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Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 12
by Charles S. Lindsay Part II: A Gazetteer of Louisbourg GuardhousesGateway GuardhousesGateway guardhouses were to be found at the three gates through the fortifications. The Dauphin Gate next to the Dauphin Demi-bastion and the Queen's Gate between the King's and Queen's bastions both led through the major line of fortifications on the western boundary of the town, and the Maurepas Gate between the Maurepas and Brouillan bastions led through the fortifications on the eastern boundary. Dauphin Gate Guardhouses The Dauphin Gate controlled most of the traffic entering and leaving Louisbourg on the landward side. It was flanked by guardhouses on either side of the roadway (Fig. 19). The guard-houses differed from those at the other gates in two ways. First, since there was no rampart behind the gate, both used the rear of the masonry revetments flanking the gate as one of their end walls. Second, because of the presence of the semi-circular battery on the left side (looking outward from the town) and the quay wall on the right side, both buildings were incorporated as integral parts of these structures. The first guardhouse to appear on any plans was the soldiers', to the west of the gate. Work on this building was finished by late 1729.1 The officer's guardhouse did not appear until 1733. Both guardhouses seem to have remained unaltered until 1745, when they were filled with rubble to strengthen the area around the gate during the first siege.2 After the siege both guardhouses were restored to normal use and were occupied intermittently until 1755-56, when they were filled with rubble as part of a permanent stone rampart erected behind the Dauphin Gate.3 The whole area was effectively demolished by the English in 1760 together with the other fortifications. In the 1930s a metaled road was laid through the site of the gateway and officer's guardhouse. Laying the bed for this road obliterated all but the lower part of the foundations of this building. The combination of filling, demolition and road-building resulted in the survival of little more than the outline of the buildings when the site was excavated. (Fig. 20). Officer's Guardhouse The officer's guardhouse was situated in the angle between the quay wall and the back of the revetment flanking the right side of the gate (looking from inside the fortifications), using the revetment as its northwest end wall. The back wall was built on top of the 8-foot-thick foundations of the quay. The front and southeast end walls were free-standing. According to Franquet, in 1751 the over-all size of the building was 16 pieds 6 pouces long by 15 pieds wide.4 With a northeast wall on top of the quay wall 3 pieds thick and the two free-standing walls 2 pieds thick the internal measurements would have been 14 pieds 6 pouces long by 10 pieds wide. However, the most detailed plan of the guardhouse from which the wall thickness is calculated shows it to be almost 13 pieds wide (Fig. 19). It seems, therefore, that Franquet had not included the thickness of the northeast wall in his exterior measurements. Excavation showed that the foundations were those of the guardhouse after it had been incorporated within the stone rampart built behind the gate in 1755-56. This had involved thickening the free-standing end wall to 9 pieds to act as an internal buttress, and thickening and extending the front wall to 6 pieds to act as a retaining wall for the rampart. However, if the original southeast and front wall dimensions (as determined from the historical plan) are superimposed on the inner edges of the surviving foundations and the northeast wall is superimposed on the outer edge of the quay wall foundations, the resulting guardhouse is almost exactly the same size as that shown on the historical plan. The historical plans show a single-storey masonry building with cut-stone quoins whose batter on the northeast wall continued that of the quay wall below. The outside surfaces of the walls were covered with rough-casting in 1750.5 The southwest or front wall had a doorway 2 pieds 9 pouces wide with a window to the left of it upon entering. There was another window in the southeast wall; both were 3 pieds wide, and both had shutters. The elevation from behind the gate shows the southeast window and its surround. Some of the remains of the original cut-stone surrounds of doors and windows were found built into the nearby quay wall which had been rebuilt during the New Englanders occupation between 1745 and 1749, partly with stones taken from the ruined guardhouses. The doorway surround stones were typical of those found on other military buildings at Louisbourg. The stones of the jambs were cut square on the outside, with a 2-pouce check for an inward-opening door, and a flare behind the check on alternating courses. The window surrounds were also typical with a one-pouce check at the outer edge for the shutter, and a 2-pouce check inside for the wooden window frame. The shingled roof of the guardhouse was hipped at one end and butted against the back of the revetment at the other. No details of the framing of the roof are known, but the historical elevation shows it with a 38° pitch. According to one historical plan there were three loopholes in the quayside wall, but in an elevation on another, four loopholes are shown, with cut-stone surrounds.
Inside the guardhouse there was a small fireplace in the north corner of the revetment wall. Construction of the fireplace had involved blocking one of the two loopholes that originally looked out over the ditch before the guardhouse was built. The other loophole was left open, presumably with some sort of cover for protection against the weather. The fireplace apparently fell into disuse after the return of the French in 1749, since the next year a medium-sized stove was installed.6 There was a lit de camp 7 pieds long by 4 pieds wide in the south corner of the room. In 1753, Franquet noted the presence of an armchair, a table, a full-sized armoire, a half-sized armoire and a trestle.7 There was no porch along the front of the building since it would have obstructed passage of traffic through the gateway. Along the front and end of the building there was a cobbled sidewalk. Soldiers' Guardhouse The soldiers' guardhouse was fully incorporated within its surrounding structures. The northwest end wall was the revetment to the left of the gate. The southwest and southeast walls were the profile retaining walls of the ramparts of the right face of the bastion and the semi-circular battery respectively. The northeast or front wall was a narrow continuation of the revetment of the semi-circular battery.
The guardhouse is shown with a wide variety of shapes and sizes on historical plans, and according to Franquet, in 1751 it was 22 pieds long by 19 pieds 6 pouces wide.8 The excavated remains indicated a building 33 ft. long by 23 ft. wide (Fig. 20). However, a change in the character of the masonry from well-built solid foundations to a shallow rough foundation near the southwest or back wall suggests that at some time the guardhouse had been extended. The side-to-side measurement of 23 ft. is close to the 22 pieds length given by Franquet. Since the guardhouse was razed in 1755-56, all that survived when excavated were the remains of the foundations. None of the superstructure of the building remained. According to the plans there was a doorway 3 pieds 3 pouces wide in the centre of the front wall with a full-sized window to the left of it upon entering, and a small window to the right that first appears on plans sometime after the guardhouse was completed. The full-sized window had a shutter, but the smaller one did not. The front wall was a continuation of the revetment of the semi-circular battery, which had a batter of 1 in 6, and a number of jamb stones from the doorway found nearby also had this batter on their outer faces. The stones had checks 2 pouces deep for an inward-opening door pivoting on the left.
In the revetment wall there were four lower loopholes with cut-stone surrounds set in pairs in two separate alcoves, one on either side of the fireplace. Above these were six more loopholes with brick surrounds set in two groups of three. How these upper ones were serviced is not clear; presumably there was some sort of wooden platform with a ladder leading up to it. The lower loopholes were asymmetrically splayed on the inside so their field of fire could cover the bridge across the ditch outside the gate. The shingled roof of the guardhouse before 1745 had a single slope running down from the top of the revetment wall beside the gate to the level of the rampart of the semi-circular battery at the southeast wall. After 1745, the guardhouse was rebuilt with a pyramid roof that was also covered with shingles.9 The repairs to this building made by the New Englanders between 1745 and 1749 included rebuilding the front wall, apparently to a thickness of 7 pieds, in the process omitting any windows and creating an arched entrance at the north end of the wall.10 Part of this arch, in brick, was found during excavation lying in the rubble outside the guardhouse. No trace of the rebuilt wall was found; presumably, therefore, it was built without substantial foundations. This wall was said to have been covered with rough-casting in 1750.11 Between the alcoves for the loopholes there was a fireplace 4 pieds 6 pouces wide. The chimney from this fireplace is shown emerging through the revetment wall beside the gate. The chimney itself was brick with a cut-stone cap. As with the officer's guardhouse, the fireplace was replaced by a brick stove after the French returned in 1749.12 At the same time a large charcoal-fired grille was put back in place in case of need. Apparently this stove was removed in summer and its foundations covered with temporary flooring. Along one wall an historical plan shows a lit de camp 7 pieds wide. In 1753 there were two lits de camp, a table, three benches and seven arms racks in the room.13 Along the front of the building there was a porch with a roof supported on four or five posts creating two or three bays along the front and one at the end. According to the plan the porch was 7 pieds wide and 22 pieds long. However, excavations have shown that the gap between the guardhouses was considerably narrower than that shown on the plan — so narrow in fact, that the porch must have been narrower than is shown to avoid blocking the gate. An elevation shows the posts anchored in a sill beam and bevelled at the corners. At the top, curved bracing held them firmly to the plate. Close parallels for this type of gallery exist in surviving 18th-century guardhouses in France (Fig. 5). Beside the guardhouse to the south there was a latrine, the only indication of which from historical sources is an elevation that shows the doorway leading into it. Construction of the Cavalier Battery behind the ruins of the semi-circular battery in 1745-49 had made this latrine unserviceable, but because it was subterranean, only the upper portion had been removed (Fig. 21). Excavation showed that the floor of the latrine was 4.5 ft. below ground level and was reached via a flight of six cut-stone steps cut in the 10-foot-thick foundations of the semi-circular battery. At the bottom was a small room approximately 6 ft. square with a double brick floor supported on a double brick arch and covering three-quarters of the room area. The remaining quarter along the wall opposite the steps was open and led down to a stone-lined sump defined by the foundations of the latrine. A masonry drain 1.3 ft. wide covered with mortar led out from the sump, through the foundations of the semi-circular battery, under the roadway and through the quay wall. The opening through the quay wall was blocked off when the wall was rebuilt by the New Englanders between 1745-49. Queen's Gate Guardhouses The Queen's Gate guardhouses were situated on either side of the roadway at the foot of the rampart through which the gate was cut. The officer's guardhouse was to the west, the soldiers' to the east of the gateway. Both had their long axes at right angles to the roadway (Fig. 22). A document of 1738 noted that work on the two guardhouses was finished and the guard would be moved into them as soon as the wooden bridge across the ditch was completed.14 No further mention of the guardhouses is made until 1749 when extensive repairs were carried out.15 In 1753 it was stated that the officer's room was occupied by two miners sent out from France, and the arms-room, which made up the remainder of the officer's guardhouse, was then in use as a cell.16 The officer's guardhouse does not appear on an English plan of 1767, probably because it had been razed or buried during the demolition of the fortifications in 1760.
Neither of the guardhouses had been fully excavated, but the outlines of both are clear on the surface, and some test excavation was carried out by J. Russell Harper in 1962.17 Officer's Guardhouse According to Franquet, the officer's building was 30 pieds long by 20 pieds wide with a central dividing wall creating two rooms 12 pieds long, one for the officer and one for the arms.18 From these measurements it can be deduced that all masonry walls were 2 pieds thick. Test excavations and surface indications show that these measurements were correct and that the foundations were 8 inches thicker than the walls. At those corners where robbing had not occurred there were cut-stone quoins, which are typical of military buildings at Louisbourg. The walls were covered with rough-casting in 1750, traces of which were still attached to the walls when excavated.19 The roof of the guardhouse is usually depicted as hipped and was said to be covered with slate in 1751.20 Earlier, gaps in the slate had been repaired with shingles. A number of slate fragments were found on the floor of the guardhouse during excavation. The arrangement of doors and windows is only partly known. The collapsed remains of a typical cut-stone doorway surround were found in and around the north wall, with the centre line of the in situ sill 6.5 ft. from the northeast corner (Fig. 23). The sill and lower jamb stones indicated a doorway 2 pieds wide, and the 2-pouce check would take a door of the same thickness. The reconstruction of the doorway shown in Figure 23 has an asymmetrical lintel which is quite atypical of cut-stone doorways at Louisbourg. It seems probable that the excavator has incorporated a lintel stone from another doorway in this one. One of the jamb stones has a square hole cut into the reveal, which could have taken a reinforcement for a bolt housing attached to the outside of the door. Such would be a logical arrangement for an arms-room door, and is the only evidence to suggest that the west room was the arms-room. A window jamb stone was found on the north wall just to the east of the dividing wall. It had a 2-pouce frame check on the inside and a one-pouce shutter check on the outside. If the west room was the arms-room, then this window was in the officer's quarters. The doorway, and possibly another window, were probably located in the front wall on the east end of the building. It is known that the officer's quarters was plastered on the inside to a height of 7 pieds 2 pouces, which indicates the approximate height of the ceiling.21 The wooden floor survived in places in a very decomposed state. In 1749, a brick stove was either installed or repaired, and the following year the masonry chimney stack was repaired.22 A concentration of rubble and brick around the centre of the dividing wall suggests that the fireplace was situated there. Historical plans show a porch 6 pieds wide and supported on four posts along the front, or east wall of the guardhouse.23 Soldiers' Guardhouse According to historical sources and surface indications, the soldiers guardhouse was exactly the same over-all size as the officer's: however, its internal dividing wall was placed so as to create a west room 20 pieds long for the soldiers, and another along the back 4 pieds long for a latrine.24 Excavation was confined to one section cut across the south wall which revealed a wall 2 ft. thick. This guardhouse was also covered with rough-casting in 1750.25 The roof was similar to that of the officer's guardhouse, complete with shingle repairs. In 1749 a ceiling was made of Boston boards à joint recouvert.26
Inside the soldiers' room there was a brick stove, a lit de camp, four arms racks, one table and four benches.27 Mention is also made of an armoire de consine which was repaired in 1749.28 Along the front or west wall there was a porch shown on plans as being very similar to that on the officer's guardhouse. Surface indications suggest that at the ends of the porch the posts supporting the roof were resting on a masonry sill. Maurepas Gate Guardhouses The Maurepas Gate guardhouses were situated, like those at the Queen's Gate, at the foot of the rampart on either side of the gate (Fig. 24). Both guardhouses were completed by 1744, and according to plans and historical documents they were very similar.29 Although they were almost square, the slightly longer east-west axes were parallel to the roadway. The officer's guardhouse was on the south side and soldiers' on the north. The officer's building was divided into an arms-room and officer's quarters. The soldiers' building was not divided internally, but along the back, or north, wall there was an extension forming a latrine. Along the back of the officer's guardhouse there was a lean-to shed for storing coal. By 1751, as at the Queen's Gate, the officer did not occupy his quarters, and the arms-room served as a cell.30 No more is known of these guardhouses until 1767 when they were described as "guardhouses almost in ruins."31 Officer's Guardhouse Franquet stated that both the officer's and the soldiers' guardhouses were 22 pieds 9 pouces long by 20 pieds 10 pouces wide. The officer's room was said to be 18 pieds long and the prison 7 pieds.32 Obviously these two sets of figures cannot be consistent. Surface indications are of a building approximately 24 ft. long (very close to 22 pieds 9 pouces), so it appears that the error is in the sizes of the rooms rather than in the over-all dimensions. Unfortunately, it is not possible to locate accurately the position of the dividing wall, but a pile of rubble and mortar toward the west end may be the remains of it. If so the ratio of length between officer's room and arms-room would have been about 2:1. Where visible, the remaining walls are about 2 ft. thick. Nothing shows on the surface to indicate quoins, doorways or windows. In an incomplete toisé for 1744,33 no mention is made of cut-stone estimates, yet excavation has revealed cut stones as integral parts of their construction. It seems likely, therefore, that the estimates for cut stone were incorporated in a separate toisé. As with other guardhouses the outsides of the walls were covered with rough-casting in 1750.34 The toisé calls for a door to the officer's quarters 6 pieds 2 pouces high by 2 pieds 10 pouces wide, made of pine planks 2 pouces thick, tenoned into horizontal rails at each end, held in place by a pair of 2-pied-long strap hinges fastened by a thumb-latch and secured by a rim-lock.35 For the prison there was a similar door except that it was only 2 pieds 3 pouces wide. All the elements of the roof are mentioned in the toisé.36 However, as is so often the case with these records, it is very difficult and at times impossible to fit the exact quantities given into the known size of the building. The basic frame of the roof consisted of two trusses, one at each end of a ridge 7 pieds 6 pouces long, strengthened by king posts and tie-beams, with hip rafters running to each corner of the roof from the king posts. All this timber was pine. The ridge, trusses, tie-beams and king posts were of 6 pouce by 6 pouce wood, and the hip rafters were 4 pouces by 8 pouces. At least one row of purlins sat on this basic frame to add support to the common rafters The purlins and common rafters were 4 pouces by 4 pouces and the wall plate was 4 pouce by 8 pouce pine. The roof covering consisted of a double layer of Boston boards. By 1750 this had been supplemented by a covering of wooden shingles.37 The floor of the guardhouse and armoury/cell was supported on joists (gizans)38 of 6 pouce by 7 pouce pine at a calculated spacing of 4 pieds. The floor itself was made of one-pouce pine boards. The ceiling for both rooms was supported on joists (traverses)39 of 4pouce by 5 pouce pine with a similar spacing. The ceiling boards were similar to the floor boards.40
No mention is made of a fireplace or stove for this building since it would have been made of masonry, cut-stone and brick, none of which are mentioned in the toisé. However, an enigmatic 1758 view of the guardhouses shows a chimney emerging from a point along the ridge suggesting that there was a fireplace along the dividing wall (Fig. 25). No furnishings were recorded for the officer's room in 1753, because there was no officer there at the time. Along the front of the guardhouse there was a porch 6 pieds wide.41 According to historical plans it was supported on four posts. The toisé states that these posts were made of 9 pouce by 9 pouce wood. If the total length given for the posts 35 pieds. is divided between four posts, then each one was 8 pieds 9 pouces high. The posts were anchored top and bottom to a plate and a sill of 10 pouce by 12 pouce pine. No mention is made of bracing for the posts, but some was undoubtedly used. The roof of the porch is not mentioned, but its rafters and planking may have been incorporated in the specifications for the main roof of the guardhouse. Rafters of 4 pouce by 4 pouce wood, and one-pouce-thick boards, are associated in the toisé with the ceiling of the porch. Along the back of the building there was a lean-to coal shed 21 pieds long and 8 pieds wide, made of Boston boards over a frame.42 In the list of building hardware in the toisé six pairs of hinges are mentioned, but only five doors are accounted for.43 One of these six pairs is shorter than the others, only one pied 6 pouces long. It seems most likely that this anomalous pair belonged on the door of this lean-to shed. The shed does not appear on the 1758 view, and since Franquet said that it was no longer in use in 1753, it may have been removed soon afterward.44
Soldiers' Guardhouse The soldiers' guardhouse differed from the officer's in few respects; the most obvious was the absence of an internal dividing wall, since the whole building was used to house soldiers. The door was 2 pouces wider than that in the officer's guardhouse but was otherwise similar.45 The 1758 view shows the doorway at the north end of the front wall with two windows to the right of it. (Fig. 25). The floor of this guardhouse. and possibly also that of the officer's guardhouse, was replaced with one made of Boston boards à joints recouverts in 1749. At the same time masonry fill was inserted between the joists.46 In the same year a large brick stove was installed and, like those in other guardhouses, it appears to have been removed each spring.47 The 1758 view shows a projection through the ridge of the roof that was probably a stove-pipe. Inside the guardhouse was a lit de camp 6 pieds wide. The foot of this bed was supported on posts of 10 pouce by 5 pouce wood, and the bed itself consisted of one-pouce boards on top of 4 pouce by 4 pouce "rafters."48 Also in the room were two arms racks, four benches, a table and an armoire de consine. The wall behind this armoire was repaired in 1750 with bricks, a common method of repairing masonry walls at Louisbourg.49 Along the back of the guardhouse there were latrines approximately 12 pieds long by 6 pieds wide in exterior dimensions. Internally these were 8 pieds by 4 pieds. The roof, according to the toisé, was hipped at one end with a single truss made of 4 pouce by 4 pouce wood. Its covering was probably the same Boston boards as were used on the main roof. The floor consisted of one-pouce boards. Across the middle of the latrines there was a dividing partition made of one-pouce boards 6 pieds high, thus creating separate latrines for officer and soldiers. Each had ts own door 5 pieds 9 pouces high by 2 pieds 2 pouces wide. The account of hardware in the toisé makes provision for hinges for these doors, but not for latches or locks. The latrines were made of 2-pouce-thick pine planks across the top and down the front. They were one pied 9 pouces wide and one pied 9 pouces high.50 It is interesting that this toisé indicates no differences between the latrines for officers and soldiers and, as such, is consistent with several historical plans of other latrines. Dauphin Demi-Bastion Guardhouses Two guardhouses, one a converted barracks, were situated on the Dauphin Demi-bastion terreplein. They have been included under the general heading of gateway guardhouses because the evidence suggests that, despite their location, their primary function was control of the Dauphin Gate. The building next to the powder magazine in the Dauphin Demi-bastion was originally intended to be a barracks for the soldiers manning the guns of the semi-circular battery.51 Prior to 1745 it was described, with only one exception as a barracks. Between 1745 and 1749 when the New Englanders occupied the fortress it was used as a prison.52 From 1749 to 1767 it was exclusively known as a guardhouse. It is probable, since this building received extensive repairs in 1749, that the French had decided to use it as a replacement for the damaged guardhouses at the Dauphin Gate; however, repairs to these buildings were carried out the following year, which suggests that the plans were changed. In 1751 the barracks/guardhouse was mentioned in a list of guardhouses, but two years later it was noted that it was empty.53 By 1755-56 the two guardhouses behind the Dauphin Gate were demolished, so it seems probable that the old barracks/guardhouse was refurbished and used for a second time as a guardhouse. At about this time a large reinforcement of troops arrived at Louisbourg where there was a severe shortage of living quarters.54 It was possibly at this time that the officer's quarters in this building was turned over to soldiers and the small building, found in front of the guardhouse, was built to accommodate the officer. In 1767 both buildings were described as "guardhouses almost in ruins."55 Barracks / Guardhouse When it first came into use as a guardhouse, the building was "situated in the terreplein of the said Bastion . . . 48 pieds long by 25 wide, built in masonry, roofed with shingles and divided into two parts of which the one was for the soldiers, and the other, smaller, for the officer."56 Excavation revealed a building within 0.5 ft. of the figures for the over-all size, but with no indication of a partition wall separating the two rooms.57 However, the partition was added after the building was erected and probably consisted of wood supported on a sill resting on the floor; since it would have been removed when the building was renovated to hold extra soldiers there is adequate explanation for its absence. The walls were approximately 3 ft. thick and had dressed sandstone quoins at the two front corners but none at the back, which was hidden below the slope of the rampart of the left face of the bastion (Fig. 26). There was a mass of rock fill immediately against the back of the guardhouse to drain water seepage from the rampart to prevent soaking of the guardhouse wall. As with other guardhouses the walls were covered with rough-casting in 1749.58 Approximately 6 ft. from the north corner of the front wall there was an unusual doorway (Fig. 28). The opening would accommodate a door only 2 pieds wide, which was unusually narrow. Furthermore the sill, which consisted of a cut-stone lip at the outer edge with a brick threshold behind, appears to be unique at Louisbourg. The most interesting feature of the door was the presence of a one-pouce check on the outside. This, combined with a 2-pouce check on the inside, resulted in jamb stones exactly similar in design to those from a window surround. Some plans do show a window in this position, and a repair list of 1749 includes the installation of "une porte de planches de Baston servant de surtout à celle d. corps de garde [officer's room]."59 From the above evidence the most logical interpretation is that a window surround was dismantled and extra stones added to form a doorway. At the same time the shutter check from the original window was used to take a storm door one pouce thick.
Historical plans show that there was a doorway centrally placed in the front wall. The remains of the cut-stone surround and sill of this doorway were found when the building was excavated. The opening indicated a doorway originally 3 pieds wide, with a door opening inward pivoting on pintles set in the left jamb upon entering. Historical plans show one window to the left of the central doorway and either one or two to the right, all protected with shutters. No trace of these windows was found during excavation. The roof was almost always depicted as hipped with a fleur-de-lis at each end of the ridge. As noted above it was shingled, and one view shows two dormers in the east side. Since the attic of the building was used to store artillery equipment these dormers may well have existed. None of the roof was found during excavation. Some plans and views show a large fireplace in the middle of the south wall. The chimney for this fireplace emerged from the wall at eaves level and was free-standing from there to a point level with the ridge of the roof. In 1749 this chimney was masked with planks, presumably because it was suffering from the effects of the Louisbourg climate.60 At the same time a large brick stove was built in the soldiers' quarters. Excavation revealed that a considerable portion of the fireplace had survived with evidence of later modification (Fig. 29). In ts original form the fireplace was constructed of cut-stone. It was 5.3 ft. wide and set 2 ft. into the thickness of the wall. The back had been repaired at various times with brick and the remaining cut-stones were badly cracked. No hearth was found, though this may have been removed. At a later date, probably in 1749, the fireplace was blocked with a brick lining and a crude rectangular brick structure was built within the remaining gap. This had a hearth 3.5 ft. wide, and extended as far as the outer edge of the original jambs. While it is not clear exactly how much a structure functioned, it seems probable that these are the remains of the stove installed in 1749.61 Little is known of the furnishings of the guardhouse since it was empty in 1753 when Franquet made his inventory. Early documents mention a lit de camp, which is shown on plans running along the west wall.62 The cobble floor of the guardhouse had three holes approximately 4.75 ft. from the west wall. The holes were of different sizes and were irregularly spaced: nevertheless they may have taken the uprights of a lit de camp, albeit a rather short one. There would also appear to have been an arms rack in the building at some time, and a repair estimate in 1749 indicates armoires de consines for both the officer's and soldiers' quarters.63 The floor of the building was originally cobbled and was found intact when the building was excavated. However, in 1732 a wooden floor was installed when the building was being temporarily used to store powder while the powder magazine next door was being completed.64 Presumably this floor must have been removed since no trace of it was found during excavation. Officer's Guardhouse The designation of the small building in front of the barracks/guardhouse as an officer's guardhouse is entirely based on supposition. It is nowhere mentioned in any document, nor does it appear, accurately located, on any plan. However, for reasons stated earlier there is some justification for believing that it did indeed serve to house an officer. The building was 16.25 ft. east-west by 13.75 ft. north-south with walls 2 ft. thick and cut-stone quoins in situ on the northeast and southeast corners, and others lying nearby for the northwest and southwest corners (Fig. 26). A rubble-stone base for a fireplace or stove was situated in the middle of the east wall. Apart from these few facts, nothing is known of the nature of the building.
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