Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/171

 Castles of the Early English Period. 155 composed of two round towers with the entrance between them, the new area within being proportioned to the importance of the place. These composite structures are the earHest to which the term concentric is properly applicable. Where the keep is central, and the enceinte double, as at the Tower and Dover, the result is a very perfect example of the concentric type of castle, though of course the parts are of different dates. Of Kenilworth, and probably of Bridgnorth, the original arrange- ment was concentric, although the central part is a ward or walled enclosure, not a single isolated keep tower, which in these is worked into the line of the inner ward wall. As the outline of most castles was materially affected by the disposition of the ground, it is obvious that no classification as regards chronology can be based altogether upon the ground plan. At Alnwick, for example, the outline of which is probably Norman, and to some extent governed by the ground, the keep stands between two wards, and is the con- necting part between them, and so at Chepstow and at Pickering ; while at Richmond, also Norman, the arrangement is wholly different, as it is at Porchester, where Roman walls have been turned to account. South Wales contains some castles which appear to have been altogether built, though possibly on old sites, in the reign of Henry III., as Cilgerran, Manorbeer, Grosmont, and Whitecastle. These, especially Whitecastle, are mere en- closures of irregular plan, within a strong curtain wall, supported by mural towers almost always round, and entered between two such towers as a gatehouse. The domestic buildings or lodgings, as the hall, sleeping-rooms, kitchen, offices, and stables, which in a regular English castle were of masonry, in these Border structures, such as Whitchurch, were partly of timber, with flat or moderately-sloping roofs, built against the walls of the area. In the royal castles, and others the " capita " of estates and seats of the greater barons, great attention was paid to domestic comfort and splendour. The records of the reign contain many sheriffs' accounts for additions or repairs for domestic buildings within the castles, for painting the walls in fresco, or filling the windows with stained glass, all showing a vast growth in taste and luxury. More attention, indeed, was paid to these matters than to the military defences, for the pure castles in time of peace were allowed to fall into dis- repair, and scarcely any garrisons were kept up within them. When a rebellion broke out, and the castles of a district were threatened, the patent and close rolls are filled with orders to