[225] At Richmond the hall and its adjacent buildings were unusually complete for their date, and the tower-keep was not planned as a dwelling-house. None of our tower-keeps, Porchester excepted, are so purely military in character.
[226] The origin of this term is doubtful; some think it to be a corruption of “barbican”—a work covering the entrance to the house or castle proper. Large outer baileys, as at Ludlow ([96]) and Coucy, correspond to the “barmkins” of the north of England.
[227] At Arundel, Cardiff, and Warwick, mount-and-bailey castles which are still inhabited, the present great halls stand on sites which were doubtless occupied by the original halls built by the founders. All three were largely rebuilt at a later date, and have been further restored in modern times. Warwick was one of the Conqueror’s earliest castles; Arundel was founded before 1086, Cardiff about 1093. A large portion of the enceinte at Cardiff follows the line of the curtain of the Roman station (see Archæologia, lvii. pp. 335-52).
[228] At Boothby Pagnell there is a cylindrical chimney-shaft very similar to that of the hall at Christchurch.
[229] The usual arrangement even in small cottages: cf. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, B. 4022 (the house of the dairy-woman in the Nonne Preestes Tale), “Ful sooty was hir bour, and eek hir halle.”
[230] The word “solar” or “soller” (solarium = a terrace exposed to the sun) was used indiscriminately of any room, gallery, or loft above the ground-level of a building: e.g., the loft or gallery above a chancel-screen was commonly known as a “solar,” and the same word should be applied to the chamber, inaccurately called a “parvise,” on the first floor of a church porch. The word, however, is sometimes applied to a well-lighted parlour facing south, without respect to the floor on which it stands, e.g., the abbot’s solar at Haughmond (Archæol. Journal, lxvi. 307) and at Jervaulx (Yorks. Archæol. Journal, xxi. 337).
[231] Ord. Vit., iv. 19: “Super solarium ... tesseris ludere ceperunt.” The word “solarium” may be used, of course, in this passage with reference merely to the site of the house—i.e., it may mean “the first floor above the ground.” In this case William and Henry may have been playing dice in the hall itself, which, as at Christchurch, may have occupied the whole “solarium.” Robert was evidently outside the house.
[232] Bates, Border Holds of Northumberland attributes the walling, etc., of Warkworth castle “on its present general lines” to Robert, son of Roger (1169-1214), who obtained in 1199, for 300 marks, a confirmation of the grant of the castle and manor from John.
[233] So called in Clarkson’s survey, made in 1567. One explanation of the name is that the tower was similar to one in Carrickfergus castle, on Belfast Lough. Clarkson describes its polygonal form as “round of divers squares.”
[234] This entrance has been blocked, and the modern entrance has been cut through a window-opening, in the adjoining bay to the west.