Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/509

 Corfe Castle, Dorset. 463 the Plukenet Tower to the front of the middle gatehouse, and is thence continued outside the works down the hill-side. A permanent stone bridge, about loo feet long by 20 feet broad, crosses the moat, and leads up to the great gateway. It is of four arches, springing from three solid piers, and the roadway, which has now no parapets, is about 30 feet above the bottom of the moat. The masonry ceases about 18 feet from the portal, and the interval, now filled with earth, was probably spanned by a drawbridge. The arches are about one-third of a circle, and the voussoirs in two rings, without bond, 8 inches thick, and from i foot to 3 feet in length. The piers may be of Perpendicular date, but the arches are probably due to Sir Christopher Hatton. The outer gatehouse is composed of two drums, flanking the portal, and produced rearward into a rectangular building, now partially destroyed. The drums, about 20 feet diameter, are solid to the base of" the upper story, now removed, but of which the lower ends of the loops remain. The portal, 13 feet wide, enters a vaulted passage, now 26 feet, and which may have been 36 feet long. First is the portal, now without jambs, and beneath a segmental arch, 4 feet 11 inches broad. Then (as shown in the accompanying section. Fig. 1.) a chase, or single machicolation, 6 inches broad. Then a second arch, 3 feet 9 inches broad. Then a chase, 5 inches broad, and a circular groove ot 9 inches diameter and 7 inches opening, at which the passage narrows by 20 inches, being an opening of it feet 4 inches. Then follows an arch of i foot 6 inches breadth, and a chase of 16 inches. Next comes the gateway proper, the jambs of which, 2 feet 4 inches in thickness, project inwards with a double chamfer, so as to reduce the actual entrance to 8 feet. The door, the space for which shows it to have been of wood, and not above 4 inches thick, was of two valves, the arch behind being flat segmental, with a high springing and 4 feet of breadth, to accom- modate them when open. Two stones on each side, which probably carried the iron loops for the hinges, have been torn out. Between them, a central hole, 9 inches by 12 inches, carried the wooden bar. Next is an arch, of which about 5 feet only remain, but which pro- bably completed the passage to its opening into the ward, and perhaps carried a portcullis groove. Half the doorways into the lodges remain. The lodges themselves were barrel-vaulted, and the vault in the west lodge springs from the ordinary Norman string, composed of a flat abacus and chamfer, as though an older gatehouse had been cased. Instances of this string, indeed, have been pointed out by Mr. Bond in other and certainly later parts of the castle, and of course a plain string of this character may be of any age. The several arches composing the entrance passage show, at their springings, about a dozen small holes, evidently to carry the centring. Their small size indicates this to have been of iron. These holes are usual.