Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/508

 462 MedicBval Military Architecture, and green surface of the chalk, upon a summit of which stands the old Norman keep, predominating far and wide over the landscape. The castle is naturally strong. It occupies the slope and summit of a hill, the base of which covers about 15 acres, and which is placed in a gap or cutting in the ridge already described, of which position its name is said to be descriptive. South of the ridge, and close behind and covered by the castle, is the town of Corfe, from which the castle hill rises steeply, to descend almost vertically upon its east, west, and north sides. The northern, or highest point, is occupied by the keep and principal buildings of the castle. The stream called the Wicken, and its tributary, the Byle brook, each turning a mill, flow from the south-west and south-east round either side of the town, and, girdling the base of the castle hill, unite just below St. Edward's bridge to form the Corfe river, which flows into Poole harbour. Between the town and the castle, where the two streams approach within a furlong of each other, a deep and bold though dry trench has been cut across the root of the peninsula, and thus forms the great outer ditch which divides the castle from the town. The castle, in its present form, may be called concentric, but it has been constructed, if not designed, at three principal periods, having been originally a Saxon palace, then a Norman, and afterwards an Edwardian fortress. It is composed of a keep standing in an inner ward, of a middle, and of an outer ward. The survey by Ralph Treswell, in 1586, subdivides the inner ward into two, and shows a wall across the outer ward, which has disappeared, and was probably modern. In plan it is an irregular triangle, the w^alls following the crest of the hill. The great gateway caps the southern or lowest angle ; the Buttavant Tower, the western; and the inner ward forms the obtuse, highest, or eastern angle. The south-west, the longest front, is con- cave. It extends 270 yards from the gatehouse to the Buttavant, and its lower two-thirds is the part of the enceinte most jealously defended, and upon the overthrow of which the destroyers have expended their greatest energies. The north, or upper front, too high for attack, measures about 200 yards, and the eastern front about the same. ^ The area within the walls is about 3 J acres ; but, from the exces- sive steepness of the ground, much of the outer and part of the middle ward could never have been turned to account. The lower part of the outer, the western portion of the middle, and the eastern part of the inner ward, are the only flat spaces. The outer, by much the largest ward, is contained within the great gatehouse, the east curtain strengthened by the Horseshoe and Plukenet Towers, and the west curtain, upon which are four mural towers. The steep, upper part of the ward rises to the wall of the inner, and the wall and gatehouse of the middle ward. It is traversed by a fosse, attributed to King John, which extends from