, Mag, Oct, 1794, Pl, III Story of the Keep CANTERBURY CASTLE. Plan of the antient Keep of CHILHAM CASTLE. 1794.] St. Giles's, Salop.—Antient Keep of Chilham Caftle. lany will give the true reafon of the hand fome church of this place being thus disfigured, I remain, Mr. Urban, your conftant reader, A TRAVELLER. Mr. URBAN, Salop, Sept. 18. AE fketch of a tombfione in St. Toiles church, Salop, which was engraved in your last month's Magazine, being exceedingly incorrect in many refpecs, but more particularly in the infcription; I have herewith inclofed an exact drawing of it (fee plate III.). It lies directly under the Eaft window of the church, and was probably the tomb of an ecclefiaftick belonging to the neighbouring monaftery of St. Peter and St. Paul. In the church yard are the following lines upon the grave-ftone of one William White, who was a quarter-mafter of the horse in the reign of King Wil liam III.: "In Irish wars I fought for England's glory; Die we must all as fure as we are born.” Mr. URBAN, TH R. Sept. 27. HE ingenious Mr. King having, in a part of his letter to the late Dean of Exeter on the fubject of antient caftles, published in the fixth volume of the Archæologia, expreffed a with that fome person would examine Chilham caftle, in Kent, which he fuppofes might furnish a notable example of that fpecies of Norman architecture; I took the opportunity of a fhort refidence in the neighbourhood of Ahford to vifit that caftle; and, if no perfon of more leifure to inveftigate, and greater ability to defcribe, that remain of antiquity, fhould have furnished a more accurate pan, I offer that which accompanies this letter. (See plate III.). I alfo fend you plans of thofe parts of the antient Keep of Canterbury cattle, which correfpond with the plans given by Mr. King, and will be found in the fixth volume of the Archæologia, p. .301, plate 36, fig. 38, 39. As the plans I now offer, which were the refult of two days clofe invelti, gation of that ruin, differ materially in point of fact from thote given by Mr. King, i have thought fit to accompany 909 them with fome remarks, for the better explanation of that difference. J. P. CHILHAM CASTLE is feven miles South-west of Canterbury, in the high road thence to Ashford. It is fituated upon a hill on the North fide of the tiver Stour, which hill rifes with a gentle afcent for about a quarter of a mile from the level of the meadows, and is terminated by a fleep defcent on the North fide, upon the extreme edge or precipice of which defcent the Keep, which is the only remains of that antient caftle, is fituated fo as to give it a great natural ftrength and fecurity on that fide. That hill was moft probably a Britifa poft before the invafion of Julius Cæfar, and the scene of feveral bloody conflicts between the Romans and Britons foon after his landing; and tradition reports that it was afterwards an important Roman ftation. The natural fituation of the ground, its having the river Stour in front on the South fide, and its not being more than a reasonable day's march from the place where Cæfar first landed, are circumftances that favour this report; and it is ftrongly corroborated by the affertions of feveral historians, that, when Sir Dudley Digges built the prefent manfion-houfe, which nearly adjoins to the Keep, he difcovered, in digging the foundation, feveral buildings apparently of Roman conftruction, and also urns, vafes, coins, fraginents of arms and armour, and other veftiges of that people; and, it may be added, that this does not wholly rest on the affertions of hiftorians; for, the fame vefliges continue to be found to this day. It is difficult to form any conjecture of the fhape and extent of the caftle which was built here in after-ages, and probably long before the Norman conqueft; but, from the account given me by a very intelligent gardener of the foundations of walls difcovered in digging, conceive the outer wall of circumvallation to have been of great ex tent. The Keep (a ground plot, or the ichnography, of which is hereunto annexed) is apparently of Norman conftruction, though, in its prefent ftate, void of almott all thofe contrivances for defence and fecurity which are obfervable in other edifices of the fame kind; and, unless it was fecured on the South and Eaft fides by the deep ditch which ap pears on the North and Weft, or by Jome oatworks (either or both of which was AAAA. External wall, about five feet thick, inclosing an area of about 90 feet diameter; which, fuppofing the wall on the South fide to have been continued in a direct line, would have been nearly, though not exactly, equilateral, having four turrets, now in ruin, one at each angle, with a very narrow rampart and flight parapet round the walls. B. Octagon tower, about 40 feet diameter in the outward extent, and about 25 feet within, the walls being about 8 feet in thickness. The ground-floor of this octagon is now ufed as a brewhoufe, and is about 30 feet high, having over it the principal ftate apartment, which, in its prefent ftare, is handsomely wainscoted, and fitted up as a billiard-room. There were narrow loops in four of the angles of this octagon, and a large chim ney in the fifth; but three of thefe loops have been enlarged, and converted into handfome fath-windows, and the chimney modernized. C. An irregular and ill-shaped building projecting from the octagon tower, and terminated by the South wall of the quadrangle. This projection has three flories, the lowermoft of which, appear ing to have been antiently a kitchen, now ferves as an appendage to the brewhoufe, and has a communication with it at letter O by a very wide and handfome arch. The next story above is alfo an appendage to the brewhoufe, having a narrow winding paffage taken off from it by a ftone wall, and terminating in a receis which appears to have been a privy. The third flory is upon a level with the state apartment of the octagon, and feems to have been intended for a library, having a handfome chimney in it, and a fathwindow, formerly a narrow loop. The two upper ftories above described, as well as the ftate apartment, have communications with the great ftairs, letter D, the area of which is about 12 feet diameter; and they are continued to the top of the caftle, which is roofed and covered with lead, and from which there is a moft pleafing view of the circumjacent country. The entrance to these stairs is at letter C by three or four fteps through the thickness of the wall; and at letter a is a defcent by feveral stairs to what was 5 probably a dungeon under the brewhoufe, the paffage to which is now bar red by a folid wall at the foot of those Aairs. Whether there were any other, or, if any, what buildings in antient times within the quadrangle, it is impoffible to fay; thofe marked with dotted lines, and numbered 1, 2, 3, are of modern erection. No. 1. is a fmall building, covering a very deep and inexhauftible well. No. 2. is a long range of theds for various domeftic purposes, with a gallery over them, open on the South, for drying of linen, and communicating with a laundry over No. 3, the lower part of which is a wash-house. The door of entrance into this quadrangle is at prefent on the South fide at letter b; but this entrance feems to have been of modern conftruction. It is probable that the antient portal of entrance was on this fide; but there is no vettige left by which its antient form or exact fituation can be afcertained; and it seems very doubtful whether this entrance into the octagon at letter e was the original portal of entrance to that part of the Keep. The opening in the external wall at letter dis nothing but a modern breach, made for the convenience of a communication between the offices of the manfion and thofe within the Keep, fo that the fervants might pass from one to the other without going through the pleasure ground. N. B. A great part of the wall of the quadrangle at letters eeee appears to be a modern repair, much lower than the original wall. Remarks on the Plans of Canterbury Cafle, as given by Mr. King in bis Letter to the late Dean of Exeter, publifted in the Sixth Volume of the Archæologia. 1. In the plan of the ground-floor, or vaults, of this caftie, fig. 38, and in that of the ftate apartments, fig. 39, plate 36, fol. 301, Mr. King makes the centre di vifion to be narrower than the other two, whereas, in fact, it is double their width, being 30 feet in the clear, and the other only 15 feet. See the annexed plans, taken upon the fpot after feveral days clofe invekigation. 2. According to thefe plans of Mr. King, it was impoffible for the ordinary garrifon to pafs to their lodgment in the upper part of the caftle, or to defcend into the vaults, without paffing though the ftate apartments; an inconvenience that 1794.] Remarks on Mr. King's Plans of Canterbury Cafile. 9.18 that could not exist in any state of that fortress. 3. There is no fuch ftaircafe in the North-weft angle as is defcribed by Mr. King at Letter X in figure 39, and in figure 40 in the fame plate; the only faircale on the Weft fide of the caftle (and it is the principal one in the whole building) being at No. 2, figure 1, letter A, in the annexed plate; and to this flaircafe, which leads up to the top of the cafle, there is a large arched doorway opening to it from the great hall, or centre divifion, and a curious zigzag narrow paffage from the veftibule or warder's lodge through what appears, when viewed from the vaults below, to be only a narrow loop for the admiffion of light. See No. 2, figure 1, letter D. And it was by this paffage that the ordinary garrifon, entering at the antient portal on the North fide, and paffing through the warder's lodge, letter D, could afcend to the upper ftory without interfering with the flate apartments, and from which lodge the heavy ftores were drawn up into that flory through a wide opening in the North-weft angle of it, which Mr. King has miftaken for the well of a ftaircafe. See No. 4, fig. 1, letter D. 4. The interfecting or cross wall in the North divifion was not where Mr. King places it in fig. 38 and 39, but much nearer the Weft end of that divi fion, appearing from the foundation of it, which is fill more than a foot above the ground of the lower vault, fig. 38, to be not more than nine feet diftant; and this is farther confirmed by the marks on the wails on each fide of that divifion where it has been broken off, and which are more particularly diftinguishable over the centre of the two niches, at letter M, fig. 39, which Mr. King fup poles to have been a magnificent portal of communication between his veftibule, letter V, and the grand had or great fate apartment: but, that he is greatly miftaken in this conjecture, is not only evident from the real fituation of the interfecting crofs wall, but alfo from a clofe examination of the wall through which he conceives this magnificent portal palled, in which there is not, on the fide next the great hall, the fmallest mark of any perforation, the face of it being entire and plain as it was in its or'ginal conftruction. I conjecture, therefore, that what Mr. King fuppofes to have been two aiches of a magnificent portal were, in fact, nothing more than niches on each fide of the cross or interfecting wall, the one ferving as a feat or recefs for the warder who had the care of the ftate apartments, the other for the warder who had the care of the lodge and paffages opening into it. But, to whatever ufe thefe niches may have been appropriated, it is paft a doubt, from the facts above ftated, that there was no fuch magnificent portal as Mr. King fuppofes. 5. It is farther evident from the foregoing facts, that (contrary to what Mr. King fuppofes) there must have been a paffage fraight forward through the thicknefs of the wall from the original portal of entrance into the warder's lodge; and that the zigzag paffage, which he defcribes as the only entrance into the caftle, was, in truth, the paffage to the ftate apartments, as will be more fully feen in the annexed plate, No. 1, 1, letter D, fig. 1; and, what ftill farther confirms this fact, the marks of a very ftrong door (the architrave of which is plain to be feen) fhew them felves at the end of the paffage next the lodge. Nor did this direct paffage into the warder's lodge in any degree diminish the ftrength and fecurity of the caftle; for, fuppofing an enemy to have gained the outward portal, and to have forced their way into the warder's lodge, they would not have been an inch nearer their object, as the narrow zigzag paffage from that lodge to the flairs prefented the fame difficulties, in a greater degree, to their getting any farther, that oppofed themselves to the gaining an entrance by the other zigzag paffage that opened to the state apart ments. 6. Mr. King fuppofes that the vault at the Weft end of the North divifion, underneath the veftibule, was a dungeon for the reception of prifoners, and deferibes a trap or pipe by which they were let down from the apartment above. There is, however, no fuch trap where he places it, the face of the wall being fair and level; but there are in the North-west angle of the warder's lodge fome appearances of fuch a trap or pipe. When it is remarked, however, that the vault underneath that lodge is barely nine feet wide, and that the very narrow loop, which he conceives fuppl ed it with light and air, is in fact on the Eaft fide of the crofs interfecting wall, as may-befeen in the annexed pate, fig. 2, letter A, No. 5, it is highly improbable that this vault could be used for fuch a pur. pole; but to what other ufe it could be appropria.ed, |