From hence to the north-east angle of the tower the wall has been pulled down, but its line may be traced, partly by occasional foundations, partly by its materials which have been used in the houses built on its site, and partly by the direction of the lane called “Back o’ the Wall,” which runs along its rear, and by the parallel road which runs along the counterscarp of the ditch, and is called “Canal Walk,” from an abortive canal which was carried along the line of the ditch at the commencement of the present century.
The east gate spanned East-street, and was taken down in 1772. Grose gives a drawing of it, and attributes its erection to the year 1339, 13 Edward III. Between this gate and the north-east angle was one mural half-round tower.
Of Polnymond Tower, which caps the north-east angle, there are considerable remains. It is a three-quarter drum tower, about 28 feet diameter. From it to the bar, 160 yards, the wall, or part of it, remains, but so clustered with buildings as to be inaccessible to ordinary visitors. Here are remains of two half-round towers, and a breach in the wall, called York Gate, probably representing a postern.
The east ditch is marked by a depression, in part due to the canal. The north ditch is completely obliterated and built over, and its breadth is not recorded, and has not been ascertained by probing. If Hanover Buildings mark its counterscarp, it was 46 yards broad; but if, as is much more probable, its limit is marked by Cold Harbour, it was only 24 yards, which tallies with that along the east front.
THE CASTLE.
The castle was very probably the oldest, and perhaps the only præ-Norman fortification connected with the town. It occupied nearly the whole of the north-western quarter of the walled area, and included also the highest ground. In plan it was a rough semicircle, the chord of 124 yards being the town wall, and the arc measuring about 300 yards. There is, however, also a considerable knoll, on the south-east of the area, of about 45 yards diameter, about half of which lay outside the curved enceinte.
This was the keep. Leland calls it the dungeon (donjon), and the “glory of the castle.” “It is,” says he, “both large, fair, and very strong, both by works and by the site of it;” and other writers describe it as a lofty mound. As usual, in forming such works, advantage was taken of high ground to make it the base of an artificial mound encircled by a deep and broad ditch. The keep, no doubt a shell of masonry like Arundel, towered above the rest of the works. Of the curved wall of the enceinte a part remains to the north. It was built on piers about 8 feet square and 9 feet apart, a round-headed arch with a tendency to a point connecting these. The tops of these arches were about 12 feet above the base of the piers, and upon them rested a wall, which carried the battlement. The arches were buried in a bank of earth about 15 feet high. This bank has been removed to allow houses to be built up to the wall, which now, therefore, stands like a Roman aqueduct. The foundation is excellent, so that this plan was adopted solely to save material and to profit by the older bank. The roughness of the masonry shows the height of the bank, above which the remaining wall rises about 4 feet. It is much to be regretted that this curious piece of Norman wall has been so badly treated. About 90 yards of it remain, including eighteen arches. It stops at the Castle-lane, where was the main gate of the castle, removed at the end of the last century.
The wall, beyond the gate, was continued up the mound to the keep, and beyond it till it reached the southern gate, whence it was continued till it again struck the town wall. Thus the keep was upon and formed part of the enceinte, as was usual. From the south gate, also removed in the last century, a winding road, commenced from the wall, led down to Simnell-street, a few yards within the postern.
Near the castle, against and within the town wall, is a large subterranean vault, now closed; and, judging from the openings in the wall, there was a corresponding vault to the south of this.
The whole area of the castle is high, and much of it has been still higher, the mound having been lowered, the ditch partially filled up, and the bank along which the wall was built having been removed.