Romans. They became amalgamated with the inhabitants, and continued much of the civilisation they had acquired from them. Their country houses were built after the form of the Roman villæ. These comprised an outer court, or villa rustica, containing detached buildings for storing corn and other purposes connected with agriculture, and houses for the farm-servants, artificers, and others; while the inner court formed the villa urbana, and was the residence of the proprietor and his family. This arrangement was afterwards followed in the mediæval castles, with their outer and inner wards.
The influence of the Roman forms of plans and design may also be traced in many other directions. A striking example of this is the mediæval monastery, which was, in general plan, a direct imitation of a Roman house. The cloister with its pillars surrounding an open court, having apartments opening off it, is clearly derived from the Roman peristyle of the town house, and the villa urbana of the country mansion—the part of the house reserved for private use. The outer court, with its stables, granaries, etc., corresponds with the villa rustica of the Roman country house. The tablina becomes the chapter-house. The kitchen and refectory are in both cases situated on the outer side of the court. The style of workmanship used in the masonry of buildings erected up to the eleventh century was also of Roman origin. The town of Carcassonne in Languedoc still retains its Roman walls and towers, and traces of Roman works utilised and incorporated in mediæval structures are to be found in the walls of Arles and many other localities in the southern parts of Gaul, where the Roman influence was strongest. In the northern parts of Gaul the destruction of Roman buildings was more complete, owing to the devastation caused by the incessant invasions of the Norsemen.
Under the Carlovingians a similar form of plan for house-building to that of the South, above referred to, was adopted throughout other parts of the Empire, but with modifications in different localities. A large outer court contained all the buildings connected with the cultivation of the soil, and the workshops of the necessary tradesmen; and where a Frankish chief resided there arose in the midst of the court a hall, set upon a mound, which formed the house of the chief and his family. The whole "villa" or castle was enclosed with a ditch and palisade for defence. These establishments were generally on the plain, for the convenience of agricultural pursuits, in which case the hall was set for security on the top of an artificial mound or motte, thrown up from the ditch which was dug around it. In that situation the hall and other erections were generally of wood. Such fortifications were common to the Northmen, both on the Continent and in England. Numerous examples of castles with defences composed of earthen mounds and ditches are illustrated by M. de Caumont in France, and Mr. Clark in England. These were provided with wooden palisades, and the chief's hall was also built in
