Page:Hawarden Castle (guide).djvu/9

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HAWAEDEN CASTLE.
5

of the recesses is a plain shouldered doorway, 3 ft. 9 in. broad by 10ft. high, opening into the mural gallery.

This floor has its main entrance through the portcullis chamber, and next north-west of this entrance is the chapel. This is a mural chamber, 14 ft. by 7 ft., but not quite rectangular. It is flat vaulted, and its axis points south-east to the altar, which is a restoration. The doorway next the west end is only 2 ft. broad by 7 ft. high, with a cinquefoiled head, and a plain moulding of decorated character. The door opened inwards, and could be barred within the chapel. On the same side, but near the altar is a small cinquefoiled recess for piscina, with a projecting bracket and a fluted foot. In the opposite wall, in vaulted recesses, are two windows, that next the altar square-headed, the other lancet-headed. Against the west wall is a stone bench, and above it a rude squint through which any person in the adjacent window recess could see the altar.

The entrance to the keep is by a gateway 5 ft wide and 6 ft. 6 in. high, having a drop arch rising about 3 ft. more. The jambs have a single, and the arch a double chamber. Two feet within is the portcullis groove, 4 in. square, and next is the rebate for the door, with its bar holes. Beyond is the vaulted passage, 6 ft. broad, leading to the ground-floor, with a door opening so as to be barred against that chamber; within, however, is a narrow rebate, as though for a lighter door opening inwards. The portcullis grooves are stopped 3 ft. above the floor, so that either the cill must have been obstructively high, or the grate have terminated in a range of long spikes. On each side of the entrance-passage is a shouldered doorway. That on the right, 2 ft. 9 in. broad, opens into a mural lodge, vaulted, 6 ft. by 9 ft., with a lancet loop to the field. On the left the door is 3 ft. 3 in. broad, and opens on a well-stair, which, lighted from the field by loops, ascends to the upper floor and the battlements.

Twenty-one steps lead to the portcullis-chamber, which is also the antechamber to the state-room. It is vaulted, 6 ft. broad by 10 ft. long, with a square-headed window of 2 ft. opening to the field, and within it the chase for working the portcullis. At the other end a large doorway with a plain moulding of a decorated type, and an arch very