base-court

Thus stationed, nobody could enter or leave the Castle without his observation, and most anxiously did he study the garb and countenance of every horseman, as, passing from under the opposite Gallery-tower, they paced slowly, or curveted, along the tilt-yard, and approached the entrance of the base-court.

Kenilworth 2004

The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure enclosed seven acres, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by a pleasure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the rest formed the large base-court or outer yard of the noble Castle.

Kenilworth 2004

When he reached the base-court, appearances were the same — domestics, retainers, and under-officers stood together and whispered, bending their eyes towards the windows of the Great Hall, with looks which seemed at once alarmed and mysterious.

Kenilworth 2004

Horses in the meanwhile neighed and champed the bits with impatience in the base-court; hounds yelled in their couples; and yeomen, rangers, and prickers lamented the exhaling of the dew, which would prevent the scent from lying.

Kenilworth 2004

The mound on which the keep stands, and the banks that enclose a base-court about seven hundred and ten feet long and three hundred and eighty feet wide, have been little harmed or altered and are still in a very perfect condition; but the moat that once surrounded them has been partly filled in.

Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts Rosalind Northcote

From this the ground rises very quick, and, through a passage of seven feet wide, you ascend the covered way betwixt two walls, which are pierced with narrow windows for observation, and yet cover the communication between the base-court and the keep or dungeon.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 553, June 23, 1832 Various

On the North side of your base-court you shall build your Stables, Oxe-house, Cow-house, and Swine-coates, the dores and windowes opening all to the South.

The English Husbandman The First Part: Contayning the Knowledge of the true Nature of euery Soyle within this Kingdome: how to Plow it; and the manner of the Plough, and other Instruments Gervase Markham

The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure inclosed seven acres, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by a pleasure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the rest formed a large base-court, or outer yard, of the noble Castle.

From John O'Groats to Land's End Robert Naylor

It is in the chief approach to my house, so that under my eyes are my garden, my base-court, my yard, and even the best rooms of my house.

The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics Various 1910

‘No, ’ replied the niece, ‘no; you ought not to pardon any of them, seeing they have all been offenders: it is better you throw them all into the base-court, and there make a pile of them, and then set them a-fire; if not, they may be carried into the yard, and there make a bonfire of them, and the smoke will offend nobody.

The First Part. VI. Of the Pleasant and Curious Search Made by the Curate and the Barber of Don Quixote’s Library 1909