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An Inexpensive Model of a Medieval Castle
IT IS easy nowadays for the teacher with funds at his disposal to secure good models of many objects which will conduce to the better appreciation of the life, customs and environment of the historic peoples his pupils study. Not all teachers have such a fund, but where there is a manual-training department in the school it is quite feasible to have a number of good models made at practically no expense. Even the one-teacher rural school can secure such materials at a very small expenditure of money, time and effort. For example, a model of a feudal castle can be made (by teacher, or pupils directed by the teacher) for about twenty-five cents — fifty cents at the outside. Of course the collaboration of the pupils will not only tend to eliminate the cost item entirely; but will promote a clearer understanding of the significance of such a model.
To test the practicability of making such a model cheaply, some time ago I made a model of an English castle to illustrate the history of the Norman period. The plans and illustrations may be found in such books as Gross's Antiquities, Vol. L, Gotch's Growth of the House, ch. 1, Viollet-le-Duc's Annals of the Fortress, ch. ix. ; see also the article, "The Development of the Castle in England and Wales" in The History Teacher's Magazine for November, 1912, (II, 191) and Barnard's Companion to English History in the Middle Ages. In case none of these is available to the teacher of the one-room rural school, I submit the following details in the hope that he may profit by my experience.
On a substantial base of cardboard 21 by 30 inches, draw a rectangle 15 by 15. This represents the line of the outer wall. Within draw a square 7 inches by 7. At the corners of the squares the bastions are erected. The accompanying diagram (Fig. I), which is not drawn to scale, gives the ground-plan. The dimensions are approximately: 5 inches from the edge of the cardboard to the moat, which is 2>y2 inches wide; 7 inches from the outer wall to the inner; 6 inches from the inner wall to the castle. Obviously these proportions may be varied to suit the needs of the teacher.
Pasteboard, ink, mucilage, paper, water-colors, tinfoil, cigarette boxes, a bit of cloth, pins, toothpicks and string are all the materials needed ; while knife, scissors, ruler and pencil are the necessary implements.
Around the wall of the outer bailey narrow strips of tinfoil may be pasted to represent the silvery gleam of water in the moat. The wall of the outer bailey (or of both) and that of the castle can be made by standing cigarette boxes on edge, pasting them to the cardboard and to each other. Thin boxes of a rectangular shape answer best, and when you ask your friends to save their empty boxes for you, make sure that they use brands of cigarettes which have tinfoil in the boxes. By cutting a box in half, lengthwise, then fitting two fourths together and standing this square box on end, towers, bastions, etc., are secured. These are also attached with paste, but can be further strengthened by pasting strips of paper to them and to the cardboard base in the manner of a hinge. Strips of paper can be cut as in Figure II and pasted to the tops of the walls to give the
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