Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/405

This page needs to be proofread.

Castle Risings Norfolk. 375 also in the Tower of London and at Rochester, produces a good effect, and takes off from the sameness of the barrel-vault. In the kitchen are piled up a heap of fragments of carved stones found in or about the castle. They are in all the styles — Norman, early English, Decorated, and a few Perpendicular. Probably some came from the chapel of St. Nicholas ; many of them can scarcely have belonged to the keep. If Castle Rising was built by the architect of Norwich keep, it must be early Norman, for Norwich was be- sieged 1076, at the revolt of Earl Guader, and Harrod supposes the present keep to have been then standing ; but the ornamenta- tion of Castle Rising looks much later, and on the whole there is no reason to refuse assent to the tradition which attributes it to William d'Albini, who died 11 76. As usual, there are no subter- ranean chambers. Though the three doorways of the forebuilding had not, as at Dover, each a tower, each had a distinct defence, the outer from the battlement over the portal, the middle also from a battlement pierced by a shaft, and communicating with the keep, and the inner as a part of the vestibule tower. "Wi^ gatehouse stands near the centre of the east side of the keep ward, in the earth bank which has been cut away to allow it to be built. It is 325 yards from the north-east angle of the keep, and of the same age. It is of the usual Norman pattern, a rectangular tower pierced by a passage, with an arch of 12 feet opening at each end, set in the walls, of which the outer is 6 feet, and the inner 5 feet thick. The arches are quite plain, without rebate or chamfer. The passage between the two is also 12 feet wide and 13 feet long, and had a flat timber roof, the floor of the chamber above, now removed. The outer arch has a portcullis groove, 3^^ inches broad by inches deep, and square. In the north wall are two shallow recesses, of 4 feet span by i foot 10 inches deep. In the south wall is one similar recess, and a door of 2 feet 6 inches opening, which seems to have led into a well-stair in the south-west angle of the building. In front of the outer gateway the approach, 15 feet wide, lies between two walls, of which the southern still projects 15 feet. They probably protected the drawbridge, and between them was the bridge-pit. Beyond these walls is the great ditch of the place, here about 80 feet broad and 30 feet deep, crossed by a bridge in masonry, of two arches, of which the inner one is walled up. The open arch seems of Tudor date, but the piers look original. The outer end of the bridge rests upon the counterscarp of the ditch, about the centre of the eastern ward. The gatehouse stood on the ground level, and, therefore, lower than the curtain of the enceinte^ which was built on the crest of the earth bank. The original curtain, if one there was, as is probable, is entirely gone, and has been replaced by a brick wall of the age of Henry VII., also nearly all gone. Of this wall there remain, on the south side of the gate, about 12 yards. It is 2 feet thick, but within was lined by an arcade 3 feet thick, which carried the ram- part walk, as at Southampton. These arches are 8 feet span, and