rather pilasters, 4 feet broad by 5 feet deep, have been built against the inner face, one on each side of the portal; and at the other end are a similar pair, but of 14 feet projection. These latter, at the battlement level, outside, are connected by a flat segmental arch; and the sort of barbican, or forebuilding thus formed contained the drawbridge, covered the gateway, and above had a flat roof, where archers could be posted to protect the approach. The old entrance is walled up, and pierced with two loops, which look early, but can scarcely be so. In the east side of the gatehouse a small doorway, in the Decorated style, has been pierced, possibly as a postern, for any lodge connected with it would have been outside the castle. The present entrance is, and for very many years has been, close west of, and outside the main gatehouse. This evidently was due to a wish to preserve the gatehouse, but to avoid the inconvenience of entering at so high a level. Probably when the new entrance was made the ditch at this point was filled up, all but a narrow gut, across which fell the drawbridge shown in the later drawings of the castle. When this was dispensed with the whole was made smooth, and Castle Street took its present aspect. There is no evidence as to what buildings, save the chapel, were contained within the court of the castle. There must of necessity have been a hall, kitchen, lodgings, stabling, and barracks; and probably most of these buildings stood near or on the site of the Sessions House, where there seems to have been a postern gate. There is no evidence of a keep, nor, at so great a height, was any needed. Rectangular keeps, though found at Corfe, Sherborne, and Taunton, were not common in the west. A shell-keep, as at Trematon, Launceston, Dunster, Restormel, or Truro, would, in such a position, have been the usual structure; but the previous earthworks had converted the only site for a shell-keep into a pit so deep that it would have been commanded from the ramparts. Probably the Normans regarded the whole court as a shell-keep.