This, the earliest and simplest, as well as most complete Norman chapel in Britain, must have witnessed the devotions of the Conqueror, and his immediate descendants; the church, when afterwards built, having evidently been intended rather for the garrison at large than for the sovereign. The upper gallery, communicating with the state-rooms, was, no doubt, as was often the case in domestic chapels, intended for the principal persons, the household occupying the floor below. Always architecturally plain, the walls were probably painted and hung with tapestry, and the eastern windows contained stained glass, placed there, with other ornaments, by the piety of Henry III. Henry also, in 1261, on the death of his sister-in-law, Saunchia, Countess of Cornwall, wife of his brother Richard, charged upon the Exchequer, in favour of the adjacent Hospital of St. Katherine, fifty shillings per annum for the support of a chaplain, here to pray for her soul; he having already, 1240–1, provided a similar endowment for the sustenance of a regular priest there, with vesture, and chalice, and everything necessary for his office. The obit payment probably fell into arrear; for, in 1290 (18 Edward I.), the Brethren and Sisters of St. Katherine petition for the fifty shillings given by Henry III. for the spiritual benefit of Saunchia. This chapel was dismantled by an Order of Council, August 22, 1550, directing, in both church and chapel, all such crosses, images, and plate of gold as remain, to be melted down. The chapel thus desecrated was long employed as a repository for records. Very recently these have been removed, the walls restored to their primitive simplicity, and the whole paved with tiles of a plain and suitable character. It is due to the interference of the late Lord de Ros that this chapel did not become a tailor’s warehouse. Above the fourth stage of the keep is the flat leaded roof, affording an area between the parapet wall, of 100 feet east and west, by 113 feet north and south. The turrets rise about 16 feet above the platform, upon which they open by doors, the north-west, south-west, and north-east crowning well-stairs. The fourth, or south-east turret, is built over the chapel wall, and contains a chamber entered from the leads. The large circular, or north-east turret, of 16 feet interior diameter, and of two floors, was used as an observatory by Flamsteed, before the construction of the present building at Greenwich. Its upper floor seems to have been entered by an exterior stair, on the south side, for the support of which the parapet, as may be seen, has an exterior projection. These turrets have been cased, but the old Norman masonry may still be detected.