Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/25

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NORMAN HOUSES AT SOUTHAMPTON.
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external projection, like a flat Norman buttress, supported on plain corbels hanging over the lane. The doorway is on the ground floor, and not as in the early houses in the north of England, on the first floor only: no remains of a staircase exist, but it was probably internal and of wood, and may have been carried on the projections opposite to the door. There are no windows in the ground floor, but several on the first story; those which are perfect are of two lights, divided by a shaft, with capital and base. Several of these windows open to the outside of the city wall, which in this part consists of a series of arches carrying the parapet wall and alure; the piers are connected with the wall of the house, but the spaces behind the arches left open, forming a succession of wide machicolations.

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PART OF THE TOWN WALL AND NORMAN HOUSE, SOUTHAMPTON.

On the first floor also there is a passage formed in the thickness of the wall, as was usual in fortifications of the period, and this probably communicated with the town wall, though the passage is now partly blocked up.

From the circumstance that the arches of the town wall are built partly over the windows of the house, it is clear that they were erected subsequently, the masonry is also different. Although the arches at this part are round-headed, those adjoining to them are pointed, and evidently of the same period. I. H. P.