Next comes the gateway proper, the jambs of which, 2 feet 4 inches in thickness, project inwards with a double chamfer, so as to reduce the actual entrance to 8 feet.
The door, the space for which shows it to have been of wood, and not above 4 inches thick, was of two valves, the arch behind being flat segmental, with a high springing and 4 feet of breadth, to accommodate them when open. Two stones on each side, which probably carried the iron loops for the hinges, have been torn out. Between them, a central hole, 9 inches by 12 inches, carried the wooden bar. Next is an arch, of which about 5 feet only remain, but which probably completed the passage to its opening into the ward, and perhaps carried a portcullis groove.
Half the doorways into the lodges remain. The lodges themselves were barrel-vaulted, and the vault in the west lodge springs from the ordinary Norman string, composed of a flat abacus and chamfer, as though an older gatehouse had been cased. Instances of this string, indeed, have been pointed out by Mr. Bond in other and certainly later parts of the castle, and of course a plain string of this character may be of any age.
The several arches composing the entrance passage show, at their springings, about a dozen small holes, evidently to carry the centring. Their small size indicates this to have been of iron. These holes are usual.
CORFE CASTLE.
Fig. I.—Great Gatehouse: Entrance passage,—1, 2, 3, Chases.
Fig. II.—Middle Gatehouse. Entrance passage,—4, Pivot hole; 5, Chase in vault; 6, Portcullis groove and chase; 7, Machicolation with five apertures; 8, Bar-hole.
In the door-jambs are cut six mortises, three on a side, the lowest 6 inches from the ground. They are each 8½ inches long, 2 inches broad, and 3½ inches deep. They must have been intended to hold boards, though the shallow depth would scarce allow of their insertion. These would, indeed, have been better suited to keep pigs in than warriors out, and perhaps were so used in times of peace. They can scarcely be original, but are probably earlier than the dismantling. The entrance passage falls gently from the interior, so as to give an advantage to the defenders in a contest.
It is difficult to understand the defences of this gateway in the absence of the upper story, from which most of them were worked. There is at present no trace of the drawbridge in the portal, unless, indeed, the pivot-holes on which it turned be concealed by the soil. If the cylindrical pipe, with the opening or slot in its side, contained a sash-weight, of what was it the counterpoise? Scarcely of the drawbridge, for which, even if of lead, unless of inconvenient length, the weight would be too light; and portcullis groove there is none. The 5-inch chase exactly in front of the pipe may have contained a portcullis, or a frame; but, if so, the absence of lateral grooves must have left it very unsteady, except when down upon and fixed in the cill. No doubt, a portcullis with crooked sides or ears might have worked in this tube, but that is scarcely probable. The other chases were, no doubt, intended for the passage of projectiles. They are, however, mere slits across the vault, unaccompanied by lateral grooves as when used for a portcullis, and they do not appear to have been divided by cross septa, as in regular machicolations; but this vault has been riven by an explosion, and restored in part in recent times, so that it is difficult to pronounce upon its details.
From each side of the gatehouse springs a short curtain. That to the east, from 10 feet to 12 feet thick, and about 20 feet high, now mostly destroyed, terminates in the Horseshoe Tower, a mere shell, about 20 feet diameter and 20 feet high, open at the ground floor and across the gorge, and intended to be floored and bratticed with timber, as is not infrequent with mural towers, to prevent their being used against the garrison. It is pierced by three loops on the ground floor. These are mere vertical slits, 7 feet long and 1½ inch broad, splayed deeply, and opening from recesses in the wall. The tower caps the south-east angle of the work, and the loops are directed upon the field, and along the two curtains. The removal of the talus outside shows this tower to stand upon a deep and solid foundation. At the junction of the gatehouse curtain with this tower, the former contains a mural chamber, 6 feet broad, and roofed with five tiers of overhanging slabs.