T. E. Lawrence’s Undergraduate Dissertation – Page 50

large and square, to be closed with heavy hinged louvre-boards or shutters against arrows or stones from outside. These shutters were used, till machicoulis were invented, on the merlons of the parapet. Some of the towers stand on square bases (Plan. 4.) of the height of some eight feet : and each tower was cut off from the chemin de ronde of its curtain by a gap which could be filled in peace time with a movable bridge (Plan. 3.) The little door of entry was also strongly barred, and so the towers are, if necessary, a series of independent fortresses. If their small size made them worthless as a last resort, at least they were effectual barriers against surprise : and they gave moral support to their defenders, who were freed from the necessity of guarding their flank and rear. It is calculated that there must have been rather more than 30 such towers in the wall of Carcassonne. A tradition of castle-building in stone existed in other parts of Europe also. In Germany Niestius of Trier built a castle with thirty towers for the protection and oppression of his people, and in Italy there were many stone castles new-built, and more adapted from Roman edifices of some sort. Yet probably as a general rule these may be considered as grand exceptions. The ordinary fortress of the Dark Ages, indeed down to the middle of the 11th century, was a mound or hill-ditch cut in the soil,