Chapter XII: Of the Edwardian or Concentric Castles (11)

The extinction of the De Clares, the division of the inheritance, the construction of Caerphilly, and the gradual pacification of the country, were causes which, with the long-continued misfortunes of the Despensers, no doubt led to the partial neglect of Cardiff, or at any rate, for a time, checked any additions to its buildings. Caerphilly, however, once so magnificent, seems to have been found too heavy a burthen, and to have been neglected, and the heiress who closed the line of Despenser was born at Cardiff. Probably this fact, and the ambitious designs of the Beauchamps, led to the partial reconstruction of the castle; which, moreover, had, no doubt, suffered from Owen Glendower. Richard and Isabel Beauchamp evidently built the great octagonal tower, bonding it securely into the old wall. Connected with this, and at the same time, they added, also outside of and bonded into the wall, the southern lesser wing, or that towards the town gate. Within the court they probably remodelled the lodgings, constructing a grand vault below the hall. Also, they added three turrets to the east wall, groining the interior of, at least, two of them as bays from the great hall, and embellishing with their armorial shield that which opened upon the dais. A tower, containing retiring-rooms at the south, and probably kitchens at the north end seem also to have been additions of the same epoch.

Within the court, upon the line of the eastern curtain, and up the slope of the mound, the Beauchamps also seem to have constructed or reconstructed the cluster of buildings of which a fragment only is left. This is that ruined tower which rises considerably above every other part of the enclosure, and adds as much to the picturesque appearance of the castle as it formerly did to its material strength.

The Herberts, in their day, made considerable changes. They seem to have pulled down the kitchens, or whatever buildings existed at the north end of the lodgings, and to have replaced them by an Elizabethan building with large mullioned bay windows. They also pulled down the buildings on the south, and established a kitchen garden on their site. It is probable that the Herbert work was of a much less solid character than that which preceded it, since it has all disappeared.

Towards the close of the last century, in 1778, soon after the Stuarts came into possession, under the advice of “Capability” Brown they pulled down the Herbert buildings, cleared the great court, filled up the moat of the keep (then called the Magazine), constructed the two wings, modernised the interior of the lodgings, and left everything, in general features, as lately seen.

It is singular, that in so important a castle as Cardiff no traces should remain of a regular gatehouse. Leland speaks of two gates, the Shire Hall and the Exchequer; of which the former was, no doubt, the present gate, and the latter, probably, that from the outer to the middle ward. That the present occupies the place of the original entrance is pretty certain. Where else could it have been? If cut through the earthworks, or through any other parts of the wall, traces would certainly remain. Probably, therefore, as already stated, and as was sometimes the case, the entrance was a mere gateway in the curtain; and the real barrier was that from the outer into the middle ward, which was certainly of great strength. The outer ward must have been a place of common resort for exchequer and other public business; and the knights’ lodgings were occupied regularly by some persons, though not usually by the owners. The traffic attendant upon this state of things would have made the formalities of gates, portcullis, and drawbridge, inconvenient, and may have been a reason for the usual regular defences of the gateway having been dispensed with. The foundations of these buildings, public and private, have been laid open in the great court.

The only remaining difficulty relates to the defences of the circumscribing embankment. Buck’s general view, published in 1748, and an engraving by Ryland, show an extensive wall, covering the great wall and the earthwork at the north-west angle, and prolonged upon the present course of the feeder. This can scarcely be one of Buck’s common errors in perspective, since he shows also the present wall capping the earthen bank. It is, therefore, possible that there was, on the north front, a wall between the bank and the moat. But, however this may be, it must be remembered that the enemy who surmounted the earthworks still had before him a fortress which for thickness and height of wall was equalled by few in Britain. The chapel of the castle, the Shire Hall, and the knights’ houses stood in the outer ward, and might be burned or destroyed; but the knights themselves, and their followers and effects, would take refuge and be in absolute security in the interior parts of the castle.

Rees Meyric, writing about 1578, has left a minute, and, on the whole, a very intelligible account of the castle as restored by the Earls of Pembroke for their occasional residence, before the building of Wilton. From his description it appears that the principal entrance was from the town by “a fair gate,” having the Black Tower with its prisons on the left, and opening into the outer ward. This ward occupied the eastern part of the general enclosure, being separated from the inner and middle wards by the mound and the strong curtain that extended from the Black to the White Tower or keep.

In this outer ward Leland saw the lodgings of the twelve knights of Glamorgan who held their lands by the tenure of castle-guard and the payment of ward silver. In Meyric’s time there remained but one, held by Sir Edward Mansell, and which had belonged to the Bassetts. Here also, near the north-eastern corner, as drawn by Speed and seen by Meyrick, stood the lord’s courthouse, used as the Shire Hall, and in which the lord’s court for the borough was held until late in the last century. This was protected by a special wall, upon which the knights’ lodgings stood and formed a part. A small chapel completed the group. This chapel was granted, with the parish church of St. Mary in Cardiff, by one of the early Norman earls to the monastery at Tewkesbury, and is mentioned in a general charter of confirmation by Nicholas, Bishop of Llandaff (“Dug. Mon.,” ii. 67). The space between the Shire Hall court and the adjacent bank was occupied by gardens and orchards.

The middle ward was entered a little north of the centre of the curtain wall, by a gateway between two drum towers, with a postern in that on the left.

Entering the middle ward, in front was the lord’s lodging, and on the left a stair led to the battlement, and a roadway to the Black Tower, which road was divided by a wall from the woodyard, which, as now, occupied the south-east corner of the court.

On the right, a way, rising rapidly, led to the keep across the ditch of the mound and up its side. This way passed through, and was defended by, two gatehouses duly portcullised, and was further protected by the great curtain, under and along the rear of which it ran. The correctness of this description has been proved by recent excavations.

The middle ward occupied all the space south of the mound, a cross wall dividing it from the inner ward. Its west side was chiefly occupied by the lodgings. The original plaisance, or lord’s garden, was in the south-west corner of this ward, and was by the Herberts converted into a kitchen garden.

The inner ward lay next, north of the middle ward, communicating with it by a door in the cross wall. This ward was also bounded by a part of the ditch of the keep; but it seems to have been of small area, and not to have extended to the north outer wall, but to have been limited by a wall which extended from the north-west angle of the keep, down the slope, towards the north-western angle buttress of the general enclosure. This ward contained the Herbert flower-garden, no doubt placed there for privacy, and to be under the windows of the private apartments, with which it seems to have been connected by an ornamental stone staircase shown in one of the drawings of the last century. A postern opened from this garden, through the great west wall, just outside of the west gate of the town, and not far from the postern of the octagon tower.

The narrow space north of the mound must have been shut off in some way of which there are now no traces.

The main building in Meyric’s time looked, as regards its central part, much as it did ten years ago. The south wing and the present kitchens were wanting, and the entrance was up a few steps and by an open terrace to the south-west corner of the pile. Entering, the visitor stood in the hall, 61 feet long by 18 feet broad, and 13 feet 6 inches high, with a flat ceiling. On the right was a door opening into the stair-turret; on the left another, opening through the great wall into the Beauchamp lesser wing. Walking up the hall, the fireplace was on the left, and beyond it a passage leading into the Beauchamp tower; on the right, two bay windows and three ordinary windows lighted the room, and near the centre was a closet occupying the middle turret. At the upper or north end of the hall, doors led into the private rooms, of large size, on both the hall and upper floors, and lighted with large mullioned windows, looking north into the garden, and west through a bay cut in the outer wall. In a second floor were the bedrooms, and, above all, a flat leaded roof, commanding one of the most lovely prospects in Britain.

This description was drawn up in 1861. Since that time the castle has undergone great alterations; several new towers have been added, and the interior has been completely remodelled. Over the vault of the basement is the library, and above that the hall. The details are in that semi-Italian style in which Burges was so great a master, and all that a very refined taste, on the part of both the owner and the architect, could devise, has been executed in a manner and with a profusion which more than rivals Alnwick.

CARLISLE CASTLE.

The city of Carlisle appears first early in the ninth century, in the history of Nennius, as Cair-Luadiit, or Luilid, or the Castra Luguballia, one of the “octo et viginti civitates ... cum innumeris castellis ex lapidibus et lateribus fabricatis,” enumerated by that respectable authority. The fame of Carlisle, however, is due neither to this early mention, nor to the subsequent gift of the place by King Ecgfrid to St. Cuthbert, but rather to its name as a centre of the early cycle of Arthurian romance, well supported by its subsequent celebration in Border tales and ballads. Indeed, whether in fable or in fact, Carlisle enjoys no mean reputation. It played a part in the British, Roman, Saxon, and Danish occupations of the island, and, after having been held as a frontier fortress, by the Scots against the English, became, in its turn, the great stronghold of northern England against the Scots, and the scourge of the wild tribes of the debatable land.

City and castle are naturally strong. The castle occupies a bluff, projecting towards the north, in a position which no doubt created its early, and caused its long-continued importance. Across its front flows the deep and rapid Eden, here seven miles from the sands, and a score from its final disappearance in the Firth of the Solway. Above the city, and covering its eastern flank, the Petterill comes down to reinforce the Eden, which river, close below the city and beneath its walls, receives, by two branches, the waters of the Caldew, which thus covers the flank of the post towards the west.

The city, so protected on the three sides on which it was most liable to be attacked, is built upon ground about 60 feet above the Eden, and which, slightly rising, terminates to the north in the prominence occupied by the castle, and which no doubt is the site of the “Caer,” whence, whether of British or Roman origin, the city derives the first half of its name.

Luguballia, or Caer Luel, does not stand upon, but about a mile within, the line of the Roman wall. This great work, coming from the direction of Wallby, and in the line of Linstock and Drawdykes, passed by Stanwix, across the river, to terminate on the Solway, at Dykesfield, near Burgh-upon-Sands.

The castle occupies the northern, highest, and strongest part of the city, about 60 feet above the river. It is built upon the New Red Sandstone rock, and to the east, north, and west the slopes are very steep towards the meads, which fringe to a considerable breadth the left bank of the Eden, and the right of the Caldew. In plan the castle area is nearly a right-angled triangle, of which the right angle is to the south-west, and the long side, somewhat convex, and 256 yards in length, is presented towards the north and east. Of the other sides, that towards the city on the south is 200 yards, and that to the west 143 yards in length. The space within the walls is rather under three acres.

The outer defence towards the city is an artificial ditch, 240 yards long, 30 yards broad, and about 10 yards deep, cut across the high ground from slope to slope, and stopped at each end by the wall connecting the city with the castle, which thus, though an independent work, is made to form part of the general _enceinte_. Between the castle and the city is an open space, about 78 yards broad, which contains the ditch and a broad glacis, and which, with the castle, lies outside the municipal boundary. On the west side, about 45 yards within this boundary, is Irishgate Brow, the site of the Irish gate of the city. The Scottish gate stood on a somewhat similar position on the east side; and the third or English gate, guarded by the citadel, was at the opposite or south end of the city.

The castle is composed of an outer and an inner ward, the keep standing in the latter. The inner ward forms the eastern end or apex of the area, of which it occupies about a fifth, and it is divided from the outer ward by a cross wall, 90 yards long, upon the low salient of which is the inner gatehouse. The other sides of this ward are the east, 96 yards, and the south, 73 yards. The keep stands in the south-west angle, about 20 feet from the two adjacent curtains, of which the south is thrown out about 18 feet to gain space, and to form a shoulder flanking the outer gate.

The main entrance is from the city in the middle of the south front, 40 yards west of the keep, through the great gatehouse. The drawbridge across the ditch was removed in the last century, and is replaced by a bridge of stone, which crosses the ditch and leads up to the _gatehouse_, called John de Ireby’s or Irby’s tower. It opens into the outer ward.

The plan of this gatehouse is peculiar. It may be conveniently described as a plain structure, 44 feet square and of 20 feet projection in front of the line of the curtain. It is composed of a basement and upper floor, but the entrance, instead of passing, as usual, through the centre of the building, is at its east end. The south-east angle of the building is hollow, forming a nook or recess of 18 feet each way, the two outer sides being walls 6 feet thick, and about half the height of the main building. These walls are provided with parapets, front and rear, so as to form a covered way, which communicates with the east curtain. In front of this inclosure is the outer gate, of 11 feet opening, with a drop-pointed arch, placed in a sunk square-headed panel, intended to lodge the drawbridge when lifted. This entrance leads into an open chamber 12 feet square, commanded by its outer walls. It is, in fact, a barbican, niched in a hollow angle of the gatehouse, with outer walls the height of the curtain. The barbican leads to a second archway, with a portcullis in a square groove, and a gate. Then follows a vaulted passage ending in another gate which opens into the ward. In the passage, on the left, is a lancet doorway opening upon a rising well-staircase, and beyond it a drop-arched door opening into the lodge. On the right hand is a shoulder-headed door, which leads, or did lead, into a staircase. In the front wall of the gatehouse are two corbels, which seem to have carried a small oriel or bartisan, commanding the approach. Appended to the east side of the gatehouse, but entirely within the ward, is a smaller building, fitted on obliquely, as though an addition.

Entering the outer ward, the well is seen at 40 yards’ distance. The buildings within the ward are modern, of various degrees of ugliness, and painfully substantial. Some are detached and harmless; others are built into the old curtain, so as to conceal and more or less injure it. The curtain, which is extremely curious, and most of it original, is best seen from the outside. Besides the gatehouse, it carries but one mural tower,—an original one, open in the gorge, in the centre of the west front.

The _gatehouse_ of the inner ward is placed upon the salient and central point of the cross curtain. It is called the Captain’s Tower. It is rectangular, or nearly so, about 32 feet each way, with a projection from the curtain of 18 feet. There is one floor above the portal, which is central. The gateway is a low drop arch, flanked by a pair of buttresses. The passage is vaulted, and has a door at each end, and at the inner end also a portcullis. Over the outside of the inner gateway is a ring of tracery, unusual, but effective. Much of this gatehouse is Decorated, but the buttresses seem Norman.

_Face p. 352, Vol. I_ ] There was originally a ditch in front of this wall, and a gate with a drawbridge, all now gone. In later days, a small half-moon battery was thrown up about 8 yards in advance of this gate, and protected by a ditch of its own. This battery was connected by a light field-work, which extended from it to the outer gatehouse, laid in a zigzag form, so as to cover and protect a communication between the two gates, supposing the outer ward to have been breached and entered from the north-west side. These works have been removed and the ground made level.

The cross wall of the inner ward is original, strong, and well built, and backed by a ramp of earth and masonry, containing casemates, one of which has a Perpendicular doorway. These were no doubt added, perhaps by Henry VIII., to enable the wall to carry cannon. In the front of this wall, a little north of the gatehouse, is a large pointed arch of late Norman aspect, now walled up, and which may have been the original entrance.

The _Keep_ is rectangular, 66 feet north and south, by 61 feet east and west, and at present only 68 feet high. It is very plain. There is the common high and stepped plinth, from which rise pilasters, 12 feet broad and 1 foot projection, two on each face, meeting at and covering each angle, which is solid. The walls do not batter, but are reduced slightly by one set-off, at a different level on each face. The window-cases, though in the original positions, are not original. The parapet has been removed, and the summit thus lowered, vaulted and converted into a platform for guns laid _en barbette_. The south wall is 8 feet thick, the west rather more, and the east and adjacent part of the north wall, 15 feet. The interior contains a basement and two upper floors. It is divided by the usual cross wall, laid north and south. The presumption is greatly in favour of this wall being a part of the original design; it has, however, been so much altered that it is difficult to speak positively as to its age or original height. The entrance is at the ground level, at the north end of the east face. It has a portcullis, probably the work of Edward I.; from its jamb on the left, a straight stair ascends in the east wall to the south-east angle of the first floor, as at Chepstow and Ludlow. The basement has been subdivided into four compartments, which are vaulted in stone. One is a passage against the north wall, terminating in a well-stair in the north-west angle. This stair, now disused, is original, and led to the first floor, but probably no higher. From the passage doors open on the left into two vaults, parted by the cross wall of the building. The east vault is one chamber; the west subdivided by a cross wall into two, the inner entered through the outer. The vaulting is a plain pointed barrel, very evidently an insertion. In the smaller vaults are late stone seats. One of the doorways is of Perpendicular date. These vaults were evidently prisons, intended no doubt for the custody of Border reivers, and probably a late addition. In the north wall is a recess connected with the well.

The first floor, about 16 feet high, is vaulted in modern brick, and used as a mess-room. In its north side was a very large fireplace, flanked by Norman columns; but this is now walled up. This floor is now entered solely from the south-east angle, but formerly had also a door near the north-west corner, from the well-stair. There is also a door near the south-west angle, which opens into a second well-stair, which probably led to the upper floors and the battlements. This is now closed, and there is no direct way from the first to the upper floors.

The second floor is reached, at this time, by an exterior door in the west wall, approached by an exterior stair on the north face, and from the rampart on the east. This door is not original, and has been broken through at the place of a recess, probably looped, which led from the second floor into a mural chamber and garderobe in the east wall, and which are seen on the right hand of the door on entering. This second floor is about 16 feet high, and has a timber ceiling. In the east wall, over the present entrance door, is a mural chamber, on the walls of which are some curious carvings by prisoners. One represents the Percy crescent and fetterlock, and another a coat of arms. From this floor a ladder leads through a trap into the upper floor—a modern arrangement.

The third or upper floor is vaulted in modern brick to support the gun platform above. This platform is formed of large slabs of stone, laid down in 1812, which may also be the date of the vault. The walls above are 11 feet thick all round.

The well of the keep is reputed to be Roman, though this is quite as likely to be true of the larger one in the outer ward. When the keep was built, the well, whether new or old, was included within the north wall, between the doorway and the north-east angle, and its pipe was carried up in the wall, no doubt with a lighted chamber at each floor, as indicated by a line of loops still seen in the wall. To make the well available when the keep was shut up as a prison, a hole was cut in the outside of the north wall, near the ground level, into the pipe of the well, and through this the water is still drawn up. The well is 78 feet deep, and its present cill is 92 feet above the sea level.

A curious external stair, probably Edwardian, has been built against the north face of the keep, and leads up, by the well, to the ramparts of the curtain, and so to the door of the second floor of the keep. No doubt its original use was to lead to the ramparts only.

The keep, though much disfigured to make it carry artillery, and much obscured by its conversion into prisons, a mess-room, and store-rooms, is for the most part original, and if cleared, as it should be, of the vaultings of the upper floors, would be a tolerably perfect specimen of a Norman keep, with a full share of mural chambers and appendages.

The hall and other domestic buildings, including what was called Queen Mary’s Tower, most of which were standing at the close of the last century, were ranged at the south-east angle, upon the adjacent walls, as shown in Grose’s view. All are now gone save a fragment of panelled work, part of the shell of a grand staircase of early Edwardian date, which led to the chief apartments.

It appears that in the east wall, near its south end, and, therefore, under the midst of these apartments, was, in the last century, a Norman postern with chevron mouldings and a portcullis groove, leading from the inner ward into the field, independent of the city. These details are shown in some of the late views of the castle. Grose, in 1774, shows, obscurely, the position and size of the gateway, and the Norman pilasters by which the adjacent wall was strengthened. The upper part of this curtain seems to have been Early English. All about this angle is now modern.

The space between the keep and its adjacent curtains has been filled up with earth, kept off from the keep by a sort of area wall, and thus the ramparts here, as well as along the cross wall, are made wide enough for cannon. The upfilling is modern, and should be cleared out.

A walk, called the “Castle Walk,” or Castle Bank, has been laid out at the foot of the curtain outside, whence its details may be conveniently studied. The south-east angle, as has been said, is modern, but proceeding north and westward the old Norman part comes into view, and on the north side of the inner ward the Norman pilasters are seen rising from a plinth, but partly concealed by six enormous stepped buttresses of great projection, and Decorated or Perpendicular date, no doubt a great support to the wall and very curious, but, in a military point of view, very much in the way.

From near the centre of the north front there was a spur work, composed of a strong curtain wall, carried down the slope and ending in a round tower. This was of course intended to annoy the enemy should he attack on the west side. The whole is now removed: possibly it was an Edwardian addition. The north face of the curtain and its north-west corner have been much restored in the Decorated period, but most of the west wall is original. Near its centre is a small tower, like the Alnwick Garret Tower, 28 feet broad by 18 feet deep, and about 9 feet projection, and open at the gorge. It is wholly Norman, of the date of the keep. It has a stepped plinth about 10 feet high, with six sets-off of 2 inches each, and on the front face is a central pilaster, dying into the wall at the base of the original parapet. In its north face, high up, is the shoot of a garderobe flush with the face of the wall, and lower down a stone water-spout. About 10 yards south of this tower are traces of a small postern. The wall connecting the castle with the city on this side is of Norman origin; but has some buttresses apparently Edwardian, in one of which is a garderobe shoot, similar to that of the garret tower. Upon this wall, south of the ditch, is King Richard III.’s, or _Tile Tower_, 26 feet broad by 20 feet deep, of no internal projection. This looks Edwardian, but probably is altered from Norman. It stands about 30 yards north of the city boundary. It is said that a few years ago a subterranean passage was discovered between this tower and the keep, and was at once closed up. This is stated in the “History of Carlisle, 1838,” and should be true, but it seems improbable, for the passage must have dipped deep to pass under the ditch.

The south wall of the castle is for the most part original, the Norman pilasters being seen east and west of the gatehouse. East again of these, as far as the keep, the wall seems Edwardian, but beyond that, where it belongs to the inner ward, it is Norman.

The wall between the south-east angle of the castle and the city, about 90 yards long, is mixed Norman and Edwardian, and as it crosses the ditch it makes a zigzag or shoulder, in which is a large round-headed postern gateway, either original or in the place of an original opening, intended, probably, to allow of cattle being driven on to the esplanade and ditch from the meads on the approach of an enemy. Probably there was a way from this gate along what is called the Lady’s Walk, at the foot of the south wall, as far as the great gate. South of this postern, near what is called the city stone, are traces of a large bastion, probably a part of the city defences. The postern is now walled up, and a bank of earth raised against it behind.

The _enceinte_ wall of the castle, being built against the natural slope, is outside about 28 feet and inside 18 feet high. It varies from 8 feet to 10 feet thick.

The plan of the castle—a headland converted into a detached camp by a cross ditch—may be British or English, but the general outline of the masonry, which follows the line of the earthworks, is Norman. The Norman engineer evidently built the _enceinte_ wall along the edge of the slope, and planned the inner and outer ward, and the keep. The castle is generally attributed to William Rufus, who was here in 1092, when Carlisle, from a Scottish, became an English frontier place. The see was created by Henry I., and the first bishop consecrated in 1133, when probably the city wall, of which a part may still be seen below the deanery, was built. Carlisle was taken by the Scots, and besieged by Stephen and by John. The latter sovereign was here four times in the years 1201-6-8, and 1212. In 1204 the constable of Chester was ordered sixty marcs for fortifying the castle. In 1205 certain grass cut in the neighbourhood was to be stored there. In 1215 Robert de Ros was custos of the castle, but in 1216 Robert de Vipont seems to have been in charge of the repairs and the garrison.

In 1222 Henry III. ordered the houses within the castle to be repaired, and two ballistæ of horn and two of wood were to be sent there. Walter Mauclerc was in charge. In 1222 the garrison was continued, and in the king’s pay.

Edward I. used Carlisle in the Scottish wars, and was here in 1293, after the great fire, which much injured both city and castle in the preceding year. Between 1293 and 1307, he was here seven times, often for many days. He kept his last birthday here in 1307, and went forth hence to die in the immediate neighbourhood. To his reign are to be attributed most of the Edwardian additions, repairs of the wall and keep, the gatehouses, and the domestic buildings, of which only traces remain. In 1302, Bishop Hatton, then governor, expended £275. 4s. 11d. in works. The Great Hall, supposed to have been then erected, needed repairs in 1344.

Camden says that Richard III. repaired the castle, and the six marvellous buttresses may be of that date, though they look earlier. Henry VIII. appears to have much altered the castle, probably to make it carry artillery. He built a block-house or citadel at the south end of the city, and armed it with cannon, and he repaired the city walls. His work was probably done in haste, for, in 1563, the whole was in great decay, as appears from a survey made by the queen’s order, printed by Grose. Three sides of the keep were in a dangerous state. The Captain’s Tower wanted parapets, as did much of the inner curtain, and all the glass of the great hall and great chamber was decayed. In the outer ward was an open breach, 70 feet long, where the wall had fallen in 1557. The result of this survey was the building a chapel and barrack, and no doubt the reparation of the wall and keep.

Mary Queen of Scots found some sort of accommodation here when she fled from Scotland, and gave name to the lodgings lately pulled down. The castle suffered somewhat during the great rebellion, but escaped being dismantled. It was battered from the west, and taken by the Duke of Cumberland in 1745.

Probably the greatest and most destructive changes are those of modern date. The hall was taken down in 1827, and the chapel and other buildings in 1835.

There are traces of two light field-works in the meads north of the castle, the smaller in the rear of the other, evidently prepared for the reception of the Scots, in 1745, as they approached over the brow at Stanwix.

The castle is far too confined and too much a part of the city for the purpose to which it is applied. The military should be removed, the modern buildings cleared away, the keep restored, and the area laid out for the pleasure of the people of Carlisle, and so as to show off the remains to the greatest advantage.

In the neighbourhood of Carlisle are other military works deserving notice. Such is, at Hayton, Castle Hill, a mound 12 feet high, and 100 feet diameter at the top. Linstock Castle was built before 1133, but is now little more than a farmhouse, into which it was converted in 1768. Scaleby Castle was built by Robert de Tilliol, who had licence to crenellate it in 1307. It was largely repaired in 1596, but retains much of its original character, and has always been inhabited. Naworth Castle was the chief seat of the English Barony of Gillsland, at the Conquest granted to Hubert de Vaux, from whom it descended through the Dacres to the Howards. The present structure was the work of Ralph Lord Dacre, in 1335, and is a good example of the quadrangular castles of that date. Rose Castle was in the Barony of Dalston, and is attributed to 1336, when Bishop Kirby had a licence to crenellate. It was also a moated quadrangle. Highhead Castle, on the Ive, is drawn by Buck. Here was a castle in 1326, but the licence is dated in 1342. The castle was rebuilt in 1714. Dalston Hall is a castellated house, probably of the middle of the fourteenth century.

The Roman wall may be traced at various points, both east and west of the passage of the Eden. It is well seen in a field close to Drawdykes, a stiff, square farmhouse, built on the site of a Roman Castellum. The inscription “Diis Manibus,” built into its walls, is said to have been dug up in Carlisle, near the old citadel.

CASTELL COCH, GLAMORGAN.

The river Taff, from its origin under the Brecon Beacons, after a course of about 26 miles through the northern and mountain district of Glamorgan, escapes by a deep and narrow ravine across the last elevation, and rolls its course, unfettered, to the Bristol Channel.

The ridge which it thus finally cleaves, and which divides the hill country from the plain, is part of the great southern escarpment of the coal basin of Glamorgan, supported there by the mountain limestone rising from below, and in its turn reposing upon the old red sandstone, the denuded surface of which forms, under the later horizontal rocks and drift gravel, the basis of the plain. The escarpment, extending for many miles along the contiguous counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, is traversed, in this immediate neighbourhood, by the three passes of the Ebbw, the Rhymny, and the Taff. The heights bounding the latter river, though in actual elevation below some other parts of the chain, produce a very striking effect, from the abruptness of their rise from the plain.

These heights, on each side of the pass, must always have been regarded by the inhabitants of the country as places of great security. On the right bank of the river, the huge lumpish sandstone mass of the Garth rises to 981 feet above the sea, and is crowned by two remarkable tumuli, well known as landmarks in the vale, and visible even from the distant shores of Somerset. The lower Garth, which rises to the front of the great Garth, opposite to Castell Coch, forms the right bank of the pass.

The elevation on the left bank, though lower, is more precipitous. It presents, in the lichen-stained crags about its summits, and the rich verdure which clothes its sides and base, all those features so well known to geologists as characterising the scenery of the mountain limestone.

Nature has rendered the west and south sides of this height— those exposed to any foe from beyond sea—nearly inaccessible. Across the north-eastern side, lines of circumvallation have been hewn out of the rock, the dimensions of which show the value attached to the place, as a fortress, by the Cymry.

There was reason in the choice. From hence the long ships of the Danish rovers could be seen while yet distant from the shore, and timely notice be given, and protection afforded to, the people of the plain, should the ravagers extend their sweep far inwards from the coast. A beacon fire upon the headland of Penarth—celebrated in Anglo-Norman verse for its ancient oak, and long marked by its white church—answered here, or on the opposite Garth, would be repeated from the summits of the distant mountains of Brecon and Caermarthen, and would at once spread the tidings of invasion over the whole of the southern coast.

The Normans, within a century and a half after the conquest of Glamorgan, had completed a chain of castles along the plain country, from Chepstow to Pembroke, and were only exposed to the invasions of the Welsh from the mountain tracts upon the north. To check these they threw up a number of fortresses, either upon, or within the verge of, the hill country, of which Morlais and Castell Coch may be cited as examples.

The site of the Cymric camp was far too difficult of access to allow of the ready transport into it of provisions, or munitions of war, or of a constant and rapid communication with the chief castle at Cardiff. Lower down the scarp, though still high above the plain, the Norman engineer selected a natural platform on the limestone rock, separated from the main scarp by a natural depression, and sufficiently removed from the summit to be out of the reach of any military engines with which the Welsh were likely to be acquainted, or which they were likely to be able to bring, with their forces, against the castle. There is an easy approach to this platform from the east, which probably communicated with the old road, called Roman, and no doubt Cymric, which leads direct from Cardiff to Rubina, and close upon which is the low circular mound, which was the site of a tower of the time of Henry III., at Whitchurch, and the Celtic tumulus of Twmpath. Upon this platform was erected the fortress which is here to be described.

Castell Coch, so called from the red tint of its materials, is, in general plan, a triangle, each angle being capped by a drum tower. Its general divisions are the _south_, _east_, and _northern towers_, the _gate tower_, the _curtains_ and _hall_, and the _outworks_.

The platform occupied by the whole is about 200 yards long by 70 yards broad, and the principal works of the castle occupy its west end. The south face is, in part, precipitous, and from 20 feet to 30 feet high. The north face, towards the upper hill-side, is deepened into a formidable moat, and the east end was defended by a fosse, cut deeply across the rock, and beyond this by two towers, connected by a curtain wall.

The _North Tower_ rises from a square base to a cylindrical superstructure, the north and south angles terminating in buttresses, each the half of a pyramid cut vertically and diagonally across, after a fashion very common in Welsh castles, and well seen in Marten’s tower at Chepstow. The cylinder is 40 feet in diameter. It contains three stories, of which the middle one is on a level with the inner court, or _terre-plein_, of the place.

The lower story may have been a cellar. It is vaulted, and has two great cross-springer ribs, and two windows opening high above the floor. A narrow passage, vaulted, with steps, leads into it from the court. Its internal diameter is 18 feet, its walls upwards of 10 feet thick. The windows were mere loopholes.

The middle story is also circular and vaulted, with similar ribs. Here, however, the windows open nearly on the level of the floor, though also loops. There is a fireplace, with a flue carried up in the wall. The flue is backed with stone. The entrance to this chamber is also from the court, and, on the east side of the vaulted passage, a gallery passes off in the thickness of the wall, and leads to what was a small garderobe, occupying a square projection on the east side of the tower, at its junction with the curtain. The general dimensions of this story, and the thickness of the walls, correspond with those of the room below.

The upper story contains one chamber, the south and east sides of which are flat, the rest circular. Here are no less than three fireplaces, each of large dimensions, with funnels in the thickness of the wall. It contains also two small recesses, one a sort of sink, and has two windows. There are also two doors, one, on the south side, opening upon the roof and ramparts of the hall and west front, the other, eastwards, leading to the ramparts of the great or northern curtain. Access to this chamber, from below, seems to have been obtained by an exterior stair between the tower and the hall. This story, within, is about 26 feet mean diameter, and the walls vary from 2 feet 3 inches to 4 feet thick. It was roofed flat, with timber, and above were ramparts and a parapet, probably reached by means of a trap-door in the roof. It was evidently the kitchen, here, as at Morlais and Coningsburgh, placed in an upper floor.

This tower is the most perfect of the whole, and in tolerable preservation, although the lower chamber is half full of rubbish; the small apartment connected with the middle story is broken down, and the roof and ramparts are wanting on the summit. This tower, however, is evidently the type of, and has served in the present instance as a clue to, the original plan of the others.

The _South Tower_ corresponded nearly to the last, and, like it, appears to have contained three chambers, and at its junction with the west curtain, a square projection, containing in the middle story a small garderobe, and in the upper, probably a communication with the battlements of the hall. The lower chamber is entered by a vaulted passage, down steps, from the courtyard. The middle or main chamber probably was entered on the level, by a passage from the courtyard, and a mural gallery seems to have led from this passage to the window or opening in the south end of the hall. The upper chamber was accessible from the hall battlements, as it probably also was from those of the gateway curtain. It is uncertain whether this tower rose from a square base—probably it did. Its upper part was cylindrical, 40 feet diameter. The walls are 8 feet thick, and the chambers do not appear to have been vaulted. This tower is in a ruined state. The two outer thirds of its circumference have been blown away by a mine, but the part connected with the hall, including a door below, two windows in the lower and middle story, and the small chamber in the wall, remain tolerably perfect, and remove all doubts as to the original elevation and particulars of the whole.

The _East Tower_ corresponds in altitude and general arrangements to the other two, like them containing three stories. It is cylindrical from the base, and 40 feet diameter; but, towards the courtyard, it presents a flat face, with two shoulders projecting at its junction with its curtains. Like the other towers, it has a square projection for a small chamber, here found at its junction outside with the great or northern curtain. The lower story, like those of the other towers, is below the level of the court, but instead of being entered directly by a distinct staircase, a gallery branches off from the passage to the middle chamber, and descends, winding in the thickness of the wall, to a vaulted prison below. This lower chamber is filled up, but its existence is evident enough, and the staircase is seen through a great rent in the wall. The diameter is 18 feet 4 inches, and the thickness of the wall 10 feet 10 inches.

The first floor is entered by a passage from the court, on a level. This chamber had two loops. There is no fireplace, and no trace of a vault, although the walls are above 10 feet thick. On either hand, opening out of the passage leading to this chamber, are galleries in the wall, that on the right descending to the chamber below, that on the left running on a level, to open into a small chamber in the square projection between the tower and the great curtain. Here seems to have been the well. The upper chamber appears to have been entered from the ramparts by a long pointed doorway in the gorge; and over the lower door, leading from this, on the right, a passage leads to a spiral stair in the wall, which evidently gave access to the battlements of the tower. This tower has been rent asunder by a central explosion, but the outer part has only shifted a little.

The _Hall_ stands upon a vaulted chamber, now filled up with rubbish. It occupies the space between the north and south towers, which it connects, its outer wall forming the curtain between them. It is rectangular, 30 feet 8 inches by 17 feet 8 inches, vaulted, with a pointed arch, and having its outer wall 7 feet, and its inner wall 6 feet, thick. In the former are three loops, splayed towards the interior, and having pointed heads. They are high above the base of the wall, and command a fine view. The door was near the north end of the opposite side, and possibly there may have been a fireplace on the same side with the door. At the south end is a window, which opens into a sort of gallery in the south tower.

Above the vaulted roof was, probably, a platform, with a low battlement towards the court, and a high one towards the exterior of the castle. This platform communicated with the north and south towers directly, and with the court by a narrow stair, already noticed as leading to the upper chamber of the north tower. The hall is now much mutilated, the vault and part of the east wall being destroyed.

The great curtain is a large irregular segment of a circle, about 80 feet exterior face, and with a chord of about 60 feet. It originally was a wall 3 feet thick, which appears to have been found of insufficient breadth for the use of military engines on the north and north-east battlements, upon these, the weakest sides of the fortress; wherefore a parallel wall was built within and against it, 6 feet thick, extending the whole way from the north to the east tower. The old wall contains seven loops at the courtyard level, and to preserve these an arch, 6 feet diameter, is turned in the new work, opposite to each. Above, there is, of course, a rampart walk of ample width, entered from the tower at either end. The exterior of this wall, below the level of the court, is strengthened by a stone facing, forming the scarp of its moat. This curtain remains tolerably perfect. There is a breach near its junction with the north tower, and the new and inner wall is wanting opposite to the four loops, though traces of it are discernible in the mortar upon the old wall.

The _Gatehouse Curtain_ is much less perfect. It appears to have been slightly convex in plan towards the exterior, and about 28 feet in length between the south and east towers, from both of which its ramparts were, no doubt, entered. It is about 5 feet thick. One loop remains, about 6 feet above the courtyard level, which could only have been used by means of a platform, perhaps of timber. Twenty-one feet from its junction with the east tower, a small half-round tower seems to have projected from the curtain, serving, no doubt, to defend the gateway, which seems to have lain between this and the south tower, and probably consisted in a simple archway and passage, with a portcullis and doors. That the entrance was here, and between these towers, is certain from the causeway leading to it, but the gate-tower, and most of the curtain, are utterly gone.

Thus much of the castle. We next reach the _Outworks_.

The south and north tower, and the hall curtain, needed no exterior defence. They rise from a very steep bank, and their foundations are of scarped rock and solid masonry. They are quite unassailable from below. The other two sides are more exposed. In front of the south tower is the commencement of the moat, broken by a causeway opposite to the inner gateway, and leading from it to the outer court. Beyond the causeway the moat deepens, and is carried round the east tower and great curtain, steep and deep, and hewn in the rock, so as to render this, the naturally weaker side, very strong. The moat, which must always have been dry, ends, opposite to the north tower, in a curious excavation, resembling a water-tank, which, however, it could scarcely have been.

The outer court of the castle occupies the remainder or east end of the natural platform. Its dimensions are about 100 feet long by 40 feet wide. Its southern side, a continuation of the line of the same face of the castle, was defended by a precipice, partly natural, partly scarped by art, though now broken down and filled up. There are no traces of a wall on this side, but probably there was a parapet.

The opposite, north, or landward, side, is defended by a branch from the moat, which, after being interrupted and traversed by a causeway, sweeps round the east end of the works, and terminates in a deep and broad excavation, which is carried to the brink of the cliff, and thus defends also the east end of this outer court.

The west end of the platform, or that towards the castle, is cut off from that building by its proper moat, traversed, as already mentioned, by the causeway leading to the inner gateway. There is no evidence of any walled defence to this court, and yet, without such, the moat on the land side would scarcely have been sufficient to delay an enemy, so as to expose him to the fire from the east tower and gateway curtain, upon which the defence of this side depended.