[125] See note [122] on p. 100.
[126] A curtain is said to be flanked when its line is broken at intervals by projections, so near one another that the whole face of the piece of curtain between them can be covered by the fire of the defenders stationed in them.
[127] Much of the curtain of Lancaster castle is of fairly early date. For the supposed Roman origin of the castle and its probable history, see note [354] on p. 327 below.
[128] These additions have given rise to the common theory that this hall is a work of late twelfth century date.
[129] Other examples of early stone halls will be mentioned in a later chapter.
[130] This is very noticeable in Shropshire, where a large number of parish churches, to which rectors were presented and instituted in the ordinary way, are described as free chapels in the registers of the bishops of Lichfield and Hereford during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
[131] See Pat. Rolls, 18 Rich. II., pt. 1, m. 28; 3 Hen. IV., pt. 1, m. 6.
[132] Pat. 2 Edw. III., pt. 2, m. 4. The walls of this chapel, dedicated to St Peter, remain. In the fifteenth century it was enlarged as far as the west curtain by a western annexe, and in the sixteenth century it was divided into two floors, the upper floor being the court-house, and the lower floor the record-room of the court of the Marches.
[133] Pat. 2 Edw. II., pt. 2, m. 24.
[134] The word keep is a comparatively modern term, unknown to medieval castle-builders, to whom this part of the castle was the donjon or dungeon, or the great tower.