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GATE

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 529 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GATE , an opening into any enclosure for entrance or exit, capable of being closed by a barrier at will. The word is of wide application, embracing not only the defensive entrance ways into a fortified See also:

place, with which this See also:article mainly deals, or the imposing architectural features which See also:form the See also:main entrances to palaces, colleges, monastic buildings, &c., but also the See also:common five-barred barrier which closes an opening into a See also:field. The most See also:general distinction that can be made between " See also:door " and " gate " is that of See also:size, the greater entrance into a See also:court containing other buildings being the " gate," the smaller entrances opening directly, into the particular buildings the " doors," or that of construction, the whole entrance way being a " gate " or gateway, the barrier which closes it a " door." A further distinction is See also:drawn by applying " door " to the solid barriers or " valves " of See also:wood, See also:metal, &c., made in panels and fitted to a framework, and " gate " to an openwork structure, whether of metal or wood (see further DOOR and METAL-See also:WORK). The ultimate origin of the word is obscure; the See also:early forms appear with a palatalized initial See also:letter, still surviving in such dialectical forms as " yate," or in Scots " yett." It is probably connected with the See also:root of " get," in the sense either of " means of See also:access " or of " holding," " receptacle "; cf. Dutch gat, hole. There maybe a connexion, however, with " gate," now usually spelled " gait," a manner of walking,' but originally a way, passage; cf. Ger. Gasse, narrow See also:street, See also:lane. The entrance through the enclosing walls of a See also:city or fortification has been from the earliest times a place of the utmost importance, considered architecturally, socially or from the point of view of the military engineer. In the See also:East the " gate " was and still is in many See also:Mahommedan countries the central place of civic See also:life. Here was the seat of See also:justice and of See also:audience, the most important See also:market-place, the spot where men gathered to receive and See also:exchange See also:news. The references in the See also:Bible to the See also:gates of the city in all these varied aspects are innumerable (cf.

Gen. xix. 1; Deut. See also:

xxv. 7; See also:Ruth iv. 1; 2 Sam. xix. 8; 2 See also:Kings vii. 1). Later the seat of justice and of See also:government is transferred to the gate of the See also:palace of the See also:king (cf. See also:Dan. ii. 49, and See also:Esther ii. 19), and this use is preserved to-See also:day in the See also:official See also:title of the seat of government of the See also:Turkish See also:empire at See also:Constantinople, the " See also:Sublime See also:Porte," a See also:translation of the Turkish Bab Ally (bab, gate, and See also:alb', high). A full See also:account with many See also:modern instances of Eastern customs will be found in See also:Sir See also:Charles See also:Warren's article " Gate " in ' The spelling " gait " is confined to this meaning—the only See also:literary one surviving. In the form " gate " it appears dialectally in this sense and in such particular meanings as a right to run See also:cattle on common or private ground or as a passage way in mines.

The See also:

principal survival is in names of streets in the See also:north and midlands of See also:England and in See also:Scotland, e.g. Briggate at See also:Leeds, See also:Wheeler Gate and See also:Castle Gate at See also:Nottingham, Gallow See also:Tree Gate at See also:Leicester, and Canongate and Cowgate at See also:Edinburgh. See also:Hastings's Dict. of Bible. For the " pylon," the typical gate of See also:Egyptian See also:architecture, see ARCHITECTURE. The gates into a walled See also:town or other fortified place were necessarily in early times the See also:chief points on which the attack concentrated, and the features, common throughout the ages, of flanking or surmounting towers and of galleries over the entrance way, are found in the See also:Assyrian gate at See also:Khorsabad (cf. 2 Chron. See also:xxvi. 9; 2 Sam. xviii. 24). With the coming of peaceful times to a city or the removal of the fear of sudden attack, the-gateways would take a form adapted more for ready exit and entrance than for See also:defence, though the possibility of defending them was not forgotten. Such city gates often had See also:separate openings for entrance and exit, and again for See also:foot passengers and for vehicles. The Gallo-See also:Roman gate at See also:Autun has four entrances, two just wide enough to admit carriages, and two narrow alleys for foot passengers. A See also:fine example of a Roman city gate, dating from the See also:time of See also:Constantine, is at Treves.

It is four storeys high, with ornamental windows, and decorated with columns on each See also:

storey. The two See also:outer wings project beyond the central See also:part, the two entrance ways are 14 ft. wide, and could be closed by doors and a See also:portcullis. The See also:chambers in the storeys above were used for the purposes of See also:civil See also:administration. In more modern times city gateways have often followed the type of the Roman triumphal See also:arch, with a single wide opening and purely ornamental superstructure. On the other See also:hand, the defensive'gate formed by an archway entering as it were through a See also:tower has been constantly followed as a type of entrance to buildings of an entirely peaceful See also:character. A fine example of such a gateway, originally built for defence, is at See also:Battle See also:Abbey; this was built by See also:Abbot Retlynge in 1338, when See also:Edward III. granted a See also:licence to fortify and crenellate the abbey. Such gateways are typical of Tudor palaces, as at St See also:James's or at See also:Hampton Court, and are the most common form in the colleges of See also:Oxford and See also:Cambridge. The Tom Gate at See also:Christ See also:Church, Oxford, with its surmounted domed See also:bell tower, or the See also:cupola resting on columns at See also:Queen's See also:College, Oxford, are further examples of the gate architecturally considered. The changes the fortified gateway has undergone in construction and the varying relative importance it has held in the See also:scheme of defence follow the lines of development taken by the See also:history of FORTIFICATION AND SIEGECRAFT (q.v.). The following is a See also:short See also:sketch of the main stages in its history. A See also:good example of the Roman fortified city gate still remains at See also:Pompeii. Here there is one passage way for vehicles, 14 ft. wide; this is open to the See also:sky.

The two footways on either See also:

side are arched, with openings in the centre on to the central way. The doors of the gate are on the city side, but a portcullis (calaracta) closed it on the See also:country side. The gateways of the Roman permanent camps (castra stativa) were four in number, the Aorta praetoria and Decumana at either end, with principalis dextra and sinistra on the side (see also See also:CAMP). At See also:Pevensey (See also:Anderida) a small See also:postern on the north side of the Roman walls was laid See also:bare in 1906-19o7, in which the passage curves in the thickness of the See also:wall, and from a width admitting two men abreast narrows so that one alone could See also:block it. Flanking towers or bastions guarded the main entrances, while in front were built outworks, of palisades, &c., to protect it; these were known as procastra or antemuralia, and the entrances to these were placed so that they could be flanked from the main walls. In the defence of a fortified place the gate had not only to be protected from sudden surprise, but also had to undergo protracted attacks concentrated upon it during a See also:siege. Thus until the coming of See also:gunpowder, the ingenuity of military See also:engineers was exhausted in accumulating the most complicated defences See also:round the gateways, and the strength of a fortified place could be estimated by the fewness of its gates. See also:Viollet-le-Duc (See also:Diet. de Parch. du moyen See also:age, s.v. Porte) takes the See also:Narbonne and See also:Aude gates (E. and W.) of See also:Carcassonne as typical instances of this complication. The following brief account of the Narbonne Gate (fig. I), one of the principal parts of the work on the fortifications begun by See also:Philip the Bold in 1285, will give some See also:idea of the varied means of defence, which may be found individually ifnot always in such collective abundance in the fortified gateways of the See also:middle ages. Two massive towers flanked the actual entrance and were linked across by an See also:iron See also:chain; over the entrance (E) was a See also:machicolation, further added to in time of See also:war by a hoarding of See also:timber; and an outer portcullis See also:fell in front of the heavy iron-lined doors.

On to the passage way between the first and second doors opened a square machicolation (G) from which the defenders in the upper chambers of the gate could attack an enemy that had succeeded in breaking through the first entrance or had been trapped by the falling of the first portcullis. Another machicolation (I) opened from the roof in front of the second portcullis and second door. So much for the gate itself; but before an attack could reach that point, the following defences had to be passed: an immense circular See also:

barbican (A) protected the entrance across the See also:moat and through the outer See also:enceinte of the city. This entrance was flanked by a masked return of the wall (C), while palisades (P) still further hampered the assailant in his passage across the " lists " to the foot of the gate towers. Here sappers would find themselves exposed to a See also:fire from the loopholes and from the machicolated hoardings above them, while the projecting horns with which The Ctty the See also:face of the towers terminated forced them to uncover them-selves to a flanking fire from the indents in the main See also:curtain on either side of the towers. The later history of the gateway is merged in that of modern fortification. The more elaborate the gate defences the greater was the inducement for the besieger to attack the walls, and improvements in methods of siegecraft ultimately compelled the defender to develop the enceinte from its See also:medieval form of a See also:ring wall with flanking towers to the 17th See also:century form of bastions, curtains, tenailles and ravelins, all intimately connected in one general scheme of defence. By See also:Vauban's time there is little to distinguish the position and defences of the gateways from the See also:rest of the fortifications surrounding a town. A road from the country usually entered one of the ravelins, sinking into the See also:glacis, See also:crossing the ditch of the ravelin and piercing the See also:parapet almost at right angles to its proper direction (see fig. 2, which also shows a typical arrangement of See also:minor communications such as ramps and staircases). From the interior of the ravelin it passed across the main ditch to a gate in the curtain of the enceinte. The road was in fact artificially made to See also:wind in such a way that it was kept under fire from the defences throughout, while the part of it inside the See also:works was See also:bent so as to place a covering See also:mass between the enemy's fire and troops using the road for a sortie.

Thus the gate itself was merely a barrier against a coup de main and to keep out unauthorized persons. In conditions precluding the making of a See also:

breach in the walls, i.e. in surprises and assaults de vive force, the gateway and accompanying drawbridge continue to See also:play their part in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, but they seldom or never appear as the objectives of a siege en regle. In Vauban's works, and those of most other engineers, there was generally a postern giving access to the See also:floor of the main ditch, in the centre of the curtain escarp. The gates of Vauban's and later fortresses are strong heavy wooden doors, and the gateways more or less ornamental archways, exactly as in many private mansions of castellar form. In modem fortresses the gate of a detached fort or an enceinte de See also:surety is intended purely as a defence against an unexpected See also:rush. The usual method is to have two gates, the outer one a lattice or portcullis of iron bars and the inner one a See also:plate of See also:half-See also:inch See also:steel See also:armour, backed by wood and loopholed. The defenders of the gate can by this arrangement fire from the inner loopholes through the outer gate upon the approaches, and also keep the enemy under fire whilst he is trying to force the outer gate Fig. 2.-See also:Plan of Gate Arrangements of an 18th Century Fortress. itself. The ditches are crossed either by drawbridges or by ramps leading the road down to the floor of the ditch. The " gate " as a barrier to be removed and as an entrance to be passed is of See also:constant occurrence in figurative See also:language and in symbolical usage. The gates of the See also:temple of See also:Janus (q.v.) at See also:Rome stood open in war and closed in See also:peace.

The pylon of See also:

ancient See also:Egypt had a symbolical meaning in the See also:Book of the Dead, and religious significance attaches to the torii, one of the outward signs of the Shinto See also:religion in See also:japan, the Buddhist See also:toran, and to the See also:Chinese pai-See also:loo, the honorific gateways erected to ancestors. The gates of See also:heaven and See also:hell, the gates of See also:death and darkness, the wide and narrow gates that See also:lead to destruction and life (Matt. vii. 13 and 14), are See also:familiar metaphorical phrases in the Bible. In See also:Greek and Roman See also:legend dreams pass through gates of transparent See also:horn if true, if deceptive and false through opaque gates of See also:ivory (Horn. Od. xix. 56o sq.; Virg. Aen. vi. 893). (C.

End of Article: GATE

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