Gate (architecture)

“ The two gatehouses of the outer ward next require attention. The water-gate is, in substance, Roman. The gatehouse is 26 feet square, with walls 6 feet thick, having no projection outside the curtain. All is perfectly plain, without buttress, chamfered edge, or moulding. The way lies through two doorways, opposite each other, of 8 feet 6 inches opening. The inner arch is built of white limestone, with a few blocks of blood-red iron sandstone. The voussoirs are heavy, and a single ring. The walls generally are of coursed flint rubble, very open jointed. ”

“ She went up to them very closely, for she was curious to see the place through which she had come in her sleep, as a traveller goes back to see the city gate, with its bridge and portcullis, through which he has passed by night. The gate was very great, of a wonderful, curious architecture, and strange, delicate arches and canopies above. ”

“ Five steps ascend to its outer gate, a large full-centred archway contained within a plain chamfered moulding. As the doorway has been blocked and reduced in size by a perpendicular work, its jambs are concealed or may have been removed. Within is a vaulted passage, carried through the gate-tower, which is 15 feet square, and has an upper story. From the doorway twenty-four steps ascend to an open platform, having on the right a high and pierced parapet, and on the left the wall of the keep. At the stair-head a ledge on the right serves as a way to the upper floor over the gateway. ”

“ The outer passage, 34 feet long, belongs to the outer gate; the other, 36 feet, to the inner gate. The keep forms one side and the lodges the other. Thus, there are really two gatehouses,—one abutting on the north-east, and one on the north-west, angle of the keep, each with its own defences and gates, the buildings on the north communicating with both. The exterior portal is in the east wall. It has no flanking towers, being protected by the curtain. The north-east angle is capped by a square buttress, placed diagonally. The gateway has a plain, flat segmental arch over it. ”

“ Passing to the details, the north gate, called the Bar, is a large, handsome structure, about 60 feet broad by 60 feet deep in the centre. It is of two stages, pierced below by a central and two lateral passages, and contains above a chamber, 52 feet long by 21 feet broad, used for public purposes. In each wing is a staircase. That to the east is old, that on the west may have been so. The side passages are modern. They communicate with the central roadway by two cross arches on each side, of which the two next the north are original, and probably led into the flanking towers. ”

“ This gatehouse is placed in the middle of the curtain which covers the very narrow south-east front of the town. On each side of the gate-towers is a curtain of about 100 feet long, and beyond this a pair of drum mural towers, of half projection. The loops of these towers, like every detail in Coucy, are on a grand scale. Though mere slots, they are 10 feet high, and in three tiers. In front of the wall is a fosse of unusual breadth, wholly artificial, and which, like that of the castle, is dug across the peninsula, from one lateral valley to the other. ”

“ To-day, as we stand in the open space at the head of the Steep Hill, to our left is the gatehouse of the castle; while to our right is the Exchequer gate, the inner gatehouse of the close. This is a lofty oblong building of three stages, with a large central archway, and a smaller archway on each side for pedestrians. On the west or outer side the face is plain, but on the eastern side it is broken by two half-octagon turrets, containing vices. ”

“ Each of these gates is defended by an additional work. A sort of hornwork is thrown out in advance, enclosed within a wall with towers, and with a second gate placed obliquely to the first, to allow the approach to be commanded. The north, called the King’s Gate, is tolerably perfect. The southern outwork is nearly destroyed. It had two gates, one to the south, connected with which was the tower containing a well, and one to the east, called King Arthur’s Gate, close to which was the Armourer’s Tower, and near this was Earl Godwin’s Postern. ”

“ There was no doubt originally a drawbridge to the main gate, which may have been moved forward when the barbican was added. Grose’s drawing shows a sort of ravelin of earth in front of this outer entrance, which probably was thrown up during the Parliamentary struggles. All this front, outside the walls, has been levelled and converted into a garden and approach. Outside the north and south curtains, between the wall and the top of the slope, is a walk of about 9 feet broad. ”

“ In the thirteenth century military architects further provided against surprises by defensive outworks. The gate of Laon, at Coucy, so admirably described by Viollet-le-Duc, is a famous example. These outworks, which were called barbicans, were designed to protect the great gate and its approaches. ”

“ The visitor now stands before the old gateway, with its massive nail-studded door, and will note the noble flight of freestone steps, where time and use have left the marks of frequent footsteps. Indeed, the top step—just opposite the small entrance wicket in the larger door—is actually worn through in the shape of a human foot. He will also notice the extreme beauty and elegance of design of the Gothic architecture of this part of the building, and the heraldic bearings with which it is decorated. ”

“ The enclosure is square, and the entrance, in the centre of the front wall, is by a lofty portal, defended by a heavy outer gate, in which there is a wicket, and an inner gate, and dominated by a tower taller than the others. ”

“ The whole group of buildings stands on a piece of ground, rich with trees, surrounded by a lovely old wall and moat, the single approach being by the bridge and the gate-house, which has Renaissance windows and retains the slit for the portcullis and the drawbridge-chains. ”

“ The gate, or triumphal arch, is a two-storied building with heavy bronze-tiled roof, capped and edged, like all the rest, with gilded metal, and spotted with the gilded crest of the Tokugawa. Its front toward us rises in the well-known curve, shadowing a pediment, full of painted sculpture. ”

“ This gate is very old and very high and very formidable. It possesses for its summit a cupola surmounted by a cross of stone, resembling nothing so much as those crosses and pulpits which our forefathers erected in market-places and at the doors of cathedral churches. How a man ever managed to climb such a gate, heaven only knows ”

“ The walls are castellated at top, and vary in height, according to the nature of the ground, from twenty to thirty feet. There are also, as in other places, four principal gates, having each an outwork or outer wall, with a court or open space between them, and a second gate leading from this, and placed at right angles to the inner one, so that the approach to it from the outside is commanded by the principal wall of the town. ”

“ The present gate is said to have been designed by Michael Angelo; but it shows no signs of his genius. On the inner side, above the keystone of the arch, is a lofty brick wall in the shape of a horse-shoe, built exclusively for the purpose of displaying in colossal size, emblazoned in stucco, the city arms, the sun rising above three or four pyramidal mountains arranged above each other. The external façade consists of two pairs of Doric columns of granite and marble flanking the arch, whose colour and beauty have entirely disappeared through exposure to the weather. ”

“ Corbel shewing Springing of Rib between Gate-arch and East Archway.
The gatehouse itself is built chiefly of brick, cased with stone; the outer face, or west front, is partly of brick, with stone dressings, the design being very rich and elegant: the entrance gateway is ornamented with three shafts in each of the jambs: its pointed arch is richly moulded, with flowers in one of the hollow mouldings: over this is a segmental arch, with hanging foliations: the side arches are partly concealed by later brickwork, but do not appear to have ever been open. ”

“ Rows and rows of smug, well-built houses, each with a front garden, each with a front gate, and each front gate remains shut against the casual caller until you have rung a bell—and the occupants have had time to make up their minds about you from behind the window curtains—when some mechanism in the vestibule is set in motion, the gate opens, and you walk in. ”

“ There is a two-leav’d Iron Gate which lets you into the first Court, the Leaves of it, when opened, stand at twenty Paces Distance. The Porters or Capoochees stand always upon Duty at these Gates. Just above them the Hill rises up to a smooth Level with the Ridge of the Promontory. The Porch or Gate-house is lined on each Side with glittering Armour, and shines, as do also the Jambs of the Gate with rich Marble. Over the Porch there rises a square Building cover’d with Lead, as are all the other Edifices of the Palace. ”

“ There is a gate in it, and across the path to that gate, so that it may not be so easily got through, is built up a little wall of brick the height of a man. In the summertime the grass grows on it green and fresh, and all the iron bars of that fence and gate are wreathed in morning glory. ”

“ The walls are of a beautiful red or orange color, which is shared by the soil; this alone gives a glowing aspect to the scene. The chief place of entrance is called the Gate of Justice. It is more than a gate, being a square tower, the upper part of which contains rooms where people live. ”

“ A little rush through a wide gate in a high wall, a sudden blindness in a road banked and roofed by foliage, a quick lowering to the ground at the foot of wide steps that led to an open door through which a welcoming light shed its soft, warm rays upon us and we had reached our journey's end. ”

“ It is mentioned that through the awkwardness of the carpenter the farther “fin” of the great roof is bent down at the [pg 326] corner,—probably indicating wide over-hanging eaves, the corners of which might easily be called “fins.” Within the house were mats of sedge, skin, and silk, and ornamental screens protect the sleepers from draughts of air.30 The castles had back gates, side gates, and other gates. Some of these gates, at least, had a roof-like structure above, as we read in the “Kojiki,” “Come under the metal gate; we will stand till the rain stops.” ”

“ The only parts of the garden, which appear, on the exterior, to be on a level with the street, though such is actually the fact with the whole of the interior, are the great gate opposite the palace, and a side gate near its southern end ”

“ There is economy in the construction of these gates, as they can be made with a less number of joints, and greater strength and stiffness secured with lighter materials, than in any other style of gate we know of. ”

“ We go up the hill, walk round the wall, and mark well her bulwarks, till we come to a great gate, but it refuses to turn. The walls are too high to scale, besides possible pickets on the other side. I have no doubt in the world that we could creep under, for the gate has shrunk since it was made, and needs to have a tuck let down ”

“ The model of the great gate is probably the largest achievement of the copying art ever known. In 1869 the party set out with twenty-eight tons of materials, chiefly plaster-of-Paris; these were drawn by bullocks one hundred and eighty miles; and in a year’s time three full-sized casts of the magnificent structure were completed without a flaw—which is marvellous, considering the extremely fine and complicated character of the carvings. This structure, erected in the first century of our era, is thirty-three feet in height. ”

“ The gate of the house is, comparatively speaking, too large for the house, and there always stands the elegant volante, which may be regarded as the feet of the family, because these seldom move out of the house excepting to be conveyed by it. The gate is always kept fastened, excepting when it is opened for the volante, and a little wicket in the gate serves for the ingress and egress of pedestrians. ”

“ A modern architect would have built his bridge in a straight line across the road, and have pulled down something to avoid the irregularity; he would not have had the sense of proportion which alone was needed to make utility supremely beautiful. The builder of the Chain Gate just used his opportunities to their very best. ”

“ The north-east gate (Porta Principalis Dextra) is well preserved; it had a tower on each side, now greatly reduced in height, in which are small windows with arched heads moulded in one slab of terra-cotta. ”

“ Proceeding to the details of the Print, we may observe that in our eleventh volume we gave three engravings illustrative of the Castle improvements; one of which represented the gateway named after the late Sovereign, and seen from the Long Walk. The present Engraving is the other side of the gateway, as seen from the interior of the square or quadrangle. This new gate was externally completed in 1826. The natural application of the fine avenue, called the Long Walk, was thus realized. The gateway consists of two towers the York and Lancaster. ”

“ The High Street Gate, which from its position may be regarded as the chief entrance to the Close, is an embattled structure of two stories, built, as the pieces of Norman stone work clearly show, from material brought from Old Sarum. ”