Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/31

Rh parapets the angle turrets seem to have been of ashlar. There is no string-course, shelf, or set-off upon the face of the wall. The west central pilaster, being pierced by the entrance, is mainly of ashlar, as is the pilaster and adjacent wall, about the north-east angle of the building, where the gate of the ward seems, from traces in the masonry, to have abutted. Here, too, the joints being very wide, are made good with single or double rows of thin ordinary bright red roofing tiles. The base of the east face was repaired about forty years ago, and now has a modern ashlar plinth of about 15 ft. high. The ashlar within reach on the other faces has been pillaged, and the base of the wall generally is very hollow and ragged. The hearting of the walls throughout seems composed of chalk and Bargate stone, very roughly laid and grouted.

The walls are everywhere pierced with putlog holes, about 4 in. square, indications of the method of construction, and probably originally but loosely stopped, to allow the work to dry, and for the convenience of future repairs. There are no large holes above, and no signs of a bretache having been employed. Four double windows on the upper floor and one on the east face of the middle floor, though original, have been fitted up with cut brick mullions and arches, of perhaps two hundred years ago, the work no doubt of the first purchaser. All earlier alterations seem to have been effected in stone.

Having thus disposed of the general exterior of the keep, the next step is to describe its interior details. Allowing for the removed plinth or casing, three of the faces are about 11 ft. thick, and the fourth or east about 14, so that the interior dimensions are 24 ft. north and south, by 27 ft. east and west. The building is composed of a basement, and two upper stories, and the floors and roof were of timber. There is no evidence of any subterranean chamber, and no reason for supposing one.

The basement, on the level of the top of the mound, is about 12 feet high. The walls are pierced in the centre of the north and south faces with a round headed recess 5 ft. wide, and about the same height to the springing. The sides and vaulted roof converge to an exterior loop, and the base is stepped up to it. The work is good plain rubble. The east and west walls were originally solid, and the only