The second stage much resembles the basement. The walls are about 13 feet thick, the cross-wall 8 feet. In the latter are three openings, 6 feet wide and 15 feet high, round-headed and quite plain, between a doorway at the north end, 4 feet 6 inches wide and 12 feet high, and one at the south end, 4 feet wide and 9 feet high. These five openings communicate between the eastern and western chambers. The western room, 92 feet by 37 feet, has in its west wall five plain round-headed recesses, once converging into loops, but now enlarged into windows. In the south wall is a similar recess, and in the north wall are two. Between one of these and the west angle is a small mural passage, 2 feet 10 inches wide, and bent at right angles. This is vaulted, quadripartite, with plain hips, very rough, but good. Under its exterior loop was the garderobe shaft.
The eastern room, 68 feet by 30 feet, has in its east wall three recesses for loops. In its north wall is a recess, now cut into a door, and communicating with the outside by a double flight of modern stone steps. There is also an original door of 3 feet opening, leading by a short mural passage, 5 feet wide, to the well-stair, which supplies each stage. In the south wall a door leads into the crypt of the chapel, 13 feet 6 inches broad by 39 feet long, having an apsidal east end, and 17 feet high to the crown of its very plain vault. In the north wall of the crypt, near the apse, a passage 2 feet broad leads into a vaulted cell, 8 feet by 10 feet, formed in the wall, and quite dark. In the south wall three round-headed recesses, 6 feet broad and 13 feet high, terminated in loops, as did one at the east end. This crypt was fitted up as an armoury, but has been cleared out, and the injured vaulting restored in good taste.
The two larger rooms on this stage are 15 feet high, and recently their respective open ceilings were supported by eighteen and twelve large posts in double rows. These no doubt were inserted when the rooms were given up to stores and records. They have now been removed, and the beams stiffened with iron, to carry the weight of small-arms here stored up. Possibly there was originally a single line of posts, as 30 feet and 37 feet are large spans for single untrussed beams. Recently, two plain original fireplaces have been discovered in the east wall. Their smoke was discharged, as at Colchester, by two small apertures in the wall.
THE KEEP.—THIRD STAGE.
Ascending by the well-stair from this stage, a Tudor door is seen cut in the shell of the staircase, and leading into the adjacent armourers’ shops. A similar door, below this, has been cut at the ground level.
The third stage, or second floor, has also three chambers: the western, 95 feet by 40 feet; the eastern, 64 feet by 32 feet; both 15 feet high, and until recently propped by posts. The cross chamber is the chapel, which occupies this and the upper stage, to the roof. The exterior walls are here 10 feet to 11 feet, and the party-wall 6 feet thick. In the latter are five openings, as below, all apparently doorways. The rebates show that the doors of the four to the south opened into the east chamber, and the north door the other way. In the north wall, close to this door, are two mural garderobes, resembling that already described, one serving the west, and one the east room.
FIREPLACE IN KEEP.
Within the north-west and south-west angles of this stage commence well-stairs, 9 feet diameter, which rise to the roof. They do not open, as usual, direct into the room; but, by short passages, into the jamb of the nearest loop recess. The east chamber is entered from the main stair in a similar way, by a passage 3 feet wide, in the north wall. In the south wall of this room is only a small door opening into the north aisle of the chapel. In its east wall are three loop recesses, and from the jamb of one a garderobe opens, resembling those described. In this wall also is the plain round-headed opening of a fireplace, with an inclined back and vertical flue, the outlet of which has not been followed. It resembles somewhat a fireplace in Colchester keep. This room is called the “Banqueting Chamber.”