Castle Rising, No7^folk, 369 4 feet above the ground-level, so that it is entered by a stair of five steps, projecting into the rooms. This seems to have been the case at Dover, before the floor was raised. It is difficult to discover the reason for it. The keep is divided into a north and south chamber by a cross- wall, 6 feet thick, which ascends to the roof. The two chambers are 58 feet long; the north 25 feet, and the south 16 feet broad. The north chamber was again divided, equally, longways, by an arcade of four lofty arches, of 11 feet span, springing from corbels in the wall, and from three square piers, 3 feet broad by 4 feet. The spandrel walls of this arcade supported the joists of the floor above. The three eastern arches and their two piers are gone. The western pier gives off two lateral arches north and south, dividing the end bay into two square spaces, which are vaulted and groined and carry upper chambers, shortening by so much the upper great room or hall. This lower room is aired rather than lighted by three loops in the north and two in the west wall, placed high up and in splayed recesses, round-headed. There is also in the north wall a small lobby at the foot of the well-stair, from which there seems to have been a passage rising 3 feet into a mural chamber 8 feet above the ground. In the west end of the great cham- ber an interior door at the ground-level has been broken. It has a pointed head, and is an insertion. Probably it represents a loop. A round-headed doorway of 4 feet aperture opens in a segmental recess in the cross-wall into the south chamber. The door opened towards the north, and was barred on that side. The recess is groined. The well is in the floor of the north chamber, between two of the piers, under the second arch from the east. It is 4 feet diameter, with a pipe of ashlar rising about 3 feet above the ground-level. The south chamber was crossed by three plain broad arches, springing from corbels high up in the wall, and carrying the joists of the floor above. The eastern bay, however, is vaulted and groined, and supports the chapel. The other two arches are broken away. This chamber has four loops to the south and one to the west. Its well-stair also has a small lobby in the wall, 5 feet above the floor. In the east end of the south wall is a door ascending four steps, which opens into the staircase of the forebuilding. Although this door, in its present state, appears not to be original, it may be really so. There is one in a somewhat similar position at Dover. The first floor is also divided into two main chambers by the cross- wall, and each is shortened by the rooms cut off, from one at the east, and from the other at the west, end. The great chambers are, the north, 47 feet by 23 feet, and the south, 42 feet by 15 feet. The north room was the hall. It was entered from the vestibule of the forebuilding by a handsome main door, of 6 feet opening, near the north end of the east wall. Close to it, in the same wall, is a second round-headed door, which descends by ten steps upon the staircase of the forebuilding. This door is evidently an insertion in the place of a loop. A third and small door, segmental, opens into a narrow 2 B
