Three feet from the ground there is interiorly, in the south wall, a
small four-sided recess,[48] 1 foot in breadth, and 15 inches in height
and depth. (See C in ground plan, Fig. 4; and also Fig. 8.) In the same
south-side wall, near the western gable, is an opening extending from
the floor to the spring of the roof. It has apparently been the original
door of the building; but as it is now built up by a layer of thin stone
externally, and the soil of the garden has been heaped up against it and
the whole south wall to the depth of several feet, it is difficult to
make out its full relations and character. There is a peculiarity,
however, about the head of this entrance which deserves special notice.
The top of the doorway, as seen both from within and from without the
building, is arched, but in two very different ways. When examined from
within, the head of the doorway is found to be composed of stones laid
in the form of a horizontal arch, the superincumbent stones on each side
projecting more and more over each other to constitute its sides, and
then a large, flat, horizontal stone closing the apex. (See woodcut,
Fig. 5.) On the contrary, when examined from without, the top of the
doorway is formed by stones laid in the usual form of the radiating
arch, and roughly broken off, as if that arch at a former period had
extended beyond the line of the wall. (See woodcut, Fig. 6.) This
doorway, let me add, is 5 feet high, and on an average about 4 feet
wide,[49] but it is 2 or 3 inches narrower at the top, or at the spring
of the arch, than it is at the bottom.[50] The north side wall of the
building is less perfect; as, in modern times, a large rude opening has
been broken through as an entrance or door (see woodcut, Fig. 7, and
ground-plan, Fig. 4), after the original door on the other side had
become blocked up.
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Horizontal arch of the door, as seen from within
the cell.]
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Semi-circular arch of the door as seen from
without, the garden earth filling the doorway.]
The eastern gable is still very entire, and contains a small window,[51]
which, as measured outside, is 1 foot 11 inches in height, and 10
inches in breadth. But the jambs of this window incline or splay
internally, so as to form on the internal plane of the gable an opening
2 feet 3 inches in breadth.
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Eastern gable and north side of the building.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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