castle of this period. The angle-springings of the groined ceilings are of a peculiarly elegant form.

Entering the interior area of the castle, the antiquary views with regret the mutilation to which the building has been subjected; for while the curtain wall is all but intact and the towers remain almost in stata quo, as far as the masonry is concerned, not a single apartment of the quadrangular range stands entire, and in some parts scarcely a trace of the inner wall remains.

The apartments to the east and west of the great gateway were probably used as guard-rooms and offices for servants and retainers. The first apartment on the eastern side of the quadrangle, going southward, was the chapel. It was lighted by an eastern window of three lights, now in a fractured condition, and much obscured by ivy: one of the mullions is broken out.24 In the south wall to the right of the spot where the altar stood, there remains a small piscina with a plain pointed arch. Facing this on the north side is an aperture, which is so constructed opposite to a window in the northeast tower as to afford the occupant of an apartment there a view of the ministering priest at the elevation of the host. To the south-east of the chapel is the small sacristy, over which there was formerly an apartment for the priest, and the pointed doorway by which the latter was approached still remains on the west side. The apartment immediately southward of the chapel, and communicating with the eastern square tower, is traditionally known as the Bower, or ladies' apartment, and on the first floor above was probably a great state bedroom. Still further south, and connected with the south-east tower, was a large oblong room, supposed to have been the Armoury.

The apartinents on the south side of the quadrangle were the Great Hall, the Buttery, and the Kitchen. The Hall, which abutted the armoury on the east, was lighted by a lofty two-light window still remaining in the south wall, and indicating the situation of the dais, and by two looking into the court, which have disappeared. At the lower or west end of the apartment there was formerly a minstrels' gallery, beneath which three pointed arches opened into the Buttery. These

24 See View opposite.