Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/145

 The Rectangular Keep of a Norinan Castle. 129 These keeps, built mainly for security, have but few ex- ternal openings, and those rarely of any size. Sometimes the narrowest part of the loop is in the centre of the wall, with a splay each way, having the section of an hour-glass. This is seen at Kenilworth and Porchester, late keeps. The arrange- ment seems a bad one, much aiding the entrance of an arrow. The larger windows, sometimes of 3 ft. or 4 ft. opening, were closed with shutters. A well was an important accessory to a Norman keep. In Dover there are two — one being in the forebuilding. Some- times, as at Bamburgh and Castle Rising, its mouth is at the ground level. More frequently its pipe is contained within the wall, and opens into a special well-chamber, as at Dover, Newcastle, and Kenilworth. At Carlisle it is in the wall, and was reached by an internal lateral opening, now converted into an external one. At Rochester it is in the cross-wall ; the pipe there ascends to the summit, and has an opening at each floor, and there are traces of some such arrangement at Canterbury. At Porchester the well occupies one angle of the wall, and opens on each floor. At Colchester the well, long closed, has been discovered. It is in the basement, near the entrance. At Hedingham there is known to be a well, but its place is lost. At Bamburgh, one of the most re- markable wells in the country, carried down 145 ft. in whin rock, was only discovered in the last century. At Richmond a hollow octagonal pier, carrying the vault, has been built exactly over the well, which is reached through it. At Arques, in Normandy, where the well is near one angle, a pipe has been built over it, raising the mouth to the first floor. At Bowes, Brough, Brougham, Guildford, Castleton, and Corfe, no well has been discovered, and it is only very recently that one has been laid open in the White Tower, in London. Great pains were usually taken to cover the entrances of these keeps by a forebuilding, the details of which have been but little studied. Upon one side of the keep, but a part of its structure, was placed a smaller tower, also rectangular, of the length — that is, covering one side — and about one third of the breadth, of the keep, and two thirds of its height. Atone end, at the ground level, commenced a straight stair- case which rose to near the other end when it stopped at a landing which was the vestibule of the actual entrance to the keep. Above the lowest part of the staircase was a low tower and a strong doorway. Halfway up the staircase was often a second doorway, and sometimes, as at Dover, a second tower. Over the landing at the stair-head was a larger and