before
the Conquest.[657] To the lower chambers of those gloomy keeps there was
no admission of light or air except through long narrow loop-holes and
an aperture in the roof. Regular windows were made in the upper
apartments. Were it not for the vast thickness of the walls, and some
marks of attention both to convenience and decoration in these
structures, we might be induced to consider them as rather intended for
security during the transient inroad of an enemy than for a chieftain's
usual residence. They bear a close resemblance, except by their circular
form and more insulated situation, to the peels, or square towers of
three or four stories, which are still found contiguous to ancient
mansion-houses, themselves far more ancient, in the northern
counties,[658] and seem to have been designed for places of refuge.

In course of time, the barons who owned these castles began to covet a
more comfortable dwelling. The keep was either much enlarged, or
altogether relinquished as a place of residence except in time of siege;
while more convenient apartments were sometimes erected in the tower of
entrance, over the great gateway, which led to the inner ballium or
court-yard. Thus at Tunbridge Castle, this part of which is referred by
Mr. King to the beginning of the thirteenth century, there was a room,
twenty-eight feet by sixteen, on each side of the gateway; another above
of the same dimensions, with an intermediate room over the entrance; and
one large apartment on the second floor occupying the whole space, and
intended for state. The windows in this class of castles were still
little better than loop-holes on the basement story, but in the upper
rooms often large and beautifully ornamented, though always looking
inwards to the court. Edward I. introduced a more splendid and
convenient style of castles, containing many habitable towers, with
communicating apartments. Conway and Carnarvon will be familiar
examples. The next innovation was the castle-palace--of which Windsor,
if not quite the earliest, is the most magnificent instance. Alnwick,
Naworth, Harewood, Spofforth, Kenilworth, and Warwick, were all built
upon this scheme during the fourteenth century, but subsequent
enlargements have rendered caution necessary to distinguish their
original remains. "The odd mixture," says Mr. King, "of convenience and
magnificence with cautious designs for protection and defence, and with
the inconveniences of the former conf