COMMITTEER’S ADDRESS. 173 
stones, used indiscriminately with those of a smaller size, were 
laid in courses of irregular heights—the alterations effected by 
Henry Percy, first Lord of Alnwick, after the transfer of the 
barony. Where the Norman wall was sound, he surmounted it 
with a parapet; the other portions he rebuilt, and gained further 
strength and size by erecting new garrets and towers at intervals 
along itscourse. The Barbican is part of the work of this period, 
as is that part of the keep which contains the arcaded draw-well. 
The keep, at this time, consisted of a ring of towers connected 
together by short lengths of curtain wall. One of these towers, 
that containing the dining hall, was built by this lord of Alnwick, 
for on the removal of the plaster work in the present renovations 
the ancient hall was found—still retaining the marks where the 
dais was formed, the hooks in the walls that upheld the tapestry 
and other vestiges of the rude magnificence of the social life of 
the age; but whether the remainder of the towers of the keep 
were Norman or Edwardian, it is now impossible to say, as they 
were rebuilt in the alterations made by Hugh, first Duke of 
Northumberland, in 1764. The two octagon towers on either 
side of the Norman entrance into the inner ward of the keep, 
appear not to have been completed during the lifetime of the 
Percy who acquired the barony, as they are ornamented with a 
series of escutcheons, one of which is charged with the armorial 
bearings of the Cliffords, who were not allied to the Percies till 
his son, the second lord of Alnwick, married Idonea, daughter of 
Robert, Lord Clifford. As the first Lord of Alnwick did not 
survive the transfer of the barony more than five years, we may 
assume that these towers were finished by his son at a subse- 
quent period. ‘An old plan of the castle, which, by the courtesy 
of Mr. William Davison, of Alnwick, is permitted to illustrate 
these notes, gives us a clear idea of its ancient conformation— 
which, we may add, remained undisturbed till the alterations of 
the last century. Jt will be perceived that several buildings 
were reared within the walls, of which no trace remains. Imme- 
diately within the Barbican stood the Exchequer or Checker 
house, close by stood “ thre fayre stabylles” for the accommodation 
of eight score of horses, and in the middle ward a chapel occupied 
