destruction of all the Pipe Rolls and other records
that resulted, it is improbable that any extensive works were in
progress during that period.

Although the Pipe Rolls of Henry II. record a total amount expended upon
works at the Tower of L248 6s. 8d., but little appears to have been
added as to which we can speak with any certainty, unless it be the
forebuilding of the keep "y" (long since destroyed), the gatehouse of
the inner ward "u," and perhaps the basement of the hall or Wakefield
tower "l."

As at first constructed, the White Tower (like its fellow at Colchester)
had no forebuilding covering the original entrance, which was at the
western extremity of its south front, upon the first floor, then some
twenty-five feet above the external ground level. The small doorway
leading to the flight of stairs in the south wall which ascends to St.
John's Chapel, by which visitors now enter the keep, is not, and is far
too small in size to have ever been, the original entrance.

On the Pipe Rolls there are frequent entries of sums for the repairs of
the "King's houses in the Tower," probably the great hall "x," with
its kitchen and other appendant buildings; "of the chapel" (obviously
that of St. Peter, as that of St. John in the keep would hardly be in
need of any structural repairs at so early a date); and "of the gaol."
These last doubtless stood in an outer ward added by Henry I., and at
first probably only enclosed by the usual ditch and earthen rampart,
furnished with stout wooden palisades.

[Illustration: ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL, TOWER OF LONDON.]

It is somewhat difficult to assign any precise date for the first
foundation of the "Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula apud turrim." It is
not probable that it was contemporary with the Chapel of St. John, but
was doubtless erected by Henry I. when he enlarged the area of the outer
ward of the Tower; as this necessitated a considerable increase to the
permanent garrison, St. John's Chapel in the keep would no longer
suffice for their accommodation, and a new chapel would become
necessary. If St. Peter's Chapel had only been parochial (which at its
first erection it was not), it might have been possible to ascertain the
precise date of its foundation.

In 20 Henry II. (or 1174), Alnod, the engineer, received the sum of L11
13s. 4d. for works at the Tower. Other payments occur for sheet-lead for
the repairs of the chapel, the carriage of planks, and timber for the
kitchen,[