The great square building, however, contains all which comes immediately within the scope of this description. The sketch (Fig. 1) at the commencement of this paper illustrates the appearance of the east front in 1894. The basement story of this great square building contains almost all the medieval work which remains, and is chiefly interesting for its plan. (Fig. 2.) This is a simple oblong, without projections of any kind; its dimensions on the exterior are 79 feet 6 inches from north to south, and 72 feet 6 inches from east to west; the external walls on the north, east, and south sides of the basement are 8 feet 6 inches in thickness. This "tower" type of plan was frequently adopted for medieval manor houses,' especially in the north of England and Scotland. Many fine examples still remain, as, for example, Cocklaw3 (first half of fourteenth century), Chipchase and Belsay" (both of the middle of the fourteenth century), all in Northumberland. But I have met with no example of the "tower house" which is anything like so large as Gilling. Cocklaw measures on the outside 50 feet 6 inches by 34 feet 8 inches; Chipchase, 51 feet 6 inches by 34 feet; Belsay, 56 feet 6 inches by 47 feet 3 inches; while even the lofty brick tower of Tattershall, one of the largest houses of this type, only measures 61 feet by 47 feet to the outside of its walls. It is indeed remarkable that a tower house of this size and strength should have been built so far south by a family of no very commanding position. On the plan of the basement (Fig. 2) the original walls are shown black, while later alterations and additions which can be clearly distinguished as such, including the modern wings, are indicated by hatched shading. A few quite recent partitions, doorways, &c., have been suppressed on this plan." 1 Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England, by T. H. Turner and J. H. Parker, 1851-9; ii. 11; iii. 8 seq. Dictionnaire Raisonné de l'architecture française, by E. Viollet-le-Duc; vi. 301 seq. 2 The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, by David Macgibbon and Thomas Ross, passim. 3 Cocklaw Tower, by W. H. Knowles, in the Transactions of the Architectural and Archæological Society of Durham and Northumberland, iv. 309. 4A History of Northumberland, iv. 333, with drawings by W. H. Knowles. 5 Turner and Parker's Domestic Architecture, ii. 205. 6 The great size of the Gilling "tower" may be appreciated from the fact that it is larger than the great twelfth-century keep of Rochester, which is about 70 feet square at the base, on the outside of the walls. Dacre Castle, Cumberland, measures 48 feet by 35 feet on the outside, excluding the large angle turrets (Turner and Parker, op. cit., ii. 213). The extreme dimensions of Langley Castle, Northumberland (Turner and Parker, ii. 332) are greater than those of Gilling, but Langley goes beyond the simple rectangular type of tower house to which I refer above. 7 This plan was made before Mr. Hunter's alterations of 1904. The basement is described as it was before these alterations, with the addition of some notes on the east and west doorways which have now been opened out. M 2 The basement is divided by a central corridor,' 6 feet 10 inches wide, running east and west, with three rooms on each side of the corridor. The wall on the south side of the corridor is 2 feet 5 inches thick, and that on the north side (which carries a wall on the story above) is 3 feet thick. The doorways in these walls have chamfered jambs and arches on the side next the corridor; the arches are pointed, just perceptibly four-centred, with a rise of 1 foot 10 inches to a width of 3 feet; each half of the arch is a single stone, jointed only at the apex; the chamfered jambs are stopped at the bottom by returning the chamfer at right angles. 5 FEET FIG. 3.-DETAILS OF EAST DOORWAY OF BASEMENT. At each end of the central corridor is a doorway, both formerly blocked, but opened out in the course of Mr. Hunter's alterations of 1904. The doorway at the west end, which appears to have been the principal entrance to the basement, is 5 feet 3 inches wide; its jambs have a wide chamfer and rebate for the door, the crooks of which remain. The chamfer of the jamb is continued around the 1 The central corridor is rather an uncommon feature. Compare the plan of Drochil Castle, Perthshire (16th century), in Macgibbon and Ross's Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, ii. 222. 2 These doorways are not shown in detail on the plan (Fig. 2), as both were blocked when the plan was made. |