vertical posts at the bottom formed a row of spikes which were shod
with iron. The points of these spikes entered the ground when the
portcullis was lowered. Beyond, there were the wooden gates of the
inner opening.

The city Walls, of which the present remains date from the reign of
Edward III., were broad, crenellated walls of limestone, on a high
mound which was protected without by a parallel deep moat. At the
north, east, south, and west corners there were massive bastions, and
between these, at short intervals, smaller towers. Besides being
crenellated the raised front of the wall itself was often pierced with
slits shaped for the use of long or cross-bows. The bowmen were very
well protected by these skilful arrangements. Some of these slits,
shaped like crosses, were of exquisite design architecturally.

The continuity of these mural fortifications was broken only where
swamps and the rivers made them unnecessary and where roads passed
through them. The four principal entrances along the main high-roads
were defended by the four Bars, or fortified gateways. These, with
their Barbicans, three of which were so needlessly and callously
destroyed in the last century, were magnificent examples of noble
permanent military architecture. The outer façade of Monk Bar to-day,
spoiled as it is, expresses a noble strength. There was formerly only
the single way, both for ingress and egress.[6] The Bar was supported
on each side by the mound and wall, which latter led right into the
Bar and so to the corresponding wall on the other side. Each of these
entrances to the city was protected by barbican, portcullis, and gate.
Each evening the Bars were closed and the city shut in for the night.
Defenders used a Bar as a watch-tower or a fort. They could walk along
the high crenellated walls of the Barbican and shoot thence, and stop