Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/202

186 Mediceval Military Architecture, THE CASTLE OF ARQUES, NEAR DIEPPE. ARQUES is one of the earliest examples of a Norman castle, for which reason, though not an English fortress, it has been thought convenient to include an account of it in these pages. This grand castle crowns and occupies the head of a steep and bold cape or promontor}^, in this case a spur from the great chalk table-land of the " Pays de Caux." On the west it is flanked by a short but deep combe or dry valley, and on the east by the deeper and far wider valley of the Bethune and Varenne — streams derived from different sources, but which here meander across a broad and level bottom, above half a mile wide, until, a little below the castle, uniting, they receive the tributary Aulne, and, thus combined, under the name of "la Riviere d'Arques," fall into the sea at the port of Dieppe. The castle thus stands above the left bank of the principal valley. It is about 4 miles from Dieppe ; and immediately below, and to its north-east, is the village whence it takes its name, remarkable for a church of unusual size, and a most elegant example of the style of the latter part of the sixteenth century. Beyond, upon the right bank, are the remains of the ancient Forest of Arques, a part of the spacious domain of the ancient lords of the fee, and upon the skirts of which, within shot of the castle, was fought, in 1589, a very celebrated battle. The castle in its present form is composed of a rectangular keep, standing in the south-west corner of an inner ward, in plan some- thing less than a half-circle, having its chord to the west, and con- tained within an enceinte wall, strengthened by towers and buttresses along its sides and at its southern end, and capping its angles. Applied to the north end of this is an outer ward, of later date, four-sided, and having drum towers at its four angles. The main entrance, approached by a steep and winding road from the town, is in the north end, or at the point of the cape, between the two towers. Entering, is a second gatehouse, opening from the outer into the inner ward, also between two towers. A third gatehouse, at the other end of the fortress, leads direct from the exterior into the south end of the inner ward, and thus opens a communication with the root of the cape. There is also a lateral postern with vaulted passages in the west wall of the outer ward. Outside the wall, encircling it closely, is the ditch, the most striking feature in the whole fortress. This is in general plan not unlike the long section of a pear, the northern end being the smaller, and the western side flattened so as to be nearly straight. The counterscarp of this ditch includes an area of about 5 acres. The ditch itself, measured from the level of the foot of the wall crowning its scarp, is about 60 feet deep, with slopes of i foot horizontal to 2 feet vertical, and about 70 feet broad. It is only