the turrets at the corners, two of which still remain. The floors and the roof were all supported upon wooden beams. Hedingham Castle was the residence of the de Vere family for about six centuries. King John besieged and captured it in 1216, but it underwent no subsequent siege. The outer fortifications were demolished in the reign of Elizabeth and only the Keep remains at the present time. The ramparts upon the summit of a Rectangular Keep were carried upon the walls themselves, the latter, as a rule, being sufficiently thick for the purpose without corbelling outwards. The parapet was either continuous or embattled. A roof, at times covered with lead, was carried over the central opening, and the uppermost floors were invariably borne upon massive wooden joists. The lowest floor was generally free from timber, being constructed of masonry carried upon the arches of a crypt, but in those cases where the whole structure was borne upon a solid foundation of masonry spread upon the entire area of the site, this might be dispensed with. Some existing crypts are not coeval with the building, but were added at a later date, that at Richmond, for example, dates from the Decorated period. As a general rule the Keep contained a well which was sunk through the foundations and carried upwards in the central dividing wall to the various floors, but examples occur where it is placed in the enclosure. Most Keeps were furnished with an oratory or private chapel, one of the most famous being that in the Tower of London, while those at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Colchester, and Guildford are well known. In the later type of Keep this feature is absent, the tendency being to erect all buildings used during times of peace within the enclosure. The reduction of such a Keep as we have outlined was almost impossible in the Medieval age except by famine; the outer minor defences, however, were not proof against the missiles of the trebuchet, onager, and other petraries, and would invariably succumb. But with regard to the massive structure of the Keep, the largest stones could be hurled with but small results; and the few narrow openings in its walls presented but meagre opportunities for a successful admission of the falarica, quarrel, or arrow. To carry it by direct assault would be at all times a forlorn hope.