Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/113

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MILITARY ARCHITECTURE.
95

along the sides by the usual flat Norman buttress[1] rising from a general plinth, and dying into the wall below its summit. The end pilasters of each face unite at and cap the angle, and rise a story above the walls to form four angular turrets[2]. The wall at the base is from twelve to eighteen, or even twenty-four feet thick, and diminishes usually by internal offsets to eight or ten feet at the top, with a battlement of from one to two feet thick.

Archaeological Journal, Volume 1, 0113.png

The Tower, London

The lower openings are loops, the upper the usual Norman window, frequently double and of a good size, as in the keep at Goodrich.

The entrance is usually by an arched door upon the first floor, placed near one corner, and approached by stairs parallel to the wall. The stair is either defended by a parapet or arched over, when the whole forms a smaller square tower appended to the keep, and reaching, as at Newcastle and Dover, to its second

  1. At Loches they are parts of circles.
  2. At London one turret is round; at Newcastle one is multangular; Colchester and London have semicircular projections from one side.