windows, of the second stage. The openings of the third stage, once
probably single-light windows of moderate size, but now enlarged,
appear, one between each pair of pilasters, and each below a large
plain round-headed and slightly-recessed relieving arch, springing from
a strip of wall left as a sort of pier against each pilaster. The base
of this arcade is a set-off in the wall stopped by the pilasters.
The lights of the fourth or upper stage may be of about their original
size. On the south wall, between the two western pilasters, the
windows, of 2 feet opening, are in pairs, having a plain baluster in
common, and each pair being within a shallow, round-headed recess, so
that the eight windows form a short arcade. One pair are probably the
only windows in the keep that present quite their original appearance;
for the baluster, long since removed, was found bricked up in the
adjacent wall, and is now in its proper place. It is believed to have
been from one of these windows that Bishop Flambard, here a prisoner,
let himself down. The exterior has been defaced by pointing with flint
chips and mortar, and the substitution of Portland for the old ashlar
dressings, but the windows, though enlarged into casements, represent
the old openings.
The staircase, 11 feet diameter, contained within the circular or
north-east turret, rises from the floor to the summit, and communicates
with every floor, and with the leads.
The basement is slightly below ground on the north, and at the ground
level on the south front. The walls are from 12 feet to 15 feet thick,
and the internal area about 91 feet by 73 feet. This is crossed by
a wall 10 feet thick, built with much neglect of the plumb-line. It
rises to the summit, and divides the building into a larger western and
smaller eastern portion. The latter is again subdivided into a larger
northern and smaller southern part, by another wall, also carried
through, so that every floor is divided into three chambers. The larger
chambers are all ceiled with timber; all the smaller are vaulted. The
basement was reached only from above by the great well-stair. The west
chamber is 91 feet by 35 feet; the eastern, 67 feet by 28 feet; and the
vault, the lower or sub-crypt of the chapel, known in Tower phrase as
“Little Ease,” is 15 feet by 47 feet, the east end being semicircular.
A door leads from the east into the west chamber, and from the former
into Little Ease. Bold recesses in the walls ascend to a line of loops,
giving air, but very little light.
In modern times a shaft has been sunk 10 feet in the south-west angle
of this floor, and a tunnel cut through its 24 feet of foundation
towards the river quay, and another door on the other side of the angle
has been cut at the ground level. The two larger chambers have been
vaulted in modern brick. Little Ease was, until recently, fitted up as
a powder magazine, and passages cut through its east and west ends.
These have now been carefully made good with old stone, and the vault
cleared out. The well has lately been discovered. It is a plain pipe, 6
feet diameter, lined with ashlar. It is in the floor of the keep, a few
feet from its south-western angle.
The second stage much resembles the basement. The walls are about 13
feet thick, the cross-wall 8 feet. In the latter are three openings,
6 feet wide and 15 feet high, round-headed and quite plain, between a
doorway at the north end, 4 feet 6 inches wide and 12 feet high, and
one at the south end, 4 feet wide and 9 feet high. These five openings
communicate between the eastern and western chambers. The western
room, 92 feet by 37 feet, has in its west wall five plain round-headed
recesses, once converging into loops, but now enlarged into windows.
In the south wall is a similar recess, and in the north wall are two.
Between one of these and the west angle is a small mural passage,
2 feet 10 inches wide, and bent at right angles. This is vaulted,
quadripartite, with plain hips, very rough, but good. Under its
exterior loop was the garderobe shaft.
The eastern room, 68 feet by 30 feet, has in its east wall three
recesses for loops. In its north wall is a recess, now cut into a door,
and communicating with the outside by a double flight of modern stone
steps. There is also an original door of 3 feet opening, leading by a
short mural passage, 5 feet wide, to the well-stair, which supplies
each stage. In the south wall a door leads into the crypt of the
chapel, 13 feet 6 inches broad by 39 feet long, having an apsidal east
end, and 17 feet high to the crown of its very plain vault. In the
north wall of the crypt, near the apse, a passage 2 feet broad leads
into a vaulted cell, 8 feet by 10 feet, formed in the wall, and quite
dark. In the south wall three round-headed recesses, 6 feet broad and
13 feet high, terminated in loops, as did one at the east end. This
crypt was fitted up as an armoury, but has been cleared out, and the
injured vaulting restored in good taste.
The two larger rooms on this stage are 15 feet high, and recently their
respective open ceilings were supported by eighteen and twelve large
posts in double rows. These no doubt were inserted when the rooms
were given up to stores and records. They have now been removed, and
the beams stiffened with iron, to carry the weight of small-arms here
stored up. Possibly there was originally a single line of posts, as 30
feet and 37 feet are large spans for single untrussed beams. Recently,
two plain original fireplaces have been discovered in the east wall.
Their smoke was discharged, as at Colchester, by two small apertures in
the wall.
[Illustration: THE KEEP.—THIRD STAGE.]
Ascending by the well-stair from this stage, a Tudor door is seen cut
in the shell of the staircase, and leading into the adjacent armourers’
shops. A similar door, below this, has been cut at the ground level.
The third stage, or second floor, has also three chambers: the
western, 95 feet by 40 feet; the eastern, 64 feet by 32 feet; both
15 feet high, and until recently propped by posts. The cross chamber
is the chapel, which occupies this and the upper stage, to the roof.
The exterior walls are here 10 feet to 11 feet, and the party-wall 6
feet thick. In the latter are five openings, as below, all apparently
doorways. The rebates show that the doors of the four to the south
opened into the east chamber, and the north door the other way. In the
north wall, close to this door, are two mural garderobes, resembling
that already described, one serving the west, and one the east room.
[Illustration: FIREPLACE IN KEEP.]
Within the north-west and south-west angles of this stage commence
well-stairs, 9 feet diameter, which rise to the roof. They do not open,
as usual, direct into the room; but, by short passages, into the jamb
of the nearest loop recess. The east chamber is entered from the main
stair in a similar way, by a passage 3 feet wide, in the north wall. In
the south wall of this room is only a small door opening into the north
aisle of the chapel. In its east wall are three loop recesses, and
from the jamb of one a garderobe opens, resembling those described. In
this wall also is the plain round-headed opening of a fireplace, with
an inclined back and vertical flue, the outlet of which has not been
followed. It resembles somewhat a fireplace in Colchester keep. This
room is called the “Banqueting Chamber.”
Besides its regular recesses for loops, 7 feet wide and 14 feet high,
of which there are five on the west side, two on the north, and one on
the south, the west room has in its south wall a round-headed opening,
which is the summit and landing of a well-stair, which commences, about
15 feet above the ground level, by an external door, and thence leads
to the third stage. From its head there is also a mural passage leading
into the west end of the south aisle of the chapel. This was, no doubt,
the private way from the palace to the chapel and state-rooms of the
keep. It was at the foot of this stair, in the wall, that were found
the bones supposed to be those of the children of Edward IV., and now
in Westminster Abbey.
The fourth, or upper stage, is the “state floor.” Its tripartite
arrangement resembles those below, and the two larger chambers have
open ceilings 21 feet high, until recently supported by posts,
as below. The outer walls range from 10 feet to 11 feet thick,
the party-wall is 6 feet, and the short cross-wall which shuts
off the triforium of the chapel is 4 feet. The western, or great
council-chamber, is 95 feet by 40 feet; the eastern, 65 feet by 32
feet. Between them are three plain openings, 7 feet wide and 14 feet
high, and, flanking these, two doorways of smaller dimensions. It may
be remarked that the square of the two western turrets is preserved
in the council chamber. The angles project about 7 feet into the room.
The north-eastern angle is hollow as usual. The exterior wall of these
two chambers is threaded by a vaulted mural gallery, 13 feet high and
3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches wide. One end of it opens into the west end
of the south aisle of the chapel triforium, and the other end into its
north aisle near the chevet. It communicates with the main stair in
the north-east turret, and with those in the two western turrets. It
pierces the jambs of each of the window recesses, of which there are in
the west room five in the west wall, two in the north, and two in the
south wall; and in the east room three in the east wall, and one in the
north. Where the gallery traverses the window recesses, the vault is
raised a step. In this gallery, in the south wall of the state-room,
are the coupled windows already described as escaped through by
Flambard. This was the royal council-chamber, at least as late as the
reign of Richard III. Here Charles of Orleans, and probably John of
France, were confined. And hence Edward, Lord Hastings, the celebrated
Chamberlain, was taken from the council-board to execution.
[Illustration: ST. JOHN’S CHAPEL.—SOUTH AISLE.
(From Lord de Ros’s Memorials.)]
[Illustration: THE KEEP.—UPPER STAGE.]
The vertical section of the keep, upon a line east and west, looking
south, and here given, shows on the ground floor “Little Ease,” and the
lower store-room; on the first floor, the chapel crypt, and the upper
store-room. On the second floor is the chapel nave and aisle, and the
lower armoury; on the third floor, the chapel triforium and space above
the vault, and the upper armoury or council-chamber.
The chapel, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, is a rare, if not a
singular example of such an apartment, so large and so complete, in the
original and interior arrangements of a Norman keep. It is in plan a
rectangle, 40 feet by 31 feet, terminating eastward in a semicircular
apse of its full breadth; its extreme length, therefore, with this
addition, being 55 feet 6 inches.
It is divided into a nave and aisles, the latter being continued as a
chevet round the apse.
[Illustration: THE KEEP.—VERTICAL SECTION, EAST AND WEST.]
The nave, 14 feet 6 inches broad, and 40 feet long, has an eastern
apse, giving 7 feet 3 inches additional for the altar. It is divided
from the aisles by four columns, and a western respond or half-column,
on each side; and by four columns which contain the apse. The whole
support thirteen arches. The columns are cylinders of 2 feet 6 inches
diameter, and 6 feet 6 inches high, with plain torus bases resting upon
a square stone of two stages, giving, with the base, an additional 20
inches. The capitals vary in pattern, some being plain cushion, others
a combination of four cushions, giving a scalloped or indented outline
in the elevation; others, again, are chamfered at the angles; and
others finished with a stiff rude volute of an Ionic aspect.
The capitals of the eight eastern columns are unfinished, having a
block in the form of a Tau, or cross-potent, upon each face, evidently
intended to be carved into the usual central flower of a Corinthian
capital; and the astragal is set round with a row of stiff upright
feathers, like a plume. Each capital has a plain abacus, with varieties
of the half-round, ogee, and hollow mouldings, excepting the western
responds, of which the faces of the abaci are cut into the star-pattern
found in early Norman work. Beneath is a light cable bead. These
capitals vary from 34 inches to 40 inches square, and are 22 inches
high, so that from the floor to the top of each is 10 feet. Each
capital is a single block, and each abacus a single slab.
The thirteen arches springing from these capitals in the nave are 7
feet, and in the apse 2 feet 9 inches, diameter. The five apsidal
arches are stilted, the rest semicircular, the crowns of all being
level. The whole are perfectly plain openings in a 22-inch wall,
without chamfer or rib.
Twenty inches above these crowns is a plain chamfered stringcourse, and
upon this the arcade of the triforium, each arch being exactly above,
and of the same diameter with, that below. These arches spring from
piers 30 inches square, and 4 feet 3 inches high, without either base
or cap. As the apsidal arches are not stilted, the piers are taller, so
that the crowns still range.
The nave roof is a barrel vault, commencing imperceptibly at the crown
level of the triforial arches, and ending eastwards in a semi-dome.
The height to the crowns of the nave arches is 13 feet 6 inches, to
those of the triforium 23 feet 9 inches, and to the crown of the vault
32 feet. The vault abuts against the west wall, in which is a plain
round-headed recess, 18 inches deep, 12 feet diameter, and 13 feet 6
inches high.
The aisle is 6 feet 6 inches broad. Opposite to each nave column is
a flat pilaster, advanced three steps from the wall surface, and
having a plain chamfered abacus, or string-cap, and from each springs
a broad flat rib. The aisle is thus divided into thirteen bays, four
on each side, and five in the chevet, the sides of these latter being
convergent. Each bay is hip-vaulted, the vaults being groined, and
entirely in rubble work. The aisle is 13 feet 6 inches high. The wall
of each bay is recessed, and the recesses form an arcade. In the
southern recesses are four windows, of which two open between, and two
upon the exterior pilaster strips. Four of the five apsidal bays also
have windows, one being to the east. There are two doors: one in the
north aisle, opening into the eastern room on the third stage of the
keep, and one in the west wall of the south aisle, leading by a short
mural gallery to the well-stair in the south wall, and into the great
or western chamber of the keep.
The triforium is 7 feet 6 inches diameter. It is a mere plain gallery,
without pilasters, stringcourse, or moulding of any kind, 8 feet high
to the spring of its side barrel-vault, which gives 3 feet 9 inches
more.
In its south wall are three windows, one opening in the face of an
outer pilaster; and in the apse are five. In the north wall, and at the
west end of the south limb, are the openings of the mural gallery which
surrounds the keep at this, the council-chamber level; the chapel, as
has been stated, rising through the two upper stories to the roof. The
walls of the aisle are 4 feet thick; of the west and east ends, 5 feet.
Of the triforium, the north, south, and east walls are 4 feet, and the
west wall 5 feet 6 inches thick.
This, the earliest and simplest, as well as most complete Norman chapel
in Britain, must have witnessed the devotions of the Conqueror, and
his immediate descendants; the church, when afterwards built, having
evidently been intended rather for the garrison at large than for the
sovereign. The upper gallery, communicating with the state-rooms, was,
no doubt, as was often the case in domestic chapels, intended for the
principal persons, the household occupying the floor below. Always
architecturally plain, the walls were probably painted and hung with
tapestry, and the eastern windows contained stained glass, placed
there, with other ornaments, by the piety of Henry III.
Henry also, in 1261, on the death of his sister-in-law, Saunchia,
Countess of Cornwall, wife of his brother Richard, charged upon the
Exchequer, in favour of the adjacent Hospital of St. Katherine, fifty
shillings per annum for the support of a chaplain, here to pray for her
soul; he having already, 1240–1, provided a similar endowment for the
sustenance of a regular priest there, with vesture, and chalice, and
everything necessary for his office. The obit payment probably fell
into arrear; for, in 1290 (18 Edward I.), the Brethren and Sisters of
St. Katherine petition for the fifty shillings given by Henry III.
for the spiritual benefit of Saunchia. This chapel was dismantled
by an Order of Council, August 22, 1550, directing, in both church
and chapel, all such crosses, images, and plate of gold as remain,
to be melted down. The chapel thus desecrated was long employed as a
repository for records. Very recently these have been removed, the
walls restored to their primitive simplicity, and the whole paved with
tiles of a plain and suitable character. It is due to the interference
of the late Lord de Ros that this chapel did not become a tailor’s
warehouse.
Above the fourth stage of the keep is the flat leaded roof, affording
an area between the parapet wall, of 100 feet east and west, by
113 feet north and south. The turrets rise about 16 feet above the
platform, upon which they open by doors, the north-west, south-west,
and north-east crowning well-stairs. The fourth, or south-east turret,
is built over the chapel wall, and contains a chamber entered from the
leads. The large circular, or north-east turret, of 16 feet interior
diameter, and of two floors, was used as an observatory by Flamsteed,
before the construction of the present building at Greenwich. Its upper
floor seems to have been entered by an exterior stair, on the south
side, for the support of which the parapet, as may be seen, has an
exterior projection. These turrets have been cased, but the old Norman
masonry may still be detected.
There is a sort of “entre-sol” between the chapel-vault and the roof,
which, over the aisles, is about 7 feet high, and capable of being
turned to account. Some of the old drawings show loopholes pierced
in the south wall, and there are traces in the south-west turret of
a doorway, which seems, from its level, to have led into this vacant
space.
The place and manner of the original entrance to the keep are unknown.
One notion is that it was on the north side, at the second stage, or
first-floor level, near the east end of the wall, where there is at
present an entrance by stone steps, 12 feet above the ground. This,
however, is certainly an enlarged loop, the interior arch of the
recess remaining. A close examination of the exterior shows that the
present door has been cut through masonry not intended to cover a large
opening, for the joints are horizontal, and there is no relieving arch.
West of this in the next, or floor above, where also a modern door has
been cut, through which stores are lifted into the armouries, there are
traces of an arch of relief, intended to cover an opening of unusual
size, and this also has been regarded as the original entrance. But
this only seems to have been an enlarged loop; the recess has been
enlarged by cutting away the wall, which at the sides has been refaced.
This would have been unnecessary had the recess been intended for a
doorway. More probably the entrance was on the south side near the west
end, where, on this floor level, is a large and original opening with
parallel sides and niches in the sides. Evidently this was the main
entrance. The masonry shows where the doorway jambs and arch have been
cut away, and a window inserted.
Very near this doorway, to the east, is a small but original door
opening into the base of the small well-stair. These two doors,
being at some height above the ground, pretty certainly opened into
a forebuilding which covered the south side of the keep, having its
outer entrance at the east end. The armoury is now being removed,
and possibly below it may be found the foundations of the Norman
forebuilding.
Although much injured and obscured by injudicious repairs, parts of the
original surface may be detected. The base, quoins, and pilaster strips
were evidently of ashlar, very open jointed. The rest of the wall was
of rubble, rudely coursed, but with a great preponderance of mortar,
much resembling the earliest work at Malling Abbey and St. Leonard’s
Tower. The arches throughout are semicircular, and quite plain. The
vaulting, though sometimes groined, is never ribbed. It may also be
remarked that there is no subterranean chamber in the keep, or anywhere
throughout the fortress.
The arrangements within the keep are very peculiar, and show a
prevision against surprise, carried, if not to excess, yet to a degree
fatal to the convenience of the royal personages and great officers of
state, for whose deliberations and occasional residence the building
was designed.
The main door, supposing it to be as indicated, opened upon a very
gloomy first floor, from which a turnpike stair led downwards to the
basement, and upwards to the second floor. To this floor the way from
the stair was along a bent and narrow mural passage, and from the inner
room by two staircases to the upper story and battlements. Having
attained the upper story, the entrance to the state-rooms was again
only by mural galleries, admitting but one person abreast.
For purely military purposes all this was advantageous. Supposing a
score of resolute men to garrison the keep, they could hold the main
door and postern against an army; or supposing them, by surprise, to
have lost the lower stories, they could still defend the passage to
the second floor without fear of being outflanked; while above there
was easy access from the state-floor to the battlements, whence the
enemy could be assailed to most advantage. There remained indeed to
the besiegers the last and most terrible resource of firing the place,
and, once within the walls, this would be easy and irresistible. Not
even this immensely solid masonry would have resisted the conflagration
which a torch flung upon the wooden floors of the building would be
sure to kindle.
For the purposes of state the great height of the council-chamber, its
excessive coldness, the difficulty of access, the inconvenience of the
frequent posts probably necessary for the support of its roof, and
finally, the entire absence of privacy in a room so large and with so
many lateral openings, must have been serious drawbacks. No doubt the
rooms were bratticed off into smaller chambers, and hung with tapestry,
but even then the presence of the floors, ceilings, and partitions must
have rendered the employment of stoves and bratticed chimneys very
dangerous.
Neither is it easy to understand the intention of the arches in the
party wall. Where, as at Rochester, these openings were of large span,
the chambers admitted, on occasions of state, of being thrown into one.
Here, however, though inconveniently large for doorways, they were far
too small to make the rooms common. They could scarcely be intended to
economise material, else the wall might have been safely much reduced
in thickness, without piercing it completely through; and below they
have no rebates or recesses for doors, or wooden partitions. On the
third floor, where the doors are rebated, it is clear that they opened
opposite ways, so that one, if not both the chambers, was subdivided.
The rebates, however, may not be original.
The absence of all ornament, the very sparing use of ashlar, and the
general roughness of the work, especially of the lower floor of this
keep, lead to the conclusion that it was executed in haste, and with
an insufficient command of good material. The vaulting especially
is very coarse, and impressions remaining upon, and the occasional
fragments of oak imbedded in, the mortar, show that the centering
was composed of small rough oak slabs, not even cut to lengths, but
overlapping, and that occasionally the form of the arch was preserved
by the intervention of a rough coat of mortar. This used to be apparent
even in the vaults of the chapel, and may still be seen in the mural
galleries and staircases.