The broad space to the north, called in Dudley’s time the garden, and now a large kitchen garden, has probably been partially raised by the ruins of the keep and of the north curtain. How it was originally occupied is not known; possibly there was a ditch here. If the Lancastrian lords made the passage through the forebuilding and the alcove in the curtain, they must have laid out the space within the ditch as a garden. Of the many detached buildings that at various times must have stood in the outer ward, and especially in the eastern section of it, the site of but one, the chapel, is known. This was an oblong nave, without aisles, having an east end of three sides of a hexagon, and across which is the foundation of a wall. The interior breadth was 33 feet; the length has not yet been excavated. Probably there was always a chapel here, for a capital has been found in it of Norman work much earlier than the keep, but the building, of which the foundations remain, is of Decorated or early Perpendicular date, as is evident from the plan, and from parts of the sedilia which have been dug up.
KENILWORTH CASTLE.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.
MORTIMER’S TOWER.
- Garderobe and Sewer.
- The Dam.
- The Lake
- Water below the Dam.
- Outer Ward.
KENILWORTH KEEP.
- Fore Building.
- Garderobe Tower.
- Well.
- Garden Door and Alcove.
The enceinte of this outer ward, about 750 yards in length, and including rather above nine acres, is mainly composed of a curtain wall, upon which are six rather important buildings. These are Mortimer’s and Swan Towers, Leicester’s Gatehouse, Lunn’s Tower, the Stables, and the Water Tower. Mortimer’s Tower derives its name either from Lord Mortimer of Wigmore, who led in a tournament here in the reign of Edward III., or from a Sir John Mortimer imprisoned here by Henry V. It is a gatehouse, and stands upon the inner end of the dam, and occupies a salient of the curtain to the south-east. It is in plan 60 feet deep, by 55 feet broad; in the rear, flush with the curtain and projecting from it, 54 feet. The entrance passage is in the centre of its length, and the outer portal opened between two half-round towers of 18 and 20 feet diameter. Within the arch was a portcullis in a square groove of dimensions for a wooden grate, and behind this a rebate for folding doors. The passage then widens a little with a curved splay, and on each side a door 2 feet wide opens into a lodge looped to the front and to the outside. In the rear of the east lodge is a solid wall 7 feet thick; but to the west lodge has been added a garderobe, and beyond it is the shaft of a second garderobe from the upper floor, and below them a sewer which opened into the lake. The loops are all cruciform. There was a second portcullis, the groove for which is stopped up, and at the inner face a rebate for a second pair of doors. The upper floor of this gatehouse has been removed. It is evident that it has been much altered. Originally it was composed of a mere pair of parallel walls, as at Berkhampstead and Coningsborough, 7 feet thick and 12 feet apart, and these form the back part of the present building. Of the upper floor a fragment remains outside the west wall, carrying on corbels the overhanging vent of a garderobe. To the plain rectangular tower the front drums and lateral chamber were added. The mouldings of the original structure are early, and of the later, more perfect Decorated; but the work is of an inferior character. The whole structure seems to have been originally built and added to in haste.
On its east side, this gatehouse was joined by the ward curtain, here 6 feet thick, of which a few yards have been removed. On the west, the curtain passes back straight and then turns westward at a right angle, forming a shoulder, by which means the long southern face is flanked. Near the angle is a postern door descending by steps to the lake. In the rear of the gatehouse is a shaft upon a culvert, which seems to have brought water from the lake into the lower floor of the Water Tower. There may have been a mill thus fed within the outer ward. In front, the eastern drum of the gatehouse is connected with a long curtain wall, which crested the edge of the dam to the east, and abutted upon the gatehouse, closing one of its loops. In this curtain, near that end, a small Decorated doorway gave access to the lower lake.