From the chapel and drawing-room a broad wooden seventeenth century staircase descends into the hall at its south or dais end, in which is a large and handsome fireplace, probably of the same date.
The Hall is 32 feet broad by 61 feet long, and has an open pointed roof. It is built at the ground level against the east curtain, which is, or was, pierced by four windows, three in the hall and one within the buttery screen. The latter is late Norman, with slender flanking shafts. The other three are full centred, with a keel bead at the angle, and an interior drip. They seem Decorated, and no doubt replace Norman loops. In the west or court wall are four large and lofty flat-topped and somewhat peculiar windows of two lights each, broken into four by a heavy transom. The upper lights are trefoil, the lower shoulder-headed. Between each pair, outside, is a triangular buttress. The entrance from the court is in the west side, at the north end, by a handsome and spacious porch, vaulted and groined. The exterior doorway is an arch composed of four quite plain straight sides, parts of an octagon, similar in outline to those above the Berkeley tombs at Bristol, known locally as the Berkeley arch. This is repeated with the addition of some ornament in the inner doorway, which opens into a narrow strip of the hall cut off by the screen. On the left, in the end wall of the hall, are three fine Berkeley arches opening into the butteries, of which the central was formerly a door. Above this passage, high up, is a small music gallery, probably of Tudor date, or even later. The roof of the hall is poor, but said to be of the fourteenth century. No doubt this represents the original Norman hall, rebuilt, as regards the court wall, in the Decorated period.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.
BERKELEY CASTLE—THE KEEP.
From the Hall.
In the hall are placed, not inappropriately, the earlier charters of the family, protected with glass. Perhaps, however, looking at their extreme value as connected with the castle, it would be safer to restore them to the muniment room, and replace them for public exhibition by photographs.
To the north, beyond the lower end of the hall, are the butteries, kitchen, and pantries, the latter against the curtain. The Kitchen is an irregular hexagon, averaging 13 feet 6 inches in the side. In the three longer sides are recesses for a fireplace, and hoods over cooking-places. The original doors were in the buttery on one side and the scullery on the other, and there were two windows towards the court. The roof is of open work, very plain, heavy and poor, and very high up. It is said to have been brought from Wootton Manor House, and placed here by Henry VII. The scullery, &c. occupy the north-east angle of the court, and, like the adjacent chambers, is of irregular form, governed by the general outline of the castle. The larders, dairy, &c. are against the north curtain, and from the bakehouse a modern vaulted passage leads to the ancient well, which is in the court. The oven is in the north-west corner, and two bold drop-arched stone ribs traverse the chamber, and stiffen its vaulted roof. All these rooms form the ground floor, and carry an upper story. Their front towards the court seems to have been modernised, but in substance they are Decorated, with considerable remains of older Norman walling.
The Keep is the most interesting part of this very remarkable castle, since it is a shell keep of a known date. It is nearly circular, about 50 yards diameter, and the containing curtain-wall is about 8 feet thick, reducing its inner area to near 45 yards. The floor, of earth, is about 22 feet higher than the exterior ground, and, the wall being 40 feet high inside, is about 62 feet outside, the lower 22 feet being a revetment, and very thick. Upon its circuit are three half-round projecting towers or bastion turrets, 20 feet in diameter, of the height of the curtain, which seems to have been open at the rear, or closed only with timber. One of these projects to the east, and is abutted upon by the northern curtain of the castle court. In its base is a well, under a barrel vault, and above, resting upon this, is the oratory, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The western or end wall of the oratory, and the outer stair leading to it, are modern.
The oratory is at present used as a muniment room. The ecclesiastical features are much injured and obscured. The eastern end is a half round, and there are remains of the flanking shafts of the Norman east window, and a small piscina. It appears to have been vaulted.
The second half-round tower is 64 feet from the former, and projects to the south into the court, commanding the inner face of its entrance, and the approach to the keep. In it, below the ground level, but not much lower than the level of the court below, is a circular dungeon 25 feet deep, into which Edward II. is said to have been finally thrust.