Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/320

298 MedicBval Military Architecture. machicolation resembling those on each face of the keep. It is said that formerly the arms of Vaux, " checquy/' were carved over the entrance ; but it seems probable that they were the arms of Clifford, "chequy, a fess," or it may have been "a bendlet." The passage within, II feet broad, is vaulted. The first defence was a portculhs, of which the square groove, 6 inches broad by 4 inches deep, remains. Within this is the rebate for a pair of gates, and on the right the small door of a lodge. At the inner end of the passage was a second pair of gates, opening towards the first pair, and beyond them the open court, with the keep wall on the left. Above this outer gateway is a large room, 21 feet east and west, by 32 feet long. In its west wall is a fireplace, and a door opening into the middle chambers. In its north wall a good Decorated window looks upon the river ; in the east wall are two windows overlooking the outer gate, and between them, over the gate, a recess for working the portcullis. Beyond the open court is the second part of the gatehouse, which commences by a portcullis, backed by a pair of doors, within which is a passage 20 feet long by 16 feet broad, vaulted in two bays with transverse and diagonal ribs springing from six corbels. There are no ridge ribs ; the inner or further portal also had doors. The left- hand lodge is a vaulted cell, 1 1 feet long by 3 feet 3 inches broad. On the right the room is much larger, and leads to the north postern. The exterior or north front of these two gatehouses forms a hand- some block, and is pierced by various openings at different levels. At its north-east corner is an angle buttress ; then follows one in section a half square, set on diagonally ; and west of this, again, is a large square buttress, in one side of which is the north postern, a small shoulder-headed door at the foot of a flight of stairs. The lofty tower at the south-west angle of the court is about 35 feet square, with an appendage on the east face. It has thick walls and mural passages, and projects but little from the curtain. It has a basement and three upper floors. The first floor was entered by an exterior flight of stairs, which also communicated with the rampart of the west curtain. At its junction with the tower is the postern, the approach to which is guarded by a loop, while nearly over the door discharges the shoot of a garderobe. Along the south wall are the domestic buildings, of which the chief was the chapel, about 35 feet by 20 feet. This was on the first floor, with a timber floor and open roof. The chamber below was entered from the court by a lancet door. The chapel had a large east window, of which the jambs remain ; and in its south or curtain wall are two long trefoil-headed windows, splayed within. Towards the east end are three sedilia, also with trefoiled heads and trefoils in the spandrels, the whole beneath a flat top. There is also a piscina of late Decorated aspect. Near the chapel, towards the south-east angle, the remains of a large fireplace seem to indicate the kitchen, and along the east wall are two windows, and traces of a fireplace between them, all which seem to belong to the hall. At