296 MedicBval Military Architecture. broad. The entrance is gone ; it was no doubt in the centre of the east side, that towards the road. The angles are, as usual, slightly rounded. The castle stands a few yards north of the camp, the adjacent parts of the latter having been cut away and levelled in forming its outworks. The castle is, in plan, a very irregular four- sided figure ; the south and west sides meet at less than a right angle, and are in length 80 yards and 77 yards. The north side, at right angles to the west, and upon the river, is 50 yards. The east side has been partly rebuilt, with a low salient angle. It is in length about 40 yards. This area is the main, or rather the only, court of the castle. The keep originally stood clear within the court, near to its north-east angle ; a large gatehouse now occupies that angle, and much of the north front, and is connected with the keep, which, therefore, is no longer isolated. The hall and domestic buildings stand against the south wall, and are continued a short distance along the east wall. A large square tower is placed at the south- west angle, and covers a postern. The west wall is free, and seems to have been low. The castle is about 50 yards from the river, and 30 feet above it. The entrance was from the east, along the bank of the river. A ditch, wholly artificial, and probably filled with rain- water, protected the west, south, and east fronts. Towards the west it is broadest and deepest, that being the exposed front. To- wards the river the natural fall and the marshy character of the ground were a sufficient defence. The entrance is, and probably always was, in the east wall, at its north or river end. This part of the encemte wall is built with a shoulder or re-entering angle, so as to command, for some yards, the approach to the outer gate. The moat is now traversed by a causeway of earth, replacing the earlier drawbridge. The Gatehouse, rectangular in plan, and 90 feet long by 39 feet broad, occupies the space between the keep and the north wall, and extends either way beyond the keep. It is composed of two parts, — one, a block of chambers, lodges, &c ., forms, or rather abuts upon, the curtain ; the other, connecting these chambers with the keep, contains the vaulted entrance. The entrance is broken transversely into two parts, separated by a small open court. The outer passage, 34 feet long, belongs to the outer gate ; the other, 36 feet, to the inner gate. The keep forms one side and the lodges the other. Thus, there are really two gatehouses, — one abutting on the north-east, and one on the north-west, angle of the keep, each with its own defences and gates, the buildings on the north com- municating with both. The exterior portal is in the east wall. It has no flanking towers, being protected by the curtain. The north- east angle is capped by a square buttress, placed diagonally. The gateway has a plain, flat segmental arch over it. Upon a stone are the words, " This made Roger," and above are two tiers, each of two good Decorated windows of two lights, with trefoiled heads and a quatrefoil in the head, and divided by a transom. Between the two upper windows are three bold corbels, intended to support a
