Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/438

 406 MedicBval Militmy Architecture. resting on the basement, with its sill about 5 feet below the top level of the mound. The floors are of timber, resting upon sets-off in the side walls. The whole tower is about 80 feet high, its base being about 30 feet above the river. The west wall is entirely gone. The two eastern angles are capped each by two pilasters, 14 feet broad and I foot projection, meeting at a solid angle, and carried up without break or diminution to the summit, where they may have supported square turrets. The eastern curtain, between them, has a battering base, and a plain cordon at the first-floor level. The walls are perfectly plain, of coursed masonry, the stones probably hammer dressed ; but, being of a perishable character, they are much blistered and decayed. The basement, 40 feet by 45 feet, has a floor about 20 feet above the outer ground level, now covered up with rubbish. There is a small window to the south, and a small square air-hole to the north, high up, as from a dungeon. In the same side, near the middle, is a full-centred doorway, 2 feet 2 inches broad, once closed by a stout door, and opening upon the slope of the mound. It leads into a passage 3 feet 6 inches broad, which entered the chamber, but had on its left a mural staircase of sixteen steps, which led to the first floor. Many of the steps remain, but the inner wall, and most of the hanging arches of the vault, are gone. The first floor, 23 feet by 45 feet, had two windows to the south, one to the east, and to the north two, with a fireplace between them. The windows are broken into mere apertures, but the recesses are 5 feet to 6 feet broad. The fireplace has a round back and a vertical tunnel. The hood is broken away. There are no mural chambers, but outside, on each face of the eastern angles, are two sham loops. The second floor has also five windows above, rather larger than those below, and a fireplace in the same position. In each jamb of the east window recess is a small door, which, by a passage, leads into a mural chamber in the two eastern angles. Each, on each of its two outer faces, has a small window. The third floor has two windows to the north, one to the east, and two to the south, but here the position of the fireplace is between them. From the east window recess are two passages, opening into two chambers, each with two small windows above those of the second floor. The second floor was the stateroom, and the third apparently bedrooms belonging to it. The staircase may have been in the west wall. Of the window recesses, some have arches obtusely pointed, others are segmental. No doubt there was a door in the west wall, opening from the mound. The recesses of the windows of the second and third floors had each an ashlar rib, the only sort of ornament now visible. The keep, though of large size and substantially built, suffers in appearance from the badness of the material, its rough workmanship, and the very sparing use of ashlar in its details. The summit of the mound was encircled by a curtain 'wall, of which the upper part of the keep formed a part, so that with the