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ment which is vaulted in full semicircular form. The entrance to this is strongly guarded by an oaken door, protected by a grill of flat iron bars fastened to its outer side, and moving with the door. A newel stair, or in some cases a straight stone stair in the thickness of the wall, leads to the upper storey; here is the chief apartment, and above it is a second room. Each of these occupy the entire area within the walls. This area is often not more than 19.5 by 13.5 feet. The tower has battlements, and the angles are sometimes finished with turrets, which are machicolated. For the origin of the term see the treatise, Peel: Its meaning and derivation, by George Neilson, Glasgow, 1893."
C. J. Bates, Border Holds of Northumberland, p.60 - "At the present day the word 'pele' is employed by natives of Northumberland to denote, strictly speaking, a small tower of rough masonry with a high pitched roof."
Rev. Anthony Hedley, 1822, Archaeologia Aeliana, vol.i, p.243 - "Within my own recollection, almost every old house in the dales of Rede and Tyne is what is called a Peel house, built for securing its inhabitants and their cattle in moss-trooping times."
Freeman, English Towns and Districts, 1883, p.317 - "The Peel - towers of the Borderland are essentially castles. They show the type of the Norman keep continued on a small scale to a very late time. From the great keep of Newcastle to the least pele-tower which survives as a small part of a modern house, the idea which runs through all is exactly the same. Northumberland has much to show the traveller in many ways, from the Roman Wall onward, but the feature which is specially characteristic is that what is the land of castles."
John Trotter Brockett, A Glossary of North Country Words in use; with Their Etymology, and Affinity to Other Languages; and occasional Notices of Local Customs and Popular Superstitions, 1829, p.228. - "Peel, a place of strength - a fortress or castlelet; contrived equally for the protection of cattle beneath as of a family above, and calculated to prevent a sudden surprise. Sax. Pil, moles. Lat. pela, pelum, a pile or fortress. The word occurs in several ancient charters in Rymers Foedera. Peels were numerous in the Border districts of the North, in times when family feuds and Scotch maraudings rendered ordinary dwellings insecure against predatory attacks. After the union of the Crowns, many of these Peels had modern mansions added to them, and the old towers were gradually suffered to fall into decay.
Invidious rust corrodes the bloody steel;
Dark and dismantled lies each ancient peel;
Afar, at twilight gray, the peasants shun,
The dome accurst, where deeds of blood were done.
Leyden
Peels, properly signify gothic strong-holds, the defences of which are of earth mixed with timber, strengthened with piles or palisades, such as were common on the Continent at a very early period. They are described by Caesar as the fortresses of the Britons."
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