No doubt the present dressing of the counterscarp is due to whoever placed artillery upon its crest. Outside it, by way of glacis, is a level platform, 30 feet broad, known to have been defended by artillery, and in front of which are three steps or benches. The whole work forms a fausse braie at the foot of the glacis of the keep, and a strong defence in front of the gatehouse of the middle ward. A bridge of two arches, of the same age and fashion with that already described, traverses this fosse, here 50 feet broad, and leads up to the middle gateway. A profile cut in one of the gate towers shows where the parapet abutted, which, however, was clearly not original. As in the lower bridge, a space of about 18 feet next the portal, now filled with earth, was evidently intended to be spanned by the drawbridge.
The middle ward is also triangular. Its longer and about equal north and south sides are capped at the acute western angle by the Buttavant Tower, and the base is formed by the middle gatehouse and curtain, and by the revetment wall and gate (now destroyed) of the inner ward.
The gatehouse of the middle ward is a very fine structure. Like the lower gatehouse, which it resembles in general arrangements, it is composed of two drums flanking the entrance passage, and terminating square in the rear.
One, the north tower, rises direct from the fosse, without basement or set-off, and is connected with a short but very thick and lofty curtain, which ascends the steep ground to abut upon the keep. The tower is of bold projection, but flat towards the curtain. Within is a lodge with one cruciform loop to the front, and in rear traces of a stair which led to the curtain, and thus by continued steps along its ramparts to the keep.
The other tower rises from the crest of the outer slope, where it appears as a mural defence, upon the west front. Within is a small lodge with three loops, one to the front, one on the flank towards the field, and one, now closed up, to the rear, into the middle ward.
The portal has no jambs, but is entered under a segmental arch, double chamfered, springing direct from the flanking towers. This recedes 4 feet 1 inch, and is succeeded by a rounded portcullis groove, 9 inches broad by 6 inches deep, but having, while within the arch, a flat margin of 3 inches on either side. These margins cease above the arch, and the chase is of the breadth of the groove only.
Behind the portcullis is a second arch, 2 feet 9 inches broad, succeeded by a machicolation, 14 inches broad, and divided by four septa into five square holes. These are placed immediately before the jambs of the gate proper, where the passage is reduced by about 1 foot 8 inches.
Behind the jambs an arch of high spring and flat segmental curve accommodated the folding-doors, when open. These were of wood, and the bar-hole behind them is about 11 inches square. The hinges are gone. Behind this last arch the passage was roofed with wood, and is now open. In the rear are parts of the groove of a second portcullis—“altera securitas”—so that there was probably a stone face to the back front of the gatehouse, all now destroyed. The arrangements of this gateway as far back as the lodge are shown in the accompanying section. See woodcut, Fig. II.
In the wooden roofed space are the doors of the two lodges. The south is square-headed, with shoulders. The north, of the same shape, is protected by a semicircular relieving arch in the wall above. This arch, in design and material, has a very Norman aspect, and may have been preserved from an older work. There are no remains of battlements on this gateway, but on its front are stone corbels, probably intended to carry the hoarding, a feature of military architecture so well described by M. Viollet-le-Duc.[4]
In the exterior portal, near the floor, and a few inches in front of the portcullis groove, is a round hole, 5 inches across and 3 inches deep, which seems to have carried the iron axle of the drawbridge. Above it is another similar hole, no doubt connected with the working of the same defence.