In many instances, towns have grown up in barbarous ages around a place of refuge during war; around a Fortalice or castle, and more frequently around the ford over a river, where the detention of travellers has led to the establishment of a place of entertainment, a blacksmith's or carpenter's shop.
"Roughing it in the Bush"
Susanna Moodie
Lines that diverge like to the spider's joists, Whereon he builds his airy Fortalice?
"The Love-Chase"
James Sheridan Knowles
Such endowment, instead of forming an argument for resignation, would form, on the contrary, an argument for keeping faster hold, in behalf of Protestantism, of the Fortalice of the Establishment; just as if an invading army had possessed itself of the Castle of Dumbarton, with the strongholds of Fort-Augustus and Fort-William, the argument would be all the stronger for the national forces defending with renewed determination the Castles of Stirling and of Edinburgh, and the magnificent defences of Fort-George.
"Leading Articles on Various Subjects"
Hugh Miller