476 Recent IViUshire Books, Pamphlets, Articles, &c. 



kitchen and the chapel have been determined. The stones of the conical 

 spire or capping of the Norman chimney which belonged to the hall 

 fireplace were found at the foot of the wall. It was of an ornate character. 

 Two garderobe pits 28ft. in depth were possibly filled up with chalk 

 during alterations in 1181 — 2, when a garderobe tower on the east side 

 of the tower was perhaps built, with two pits 19ft. deep. Another 

 pair of garderobe pits 22ft. deep were found on the west side of the 

 great tower. Nothing can be said of the height of the great tower 

 except that it certainly was of two storeys at least. The roofs were 

 covered with tiles of pottery or stone with cockscomb pottery ridge 

 tiles glazed with various shades of red and green as well as a number 

 of tiles of a dark brown shale, like Kimmeridge Shale, and others of 

 grey slate. The date of the great tower must be previous to 1130, 

 when it is mentioned in the Pipe EoU. The line of the bailey wall 

 north of the postern was traced until the scanty remains of a large 

 building north-west of the great tower, which may have been the 

 " Chapel of St. Margaret," mentioned in 1246, were found. The southern 

 end of the postern tower was opened up and a vast garderobe pit, lined 

 like the others with ashlar masonry, lift, square by 42ft. deep, was 

 emptied. Beyond this, to the south-west, a stretch of the bailey wall 

 was uncovered. The castle well was found in the centre of the bailey, 

 but only a few feet of it were emptied. The objects of interest found 

 came almost exclusively from the garderobe pits, the surface spoil heaps 

 yielding almost nothing, so complete has been the destruction and 

 spoliation of the site. Building stone, indeed, was so valuable that 

 everywhere the walls have been razed almost to the foundations, and 

 where this is not the case the ashlar has been stripped off them, leaving 

 only a rubble core. A great quantity of potsherds of rough unglazed 

 ware was found in the pits, and a few more or less perfect vessels, in- 

 cluding small cooking pots with rounded bottoms, jugs, &c., a quantity 

 of glazed fragments of a superior ware, red, green, and yellow, in 

 eluding a perfect cylindrical costrel and several tall jugs. A mass of 

 decayed fragments of stained window glass occurred in one of the pits, 

 and a number of small pieces of domestic drinking glasses, etc., of fine 

 quality, some of it probably Venetian ; also a small gold ring set with an 

 emerald, a piece of textile material with an heraldic pattern in gold 

 thread, a flageolet made from the bone of a swan's Aving. Amongst the 

 mass of bones found, the red deer is curiously absent, the fallow deer 

 is frequent, the roe deer . less so. Sheep, ox, pig, duck, goose, 

 swan, domestic fowl, pigeon, partridge, snipe, &c., also occurred, with 

 quantities of oyster shells, sea fish, and shells of mussels, whelks, 

 cockles, and winkles. Of stone there are fragments of mortars and 

 millstones of Andernach lava, and several stone cressets. Two iron 

 mounts for wooden spades were met with amid the surface debris, and 

 are assigned by Col. Hawley to the time of the spoliation. The ashlar 

 building stone is some of it greensand, from Hurdcote, three miles 

 west of Wilton ; some of it cream-coloured oolite, from Chilmark ; and 

 some white freshwater limestone, from the Isle of Wight. 



