smell from dead carcases thrown into this well was one of the sources of annoyance to which the monarch was subjected, and this would seem to identify the room as his place of abode; but Hollinshed’s statement “that his crie was heard by many in the town of Berkelei,” is held as more applicable to the room adjoining the keep, which we now describe.[30]
To the left on entering the inner quadrangle, and attached to the Keep, is a square tower of two stories, and on a platform of four or five steps stands an early English arch, surmounted by a still earlier Norman label-moulding, attesting the antiquity of this tower. A flight of steps from thence gives access to the level of the base court of the keep. At the side of these steps a narrow gangway or gallery, protected by a rude and antique timber-shed roof, leads to a room of irregular form and small dimensions extending
over the staircase, lighted by two deeply recessed windows opening to the outer court, and secured by a strong oak door communicating with the before-named gallery.
An old chair, an old carved four-post bedstead, and in a most suspiciously recessed angular nook, an old black-looking pallet-bed, form the furniture of this room, all, though tattered and time-worn, bearing evidence of some former splendour in decoration. It does not require much stretch of imagination for the adoption of this chamber as the scene of
“Murder most foul and most unnatural!”
And a bust of the wretched king standing in one of the window recesses, with its face veiled in shadow, seems mutely but powerfully to appeal to
those feelings of pity which cannot fail to be excited by the view of this dreary abode of royalty.