the bold rebate, seems to have been about 8 ft. high, and broad in proportion. A projection inwards from the curtain shows that there was some kind of small gatehouse.
This gateway opened into a spur work formed by two curtains, 32 ft. apart, projecting from the main curtain down the scarp of the ditch, so as to form a parallelogram 40 ft. wide by 68 ft. long. The curtains are 4 ft. thick and about 24 ft. high. The western indeed is destroyed, but the eastern is tolerably perfect, and at its junction with the main curtain is a shouldered postern door, 2 ft. 9 in. broad, which opened on the scarp of the ditch.
At the further and lower end of the spur-work the walls turn inward (E in the plan), and again proceed parallel for 14 ft. at 27 ft. apart, and there contain the gates and pit of the drawbridge, beyond which a second narrowing reduces the distance to 21 ft., at which they proceed for 14 ft. more, when the walls abut upon the counterscarp of the ditch, at that point revetted with ashlar. Thus the whole length of the spur-work, from the main curtain to the counterscarp, is 96 ft., audits breadths, over all, 40 ft., 25 ft., and 21 ft.
About 34 ft. in advance of the great gateway was a cross wall, probably containing a second gate, and beyond it is a flight of fifteen steps, 6 ft. broad, leading down into a rectangular chamber, which has had a flat timber roof, and in the opposite wall of which is a shouldered doorway, without a door, 2 ft. 9 in. broad, and 7 ft. high. This opens into a low, narrow, flat-topped passage, 3 ft. broad and 10 ft. long, but expanded at the centre to 3 ft. 6 in., so that two persons could pass, by squeezing; and at this point, in the roof, is a hole 8 in. square, evidently for the purpose attacking them if necessary. The passage ends in a second small doorway, barred from the inside, which opens upon a bridge-pit, about 27 ft. long right and left, 12 ft. deep, and 10 ft. broad, to a similar doorway opposite. The pit is lined with rubble below the door cills and with ashlar above, and at its west end is a hole, probably for cleaning it out, and communicating with the main ditch, of which the pit is an isolated part.
Crossing over a narrow plank bridge, the further door leads through a short narrow passage into a chamber 13 ft. square, entirely of ashlar, and having, right and left, a small door, 2 ft. 9 in. broad, opening upon the counterscarp
