S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould - Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe

Title: Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe

Author: Sabine Baring-Gould

Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8898] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on August 21, 2003]

Edition: 10

Language: English

[Illustration: CLIFF-CASTLE, BRENGUES. In this castle the Bishop of Cahors took refuge from the English, to whom he refused to submit, and in it he died in 1367. It was however captured by the English in 1377.]

"The house i' the rock
... no life to ours."
CYMBELINE III. 3.

When in 1850 appeared the Report of the Secretary of War for the United States, containing Mr. J. H. Simpson's account of the Cliff Dwellings in Colorado, great surprise was awakened in America, and since then these remains have been investigated by many explorers, of whom I need only name Holmes' "Report of the Ancient Ruins in South-West Colorado during the Summers of 1875 and 1876," and Jackson's "Ruins of South- West Colorado in 1875 and 1877." Powell, Newberry, &c., have also described them. A summary is in "Prehistoric America," by the Marquis de Nadaillac, 1885, and the latest contribution to the subject are articles in Scribner's Magazine by E. S. Curtis, 1906 and 1909.

The Pueblos Indians dwell for the most part at a short distance from the Rio Grande; the Zui, however, one of their best known tribes, are settled far from that river, near the sources of the Gila. In the Pueblos country are tremendous caons of red sandstone, and in their sides are the habitations of human beings perched on every ledge in inaccessible positions. Major Powell, United States Geologist, expressed his amazement at seeing nothing for whole days but perpendicular cliffs everywhere riddled with human dwellings resembling the cells of a honeycomb. The apparently inaccessible heights were scaled by means of long poles with lateral teeth disposed like the rungs of a ladder, and inserted at intervals in notches let into the face of the perpendicular rock. The most curious of these dwellings, compared to which the most Alpine chalet is of easy access, have ceased to be occupied, but the Maqui, in North-West Arizona, still inhabit villages of stone built on sandstone tables, standing isolated in the midst of a sandy ocean almost destitute of vegetation.

The cause of the abandonment of the cliff dwellings has been the diminished rainfall, that rendering the land barren has sent its population elsewhere. The rivers, the very streams, are dried up, and only parched water-courses show where they once flowed.

"The early inhabitants of the region under notice were wonderfully skilful in turning the result of the natural weathering of the rocks to account. To construct a cave-dwelling, the entrance to the cave or the front of the open gallery was walled up with adobes, leaving only a small opening serving for both door and window. The cliff houses take the form and dimensions of the platform or ledge from which they rise. The masonry is well laid, and it is wonderful with what skill the walls are joined to the cliff, and with what care the aspect of the neighbouring rocks has been imitated in the external architecture." [Footnote: Nadaillac, "Prehistoric America," Lond. 1885, p. 205.]

In Asia also these rock-dwellings abound. The limestone cliffs of Palestine are riddled with them. They are found also in Armenia and in Afghanistan. At Bamian, in the latter, "the rocks are perforated in every direction. A whole people could put up in the 'Twelve Thousand Galleries' which occupy the slopes of the valley for a distance of eight miles. Isolated bluffs are pierced with so many chambers that they look like honeycombs." [Footnote: Reclus, "Asia," iii. p. 245.]

That Troglodytes have inhabited rocks in Africa has been known since the time of Pliny.

But it has hardly been realised to what an extent similar cliff dwellings have existed and do still exist in Europe.

In 1894, in my book, "The Deserts of Southern France," I drew attention to rock habitations in Dordogne and Lot, but I had to crush all my information on this subject into a single chapter. The subject, however, is too interesting and too greatly ramified to be thus compressed. It is one, moreover, that throws sidelights on manners and modes of life in the past that cannot fail to be of interest. The description given above of cliff dwellings in Oregon might be employed, without changing a word, for those in Europe.

To the best of my knowledge, the theme of European Troglodytes has remained hitherto undealt with, though occasional mention has been made of those on the Loire. It has been taken for granted that cave-dwellers belonged to a remote past in civilised Europe; but they are only now being expelled in Nottinghamshire and Shropshire, by the interference of sanitary officers.

Elsewhere, the race is by no means extinct. In France more people live underground than most suppose. And they show no inclination to leave their dwellings. Just one month ago from the date of writing this page, I sketched the new front that a man had erected to his paternal cave at Villiers in Loir et Cher. The habitation was wholly subterranean, but then it consisted of one room alone. The freshly completed face was cut in freestone, with door and window, and above were sculptured the aces of hearts, spades, and diamonds, an anchor, a cogwheel and a fish. Separated from this mansion was a second, divided from it by a buttress of untrimmed rock, and this other also was newly fronted, occupied by a neat and pleasant-spoken woman who was vastly proud of her cavern residence. "Mais c'est tout ce qu'on peut dsirer. Enfin on s'y trouve trs bien."

Formation of chalkOf dolomitic limestoneWhere did the first men liveTheir Eden in the chalk landsMigration elsewherePit dwellingsCivilisation stationaryTroglodytesAntiquity of manLes EyziesHtel du ParadisThe first colonists of the Vzre Valley Their artistic accomplishmentsPainting and sculptureRock dwellings in ChampagneOf a later periodCivilisation does not progress uniformlyThe earthBook of the Revelation of the pastLa Laugerie BasseBlandasConduchGrotte de HanThe race of Troglodytes not extinct

Troglodytes of the Etang de BerreThe underground town of Og, King of
BashanTroSanitationAncient mode of disposing of refuseThe
talking wellLes RochesChateau de BandanChapel of S. GervaisLa
Grotte des ViergesRochambeauLe Roi des HallesLa Roche Corbon
Human refuse at EzySaumurAre there still pagans among them?
BourrCourtineauThe basket-makers of VillainesGrioteauxSauliac
CuzornBrantmeLa Roche BeaucourtThe Swabian AlbSibyllen loch
Vrena Beutlers HhleSchillingslochSchlssberg HhleRock village
in SicilyIn the CrimeaIn EgyptIn volcanic brecciaBalmes de
MontbrunGrottoes de BoissireGrottoes de JonasThe rock Ceyssac
The sandstone cave-dwellings of CorrzeTheir internal arrangement
CluseauxCave-dwellings in EnglandIn NottinghamshireIn
StaffordshireIn CornwallIn ScotlandThe savage in manReversion
to savageryThe GubbinsA stone-cutterDaniel GumbA gentleman of
SensToller of Clun Downs

Prussian invasion of BohemiaAdersbach and Wickelsdorf labyrinths Refuges of the IsraelitesGauls suffocated in caves by Csar Armenians by CorbuloStory of Julius SabinusSaracen invasionThe devastation of Aquitaine by PepinRock refuges in QuercyThe NorthmenPersecution of the AlbigensesThe cave of LombriveThe English domination of GuyenneTwo kinds of refugesSaint Macaire AlbanRefuge of Chteau RobinExplorationMethods of defence Souterrain of FayrolleOf Saint GaudericOf FaurouxOf Olmie AubeterreRefuges under castlesEnormous number of souterrains in FranceVictor Hugo's account of those in BrittanyRefuges resorted to in the time of the European WarThose in PicardyGapennesSome comparatively modernCondition of the peasantry during the Hundred Years' WarTyranny of the noblesTheir barbaritiesRefuges in IrelandIn EnglandThe Dene Holesat ChislehurstAt TilburyTheir originFogous in CornwallRefuges in HaddingtonshireIn Egg Slaughter of the MacdonaldsRefuges in the Isle of RathlinMassacre by John NorrisRefuges in CreteChristians suffocated in one by the TurksLamorciere in Algeria......