Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/475

 Conisborottgh Castle. 437 its north, west, and south sides, showing that there were buildings against the curtain 310 feet in length by 22 feet in breadth. The Keep is the glory of Conisborough, and though inferior in size to Caesar's or Beauchamp's Tower at Warwick, is more than their equal in its masonry, and more complete, inasmuch as it is a keep, and those are subsidiary towers. It stands nearly at the north-east extremity, and at the highest part of the inner ward, actually upon the line of the curtain, of which two of its buttresses and the intermediate wall form a part. It is constantly described as standing upon an artificial mound, which is certainly not the case. KEEP, FROM OUTSIDE THE CURTAIN. Indeed, no artificial mound could bear so concentrated a weight. It stands upon the natural surface, here a rock. It has no special ditch, and the ground shows that it never had any. There was, indeed, no need of the usual ditch, which was represented by the natural steep, and the exterior ditch at its base. The tower is a cylinder, resting upon a bold spreading conical base. Against it, at equal intervals, are six bold, massive buttresses, having flat faces, but slightly tapering in plan so as to be half- hexagons with two long sides and a short face. They rest upon bases which expand outwards, but very little laterally. The tower