NORMAN BUILDERS
The Normans were soldiers and rulers and great builders too. With the
white stone, which they found in their own land, they built magnificent
cathedrals, abbeys and churches, for they were cunning craftsmen and
dreamers.
The Cathedral was vast and grand, with its stately pillars and roof so
lofty that it was lost in dim shadows. The master mason, who planned
it, took great joy in building and often travelled far to see the works
of other men. There are pictures of him with his cap on his head, the
sign that he was a master, and his compass in his hand.
All the years of his life, the ironmaster laboured to cast a beautiful
peal of bells. One old man died of joy on the day that his bells were
first rung, for they were almost perfect.
The Normans, who came to England, did not forget their art. They built
Ely Cathedral in the midst of the Fens, and Durham, overlooking the
river. "You might see churches rise in every village and monasteries in
the towns and cities, built after a style unknown before," says William
of Malmesbury.
At first, they built of the rough stone found in the quarries worked by
the Romans in other days. Woods were cut down to give fuel for the
lime-kilns, and machines were devised for lifting blocks of stone,
roads and even waterways were made for this great traffic.
[Illustration: ARCHITECT AND BUILDERS]
[Illustration: BUILDING A CHURCH IN THE 15TH CENTURY]
[Illustration: IMAGINARY PICTURE OF THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE OF
JERUSALEM, SHOWING GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE]
So much work was there for the masons that there were not skilled
craftsmen enough in the land to do all that was needed. As the years
went by and the people gave to the Church of their riches, more new
buildings were made and yet more decoration was used. Organs were built
and stained glass of lovely hues was put in the windows, orange and
blue and red, colours so rich they seemed almost to have caught and
held the sunlight.
A monk, who was also an artist, wrote "Man's eye knoweth not whereon to
gaze; if he look up at the vaults, they are as mantles embroidered with
spring flowers; if he regard the walls, there is a manner of paradise;
if he consider the light streaming through the windows, he marvelleth
at the priceless beauty of the glass and at the variety of this most
precious work."
So full of riches were these buildings that S. Bernard, and other
preachers too, called to the monks to remember their vows of poverty
and to return to humbler dwellings like those they had once built where
they might worship God.
Round the Saxon earthworks, the Normans built strong walls that they
might hold them against foreign foe or angry neighbour. By the rivers
and on high rocks, they made great keeps or towers, first of timber,
later of stone, where they could withdraw if pressed by foes. The stone
walls were often 13 feet thick and round about there was a deep moat.
The doorway was of stout oak barred with iron. Over this, they would
drop the portcullis, a single grate of iron, worked from a chamber
above by cords and chains round a windlass. Across the moat, they flung
a drawbridge, which could be raised at pleasure. There were only a few
rooms in the keep, storerooms below and chambers in the two stories
above, for the Norman lord only sought shelter there in times of siege.
In such a tower, he was safe enough if he had plenty of food and a
well, secure from the enemy.
Sometimes the Normans built strong walls and another moat round about
the keep, and towers where they kept watch by night and day, looking
towards the four quarters of heaven lest an enemy should surprise them.
Much later, when the lord brought his family and soldiers to live in
the castle, they made it still larger. Storerooms and stables were
built round the courtyard and above these were the chambers of the lord
and his followers. Here was a fine larder and a kitchen where the ox
and wild boar were roasted whole and the mead was brewed and brown
bread baked.
There was a great hall where everyone dined and where the servants
slept at night. The floor was strewn with rushes, for there were no
carpets until the days of Queen Eleanor, and then they were hung on the
damp cold walls or put on the tables. Down the centre of the room ran a
long table, sometimes fixed to the floor, sometimes on trestles, with
wooden benches on either side, covered with osier matting. Under the
table, the dogs gathered to gnaw the bones that were flung to them. For
the meat was carried round on a spit and each man helped himself with a
knife from his girdle.
[Illustration: A SIEGE]
[Illustration: GATEWAY AND DRAWBRIDGE]
So strong were these castles that, though the enemy used a ram, it was
almost impossible to make a breach in the walls. If they brought
scaling ladders, it was difficult to climb when the moat ran below and
the archers shot from the ramparts. If they mined beneath the rock, the
defenders could make a counter-mine. The besiegers could bring
catapults to hurl heavy stones upon the walls, and siege towers to
shoot their arrows high. These attacks were usually in vain, for the
garrison of a castle only surrendered when there was famine.
These were days of great strife and turmoil, and strong was the King in
whose reign it was said that "a man might travel through his realm with
his bosom full of gold, unhurt."