[1114] This can be positively stated of Baugé, Montrichard, Montboyau, St Florent-le-Vieil, Chateaufort, and Chérament. M. de Salies thinks the motte of Bazonneau, about 500 metres from the ruins of the castle of Montbazon, is the original castle of Fulk Nerra. Histoire de Fulk Nerra, 57. About the other castles the writer has not been able to obtain any information.
[1115] See Halphen, Comté d’Anjou au xiième Siècle, 153.
[1116] The building of Langeais was begun in 994. Chron. St Florent, and Richerius, 274.
[1117] It somewhat shakes one’s confidence in De Caumont’s accuracy that in the sketch which he gives of this keep (Abécédaire, ii., 409) he altogether omits this doorway.
[1118] Measurements were impossible without a ladder.
[1119] It is well known that William the Conqueror left large treasures at his death.
[1120] The keep of Colchester is immensely larger than any keep in existence. Mr Round thinks it was probably built to defend the eastern counties against Danish invasions. Hist. of Colchester Castle, p. 32. Its immense size seems to show that it was intended for a large garrison.
[1121] Cours d’Antiquités Monumentales, v., 152, and Abécédaire, ii., 413-431. De Caumont says of the keep of Colchester, “il me parait d’une antiquité moins certaine que celui de Guildford, et on pourrait le croire du douzième siècle” (p. 205), a remark which considerably shakes one’s confidence in his architectural judgment.
[1122] As only the foundations of Pevensey are left, it gives little help in determining the character of early keeps. It had no basement entrance, and the forebuilding is evidently later than the keep.
[1123] The Tower had once a forebuilding, which is clearly shown in Hollar’s etching of 1646, and other ancient drawings. Mr Harold Sands, who has made a special study of the Tower, believes it to have been a late 12th-century addition.