The castles and abbeys of England; Vol. 2 of 2: from the national records, early chronicles, and other standard authorsBeattie, William
History
The castles and abbeys of England; Vol. 2 of 2: from the national records, early chronicles, and other standard authors
Beattie, William
Abbeys -- England; Castles -- England
The buildings between the chapel and the south or garrison tower, to the
upper part of which a passage, or covered-way, led along the top of the
outer wall, are mostly in ruins. Here appear to have been the stables.
The garrison tower adjoins the entrance to the keep; its foundation is a
square of about thirty-six feet; but the three outward angles diminish
as they ascend, and form triangular buttresses, so that the upper part
of the tower is circular. The walls are at least eight feet in
thickness. The entrances to this tower were so continued, that there was
access to it from every part of the walls. It contained three floors,
and in each of them a fire-hearth. The interior forms an irregular
octagon, about twenty feet in diameter from the angles, and about
seventeen from side to side.
<g>Great Tower.</g>--The wall that extended between the keep and the west tower
is in ruins. This tower, which is also greatly dilapidated, appears of
more modern construction than the former, and is probably of the time of
the Edwards. Its outward form is circular; but the interior is somewhat
of an octangular figure, but very irregular, its general dimensions
being thirty-three feet long, and twenty-five feet broad. In this
appears to have been the great <g>kitchen</g>; the fireplace is still
distinguishable, with a recess and loophole on each side. Here was a
small doorway, or sally-port, communicating with a sort of outer
_ballium_, which runs on the north-west side, and was enclosed by an
outer wall. On this side also, and ranging between the west tower and
the north or Ladies’ tower, were the state apartments.
<g>The Hall</g> was a magnificent room of the time of Edward the First, as
clearly appears from the style and architecture of its remains, and
particularly from its long, slender, and narrow windows. This apartment
was sixty-five feet long, and twenty-eight feet broad. Some years ago it
contained a single beam of oak, “without knot or knarle,” sixty-six feet
long, and nearly two feet square throughout its whole length. On the
north-west side is the great fireplace; and behind it, projecting into
the outer <g>ballium</g>, a vast mass of solid stonework, or buttress, which,
in its upper part, appears to have had some little apartment, or
guard-chamber. The hall communicated towards the north with a kind of
withdrawing or retiring room, about twenty-nine feet by seventeen and a
half, in which appears to have been a window looking into the hall. From
this second apartment, a passage led into what seems to have been the
great
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