Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/192

176 MedicEval Military ArcJiitectttre, with which it was connected at three points : one, on the south, by a bold and lofty gallery which has replaced an original curtain, and projects 35 yards from the keep to a gatehouse which divides the eastern and western wards, and is known as the Middle Gate. The other connexions on the north side were two curtain walls, of which one reached from the keep 33 yards to the Falconer's Tower, now rebuilt and shifted, and had upon it the Armourer's Tower, now destroyed ; and the other was a curtain, now removed, which ex- tended 20 yards from the keep to the Postern Tower. By these arrangements the area was subdivided into an outer or western, an inner or eastern ward, and a central open keep. There remained, however, on the north front a three-sided space, bounded by the keep and the two curtains, and flanked by the Falconer's and Postern towers. This space, open towards the river, is at present protected on that side by a low retaining terrace-wall and bastions of very modern date. A survey of 1567 shows this side open, and no doubt it was so originally; the river, its steep bank, the keep, the flanking towers and curtains, and no doubt palisade, being regarded as a sufficient defence. This disposition is, however, singular and very curious, and looks as though the engineer wished to attract the enemy to this the strongest and most completely flanked part, by a show of weakness by the absence of an outer enceinte. Economy of construction could not have been the motive, for the cross curtains, in length, would go some way towards completing the broken enceinte. It would seem, from existing fragments and traces of foundations, that the lines of the present enceinte and keep are those of the old Norman fortress. The outline is governed very much by the dis- position of the ground, and the shell keep was the approved Norman way of occupying such a knoll, whether natural, as at Durham, or artificial, as at Windsor, or, as here, probably a very slight addition to a natural knoll. A distinct ditch, now filled up, encircled the keep and protected it from its containing wards. Towards the river this ditch seems to have worked out into a steep scarp. The keep is at this time an open court surrounded by towers. To the south-east, the gatehouse, about 40 feet deep and 20 feet wide, has grand external and internal round-headed Norman arches of 9 feet 2 inches span, the vault between being segmental and crossed by plain chamfered ribs. The exterior arch has a double band of bold chevron mouldings within a circle of double-hatched work. The inner arch has a single chevron band, and above it a band of which the voussoirs have alternate patterns of sunk nail- heads and the heraldic " lozengy." This is the work of Eustace de Vesci, who died 1157, and may be dated 1150, though possibly a part of his " munitissimum castellum," which, according to Mr. Tate, was existing in 1135. This Norman gateway is imbedded within a complete gatehouse by Henry de Percy in 1530, of which the main features are two lofty towers, which as half octagons flank the entrance from the eastern ward. Original shields of arms, in