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Castles |
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| The Kitchen | The Chapel |
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By the later 13th century, the castle had achieved a considerable degree of comfort, convenience, and privacy. The lord and lady, who had begun by eating and sleeping in the great hall with their household, had gradually withdrawn to their own apartments. A century later, in Piers Plowman, William Langland lamented at this change, and blamed technology: the wall fireplace, with its draft chimney, which freed the household from huddling around the central hearth of the old days:
"Woe is in the
hall each day in the week.
There the lord and lady like not to sit.
Now every rich man eats by himself
In a private parlor to be rid of poor men,
Or in a chamber with a chimney
And leaves the great hall."
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The Harlech Castle of Wales |
