BR 1-02: The Story of Castle

This story show that why people need castles and why castle go out fashion.

Only 1000 years ago, real lords and ladies lived in castle. The reason why the first castle was built was the first castle was built is to protects knights of the lord who fight against the enemy who came from the north country. The first castle have hall where everyone could eat, a chapel to pray for victory and stables for the horses the knights get on. The castle surrounded by a high fence. A bridge led up the hill to a wooden tower where the knights could live. Every lord wanted one. But the lords realized wooden castles had drawbacks. The plain fact was wood was no good. Wood rots so quickly and burns too easily. Then, lords thought that we should build a castle made of stone. Building a castle could take many years. There were always lords who wanted to try something different. Whatever they built, lords built big. Their castles looked magnificent. But,visitors soon found out, living one was not so great. In fact, it was dark, noisy, could and often smelly. Most windows were tiny, to keep out attackers. Lords built stronger gatehouses to protect a castle's main entrance. Heavy iron gates rattled down to block off either end of the gatehouse. Holes were left in the gatehouse roof, for soldiers to throw stones and arrows through. One the top of their castles, lords had battlements. Lords built a long wooden cabin along one side. This had gaps in the floor for soldiers to throw down boiling hot rocks. So, everyone wanted one and most castles had a wooden extension of some kind. Then, they built them again in stone. The next castles to be built had walls within walls. Life was twice as hard for any attackers trying to break in. These latest castles were better inside as well. The extra walls had lots of towers, all with rooms, so visitors could stay. Then there were the lord's right-hand men, his stewards. They took charge of cook, clerks, carpenters, cleaners, ushers, gardeners and grooms. And there were blacksmiths to make weapons, carpenters to build and fix furniture, and huntsmen to catch food. Ever so often, one lord would take a liking to another lord's castle and its land and try to take them by force. So, secret passages were often built into castle and could also use the passage to send lord's knights on a surprise attack. the cannon was invented. It was soon strong enough to blast holes in the biggest castle. Then lords stopped fighting each other and banded together to fight other countries. Finally, lords and ladies decided they did not want to live in cold, dark, noisy castles. They wanted grand homes instead. So, they stopped building castles altogether. Castles had their stones stolen for new buildings, or were simply left to collapse. Hundreds of years went by until today, very few castle are lived in at all. Some have completely disappeared.
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