Below them lay the castle (if such it should be called) of their father
the Thane of Aescendune. Utterly unlike the castellated buildings which,
at a later period, formed the dwellings of the proud Norman nobility, it
was a low irregular building, the lower parts of which were of stone,
and the upper portions, when there was a second story, of thick timber
from the forest.
A river, from which the evening mist was slowly rising, lay beyond, and
supplied water to a moat which surrounded the edifice, for in those
troublous times few country dwellings lacked such necessary protection.
The memory of the Danish invasions was too recent; the marauders of
either nation still lurked in the far recesses of the forest, and
plundered the Saxon inhabitant or the Danish settler indiscriminately,
as occasion served.
On the inner side of the moat a strong palisade of timber completed the
defence. One portal, opening upon a drawbridge, formed the sole apparent
means of ingress or egress.
Passing the drawbridge unquestioned, the boys entered the courtyard,
around which the chief apartments were grouped. Before them a flight of
stone steps led to the great hall where all the members of the community
took their meals in common, and where, around the great fire, they wiled
away the slow hours of a winter evening.
On each side of the great hall stood the bowers, as the small
dormitories were called, furnished very simply for the use of the higher
domestics with small round tables, common stools, and beds in recesses
like boxes or cupboards.
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