The main entrance is in the east face, near its north end, at the second-floor level. The forebuilding which covers it is the finest in England. It is in fair preservation, all but its roofs and part of its east wall, which are modern. As at Rochester, it is of masonry inferior to the keep, at least outside, and there is no cordon at the base of its pilasters, but it contains within more ornamental work than the keep, with which it is so intimately connected that it cannot be an addition. In the north-east and south-west angles of the keep are well-staircases remarkably commodious and well lighted. They are 14 feet 6 inches in diameter, the stairs being 6 feet 6 inches and the newel 1 foot 6 inches. They rise from the basement to the roof by 114 steps, and communicate with each floor, the two lower by lobbies, the upper and upper gallery by branching passages. From the north-east lobbies doors open into the two tiers of vaults below the upper part of the forebuilding. The extraordinary thickness of the walls is intended to allow of the construction of a very unusual number of mural chambers, of which there are altogether twenty-seven. Besides the main entrance there seems to have been one at the first-floor level, also from the forebuilding. Others have since been made, one probably in the fourteenth century, direct into the basement, and another very recently into the base of the south-western staircase. Besides these, divers loopholes have been converted into doors, to give external entrance to the basement mural chambers which are used as water-tanks and powder-magazines. [Illustration: DOVER CASTLE.] [Illustration: DOVER KEEP. FIRST FLOOR. BASEMENT. Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.] The _basement_.—There is some doubt about the original level of this floor. At present it is 9 feet above the ground outside, but it contains two doors, the sills of which are 6 feet or 8 feet below the floor, and on opening the ground near the centre of the keep a pavement was found at the same level, so that the floor may have been filled in with earth and raised. If so, however, there must have been some kind of stair to supplement the well staircases, for the floor of their lobbies is certainly at its original level. The cross-wall between the two chambers is pierced by three plain round-headed arches of 11 feet opening.