a fortress, or place rendered defensible either by nature or art. It frequently signifies with us the principal mansion of noblemen. In the time of Henry II., there were no less than 1115 castles in England, each of which contained a manor.

in ancient writers, denotes a town or village surrounded with a ditch and wall, furnished with towers at intervals, and guarded by a body of troops. The word is originally Latin, castrum, a diminutive from castrum. Castrum originally seems to have signified a smaller fort for a little garrison; though Suetonius uses the word where the fortification was large enough to contain a cohort. The castella, according to Vegetius, were often like towns, built on the borders of the empire, and where there were constant guards and fences against the enemy. Horace takes them for much the same with what were otherwise denominated stations.

or Castle-field, is also an appellation given by the country-people in the north to the Roman castra, as distinguished from the castra stativa which they usually call castella. Horace represents this as an useful criterion, whereby to discover or distinguish a Roman camp or station. There are several of these castella on Severus's wall; they are generally 60 feet square; their north side is formed by the wall itself which falls in with them; the intervals between them are from six furlongs and an half to seven; they seem to have stood close where the stations are widest. The neighbouring people call them castles or castle-fields, by which it seems probable that their ancient Latin name had been castellum. Some modern writers call them mile-castles, or military castella; Horace sometimes exploratory castles. In these castella the armies had their stations, who were an order of men whose business was to make incursions into the enemies country, and give intelligence of their motions.

in the seafaring language, is a part of the ship, of which there are two: the forecastle, being the elevation at the prow, or the uppermost deck, towards the mizen, the place where the kitchens are. Hindcastle is the elevation which reigns on the stern, over the last deck, where the officers cabins and places of assembly are.

(Edmund). See CASTEL.