Hello, In Alan Hollinghurst's novel The Line of Beauty, I find this sentence: He'd been longing for a chance to see the castle -- a marcher fortress with Wyatt interiors. Does anybody know what exactly a marcher fortress is? I find several instances of the term on the internet, but no definition. (A "Wyatt interior" is, I assume, an interior designed by the architect James Wyatt.)
A Marcher fortress was a castle or fortress built in the Welsh or Scottish Marches, the border countries that lie between Wales or Scotland and England. http://www.chirk.com/castle.html And yes, the interiors in the novel are designed by James Wyatt
Could it be aMarcher fortress (capital M)? During the time of the Norman occupation of Britain, the Marches were the districts along the border between England and Wales and the Nobles in charge of these areas were Marcher Lords. They lived in castles, many of which are still standing. These castles are I suppose Marcher fortresses, perhaps the capital M isn't used.
