BRITISH CASTLES [Illustration: BODIAM CASTLE, SUSSEX.] BRITISH CASTLES BY CHARLES H. ASHDOWN CONTAINING 32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND A NUMBER OF PLANS AND DIAGRAMS IN THE TEXT [Illustration: A TREBUCHET] LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1911 AGENTS AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK AUSTRALASIA THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA GERMANY, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY,} RUSSIA, } BROCKHAUS AND PEHRSSON SCANDINAVIA, AND } 16 QUERSTRASSE, LEIPZIG GERMAN SWITZERLAND } PREFACE Considering the richness and variety of both technical and popular literature upon Castles generally, it may appear superfluous to send forth another book upon the same subject, and, if investigation had been at a standstill or barren in results during the past decade, criticism would be justified. But much has come to light upon this interesting subject which undoubtedly revolutionises pre-existing ideas, both as to primitive forms of castellation and of those in historic periods. The allocation of the former to approximately definite epochs, and also of two great and important phases of the latter to well-defined periods, are the salient features of late investigations. Unfortunately the ordinary reader is debarred from becoming intimate with these changes of thought, inasmuch as newly acquired discoveries are generally to be found only in the transactions of learned Societies or in disconnected brochures not readily available. To bring these ideas to a focus and present them in such a form that the Man in the Street--undoubtedly a member of the preponderating majority--may readily comprehend them is one of the aims of the writer, while another is to suggest to the ordinary observer that the earthworks in our islands entitle primitive man to be considered with much more respect and consideration than has hitherto been afforded him.