The phrase, it will be seen, corresponds exactly with those employed to describe the castles of Carlisle and Appleby, at the same period:—
"Mès voist au rei Henri, si face sa clamur
Que jo tieng Carduil, le chastel e la tur."
"Li reis out ubblié par itant sa dolur
Quant avait Appelbi, le chastel e la tur."[956]
Having thus established the use of the phrase, let us now pass to its origin.
I would urge that it possesses the peculiar value of a genuine transition form. It preserves for us, as such, the essential fact that there went to the making of the mediæval "castle" two distinct factors, two factors which coalesced so early that the original distinction between them was already being rapidly forgotten, and is only to be detected in the faint echoes of this "transition form."
The two factors to which I refer were the Roman castrum or castellum and the mediæval "motte" or "tour." The former survived in the fortified enclosure; the latter, in the central keep. The Latin word castellum (corresponding with the Welsh caer) continued to be regularly used as descriptive of a fortified enclosure, whether surrounded by walls or earthworks.[957] It is singular how much confusion has resulted from the overlooking of this simple fact and the retrospective application of the denotation of the later "castle." Thus Theodore, in the seventh century, styles the Bishop of Rochester, "Episcopus Castelli Cantuariorum, quod dicitur Hrofesceaster" (Bæda, iv. 5); and Mr. Clark gives several instances, from the eighth and ninth centuries, in which Rochester is alternatively styled a "civitas" and a "castellum."[958] So again, in the ninth century, where the chroniclers, in 876 A.D., describe how "bestæl se here into Werham," etc., Asser and Florence paraphrase the statement by saying that the host "castellum quod dicitur Werham intravit." Now, it is obvious that there could be no "castle" at Wareham in 876, and that even if there had been, an "army" could not have entered it. But when we bear in mind the true meaning of "castellum," at once all is clear. As Professor Freeman observes, "Wareham is a fortified town."[959] Its famous and ancient defences are thus described by Mr. Clark:—
"In figure the town is nearly square, the west face about 600 yards, the north face 650 yards.... The outline of this rectangular figure is an earthwork, within which the town was built."[960]
Such then was the nature of the "castellum," within which the host took shelter.[961] Passing now to a different instance, we find the Greek κώμη ("a village") represented by "castellum" in the Latin Gospels (Matt. xxi. 2), and this actually Englished as "castel" in the English Gospels of 1000 A.D.[962] Here again, confusion has resulted from a misunderstanding.