Page:Kirby Muxloe Castle near Leicester (1917).djvu/28

Rh among the earliest examples in the country, and belong to a primitive stage of the science of gunnery. The diameter of the gunport is smallest at the wall face, instead of having a wide outer splay, and in consequence the gun only commands a line exactly in front of the port. The gun in the north-east side of the tower would therefore discharge its shot directly at the west wall of the west turret of the gatehouse, only 20 yards away, while that in the stair turret of the same tower would bombard the garderobe chamber of the gatehouse at a range of only 15 yards. And the same thing would have happened on every rampart walk all round the castle!

With the exception of a short length of walling to the north-east of the gatehouse, which shows the remains of a projecting bay and a fireplace next to it, none of the rest of Lord Hastings' work now stands higher than a few courses above the level of the ground floor. But it is clear that the plan of the north tower, and doubtless of the east and south towers also, was the same as that of the west tower. Little can be said of the "middle" towers on each side, but the fact that that on the south-east front is pushed considerably to the south of the centre line, suggests that it was intended to build a great hall between it and the east tower. The old hall would then have been taken down and the courtyard levelled. The kitchen, on this scheme, would have been at the south of the south-east range, and it is quite possible, in view of the absence of foundations on the site of the older kitchen, that it was at any rate begun, and is that referred to in the accounts for March 1483. It will be noted that the drain on the site of the old kitchen runs directly towards the garderobes in the east side of the south tower, just as the drain which starts from the south-east side of the old hall turns towards those on the north-west side of the east tower.

The details of the brickwork of the castle deserve careful study. The spiral vaults of the stairs, springing from the brick newels, are as skilful in construction as they are effective in appearance, and the domed vaults of the octagonal chambers in the gatehouse, with the brick corbels to carry the wooden centering on which the vaults were built, are well worth examining. Such detail as occurs on the brickwork was evidently the work of the "brickhewers" mentioned in the accounts, and there is nothing to suggest that any bricks were shaped or moulded before burning.

An outer court is mentioned in the building accounts, and the ground to the west of the moat shows signs of having been