CHAPTER VITHE KEEP OF THE NORMAN CASTLE

We have seen that there were two types of early Norman castle in England. There was the ordinary mount-and-bailey castle, with its defences of earthwork and timber; and there was the castle founded on a rocky site, in which there was no mount, and the defences were of stone. In the first instance, the strongest position, the mount, was occupied by the donjon or keep. In the second case, as at Ludlow, the wall was defended by a strong gatehouse and a certain number of towers; but at first there was, strictly speaking, no keep. During the first half of the twelfth century, an era of constant rebellion against the Crown, private owners constructed castles in very large numbers, for purposes of aggression and self-defence. The second half, the age of the first Plantagenets, was an era of consolidation, during which the building of castles was methodised under royal control. Unlicensed fortresses disappeared, leaving only their earthworks to mark their place. The permanent castle of stone became the rule; and to this period, the second age of our medieval military architecture, belong some of our most formidable and imposing castles. The aim of the builders, during this epoch, was to strengthen to the best of their ability that point in the plan which would form a centre of ultimate resistance to an attack from without. This point was the keep.134

CARISBROOKE: steps to keep

The keep of Norman and early Plantagenet days was virtually a castle within a castle. In the mount-and-bailey castle, there was generally only one entrance to the enclosure. If the besiegers forced this and entered the bailey, a ditch divided them from the mount, the most formidable part of the defences. Here the defenders could concentrate themselves for a last struggle, in which the advantage, unless the siege could be prolonged indefinitely, was distinctly on their side. Even where the mount was of inconsiderable height, it commanded the baileyand the ditch at its base. Its sides were too steep to allow of its being climbed without some artificial means of foothold. A chance arrow, tipped with burning tow, might reach the palisade round the summit of the mount, and set it alight in a dry season; but the defending party had all the advantage of being able to discharge their missiles downward and into a large portion of the bailey. Their disadvantage lay in the possibility of a prolonged blockade by a large force, and in consequent scarcity of ammunition and victuals. The danger of fire could be minimised by covering the wooden defences with skins newly flayed or soaked in water; but the work of renewing these in case of a long siege would be difficult.

The wooden donjon on the mount took the form of a square tower surrounded, at the edge of the mount, by a palisade, and approached, as has been described already, by a steep wooden bridge, which crossed the ditch into the bailey. But it is obvious that the existence of a castle in any given place as a permanent centre of royal influence must lead to the abandonment of wooden defences in favour of defences of more lasting material. The stone curtain first took the place of the palisade in the defences of the bailey, and was built across the ditch and up the sides of the mount, ceasing, as can be seen at Berkhampstead (42) or Tamworth, at the level of the summit. The next step was to replace the palisade of the mount with a stone wall of circular or polygonal shape. In some instances where this was done, it is possible that the old wooden tower was left within the enclosure. Cases in which a new tower of stone was built upon the mount are rare. Builders would hesitate to charge the surface of the artificial hillock with the concentrated weight of a large square tower. The encircling curtain was much better adapted to the plan of the mount, and distributed its weight more successfully over the edge of the surface. But, with the building of a stone wall round the summit, the necessity of a tower would be removed. Just as, in castles like Exeter and Ludlow, there was from the first a stone wall without a definite keep, the enclosure being virtually a keep in itself, so, in the more limited area of the mount, the encircling wall formed the keep, and, in the larger examples, sheltered upon its inner side buildings, usually of timber, which afforded the necessary cover for the defenders, while their roofs, abutting on the wall below the summit, left room for the rampart-walk and the wooden galleries which were fitted to the curtain in time of siege.

Cardiff; Keep

This was the genesis of the so-called “shell” keep, which converted the summit of the mount into a strong inner ward, the centre of which was clear of buildings, and gave more chanceof concentration to the defenders than the narrow passage between the wooden tower and the palisade, into which the angles of the tower would have projected awkwardly. One of the best examples of the type which remains is the keep upon the larger of the two mounts at Lincoln, a polygon of fifteen faces on the outside, twelve on the inside. The wall has lost its parapet, but retains its rampart-walk; it is 8 feet thick, and keeps its height of 20 feet perfect round the whole of the enclosure. The masonry is ashlar of late twelfth century character, and each of the external angles is capped by a flat pilaster buttress. The marks on the inner face of the walls indicate that the enclosure was surrounded by timber buildings, with which two small mural chambers communicated, in the thickness of the outer curtain where it joins the keep. The doorway of the keep is in the north-east face of the wall, which is pierced by a segmental-headed archway, with a semicircular covering arch on the outer face. This doorway, defended by a wooden door with a draw-bar, was approached by a stone stair made in the side of the mount. At the present day the ditchat the foot has been filled up, and the stairs are modern, but originally the ditch must have been crossed by a drawbridge at the foot of the stair, which, when drawn up, would have left the mount isolated from the bailey. There was a small doorway in the south-west face of the keep wall, probably intended to be a postern, through which an exit could be gained in emergencies.135

Alnwick; Plan

The shell of masonry upon the mount, however, was by no means the universal form taken by the keep. Sometimes, as at York, the timber defences of the mount survived until a comparatively late period, when their place was taken by a tower of a form in keeping with the principles of fortification of the day.136At Alnwick (115) the base of the great mount, with a considerable portion of its ditch, remains between the two wards of the castle. The present cluster of towers and connecting buildings upon the mount, surrounding a somewhat dark and confined courtyard, is in large part a nineteenth century reconstruction of the fourteenth century house of the Percyswhich occupied the site. The outer and inner archways, however, of the gatehouse through which the keep is entered, are twelfth century work, and agree very well in date with the large remains of Norman masonry which can be traced in the curtains of both wards. It is probable that, about the middle of the twelfth century, Eustace, son of John, who died in 1157, surrounded the whole of the present enclosure with stone walls, and, levelling the mount to its present height, built in stone the earliest domestic buildings of the castle, upon the enlarged site of the earlier wooden donjon and palisade. The appearance of Eustace’s buildings must have been very different from that of the mansion of the Percys; and we may assume that he defended the summit of the levelled mound by a thick curtain, against which his hall and other domestic apartments were placed.

Beaugency

Falaise

In France and Normandy, the rectangular donjon of stone began to supersede the wooden tower at an early date. At Langeais (Indre-et-Loire), Fulk the Black, count of Anjou, built a stone donjon as early as 992.137Three walls of this structure are left: it was oblong in form and was composed of a basement and upper floor. The masonry is largely faced with courses of small cubical stones, following the manner inherited by the Romanesque builders of France from their Roman predecessors: tiles are introduced in the arched heads of the windows in the upper stage, which are not mere loops, but have a considerable outward opening. This keep was obviously intended to be at once stronghold and dwelling-house. Such a building was a translation into stone of a wooden construction like the tower-house on the motte at Ardres. It is built on a promontory above a small stream, and is defended by a ditch on the landward side. Manyof these stone towers remain in Normandy and the country round the Loire; and, as a rule, are earlier in date and larger in area than most of the similar buildings in England. The tower of Beaugency (Loiret) is an oblong on plan, measuring about 76 feet long by 66 feet broad (116): the present height is 115 feet. The date indicated by the masonry is about 1100.138The fabrics of the towers of Falaise (Calvados) and Domfront (Orne) may be attributed to Henry I. In or about 1119 he systematically garrisoned his fortresses at Rouen and other places, of which Falaise was one.139Domfront, from 1092 onwards, was his favourite castle.140Its strong position gave it an exceptional advantage as a base of operations; and in 1101, when Henry ceded his Norman possessions to his brother Robert, he kept Domfront for himself.141After the battle of Tinchebray (1106) Henry was lord of Normandy, and restored order in the duchy by razing the unlicensed strongholds built under Robert’s weak rule.142The tower of Domfront, however, and possibly that of Falaise, were not built until 1123.143AtDomfront the castle is a large enclosure, occupying the highest point of a long hill which has a gradual eastward slope, but rises in an abrupt cliff from a narrow valley on the west, and descends steeply on the north and south. A deep ditch, through which the modern road from Caen to Angers has been carried, divided the castle from the town. The great tower lies to the east of the centre of the castle enclosure, so as to command the ditch and the town beyond. Only the north-west angle, with a portion of the adjacent walls, remains perfect. The height slightly exceeds 70 feet. The area of the whole structure is 85 feet by 70, not counting the buttresses and plinth. At Falaise (117) the great tower occupies nearly the whole of the summit of the isolated cliff on which it stands, the town occupying the hilly but lower ground on the north side. The length of the tower is a little less than that of Domfront, while the breadth is slightly greater. The height is about the same.

The tower of Domfront, like that of Beaugency, stood within a walled castle, where the capture of the bailey would have exposed the tower directly to the besiegers. It was therefore built with an exclusive view to strength, and its window openings, even upon the second floor above the basement, were small and narrow, those on the first floor being mere loops. On the other hand, the tower of Falaise stands high above the curtain-wall by which the ascent from the town was protected. Its outer face is of ashlar throughout, and the window openings of the two upper stages, far above the reach of stones and arrows, are double, divided by shafts with carved capitals. Both towers were separated into three parts by cross-walls; but the two upper stages at Falaise are now undivided, and at Domfront, above the basement, there remain only indications of such a division.

Returning to England, we may safely assert that, with very few exceptions, our rectangular towers belong to a period which bears, from the historical point of view, a close likeness to the period of Henry I.’s fortifications in Normandy. Henry II. pursued the same policy of destroying unlicensed castles and strengthening royal strongholds; and his building operations took the form of providing his castles with towers, such as already were a chief feature of the castles of Normandy and Maine, but were certainly very exceptional in England. The approximate date of several of these towers can be obtained from the entries in the Pipe Rolls for the reign of Henry II.144

Henry II., like the Conqueror, directed his attention to the defence of the main water-ways of his kingdom. The castles of the coast and of the Welsh and Scottish frontiers were alsochief objects of his care. The Pipe Rolls of 1158-9 and 1160-1 contain accounts of large sums spent on the castle of Wark-on-Tweed, at the extreme north-west corner of the kingdom.145In 1158-9 occur charges for the tower of Gloucester,146at the head of the Severn estuary; and in the same and following years are many mentions of the castle and tower of the great littoral stronghold of Scarborough.147Berkhampstead, commanding the approach to London from the north-west, was an object of substantial expense in 1159-60 and 1161-2.148In 1160-1 £215. 18s. 5d. was spent in the fortification of the city of Chester:149work was also done at Oswestry,150and other accounts show that attention was paid to the victualling of castles on the Welsh border at Clun and Ruthin.151Accounts, beginning in 1164-5, refer to the strengthening of Shrewsbury castle.152Sums were spent on the tower of Bridgnorth, which commanded the defiles of the Severn between Shrewsbury and Worcester, in 1168-9 and following years;153and mentions of Hereford,154Shrawardine,155and Ellesmere,156testify to the care with which the western frontier of the kingdom was protected. Of the coast castles, apart from Scarborough, Dover has a constant place in these accounts. For example, in 1168-9, 40s. 6d. was paid for the hire of ships to bring lime from Gravesend to Dover, and £34. 5s. 4d. was spent on the work for which this was required.157Southampton castle was repaired in 1161-2,158and a well was made there in 1172-3.159The tower of Hastings was in progress in 1171-2.160In 1165-6 £256. 4s. 9d. was spent upon the castle of Orford, the great stronghold of the Suffolk coast, which was an object of large yearly expense down to 1171-2.161On the line of the upper Thames, continual sums were spent on the palace-castle of Windsor: the wall of the castle is referred to in 1171-2 and 1172-3.162Work was done at Oxford and a well made in 1172-3 and 1173-4.163Hertford castle was maintained to guardthe Lea.164In addition to Dover, the castles of Rochester,165Chilham,166and Canterbury167protected the main routes to the narrowest part of the Channel. The chief fortress of the vale of Trent was at Nottingham, where large sums were spent in 1171-2 and 1172-3.168Of the inland castles of the north, the tower of Newcastle cost some £385 between 1171-2 and 1174-5169This forms a contrast to the small sum spent on the tower of York—£15. 7s. 3d.—in 1172-3:170it is clear, from the Pipe Rolls of later reigns, that this was merely a wooden structure.171

However, there are earlier instances of towers which are of first-class importance, and these must be briefly described before we dwell upon the characteristics of the donjons of the second half of the twelfth century. We have seen that William the Conqueror, immediately after his coronation, began the construction of certain strongholds in connection with the city of London.172His first work was probably to enclose within a palisade the undefended sides of the bailey, the east side of which was covered by a portion of the Roman city-wall. Before the end of his reign, the White tower had been begun as a principal feature of the castle, and was completed in the reign of William Rufus, who in 1097 built a wall about it.173This tower is therefore at least as early in date as most of the early square towers of Normandy and the adjacent provinces, and is considerably earlier than the towers of Falaise and Domfront. A tradition attributes the design to the direction of Gundulf, bishop of Rochester 1077-1108, who is also said to have been the builder of the donjon-like tower at Malling in Kent, originally attached to the church of St Leonard, and of the tower, the ruins of which remain, on the north side of the quire of Rochester cathedral.

The White tower is at present 90 feet in height, and is therefore much lower than the nearly contemporary tower of Beaugency. Its area, however, is far greater, covering an oblong of 118 feet from east to west by 107 feet from north to south. It is four stages in height, and was built of rubble masonry,ashlar work being confined entirely to the pilaster buttresses and windows, and the plinth. Modern repairs have made the original appearance of the tower hard to reconstruct. The entrance was upon the first floor, and was never covered by a fore-building: this entrance seems to have been in the western part of the south wall. A well-stair or vice, in a round turret at the north-east corner, was the chief means of communication between all the floors; but vices were also made from the second floor to the roof in the square turrets of the north-west and south-west angles. There is also a square turret above the place which would ordinarily be occupied by the south-east angle; but the south wall, throughout its height, is continued into an apsidal projection, which is curved round to meet the east wall. The two upper stages of this projection form the apse of St John’s chapel, with its encircling gallery. The faces of the tower and the apse are strengthened by flat buttresses at regular intervals, which are gathered in at a string on the level of the floor of the uppermost stage, and again at the level of the roof. There are no window openings in the basement, which was originally used for stores. The window openings of the first and second floors were originally narrow loops, with wide internal splays, but have been considerably enlarged, with some damage to the appearance of strength which the tower once possessed. The openings in the aisle of the chapel on the second floor, however, were wider than the rest. The third floor, being out of the range of ordinary missiles, had wide window openings: the two openings in the south wall of the larger room on this floor are double. The greatest thickness of the walls of the basement is 15 feet: the walls of the uppermost stage are from 10 to 11 feet thick.

White Tower; Plan of Second Floor

White Tower; St John’s Chapel

The tower is divided internally into two parts by a longitudinal wall, east of the centre, 10 feet thick.174Thus in thebasement there is a large western chamber, 91 by 35 feet, and on every floor above there is a corresponding room, the dimensions of which increase with the thinning of the outer walls to a maximum of 95 by 40 feet. The eastern chamber, however, is divided into two parts by a cross-wall, considerably to the south of the centre. There is thus in the basement and each floor an oblong north-eastern chamber, into which access is obtained from the main well-stair. In the basement there is a doorway in the longitudinal wall between this and the western chamber; but, on each of the upper floors, the communication is maintained by five openings in the wall. Apart from the recesses of the loops, and the mural lobbies which lead to the vices in the turrets, there are only two mural passages, one in the first and one in the second stage, communicating with garde-robes; but the wall of the third floor is pierced all round by a gallery, with a barrel vault, in the thickness of the wall, whichcommunicates at either end with the broad gallery above the aisles of St John’s chapel.

Tower of London; St John’s Chapel

Christchurch

The south-eastern quarter of the tower contains, in the basement, the sub-crypt of the chapel, known in later days as “Little Ease.” On the first floor is the upper crypt, which, as well as the sub-crypt, has a barrel vault, and ends in an apse. The second floor is the ground-floor of the chapel and its aisle or ambulatory, which is divided from the nave by plain round-headed arches springing from cylindrical columns with capitals, those of the eastern columns famous for the Tau-shaped plaques left uncarved between their volutes, those of the western columns scalloped (122). The nave of the chapel rises through the third floor to the barrel vault. The aisles have groined cross-vaults: the gallery above them on the third floor is covered by a half barrel vault. This gallery, as before mentioned, is connected in its north and west walls with the mural gallery of the main chambers. The ground floor of the chapel communicated with the north-eastern chamber through a doorway in the cross-wall; but the main entrance was through a short mural lobby from the western chamber, which led into the west end of the south aisle. At a late date a vice was made in the thickness of the wall from this lobby to a doorway in the basement, by whichaccess was obtained to the chapel from the later domestic buildings adjoining the south side of the tower.

The well of the tower, a most necessary feature in case of siege, was in the floor of the western chamber of the basement, near its south-western angle, and was cased with ashlar. Only three fireplaces remain, all in the east wall, two on the first, and one on the second floor: the smoke escaped through holes in the adjacent wall. The use of the rooms on the various floors is uncertain, and it is possible that they may have been separated by wooden partitions into smaller rooms. The basement chambers, however, were obviously store-rooms; and the great western chamber on the third floor was used by many of our kings as a council-chamber. The first-floor rooms may have been intended for the use of the garrison, while the larger room on the second floor was probably the great hall of the tower, and the smaller room the king’s great chamber. The upper room, next the council-chamber, may have been for the use of the queen and her household. Accommodation, suited to the scanty needs of the times, was thus provided for a large number of persons; and the great size of the chapel alone indicates that the tower was intended as an occasional residence for the royal family. The palace hall at Westminster, however, was in building, when Rufus made his wall round the Tower; and it is clear that the cold and dark interior of the fortress was planned mainly with a view to defence, and with little respect for comfort.

The great tower of Colchester castle (47), which is of the same date as the White tower, covers an even larger area. The internal measurements of the ground-floor, excluding the projections at the angles, are 152 feet north and south by 111 feet east and west. This, the greatest of all Norman keeps, has unfortunately lost its two upper stages, and, with them, the chapel, which, like that in the White Tower, was built with an apsidal projection covering the junction of south and east walls. The crypt and sub-vault of the chapel, however, remain. In this respect, and in the division of the floors into larger and smaller chambers by a cross-wall running north and south, the likeness between these two great towers is very marked. The rectangular projections, on the other hand, which cap three of the angles of the tower at Colchester, are far more prominent than those of the Tower of London, and form small towers in themselves; and, even at the angle where the apse of the chapel is extended eastward, the south wall has been built of a thickness to correspond with the projections at the north-east and north-west angles. That at the south-west angle differs in planfrom the rest, being longer from east to west and wider on its western face than the others. Its south face also is recessed from the level of the south wall of the tower, but projects in a large rectangular buttress at the point where it joins the main wall. This south-west tower contained the main staircase. The entrance was on the ground floor, immediately east of the buttress just mentioned, and not, as in most rectangular keeps, upon the first floor. The ashlar with which the exterior of the tower was cased has been stripped off, and the rubble core of the walls, with its bonding courses of Roman tiles, is now exposed. Below the ground floor the walls spread considerably: this can be seen upon the north and west sides, where the hill drops towards the river, and the upper part of the solid foundation is above ground. Between the angle towers the walls are broken, on the east and west sides, by two rectangular buttresses of slight projection: on the north side there is only one, and on the south side none. The ground floor and first floor were lighted by narrow loops, splayed inwardly through about half the thickness of the wall. In each of the east, north, and west walls of the ground floor there are three of these. The south wall has only two: one lights the well chamber on the east of the entry, while the other, at the opposite extremity of the wall, lights the sub-vault of the chapel. The wall between the two, being on the side of the tower most open to attack, is of great solidity, and is unbroken by opening or buttress. In each face of the first floor, exclusive of the angle towers and apse of the chapel, there were four loops. The window openings of the upper stages were probably larger. One of the most striking features of this tower is the plentiful use of Roman tiles among the masonry, especially in the cross-wall, where they are arranged in a very regular and beautiful series of “herring-bone” courses (101). This employment of Roman material gave rise to a tradition, not yet wholly extinct, that the tower was a Roman building. It need hardly be said that nothing would be more natural than for the Norman masons to adopt the economical principle of applying to their own use material which lay ready to hand among the ruins of the Roman station.

Dover

Clun

The towers of London and Colchester are exceptional in their date and in the hugeness of their proportions. Although the towers of the later part of the twelfth century have many features in common with them—the division by means of cross-walls, the well-stairs in one or more of the angles, the pilaster buttresses projecting from the outer walls, and the mural galleries and chambers—no tower was subsequently attempted upon their scale. The tower of Rochester (frontispiece), which appears to havebeen begun somewhat earlier than 1140, and is therefore intermediate in date between these two exceptional examples and the later towers, is 113 feet high to the top of the parapet, and is 70 feet square (exterior measurement) at its base. The tower of Dover (126), built in the early part of the reign of Henry II., measures 98 by 96 feet at the base. The walls, however, have the exceptional thickness of 24 to 21 feet, so that the internal measurements are considerably reduced, while the height to the top of the parapet is only 83 feet. The towers of London and Colchester are also exceptional in the importance given to the chapel in their plans. The great prominence of the angle turrets at Colchester is an unique feature, while the position ofthe main entrance upon the ground floor, although not unique, is very unusual.

The later towers differ from those of London and Colchester in the fact that they were additions to enclosures already existing, instead of being the nucleus of a castle founded for the first time. Although they have a general family likeness, neither their position on the plan, which was necessarily dictated by the nature of the site, nor the details of their arrangements, are uniform. Most of the castles in which they occur are divided by a wall, built across the enclosure from curtain to curtain, into an outer and inner ward or bailey. The tower, standing at the highest point of the inner ward, was placed so as to command both these divisions of the castle. If the outer ward were entered, the besiegers were confronted by a second line of defence, the wall of the inner ward, in conjunction with which the great tower, with its superior height, could be used by the defenders. Finally, if the inner ward were taken, the tower still remained as a formidable refuge for the garrison.

Guildford

Where a new tower keep was added to castles of the usual type, whose main defences consisted of an earthen mount and banks, it was often raised, as at Canterbury and Hastings, on a new site, independent of the mount, which was probably avoided as affording insufficient foundation. Thus, at Rochester, the old mount of the eleventh century castle, now known as Boley Hill, remains at some distance from the later enclosure. But there were cases, and possibly more than are generally recognised, in which the mount was utilised for a tower. At Christchurch the comparatively small keep was built entirely upon the artificial mount. The keeps of Norwich and Hedingham (135), two of the grandest of their class, were built upon mounts, which, if in great part natural hills, had been scarped and heightened by art. The mounts at Guildford and Clun (127) are artificial. In both these last cases the summit of the mount was converted into a shell keep, surrounded by a wall; but on the eastern sideof this enclosure a tower, of respectable if not large dimensions, was made. The tower at Clun was built against the east slope of the mount, the basement being entirely below the level of the summit of the earthwork. This is also partly the case at Guildford (128), where the tower is placed across the eastern edge of the mount. The inclusion at Kenilworth of artificial soil within the basement of the keep has led to the suspicion that the mount of the castle was reduced in height, and the tower built round the lower portion (132).

Scarborough; Plan

At Guildford and Clun the combination of a shell of masonry with a tower keep produced the effect of a small inner ward—which is virtually what a shell keep is—with a tower upon itsenceinte. Frequently, as at Scarborough (129) and Bamburgh the tower keep stood upon the line of the curtain between the two wards. At Scarborough it actually stands athwart that line, but its greater projection is towards the inner ward, from which, of course, it was entered. The towers at Norham (157) and Kenilworth fill up a corner of the inner ward, but have no noticeable projection beyond the curtain. This is also the case at Porchester (131), where the north-west angle, in which the keep stands, is also the north-west angle of the Romanstation.175Some, however, of the finest of these towers, Rochester, Dover, and Newcastle, stood wholly detached within the inner ward, although, as at Rochester, near enough to the curtain to enable the defenders to command the outer approaches from the upper stages.

Map of Rectangular Keeps

Porchester

From the point of view of dimensions the towers may be divided into two classes. There are the towers proper, such as Clun, Corfe, Guildford, Hedingham, Helmsley, Newcastle, Porchester, Richmond, Rochester, and Scarborough, in which the height is greater than the length or breadth. Such towers are approximately square; and to them must be added Dover, in which, however, owing to the immense thickness of the walls, the height is less than the length or breadth. In one case, Porchester (131), the measurement from north to south exceeds that from east to west by 13 feet, and at first was also in excess of the height; but the tower was raised to nearly twice its height not long after the completion of the original design. The second class is composed of keeps, of which one or both of the dimensions of the ground-plan exceed the height, without the exceptional circumstances which governed the proportions of Dover. Such keeps are noticeably oblong in shape. At Castle Rising and the tower of Bowes in Yorkshire the height is lessthan either the length or breadth. At Kenilworth (132) the length from east to west exceeds the breadth by nearly 30, and the height by 7 feet. Middleham, from north to south, measures approximately 100 feet by 80 from east to west: its height is only 55 feet, which, though it surpasses the 50 feet of Bowes and Castle Rising, is much less than the 80 feet of Kenilworth. Its length and breadth, however, make up an area far surpassing the 87 by 58 feet of Kenilworth, the 82 by 60 feet of Bowes, and the 75 by 54 feet of Castle Rising. The foundations of another keep of this class remain at Duffield in Derbyshire. Bamburgh, 69 by 61 feet, but only 55 feet high, is another member of the class. Another great Northumbrian keep, Norham, although its height is 90 feet, is oblong in plan; and its measurement from east to west comes within 4 feet of the height, so that it stands on the border between the second and the first class.

Kenilworth

The internal divisions of the keeps are not uniformly the same, and do not always correspond to the height. The usual arrangement in the loftier keeps, as at Hedingham, Porchester, Rochester, and Scarborough, is a basement with three upper floors; but at Corfe, which is 80 feet high, as at Guildford, which is only 63 feet high, there are only two upper floors. At Dover, 83 feet high, and Newcastle, 75 feet high, the second floor was surrounded by a mural gallery, high above the floor-level,so that the second and third floors were combined into one lofty room.176At Norham, however, there were four upper floors. Kenilworth, only 10 feet lower, had a lofty basement with only one floor above it. At Bowes there were two floors. At Middleham and Castle Rising, there was one main floor; but, by the subdivision of the rooms on this stage, a second floor was made in portions of the building. As a rule, the walls grow thinner as they rise: this was achieved by rebating the inner face at each floor to provide a ledge for the floor timbers. In exceptional cases, there is an off-set on the exterior of the tower; and at Rochester the walls are thinned from 12 feet at the base to 10 feet at the top by a slight exterior batter. At Porchester the walls are 11 feet thick at the base: this is reduced to 7 feet at the first floor, and, by an off-set at the level of the original roof, to 6 feet in the upper stage. The thickest walls, next to those at Dover, appear to be at Newcastle, where their thickness at the first floor is 14 feet.

Many of these towers, such as Rochester and Dover, are built of rag-stone or coursed rubble, with dressings of ashlar. The masonry at Guildford (128) is extremely rough, and “herring-bone” coursing is extensively used: the date of the tower, however, to judge by its internal details, is not earlier than the third quarter of the twelfth century.177On the other hand, not a few have their walls cased with ashlar. Hedingham and Porchester are noble examples from the east and south of England; Bridgnorth and Kenilworth from the midlands. Of the towers of Yorkshire, Bowes, Richmond, and Scarborough have ashlar casing; Middleham is of rubble with ashlar dressings. Ashlar facing is used throughout at Bamburgh, Newcastle, and Norham: at Norham the ashlar is of two distinct kinds, small cubical stones being used in one part, and larger stones in another.178As at Colchester, Dover, and Kenilworth, the foundations of the larger towers spread considerably, and rise above ground in a battering plinth, into which the buttresses at the angles and on the face of the walls die off without interruption. At Newcastle there is a rollstring-course above the plinth, and at Bamburgh (91) the plinth is moulded with a very imposing effect. Where the tower is built on an uneven site, as at Middleham or Scarborough, the plinth appears only on the faces where the ground falls away from the tower.

The angles of the tower were always strengthened by rectangular pilaster buttresses of the ordinary twelfth century type, formed by thickening the two adjacent walls. In most cases these meet, forming a solid exterior angle. Occasionally, as at Guildford, Hedingham, and Rochester, a hollow angle is left between them, which, at Castle Rising and Scarborough, is filled by a shaft or bead. Above the line of the parapet the angle buttresses are continued into square turrets. Within one or more of these angles, there was a vice. At Newcastle (139) the angle buttresses are of such breadth and projection as to form distinct towers: this is even more noticeable at Kenilworth, where there are angle towers not unlike those at Colchester. On the faces of the tower between these angles there were usually one or more pilaster buttresses of slight projection. These varied in number according to the plan and site of the tower. At Dover there is one on each face, with the exception of the side which is covered by the forebuilding. At Kenilworth there are four on one face, three on another, two on a third: the remaining wall has disappeared. At Porchester there is one on each of the west and north faces, none on the east or south: when the tower was heightened, neither angle nor intermediate buttresses were continued upwards. It is worthy of note that one of the angle towers at Newcastle is polygonal, not rectangular, in shape. This points to a transition in methods of fortification, of which more will be said hereafter. The south-east angle at Rochester is rounded; but this is the result of a repair of the tower which took place in the thirteenth century.

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