Cliff Castles And Cave Dwellings Of Europe

by Sabine Baring-Gould

It has been taken for granted that cave-dwellers belonged to a remote past in civilized 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. . . .

Genres: Nonfiction, History

276 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Sabine Baring-Gould was born in the parish of St Sidwell, Exeter. The eldest son of Edward Baring-Gould and his first wife, Sophia Charlotte (née Bond), he was named after a great-uncle, the Arctic explorer Sir Edward Sabine. Because the family spent much of his childhood travelling round Europe, most of his education was by private tutors. He only spent about two years in formal schooling, first at King's College School in London (then located in Somerset House) and then, for a few months, at Warwick Grammar School (now Warwick School). Here his time was ended by a bronchial disease of the kind that was to plague him throughout his long life. His father considered his ill-health as a good reason for another European tour.

In 1852 he was admitted to Cambridge University, earning the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in 1857, then Master of Arts in 1860 from Clare College, Cambridge. During 1864, he became the curate at Horbury Bridge, West Riding of Yorkshire. It was while acting as a curate that he met Grace Taylor, the daughter of a mill hand, then aged fourteen. In the next few years they fell in love. His vicar, John Sharp, arranged for Grace to live for two years with relatives in York to learn middle class manners. Baring-Gould, meanwhile, relocated to become perpetual curate at Dalton, near Thirsk. He and Grace were married in 1868 at Wakefield. Their marriage lasted until her death 48 years later, and the couple had 15 children, all but one of whom lived to adulthood. When he buried his wife in 1916 he had carved on her tombstone the Latin motto Dimidium Animae Meae ("Half my Soul").

Baring-Gould became the rector of East Mersea in Essex in 1871 and spent ten years there. In 1872 his father died and he inherited the 3,000 acre (12 km²) family estates of Lew Trenchard in Devon, which included the gift of the living of Lew Trenchard parish. When the living became vacant in 1881, he was able to appoint himself to it, becoming parson as well as squire. He did a great deal of work restoring St Peter's Church, Lew Trenchard, and (from 1883 – 1914) thoroughly remodelled his home, Lew Trenchard Manor.

Reviews

[Douglas Summers-Stay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written in 1911. At the time, many people still lived in ancient cave dwellings throughout Europe. Castles were built entirely inside of caves on cliff faces; Robbers hid in secret cave forts; The desperately poor took shelter in caves, and made them homes; monasteries and temples of forbidden religions were dug into the stone. People would find their well water going bad, go down to explore, and find the way into vast underground catacombs. Hermits built homes in remote mountains. Refugees hiding from raiders camped in dug out caves beneath their homes. The cave plans in the book are indistinguishable from those found in D&D modules, and the illustrations look like scenes from Skyrim. Certainly some of this influenced the invention of Hobbiton (e.g. Kinver Edge in Staffordshire) and Moria.
The attitude of the author towards the lower classes who made their home in the caves is appalling to the point of being funny. For example, describing the Tinkers (who worked as itinerant tinsmiths when not in their cave homes) he mentions one attractive young man and young woman, and assumes that, being more highly evolved than their relatives, they will probably manage to get a job and escape the culture of poverty. He points out to one poor Irish woman that the workhouses are really quite comfortable these days, and she shouts at him that if she can manage to find one crust of bread a day she'll never go there. So, yeah, pretty culturally insensitive.
There's a lot of discussion of the caves in Nottingham in particular, which have always fascinated me. Even during Napoleon's time, young men who would otherwise be drafted would disappear into caves in the forests. Several cave castles built by the English army in France are wonderfully depicted as well. It's a fascinating read, but bittersweet, since so much of this had recently been destroyed or was about to be destroyed to make way for railroads and so forth.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains anything you could ever want to know about natural and man-made caves, monasteries, castles, etc., and the people and stories surrounding those places. From ancient history to "modern times" (early 1900's), this book covers it all in great detail and with wonderful organization. Well worth the read! Get it free online at gutenberg.org.

[Mermarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the descriptions depicted in this book, written in the early 1900s, were a bit OOT, where I considered it more of a reference guide, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I was surprised by the elaboration, but it only immersed my visual, I believe.

As with a few other books with indigenous people, the impoverished, or particularly the Gypsies, the authors usually maintain this condescending tone that carries over, even when they're championing them; it calculates it as more or less like a sermon on the default immoral evil of the poor, or unbaptized. I find that deeply troubling, especially where, I imagine, compassion was lacking if, say, the Gypsies had been opposed to baptism.

Another author, such as Charles Godfrey Leland's Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling immediate censure that Gypsies were ultimately Godless heathens and, with great conviction, discerned that they were indeed, without a doubt, Satanic, truly gave me a chuckle or two. His sympathy seemed designed around pity, instead of compassion, and righteously rectifying the Satanic pulse of the Gypsy culture by mingling in their world as a man ahead of his time / up-on-things, was sort of a silent contempt all to its own.

But I read historical documents and reference at face value; without prejudice or bias-ism for the timeline, era and mindset of the people, but I need to fix these people because they're suffering because they're poor, evil, or too stupid to help themselves have gotten a lot of people killed in this world.

I'll just leave that there.

[Marc]

So far, a fascinating book. I thought that "cave dwelling" would be an antiquarian notion even at the time the book was written; however, the entire thing is practically focused on encounters with people who were then living in cave dwellings, and in fairly remarkable cave dwellings at that.