Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/116

98 are described in some of the castles near Caen, but they are probably additions.

The portal seems to have been closed by a hinged door, secured by one or two wooden bars sliding into the wall, as in the lower portal of Dover. At Hedingham are grooves for a portcullis, but this is rather unusual.

The Norman keep is not always quadrangular. Orford is a multangular tower of great solidity, ninety feet high, of small circular area within, and heavily buttressed without. Coningsborough is of the same class: the base story is domed, and the door in the upper story was probably approached by a temporary stair. These keeps seem to be of late Norman date. Tretower, Skinfrith, and Brunlys towers in S. Wales, are probably of the same class. The Cornish circular towers, as Trematon, Launceston, and Restormel, have not been critically examined.

The materials of Norman keeps are usually the rubble-stone of the country, sometimes faced, and always groined and dressed with ashlar. When constructed upon a Roman site, the old materials were employed, and sometimes the herringbone and other old styles of work were introduced. The work is generally good. Coningsborough, both inside and out, is, even now, one of the finest specimens of ashlar extant. The whole interior of Rochester is highly decorated, and the entrance, upper windows, and fire-places, are usually more or less so. The chimney-pieces of Rochester and Coningsborough, and the portal of the latter, are stone platbands, the parts of which are joggled together, and have stood well over a wide space with little or no abutment. Prom its great solidity and simple figure, the Norman keep is more durable than later structures, and continues, as at London, Dover, Bamborough, Rochester, Prudhoe, to give the distinguishing feature to the fortress through every subsequent addition.

The wall of the enciente. The keep occasionally forms a part of the circuit of the Avail, as at Portchester, Rochester, Castleton,