Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/519

 Corfe Castle, Dorset. 473 revetment wall supporting the staircase tower. The exterior, and therefore perhaps later, revetment has been injured at the base, and the heart of the work is exposed. It shows very rough filling up. The south curtain of this ward is about 12 feet thick, but the north and east, being less exposed and having no buildings to support, are much lighter, and present nothing of the strength con- sidered necessary in the lower and more exposed portions of the fortress. The present condition of the building is completely to be ac- counted for by the fact that Corfe Castle was " slighted " under a vote of the House of Commons, dated 4th of March, 1645, a period at which the orders of the Commons were not obeyed negligently. In the outer gateway the drums are blown forwards, the vault split, and the rear of the lodges destroyed. All the upper story is removed. Eastward the curtain is broken down, but the Horseshoe Tower is not materially injured. The rest of the curtain to the Plukenet Tower is broken down in parts only. That tower and the curtain up to the keep have not been dismantled, and but partially pulled down. In this outer ward the main force of the destroyers has been spent upon the lower half of the west front, of which the curtains are lifted forwards, and the mural towers rent and shaken, vast fragments of both encumbering the slope. The Redan Tower has escaped, as has the curtain which traverses King John's fosse. The gateway of the middle ward presents a singular appearance. A mine has been excavated beneath the outer tower, which has sunk about 10 feet, and moved a little forward, splitting the entrance vault. This can hardly be the effect of powder, but is more pro- bably due to a mine of the old sort, in which the earth was removed, and wooden props introduced, which were afterwards pulled away or burnt. Of the Buttavant Tower about two-thirds are gone, with part of the north curtain. The great curtain between the middle gatehouse and the keep is unshaken, only its steps and battlements are gone. It is one of the finest curtain walls in Britain, and almost equal to Cardiff. In the inner ward the devastation has been severe. Of the keep, all the north and two-thirds of the adjacent west wall lie in enor- mous masses on the sward, and in their fall have utterly crushed the gateways of the ward and their adjacent curtain. The east wall is destroyed at its two ends, but a strip of the central part remains un- hurt to its summit, a marvel of Norman masonry, and is completely shrouded in ivy. The south wall and garderobe tower are but little injured. The staircase tower is destroyed, all but a part of the north wall. The broken-down walls of the keep are a sight to see, so vast is the mass of the fragments and so firm the cohesion of the material. They lie in the wildest confusion, and some considerable lumps have