[1144] De Caumont says these remains are on a motte, a strange statement, as they are only a foot or two above the surrounding level.
[1145] No stone castles in England are known to have been built by William Rufus; he built Carlisle Castle, but probably only in wood. As we have seen, several Welsh castles were built in his time, but all in earth and timber.
[1146] Built by Archbishop William of Corbeuil. Gervase of Canterbury, R. S., ii., 382.
[1147] Robert de Torigny, also called Robert de Monte, was Abbot of Mont St Michael during the lifetime of Henry II., and was a favoured courtier whose means of obtaining information were specially good. French writers are in the habit of discounting his statements, because they do not recognise the almost universal precedence of a wooden castle to the stone building, which when it is recognised, completely alters the perspective of castle dates. See [Appendix Q].
[1148] The keep of Caen, which was square, was demolished in 1793. De Caumont, Cours d’Antiquités, v., 231. The keep of Alençon is also destroyed. There are fragments of castles at Argentan, Exmes, and St Jean-le-Thomas. The keep of Vernon or Vernonnet is embedded in a factory. Guide Joanne, p. 6.
[1149] The writer has also visited Vire and Le Mans, but even if the walls of the keep of Vire, of which only two sides remain, were the work of Henry I., the details, such as the corbelled lintel, the window benches, and the loop in the basement for a crossbow, point to a later period. At Le Mans, to the north of the cathedral, is a fragment of an ancient tower, built of the rudest rubble, with small quoins of ashlar; this may be the keep built by William I., which Wace says was of stone and lime (p. 234, Andresen’s edition). It is difficult to examine, being built up with cottages. Domfront, like Langeais, is only a fragment, consisting of two walls and some foundations.
[1150] Dictionnaire de l’Architecture.
[1151] M. M. A., i., 186.
[1152] In speaking of Falaise, of course we only mean the great square keep, and not the Little Donjon attached to it at a later period, nor the fine round keep added by Talbot in the 15th century.
[1153] Small spaces, such as the chapel, passages, and mural chambers, are vaulted in most keeps.