Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/58

44 in the circuit of the wall; that of Tutbury, Staffordshire, and Pevensey, Sussex, are close to the outer wall; the keeps of Porchester and Goodrich form a part of the enclosure, as do both the subjects of the present paper, and the circular keep of Barnard Castle, Durham. The keep of Rochester is very near the boundary wall, while the mottes of Builth and Cardiff are nearer to one side of the area than the other. Sometimes walls pass from the keep to the boundary wall, so as to cut off a separate area, as at Pickering, Yorkshire, and Tretwr, Breconshire. The ground-floor of keeps is, I believe, almost universally devoted to the purposes of a store room, perhaps of a dungeon, and the entrance is at the first floor either by a door in a projecting tower, with an inclined ascent and draw- bridge, as at Newcastle, Rochester, and Loches in France, (which from the drawings which I have seen, remarkably resembles Rochester,) or the door is in the body of the building, and approached by steps either permanent or moveable. There was sometimes an independent entrance to the ground-floor, as at Newcastle and Bamborough, Northumberland, and Richmond, where it is by far the grandest. At Barnard Castle and Pontefract, Yorkshire, (which must be, I think, a Norman keep,) are sally-ports descending through the thickness of the wall and the rocks on which those keeps stand. This is also the case at a Norman tower, Pevensey, Sussex. The mode of approaching the various rooms varies in different castles. In square keeps we find circular staircases at one or more of the angles, from which, on the level of each floor, galleries are carried through the thickness of the walls, as at Rochester. In small keeps these galleries are not required. At Goodrich the circular staircase is the means of approach. At Dover is a very large staircase of this kind beautifully constructed. Frequently the stairs are straight, and formed in the thickness of the wall, as at Richmond.

In circular keeps the staircase is sometimes in an attached and partially entering turret, as at Skenfrith; sometimes curving up the thickness of the wall, as at Launceston, Coningsburgh, Barnard Castle, Durham, and Brynllys, Breconshire. In the last example the doors open from the window sills. At Llanbadarn tower, at the entrance of the magnificent pass of Llanberris, North Wales, the staircase is peculiar; it is a circular stair in the thickness of the wall, commencing on the right of the entrance, and about half way up turning