Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe | Page 2

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 désirer. Enfin on
s'y trouve très bien."

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PREHISTORIC CAVE-DWELLERS

Formation of chalk--Of dolomitic limestone--Where did the first men
live--Their Eden in the chalk lands--Migration elsewhere--Pit
dwellings--Civilisation stationary--Troglodytes--Antiquity of man--Les
Eyzies--Hôtel du Paradis--The first colonists of the Vézère Valley--
Their artistic accomplishments--Painting and sculpture--Rock
dwellings in Champagne--Of a later period--Civilisation does not
progress uniformly--The earth--Book of the Revelation of the past--La
Laugerie Basse--Blandas--Conduché--Grotte de Han--The race of
Troglodytes not extinct

CHAPTER II
MODERN TROGLODYTES
Troglodytes of the Etang de Berre--The underground town of Og, King
of Bashan--Trôo--Sanitation--Ancient mode of disposing of
refuse--The talking well--Les Roches--Chateau de Bandan--Chapel of S.
Gervais--La Grotte des Vierges--Rochambeau--Le Roi des Halles--La
Roche Corbon-- Human refuse at Ezy--Saumur--Are there still pagans
among them?-- Bourré--Courtineau--The basket-makers of
Villaines--Grioteaux--Sauliac --Cuzorn--Brantôme--La Roche
Beaucourt--The Swabian Alb--Sibyllen loch-- Vrena Beutlers
Höhle--Schillingsloch--Schlössberg Höhle--Rock village in Sicily--In
the Crimea--In Egypt--In volcanic breccia--Balmes de
Montbrun--Grottoes de Boissière--Grottoes de Jonas--The rock
Ceyssac-- The sandstone cave-dwellings of Corrèze--Their internal
arrangement-- Cluseaux--Cave-dwellings in England--In
Nottinghamshire--In Staffordshire--In Cornwall--In Scotland--The
savage in man--Reversion to savagery--The Gubbins--A
stone-cutter--Daniel Gumb--A gentleman of Sens--Toller of Clun
Downs

CHAPTER III

SOUTERRAINS
Prussian invasion of Bohemia--Adersbach and Wickelsdorf labyrinths--
Refuges of the Israelites--Gauls suffocated in caves by Cæsar--
Armenians by Corbulo--Story of Julius Sabinus--Saracen invasion--The
devastation of Aquitaine by Pepin--Rock refuges in Quercy--The
Northmen--Persecution of the Albigenses--The cave of Lombrive--The
English domination of Guyenne--Two kinds of refuges--Saint
Macaire-- Alban--Refuge of Château Robin--Exploration--Methods of
defence-- Souterrain of Fayrolle--Of Saint Gauderic--Of Fauroux--Of
Olmie-- Aubeterre--Refuges under castles--Enormous number of
souterrains in France--Victor Hugo's account of those in
Brittany--Refuges resorted to in the time of the European War--Those
in Picardy--Gapennes--Some comparatively modern--Condition of the
peasantry during the Hundred Years' War--Tyranny of the
nobles--Their barbarities--Refuges in Ireland--In England--The Dene
Holes--at Chislehurst--At Tilbury--Their origin--Fogous in
Cornwall--Refuges in Haddingtonshire--In Egg-- Slaughter of the
Macdonalds--Refuges in the Isle of Rathlin--Massacre by John
Norris--Refuges in Crete--Christians suffocated in one by the
Turks--Lamorciere in Algeria. . . . . .

CHAPTER IV
CLIFF REFUGES
Distinction between souterrain and cliff refuges--How these latter were
reached--Gazelles--Peuch Saint Sour--Story of S. Sour--The Roc
d'Aucor --Exploration--How formerly reached--Boundoulaou--Riou
Ferrand--Cliff refuge near Brengues--Les Mées--Fadarelles--Puy
Labrousse--Soulier-de- Chasteaux--Refuges in
Auvergne--Meschers--In Ariège--The Albigenses-- Caves in
Derbyshire--Reynard's cave--Cotton's cave--John Cann's cave-- Elford's
cave on Sheep's Tor.... 103-116

CHAPTER V
CLIFF CASTLES. THE ROUTIERS
The seigneural castle--Protection sought against the foes without and
against the peasant in revolt--Instance of the Château Les Eyzies--
Independence of the petty nobles--Condition of the country in France--
In Germany--Weakness of the Emperor--The Raubritter--Italy--The
nobles brought into the towns--Their towers--Division of the subject--
Difference between the English manor-house and the foreign feudal
castle--The English in France--The Hundred Years' War--Hopeless
condition of the people--The Free Companies--How recruited--Crusade
against the Albigenses--Barons no