The walls
enclosed about the same area as Richmond, but they are now so greatly
destroyed that it is not easy to gain a clear idea of their position.
There were no less than eleven towers, of which there now remain
fragments of six, part of a gateway, and behind the old courthouse
there are evidences of a secret cell. An underground sally-port opening
into the moat, which was a dry one, is reached by steps leading from
the castle yard.
The keep is in the Decorated style, and appears to have been built in
the reign of Edward II. Below the ground is a vaulted dungeon, dark and
horrible in its hopeless strength, which is only emphasized by the tiny
air-hole that lets in scarcely a glimmering of light, but reveals a
thickness of 15 feet of masonry that must have made a prisoner's heart
sick. It is generally understood that Bolingbroke spared Richard II.
such confinement as this, and that when he was a prisoner in the keep
he occupied the large room on the floor above the kitchen. It is now a
mere platform, with the walls running up on two sides only.
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