The material of this keep is chiefly the rag stone of the country worked as rubble, not very regularly coursed. Ashlar, mostly of Caen stone, is used freely for the door and window dressings and the quoins. The joints are close. The pilasters are of unusual breadth and projection. The chapels and the lower vestibule are highly ornate, with much of the chevron and roll mouldings, and occasionally of the dog-tooth. The arches are sometimes segmental, but more commonly full centred. There is no portcullis in the building; the entrances were closed with doors only, secured with wooden bars. None of the loops that open on the staircase could be used in its defence. Excepting about the main door there is no ornamentation in the keep itself. Doors, windows, and fireplaces seem to have been quite plain. This is the only known keep in which there is a second well, and it is difficult to understand why there should be two so near together, the expense of making which must have been so great. The upper gallery is of very rude masonry indeed; the lines of the passages do not coincide with the general direction of the walls, and the execution is very inferior. It is unfortunate, with ample buildings all round, that the authorities should pervert this very curious keep to vulgar and dangerous uses. The stores should be kept elsewhere, and the brick vaulting and additions be removed. The external breaches and doors in the walls should be closed, the second well cleared out, and the whole building as far as possible restored to its original condition. It might then be fitted up as a museum of arms, and every part, including the ward, made accessible. The reputed date of this keep is 1153, when the foundations are said to have been laid by Henry, grandson of Henry I., shortly before he succeeded to the throne. This coincides sufficiently well with the evidence of the building itself, which is late in the Norman style. The general view here added is taken from the north, and shows the constable’s gate and bridge, and in the foreground the towers and curtains of the outer ward on this side. Immediately behind them are seen the square towers and the curtain of the inner, or Norman ward, and within all rises the keep, applied to the east side of which are seen the three towers of the forebuilding. DUNSTER CASTLE, SOMERSET.