Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/56

 INTRODUCTION 36 13TH CENT. DONJONS besides the donjon (or place of retreat in danger), the hall, where the master and his retainers all lived and had their meals together, with the kitchen, buttery, and pantry at one end, and the lord's chamber or " solar " at the other, generally on an upper floor above a cellar. FIG. 29. Tour du Pont, Villeneuve. The donjons were planned with great diversity of arrangements for secrecy ; they were not occupied in time of peace, and no strangers were admitted to them. Roche Guyon, between Paris and Rouen, is a good example of the care taken in the defence of the donjon. The habitable castle is built at the base of a lofty chalk cliff close to the Seine, and the donjon on the summit is approached by subterranean passages cut through the rock, which have stairs and pitfalls in them. From these the passage ascends to the rampart of the outer wall ; it crosses thence to the rampart of the inner defending wall or chemise of the donjon by a moveable wooden bridge, and from the chemise to the door of the donjon by another moveable bridge. The north side of this donjon being over-