izabeth and the early Stuarts; but art was declining, a
crumbling taste causing disintegration of the sense of real beauty and
refinement of detail. A creeping paralysis set in later, and the end
came swiftly when the dark days of the eighteenth century blotted out
even the memory of a great past. And yet during all this time the
people, the poor and middle classes, the yeomen and farmers, were ever
building, building, quietly and simply, untroubled by any thoughts
of style, of Gothic art or Renaissance; hence the cottages and
dwellings of the humblest type maintained in all their integrity the
real principles that made medieval architecture great. Frank, simple,
and direct, built for use and not for the establishment of
architectural theories, they have transmitted their messages to the
ages and have preserved their beauties for the admiration of mankind
and as models for all time.

[Illustration: Wilney Street Burford]

CHAPTER V

OLD CASTLES

Castles have played a prominent part in the making of England. Many
towns owe their existence to the protecting guard of an old fortress.
They grew up beneath its sheltering walls like children holding the
gown of their good mother, though the castle often proved but a harsh
and cruel stepmother, and exacted heavy tribute in return for partial
security from pillage and rapine. Thus Newcastle-upon-Tyne arose about
the early fortress erected in 1080 by Robert Curthose to guard the
passage of the river at the Pons Aelii. The poor little Saxon village
of Monkchester was then its neighbour. But the castle occupying a fine
strategic position soon attracted townsfolk, who built their houses
'neath its shadow. The town of Richmond owes its existence to the
lordly castle which Alain Rufus, a cousin of the Duke of Brittany,
erected on land granted to him by the Conqueror. An old rhyme tells
how he

Came out of Brittany
With his wife Tiffany,
And his maid Manfras,
And his dog Hardigras.

He built his walls of stone. We must not imagine, however, that an
early Norman castle was always a vast keep of stone. That came later.
The Normans called their earliest strongholds _mottes_, which
consisted of a mound with stockades and a deep ditch and a
bailey-court also defended by a ditch and stockades. Instead of the
great stone keep of later days, "foursquare to every wind that blew,"
there was a wooden tower for the shelter of the garrison. You can