- 1. Ground Floor, or Basement.
- 2. First, or Entrance Floor.
- 3. The Great Hall.
- 4. Upper part of Hall, with Gallery.
- 5. Room over Hall.
4. Castle Hedingham, Essex.
A window of the gallery in the hall.
Against the means of attack which were then available this place was impregnable, but the safety thus assured must have been both gloomy and draughty. In its way, however, it was a lordly residence; the main rooms were spacious, the smaller rooms were considerable in number, the staircase was of ample width. The gallery must have afforded a certain amount of quasi-privacy to those who were not privileged to occupy the mural chambers. The architectural detail of the doorways, windows, arches, and fireplaces is good (Figs. 4, 5, 6). Across the middle of the entrance floor and of the hall is thrown a fine bold semicircular arch, of nearly 30 ft. span, to carry the floor of the room over (see section, Fig. 5); the whole treatment is simple, sturdy, and splendid, as befitted the chief stronghold of the race for whom it was built, the De Veres, Earls of Oxford.
5. Castle Hedingham, Essex.
Section of the Keep.
6. Castle Hedingham, Essex.