Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/516

 470 Medmval Military Architecture, This ward contained two gateways, the keep, the Queen's tower and offices, and a well. The gateway from the middle ward abutted on the northern curtain. It was probably a mere aperture in a wall, without a regular gatehouse, else it could scarcely have disappeared so com- pletely, even under the crushing weight of the fragments of the keep. This gate opened into a small court, on the east side of which rose the keep. A second and higher gate seems to have led into the actual ward, and to have been placed close to the foot of the exterior staircase of the keep. This gate is also completely gone. The survey by Treswell in 1586 shows where it stood. The keep is a quadrangular tower, 60 feet square and 80 feet high, of pure Norman work. The east and west faces were strength- ened with five flat pilaster strips, 5 feet 4 inches broad, 18 inches projection, and 8 feet 4 inches apart. On the north and south faces were four similar strips, placed at wider intervals. All rose from a common plinth, and died into the wall a short distance below the battlement, a small portion of which is still visible, not passing into it as at Chepstow and elsewhere, so as to panel the face. The door of the ground floor, apparently 4 feet wide, and with very late dressings, is at present in the west wall, here 9 feet thick, and may possibly have been always there, although certainly not in its present form. It was covered by the exterior stair. It is placed nearest to the south end, between the second and third pilasters. The stair, 9 feet broad, is built against the west face of the keep, without bond, and perhaps a later addition. Beneath it is a large open arch, round-headed, springing from flat pilaster jambs, which, continued above the string or cap, panel the soffit of the vault. This arch serves as a porch to the door of the basement of the keep. The stair terminates in the staircase tower, a rectangular lean-to, or fore-building appended to the keep, forming a vestibule to the main entrance, and said to have carried the stairs leading to the upper floor. It is about 19 feet by 16 feet within, and has a stone bench against its north wall. The door from the exterior stair in the north wall is round-headed, 6 feet 6 inches wide, opening in a wall 6 feet thick, the other two walls being 4 feet. The keep door, between the first and second pilasters, and therefore near the angle of the keep, has been 6 feet broad, now enlarged to 9 feet. It has a flat top, with a semicircular arch of relief in the wall above, not intended to be seen. There was probably a door in the south wall of the vestibule opening upon the great bastion, and there are traces of a covered passage from it into the garderobe tower. This vestibule seems certainly to be of the age of the keep, and to have been occupied by a staircase to the principal floor. The keep was divided into two great chambers by a wall 6 feet thick. The basement was covered, and the first story floored by ten large whole-timber joists, the cavities for which remain in the south wall. The first floor probably contained a chamber, 42 feet