nearly, if not quite, roundheaded, opens in a recess similarly arched, and this into the state-room. The door was barred inside, so as to be held against the stairs.
Returning to the well-stair, the upper part of which is broken away, at twenty-nine steps from the base is a small lancet-headed door. It opens into a mural passage, 2 ft. 6 in. broad, and 7 ft. high, which makes two turns at right angles. At one, on the left, is a recess, 3 ft. deep by 1 ft. 9 in. broad, a garde-robe, the back part of which, probably bratticed off, carried a shaft from a similar recess on the ramparts. At its second turn the passage descends seven steps to the nearest window recess in the main chamber, crossing which an opposite doorway leads into the mural gallery. The ascent and descent in the narrow passage is rendered necessary by the level of the steps of the well-stair.
The mural gallery, at the main chamber level, is continued within the substance of the wall, to the recess next the chapel. It is in plan a polygon parallel with the inner faces of the wall. It is 10 ft. high and 3 ft. 9 in. wide, having a flagged roof resting on a double tier of corbels, and in it are three large recesses, each opening to the field by a long loop, swallow-tailed at each end. These recesses and loops are not seen from the main chamber. The doors and window eaves, where original, are executed in straw coloured sandstone. The chapel doorway and piscina, and the side doors of the window recesses seem of later decorated work than the rest, and may be insertions, though this does not look probable.
The keep, as at Tamworth, Durham, Berkhamstead, Warwick, and Cardiff, stands in the enceinte line of the main ward, and forms part of it, about two-thirds of its circumference being outside, and one-third, including the doorway, inside the curtain. This curtain was about 460 ft. in length, and encircles the main ward, abutting against the keep at two points; one 24 ft. south, and one 18 ft. north of the entrance. On each side it is carried down the slope, and meeting below, thus encloses a somewhat fan-shaped area, about 170 ft. north-east and south-west, by 142 ft. north-west and south-east, within which were the principal buildings of the fortress. The southern part of this curtain can be traced, but in its foundation only; that to the north
