84 PAPERS, ETC. 
a clue to the somewhat puzzling arrangement of the build- 
ing attached to the western side of the gate. Over the 
arch is an inscription in characters in use in the 15th and 
16th centuries, “ Porta patens esto nulli elaudaris honesto,” 
the hospitable import of which gives, in my opinion, a clue 
to the purpose for which the gate-house was used. Above 
this is a square-headed window of late Perpendicular 
character, divided by stone mullions into three lishts, and 
above this the gable is ornamented with niches which how- 
ever are too much hidden by ivy to admit of accurate 
description. The passage which leads from the external to 
the internal archway is 46ft. long by 13ft. in breadth, and 
was arched through its whole length ; this arch, which has 
now disappeared, seems to have been of plain barrel forın, 
with plain ashler ribs, the spring of one of which may still 
be seen on the left side of the passage ; over the whöle 
length of this passage was a hall, lighted at each end by a 
square-headed window of three lights, having an open 
timber roof, which still remains ; a large fire-place on the 
west side, and a door communicating with a passage, and 
chambers much larger and more numerous than could 
have been required for a mere porter’s lodge. On the 
right side of the arched passage are two large segmental 
arches, now in great measure built up, having smaller doors 
in them, but which, from the care with which the ashler 
stones composing them are dressed on the underside, were 
no doubt originally open. This would reduce the right 
wall of the passage to a mere arcade, and the ground-floor 
rooms would have been a sort of aisle to it. These I 
imagine to have been stables ; an arrangement not un- 
common in the 13th and 14th centuries, when the hall, as 
in this case, oecupied the upper story. This conjeeture 
seems to be in some degree corroborated by the fact that 
