the walls of their ancient deer-parks adjoining. This gave them more privacy and space. Naming While suffixes given to manor houses in recent centuries have little substantive meaning, and many have changed over time, in previous centuries manor names had specific connotations. Court – This suffix came into use in the 16th century and was applied to the buildings where lords would receive their tennants (i.e., "hold court"). Castle – Non-royal castles were generally the residences of feudal barons, whose baronies might comprise several dozen other manors. The manor on which the castle was situated was termed the caput of the barony, thus every true ancient defensive castle was also the manor house of its own manor. The suffix "-Castle" was also used to name certain manor houses, generally built as mock castles, but often as houses rebuilt on the site of a former true castle: Place – The "Place" suffix is likely to have been a shortened form of "Palace", a term commonly used in Renaissance Italy (Palazzo) to denote a residence of the nobility. Park – came into use in the 18th and 19th centuries Manor houses, although mostly forming residences for the lords of the manors on which they were situated, were not historically named with the suffix "Manor", as were many grand country houses built in the 19th century, such as Hughenden Manor or Waddesdon Manor. The usage is often a modern catch-all suffix for an old house on an estate, true manor or not. The German equivalent of a manor house is a Gutshaus (or Gut, Gutshof, Rittergut, Landgut or Bauerngut). Also Herrenhaus and Domäne are common terms. Schloss (pl. Schlösser) is another German word for a building similar to manor house, stately home, château or palace. Other terms used in German are Burg (castle), Festung (fort/fortress) and Palais/Palast (palace). France In France, the terms château or manoir are often used synonymously to describe a French manor house; maison-forte is the appellation for a strongly fortified house, which may include two sets of enclosing walls, drawbridges, and a ground-floor hall or salle basse that was used to receive peasants and commoners. The salle basse was also the location of the manorial court, with the steward or seigneur's seating location often marked by the presence of a crédence de justice or wall-cupboard (shelves built into the stone walls to hold documents and books associated with administration