In their discussion of castle life Frances and Joseph Gies drew on the twelfth-century History of the Counts of Guines, by Lambert of Ardres. The castle Lambert described is generally assumed to be the castle of Bouquehault in northeastern France. It was controlled by the, Montgardin family, related to the counts of Guines. No ruins survive.

The castle Lambert of Ardres describes . . . was not one of the newer masonry structures but the old motte-and-bailey timber fort of the tenth century. It had its hall and attendant service rooms (larders, pantry, and buttery) on the secorid floor, above the ground-level storerooms with their boxes and barrels and utensils. Adjoining the hall were "the great chamber in which the lord and lady slept" and "the dormitory of the ladies-in-waiting and children," in other words, the nursery. The attic, designed mainly for the...