The Present Remains.

205

It was indeed a noble structure, quite worthy even of Bishop Gundulph, the architect both of the Tower of London, and of the Castle at his own Cathedral See, Rochester, to whom it is not altogether unlikely that it may be attributed; but whose influence and genius were certainly felt by the constructor of Pontefract Castle, if that constructor was not actually the Bishop himself.

The top of the remains of the Mound or Keep is reached by a small, steep staircase, at the foot of which is a narrow arrow-slit through the wall, looking towards the town, the approach from which it commanded. This was evidently an insertion of later date, probably one of John of Gaunt's, and shows the wall from point to point to have been of the enormous thickness of 20 feet 6 inches.

Ascending the staircase, which is of two steep flights of 10 and 14 steps respectively, the visitor finds that the only remaining fragments of the Keep proper contain the base of a well-stair, which ascended to the battlements (see page 221) and the openings of two doorways. There is indeed a part of a shaft, probably from a garderobe, about the same level, but it is probable that where King appeared to refer to other excavations than those which are now apparent, he was alluding to the well-stair and the shaft.

In the present condition of the ruins it is impossible to make out either the ground plan or arrangements of the room or rooms on this floor. If more than

P

206

The Original Hall.

one, their walls were of good ashlar and wainscoted; each had a window, facing respectively south and west, the aperture of the latter remaining, albeit in a ruined condition; and this is all that can be said, though probably a little labour expended judiciously would lay bare the plan.

We may look upon this Mound as the site of the Hall, which in the early times of Pontefract Castle, was the general living room where the inhabitants took their meals by day, and where they usually slept at night. The Kitchen was generally in a separate building, often detached, and like the Hall, of one story only. In those ages chimneys did not exist their very name is French, and indicates a fourteenth century origin, when French was fast becoming the household language. In the absence of chimneys, the smoke of the cooking fire, or of that in the Hall, had to find its way to the open air through a hole in the roof, though as wood was the general fuel, this was perhaps not so great an annoyance as it would have been had coal been in use.

And in another respect the difference between the fourteenth and earlier centuries was marked. Not only were there no chimneys, but there were no parlours, that is to say separate sitting rooms for the members of the family apart from the household, to all of whom the Hall was common, giving, indeed, its name to the whole of that building which was the residence of the Lord, and subsequently, in frequent

The Locus of the King's Murder. 207

instances, to the whole township which collected round it. Tateshale, Beaghall or Beale, and Gowdall are instances in point in this neighbourhood, as also are Hemsall, Campsall, and Elmsall; though in these last the name seems to be derived from the salle rather than the halle, from the Dane or Norwegian rather than from the Saxon. Chimneys and parlours each. came to England as a consequence of the constant communication with France in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and they brought their names* with them to denote their origin.

On this site we may also place that chamber with a pillar in the centre, in which, in later years, successive visitors saw what was pointed out to them as the very marks caused by the weapons of the murderers of King Richard II. This apartment was in fact what may be called the residuum of the Hall, which remained after the family, and the guests of the family, had, in the course of generations, migrated to the various subsequently-built Towers, to which the Hall then became little more than a vestibule.

Descending the staircase by which we entered it, we leave the Keep by a flight of steps, external to the platform. These were probably protected by a roof, and they may have formed the communication between the Kitchen and the Court Yard, and the

It is ignorance of this fact, and of all that is involved in it, which hinders some people from seeing the absurdity of spelling such words as parlour and honour without the u, that being the mint-mark which shows this history of their coinage.

208

The Kitchen Cellar,

Hall above. They led down to within a few yards west of the Main Entrance, and a few yards south of what is now called the Magazine, but which we conjecture to have been the cellar to the Kitchen.

This Magazine is a very curious and early excavation in the rock of the Main Ward. From the surface, about 20 yards from the King's Seat, and between it and the Porter's Lodge or Main Gate, a flight of 8 steps descends nearly north-west, towards the mouth of a square shaft, which lights a room about 70 feet distant. Still descending, 24 more steps lead steeply down a passage, four feet broad, with a hanging roof of shoulder-headed arches, like those we shall see in the roof of the staircase in the Keep, and 18 steps down, on the right, are traces of a second cylindrical staircase, the newel being still very discernible. This was, no doubt, the way down from the Great Kitchen, but was destroyed with the building in whose base it was. At the foot of the first 32 stairs is a plain round-headed doorcase, apparently of late Norman date. Beyond this, the stairs re-commence; but 10 steps lower the descent ceases, and the passage forks, three short brauches running north, and one, a little longer, east. Before the fork, part of the passage is vaulted in fine-jointed ashlar, with two plain round-headed ribs; and in the wall on the right, are two round-headed recesses for lamps, and the commencement of two other passages, also round-headed, but left as mere recesses. Above