Chapter XVI: Part 16

The hall of the Tower and other houses cost £20 in repairs in 1268–9, and in other repairs £12 in the next year; but nothing is recorded concerning the following and two closing years of the long reign of Henry III.

With the death of Henry and the earlier years of his son the history of the Tower, as a specimen of military architecture, may be said to decline, and its history as a state prison, if not to begin, to preponderate. Edward at once continued and completed the works commenced by his father, and probably was thus employed for ten or twelve years. In 1274, 2 Edward, the treasurer was to pay 200 marcs towards the work of the ditch, then nearly made, about the bulwark. This was the loop ditch surrounding the barbican, planned by Henry III., but no doubt then first excavated. Besides this, in 1287, the main ditch seems to have been under enlargement, and its encroachment upon St. Katherine’s land was valued in 1302 at 73s. per annum. The clay taken out was sold by the constable to the tylers working in East Smithfield. In 1289, it yielded 20s., but had averaged £7—about £100 in our day. Bayley tells that 600 Jews were at one time imprisoned here by Edward, 1281–2, as clippers of the coin. On 8th October, 1303, the king, then at Kinloss, ordered the Abbot of Westminster and his 80 monks to be imprisoned in the Tower, on a charge of stealing £100,000 of the royal treasure. The following mandate, of three years’ later date, shows the form in which prisoners were committed. It relates to a Scottish gentleman of rank. “Mons: P: de Graham et vadletz, soient enveez, par bon conduyt, a Londres, et livrez au Conestable de la Tour illueques: et q’il les face garder en fers, en bon et sur lieu, denz meisme la Tour, si sauuement, et si surement, come le Conestable voudra respondre de eux, corps pour corps; et q’il lor face trouver lor sustenance meanement.”

In 1307 occurs a curious sanitary order. “Whereas Margaret, Queen of England, is about to dwell awhile in the Tower, the mayor and sheriffs, to prevent infection of the air, ‘per accensionem rogorum,’ are to prohibit and punish any one ‘burning pyres’ or doing anything by which the air can be corrupted.” Dated, Carlisle, 28th June.

Edward II. was more dependent upon the Tower for personal safety than as a prison. His eldest daughter, hence called “Jane de la Tour,” was here born. In 1312, he put the Tower in a state of defence against his barons; and, in 1324, shut here the two lords, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore and his namesake of Chirk. Their escape is described in the “Opus Chronicorum.” They were shut up “in eminentiori et arctiori loco Turris,” which should mean the White Tower. They drugged the drink of their keepers, and in a stormy night escaped by breaking the wall, and thus reached the annexed palace kitchen, from the top of which, by a rope-ladder, and aided from within the walls, they reached the Thames and thus fled the country.

Two years later, Mortimer of Wigmore returned with the queen, and took arms against Edward, who put the Tower in order, sending thither 100 coats of mail (Pell Rolls, 158), and there, 20th June, he received the city authorities. On the 2nd October he fled, leaving his son, John of Eltham, in the Tower, and Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter, in charge of the city. The citizens, as is well known, rose and beheaded the bishop, and next day, falling in with John de Weston, the constable, they extorted from him the keys, and entered the fortress. They seem, however, only to have freed the prisoners, turned out the officials, and appointed their own men, under the nominal authority of Prince John.

The first years of Edward III.’s reign were spent, perforce, in the Tower, until he put down Mortimer and assumed the government. Probably the Beauchamp and Salt Towers, and perhaps the Bowyer, were his work. In the ninth of his reign, by commission, dated Berwick, 16th October, 1336, he ordered a survey of the defects of the Tower to be made, and a jury to be empanelled to declare what repairs were needed. This return was made without delay, and is printed by Bayley. It mentions the gate towards St. Katherine’s, the steps and passages upon the wall, a chamber over the Water-gate; “Corande’s” Tower and “Le Moneye” Tower; the chapel of the Tower; the king and queen’s chapel; two turrets over the old gate, one called “La Plummerye”; and the quay opposite the Thames, with the little postern at one end and “Petywales” at the other. Beauchamp, Bowyer, and most of the other towers are not named,—probably because some were not then built, and others, the work of his grandfather, did not need repair. “Le Blanche Tour” seems not to be the keep, called then “Alta turris.” The other parts named are numerous, but evidently belonged to the palace ward, now destroyed. The result of the return was, that the Tower, next year, was put in order and garrisoned. The Close Roll (10 Edward III.) mentions that, in 1337, the sheriffs of London were to pay £40 out of the farm of the city, to be spent on “the great Tower,” then in great need of repair; and the sheriff of Kent was to bring oak from Havering for the works. The sheriffs of Surrey and Sussex also had to provide £20 for the same service.

The Tower was Edward’s chief arsenal. Thither, 1337–8, the sheriffs of London were to send “5 millia ferri et 200 bordas de Estland [Baltic planks], ac centum quarter carbonum maritimorum” (sea-coal), for making anchors for the “Christopher” and “Cogge Edward,” and for certain works on the Tower. (“Abb. Rot. Orig. II.,” p. 116). Edward was at this time much engaged in preparing for foreign wars, and it was to the Tower that he returned suddenly from Tournay, towards midnight, 30th November, 1340, and punished the constable for negligence. Also between 1340 and 1342 he was much at the Tower, and one of his daughters was born here. The records also show that the Mint had a considerable share of the royal attention.

Mr. Hunter has shown (“Arch.,” xxxii., 380) that, as early as 1347, bills were paid for the manufacture, probably two or three years earlier, of “pulvis pro ingeniis”; and in 1346, “ad opus ipsius Regis pro gunnis suis,” 9 cwt. 12 lb. of saltpetre and 886 lb. of quick sulphur were had; so that gunpowder was then, no doubt, manufactured in the Tower.

About the same time the Tower received the first of a series of illustrious foreign prisoners of war. David, King of Scots, taken at Neville’s Cross, was brought here in January, 1347, and remained here eleven years; so late as 1357–8, £2. 12s. 9d. being paid for medicines supplied to him. Later, in the same year with David, came Charles of Blois, nephew to Philip of France; and still later John de Vienne, governor of Calais, and the twelve brave burgesses of that town. Finally, in 1350, here was lodged John, King of France, and the nobles taken with him, and in the same place of safety the £47,171. 1s. 4d., the first instalment of his ransom.

In 24 Edward III., 1350–1, John de Alkeshull had commission to take, throughout the kingdom, “petram, buscam, carbones, maeremium, plumbum, vitrum, ferrum, et tegulam”; that is, stone, wood, coal, timber, lead, glass, iron, and shingle, and all things needful for the king’s works at Westminster, Windsor, and the Tower. How these materials were divided is not known. Windsor probably received the chief share of them.

In 1354, the king proposed to alter the constitution of the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula at the Tower, and incorporate it as a college, with a dean and three canons, instead of a rector and chaplains. This, however, does not seem then to have been effected, as both Richard II. and Henry IV. nominated a rector to the “Free Chapel of St. Peter.” The actual incorporation did not come to pass until the last year of the reign of Edward IV. It was in 1354 proposed that the standards of weight and measure should be kept at the Tower; and this year the king ordered the city ditch to be cleansed, and prevented from overflowing into the Tower ditch. In Stowe’s time the filth was taken off by a sewer from the City ditch.

Appointments of armourers, bowyers, engineers of the war-slings, &c., show that the store of weapons of war continued to be considerable. In 33 Edward III. all the bows, strings, arrows, “hancipes [two-handed winches] pro balistis tendendis,”[10] in the custody of W. Rotherel, in the Tower, are ordered to be packed in chests, quivers, butts, pipes, and barrels, and sent to Sandwich to cross the water with the king. In 1360–2, various sums were spent in repairs of the king’s record-house in the Tower containing the Chancery Rolls: probably the Wakefield Tower.

Richard II. fulfilled the usual custom of lodging a short time in the Tower before his coronation, that he might proceed in state to that ceremony through the City. Here also he took refuge during Wat Tyler’s rebellion, after which Arnold Brocas was paid £3. 6s. 8d. for repairing the door broken open by the common rebels within the Tower. In 1380–1, a code of regulations was drawn up for the better government of the place. In 1385–6, cannon were sent hence to Porchester. In 1387, Richard came here to escape his uncle the Duke of Gloucester, and at Christmas in that year he was blockaded by the rebel lords, to whom he gave audience within the fortress.

Two years later, in 1389, it was from the Tower that the king went to hold a great feast and tournament in London; and here, in 1396, his new queen, Isabel of France, was lodged before her coronation. Here, finally, Richard signed his abdication in favour of Henry of Lancaster. No work at the Tower can positively be attributed to this reign, or the succeeding one of Henry IV.

It appears from the Issue Roll and the Pell Records of 1 Henry V., that breakfast was provided at the Tower at a cost of £2. 16s. 8d. for Thomas, Earl of Arundel, Henry le Scrop, Lord de Roos, and the Mayor of London, commissioners for trying traitors. This Lord de Roos was William, seventh baron, ancestor of a late lieutenant-governor, whose ancestors on the male side—the Fitzgeralds—also frequently partook of the hospitality of the Tower, though in the less agreeable capacity of prisoners.

Henry V. revived the old glories of the prison by sending hither Charles, Duke of Orleans, taken at Agincourt. An illumination of the period, given by Lord de Ros, shows the duke to have been lodged in the state rooms in the White Tower, and shows also the four windows of the great hall, which adjoined Wakefield Tower on the east.

The strong monarchs employed the Tower as a prison, the weak ones as a fortress; and under Henry VI. it appears in this latter capacity. In 1460, Lord Scales, the king’s governor, was besieged by the Earl of Salisbury, Lord Cobham, and Sir John Wenlock. The city men attacked the west front; Wenlock, from St. Katherine’s; and Cobham, with the artillery, from the Southwark shore, firing across the river. When the south ditch was cleared out and levelled in 1842–3, several round shot of iron and about thirty of Kentish rag stone, from 4½ inches to 10 inches, and in one case 17 inches, diameter, were found, which are supposed to have fallen there on this occasion.

Edward IV. is reputed to have built a bulwark outside the west gate by the Lion Tower. In the eleventh of his reign payments were made for arms and ammunition for the defence and for work upon the fortifications of the Tower. The workmen were brought from Calais. In the same year money was allowed for the expenses of Henry VI., then prisoner in the Tower. Richard III., during his brief reign, pressed masons and bricklayers to complete certain repairs at the Tower.

Probably the walls and towers were allowed to decay by Henry VII.; for Henry VIII., in 1532, ordered a survey to be made with a view to a general repair, which was executed shortly afterwards. The repairs were very considerable, and the masonry was executed in Caen stone backed with brick, and, unfortunately, very much of the Tower seems to have been so faced or cased, and otherwise very seriously altered. The survey is very minute, and throws light upon much that is now destroyed. Mention is made of “Burbedge Tower,” on the wall between Bowyer and Brick Towers, evidently the present Brick Tower, the then “Brick” being the present Martin Tower. “St. Martin’s” Tower was then the outer gate, now “Middle” Tower. The present Salt Tower was then Julius Cæsar’s Tower, and the old Lanthorn Tower was called New Tower. Wakefield is called “the tower where the king’s records lie,” and “Bloody” was then Garden Tower. “Byward” was “the Wardyng Gate.” Two timber bridges, evidently drawbridges, were to be renewed at the west entrance. The keep was then, as now, the White Tower, distinguished by its four turrets.

Byward Tower had a narrow escape in 1548. A Frenchman who lodged in “the round bulwark called the Warden Gate, between the west gate and the postern, or drawbridge,” blew up the bulwark, and himself, with gunpowder. It was rebuilt. There was also in the reign of Edward VI. a drawbridge between Iron and Traitors’ Gate, evidently Cradle Tower. This was used for the reception of great prisoners, the strong iron gate (St. Thomas’s) being almost out of use.

The buildings of the palace probably had fallen into decay in the reign of Elizabeth, by whom, or by James, the Great Hall was removed. Other buildings followed. Many were destroyed by Cromwell and many by James II. to make room for a new Ordnance office, and the remains of the Lanthorn Tower were taken down late in the last century. The White Tower underwent a final disfigurement at the hands of Sir C. Wren in 1663, who Italianised its openings, cased a part of its exterior, and rebuilt two of its turrets. Sir Christopher’s work may be traced throughout the fortress by the Portland stone introduced by him, just as the work of Henry VIII. is indicated by the use of brickwork and rough-cast, and the practice of closing the joints of the masonry with chips and spawls of flint. The ditch was cleansed in 1663, and the quay refaced.

The Tower, at the commencement of the present century, was an extraordinary jumble of ancient and later buildings, the towers and walls being almost completely encrusted by the small official dwellings by which the area was closely occupied. A great fire in 1841 removed the unsightly armoury of James II. and William III. on the north of the inner ward, but the authorities at the time were not ripe for a fire. The armoury was replaced by a painfully-durable Tudor barrack, and the repairs and additions were made with little reference to the character of the fortress. More recently, the general improvement in public taste has made its way even into the Tower. Mr. Salvin was employed upon it until his death, and more recently many modern buildings have been removed, many ancient foundations laid open, and very extensive repairs and some absolutely necessary restorations have been effected, under the skilful and very judicious care of Sergeant-Major Andrews.

Thus much of the Tower as an ancient and very curious military structure, which, throughout the additions, alterations, and subtractions of eight centuries, still preserves the character of an early fortress, and very much of original and peculiar work. It may be that, in some respects, the Tower cannot be compared with others of the great feudal castles of England. It does not, like Dover and Bambro’, stand on the edge of a lofty cliff, commanding an equal expanse of land and water. It has not the solitary grandeur of Corfe, nor its old associations with the Anglo-Saxon times. It does not, like Conway, Caernarvon, Beaumaris, and Harlech, bear the impress of one mind in its design, of one hand in its execution; neither can it boast the rich surroundings of Ludlow, Warwick, or Kenilworth, nor the proud pre-eminence of Windsor, the present residence of the sovereign, the seat of the oldest and most illustrious order of Christian chivalry, the cynosure of four fair counties, rising amidst a rich mantle of forest verdure diversified with the silver windings of the Thames, and the venerable walls and courts of Eton.

The Tower of London can put forth none of these various claims to our attention, but it is not the less the most interesting fortress in Britain. It is the work of the great Norman conqueror of England, founded by the founder of her monarchy. It is the citadel of the metropolis of Britain, and was long the most secure residence of her greatest race of kings. Here they deposited the treasure of the empire and the jewels and regalia of their crown. Here they secured the persons of their prisoners, and minted and stored up their coin. Here the courts of law and of exchequer were not unfrequently held; here the most valuable records were preserved; and here were fabricated and preserved long-bow and cross-bow, sword, lance, and pike, armour of proof, balistæ, scorpions, and catapults, then the artillery and munitions of feudal war. Here, too, as these older machines were laid aside, was first manufactured that “subtle grain,” that “pulvis ad faciendum le crak,” and these “gonnys and bombards of war,” which were to revolutionise the military art, until they themselves should be superseded by later inventions, of which the ancient keep is still the grand storehouse and armoury of the country.

But the Tower has memories surpassing even its associations with the military glories of the state. It has been the prison and the scaffold of not a few of the best and bravest of English blood. Percy and Mortimer, Hastings and Clinton, Neville and Beauchamp, Arundel, Devereux, Stafford, and Howard,—those “old stocks who so long withstood the waves and weathers of time,”—have here found a grave. Here the great house of Plantagenet flourished and was cut down. Here England’s Elizabeth learned the uses of adversity; and here Raleigh solaced his confinement with the composition of that History which has made his name great in letters as in naval enterprise.

Here, too, captive within these walls, and through these gates led to death, were More and Fisher, martyrs for the ancient, and Anne Askew for the purer, faith; Lady Jane Grey, the most innocent and accomplished of victims; Strafford and Laud, firm for the old tyranny; Sir John Elliot, who died broken-hearted in the prison for the new liberty.

No other fortress, no bastile in France, no bargello in Italy, no prison-castle in Spain or Germany, is so deeply associated with the history of its nation, or with the progress of civil and religious liberty.

LUDLOW CASTLE, SHROPSHIRE.

Ludlow Castle is the glory of the middle marches of Wales, and first in place among the many military structures by which the great county of Salop has been adorned and defended. It is a noble specimen of military, palatial, and even ecclesiastical architecture, of high antiquity and of historic fame. It is probably without rival in Britain for the sylvan beauty of its position, in which wood and water, and meadows of wide expanse and rare fertility, are combined with rugged and lofty crags, of which the walls and towers seem to form a component part, so natural are the tints of their lichens, so thick the foliage, and so close the embrace of their ivy. Nor are its associations with the past unworthy of so bright a scene. Here, in the age of chivalry, the Lacys and the Mortimers achieved many of those feats of arms which filled the border counties with their renown. Here Stephen exercised his great personal strength on behalf of the heir of the Scottish throne, who was about to be hauled up into the beleaguered castle by a somewhat uncouth and unusual engine of war; and against these formidable walls the wild tribes of Wales flung themselves for two centuries, only to fall back, like the surge of the sea, broken and scattered. The Castle of Ludlow was the early residence of Edward IV., and the cradle of his infant sons; and here died Prince Arthur, the elder brother of Henry VIII. In rather later times within these walls sat that celebrated Council of Wales of which Henry Sydney was long the President, and which the chambers of the building, ruined and roofless as they are, show to have been lodged so splendidly. Here, too, towards the close of that brilliant but vicious provincial court, the attractions of which were felt even by the austere Baxter, Butler wrote a part of his immortal satire, and the masque of _Comus_ was first given to the world. The history of Ludlow, however, both castle and borough, has already been written,—for its early period, with scrupulous accuracy by Mr. Eyton, and at greater length, and down to a later period by Mr. Wright; and the object of the present paper is only to describe the particulars of the castle, or at least of the military part of it, and thus to supply an admitted deficiency.

The Castle of Ludlow crowns a rocky promontory which projects at a height of above a hundred feet over the union of the Corve with the Teme. Eastwards, and in its immediate rear, and rather lower than the castle, but much above the adjacent plain, stands the grand cruciform church with its lofty central tower, and about and below it the quaint old town. To the north, far below the walls, the Corve and the Teme are seen to wind across the meads which they fertilise, while to the west opens the deep and narrow ravine down which their combined waters flow to the distant Severn. Formerly, when the mead was a morass, and the ravine choked with fallen timber and the irregularities of an obstructed drainage, the defence on these two most exposed quarters must have been peculiarly strong, and an addition, by no means unnecessary, to the security of the march.

The promontory is in plan rather more than a right angle, and its two sides are protected by nature. At a radius of about two hundred feet from the angle a broad and deep ditch has been excavated from cliff to cliff, and thus, as at Norham, encloses an area in plan a quadrant, though not of extreme regularity. This forms the middle ward of the castle, and the inner ward is carved out of it in its south-western corner. The outer ward lies to the east and south, covering the middle ward on its townward side. To form it, the northern and western sides were projected along the cliffs about another two hundred feet, and were connected by a second ditch, now filled up, and which formed the outer defence of the place upon its weakest but least exposed sides. This ditch, the line of which may be inferred from its curtain-wall, was not exactly concentric with the inner ditch, but lay in two irregular lines nearly at right angles to each other, so that the whole area of the castle is in form roughly rectangular, and about 130 yards east and west by 150 yards north and south; including, therefore, about four acres.

The town also was walled, and its walls abutted upon the castle, which thus, as usual under such circumstances, though provided with its own defences, formed a part of the general _enceinte_. The town-wall may still be traced from the south-western angle of the castle, above the river, to the south gatehouse, which, though encrusted with late building, and disfigured in the manner characteristic of the last and preceding centuries, stills shows a portcullis-groove, and an archway which seems to be in the early English style, and probably of the time of Henry III.

The castle is composed of an inner, middle, and outer ward. The inner ward occupies the south-west angle of the middle ward, and is roughly rectangular, 32 yards east and west by 16 yards north and south. The south wall divides it from the outer ward, and its western is part of the general _enceinte_. Its two other walls divide it from the middle ward. This ward has three towers, the keep, the bakehouse, and the postern, at its south-east, south-west, and north-west angles. In it is the well.

The middle ward contains a pile of Tudor buildings over and about the gateway, built against the south curtain, which is of Norman date. They abut also upon the keep. Along the north curtain is the grand mass of the state and domestic buildings, composed of the buttery tower, the hall, the state and private rooms, and the square tower, which occupies the north-east angle of the ward. This group forms the grand feature of the castle, being of mixed Norman and Decorated date, of great height, and of lordly dimensions. On one side of the ward is the kitchen, built against the inner ward wall; and opposite to it the well-known Norman chapel, the circular nave of which stands detached, but which formerly had a chancel which abutted upon the curtain.

GROUND PLAN.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.]

The outer ward contains at present but few buildings. Near the centre of its curtain is the outer gatehouse, and on its south side a range of Tudor buildings, probably stabling. One square tower, of early date, stands on the east wall, and indicates the boundary of the Norman castle; and another, later and semicircular, on the west wall above the river, bears the name of Mortimer. There were some later buildings, including probably a chapel, at the south-west corner of this ward; but these are in part pulled down, and this quarter of the ward has been walled off, and a public footway made across it. This footway passes through two modern doorways in the outer curtain, the thickness of which is thus seen. The ditch covering the middle is, of course, actually within the outer ward. It is cut in the rock, 13 yards broad, 4 yards deep. 150 yards long, and in part revetted; the revetment being, no doubt, a long subsequent addition. It is crossed and closed at each end by the curtain, and must always have been dry, or nearly so. The general position, and to some extant the plan, of Ludlow, suggests a comparison with Barnard Castle, the outline of which is also Norman.

Before considering the interior of the castle, it will be convenient to bestow a few words upon the walls as seen from the exterior, especially along the road and north fronts. Commencing with the south-west angle, where the front wall branches off towards the river bridge, first comes Mortimer’s Tower, half-round in plan, and in the early English style, in which Hugh Mortimer is said to have been imprisoned in about 1150, but which seems of later date. It has a close gorge-wall, a basement at the ground level, and three upper floors. The basement is vaulted, groined, and ribbed, but the ribs and a large window are insertions. There is a well-stair in the north-east angle, and the upper floor communicates laterally with the curtain, which is lofty. Just below the line of the parapet is a row of corbels intended to support a wooden gallery or _brétasche_. This tower is of early English or early Decorated date, with additions of the Perpendicular and Tudor periods. Next to this, upon the wall, is the bakehouse tower, placed at the junction of the exterior curtain and that of the middle ward, and to be described with the keep. Beyond this tower the original Norman wall has been raised to 40 feet. In it is what seems to have been a sewer-mouth. Next follows the postern tower, a small Norman tower, square, of bold external and no internal projection, having a Norman door in its gorge; and another, the postern, of 4 feet opening, in its northern face. This tower is closed up and inaccessible. The upper part seems an addition. It marks the junction of the inner and middle wards. From it the curtain is continued northward at the same height; the lower part, at the least, being original. Inside, various buildings, now removed, were placed against this wall, and the wall itself is pierced by chambers and galleries not now accessible. Upon it is corbelled out the vent of a mural garderobe, which has been supplemented by the addition of a hollow shaft placed as a buttress below the corbels.

At the north-west angle is a group of towers, forming the angle, and which contain the buttery. The first has a rectangular projection, in the base of which is a round-headed sewer of 2 feet opening. Connected with this is a second tower, a half-octagon in plan, much patched and added to, but the lower part of which is Norman, and the upper early Decorated. This group is very lofty, and has a battering base, so that the weight is thrown backwards well within the edge of the cliff. Across the hollow angle, between this last tower and the north curtain, is turned a Norman squinch arch, in the soffit of which is the vent, and above, the loop window of a garderobe. This curtain forms the wall of the great hall and adjacent building. A large stone spout marks the buttery, and beyond are the three exterior windows of the hall. This wall crowns a cliff of about 40 feet, below which a broad platform has been cut in modern times, and from which a second steep slope of 50 feet or 60 feet descends to the meadows. The hall wall ends in a half-octagon, within which is the staircase to the private apartments; and beyond this again is the garderobe tower—a large rectangular mass of great height and breadth, and very bold projection, and entirely of Decorated date. In each of the three faces, at the base, are two large shoulder-headed recesses, each containing a vent, the sloping shoot from which is 6 feet long. In the floors above are various windows, of one light with trefoiled heads, and above rises the lower part of a handsome octagonal chimney shaft.

Beyond the garderobe tower is the wall of a part of the private apartments, mainly of Decorated date, but much altered. In its base are three large early Perpendicular windows of two lights, trefoiled, with tracery in the heads; and above are various Tudor insertions of inferior taste and workmanship, and the timbers of two balconies. This face of the middle ward ends in a square tower of Norman date, which stands at the junction of the walls of the outer and middle ward. From hence the wall is of the outer ward, and seems to have been rebuilt partly in the reign of Elizabeth, to which belongs a small square-headed door, outside which are some ruins upon a platform of rock about 30 feet broad. From hence the wall is modern, nearly to the Norman tower, from which to the gatehouse it is probably Norman. Beyond the gatehouse, to the river cliff, the wall is 5 feet to 6 feet thick and 40 feet to 50 feet high. It is old, but probably not original. The ditch is filled up, and trees have grown along its line, two or three of which must be above a century old.

The _Inner Ward_.—The keep stands on the higher part of the enclosure, but at some distance from the river cliff, nor has it any natural advantages for defence. It was not intended to stand alone, but, as is often the case with keeps of that age, is placed upon the _enceinte_, and so forms part of the general line of defence. It is peculiar in that its original plan, though rectangular, had two slight ears or projections, and it was, in fact, slightly ⟙-shaped, and had communications right and left through the arms of the ⟙ with the curtain wall on which it stood. This is very unusual, and quite an exception to the jealousy with which the entrances to Norman keeps are usually guarded. In this respect it is rather a large mural tower than a keep. It has been much altered at various periods, both within and without, and the history of these successive alterations is by no means easy to unravel. The keep is 40 feet long on its south face, which projects about 7 feet beyond the curtain into the outer ward. This is the cross limb of the ⟙. The stem projects from the curtain into the inner ward about 30 feet, and is 31 feet broad.

GROUND FLOOR.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.]

In the original building there was a basement nearly at the ground level and a lofty upper floor with an open roof. The exterior was plain. It had a low plinth, but no pilaster strips, save that at the end of the east wall there is a sort of pilaster 6 feet broad by 1 foot deep. On the south face a string of half-hexagonal section runs a little above the level of the first floor, and on the east and west faces, a little higher up, are sets-off of 5 inches. The upper story is marked by a similar set-off all round. The north, south, and west walls at the base are 7 feet 6 inches thick, and above it 5 feet. The east wall, containing the staircase, is 9 feet 6 inches thick. Two additions have been made, which much affect the ground plan. On the west, the hollow angle of the ⟙ has been filled up by a building 11 feet broad by 24 feet long, which is carried up to the top, and enters partly into the composition of a north-west turret. The wall of this building is only 3 feet thick. The corresponding hollow angle on the east face is also filled up by a mass of masonry 9 feet thick, but which goes no higher than the first floor. It contains a cell, the porter’s prison, and a passage leading from the main gate to the well-stair of the keep. The porter’s prison is barrel-vaulted, is not bonded into the keep, and is probably very late Norman. There is in the keep wall, partly seen in the vault, a loop or window, though there is no indication inside from whence it opened.

The existing keep is composed of a basement and three floors. At present the basement chamber is entered by a door in the north wall from the inner ward, the first and other floors by a well-stair in the east angle, entered from the main gate. The basement is three steps below the ground level. It is 31 feet north and south and 14 feet 5 inches wide. It has a high-pointed vault, a loop in the south or outer end, and in the north end a loop, and above it a window, and by their side the door from the inner ward. The window recess is slightly pointed, that of the door more decidedly so, but the exterior facing of both door and window is late Perpendicular, four-centred in a flat head. In the side walls, at their north end, on each side is a Norman arcade of two arches, plain and shallow, springing from plain detached columns with fluted and cushion capitals, the whole resting on a low bench. The arcades begin a foot from the north wall, and the arches are full centred, but of unequal span, 4 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 11 inches. The western arcade has been walled up and is only partially seen. On the east side, at the southern arch, the column is gone, and the lower half of its nook is occupied by a sort of altar of square stones, having a large flat stone on its top. The whole work is rude. There are no drips or hood mouldings, and a mere attempt at an incised ornament. The arcade is recessed about a foot. In the east wall, near its south end, are two square-headed doors of 2 feet opening and 7 feet 6 inches apart. Each opens into a passage 3 feet 7 inches long and 2 feet 7 inches broad, and these end in, and are connected by, a cross gallery 12 feet long and 2 feet 6 inches broad. These passages are lined with ashlar and are 6 feet 7 inches high, and flat-topped. The roof is formed of rubble, wedged tight and plastered. Also, each doorway has a rebate and bar-hole, showing that the door opened inwards, and was fastened on the inner side or from the passage, into which, however, there was no other way. It appears also that the great chamber was formerly divided by a cross wall, so placed that one of these doors opened into each chamber, and a step in the rubble vaulting shows where this wall crossed, and that there was a slight difference in the height of the vault on its two faces. The southern of the two doorways has been mutilated and a Norman pier has been inserted, but this seems modern, and a clumsy device to support the roof. It is difficult to understand for what purpose this very curious passage was constructed. It afforded a way from the outer to the inner room, but this does not account for the position of the bar-holes. Moreover, as regards the large room, the arcade seems strangely out of place. It was certainly confined to two arches on each side; and as the room lies north and south, it could scarcely have been a chapel, neither is it likely that it was a room of state. The wall seems at one time to have been lined with ashlar, and there are ashlar bands in the vault, a part of which is built of hammer-dressed stone, and part of very ordinary rubble. The arcade and probably the substance of the building are rather early Norman, and the vault and north wall seem additions in the early English period. This chamber has no communication with the additions either upon the east or the west front.

The first floor is exactly above the basement, and measures 30 feet by 17 feet 6 inches. In its south end is a Tudor window, no doubt replacing a Norman loop; and in its north end are two windows in Tudor recesses, and between them a Tudor fireplace. In the west wall, north end, a round-headed door opens into a side-chamber 8 feet by 13 feet, vaulted, but with a timber floor, having windows to the north and west, and in its east or keep side two round-headed recesses of 3 feet 8 inches opening, and 3 feet deep. In the south end of this room a narrow passage leads into a garderobe chamber, 7 feet 6 inches by 5 feet, with a loop to the west. Between the two rooms is a block of masonry which contains the shafts of the garderobes from the upper story. In the other or south end of the west side of the main room, a lofty full-centred arch of 5 feet 10 inches opening, is the mouth of a vaulted lobby, 13 feet 7 inches long; at first 5 feet 10 inches wide, and then reduced to 3 feet 2 inches. This opens upon the south curtain, west of the keep. In the south wall of the lobby is a small round-headed window in a plain recess, and outside, flanked with nook-shafts, the only ornamented Norman window in the keep. Opposite, in the east wall, is a door, of 4 feet 3 inches opening, which leads into a vaulted and groined chamber, 8 feet square, with a loop to the south, and to the east a short passage 4 feet wide, which opens upon the south curtain and leads to the upper floor of the gatehouse. In the north wall of the chamber is the head of a straight staircase, which threads the east wall of the keep, and was the original entrance from the ground level to the first floor. The staircase is of ashlar, barrel-vaulted, and fifteen steps are still to be seen. Returning to the main chamber, there remains to be noticed a door at the north end of the east wall, which opens into a well-stair, and from it by an outer door into what was the first floor of the gatehouse. This well-stair occupies the north-east angle of the keep. It is entered by a vaulted rising passage in the east wall from the main gate at the ground level, and the staircase rises to the ramparts, opening upon the first and two upper floors. At present its door and window openings are Tudor, but the staircase itself is probably much older. It is evident that here was the original entrance to the keep, as at Chepstow and Carlisle, whence a straight stair led up the centre of the wall to the first floor; but when the lower part of the well-stair was inserted, the straight stair was walled up, and so remains. At Chepstow and Carlisle, besides the staircase, there was a door which gave entrance to the basement floor. This could not have been the case here, for it would have cut the arcade. The cill of the south-east door shows the floor of the first floor chamber to have been slightly raised, which was, no doubt, done when the vaulting was inserted. There are two square holes in the floor, intended to give air to the main room below, and probably late insertions. This story was 12 feet 6 inches high. From it seventeen steps in the well-staircase lead to a Tudor door into the second floor.

FIRST FLOOR.

Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.]

The second floor is of the same dimensions with the first. In its south wall is a Tudor window, no doubt replacing one of Norman date; and in the north wall two windows, square-headed, but in round-headed though not Norman recesses. In the east wall, besides the staircase door, is a Tudor fireplace, possibly only refaced in that style. This wall has been much altered and patched, and the fireplace is probably an insertion. In the west wall, at its north end, a door opens into a lateral chamber, above that appended to the first floor, and in it are two garderobes. It has a square-headed loop to the north and three to the west, the central one in a round-headed recess. On a level with this chamber, and probably opening from it, is a small chamber over the west lobby. This has a loop to the west, but is not accessible. There is a similar chamber over the east lobby, but how entered does not appear. This second floor is 11 feet 10 inches high, and from it nineteen steps ascend to the floor above.

The third floor, also entered by a Tudor doorway from the staircase, is of the same dimensions with the floor below. In the east wall is a fireplace, also Tudor, and in the west wall, at the north end, a square-headed door, opening into the third floor of the appended chamber. This chamber has a Decorated window in its north wall, and had a timber floor and ceiling, and is crossed by a round-headed arch which supports the south wall of the north-west turret. A weather-moulding in the south wall shows that this appendage had at first a lean-to roof.

The south wall of the main chamber has also a weather-moulding, showing that this wall was once a gable, and that the keep had originally a high-pitched roof with a central ridge. A Tudor window has been inserted into the wall, and cuts through the moulding. The north wall is pierced by two round-headed recesses, in which are trefoil-headed windows of one light, and apparently of Decorated date. There is no weather-moulding at this end, one of the many indications that this wall has been rebuilt. This floor, like that below it, is 11 feet 10 inches high, and from it nineteen steps ascend to the battlements, opening by a Tudor door at the stair-head. The stair ends in a rectangular turret, 15 feet by 9 feet. The north-west turret, 8 feet by 10 feet, has no opening from the ramparts. The two southern turrets are larger, and both have exterior staircases of twelve stairs leading to their flat roofs. The south-west turret is 15 feet by 14 feet, and the south-eastern, not now accessible, is about 15 feet square. The north and south walls are here 5 feet thick, two being occupied by the embattled parapet. The east wall is 9 feet thick, and contained a double chimney-flue. The west wall is double, the inner 4 feet thick, being the wall of the keep, and the outer 3 feet to the wall of the appendage. The space between, 5 feet 8 inches broad, was covered by a flat roof, so that the rampart here was 12 feet 8 inches broad within the parapet. There were two embrasures on each face of the keep, and the roof last laid upon it was flat.

The keep seems originally to have been built by Roger de Lacy, 1086 to 1096, as a plain ⟙-shaped tower, upon and a part of the curtain wall. It had a basement floor at the ground level, and one upper floor of considerable height, with an open, high-pitched roof, of which the north and south walls, nearly if not quite of their present height, formed the gables, just as in the Norman gatehouse of Sherborne Castle. Probably the side walls were nearly as high as the gables, so as to conceal the roof. The basement was entered at the ground level by a door in the north wall. It had at least two arches of an arcade in each of its side walls, and was probably divided by a cross wall into two chambers, the inner being entered by the passage in the east wall. The entrance to the upper floor was also on the ground level, but in the east wall, and therefore in the middle ward. It was by a small door and short passage, from which, on the south or left, a staircase threaded the east wall, and landed in a vaulted lobby at the level of the first floor. This lobby and one opposite to it led out upon the curtain. How the keep battlements were reached is uncertain, possibly by the present well-staircase, which, in that case, then commenced at the first-floor level.

The first alteration made in the Norman period was probably a century later than the original building. This consisted in the addition of a building on the west front, filling up the hollow angle of the ⟙. It contained a basement, which seems to have been a cesspit, and is now entered by a breach, and is vaulted. The roof was a lean-to. To enter the first floor of this building a door was opened in the wall of the keep. Also on the opposite or east side a mass of masonry was built into the hollow angle of the ⟙. This, however, stopped at the first-floor level, and was probably intended to give a second passage between the first floor and the gatehouse. In the block was a vaulted prison cell for the porter, and a passage which led into and covered the entrance of the keep.

At a later date, during the early English period, still greater changes were made. The north wall was either rebuilt or refaced, the basement was vaulted, and the north-east angle was taken down and rebuilt, a well-stair being probably inserted into it. At the same time the lateral walls and the west appendage were raised, the first floor fitted with a flat ceiling, and two floors inserted above it, with doors into the western appendage, and two turrets were carried up at the two northern angles of the building.

The next and final alteration occurred in the Tudor period, when the vault of the eastern entrance was rebuilt, and faced with an outer door-case, the well-staircase fitted with doors and loops, and the old straight staircase walled up, and fireplaces inserted in the walls. Also the north door and window of the basement were refaced. Of course all this is a matter of opinion only, the alterations having been so great, and of so complete a character, that it is difficult to form even a theory concerning them. This is one of the most curious and perplexing Norman keeps now standing. It is much to be desired that its owner would cause an accurate plan and section of it at each floor to be made and published.

The curtain connecting the keep with the _Bakehouse Tower_ is 36 feet by 38 feet long, 7 feet thick, and about 20 feet high to the ramparts, but it had a covered passage, and rose towards the tower, probably having a narrow staircase communicating with the second floor, while the main gallery opened into the first floor. The tower is rectangular, about 23 feet by 27 feet. It projects 16 feet into the ditch, and its interior measures 15 feet by 11 feet. It was originally open at the gorge into the inner ward, the masonry being replaced, as at Cologne and Avignon, and as in the later gatehouse of the Tower of London, by a timber partition. A large oven has been built at the ground level, filling up the whole area, and an arch turned at the first-floor level, supporting a wall, which replaces the timber work in the upper floors. In this wall are a fireplace, small oven, and window. A door in the east wall opens from the curtain, and in the west wall another door opens into a mural passage in the west or outer curtain, in which it has a loop. On the left, or south, is a garderobe chamber, 6 feet by 5 feet, with a loop to the south, and in the opposite direction the passage runs 11 feet, descending four steps. It probably was continued in the substance of the curtain to the postern tower, but is now walled up. The upper or second wall of the tower is not accessible. It seems to be on the pattern of the first floor, and is entered by an exterior staircase from the south curtain, and on the other side has a garderobe and passage opening upon the rampart of the west curtain, towards the postern tower. The bakehouse tower is Norman, and of the age of the keep. Its floors were of timber.

The _Postern Tower_ is spiked up and inaccessible. It is about the size and height of the bakehouse tower, and of the same date, but its gorge was always closed. At the ground level a small door opens from the inner ward, and there is a similar door on the north and outer face of the tower, which is the postern. Both are full centred and plain. This tower has no internal projection. In the ward, close to the tower door, in a most inconvenient position, is the well, with a shaft worked roughly in the rock, 8 feet in diameter. It is now partly choked up.

The cross curtain from the postern is carried straight to the north-east angle of the ward, and thence turns south, till it abuts upon the keep. This wall, though probably Norman, is not so old as the keep or main curtain, so that in the original castle the inner and middle ward seem to have been one. There is a round-headed door in the curtain near its north-east angle, which opens between the inner and middle ward.