber, entirely and well covered with lead, through which people may look even unto the foot of the same tower, and ascend, and better defend it, if need should be. And also whitewash the whole chapel of St. John the Evangelist in the same Tower. And make...
Page 62 - ... of his holding, whether in hidage or in value, I maintain that the extent of that obligation was not determined by his holding, but was fixed in relation to, and expressed in terms of, the constabularia of ten knights, the unit of the feudal host. And I, consequently, hold that his military service was in no way derived or developed from that of the Anglo-Saxons, but was arbitrarily fixed by the king, from whom he received his fief, irrespectively both of its size and of all pre-existent arrangements.

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