Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/458

 424 Mediaeval Military Architechtre. turret contains a well-staircase which ascends from the basement to the summit. The south-east turret contains a crypt at its ground- level. The space within the walls, measuring 126 feet by 87 feet, was unequally subdivided. A portion, in width from 36 to 40 feet broad, was walled off at the south end and occupied as an entrance passage, a well-chamber, a prison vault, and the crypt beneath the chapel. The space northwards was again subdivided into an east, west, and middle compartment by two walls running north and south. The eastern compartment, 91 feet by 22 feet, was aired rather than lighted by three loops in the east and one in the north wall. One of these loops was in the last century converted into a door, but has since been walled up. The central loop is now a door. In the south end a small doorway leads into the crypt. This compartment was entered by a doorway in the cross wall, 3 feet 9 inches broad, but having a rebate for a door. The wall is 7 feet thick. The middle compartment was 80 feet long by 15 feet broad, but its western wall, which was 7 feet thick, was removed, it is said, in 1683. A trace of it remains at the south end, and at the north end a projection in the wall shows that the door of communication was at that end. This compartment has a single loop in its north end, and in its south end a doorway leading into the prison vault. The western or larger compartment from which the others were entered was 90 feet long by 36 feet broad. It had a loop in its north end, and three in its west side. In its south wall was pro- bably the inner doorway corresponding to the main entrance. It is said that there exists a pit or drain beneath the floor of this chamber, a sewer from which, of Roman construction, passes westward through the wall towards the river. The loops throughout this ground floor are of one pattern. They are round-headed, 6 inches wide, in the end of a splayed recess which opens by a set-off into a flat-sided recess 7 feet wide and 3 feet 6 inches deep. These recesses are round-headed, and rise from the floor-level about 12 feet. The recess and the arched head are constructed mainly of tiles. The set-off or reveal is of ashlar. All the arches throughout, of both doors and recesses, are round-headed. The three compartments were covered in with whole timber joists supporting the floor of the upper chamber. The ground floor was about 15 feet high, and, save the vault and crypt, seems to have been intended for stores. The main entrance is on this floor, at the west end of the south side. A doorway of 7 feet 7 inches opening was flanked on each side by two niched columns with plain bases and capitals, with stiff foliage of Norman character. Above the capitals is a plain cham- fered abacus. The head is composed of three members, each a bold roll or bead. The two inner members spring from above the capitals, the outer member, with a dripstone worked in two bands of half-circles, springs from the abacus alone. The abacus is stopped within the portal by a square groove for a portcullis, pro- bably of iron, behind which is a rebate for a door with a hole for a