Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/394

 370 NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS, so dilapidated that the mayor of Newcastle certified it would require 840 stone of lead to make good the covering of the roof: that its timber work was much decayed, and that the glazing of the windows would cost 26s. 8d., and an equal sum for the glaziers' wages. That the hall of the palace was entirely distinct from the keep is further proved by the separate mention made in the survey of the "■ Great Tower," which was also in a ruinous state, as regarded roof, masonry, and timber work. Even the king's chamber was not in the keep. It is described as situated over a cellar, the usual mode of construction in the thirteenth century ; it was built of wood, as the cost of timber and carpentry for its repair is estimated at £10, and 200 stone of lead were needed for the roof. The king's chamber, accord- ing to the plan of building then in fashion, would be contiguous to the hall, and is said to be so in the Inquisition of 1336. Their ruinous state in the 8th of Edward the Third, A.D. 1334, proves that both hall and chamber were built long anterior to that date, probably as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century ; the round windows described as existing in the gables indicate the style of domestic architecture adopted about that time. Mr. Bruce is also wrong in supposing the mural chamber in the second story of the castle, (marked C in plan, pi. iii.,) to have been the " queen's chamber." He seems to have relied for the confirmation of this theory on a passage in the inquisition taken in 1336, printed in Brand, which men- tions " the great hall with the king's chamber adjoining thereto, together with divers other chambers below in Queen's-mantle." The word beloiv cannot mean their situation under the king's chamber, for that, as we learn from the survey of 1334, had a cellar beneath it. It is, therefore, to be understood as referring to the relative situations of the several buildings on the same plane. Now the kitchen was situated in " Queen's-mantle," ac- cording to the survey, therefore that name could not be applied to the queen's chamber : it was in short simply the designation of one of the towers on the enceinte"^, in other words " the mantel-tower." The queen's- chamber at Newcastle, as elsewhere, was probably identical with the king's. It results from these facts, that the king's hall and chamber were buildings entirely separate from the keep, and they were probably built within the outer bailey, where there would naturally be more space for their con- struction. Mr. Bruce took some pains to discover the site of the dungeon in this castle, by boring in the nave, and in the so-called vestry, of the chapel, but without success. Subsequent reflection, he observes, has induced him " to give up the idea of there having been an underground dungeon." He is quite right in arriving at this conclusion. Two pits or dungeons formerly existed in the castle, but they were not in the keep, nor were they under- ground. One of these was called the " Great pit," the other was named, probably after the sheriff" who built it, the " Heron pit." The first was in "■ a certain tower nigh the second door of the loft-floor," the latter was '' See Ducange sub voce " Manlellum.'"