Chapter XII: Of the Edwardian or Concentric Castles (9)

Besides the King’s Gate the upper ward was entered by a second or Queen’s Gate, a very remarkable structure, seeing that it is placed at the highest part of the fortress, and that the cill of its entrance is some 25 feet above the present ground, and must have been 12 feet or 14 feet more above the bottom of the now filled-up ditch. How this entrance was approached does not appear, if by a drawbridge the pier on which it fell must have been a very lofty structure, and a sort of viaduct must have led up to it. The portal is vaulted and ribbed, and had a portcullis and gates, but the lateral chambers do not open from it. The rear of the gatehouse seems not to have been completed, but close to it, to the west, is the jamb of a small portcullised gateway, with ornate mouldings. Into what it led is not very apparent.

The towers, though differing widely in details, are all of one general type, and probably designed by one hand. Each has a basement at about the exterior ground level, damp and dark, and only to be reached by a ladder from the floor above. Possibly these basements were not intended to be used. They were not vaulted, and have no sewers. Each tower has a first floor at the court level, and at this level, or a few steps above it, the wall is pierced all round by a mural gallery, looped to the field and connected with divers mural chambers and garderobes. The second floor has windows of a larger opening, as has the third or uppermost. Each floor has a fireplace, usually a mere opening in the wall, and each is reached by a well staircase, which begins at the first-floor level and ends in a tall turret which rises some 20 feet above the roof. From the upper floor a doorway opens out upon the rampart of the curtain. The floor was all of timber. The roof was almost flat, having a very slight pitch to a central ridge, and was covered with lead.

The curtain, everywhere unusually thick and lofty, along the north side was looped in two stages, showing that it gave support to long ranges of buildings, probably barracks, with thick walls and very low-pitched lead-covered roofs. These buildings are wanting, but the towers and curtains are toothed, to give bond to their walls when built.

The most remarkable part of the castle is the arrangement for the defence of the southern or river front. On this face the curtain is of immense thickness, extending from the Queen’s Gate to the Eagle Tower, and including in that distance the Prince’s and the Exchequer Towers, and two others of smaller dimensions. This wall, from the Queen’s Gate to the Prince’s Tower, contains, at a little above the court level, a broad and lofty gallery, which not only pierces the curtain, but is continued through the walls of the towers, with an occasional vaulted chamber or lobby, as a “place d’armes.” This gallery is looped towards the field, and has an occasional window and door towards the court. It descends by steps so as to preserve its level as regards the court, and in its walls are several garderobes.

Above this, of the same length and similarly constructed, is a second gallery, also looped towards the field, but either the inner wall and roof of this gallery have been removed, or, more probably, never completed, for it now remains as an open platform. The thicker and outer wall, however, is perfect, and carries what is still a broad rampart walk, or allure, reached by occasional flights of steps in the wall from the upper gallery. Thus was provided a triple line of loops, and these loops are not, as was often the case, mere air-holes, but are so contrived as to afford ample scope for the effective use of either longbow or arblast. No body of assailants, however brave, unprotected by armour or unsupplied with regular siege appliances, could have withstood such a line of defence, manned, as it would be, with the first archers in Europe, exposing those without, in front and flank, to a shower of clothyard shafts and iron-pointed quarrells.

The curtain, from the Prince’s to the Eagle Tower, though as thick as elsewhere, is solid below, having only the upper gallery; neither does it communicate with the Eagle Tower, which forms a sort of keep or citadel, being in dimensions rather larger than, and in strength fully equal to, any of the others. This tower, also, is of rather superior and certainly more ornate workmanship than the rest. Its mouldings are all of the best Decorated period, and it was evidently intended for the reception of distinguished visitors.

The Well Tower, that next west of the King’s Gate, contains a very remarkable well. The well, with a pipe of 5 feet diameter, descends in the thickness of the wall, in which also is the well chamber, whence the well was worked. The whole, both well and chamber, are in excellent order. Unlike the other towers, the basement of the Well Tower is entered from the court by a steep direct flight of steps. The reason of this is seen in a postern which opens from the floor of the tower in the wall. It is 16 feet above the bottom of the ditch, serving, probably, as an internal communication with the town. The great kitchen does not now exist. It was of large size and rectangular plan, and extended from the Well Tower to the King’s Gatehouse. At one end are seen two curious stone circles, probably intended to carry large iron cauldrons with a space below for a fire. In the side wall, or curtain, are some mural chambers, and a trough with a stone pipe by which water was conveyed from the well-chamber through the wall. There is also the springing-stone of a moulded rib, showing that the kitchen had an open roof. In this wall a straight staircase ascends to the gatehouse, possibly to the cook’s bedchamber.

Opposite to the kitchen a line of foundations shows the position and dimensions of the great hall, 100 feet by 60 feet. It was built against the south curtain, and extended from the Exchequer to the Prince’s Tower, the latter being, probably, at the dais end. From the other end of the hall, a straight staircase led to a postern which opened upon the quay and the river.

Caernarvon is mainly built of limestone. The stones are hammer dressed, and roughly squared, and laid throughout in courses. Ashlar is very freely used, and finely cut. The mouldings employed are characteristic of the Decorated period, and the stone has preserved its surface and arris uninjured.

The absence of the hall and kitchen, the offices and barracks, and of the cross building separating the two wards, gives an incomplete and unfinished appearance to the interior of the castle, but this does not affect its military details and those of its towers, gatehouses, and curtains; these are very perfect and very curious. With the decline of the Decorated period in architecture military defences also began to decline, and the works of Edward III. and his successors, though often palatial in their grandeur, are never of a purely military type, and in this respect are never equal to those of the earlier Edwardian period.

Caernarvon was begun in 1283, immediately upon the execution of David, the last Welsh prince. The first work was that of quarrying the cross ditch, and collecting materials and workmen, the latter being drafted from the English counties. Caernarvon, Conway, Criccaeth, and Harlech, were in progress together, and nothing short of the hope of consolidating his kingdom could have induced so economical a sovereign as Edward to incur expenses which, in one year, for Caernarvon alone, amounted to above £3,000. The king was here for the first time in 1284, in which year, April 25th, Edward of Caernarvon was born, probably in the town. By 1295 so little progress had been made that the Welsh, rising in local insurrection, succeeded in burning the town, and taking what was then executed of the castle. How much was then built, or how much they left standing is unknown, but from that time quicker progress was made, and at Edward’s death the castle was certainly in a forward state. The work was continued and completed by his son. The Eagle Tower was covered in in 1316, and the king’s statue set up over the great gate in 1320, and by 1322 the castle was completed for defensive purposes. The chamberlain of North Wales seems to have resided here, and the Exchequer Tower was so called because here were deposited the financial returns for the northern counties, but it may be doubted whether the grand accommodations designed by the original architect for the visits of the sovereign were ever actually executed.

The castle fell into the hands of Owain Glendwr, and was held alternately by king and parliament during the Great Rebellion.

One of the many valuable papers contributed by the late Mr. Hartshorne to the _Journal of the Archæological Institute_ contains an excellent history of this castle; had that gentleman bent himself also to the easier task of its description, this account would have been uncalled for.

The larger of the accompanying illustrations gives a bird’s-eye view of the castle from the north-west. In the front and centre is the King’s Gatehouse, and next, on the spectator’s right, is the Well Tower, and beyond it, the Eagle Tower. On the extreme left is the interior of the Queen’s Gatehouse, placed between the Granary Tower on the left and the Black Tower. Opposite to the King’s Gate is the Exchequer Tower, and between it and the Eagle is the Prince’s Tower. In the lower or right-hand court are seen the foundations of the hall; next on the left of the King’s Gate is the Dungeon Tower.

The smaller illustration shows the allure or rampart-walk of the Eagle Tower. The rear wall, if it ever existed, has been removed. The cut shows the merlon, with its contained loop, the plain flat-sided embrasure, and the figures placed upon the ridge of the coping, one of which gives name to the tower. The small, shoulder-headed doorway opening from the tower upon the rampart is also seen.

CAERPHILLY CASTLE, GLAMORGAN.

Caerphilly is by very much the most extensive castle in Wales, and is reputed to cover, with its outworks and earthworks, about thirty acres.

The castle owes its celebrity to its great extent, and to the peculiar manner in which one of its towers has been thrown out of the perpendicular by the forces employed for its destruction. Its real merits are of a less obvious but much higher character, and rest upon the great military skill exhibited in its design and construction. It possesses few associations with historical events. But one, and he a falling, sovereign is certainly known to have visited it. It is not, like Kidwelly or Cardiff, the head of a feudal honour or lordship, nor is it surrounded by any franchise or barony. It has not even received the barren dignity of conferring a title of honour upon any of its numerous possessors. It has been celebrated by no bard, and even mentioned only by one.

Neither does Caerphilly possess many of the ordinary sources of interest. It boasts not the architectural decorations of Caernarvon, the commanding position of Conway, nor the picturesque beauty of Raglan. It is simply a ruin of great extent, and possessing that sort of rugged sublimity which is inseparable from an assemblage of lofty walls and massive and partially overthrown towers, though neither bosomed in woods, nor mantled, to any extent, with ivy.

It is remarkable that this castle should have remained altogether neglected, or very superficially noted by the historians of Wales. The earlier authorities, Caradoc of Llancarvan and Giraldus Cambrensis, flourished before the erection of the present edifice, but it is singular that silence concerning so immense a structure should have been preserved by Lloyd, and his commentator Powel, and transmitted almost unbroken by the indefatigable, though credulous, author of the “Munimenta.”

It is not, however, difficult to divine the causes of the obscurity in which the early history of Caerphilly is involved, and the absence of any historical associations may perhaps be permitted to account for the continued silence of modern writers.

A castle of considerable magnitude had been erected soon after the Norman invasion of Wales, at Cardiff; a position which, from its proximity to the estuary of the Severn, and the mouth of the Taff, from the fertility of its subjacent meadows, from the protection which it reciprocally afforded to, and received from, the people of the town, and from its greater distance from the mountains, and consequent diminished liability to be surprised by their crafty and warlike inhabitants, was invariably the chief residence of the feudal Lords of Glamorgan; and from hence it followed, as a necessary consequence, that Caerphilly, which, from its dangerous proximity, they were obliged to retain in their immediate possession, fell into comparative neglect, and, although very superior in magnitude to Cardiff, was considered only as its dependency in importance.

It was to the Lord of Cardiff that the feudatories of Glamorgan owed suit and service, and it was to the castle court of that place that they were bound annually to repair.

The castle of Cardiff is mentioned as the residence of great Norman barons; it was more than once honoured by a royal guest, and, even at the far later period of the Parliamentary wars, its acquisition was considered of great importance. Caerphilly, on the contrary, is rarely mentioned by the chroniclers, and as a military post ceased to be of importance upon the death of Llewelyn and the reduction and settlement of the Principality by Edward. These considerations will explain the little notice taken by contemporaries of this magnificent fortress, and the consequent dearth of information respecting its fortunes.

Caerphilly stands upon that wide tract of debateable ground between England and Wales, which was so long contested by both nations under the title of “The Marches,” and which, beneath the Normans, had its own customs and its governors, known as the Lords Marchers.

The castle, though in the Marches, is within the Welsh border, being about a mile from the river Rhymny, the boundary between Monmouth and Glamorgan, and, since the reign of Henry VIII., between England and the Principality, in this direction.

The Lordship of Senghenydd, within which the castle is placed, was granted at the conquest of Glamorgan to Einon of Collwyn, a Welsh lord, whose granddaughter, Nest, “verch Madoc ap Cradoc ap Einon,” married Cadivor ap Cydrich, a grandson of Gwaethvoed, and the father of Ivor Bach, who is described as [mesne] Lord of Senghenydd. Griffith, the son of Ivor, married a sister of Rhys, Prince of South Wales, before 1174, when he did homage to Henry II., at Gloucester. By this match the influence of the family, already great, with the Welsh, was much increased and became very great. They dwelt too near Cardiff actually to organise insurrections, but they were always ready to promote them at any favourable opportunity. Many such opportunities occurred during the reign of Henry III., when the Earls of Pembroke wielded the power of the infant lord of Glamorgan, and were continually at war with Henry. Llewelyn, then Prince of Wales, was sometimes in alliance with the earl, and sometimes harassed his rear, descending from the uplands of Caermarthen and Cardiff, and bursting into Monmouthshire across the unguarded pass of Senghenydd. It became the business of Gilbert de Clare, on coming into his lordship, to bar this passage, and this he effectually completed by the construction of Caerphilly. The name of his architect or engineer is unknown to fame, but he was a deacon in his craft, and the earl gave full play to his abilities.

The castle is placed in the midst of a deep and broad hollow, open on the east towards the Rhymny, and divided on the west from the valley of the Taff by the mountain ridge of Mynydd Mayo. North and north-west, at a greater distance, is the concave crest of Mynydd Eglwisilan, and on the south, the long and well-known elevation which separates the hill-country of Glamorgan from the plain, and is intersected by the ravines of the Taff, the Rhymny, and the Ebbw. This ridge is locally known as Cefn Carnau, and, on the road from the castle to the sea, is crowned by the ancient stronghold of Môr-graig. The traveller, who wishes to see Caerphilly to advantage, should descend upon it soon after sunrise in autumn, from one of the surrounding heights, when the grey towers of the castle will be seen rising out of an immense sea of mist.

The whole basin is a part of the Glamorganshire coalfield. The mineral has long been worked on Caerphilly mountain, where it appears on the surface, and the castle is chiefly constructed of the fissile sandstone of the neighbourhood, which appears to have been quarried from a large excavation by the roadside, near Chapel-Martin.

Along the base of the mountains, and extending some way up their skirts, here, as in all the valleys in the neighbourhood, lie vast deposits of gravel and sand, composed in part of the _débris_ of the neighbouring rocks, but chiefly of rolled pebbles, brought down from the northern hills by diluvial agency.

Near the centre of the basin is a bed of gravel, of considerable extent and thickness, the surface of which has been deeply wrought, by some natural process, into a series of furrows and eminences.

A narrow tongue of slightly elevated ground, the termination of a low peninsula of gravel, projects eastwards, and, by its projection, divides a swampy flat of considerable breadth into two portions. These are contained within irregular gravel banks, similar to, though somewhat higher than, the central peninsula. The southern is shorter, and almost parallel to it; the northern is prolonged, and curves around its point, until it is separated from the southern only by an inconsiderable gorge. The swamp thus assumes something of the figure of a horse-shoe.

South of the peninsula, the Nant-y-Gledyr, a large rivulet, flows from the south-west, across the swamp, through the gorge, to join the Rhymny.

North-east of the peninsula a smaller spring, partly fed by the Nant-y-Gledyr, flows across a part of the northern swamp; and, north of this again, another spring contributes to the same. Naturally, these waters seem to have found their way, by a depression or gorge, to the north-eastward, into the lower part of the Nant-y-Gledyr, outside of and below the upper gorge already mentioned.

The tongue of land thus guarded was well suited for the purposes of defence, supposing the peninsula to have been converted, by a cross-trench, into an island. Water was abundant, pasturage at hand, and the morass would form a secure front. There is, however, no evidence that the spot was occupied by the Welsh, though it has been supposed that the stronghold of Senghenydd was here situated.

When the castle was constructed the surface of the ground underwent considerable alteration. The first business of the Norman engineer was to provide for the protection of his fortress by a large expanse of water. To effect this, the bed of the Nant-y-Gledyr was dammed up at one gorge, and the northern waters at the other, and the two divisions of the swamp thus formed into lakes, the southern of about 13 acres, the northern of about one or two.

Advantage was taken of a narrow and curved ridge, which proceeded from the root of the peninsula, to divide the northern water into two parts, of which the one formed the middle, and the other the inner, moat.

The inner moat communicated with the southern lake by two cross cuts; one, the old natural termination of the peninsula eastwards, the other, an artificial cut across it on the west; and thus the circuit of the inner moat was completed.

The island which was thus formed, and encircled by this moat, was scarped into curtains and bastions, and faced with stone; and the single cross-cut westward, not being deemed a sufficient defence, the peninsula was divided by a second cross-cut further westward, and the second island, thus formed, was converted into a sort of large horn-work or demi-lune, covering the western approach. This also was scarped and revetted.

Thus, then, the principal features of the ground plan are—the end of the peninsula converted into an _island_, and defended on the north by the _inner north moat_, on the south by the _lake_, on the east by the _inner east moat_, and on the west by the _inner cross-cut_—the whole making up the _inner moat_.

Proceeding outwards, we have, as the boundaries of this moat—on the west, the _horn-work_, prolonged on the north into the _curved ridge_ forming the counterscarp of the inner moat; on the east, the natural bank occupied by the _southern half of the grand front_; and on the south, the acclivity of the _bank of the lake_, rising rather steeply. All these form the outer boundaries of the inner moat. The second, or middle, line of defence is less complete, and is confined to the west and northern sides. It begins with the outer _cross-cut_, west of the horn-work, which communicates at one end with the lake, and at the other with the _middle moat_. Beyond this middle line of defence is, upon the north-west, a high knoll, the summit of which has been carved into a _redoubt_; towards the north the _northern bank_, which is protected westwards by the _northern brook_, and thickened eastwards into a dam wall; and towards the north-east, east, and south-east, by the continuation of this bank, and the _northern half of the grand front_, built upon it.

These defences are again strengthened—on the north by one division of the _outer moat_, formed by the passage of the north brook, and on the east by the other division extending in advance of the grand front, and connected with the Nant-y-Gledyr, near the great drawbridge. These moats are divided by a sort of _causeway_ at the north-east angle of the outworks, reserved for the passage of cavalry from a sally-port. A part of the earth excavated from these outer moats seems to have been thrown up outside, so as to form banks, one of which is occupied by the main street of Caerphilly, the other by the Nant-Garw road.

It is hoped that reference to the plan, and to the bird’s-eye view of the lake, will suffice to render the above description intelligible.

For the purpose of the description of the castle itself, the whole may be considered as composed of five parts, each of which will be further subdivided. These parts are:—

I.—The GRAND FRONT. II.—The HORN-WORK. III.—The REDOUBT. IV.—The MIDDLE WARD. V.—The INNER WARD.

I.—The eastern or GRAND FRONT of Caerphilly is a very fine and complete specimen of a mediæval line of defence. It is composed of a long curtain wall of considerable height and thickness, strengthened on the exterior by buttresses and buttress-towers, rising in the centre into a broad and lofty gatehouse, and terminated, at either extremity, by clusters of towers that protect its sally-ports, and prevent it from being out-flanked. Before it is a broad and deep moat, supplied with water, and crossed by a double drawbridge. In its rear is a second moat, also crossed by a drawbridge. The length of the façade is about 250 yards, the height varies from 20 to 60 feet.

It is divided into the great gatehouse, the northern curtain and postern, and the southern curtain and postern.

The _Great Gatehouse_ stands a little on the north side of the centre. Its line of front is not exactly parallel to those of the curtains, the plan being irregular.

The _Gatehouse proper_ is a lofty oblong building, 50 feet broad by 35 feet deep, and about 60 feet high. It is perforated below by the portal, but rises above as a broad tower. Its lateral portions project 6 feet beyond the portal, and form porters’ lodges.

The portal, 10 feet wide by 20 feet high, was defended by gates, portcullis, and stockade. It is guarded by loops on each side from the lodges. Those opening from the portal, measure 20 feet by 10 feet, have fireplaces, and were floored with timber. The walls are 9 feet thick, and are looped in various directions for defence.

Caerphilly Castle.

_Face p. 320, Vol. I._ ]

Passing through the gatehouse, behind it is a broad platform, which extends behind the southern curtain, and is scarped and revetted towards the inner moat; on the right of this is a prolongation of the gatehouse westwards, into the _gatehouse tower_. One of two doorways leads up this tower by a hexagonal well-stair, 9 feet in mean diameter; this opens upon seven apartments in two stories, and terminates in a lofty quadrangular turret. In the first story are devices for working the portcullis, and a small fireplace and oven, probably intended to serve the purpose of a cooking-place for the porter and his assistants. These rooms are vaulted. From this story a passage opens upon the rampart of the northern curtain, and led, probably by a temporary plank bridge, across an abyss in the thickness of the wall, about 29 feet deep and 5 feet wide, and opening below between the grates of a water gate. A passage, at the ground level, leads from the platform through the gatehouse tower, across the ditch or canal from the water gate, to the northern curtain, and was defended by gates, portcullis, and drawbridge.

From the gatehouse a _dividing wall_, 20 feet high and 6 feet thick, extends westward 80 feet to the edge of the inner moat, and thus cuts off the platform and the whole of the southern from the northern curtain. Each face has been embattled, so that should either curtain be taken, the other could still be defended.

At the union of the gatehouse with the _northern curtain_, in the latter, at the level of the water’s edge, is a low-browed archway, which could only have been accessible by a boat, and is a water gate. It is defended by two grates, and a cavity open above between them, and thence a _covered way_, once probably a sort of canal, leads close under, and north of, the dividing wall, to the edge of the inner moat.

This curtain runs northward for 130 yards, and is strengthened exteriorly by three _buttress towers_, quadrangular and solid below, but hexagonal and chambered above. Each has a projection of 20 feet; they are of unequal breadth. The chambers have each a loop in front, and one at the junction of the tower with the wall on either side. They were accessible only from the rampart.

In the curtain itself are six loops, opening in pairs between the buttress towers. The curtain ends, northward, in a pair of towers, connected by the vault of a portal, the _north postern_, regularly defended, and opening upon a plot of ground and causeway separating the two parts of the outer moat.

Behind, and parallel to this curtain, at a distance of 19 feet, was a slight wall, 4 feet thick, which formed the back wall of a _postern gallery_, leading from the gatehouse to the north postern, and forming above a broad flat walk for the defence of the ramparts. This gallery is said to have been fitted up as a stable.

_Southern Curtain._—The general plan of this curtain is irregular; it passes south-eastward from the gatehouse, forms a large semicircle, and, passing off in a long straight wall, crosses the Nant-y-Gledyr, and terminates in a _tête-du-pont_ and a postern. This wall contains a large mural garderobe tower at its angle, and is supported exteriorly by seven quadrangular solid buttresses. In one place it is perforated for the discharge of the waste waters of the mill, and in another for the passage of the Nant-y-Gledyr, being, at that part, where subjected to great pressure, 15 feet thick. This curtain is accessible from the _tête-du-pont_; and upon it, through the garderobe tower is a mural chamber, serving as a “place d’armes.” The face of the wall, between the buttresses, is wrought into a concavity, increasing towards the summit, so that any missile dropped from it would be projected outwards. The soil of the platform behind this curtain is 25 feet above the exterior level.

The _Platform_ is a large surface of sward behind the southern curtain, between it and the counterscarp of the inner moat; upon it stood the _mill_, and from it dropped the inner drawbridge. It increases in breadth from the dam to the dividing wall, where it measures 94 feet.

The _Tête-du-pont_ terminates the southern curtain. It consists of a curve of the wall, westward, into a semicircle, with towers and a postern gate, protected by a bifurcated wall, intended to prevent the curtain from being outflanked. It rests upon the outer edge of the lake.

In front of this great line of defence is a moat, about 60 feet wide, and crossed by a double drawbridge of two spans of 18 feet each at the great gateway, connected with a large pier in the centre of the moat, capable of being converted into a sort of barbican. This moat communicates with, and admitted of being filled from, the Nant-y-Gledyr.

Such is the principal front and eastern line of defence, not only calculated to withstand attacks from the front, flanks, or rear, but also capable of being held out, the southern against the northern part.

From the northern extremity of this front, at the northern postern, a bank of earth, lined inwards, or on its southern face, by a wall, and at one part thickened into a dam, divides the middle from the outer moat, at present skirted by the Nant-Garw road. This is the _north bank_.

From the same front, from the end of the covered way, close to the dividing wall, a second bank of earth is given off, and, passing westwards to unite with the horn-work, divides the inner from the middle moat, and forms a part of the northern defences of the castle. Its inner face is partially lined by a wall, in which is a sluice-tunnel. This is the _curved ridge_.

II.—The HORN-WORK covering the western front of the castle, and placed between the middle and outer gates, is an irregular polygon of about three acres, revetted all round with a wall of 15 feet high, above which is a talus of about 8 feet more. From its south-western face issues one of the feeding springs of the lake. On the eastern, or longest face, is a semi-pier, to receive the drawbridge, of 20 feet span, from the opposite gatehouse of the middle ward. On the north-western face a similar semi-pier, between half-round bastions, seems to have supported the drawbridge, also of 20 feet span, giving access to the castle in this direction. Possibly each bridge was of two pieces, one dropping from each bank upon a central tressel or timber structure in the ditch.

III.—The REDOUBT has already been mentioned as being formed by scraping down a knoll of gravel on the north-west quarter of the castle.

The body of this earthwork is quadrangular, capped at the three outer angles by three bastions, and excavated in the centre into a sort of casemate. The curtain, towards the castle, is intersected by two trenches, separated by a mound or cavalier, and leading into the centre of the work.

Outside the redoubt, and following the curve of its bastions, is a ditch, upon the outer three sides broad and deep, on the fourth side but slightly marked.

The ramparts of the redoubt are unprovided with either parapets for canon or banquettes for musquetry, and the scarp is continued unbroken to the rampart. Neither scarp nor counterscarp, though steep, has any retaining wall.

Beyond its main ditch is a spacious _glacis_, terminating in three low bastions and a shallow ditch. Both ditches were probably dry.

The whole work resembles much those thrown up in haste during the wars between Charles I. and the Parliament, and has either been partially destroyed, or, which seems more probable, has never been entirely completed. No doubt it was stockaded.

The inner and middle wards of the castle occupy the island, which has already been described as formed out of the end of the peninsula.

This island is scarped into a parallelogram, 111 yards east and west, by 96 north and south. The four angles are capped by large bastions, parts of circles. The intervening straight lines are termed, in fortification, curtains.

The sides or scarps of these bastions and curtains are faced with a stone wall 30 feet high, and surmounted by a parapet of from 5 feet to 12 feet more; and within this enclosure are contained the middle and inner ward.

The inner ward is formed by placing a second parallelogram, smaller than the last, within it. This forms the inner, and the concentric space between the two, the middle, ward.

IV.—The _Middle Ward_ thus presents four divisions, towards the cardinal points, all forming terraces of from 16 to 20 yards broad, and the opposite sides being of nearly equal length. Upon the east and west are the gatehouses; on the south, offices, and a water gate; and, on the north, an open terrace, overlooking the outer defences of the castle on that side.

The _Eastern Gatehouse_ is formed of two low towers, with half-round projections towards the moat, and a portal between the two. The walls are thick, and there is a lodge on each side, lighted by three loops. Above these lodges was the battlement. On the north side is a square building, the use of which is unknown. This gatehouse was connected with that of the inner ward, and between the two there seem to have been side doors.

One of these, on the south, led to the _Water-tank_, lined with masonry, 50 feet long by 20 wide, probably a fish-preserve connected with the kitchen.

In front of this gatehouse, and dividing it from the platform of the grand gate, the moat is about 45 feet wide. As there are no traces of a central pier for the drawbridge which must have crossed this space, it seems probable that it rested on an intermediate tressel of timber, as at Raby and Holt, which admitted of being removed or destroyed in the event of a siege.

The _Western Gatehouse_ is placed opposite to the horn-work, and between them is a moat 60 feet wide. The portal is loftier, and the front broader, than in the eastern gatehouse. There are two chambers on either side of the portal, and above them a first story, with fireplaces and chimneys.

Between this gate and the north-west tower of the inner ward are some later buildings, and a wall, which seems to have been intended to cut off the communication between the gatehouse and the north terrace. On the south side is a similar wall, shutting off the south terrace.

The offices and water-gate passage occupy a part of the south terrace of this ward.

The _Water-gate Gallery_ leads from the hall to the lake, and is big enough to contain a boat. It is vaulted by a succession of narrow arches, in steps, instead of by one sloping vault. Above it are chambers, probably for cooks and attendants in the kitchens.

Against this passage, upon its eastern side, is the _Kitchen Tower_—a low tower of great strength, having the ground floor vaulted, and recesses, apparently for boiling and stewing, on a large scale. The fireplace is in the upper story.

The kitchen communicated with the hall, and with a sort of yard occupying the eastern end of the south terrace. A well-stair leads down to the lower, and up to the upper, kitchen.

In the yard is the oven, and a passage leading to the tank. Here, also, against the south curtain of the inner ward is a low oblong building, with one or two bows to the south, which seems to have been connected with the kitchen, and, in modern days, would have been the still-room.

V.—The INNER WARD is a quadrangle, measuring 200 feet east and west, by 160 feet north and south. It is contained within four curtain walls, capped at the angles by four round towers, and broken on the east and west sides by two lofty and magnificent gatehouses. The south side of the court thus formed is occupied by the hall and state apartments.

Of the _Curtains_, those on the north and east, are about 30 feet high, including the battlement. That on the south is higher by a story, and the rampart walk is continued along it—below, as a vaulted _triforial gallery_ in the thickness of the wall, above, as an open walk. The triforial passage in the southern curtain is called the Braose Gallery, why, it is difficult to say, since the barons of that name, though lords of Gower, had no property east of the Nedd, in Glamorgan.

The four _Bastion Towers_ which cap the angles of this ward are very marked features in the appearance of the castle. They have a projection, outside the wall, of three-fourths of a circle; are of three stages, with timber roofs and floors; and measure, in exterior diameter, 36 feet, and within, 18 feet; the walls being 9 feet thick. Each story is lighted by loopholes, very large within, but appearing exteriorly as a line. A well-stair leads to the summit of each. These towers open into the court, and upon the battlements. Their type is best seen in the north-west tower.

The _Eastern Gatehouse_ is a superb pile. It is oblong, and has two half-round bows on its eastern side, and two round turrets, of three-quarter circle projection, at the north-west and south-west angles, within the court. The building is traversed by a portal, entered between the bow towers. The arch is “drop,” and the entrance is defended by gates, palisade, and portcullis. Above the opening into the court is a shoot for dropping missiles upon those below. On each side of the portal are lodges, and the second story is a spacious hall or council-chamber, with a large fireplace, and two large and handsome windows looking towards the court. Above this chamber is the battlement. On the north and south sides of this gatehouse are a number of small apartments, mostly vaulted, and some of them used as portcullis rooms. Over the door leading to the ramparts, on the south, is a small oratory or chapel, with a ribbed and vaulted roof, and two Decorated windows.

The _Western Gatehouse_ is on the same plan, but rather smaller, and without turrets towards the court, its staircases being contained within the thickness of the wall. The lodges on each side of the portal are vaulted and ribbed, with ornamental corbels. They open direct into the court. The state chamber above is not so large as in the eastern gatehouse. It rests upon a vaulted floor.

The _Hall_ is built against the south curtain. It measures 73 feet by 35 feet, and was about 30 feet high. It is lighted by four large and lofty windows towards the court, with ogee arches and reduplicated bands of the ball-flower moulding; within are crocketed canopies, in a somewhat stiff, but excellent, style. Between the windows is a broad fireplace, and to the east of them a door, which was the principal entrance on the south side. A door in the curtain leads down a long vaulted passage to the water gate of the lake, and another door leads to the kitchen and bakehouse, in the middle ward. A plain door at the west end opens into some state apartments, and other doors, and a large window at the east end, communicate with a cellar and the chapel.

The roof, of timber, sprung from fourteen short clustered pilasters, resting upon heads as corbels, placed against the north and south walls. The north wall is of dressed stone, and carried a stringcourse with ball flowers, about 3 feet above the ground. On the east wall is a stringcourse connected with the drip-stone of the chapel window. The east, south, and western sides were plastered, and probably painted, or hung with tapestry.

The _Chapel_, east of the hall—evident from its position and large east window—presents nothing remarkable. There are four _state apartments_ west of the hall, two on the ground and two on the first floor. They are lighted from the north, and one of the windows is of great length and cinquefoiled, with a quatrefoil in the head. A staircase in the thickness of the curtain wall leads into the Braose Gallery, as well as to the upper rooms, and to some appendages connected with the sewage, and which seem to have been added.

In the grand court, a little to the north of the eastern entrance, is the well, about 4 feet diameter.

PRESENT CONDITION.

The castle, in its present condition, assumes a very different appearance from that described as its original state, although enough remains to bear out the description.

The eastern, or main front, is in good preservation. The masonry of the three northern buttresses is but little injured, although between them and the curtain are deep fissures, evidently the work of gunpowder, aided by the presence of a long window on either side. The mine was evidently sprung at the gorge of these buttresses, but the quantity of powder introduced has not been sufficient to overthrow them.

Most of the smaller buttresses on the southern flank are unhurt, but the two at the southern extremity are laid prostrate, with their connecting curtain, 15 feet in thickness, forming a chasm, through which the Nant-y-Gledyr takes its undisturbed course. The object of this destruction, which was permanently to empty the lake, has been gained. It is now a meadow.

The lower story of the grand gatehouse, and the piers of its bridge, are in tolerable order; but the upper chambers of the former are much battered, and the staircases rendered inaccessible, above a certain height, by the absence of the newels, and the fracture of the stone steps. The great pier stands alone, but the outer semi-pier is encumbered with cottages. The outer and eastern moat, now of no great depth, is still marshy. At its northern end the sides are cultivated; towards the southern, cottages are built in it. Between these two portions, north of the pier, is the modern entrance, passing through the water gate, now a battered hole 11 feet wide: near it a door has been opened into a sort of cavity below the lower story of the gatehouse, used as a cart hovel. The foundations of the southern curtain, being in the moat, are tolerably perfect. Those of the northern, elevated upon a bank of earth, are much battered.

The _tête-du-pont_, in which the southern curtain terminates, has suffered considerably. The curvilinear wall between the towers is levelled to a breastwork, and the side of the portal towards the lake has been blown quite away, as has been also the entrance and part of the floor of the neighbouring D-shaped tower.

The northern limb of the bifurcated wall, proceeding from the postern, has been blown out of the perpendicular; and, although there is no great danger of its fall, the loose stones adjoining its fissure are a source of danger to the antiquary who may attempt to scale it. Cottages are clustered against the outside of this wall, and its re-entering angle is occupied by a pigstye.

South of the castle, west of the _tête-du-pont_, the land on the back of the lake is partly in tillage, and partly occupied by cottages; on the north, to the west of the sally-port, the wall between the outer and second moat is reduced to a line of foundation. The peculiar thickness of this wall, where it has served the purpose of a dam, is well seen. The outer moat has, in this direction, been encroached upon by the Nant-Garw road, which tops its counterscarp for about 100 yards. The mill is levelled to the ground. A dry watercourse, and the tunnel enlarged into a breach, still mark the ancient exit of its waters. The drainage of the lake was, of course, fatal to the mill. The modern miller of Caerphilly has removed to the outside of the great southern breach, where he takes advantage of the Nant-y-Gledyr.

The horn-work covering the western entrance remains in excellent preservation, and its revetment, except where in part quarried, is nearly as sound as ever, although its gatehouse and western pier, if ever they existed, have been destroyed. They were probably of timber. The moat, to the west of the horn-work, being still in wet weather the channel of a rivulet, is overgrown with reeds and aquatic plants; to the east or castle side it is swampy in wet weather; and on the south is the bed of the ancient inundation, now a plain of sward, across which a path leads to a spring.

Along the exterior line of defence to the north-west, the redoubt, fosses, and adjacent earthworks are obscured by young trees and brushwood, by the effects of tillage, and by the buildings of the castle farm.

Entering the castle by the east water gate, the wall parallel to the curtain which formed the back of the northern or stable gallery is seen on the right, levelled nearly with the soil, and, consequently, all regular access to the buttress chambers is thus cut off.

The counterscarp of the inner moat is in ruins, choking up the moat. All vestiges of the eastern drawbridge between the grand front and the middle ward have disappeared.

The flanking towers of the eastern gatehouse of the middle ward are destroyed, that on the south completely, and that on the north very nearly so, the ruins of the singular building attached to it having prevented its entire destruction.

At the opposite or western extremity of this ward, the gatehouse is in rather better condition. The portal has been broken away below, but the hollow semi-piers connecting it with the horn-work remain. The front of this gatehouse, of great thickness, is perfect, and is garnished with a pair of chimneys; its inner part has been destroyed. The windows in the front are the only vestiges of the upper story.

On the north front of this ward the curtain is much shattered by the fall of the inner towers, and, as all the bastions have been ruined and blown up, their exact line of boundary is scarcely traceable.

Upon the southern side, the wide lake and the strength of the outbuildings have, in some degree, preserved the curtain, but the doorway of the water gate, which opens in it, is much injured. A few feet below its sill, a long black stain marks the height of the water in former times, and gives about 9 feet as the average depth of the lake.

The gallery, kitchens, &c., which occupy this side, are much injured; but in front of the great oven a portion of the parapet remains, here about 12 feet high, and furnished with a loop.

The tank remains, though nearly choked up with stones and brambles. Since the fall of the adjacent wall of the bastion, its position has been insecure. Recently its wall has cracked, and, unless repaired, it may be expected soon to fall into the moat.

Ascending from the eastern gatehouse, across a mass of almost untraceable ruins, the central ward of the castle is entered.

With the exception of a partial breach on the northern side, the curtains of this inner ward have suffered but little, and the height of the parapet and rerewall may still be inferred, by the projections at its junction with the towers.

The eastern gatehouse has been separated by a blast into two portions; of which the inner, towering to a prodigious height, still remains tolerably perfect; while the outer, broken into fragments, has crushed the lower gatehouse beneath its weight, and still encumbers it with its ruins.

The western gatehouse has been more fortunate; the staircases, however, are broken and irregular, and the vaulting injured. Through the floor of its central apartment a hole has been broken into the vaults of the portal, and of one of the lodges beneath.

In the floor of the Braose or triforial gallery are two large holes which open upon a staircase and passage below.

The buildings within the court have suffered severely. The hall is covered by a temporary roof, but the structure of its ancient roof is apparent from the remaining corbels. The pavement has been long removed: the sills of the windows have been cut away, and the tracery and mouldings which adorned them are broken and defaced.

A window and door at the east end have been shattered into one, and the vaulted passage leading to the offices is a shapeless and rugged hole.

The vaulted roof of the kitchen is broken, but enough remains to display its original structure. The steps of the water-gate gallery have been removed, but the vaulted roof is but little injured.

In the great court a depression in the sward indicates the ancient well. It has lately been opened a few feet down, but nothing of importance was discovered.

The four bastion towers of this ward deserve special notice, since it is the position of one of them which has conferred upon this castle much of the notoriety it possesses.

That these four towers have been mined and blown up with gunpowder, at some period when the effects of that agent were well understood, is evident on inspection. The mine has been sprung near the centre of each tower, and has produced effects, differing in degree only, upon each. That on the north-east is altogether levelled, on the outside, entirely to the ground, crushing in its descent the very bastion on which its foundation rested—on the inside, the door and a portion of wall, as high as the curtain, only remain. The destruction of the north-western tower has not been by any means so complete. Only a third of its outer circumference has fallen, and the rest, deprived indeed of its floors, remains as firm as ever. The portion which has fallen lies in fragments upon the neighbouring bastion.

At the south-western tower the mine has operated outwards; the whole of the outer portion has fallen upon the bastion and into the ditch, but the inner strip connecting it with the rest of the building, and containing the entrances to the several stories, has been protected by the outbuildings on its southern side, and is unshaken.

The last, or south-eastern, is the celebrated leaning tower, the obliquity of which has been much exaggerated, and absurdly accounted for. In the case of this tower the mine has exploded in a contrary direction from the rest, and the inner portion, with the adjoining curtain, has been thrown into the court, while the outer portion remains standing, although the force of the explosion has thrown the mass out of the perpendicular, so that it overhangs its base, towards the south-west, nine feet. The parapet at its summit remains quite perfect, and is the only one in the castle that is so.

The neighbourhood of these four towers, and the intervening gatehouses, upon which the force of the gunpowder has been chiefly employed, is a chaos of ruins; subverted masses of the gallery, staircases, the vaulting of large portions of the chambers themselves, lie in confusion upon the ground; and the thin mantle of vegetation which has enveloped them, although it adds much to their picturesque beauty, increases in no slight degree the difficulty of accurately comprehending their original disposition.

Throughout this immense building the iron work, even to the staples of the doorways, has been removed; nor is there any lead to be found in the sockets of the window-bars.

The hewn stone forming the door-frames, window-cases, newels of the well-staircases, and in some instances the stairs themselves, have been rudely wrenched away, with damage to the walls, for the purpose, probably, of converting them into lime.

Portcullises, stockades, doors, with the roof of the hall, and every particle of timber in the place, have long been removed. Every staircase, gallery, and chamber is pervious to the rain, and exposed to the pernicious force of the frost, yet such and so durable are the materials, and so firm the mortar with which the whole is cemented, that time and weather alone have produced but trifling injuries upon the pile, compared with the wilful destruction of the hand of man.

Before arriving at any general conclusion respecting the age of Caerphilly, it will be proper to make a few remarks upon certain details, on which those conclusions in some measure rest.