Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/254

230 THE CASTLE. Court. Outside this court was the Earl's Park, still called the Deer Park. The land of this park, on the west and north-west, slopes rapidly to the valley, through which flows Harper's Lake. (p. 14.) The Keep Court was entered by means of a wooden-floored passage, 12 feet wide, and about 106 feet long, extending from the present lamp-post in the square outside the Guildhall to the towers of the gate. Underneath the passage were arched openings in the side walls, three on the higher side, and one on the lower. These openings were probably constructed for the free flow of storm-water. On each side of the walls of the passage, and at equal distances, were five inwardly-splayed loopholes. The flooring of the passage was possibly made movable, so as to check the enemy in case of attack. The gateway itself is built on a plan common to Norman castles. On each side was a solid semicircular tower. These towers were connected by a pointed archway, the squared stones of which have now disappeared. Above the arch is a deeply-splayed loophole, through which the entrance passage could be surveyed. Near the bases of the towers are semicircular Polyphant stone strings or bands, four inches thick, the only external ornament of the Keep Towers. Below these bands the walls slope outwards (" batter ") to their foundations. Inside the archway con- necting the towers was a portcullis, whose groove is still visible. Next to the portcullis was a warder's chamber, and over it the gatehouse, which contained the apparatus for raising and sinking the portcullis. We are now within the Castle Green, whose circuit nearly embraces the old Keep Court. Small portions of the original boundary wall, extending northward from the gateway just described, still remain. That wall (or, as to part, its modern substitute) and the line of railings along the northern boundary of the green, to their junction with the " Doomsdale " wall, thence by the Doomsdale wall to