Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/33

Rh The entrance is 3 ft. 4 in. broad, 9 ft. high, and about 14 ft. from the ground. It is lined with good ashlar; but with a barrel-vault, round headed, in rubble. The outer portal occupies the whole breadth of the central pilaster, being about 5 ft. wide. It is very slightly but decidedly pointed. There is no portcullis groove, and but one, an outer, door, well strengthened by bar holes. Below the springing are two small holes, now stopped, for an iron bar, rather low for a centring, and possibly connected with a light drawbridge. The door is in the centre of the west face, as is the opposite window of the east face; but the north window is at the west end of its face, about 3 ft. from the corner, and the south window is placed diagonal to it, at a similar distance from the south-east corner. The three windows were all of one pattern.

Besides these openings, there are, at the same level, three mural chambers and a staircase. The principal chamber occupies the south-west angle, and is in plan a right angle with two limbs, like the capital letter L. That in the west wall is 5 ft. 6 in. broad by 14 ft. long: that in the south wall 4 ft. 10 in. broad by 23 ft. long; but as each is measured over the breadth of the other, the total length of the chamber measured on the outer wall, is 37 ft., and measured along the inner wall only 26 ft. 8 in. The chamber is partly lined with chalk ashlar and partly with rubble, and the vault, barrel and round-headed, is of rubble. The vault springs from a plain Norman abacus. The height to the springing is about 7 ft. The outer wall of this chamber, in length 37 ft., has been lined throughout with an arcade, originally of ten arches, of which six remain quite perfect, and of most of the others there are traces. The arcade is of late Norman work, the piers delicate, the caps very highly carved, the arches round-headed. The whole is recessed in the wall, reaches to the springing of the vault, and rests upon a low plinth or dado. There is a loop in the west wall near the north end of the chamber, and another in its south end in the south wall. There is also a third and longer and lower loop at the other end of the south limb, close to and on the right of the priest as he stood before the altar, the place of which at the east end is marked by a bench or step in the wall. One original door was in the west limb, close to the main entrance. In King's time it was perfect, and was round-headed, 2 ft. 4 in. wide and 7 ft. 7 in. high, but it has