Mr. Harrod, some years since, at a meeting of the Archæological Society
held in the Museum, exploded the theory of three circular ditches by
showing from the city records that houses had always stood on the sites
of the supposed outer and middle ditches; the inner vallum was the only
one, and extended round the base of the hill on which the keep is
erected, and is plainly traceable at the present time. It is planted
with trees and shrubs, having a gravelled walk in the centre, and is
enclosed with an iron palisade. The area of the upper ballium is level
and comparatively high, and forms an irregular circle on the summit of
the hill, surrounded by an iron railing. The great Keep situated within
this area is a massive quadrangular pile, 110 feet in length from east to
west, 92 feet 10 inches in breadth from north to south, and 69½ feet high
to the top of the merlons of the battlements, and the walls are from 10
to 13 feet in thickness. From the basement to the top are three stories,
each strengthened by small projecting buttresses, between which the walls
are ornamented with semi-circular arches resting on small three-quarter
columns. In the upper story the backs of some of these arcades are
decorated with a kind of reticulated work, formed by the stones being
laid diagonally, so that the joints resemble the meshes of a net. To
give it greater richness of effect, each stone had two deeply chased
lines, crossing each other parallel with the joints, so as to present the
appearance of Mosaic. On the exterior of the west side are two arches
which appear to have been originally intended as a deception to the
enemy, giving an idea of weakness externally, where in fact was the
greatest strength; for the wall is not only 13 feet in thickness in this
place, but, within, it was additionally barricaded by two oblique walls
which were, long ago, taken down. On the east side of the keep there is
a projecting tower called Bigod’s tower, which was most probably built by
Hugh Bigod, third Earl of Norfolk, who succeeded his brother as High
Constable of the Castle, early in the 12th century. This tower, which
was an open portal to the grand entrance of the Castle, is of a richer
kind of architecture, and in the genuine Norman style, and since 1824,
has been entirely restored, so as now to exhibit its pristine aspect,
which is certainly different from the rest of the keep. The interior of
the keep has been so greatly altered in order to adapt it to prison
purposes, that the original arrangement of apartments cannot be traced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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