INTRODUCTION 52 15TH CENT. CASTLES defence, gradually did away with the ponderous and gloomy walls which surrounded them, and opened them up for their own pleasure and comfort. At this time also many of the French nobles who had been engaged in the wars in Italy had there seen and appreciated the delightful open villas of that country, and on their return home to France they hastened to make their own castles as like them as possible. They threw down the curtain walls, and erected convenient domestic buildings instead, with large windows, commanding the finest views over the country, without reference to defensive requirements. But the old habits and traditions were not easily overcome, and it was not till the days of Louis xiv. that the symmetrical Italian fagade completely displaced the old mediaeval style. For long the plan and distribution of the apartments remained perfectly French, although the details began gradually to show signs of an Italian feeling. The castles still preserved their complicated entrances, with moat, drawbridges, flanking towers, projecting bartizans, machicolations, etc. But these were not built for the purpose of resisting a siege, but rather in imitation of the features of the feudal fortress, and as symbols of the power and importance which had once belonged to these forti- fications. Hence it resulted that these features, no longer employed for their old uses, but merely for ornament, came to be fancifully disposed, and infinitely multiplied. The covered passages, for instance, formerly required for the service of the machicolations, were still continued, but only used as passages of communication to the various rooms. The great corbels, which formerly carried the overhanging parapet, now only supported an ornamental cornice, and were therefore soon broken up into small and fanciful mouldings. The parapets themselves became mere decorative features, the eaves of the roof being raised to the top of them, and so with all the other features of the mediaeval castle. These Renaissance castles are characteristic of the early part of the sixteenth century. They were generally planned with a chief or inner courtyard, which con- tained the hall, with the domestic apartments of the owner, kitchen, offices, etc., and an outer court for the dependencies, and frequently an enclosed garden. The mansions of this period are still single tenements, i.e. the rooms extend the full width of the building, with windows on each side, and the apartments enter through one another. It was not till the seven- teenth century that double blocks were introduced, with rooms lighted from one side only, and with corridors giving access to the separate apartments. Symmetry and regularity of design were arrived at early in the sixteenth century. The stage had then been reached of merely playing at building feudal
