Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/402

 372 MedicBval Military Architecture, in the early English period, in the west wall. The chapel is 13 feet east and west by 14 feet, and has a flat timber ceiling. The southern side has a deep recess, let into the wall of the keep, and in it are the remains of a triple window, probably formed of three loops. In the two jambs of this arch are side recesses. High up in the north wall are the two hour-glass loops [from the ante-chapel. The chapel has been much injured ; but there are remains of a handsome arcade with detached shafts upon the lower half of the west and north walls, and in the south is what seems to have been a coupled window. In the east wall is a handsome arch of 7 feet 6 inches span, with shafts in front of the piers with carved caps. This opens into a sort of chancel, 5 feet deep by 9 feet wide, with nook-shafts. It is vaulted, groined, and ribbed. There is no boss, but about the intersection of the ribs is some rude carving, from which a lamp seems to have been suspended. There is a window to the east, now broken down, but which was probably composed of three coupled lights, and in the south wall is a recess with a loop. An attempt has been made, apparently in the Tudor period, to insert a fireplace in the north wall. From the first floor the south-west well-stair leads to the roof only ; but the north-east stair, in its way to the roof, has two side openings, of which the first, 2 feet 4 inches wide, leads by a narrow passage up fourteen steps towards the ramparts of the vestibule tower. This is now blocked by the inserted vault, with which that building is covered in. Eight steps above this lower opening a second leads into a gallery in the east wall. Above this opening, seventeen more steps lead to the ramparts of the keep, which are 22 feet above the level of the first floor. The eastern gallery is vaulted, and 32 feet long. From one side of it a door enters the second floor of the forebuilding tower, and beyond it, also in the east or outer side, is a loop. In the west side are two openings, already described, which open into the gable end of the hall roof At its south end this gallery makes a turn at right angles, and ends in a small bedchamber, 18 feet by 14 feet, which is over the chapel, and has a window to the south. As the parapets are gone, and the ramparts not accessible, the roof above the kitchen cannot be examined ; but there does not appear to have been any second floor in that quarter. The forebuilding is a very perfect and a very good example of this peculiar appendage to a Norman keep. It is composed of three parts, — a lower staircase, an upper staircase, and a vestibule tower. At its south end is the outer gateway, at the ground-level, in line with the southern face of the keep. The portal is full-centred, and flanked by two columns beneath a plain abacus, from which springs the arch with a bold roll-moulding. There is no portcuUis. The door opened inwards, and was strongly barred. The wall is 6 feet thick, and the vaulted passage through it, inside the doorway, is segmental and groined. Within, the passage is 8 feet wide, and con- tains the lower staircase of fifteen steps. In the inner face of the