Volume 2

England's topographer, or a new and complete history of the county of Kent; from the earliest records to the present time, including every modern improvement. Embellished with a series of views from original drawings by Geo. Shepherd, H. Gastineau, &c. with historical, topographical, critical, & biographical delineations / By W. H. Ireland.

William Henry Ireland

Date:: 1828-1830

Credit: England's topographer, or a new and complete history of the county of Kent; from the earliest records to the present time, including every modern improvement. Embellished with a series of views from original drawings by Geo. Shepherd, H. Gastineau, &c. with historical, topographical, critical, & biographical delineations / By W. H. Ireland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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31/800 page 21

A grand flight of steps conducting from the eastern part of this second story, to the royal apartments on the third, was strongly defended; and, at the foot of the staircase was a large archway formed to receive a gate. In the event of an enemy forcing that portal, there was another still higher up, defended by a port- cullis. In the walls on either side of the staircase, and upon the landing-places, were concealed galleries for the archers ; who, although invisible to the assailants, were empowered to make dreadful havoc among their enemies. The stairs on the south side, communicating from this story to that beneath, have long been closed up. In the wall, on the south-west side, are two spacious galleries, having an enlarged window between them. There are also recesses in the galleries, and in one is a fireplace; the workmanship, however, appearing as late as the time of Elizabeth. It seems probable that the original design of these was to convey from one story to another, within this tower, the beams for the catapult, and other warlike engines, rather than expose the besieged to the enemy, by rearing them outside the walls. In both these galleries were two loopholes, while two other galleries with loopholes commanded the entire quad- rangle on the south-east. The third story, lke the former, is divided into rooms and galleries, communicating with each other at the angles, whereof the principal rooms were royal apartments. Within the massive thick wall, on the north angle, and between the top of the stairs and the entrance to the royal apartments, is the celebrated well, the construction of which has been ascribed to Julius Cesar, but more probably dug by the Saxons long anterior to the erection of the keep. This is the well which William, duke of Normandy required that Harold, on his oath, should deliver up to him, on the death of Edward the Confessor. In 1800 bomb-proof arches were built over the summit of this building, the castellated battlements being also mounted with cannon of sixty-eight pounds caliber. Speaking of the situation upon which the keep stands, a modern writer makes the following pertinent remarks : “That part of the promontory which is occupied by the build- ings belonging to the ancient keep, is 320 feet above the level of the sea, rising almost perpendicularly. The view from this spot is truly sublime. The sea, whose waves even in the roughest

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