Richmond, Oxford, and Coningsborough; at Dover and Prudhoe it stands in the centre. The masonry of the Norman walls was inferior to that of the keep, and where these have not been removed they have generally fallen into decay. Their height was from 20 to 25 feet, and their general plan either irregular, as at Coningsborough, Richmond, and Dover, or circular, as at Oxford. At Richmond and Hastings they enclose a considerable space, but more commonly, as at Oxford, Coningsborough, and Newcastle near Bridgend, the area is very small. Prudhoe, on the south bank of the Tyne, affords a rare instance of a Norman keep, with both its own and a second or supplementary enclosure on one side, with a gate-house and ditch all Norman. The outer gate-house, though late Norman, has no portcullis. At Portchester the keep occupies one angle of the Roman enclosure, and at Lincoln the castle wall stands upon the wall of the Roman city.
The Norman buttress-towers were few, and their exterior projection small, as at Ludlow, Middleham, and Richmond. They rarely constructed a regular gate-house, but erected two towers near to each other. Good examples of Norman entrances remain at the inner bailey Dover, and at Newcastle, near Bridgend. Sometimes, as at Cardiff, access to the walls is rendered easy by a bank of earth behind them.
A Norman wall may usually be detected by its dressed quoins, flat buttresses, and its square buttress-towers of little or no interior projection, as at Lincoln, Coningsborough, Chester, and Carlisle. The battlements of Orford wall are possibly Norman, but it is probable that they used sometimes the plain parapet, sometimes the parapet notched at long intervals. The wall, towers, and gates of the inner bailey of Dover are Norman, as is part of the battlement, and the whole form a very fine example.
The base-court contained garrison lodgings and offices, and often a second wall.
The mound[1], or mote, is a tumulus of earth, from 30 to
- ↑ Norman mounds remain at Bedford, Berkhampstead, Cainhoe, Carisbrook, Christ Church Castle, Cambridge, Clare, Cardiff, Durham, Eaton-Socon, Fontenay-le-Marmion, Hinckley, Lewes, Lincoln, Marlborough, Oxford, Pleshy, Pevensey, Risinghoe, Sandal, Tamworth, Tonbridge, Toddington, Worcester (now destroyed), Wallingford, Warwick, Windsor, Yielden, York. At Château sur Epte, in Normandy, there are two mounds, one within and one forming part of the enclosure. At York and Canterbury are mounds just within the city walls. In modern fortifications they are called Cavaliers. There is one in the citadel of Antwerp.
