

DUFFIELt) CASTLE. 1 63 



plan, near to this end of the trough, is a round hole going a little 

 distance into the rubble work. It has been suggested that it is 

 the base of a garde-robe shaft. If this is so, could it have been 

 intended occasionally to flush it from the well? But we scarcely 

 think that sanitary engineering had arrived at that point in the 

 days of the Normans. 



Six or seven of the shaped stones that had evidently formed 

 part of the casing of a well or screw staircase were found, a 

 little outside the area of the keep, at the south-east angle. The 

 circle of which they formed a part was seven-and a-half feet 

 in diameter, a size somewhat under the average of Norman well- 

 stairs. Subsequent examination of the exposed surface of the 

 ground plan proves that there were two of these well-stairs down 

 to the basement, one at the south east angle, and one at the 

 north east, as shown on the plan. 



The basement chambers would be used for stores, for kitchen 

 purposes, and probably for a guard-room, dimly lighted high up 

 by a few very narrow loops. In a keep of this size the basement 

 would probably be at least fifteen feet high. The next floor would 

 have small mural or wall chambers, and the window apertures 

 would be a little wider than those below ; its chief use would be 

 as a barrack for the soldiers, and its height rather greater than the 

 basement. The second floor would comprise the chief or state 

 apartments. Here there would be sure to be a wealth of interior 

 mouldings, and chiefly on the window jambs and arches, and also 

 on the archways that would probably pierce the cross wall on this 

 story, so as to permit of the whole forming one immense hall on 

 special occasions. But at Duffield the largest apartment would, 

 if undivided, be of such noble proportions that arches in the cross 

 wall might be a superfluity. There would be subdivisions by 

 brattices and hangings on the various storeys. The height of these 

 state rooms, in a keep this size, would probably be thirty feet. 

 Above this would be a third, or upper floor, divided for private 

 occupation by wooden partitions into various chambers. The 

 roof would be inclined at a very slight pitch, just sufficient to 

 carry off the water from the wooden shingles, of which at that 



