Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/265

 Bodiham Castle, Sussex. 245 of this passage was the entrance to the lesser gatehouse, so that there was access from the court to the gate, through a passage screened off from the occupied part of the hall. Of course, the lesser gateway was used for foot-passengers only. A passage somewhat similar crosses the lower end, not of the hall itself, but of the vaults below the hall, at Kenilvvorth. The state apartments and chapel occupied the east side, and the former seem mostly to have been of two floors. Behind the end of the hall was a large room, called the armoury, from which opened the south-east tower. Here the sub-basement is hexagonal, and was vaulted and groined. The vaulting has fallen away, but the corbels remain, and the six gables and wall-ribs. Pro- bably this was a private store or cellar, for it has no fire or garde- robe, and though the vaulting was elegant, the chamber, being at or a trifle below the water-level, must always have been damp. The upper floors were of timber. Probably the term armoury is modern, and here were the with- drawing-rooms, to which a passage led from the north end of the dais, outside the hall. There remains a platform of masonry, which seems to have been laid to carry such a passage. North of these rooms are traces of others, which communicated with the east tower and chapel, and were probably private apart- ments, with windows to the court. Under the whole was a range of cellars, below the court level, but with doors and loops ascending to it. Next comes the chapel, 29 feet by 19 feet, having a large pointed window of three lights at the east end. The floor, of timber, covered a cellar, having a loop, rising to the court, and a door in the south wall. The eastern end has a solid raised platform for the altar, and near it a small north window. To the south is a small plain-pointed piscina, and near it a lancet door, opening by steps into a vaulted and groined mural chamber, 1 1 feet by 6 feet, intended as a sacristy, having two lockers, and a small window to the moat. The chapel door was in the south wall, leading from the lower private apartments. Above the sacristy is a rather larger room, having a door from the upper apartments, and a square-headed window, of two trefoiled lights, looking into the chapel ; evidently the lord's private seat, whence, unseen, he could be present at mass. There was no west door, or direct entrance from the court. The chapel seems to have had an open timber roof. The masonry throughout the castle is excellent ashlar, the material a fine-grained, soft, but durable sandstone. There is but little orna- ment. There were seven main well-staircases, each terminating in an octagonal turret, serving as a head. The stairs did not ascend to the top of the turret, which was domed over, and inaccessible. The rooms are almost all furnished with fireplaces, and very many with mural garderobes which seem to have been closed with curtains, or not at all, since there are no marks of doors. Their shafts descend within the walls, and discharge into the moat below the surface.