CARLISLE CASTLE.

There was originally a ditch in front of this wall, and a gate with a drawbridge, all now gone. In later days, a small half-moon battery was thrown up about 8 yards in advance of this gate, and protected by a ditch of its own. This battery was connected by a light field-work, which extended from it to the outer gatehouse, laid in a zigzag form, so as to cover and protect a communication between the two gates, supposing the outer ward to have been breached and entered from the north-west side. These works have been removed and the ground made level.

The cross wall of the inner ward is original, strong, and well built, and backed by a ramp of earth and masonry, containing casemates, one of which has a Perpendicular doorway. These were no doubt added, perhaps by Henry VIII., to enable the wall to carry cannon. In the front of this wall, a little north of the gatehouse, is a large pointed arch of late Norman aspect, now walled up, and which may have been the original entrance.

The Keep is rectangular, 66 feet north and south, by 61 feet east and west, and at present only 68 feet high. It is very plain. There is the common high and stepped plinth, from which rise pilasters, 12 feet broad and 1 foot projection, two on each face, meeting at and covering each angle, which is solid. The walls do not batter, but are reduced slightly by one set-off, at a different level on each face. The window-cases, though in the original positions, are not original. The parapet has been removed, and the summit thus lowered, vaulted and converted into a platform for guns laid en barbette. The south wall is 8 feet thick, the west rather more, and the east and adjacent part of the north wall, 15 feet. The interior contains a basement and two upper floors. It is divided by the usual cross wall, laid north and south. The presumption is greatly in favour of this wall being a part of the original design; it has, however, been so much altered that it is difficult to speak positively as to its age or original height. The entrance is at the ground level, at the north end of the east face. It has a portcullis, probably the work of Edward I.; from its jamb on the left, a straight stair ascends in the east wall to the south-east angle of the first floor, as at Chepstow and Ludlow. The basement has been subdivided into four compartments, which are vaulted in stone. One is a passage against the north wall, terminating in a well-stair in the north-west angle. This stair, now disused, is original, and led to the first floor, but probably no higher. From the passage doors open on the left into two vaults, parted by the cross wall of the building. The east vault is one chamber; the west subdivided by a cross wall into two, the inner entered through the outer. The vaulting is a plain pointed barrel, very evidently an insertion. In the smaller vaults are late stone seats. One of the doorways is of Perpendicular date. These vaults were evidently prisons, intended no doubt for the custody of Border reivers, and probably a late addition. In the north wall is a recess connected with the well.

The first floor, about 16 feet high, is vaulted in modern brick, and used as a mess-room. In its north side was a very large fireplace, flanked by Norman columns; but this is now walled up. This floor is now entered solely from the south-east angle, but formerly had also a door near the north-west corner, from the well-stair. There is also a door near the south-west angle, which opens into a second well-stair, which probably led to the upper floors and the battlements. This is now closed, and there is no direct way from the first to the upper floors.

The second floor is reached, at this time, by an exterior door in the west wall, approached by an exterior stair on the north face, and from the rampart on the east. This door is not original, and has been broken through at the place of a recess, probably looped, which led from the second floor into a mural chamber and garderobe in the east wall, and which are seen on the right hand of the door on entering. This second floor is about 16 feet high, and has a timber ceiling. In the east wall, over the present entrance door, is a mural chamber, on the walls of which are some curious carvings by prisoners. One represents the Percy crescent and fetterlock, and another a coat of arms. From this floor a ladder leads through a trap into the upper floor—a modern arrangement.

The third or upper floor is vaulted in modern brick to support the gun platform above. This platform is formed of large slabs of stone, laid down in 1812, which may also be the date of the vault. The walls above are 11 feet thick all round.

The well of the keep is reputed to be Roman, though this is quite as likely to be true of the larger one in the outer ward. When the keep was built, the well, whether new or old, was included within the north wall, between the doorway and the north-east angle, and its pipe was carried up in the wall, no doubt with a lighted chamber at each floor, as indicated by a line of loops still seen in the wall. To make the well available when the keep was shut up as a prison, a hole was cut in the outside of the north wall, near the ground level, into the pipe of the well, and through this the water is still drawn up. The well is 78 feet deep, and its present cill is 92 feet above the sea level.