Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/232

 216 Alediceval Military Architecture. staircases. Outside, half-round towers with prolonged sides flank the entrance. The ground-plan here given shows the general arrangement. The great hall, 70 feet by 23 feet 6 inches, occupies most of the first floor of the northern gatehouse, and is lighted from the court by five windows, of two lights each, with a transom, as at Stokesley and Ludlow, contemporary halls. The fireplace w^as on the opposite side. The roof was of timber, but with one stone rib, as at Charing. The southern gatehouse probably also contained a large chamber, now destroyed. The state-rooms and lodgings were in the gatehouses. The portals were of unusual length, and each was guarded by three grates. The curtains are pierced lengthways by long mural passages, com- municating with the tower chambers and the staircases, of which there are many. The rampart walk is of unusual breadth. Under a part of the wall, south of the chapel, the lowest mural gallery is a large sewer. The chapel, on the first floor, though not much above the ground level, is a beautiful little chamber, entered at its w^st end from the court by a flight of steps and a short passage traversing the mural gallery. On each side is a vestry. The actual entrance to the chapel is by a double door, trefoiled. The chapel is composed of two bays with a polygonal apse. The whole is groined, and the walls are panelled in two stages all round. There are five lancet loops opening upon the face of the tower, and two windows opening into the chapel, from the vestries. The chapel stands on a crypt, also vaulted. Outside the south gatehouse a sort of barbican, a hollow square of masonry, has been erected, having an entrance on its west side. It is an addition intended to prevent the portal being raked or carried with a rush. The ward above described stands detached within the outer ward. This is in figure eight-sided, symmetrical, or nearly so. At its four principal angles, opposite the angles of the inner ward, are four drum-towers, three-quarters engaged. From these towers the walls slope outwards, so as to form salient angles, of which there are thus four, one opposite to the centre of each face of the inner w^ard, and thus space is given for the gatehouses, the chapel, and its opposite tower. Each salient is capped by a drum-tower, and on each of the sides forming the salient is a smaller tower. Inhere are altogether twelve towers, three of the spaces and one angle being otherwise occupied. These outer towers and curtains are much lower and slighter than those of the inner ward. There are two gates. The north gate seems never to have been completed, but its remains are very peculiar. I'here is a main portal in the curtain, and on each side of it a small portal or postern. Outside are four bold but narrow buttresses, one on each side of the main gate, and one outside each of the side gates. The western buttress is of bolder projection than the rest, and is evidendy in-