Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/216

200 MedicBval Military Architecture. of the main curtain, which crosses the ditch from the gatehouse, and ascends the mound^ and has a similar continuation northwards. Where the south curtain abuts upon the keep, there stands a broad irregular tower, of about 20 feet in projection by 50 feet in breadth. This contains the well and its chamber, the entrance from the curtain rampart, and an oratory. The entrance is by a vaulted passage, with a portcullis groove at the ground level of the keep. The curtain has a parapet on either face, forming a covered way, and is commanded by a sort of balcony connected with the keep. The well is C5f unusually large diameter, but not in use. The chamber was at the surface level of the keep, into which it opened by a full-centred doorway. There was also an upper chamber, now ruined. This position of the well, on the outside of the keep, is found elsewhere. At Wallingford it is on the slope, and at Cardiff nearly at the foot of it. The oratory, or chapel of St. Martin, is a small chamber of irregular plan at the first-floor level, and is placed over the entrance passage. It has a large east window, altered at two periods, and two smaller lateral windows, all now closed up. The roof was of timber, and is gone. This oratory had a special endowment, afterwards shifted and expanded in favour of the large chapel in the lower ward. The details of this appendage show that, as at York and Cardiff, it was an addition to the original shell, the ashlar face of which is seen within one of the lower chambers. At Cardiff the added tower was Perpendicular ; at York, where it included a small chapel, Early English. Here the addition seems Early Decorated. The chapel is probably the St. Martin's mentioned in Domesday, and in the Patent Rolls of 1275, and was, of course, dismantled when the endowment was shifted in 1375. The keep is mentioned at different periods as Beaumont, Hautmont, and Grosmont, all names preserving its chief characteristic. As the English "Aula" was probably on this mound, while the ashlar exterior of its present wall is unquestionably later than the Conquest, it has been supposed that the heart of the wall is original, and that it was cased by the Norman architect. Of such casing there is, however, no appearance. The entrance from the curtain seems to have been cut through the wall, which has been thought there to show traces of early masonry. The wall, however, appears all of one date, and that probably late Norman, as is usual with shell keeps. Bevis Tower stands upon the curtain and projects from its outer face only. It stands on the north counterscarp of the ditch of the mound, about 42 yards from the keep. It is square, and said to be, in substance, of the age of the gatehouse, but it is not allowed to be seen close. It is called a barbican, but its position scarcely justifies its having been so intended. It looks more like an ordinary mural tower. There is no communication from the keep with the curtain on this side. North of this tower the earthworks of the upper ward seem tolerably perfect, but a request to be allowed to visit them was evidently regarded as a sort of treason.