Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/480

 440 MedicEval Military Architecture. chamber. Where this vault terminates in the inner wall it is worked in a curve so as to coincide or be flush with the inner face. This was to be expected, but this is the only arch so terminating. All the others, whether of doorways or window recesses, end square, so that while the central part coincides with the curved face of the inner wall, the ends, or springings, are recessed from 3 to 4 inches, according to the span of the arch, and the appearance is clumsy. This is not so where the opening is square-headed, there the lintel is cut to a suitable curve. It is remarkable that there is no rebate or provision for a door where the entrance passages open into the first floor, and that floor, though 22 feet diameter, and 16 feet 6 inches high, is entirely without any air or light, save what it might receive when the outer door was open. Possibly there was a central hole in the floor above, as in the dome below. There is no drain or fireplace. This, therefore, also was a store. In the right wall of the entrance passage, on entering the tower, is a side doorway w^hence a staircase ascends, winding with the walls to the second floor. The doorway of 4 feet i inch opening, has a rebate for a door opening inwards into a small lobby 5 feet 1 1 inches deep by 4 feet 8 inches broad, whence rises the staircase of the same breadth. The staircase, of twenty-five steps, winds with the wall, which is 4 feet 2 inches thick on its inner, and 6 feet 2 inches on its outer side. In the latter is a loop. The vault is full- centred, broken by hanging ribs, of a bold square section; it ends above in another lobby, 8 feet deep by 4 feet 8 inches broad, whence a round-headed door- way opens into the second floor. The lobby is lighted by a loop. The second, or state floor, is 25 feet diameter, having a set-off" of about a foot all round to carry the floor-boards, which were further