SCARBOROUGH CASTLE.—THE KEEP—SOUTH FACE.
The east, the most perfect face, has the usual flanking pilaster strips, 10 feet 6 inches broad and of a foot projection, which rise unbroken to the summit, and no doubt supported the usual angular turrets, now removed. The angle at which the adjacent faces of the building meet is hollow, and is occupied by a bold round bead, 12 inches diameter; in fact, a three-quarter shaft, but without base or capital. In the centre of the face is a third pilaster, 8 feet broad, and quite plain. On this side the basement floor has no openings. The ground, in fact, is above its level. The first and second floors are marked each by two round-headed recesses, 7 feet broad and a foot deep, the second contains a pair of narrow tall round-headed windows, having side columns, and in the centre a pair of coupled columns, common to both openings. The caps are fluted, and the window arches have a bold torus moulding, the only semblance of ornament throughout the building. The upper floor is marked by no recesses, but there are two pairs of small tall round-headed windows, with square jambs and architraves. The windows composing each pair stand about a foot apart. In the flanking pilasters are two pointed loops, corresponding to the second-floor level, and lighting mural chambers.
The north face probably corresponded with that to the east, with the addition of two loops from the basement, one of which is now closed, as are the two windows above it. One flanking pilaster of this front is gone with its west end.
Of the south face the west end is gone, but what remains is full of interest, as it shows how the entrance was arranged. The face is plain, without any regular pilasters or plinth. Towards its west end is the inner entrance, just beyond which the curtain-wall of the bailey sprang from the keep. This entrance is 7 feet broad, and the depth of the thickness of the wall. The passage is round-headed and ribbed. The inner doorway is round-headed, the outer face segmental. A flight of steps within the passage leads up to the floor of the first story. It is evident from a short pilaster, some springing stones, and certain other indications on the face of the wall, that the entrance was covered here by a small forebuilding. Against the face of the keep was built a rectangular block about 30 feet long and perhaps 20 feet broad, ending against and abutting upon the curtain. It contained a vaulted passage, and over its outer doorway, at its east end, was a large funnel-shaped machicolation for its defence. Within this the vault led on until on the right hand in the keep-wall was the inner entrance already mentioned. There was no portcullis, but above the doorway is an opening or meurtrière, by means of which the entrance could be defended against those who might have forced the outer gate. The ramparts of the forebuilding were on the level of the second floor of the keep, and were reached from it by a small narrow doorway opening from a mural chamber in the south wall. Close east of this is another small door, a little higher, the use of which is not very evident, unless it opened upon a hoard or brétasche a little in advance of the stone parapet. A little west of and below these is a third and shorter doorway, which seems intended for the working of the meurtrière over the inner door. It is connected with a small and very narrow mural staircase.
The interior of the keep is not only filled up so as to hide the basement floor, but its eastern part has been converted into a powder magazine, and is inaccessible. It is said that the magazine includes four rectangular mural chambers, one 14 feet by 5 feet in the south wall, two 6 feet and 7 feet square, in the east wall, and one 5 feet by 6 feet in the north wall, but these have not been examined. The first floor was about 32 feet square, but divided into two nearly equal parts by a bold arch running north and south, and springing from two wall piers. The arch is gone, but the broken wall shows it to have been 4 feet 6 inches thick, and to have carried a solid wall, which divided the second and ceased at the floor of the upper storey. In the east wall of the first floor is a central fireplace of 7 feet opening with a round head and of no projection, round-backed, and with a vertical mural vent. On each side of it is a deep recess of 6 feet 9 inches opening, round-headed, and containing a pair of coupled windows already described. There are two similar recesses in the north wall, one on each side of the cross arch, of which the eastern is at present walled up, but seems to have had besides its windows a small lateral door opening into a dark mural chamber, which occupied the north-east angle. The other recess, west of the cross wall, is open, and its two windows remain. In the south wall is a small doorway which leads into a mural chamber occupying the south-east angle, but now inaccessible. At the other end of this wall is the entrance door, and between it and the cross arch a steep narrow stair leading to the opening above the entrance doorway.
At the second floor the cross-wall was pierced by a small doorway near its south end, of which one jamb remains. This floor also has a fireplace in its east wall, resembling that below, but with a segmental arch, while above it, in the wall, is a semicircular arch of relief. On either side is a recess with coupled round-headed windows, the shutter rebates of which are pointed. In the north wall are two doorways leading into mural chambers, and at its western end a recess and double window, as before. In the south wall are two openings; one, a door leading into a mural chamber in the south-east angle, lighted by a loop already mentioned, and the other a large recess within which are the two doorways opening towards the forebuilding. On the other side of the cross-wall, over the main door, are traces of a large recess with coupled windows.
No fireplace remains in the upper floor, which seems to have been occupied by one large chamber, having in its east wall two pairs of coupled windows in deep round-headed recesses, and the same probably in its north and south walls. There may, indeed, have been a fireplace in the west wall.
SCARBOROUGH CASTLE.—INTERIOR OF KEEP.