Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/448

 414 MedicEval Military Architecture. doorway which led into these chambers from the upper ward. The well was a yard or two from the entrance to the room below the hall. Its place is now marked by a pump. The Lower Ward is much obscured by the erection against the north curtain of a dwelling-house, and against the south, of stables, both modern. A building has also been placed against the east wall, connected with the gatehouse. The south-eastern angle is formed by the Flag Totuer, 32 feet square, and projecting outwards about 9 feet upon the two curtains. It has a basement and two upper floors, each entered from the court, and the two latter by external separate stone stairs. A third stair, also exterior, ascends from the east curtain to the battlements. The arrangement is alto- gether peculiar. Moreover, the roof of the tower is high pitched, having the south gable stepped in the Scottish fashion, flush with the outer wall, while the north gable is set in about 3 feet so as to allow of a rampart walk along three sides of the tower. The tower is occupied, and locked up. The tower corresponding to this, and forming the north-east angle of the ward, is the gatehouse. It is rectangular, 50 feet broad by 22 feet deep, and pierced by the gateway passage, with spacious rooms on each side and above, all inhabited. The outer gateway is round headed, and rather less than half a circle. The passage is vaulted, and has rebates for a central and two outer doors, of which that next the entrance seems to have been inserted to replace a port- cullis. Over the front, beneath a long flat label, are five shields of arms : i. What seems to have been a cinquefoil within an orle of crosslets flory, Umfranvilie. 2. Barry of 6, Multon. 3. Three luces haurient, Lucy. 4. A lion rampant, Percy. 5. A saltire, Nevile. The gatehouse has two floors over the gateway in the Perpendicular style, and later than the lower part, which is Deco- rated. To this has been added an upper story, built into the battlements of that below, which appear in the face of the wall. The portal is flanked by two flat pilasters, which have been par- tially concealed by the addition of a Barbican, composed of two lateral walls of 18 feet projection, and 7 feet 6 inches thickness, ter- minating in square piers, which supported a cross arch of entrance, over which was a parapet, now gone. These walls were about 12 feet high, parapeted, and the ramparts reached by two lateral straight stairs niched in the wall. There was no doubt originally a draw- bridge to the main gate, which may have been moved forward when the barbican was added. Grose's drawing shows a sort of ravelin of earth in front of this outer entrance, which probably was thrown up during the Parliamentary struggles. All this front, outside the walls, has been levelled and converted into a garden and approach. Out- side the north and south curtains, between the wall and the top of the slope, is a walk of about 9 feet broad. The accounts of this castle claim for it a very remote origin, and describe the knoll upon which it stands as artificial. This, however, is not the case. The knoll is evidently natural, and the point of a