23] the gateway of the gaol (probably Cold Harbour Gate "u"),
various repairs to the "King's houses within the bailey of the Tower,"
and occasionally for the repairs to the "turris" or great keep itself.
This, when first built, was of rough rag-stone, rudely coursed, with
very open joints in thick mortar, so that these repairs (consisting,
doubtless, of patching and pointing) occur with more or less frequency.

Not until 1663 did the keep receive its final disfigurement, at the
hands of Sir Christopher Wren, who cased part of the exterior in
Portland stone, rebuilt two of the angle turrets, and "Italianised" all
the window openings, thereby obliterating many valuable mediaeval
details.

All these outlays are certified by the view and report of two inspecting
officials, Edward Blund and William Magnus, the works being carried out
by Alnod, while the writs authorising payments were signed by one or
other of the justiciars, Ranulph de Glanville and Richard de Lucy, or by
the King himself.

The following reign marks a period of great constructive activity at the
Tower. The new monarch was one of the foremost military engineers of the
age; and when we consider the valuable experience in the art of war
which he had already gained, in the decade prior to his accession to the
throne, in conducting (while Count of Poitiers and Duke of Aquitaine)
various sieges of the castles of his rebellious barons in those
provinces, it seems improbable that he would have been satisfied to
leave the Tower in the condition it then was, with a keep standing in a
small inner ward, enclosed by a plain stone curtain wall, devoid of any
projecting towers, unless perhaps the base of the Hall tower, and the
Cold Harbour Gate (see plan), and a large outer ward, only enclosed by a
wooden palisade and ditch.

Richard must have been well aware of the enormous increase to the power
of effective defence conferred by salient or boldly projecting towers
flanking with their fire the curtain walls, which in England, at any
rate, were then somewhat of a novelty. At this time the Tower was
extremely defective in this respect, its great need being not for mere
repairs, but for effective modernization as a fortress.

Before embarking upon the hazardous enterprise of the third Crusade,
Richard left his trusted Chancellor, William Longchamp, to carry out an
extensive series of new works at the Tower, all of which were probably
from the designs of the sovereign h