Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.] The second floor is the main or state floor of the building, and that into which opens the great entrance. As in the keeps of London, Rochester, and Hedingham, it had two tiers of windows, the upper passing through a mural gallery. Early in the present century this floor was covered in by two large brick vaults, slightly pointed. The object was to convert the ramparts into a platform for cannon. This clumsy addition completely conceals the upper half of the walls and destroys the effect of two very fine chambers. The east chamber, 55 feet by 24 feet, is entered on the east side, near the north end, by a large, full-centred doorway, flanked outside by nook shafts. From this a vaulted passage, 5 feet broad, traverses the wall, here 16 feet thick, and descends by eight steps into the main chamber. This inconvenient height was evidently given to secure headway for the vault below the vestibule. In the entrance passage, on the left or south side, a door opens into the well chamber, a vault, 16 feet by 8 feet, with a loop to the east upon the great staircase. At the south end of the vault, upon a step, is the well, 4 feet diameter and 289 feet deep, lined, as far as can be seen, with ashlar. In the east wall is a recess for a spare bucket. Near the entrance, at the north end of the east wall of the great chamber, a door leads into a curved passage which descends eleven steps into the north-east staircase. At the south end of the same wall a large arch, 5 feet above the floor, opens into a mural chamber 8 feet by 7 feet. This arch has been reduced by modern brickwork, to support the great vault. In the same chamber a loop opens upon the grand staircase, and in the south wall is a door and a descent by eight steps towards the chapel. It is possible that the loop was originally a small door leading into the upper floor of the middle tower of the forebuilding, and that thence, in Tudor days, a small wooden gallery led to the north door of the ante-chapel. In the south end of the great chamber is a window recess of 7 feet, opening with nearly flat sides. In its west jamb is a fireplace, in the east a door leading into a mural vault 18 feet by 12 feet, over that by which the first floor is entered. This vault has a loop to the east upon the great staircase, on the north the eight steps, already mentioned, and in the south wall a narrow door and mural passage leading to the robing-room and ante-chapel. In the north end of the great chamber, near the north-east corner, a door opens into a chamber 7 feet by 5 feet, which lies in the north wall below the window recess, here of 8 feet opening.