ill THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY OF THE CASTLES OF AND OF CASTELL COOH, BY GEORGE T. CLARK, ESQ. LONDON : W. PICKERING, 177, PICCADILLY. TENBY: R. MASON. 1852. 629819 GENERAL SURVEY. KXDWEL&lf CASTLE DA K KIDWELLY CASTLE. DESCRIPTION. THE reader who places before him the two sheets, 37 and 41, of the Ordnance Survey, may observe, between the ranges of Penbre and Mynydd-Sulen on the east, and Mynnydd-Garreg and Llangyndeyrn on the west, a valley of about ten miles in length, and from one and a-half to three in breadth. The head waters of its stream spring from the well known elevation of Mynydd- mawr, and its mouth opens upon the Bristol Channel, between the estuaries of the LJwchwr and the Towy, in the bay of Caermarthen. This is the valley of the Gwendraeth (white-strath) " Gwendra that with such grace delib'rately doth glide" one of the larger rivers of Caermarthen. West of this valley, between it and the Towy, but of much smaller dimensions than either, is a second valley and stream, tributary to the former, and bearing, like it, the name of Gwendraeth (" fach," or " the less," being its distinction). 4 KIDWELLY CASTLE. The rivers meet in a sort of estuary, chiefly formed by the " Gwendraeth-fawr." These valleys are traversed by the roads leading from the strait and tower of Llwchwr to the castles of Llan- stephan and Caermarthen, as well as by the northern and originally Roman road from Swansea to Caermarthen, so that the district lies in the way between England and Pembroke and Cardigan, and was in consequence known at an early period to, and often crossed by, the Norman invaders of South Wales, who attached considerable im- portance to its possession. The castle and town of Kid welly are placed upon either bank of the Gwendraeth-fach, on the verge of the hill country, here divided from the sea by a rnarsh of a quarter of a mile in breadth. The new town, parts of which however are of high antiquity, with its church, and some remains of a priory, stands upon the left bank, and is traversed by the old road from Llwchwr to Caermarthen. A mile east of the town, the road crosses the Gwendraeth-fawr by an ancient and narrow bridge. Close west of the town a similar bridge crosses the Gwendraeth-fach, just below the castle, with which it is connected by a suburb, said by Leland to be the original town, and, in his time, enclosed within a wall with three gates. The castle stands from eighty to 100 feet above the KIDWELLY CASTLE. river, on the right bank, here steep and rocky. It thus protects and overawes the town and priory, which are opposite to and below it. The eastern face is defended naturally by the steep and the river. On the other sides the defences are wholly artificial. The castle weir and a leat lead the water from the river, cutting off a bend, to the mill, which is placed between the castle and the town bridge. Kidwelly is distant from the tower of Llwchwr, eleven miles ; from the castles of Llanstephan and Caermarthen, five and nine miles ; and from those of Dryslwyn and Dynevor, thirteen and eighteen miles. The Gwendraeth seems to have derived a- part of its name from the "traeth" or "strath" ^f meadow land found along its course, the fertility of which may have led to the establishment of the town and priory of Kid- welly. Cydweli is the name of one of the three commots of Eginoc, one of the four cantrefs or hundreds of the ancient county of Caermarthen, which included Gower. The adjacent commot of Carnwyllion, north of Kidwelly, contained the strong pass of the same name, and is often mentioned in local records. The lordship of Kidwelly extends from the Llwchwr to the Towy, and includes the parliamentary borough of Llanelly, and the municipality of Kidwelly. The fran- 6 KIDWELLY CASTLE. chisc of the corporation is reputed to extend beyond the town, around the castle precinct. Of this franchise the mayor is the lord, holding his courts in the town. The courts for the lordship are held in the castle. Kidwelly is a castle of the Edwardian or concentric type, slightly modified from the perfect examples of Beaumaris and Caerphilly. It is composed of the " castle proper," containing the inner and outer ward, and the " outworks," containing the southern and northern plat- forms. The castle is in plan nearly a semicircle, the main ditch forming the curve, and the cliff and river the chord. The long axis lies north and south, and the gateways are at opposite ends. The whole work measures 440 yards, by from ninety to 130, and covers about three acres. The INNER WARD contains the drum towers, the cur- tains, the chapel tower, the hall, and the kitchen. The drum towers are four ; the north-west, or black tower ; the south-west, or Astragun tower ; the south- east, or Margaret Dun tower; and the north-east tower. All are of one date, and nearly of one pattern, cylin- drical, thirty feet diameter, with walls nine feet thick. They are forty-four feet high, with a battlement, and each has a well stair at the gorge, terminating above KIDWELLY CASTLE. 7 in a square turret, the top of which is fifty-three feet high. Each contains a " souterrain," and three stages of circular chambers, looped outwards, usually with three openings. There are also the usual " sewer chambers" in the walls, and doors opening upon the ramparts of the curtains. There are also some points of difference. The chambers of the south-west tower are vaulted ; the rest have timber floors. In this tower the souterrain is entered by a long gallery in the wall, common to the south curtain and the kitchen, opening from the porter's lodge. This is the " porter's prison," and possibly the vaulting was to allow the whole tower to be used for this purpose. The north-west tower is cylindrical below, but above, it passes into a sort of heart-shaped plan, pre- senting towards the gorge a double bow, with a flat recess between. These two towers cap the angle of their curtains, and are engaged in about one-fifth of their cir- cumference. The north-east and south-east towers are placed, not at the angles, but on the faces of the north and south curtains, close to their east ends, and on the edge of the river cliff. Besides their junction with the curtains of the inner ward, they are connected north and south with that part of the curtain of the outer ward which is built along the edge of the cliff. The south-east tower is closely connected with the chapel tower, and has also a K1DWELLY CASTLE. door opening upon the curtain of the outer ward, leading to the great gate-house. The curtains are four in number. That to the east is irregular, low, and weak ; the cliff has been considered its defence. The other three are six feet thick, and eighteen feet high to the top of the parapet. Along each is a rampart walk, having a parapet pierced with loops and a rere wall. The curtains enclose a quadrangle 80 yards square. The north curtain is pierced by a gateway, six feet wide, with a low drop arch, and the groove of a port- cullis worked from the rampart ; it is near the east end of the wall, and nearly opposite the northern gate-house. This curtain is pierced by two loops, which seem to have been defended from the ground level. The west curtain has three loops, two of which opened from the kitchen. The south curtain is pierced near its centre by a gate- way, ten feet wide, with a low drop arch and portcullis groove. The wall has been thickened to give depth to the gateway, and possibly to allow of the superstruction of a low tower above it. This is the principal entrance to the inner, and opens towards the great gate-house of the outer, ward. The chapel tower, forming part of the east curtain, deserves particular attention. It is an oblong building, springing from a rectangular base ; but, as the two outer KIDWELLY CASTLE. or eastern angles are formed by buttresses, each of which is a half pyramid, cut diagonally, the plan of the upper part is an oblong, with the two eastern angles removed, so as to form an apse. As this tower projects some way down the steep, its outer face is fifty-six feet high, and its inner only twenty feet. Its top is twenty-four feet lower than that of the contiguous south-east tower. Against the south side of the chapel tower is a small square projection, containing a vestry. This does not rise to the clerestory. The chapel tower has three floors, all ceiled with timber. The interior is twenty-six feet from the altar to the west end, and eighteen feet broad. The east wall is six feet thick ; the west wall, three feet. In the south- east corner is a mural gallery, leading to a sewer chamber below the vestry. In the north-east corner is a well stair. The ground floor is below the level of the inner ward, and is entered by a curved stair from the adjacent hall. The next, or ground floor, is on the level of, and entered directly from, the hall. Above this, and on the rampart level, is the chapel. This includes two tiers of windows, the upper being a clerestory, and is entered by a west door. The east window is common to both. It is a long narrow and acutely trefoiled loop, set in a broad recess, which nearly occupies the whole east division of the apse, and has a flat drop arch with a plain rib. B 10 KIDWELLY CASTLE. In the face next south of the altar place is a small trefoiled piscina, and next to this a broad recess or sedile, under a drop arch. On the south side a small acutely pointed door leads to the vestry, and west of this is another recess, with a flat drop arch, and in it, close to its east side, a loop, long since blocked up, intended to defend the nook between the vestry and the south-east tower, and to rake the adjacent curtain. There is also a trefoiled loop in the north wall, and a door, long closed up. The clerestory is lighted by nine windows, three on each side, and three, including that to the east, in the apse. They are all alike, long, narrow, acutely trefoiled openings, within broad recesses, plainly ribbed, and with flat drop arches. All rest inside upon a string, a filleted half round, which dips to pass under the east window. Between each pair of windows is a plain corbel block for the roof timbers. There is nothing, save the battlements, above the chapel. The walls have been stuccoed. The west wall has neither ashlar dressings, nor string course, and is of different date and inferior work to the rest of the tower. The hall, sixty feet by twenty-five, filled up with the retiring room the whole east side of the inner ward. Its south end is formed by the south-east tower, the circular face of which has been patched and plastered to present a flat surface towards the hall, and this addition shows KIDWELLY CASTLE. 11 still the height and pitch of the hall roof. The west wall of the chapel forms part of the east wall of the hall ; and in another part of this, which was also the outer wall towards the river, are traces of a window recess, like those of the chapel. Near this, also connected with the chapel, is a projecting space from the curtain, which may have been a sort of oriel or small chamber attached to the hall. In the west wall, at the south end, is an ashlar door or window jamb. The west wall is destroyed. The retiring room is of the breadth of the hall, and thirty feet long. It communicates with the north-east tower. Its west wall is tolerably perfect. It has been stuccoed, and includes a door. The cross wall, and per- haps the place of its door opening into the hall, may be traced. A trefoiled and recessed loop, of the date of those in the chapel, remains on the east side, in the curtain ; and close south of it is the fire-place, with a carved base to the chimney shaft. The whole of the east curtain seems to have been employed to carry the roofs of the hall and retiring room, and was probably defended by a battlement accessible from the roof gutter. The com- manding position of the north-east and chapel towers, and the steep rise from the river, would render this the least accessible side of the castle. The kitchen is placed opposite to the hall, in the south- west corner of the court. It is thirty feet by seventeen 12 KIDWELLY CASTLE. feet, and appears from its remaining gable to have had a highly pitched roof. At each end, north and south, is a large fire-place, with magnificent tunnels. On the west side, which is formed by the curtain, a window of narrow opening but broad recess opens into the outer ward. Towards the south end is a third fire-place, of smaller dimensions, apparently intended for stewing, and similar operations, like a modern hot closet. In the east wall is a narrow doorway, placed within and on one side of a wider arch, which at breast high is opened to its full breadth. This seems to have been devised to allow servants to carry out large dishes without opening a doorway of unnecessary breadth. On each side of this door are low, broad openings, evidently in- tended for buttery hatches. The north-west angle of this ward is occupied by an enclosure forty-five feet square, of which the two curtains form two sides. It is walled in, and may have contained offices or barracks. The OUTER WARD is nearly semicircular, the inner ward being built upon the middle of its chord. Its parts are the great and lesser gate-houses, the curtains, the mural towers, and the offices. The inner ward has no ditch, and the space between the walls of the two wards is, on the north side, ninety feet ; on the west side, sixty feet ; and, on the south side, eighty feet. - GATEWAY. KIDWELLT CASTILE. Published by h Mas KIDWELLY CASTLE. 13 The great gate-house is a fine pile of building. It is an oblong mass, eighty feet broad by fifty deep, and sixty- two high. The gateway is eleven feet high, and eight feet broad, and has a high drop arch. It is placed in a very flat, segmental, arched recess, twenty feet high. The sill of the doorway is twelve feet above the bottom of the ditch, and on either side it is flanked by a conical round tower, twenty-four feet in diameter below, and twenty feet above. Above the gateway, between and on a level with the top of the towers, runs a bold machico- lation of three flat arches upon two corbels. The gate -ho use has a circular projection eastward towards the river ; and, at its north-west angle, a square turret terminates in a watch-tower, which rises ninety- three feet above the court, and is known as " Pigin tower." 1 The portals, both towards the field and towards the court, have plain chamfered ribs in ashlar ; the portal vault is turned in rubble, with a portcullis groove at either end. The gates open inwards, so that the gate- house could be defended on either side. There are also three chases in the vault, intended for the passage of gratings. The middle one appears to have been long closed up. The drawbridge dropped across the moat, here reduced sixteen feet, upon a pier connected with the barbican. 1 From " Pigwn," a turret, or beacon, in Welsh. H. H. K. 14 KIDWELLY CASTLE. Entering by the great gate, on the right and left are dungeons and guard chambers, with loops commanding the approach. The doorways are small, with arches nearly half round, or very slightly pointed. One cham- ber on the right contains a large domed water tank below the floor, two singular recesses in the wall, and a sewer room. A well stair at the north-west angle leads to the first floor, which is also reached by an exterior and state staircase from the court, under which is a porter's lodge. The subterranean chambers, and those on the ground floor are vaulted. The first, or principal floor, contains a state room, forty feet by seventeen feet, with two large windows opening upon the court, and a fire-place between them. The windows appear to have been of two lights, trefoiled, and they are placed in large, flat, segmental recesses. The roof has been of timber, flat, and rather low. On the same floor are three attendants' rooms, and a portcullis chamber ; and on the east side, over the tank room, is a vaulted kitchen, with a large fire-place and oven. From the kitchen a small door leads to the east rampart, and along it to the south-east drum tower. Two well stair- cases lead to the second floor, which contains also a large chamber, with windows of two lights, and trefoiled, opening upon the court, and a fire-place. Here also are several bedrooms, with doorways of carved ashlar. This KIDWELLY CASTLE. 15 floor seems intended for the accommodation of persons of condition. The well stair at the north-west angle is continued upwards to the watch tower ; and from near this stair a narrow door leads to the rampart of the curved curtain, and so to the mural towers of the outer ward. The watch tower is considerably higher than any other part of the castle, and commands an extensive view over both sea and land. The lesser or northern gate-house is in great part de- stroyed, and appears to have been hastily built. It is on a small scale, and composed only of two half round towers, the back or gorge walls of which, and part of the portal, have been destroyed. There appears to have been an upper story entered by a staircase in the adjacent western curtain. The portal arch is gone ; but there are traces of a drawbridge which worked between two side walls, looped to rake the ditch. That on the east remains. The portal was ten feet wide, and the bridge dropped with a span of about eighteen feet upon a pier still re- maining, and projecting from the counterscarp of the fosse. The bridge walls are later than the towers, and these probably than the curtain. This gateway is placed at the north extremity of the outer ward, but a few yards from the river bank. It appears to be an addition. The curtain of the outer ward is in three parts ; one, 16 KIDWELLY CASTLE. 330 feet long, and curved, encloses the ward on the west or landward side, and connects the gate-houses with the mural towers. This wall is six feet thick, and twenty feet high, and is defended by the main fosse. Besides openings from the gate-houses, there is a direct access to this rampart from the court by a mural staircase built against the wall. The rampart walk is protected by a parapet and a rere wall, both of which, to give breadth to the walk, are thrown out upon corbels or false machi- colations. The second part of the curtain is straight, or nearly so, and extends fifty feet in length along the river cliff, from the great gate-house to the south-east drum tower. Its rampart is accessible from each end. This wall is thirty feet high, and seven feet thick. The third portion of the curtain also runs along the river cliff, and extends ninety feet from the north-east drum tower to the north gate-house, near which it makes a salient angle. Between this angle and the gate it is five feet thick ; elsewhere, only two feet. Possibly there was a tower at the angle. The mural towers are three in number, all placed in the western curtain. They are half round, thirty feet high, twenty-two feet in diameter, with an external pro- jection of eight feet, and a slight square projection within, formed by the gorge wall. They have a ground floor, KIDWELLY CASTLE. 17 looped, a first floor with a fire-place, and a chamber on the level of the rampart walk, and forming a part of it. The walls are five feet thick. The middle tower of the three has fallen into the fosse. The masonry of these towers is rude, and they are ill bonded into the wall. The offices in this ward consist in the walls of a de- *A/ tached building, sixty-five feet by thirty feet, with high gables, placed west of the inner ward ; another room, sixty feet by thirty-five feet, built against the river curtain, near the northern gate-house ; and some out- buildings, kitchens probably, and a bake-house, built against the curved curtain, close west of the same gate- house. These buildings were probably intended for the accommodation of the garrison. The main ditch sweeps round the north, west, and south sides of the outer ward, opening upon the river cliff at, and rising towards, each end. The opening at the south-east end, near the great gate-house, is closed by a batardeau, which seems to have been embattled towards the river, and to have been approached from the barbican. There are some traces of a similar wall at the other end, next the north gate-house. This ditch is high above the river, but is fed by land waters, and part of it is still wet. It is about thirty feet broad, and of con- siderable depth. Westward it gives off a branch which 18 KIDWELLY CASTLE. divides the north and south outworks, and communicates with the ditches of the former. The barbican appears, from the traces of its foundations, to have been a small circular tower. It occupied a rocky knoll on the counterscarp of the main ditch, opposite the great gateway, and on the edge of the steep bank of the river. It evidently was intended to cover the draw- bridge ; and, to force the approach to this entrance, to pass exposed to the fire of the adjacent western curtain. This work seems to have been cut off from the other outworks by a dry ditch, or covered way, leading from the river, south-west of the barbican towards the main ditch. The outworks are divided into north and south plat- forms by the branch of the main ditch already mentioned. The south platform is defended on the east by the mill leat. It was walled in, and seems to have been about 170 yards long by 130 yards broad. Part of the wall remains on the west side, and on the north, along the edge of the branch ditch. At the south end the approach still lies through the outer gate-house, part only of which is destroyed. The portal, a drop arch with portcullis grooves, remains ; above it are three windows, with flat, segmental arches. From the sill of the central window a hole opens upon the outside of the portal, probably for the passage of missiles. The building has a ground and KIDWELLY CASTLE. 19 upper floor. There are no traces of ditch or drawbridge. The work is rubble. There does not appear to have been any ashlar. The style is Perpendicular possibly of the date of the great gate-house, probably later. Grose gives a drawing of this gate-house in 1786, in which it appears much in its present condition. The northern platform covers the north and west quarters of the castle. It measures about 130 yards long by ninety broad, and is enclosed within a wet ditch, a branch of which nearly cuts off its northern portion, leaving a narrow neck towards the river, across which lay the approach to the south entrance. Within the ditches of this work are high banks, and indications of a slight wall, and perhaps of a tower, near the entrance passage. This castle has sustained less injury than might have been expected. It has been dismantled, and the iron work and timber removed, but none of its towers or walls appear to have been blown up. The mural tower, missing from the outer ward, has probably slipped into the ditch from some defect in its foundation. The castle is easy of access and examination, not being overgrown with ivy or brushwood. The details of Kid welly afford some general indications of the age of its several portions. There is nothing which 20 KIDWELLY CASTLE. can safely be pronounced to be Norman work, although no doubt the present was preceded by a structure par- taking both of this and the Early English style. The general plan or arrangement of the castle seems, from its style, to be of one date probably that of Henry III., or early in the reign of Edward I. The chapel is of this age. Its west wall however appears, from the peculiarities of its bond, to be of earlier date than the rest, and of the same date with the south-eastern drum tower, say 1260-1280, which would be the date of all the towers and curtains of the inner ward, for all are in the same style. The great hall seems a little later than the south- eastern tower, the face of which has been flattened to suit its gable. The walls and mural towers of the outer ward may be a little later than the inner ward. That they are part of the original plan may be inferred from the want of strength in the inner gate-houses. The great gate-house is decided, but Early, Perpen- dicular, perhaps of the reign of Richard II. or Henry IV., 1388-1400. Pigin tower is a later addition. KIDWELLY CASTLE. 21 PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE HISTORY OF KIDWELLY CASTLE. The name of Kydwelly, or Cydwelhi, is Welsh. Leland, whose etymologies are not infallible, derives the name from "Cathwelli," or " Cattalectus," because Cattas used to make his bed in an oak there ! Others explain " Cyd" to mean an " Aber," or junction of waters. The town is no doubt of Welsh origin, and of high antiquity. 2 This does not apply to the castle, which, in its present form at least, is of later date, and the site of which, though naturally strong, was not that which a Celtic engineer would have selected. The castle is supposed to have been founded by a certain William de Londres, one of the twelve Norman knights who, in 1091, assisted Fitzhamon in the conquest of Glamorgan, and who is recorded afterwards to have pushed his arms into Caermarthen, no doubt when, in 1093, the Normans ravaged Gwyr, Kid welly, and Ystrad Tywy, and then to have won from the Welsh the lord- ships of " Kydwelly and Carnwilthion." [Powel, 32.] In Glamorgan, this William is known as the founder of the castle of Ogmore, the Norman keep of which, though injured, is still standing. It is probable that his work& 2 The region of " Cetgueli" is mentioned by Nennius, and in Brut y , A.D. 991, also in the Annales Cambria, viii. H. H. K. 22 KIDWELLY CASTLE. at Kidwelly were of a less solid character, else all traces of them could scarcely have disappeared. It is possible that the gain of de Londres was confined to the town and suburb of Kidwelly, for, in 1100, Henry I. wrested from lorwerth ap Blethyn his lands, and gave to Howel ap Grono the districts of Strath-Tywy, Kid- welly and Gower. Howel however was, in 1102, slain by the Normans, who had already taken from him the castle of Rydcors. [Powel, 124.] In 1113 Griffith ap Rhys, prince of South Wales, took Caermarthen, and retreated upon his stronghold in Strath-Tywy, whence he marched upon Gower. William de Londres deserted Kidwelly and fled. The Welsh ravaged the lands and burnt the castle \Powe,l, 145], which then could hardly have been a regular Norman fortress. After this followed a period of tranquillity, and Maurice de Londres had a park at Kidwelly, and pre- served his venison strictly. On one side of the park, next the sea, were large sheep pastures. His wife, wishing to have some of the deer destroyed, caused wool to be inserted into the bowels of some of the stags, and then showed it in proof that they destroyed the sheep ; on which Maurice allowed the deer to be attacked with dogs. [Giraldus Cambrensis, i. 168.] On the death of Henry I., 1135, while Griffith ap Rhys was absent in North Wales, Gwenllian his wife led an army into Kid- KIDWELLY CASTLE. 23 welly. She was defeated and put to death by Maurice de Londres, its lord, and by Geoffrey, constable to the bishop. Her eldest son, Morgan, was slain, and his brother, Madgon, was taken. [Giraldus Ccunbrensis, i. 168.] "The battle field," says the editor of Giraldus, " is still called ' Maes Gwenlian/ and a tower in the castle, 'Twr Gwenlian." 1 In 1145, there were already castles at Llanstephan and Dynevor, and in 1150, at Llwchwr. The pedigree of De Londres has not been clearly recorded, but the descent of Kidwelly is nearly, if not quite, as follows: I. WILLIAM, the founder, was father of, II. SIMON, father of another, III. WILLIAM, whose son and heir was, IV. MAURICE de Londres, contemporary with Henry I. Grose mentions a THOMAS de Londres, temp. John, who was lord of Ogmore, Kidwelly, and East Garston ; and there was a certain HENRY de Londres, Archbishop of Dublin, called by the people, " scorch-villein." Maurice seems to have left a daughter and heiress, V. HAWISIA, who married, 29 Henry III., Patrick de Cadurcis or Chaworth, who died 1257, son of Pagan de C., and grandson of Patrick de C., living 1194, whose father, Patrick, came in with the Conqueror. [Dugdale, i. 517. Nick. Syn.~] They had issue VI. PAYNE de Chaworth, son and heir, set. 13, 42 Henry III. He married Isabel, daughter of William Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and died, 7 Edward I., 1278, s. p. VI. 2. Patrick, who carried on the succession. VI. 3. Harvey. VI. 4. Eve ; and VI. 5. Anne. 24 KIDWELLY CASTLE. VI. 2. PATRICK de Chavvortb, died 1282 \_Nich. SynopJ], leaving issue a daughter and heir, VII. MAUD de Chaworth, who married, 27 Edward I., Henry of Lancaster, second son of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, younger son of Henry III. He succeeded his elder brother, Thomas (beheaded 1322), and obtained his earldom of Lan- caster, 1 Edward III., 1327. He died, 22nd September, 19 Edward III., 1345, and was buried at Leicester. They had issue VIII. Henry, son and heir. VIII. 2. Maude, married first, William de Burgh, Earl of Ulster ; secondly, Ralph, son and heir of Ufford, Earl of Suffolk. VIII. 3. Blanch married Lord Wake. VIII. 4. Isabel, a nun at Ambres- bury. VIII. 5. Jane, married Lord Mowbray. VIII. 6. Mary, married Lord Percy. VIII. HENRY, Duke of Lancaster, married Isabel, daughter of Henry, Lord Beaumont, and died 24th March, 35 Edward III., 1361. They had issue two daughters, coheirs. IX. Maude Plantagenet, married first, Ralph, son and heir of Ralph, Lord Stafford ; secondly, William, Duke of Zealand and Bavaria. She died a widow, s. p., 35 Edward III., 1362. IX. 2. BLANCHE Plantagenet, daughter and final heir, married 14th kal. June, 33 Edward III., John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. She died 1369. He died 3rd February, 22 Richard II., 1399. Their only son and heir was X. HENRY of Bolingbroke, King of England as Henry IV., who, by act of parliament, caused the estates of the House of Lancaster to be settled distinct from the crown, although both have since descended together. Although the legal ownership of Kid welly remained KIDWELLY CASTLE. 25 always in the direct posterity of the first De Londres, the following extracts will show that they had not always actual possession : In 1149, Cadelh ap Griffith ap Rhys fortified Caer- marthen, and marched on Kid welly, whence he returned in safety, having wasted and destroyed the country. He died in 1175. [Powel, 168.] In 1190, Rhys ap Griffith gained Abercorra (Laugharne), St. Clears, and Llan- stephan, and made Kidwelly more handsome and strong than his other castles. [Brut-y-Tywys., 580. Giraldus Cambrensis, i. 9.] In 1215, in the reign of John, Prince Rhys, son of Griffith ap Rhys, marched on Kidwelly, and razed the castles of Carnwylhion and Llwchwr, [Powel, 239]; and in the following year, 1216, Prince Llewelyn overran South Wales, and gave, with other lands, to Rhys Vychan, the commots of Kidwelly and Carnwylhion. [Powel, 241.] In 1222, during the absence of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, in Ireland, Prince Llewelyn attacked his castles. On the earl's return, the prince dispatched his son to check his advance, while he marched to Kidwelly, where, learning that the magistrates intended to betray him, he burned the town, sparing neither church nor reli- gious house, and advanced to meet the earl at Caermar- then, where they had a skirmish. [Powel, 247.] In 123 1 Kidwelly was again burned by Llewelyn. [Powel, 251.] D 26 KIDWELLY CASTLE. 19th Dec., 29 H. III., Patric de Chauces, and Hawisia his wife, were to pay to the king a fine of 100 marks for the seizin of her inheritance of Kidwelly, and John de Mimemuth was commanded to give seizin, and the sheriff of Gloucester to take security for the payment. [JSxcerp. e Rot. Fin. i., 414.] Leland attributes to Alicia de Londres, probably meaning this lady, " a reparation on this castle." 52 Henry III., 1268, Paganus de Chaworth, son of Hawise, has for Kidwelly, in the Marches of Wales, two markets, and a fair of eight days. \Cal. Rot. Chart., 95.] 2 Edward I., Hawise de Londres died, seized of East Garston, county Berks, a member of Kydwelly. [Dug- dale, 517.] Eva de Tracy seems to have been the widow of one of the family ; at least it appears that " Eva de Tracy holds the manor of East Garston, with its appurtenances, in dower, of the inheritance of Hawise de Londres, and it pertains to the manor of Kidwelly, which the said Hawise held by service, that if the king or his chief justice came into the parts of Kidwelly with an army, it was her duty to conduct the army with pennon displayed, and all her people, through the midland from Neath as far as Laugharne." [ Test, de Ncv., 124.] Lysons says, " that East Garston was held by the tenure of finding a knight clad in plate armour to serve in the king's army for forty KIDWELLY CASTLE. 27 days at the lord's cost, whenever he should be in the territory of Kydwelly, of which this manor is a member." \_Lys. Berks, 283.] Payne de Chaworth, who died, s. p., 7 Edward I., 1278, had livery of his mother's lands, and " founded a chantry in Blanch-land, in the see of St. David's, for the weal of Sir Thomas de Londres, Patric de Chaworth, William and Maurice de Londres, Warine de Bassing- bourn, the lady Eve de Tracy, and Alice and Gundred, deceased. Also, for the soul of Hawise de Londres, his mother ; also, for the good estate of himself, Patric and Hervey, his brothers, and Eve and Anne, his sisters." \_Dugdale, 517.] At his death he was "seized of the manors of Kidwelly and Carnwathin." In the 9 Edward I., Patrick Chaworth claims certain rights, &c., in Haveldon, in the hundred of Worth, county Wilts, which was given by a certain Warine, son of Gerald, to William de London, ancestor of Patrick. \_Plac. de Q. W., p. 805.] 9th Dec., 13 Edward I., 1285, the king gave a charter, dated Kidwelly, under his hand, to the burgesses of that place. [Ibid. 817.] Sir R. Hoare (Giraldus Cam- brensis, i. p. 172) states that, in 1295, the lordship of Cydweli was in the possession of Patrick de Canton (Chaworth), to whom it had been given in case he could win the same. 28 KIDWELLY CASTLE. For his services in the Scotch war, Henry Earl of Lancaster obtained, 28th January, 32 Edward I., a dis- charge of his arrears due for reliefs upon the lands which descended to his wife upon the death of Hawise de London, grandmother, and Payne de Chaworth, uncle to his wife. [Dugdale, ii. 782.] 5th August, 3 Edward II., 1309, by a precept tested by the king at Stamford, Henry of Lancaster is directed to provide 200 men for the parts of Cathwarthlan and Kedwelly, towards a general South-Welsh levy of 2000 men. [Fcedera, n. i. 83.] 28th December, 7 Edward III., Earl Henry had from his father a grant of the castle and town of Kidwelly, with the whole territory of Carnwathlan. [Dugdale, 784.] 13th July, 2 Edward III., 1337, the king calls upon Henry Earl of Derby, his lieutenants or bailiffs in his lands of Kedwelly, Grosmund, and Skenfrith, and his custos of the land of Bergavenny, to array and arm all the able bodied men of those places, and to put them under the command of Hugh le Despenser and Gilbert Talbot. On the 24th September a further levy is ordered [Fcedera, n. ii. 986, 997] ; and, on the 3rd January, 16 Edward III., 1343, Henry Earl of Derby is to pro- vide 123 men towards the general levy, for his lordships of Kedwelly, Karnwarthelan, and Iskynyn. [Ibid., 1217.] KIDWELLY CASTLE. 29 In the partition of the estates between Blanch and Maude, the two coheirs of Henry Duke of Lancaster, Maude, Countess of Stafford and Duchess of Bavaria, had " the castle and lordship of Kidwelly, the provostship of Kidwelly, the office of Messore, the quarter Cadugan, the quarter Penryn, Carnwathlan, Iscoyt, and quarter Mory, Leirwith de Kurn, and Kidwelly, Iskenny, and Maherdiff, with their appurtenances in the Marches of Wales." [Dugdale, 784 ; Rot. Fin., 38 Edward III.] The duchess died, 35 Edward III., 1361. Maude also founded a chantry in the church of the priory of Cam- pesse, Suffolk, for the health of the souls of William de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, and Elzebeth de Burgh, and Maude de Ufford, her own daughters. [Dugdale, 784 ; Rot. Pat. 38 Edward III.] On the death of Duchess Maude, without issue, John of Gaunt claimed, 36 Edward III., 1362, for his wife Blanche, as her heir, the whole of the estates of the late Duke of Lancaster, including the castle, town, and lord- ship of Kidwelly, the lordship of Carnewathlan, with the castle of Caer-Cennen, and the commot of Iskenning. [Dugdale, 784.] In a charter dated Windsor, 29th June, 23 Henry VI., 1445, and granted by the king as Duke of Lancaster, and sealed with the duchy seal, the " castles, lordships, and manors of Kidwelly, Kaerkenny, Iskenny, and 30 KIDWELLY CASTLE. Karnwalthan," are enumerated as part of the duchy. [Duchy Chart., Hardy, 228, 245, 268.] 29th July, 23 Henry VI., 1444. The castle, manor, and lordship of Kidwelly, &c., parcel of the duchy of Lancaster, were by letters patent vested in feoffees for the performance of the king's will ; and these letters are cited 38 Henry VI., 1459, and 39 Henry VI., 1460.- -[Rolls ofParl, v. 72", 353 b , 385 B .] 4 Edward IV., 1464, Henry Donne, Esq., is exempted from the act of resumption, as regards his grant from Edward IV., by letters patent, of twenty pound per annum, out of the commots of Kidwelly, &c. Also, as regards grants out of the lordships of Cleygyn and Pyber, in the lordship of Kidwelly. [Rolls of ParL, v. 534 a .] Sir Roger Vaughan, Knight, has a like exemption [7 and 8 Edward IV., 1467-8], as regards similar grants out of lands and tenements in the lordship of Kydwelly, &c., late belonging to Philip Maunselles, and Hopkyn ap Rees, Esq. [Ibid. 384 a .] 1 Henry VII., 1485, Sir John Donne, Knight, is exempted from the general act of resumption as regards his grants from Edward IV. of certain offices, and among them, of the constableship and portership of the castle of Kidwelly. [Ibid., vii. 34 l b .] There are like exemptions in the same year for our servant, Walter Lewes, yeoman of our guard, for the office of bailly-rande, and attorney- KIDWELLY CASTLE. 31 ship of our lordship of Kidwelly, &c., and of the office of steward of Kidwelly to Morice ap Owen, and both whose grants were by Henry Mil. [Ibid., vi. 368 b , 349 b , 353 a .] Henry VII. granted the castle itself to Sir Rhys ap Thomas, K.G. ; and Leland states, that " reparation was done on the castel againe the cumming of King Henry VII. into Wenceland." On the attainder of Gruffydd, grandson of Rhys ap Thomas, the liberty of Kidwelly reverted to the crown, and was purchased in the year 1630 by the Earl of Carbery, Lord President of Wales, from whom it has descended to the Earl of Cawdor, its present owner, and the lord of the lordship of Kid- welly. The town of Kidwelly contains a curious church, and some ancient buildings, worthy of examination ; and in its records are several originals and copies of charters. The oldest, 30 Edward III., 1357, is now lost. The next is 22 Henry VI., 1444, dated Windsor; the seal is gone. Another, 32 Henry VIII., 1542, has the duchy seal. Another, 4 Edward VI., 1551, is an exemplification of that of Henry VI., and is sealed with the duchy seal, bearing England with a label, the shield being placed between two feathers. Another charter, dated 16 James L, 1619, has the great seal in black wax, and the duchy seal. 32 K1DWELLY CASTLE. In the parish church of Little Wittenham, Berks, are some memorials for the family of Kidwelly, with the Christian name of Morgan. This seems to indicate an origin in Wales, which may possibly be accounted for by reference to the ancient connexion between Garston in this county, and Kidwelly. NOTE. On account of the absence of the author from England, the proof sheets have been deprived of the benefit of his revision. [The deeds relating to Kidwelly exhibited by Mr. Knight at the Tenby Meeting are dated respectively, 1312, and 43 Edward III. The earlier document is a charter of William de Albost and Arabella his wife, granting a small portion of land in the parish of St. Ismael, " in terra de Kedrvely" to John Thomelyn " de Hakenchorche." Robert de Cauntelowe, " tune Seneshal de Kedwely" is one of the witnesses. The legend of the seal appended is S : WELELMI ALBOST. The other deed is from Philip the son of Walter Malefatint, and relates to his right in land of his father, called Malefaunt's Field, " daf apud Kedwelly." The device on the seal, which is of inferior execution, is a swan towing a small vessel with mast and flag. H. H. KNIGHT.] R. Mason, Printer, High Street, Tenby. 1 h h; fiord tains b Slastion Towers c Eastern Gatehouse d Western. e. Bail f Staff Apartments g Chapel - 26A&U i: 1 Curtains 2 Bastions 3 Eastern. Gatehouse ttem . j Kit^hf.TL Ti 6 Water 7 OYCTV 6 Water Tank & I. DESCRIPTION. 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. It possesses few associations with historical events. But one 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 sur- rounded 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 sources of intrinsic interest. It boasts not the architectural decora- tions of Caernarvon, the commanding position of Con way, or 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 2 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. lofty walls and massive and partially overthrown towers, neither bosomed in woods, nor mantled, to any extent, with ivy. 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 castle is placed in the midst of a valley, 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 Eglwsilan, 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 Ebbwy. This ridge is locally known as the great Garth and Caerphilly mountains, and, on the road from the castle to the sea, is crowned by the ancient Celtic stronghold of Mor-graig. Caerphilly stands therefore in a vast basin. The traveller, who wishes to see it to advantage, should de- scend 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. CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 3 The whole basin is a part of the Glamorganshire coal field. 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 vallies in the neighbourhood, lie vast deposits of gravel and sand, composed in part of the debris of the neighbouring rocks, but chiefly of rolled pebbles, supposed to have been brought down from the northern hills by diluvial agency. I propose, in the following pages, first to describe the position and details of the castle, and afterwards to state its history, as far at least as it is known to me. First, of the ground on which the castle stands : Near the centre of the basin already described 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 ter- mination of a low peninsula of gravel, projects eastwards, and, by its projection, divides a swampy flat of conside- rable breadth into two portions. These are contained within irregular gravel banks, similar to, though some- what 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 4 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 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 indeed 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 swamp. Naturally, these waters seem to have found their way, by a depression or gorge, to the north-eastward, into 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 thought, with great probability, that the stronghold of Senghennydd was here situated. Under the Normans, the surface of the ground under- went considerable alteration. 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. Advantage was taken of a narrow and curved ridge, which proceeded from the root of the peninsula, to divide the northern swamp into two parts, of which the one formed the middle, and the other the inner, moat. The inner moat communicated with the southern swamp by two cross-cuts ; one, the old natural termina- CAERPHILLY CASTLE. O tion 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 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 ; 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 by the northern bank, which () CAERPHILLY CASTLE. is turned 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, ;md 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 exca- vated 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, or to the ground as seen from the towers or walls, 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 six 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 feudal line of defence. It is composed of a long curtain-wall of con- siderable height and thickness, strengthened on the exterior by buttresses and buttress-towers, rising in the CAERPHILLY CASTLE. centre into a broad or lofty gate-house, 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 facade is about 250 yards, the height varies from twenty to sixty feet. It is divided into the .great gate-house, the northern curtain and postern, and the southern curtain and postern. The great gate-house 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 gate-house proper is a lofty oblong building, fifty feet broad by thirty -five deep, and about sixty high. It is perforated below by the portal, but rises above as a broad tower. Its lateral portions project six feet beyond the portal, and form porters' lodges. The portal, ten feet wide by twenty 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 twenty feet by ten, have fire-places, and were floored with timber. The walls are nine feet thick, and are looped in various directions for defence. Passing through the gate-house, 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 gate-house west- wards, into the gate-house tower. One of two doors leads up this tower by a hexagonal well-stair, nine feet CAERPHILLY CASTLE. in mean diameter ; this opens upon seven apartments in two stories, and terminates in a lofty quadrangular turret. In the lower story are devices for working the portcullis, and a small fire-place and oven, probably intended to serve the purpose of a cooking place for the porter and his assistants, and possibly, in time of siege, for heating pitch, lead, &c. 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 twenty- nine feet deep and five wide, and opening below between the grates of the grand postern. A passage, at the ground level, leads from the platform through the gate- house tower, across the grand postern, to the northern curtain, and is defended by gates, portcullis, and draw- bridge. From the gate-house a dividing wall, twenty feet high and six thick, extends westward eighty feet to the edge of the inner moat, and thus cuts off the platform and the whole of the northern from the southern curtain. Its face has been embattled, so that should the northern curtain be taken, the southern could still be defended. There is no door in this wall. At the juncture of the gate-house 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 constitutes the grand postern. It is defended by two grates, and a cavity open above between them, and thence a covered way leads close under, and north of, the dividing wall, to the edge of the inner moat. CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 9 This curtain runs northward for 130 yards, and is strengthened exteriorly by three buttress-towers, quad- rangular and solid below, but hexagonal and chambered above. Each has a projection of twenty 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, north- ward, 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 nineteen feet, was a slight wall, four feet thick, which formed the rear-wall of a postern gallery, leading from the gate-house to the north postern, and forming, above, a broad flat walk for the defence of the ramparts. Southern curtain. The general plan of this curtain is irregular ; it passes south-eastward from the gate-house, forms a large semicircle, and, passing off in a long straight wall, crosses the Nant-y-Gledyr, and terminates in a tete-du-pont and a postern. This wall contains a chamber and sewer houses at its angle, and is supported exteriorly by seven quadrangular solid buttresses. In one place it is perforated for the passage 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, fifteen feet thick. This curtain is acces- sible from the tete-du-pont ; and upon it, above the sewer c 10 CAERPIIILLY CASTLE. house, 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. The soil of the platform behind this curtain is twenty-five 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 ninety-four feet. The tcte-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 out- flanked. In front of this great line of defence is a moat, about sixty feet wide, and crossed by a double drawbridge of two spans of eighteen 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 barbacan. This moat communicates with, and admitted of being filled from, the Nant-y-Gledyr. Such is the principal front and eastern line of defence, calculated not only to withstand attacks from the front, flanks, or rear, but also 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 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 11 present skirted by the Nant-y-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 with a wall, in which is a sluice-tunnel. This is the curved ridge. The HORN-WORK covering the western front of the castle, and communicating between the middle and outer gates, is an irregular polygon, revetted all round with a wall of fifteen feet high, above which is a talus of about eight 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 twenty feet span, from the opposite gate-house 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 twenty feet span, giving access to the castle in this direction. The REDOUBT has already been mentioned as being formed by scarping 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, sepa- rated by a mound or cavalier, and leading into the centre of the work. Outside the redoubt, and following the curve of its 12 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 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 cannon or banquettes for musquetry, and the scarp is continued unbroken to the rampart. Neither scarp nor counterscarp, though steep, have any retaining wall. Beyond the 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. 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 ninety-six 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, thirty feet high, and surmounted by a parapet of from five to twelve more ; and within this enclosure are contained the middle and inner ward. The inner ward is formed by placing a second paral- lelogram smaller than the last, within it. This forms the inner, and the concentric space between the two, the middle, ward. CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 13 The MIDDLE WARD thus presents four divisions, towards the cardinal points, all forming terraces of from sixteen to twenty yards broad, and the opposite sides being of nearly equal length. Upon the east and west are the gate- houses ; 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 gate-house 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 gate-house 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, fifty feet long by twenty wide. In front of this gate-house, and dividing it from the platform of the grand gate, the moat is about forty-five 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 tressle of timber, as at Raby and Holt, which admitted of being removed or destroyed, in the event of a siege. The western gate-house is placed opposite to the horn- work, and between them is a moat sixty feet wide. The portal is loftier, and the front broader, than in the eastern gate-house. There are two chambers on either side of the portal, and above them a first story, with fire-places and chimneys. Between this gate and the north-west tower of the 14 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. inner ward are some later buildings, and a wall, which seems to have been intended to cut off the communi- cation between the gate-house 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 mint, or 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 fire-place 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, room. 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. The INNER WARD is a quadrangle, measuring 200 feet east and west, by 160 feet north and south. It is con- tained within four curtain walls, capped at the angles by four round towers, and broken on the east and west sides CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 15 by two lofty and magnificent gate-houses. 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 thirty feet high, including the battlement. That on the south is higher by a story, and the rampart walk is con- tinued 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, from the baronial Lords-Marchers of that name, who were, as will be seen afterwards, more or less concerned in the affairs of this district and castle. 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, thirty- six feet, and within, eighteen feet ; the walls being nine feet thick. Each story is lighted by loop-holes, 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 gate-house 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 16 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. upon those below. On each side of the portal are lodges, and the second story is a spacious hall or council-cham- ber, with a large fire-place, and two large and handsome windows looking towards the court. Above this chamber is the battlement. On the north and south sides of this gate-house 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. There is a similar apartment, but of earlier date, in the castle of Chepstow. The western gate-house is on the same plan, but rather smaller, and without turrets towards the court, its stair- cases being contained within the thickness of the wall. The lodges on each side of the portal are vaulted and ribbed, with ornamented corbels. They open direct into the court. The state chamber above is not so large as in the eastern gate-house. It rests upon a vaulted floor. The hall is built against the south curtain. It measures seventy-three feet by thirty-five, and was about thirty 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 crocket- ted canopies, in a somewhat stiff, but excellent, style. Between the windows is a broad fire-place, 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 moat, 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 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 17 a large window at the east end, communicate with a cellar and the chapel. The roof, of timber, sprung from fourteen short clus- tered pilasters, resting upon heads as corbels, placed against the north and south walls. The north wall is of dressed stone, and carried a string-course, with ball- flowers, about three feet above the ground. On the east wall is a string-course, 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 stair- case 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 four feet diameter. II. 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 D 18 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. injured, although between them and the curtain are deep fissures, evidently the work of gunpowder, aided by the intervention of the vacuity formed by the 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, fifteen feet in thickness, forming a chasm, through which the Nant- y-Gledyrtake 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 great gate-house, and the piers of its bridge, are in tolerable order ; but the upper cham- bers 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, cot- tages are built in it. Between these two portions, north of the pier, is the modern entrance, passing through the grand postern, now a battered hole eleven feet wide : near it a door has been opened into a sort of cavity below the lower story of the gate-house, used as a cart-hovel. The foundations of the southern curtain, being in the moat itself, are tolerably perfect. Those of the northern, elevated upon a bank of earth, are much battered. CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 19 The tete-du-pont, in which the southern curtain termi- nates, has suffered considerably. The curvilinear wall between the towers is levelled to a breast-work, 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 tete-du-pont, the land 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 founda- tion. 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 water-course, 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 revetement, except where recently quarried, is nearly as sound as ever, 20 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. although its gate -house and western pier, if ever they existed, have been destroyed. 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 grand postern, the wall parallel to the curtain which formed the back of the northern 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, filling 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 gate-house 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 gate-house 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 gate-house, of great thickness, is perfect, and is CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 21 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 door 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 twelve 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 twelve 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 in a few months to fall into the moat. Ascending from the eastern gate-house, 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 rere-wall may still be inferred, by the projections at its junction with the towers. 22 CAERPIIILLY CASTLE. The eastern gate -house has been separated, by a blast, into two portions ; of which the inner, towering to a pro- digious height, still remains tolerably perfect, while the outer, broken into fragments, has crushed the lower gate- house beneath its weight, and still encumbers it with its ruins. The western gate-house 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 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 roofless, although the structure of its roof is apparent from the remaining corbels, and 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 roof of the kitchen is broken, but enough remains to display its original structure. The steps of the water 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 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 23 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 con- necting 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 24 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 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 inter- vening gate-houses, upon which the force of the gun- powder 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 doors, has been removed ; nor is there any lead to be found in the sockets of the win- dow-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 been removed. Every staircase, gallery, and chamber is per- vious 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 destruc- tion of the hand of man. CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 25 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. And first of the doorways. With certain exceptions shortly to be enumerated, the doorways throughout the building are of the same general character. The arches are "drop," that is to say, they are obtusely pointed arches, whose centres lie below their spring. This is obviously the best form of the pointed arch for the portals of a castle, and it is that usually employed in the military structures of the Edwardian period. With the same exceptions, the arch-mouldings are composed of a five- sided rib, upon the front and widest face of which a smaller rib, of the same figure, is placed. This pattern of rib-moulding is also very commonly employed in castles. The principal portals, together with the doors leading from the first story of the towers upon the ramparts, are defended by portcullises, working in a D -shaped groove. This groove passes up as a chink into the chamber above ; but there is no evidence of the sort of contrivance employed in raising the portcullis. The portcullis, how- ever, might have been raised by mere manual exertion, and a bar thrust across would be sunicient to retain it securely when raised. The sills are destroyed, so that it does not appear whether the points of the portcullis were received into, or had worn, small holes in them. Besides the portcullis, the larger portals are provided with a chase or chink, without side-grooves, intended, as is presumed, to allow of the use of a sort of wooden E 26 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. frame. Also, in the main portals are four or five square holes in the arch, through which beams to form a stockade might be dropped. It may be observed further that, although some of the portal passages are of conside- rable length, yet that the ribs of their vaults are all trans- verse, never passing diagonally from an angle towards the centre, in the manner employed at Caldecot and elsewhere, to vault a compartment of such passages. There appears to have been more than one kind of drawbridge employed in this castle. In some places, as at the great gate, and at the passage in its gate- house tower, the bridge, when drawn up, fitted into a depression, so as to lie flush with the upper wall, from whence, therefore, its length may be inferred. In other cases it simply rested against the wall, making a pro- jection. It seems always to have been long enough, when up, to cover the gateway. The method of hinging the bridge also varied. On the sides of some of the portals a stone has been inserted, into which the horizontal pivots of the bridge (of iron, from the small size of the pintle or hole) fitted ; but, con- nected with the place for the gudgeon or pivot is another groove, which passes up at an angle of forty-five degrees for a few feet, and then passes on horizontally for a few more. It appears as though this were a contrivance, when the bridge was raised, for throwing its lower end upwards and forwards, so as more effectually to shield the upper part of the door, to present an oblique surface to missiles, and by making the bridge lean back against the wall, to remove the strain from its chains or ropes, and to prevent it from falling, even should they be CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 27 broken. It may be, however, that into these grooves fitted some lever, or other contrivance for working the bridge ; where they occur, there are no holes above for the passage of the drawbridge chains into the portcullis chamber. The defences of the great postern are singular. The grooves, which in the other cases form the portcullis slides, here stop abruptly a little above the arch. They are too deep for the hinges of gates, and were probably filled by a defence similar to a portcullis, but which was received into a cavity below. Indeed,- as there is only a lofty wall, and no chamber above the postern, the regular plan was inadmissible. There is a further contrivance for the defence of a gate, consisting of a sort of shoot, opening obliquely down- wards from the sill of a window, employed in two places in this castle ; one over the door of the eastern inner gate- way, and the other over the door of the north-west principal bastion tower ; in both cases evidently with a view to the defence of the towers when the enemy had gained the inner court. The battlements and parapets throughout the castle are of a very plain description. They are massy and flat-topped, the coping being a rough slab of sandstone. The height and thickness, together with that of the rere- wall and the width of the rampart walk, may be always deduced from a careful inspection of the walls or towers against which they terminate. The parapet and rere- wall are usually of the same height, and nearly as high as the top of the doors leading to them. The embrasures are contained within parallel sides, and 28 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. bear a small proportion to the merlons, which latter are each perforated by a loop. These details may be seen upon the summit of the leaning tower, or, more con- veniently, upon the northern curtain, toward the north- west bastion tower. There are no machicolations, or devices for dropping missiles through the floor of a projecting parapet a contrivance which adds so materially to the grandeur of the towers of Warwick, Raglan, and Cardiff. Over the eastern middle gateway, the parapet has a false machico- lation, or slight projection, supported upon a table of corbel blocks, but without apertures, or a projection sufficient to admit of any. The windows, with certain exceptions, are either loops, or, if larger, of a very plain character. In the hall, however, and in the large rooms of the two inner gate- houses, they are very wide and lofty, and have been highly ornamented. The two latter rooms are so much injured, and the windows so mutilated, that it can only be said, that what little remains of ornament are seen resemble in style the more perfect ornaments of the hall. The oratory attached to the eastern inner gate-house has a vaulted roof divided into two square compartments, supported by transverse and diagonal ribs. The two windows towards the south are long and narrow, without a mullion, and trefoiled ; their mouldings are only an exterior chamfer. There are some other windows in the gate-houses, looking towards the interior, which are much shorter, but otherwise resemble this. The four hall win- dows are lofty and well-proportioned ; they open to within four feet of the ground. CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 29 The exterior moulding of the windows is completely gone ; that of the door was discovered by removing the grass about its base. The interior mouldings of the windows are extremely rich, owing to the reduplication of the bands, from the great thickness of the wall. The angles of the mouldings are, at two depths, removed, and their place occupied by a semicircular groove, in which the pomegranate orna- ment is placed at intervals, making up the circle by its projection. Beyond each of these bands of pomegranates are pilaster strips, fillet ted at their angles, and sur- mounted by small angular capitals : within is a handsome ogee canopy, enriched with crockets and finials, in a very pure style. The door has a good internal drip, but its inner moulding is composed of only one band of ball-flowers. The outer mouldings are rich. There are three bands O of pomegranates, which no doubt were continued, as in the windows, round the arch ; and between them are two rows of small disengaged columns, with the circular concave pedestal. Of these only the pedestal remains. The fourteen corbels upon which the beams of the roof rested are composed of three short clustered columns, connected by their posterior half, and separated by a fillet and bold hollow ; above they are crowned with a neat cap moulding, and below, they rest upon three projecting busts, of which the central is the lowest and largest. A fillet runs up the centre of each of these columns, and, ceasing at the abacus, is continued up the capital, and finally dies in the astragal. Corbels, 30 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. of somewhat earlier date, but in general appearance resembling these, may be seen in the keep at Chepstow. There are no decorations remaining about the fire- place. The plain string-course along the east end of the hall, returned from the corbel of the chapel window, is perfect. A base tablet is seen at the west end of the north side, but it is destroyed along its length. A long window in one of the state rooms resembles, though on a much larger scale, the windows of the oratory already described. It appears, however, to have been trefoiled, with a quatrefoil above the head. There are two small polygonal apartments on either side of the inner western gate, in the vaulted roofs of which a plain diagonal rib rises from a corbel at each angle, and meets its fellow in the centre. The corbels have three flat faces, and terminate in a point, which rests upon some animal, in every case wantonly defaced. They appear to have been lodges. Caerphilly presents as little architectural decoration, in proportion to its extent, as any castellated building in Britain. Generally, its series of concentric defences, and the general disposition of its constituent parts, resemble those of Conway, Harlech, Beaumaris, and other structures known to have been erected in the reigns of the first or second Edward. The plan of these Edwardian castles is very peculiar. It is unlike the earlier Norman castles, in which the keep was the principal feature, and in which comfort was sacrificed to safety ; and it is also unlike the later castles, which possess not only large interior, but large exterior, windows, as in the later alterations at CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 31 Portchester, and in which there is, usually, no building to which the name of keep could be attached. Nor is the style of architecture employed at Caerphilly less decisive ; the drop arch, the perfectly plain rib, the general absence of decorations and armorial bearings, the plain battlements, and the absence of machicolations, indicate. generally the same period. The columns of the hall doorway, the concave mould- ing of their pedestals, the triple cluster of columns forming the corbels of the roof, their bell capitals, and light cap moulding, are due to the Early English style, which prevailed from 1189 to 1307. On the other hand, the pomegranate moulding, the rich, though chaste and somewhat stiff, canopies of the door and windows, the little pilasters in the windows with the pentagonal capitals, the ogee arches, and the plain fillet running up the columnar corbels of the roof, are marks all belonging to the Decorated style, which prevailed from 1307 to 1377. The mixture of these two styles, very common in English buildings, denotes a period varying according to the preponderance of either, and in the present instance may legitimately be referred to the latter part of the thirteenth century, when the Decorated style was begin- ning to supersede the Early English. Instances of this transition, and of the ball-flower moulding, may be seen round the inside of the choir of Bristol Cathedral, and on the outside of the south aisle of Keynsham Church. The earlier alterations at Chepstow, and more particu- larly the oratory attached to Martin's Tower, and the columnar corbels in the keep, may be cited as of an 32 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. earlier date than Caerphilly, having been evidently placed there before the decline of the Early English style. The internal evidence of the building, which would place its date about the end of the reign of Henry III., agrees with the evidence of records cited hereafter, in which the castle is referred to, in the year 1272, as having been lately erected by Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford. Before this period, mention is occasionally made of the castle of Senghennydd, which, from its having been taken, retaken, and more than once utterly destroyed, was evidently a place much contested, but of no great mag- nitude or passive strength. After the erection of Caer- philly, Senghennydd Castle is not again mentioned. It is therefore not improbable that Senghennydd Castle was a rude fortification of timber and undressed stone, upon the peninsula afterwards occupied by Caerphilly. Caerphilly having then certainly been founded by Earl Gilbert a little before 1272, the question arises as to whether the whole of it was then built. The inner ward, its curtains, bastions, gate-houses, all their contents and appendages, are of one date. The south wall was always of its present height, and therefore always intended to support the roof of the hall, the walls of which are bonded into it. The gate-houses are evidently part of the original plan, being thoroughly Edwardian, and the long windows of the state rooms, and those of the oratory in the inner gate-house are, in their form and mouldings, precisely similar. It appears that the curtain connecting the north-west bastion tower with the west gate-house, was originally as ^ K a < * I CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 33 low as the northern curtain, but that a sort of gallery, and its superincumbent rampart, have been added. A cluster of buildings has also been added on the outside of the south curtain, at the angle formed by its junction with the south-west tower. The general design of the middle ward, and most of its buildings, are clearly of the date of the inner ward. The western gate-house, however, appears to be of some- what later date ; the false machicolations, the holes for the portcullis chains, the chimneys rising above the parapet, and the less durable character of the masonry, seem to indicate this. The walls, moreover, by means of which this gate-house is connected with the curtain of the inner ballium, though of the same age with the former, are not bonded into, and are separated by fissures from, the latter a tolerably sure indication of difference of age. It is not improbable that the whole exterior line of defence on the east, and the horn-work on the west, were the last parts of the castle completed. They form, how- ever, parts of the original design, since, had the ground on which they stand been left unoccupied, the castle would not have been tenable. With respect to the redoubt, it is perfectly evident, from its appearance, that it was thrown up, not only when gunpowder was in general use, but when the science of fortification was pretty well understood. It seems, like the earthworks at Donnington and other castles, to be of the age of Charles the First. The injuries received by this castle are similar to others at Corfe and elsewhere, known to be referable to the 34 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. same period of civil strife in which the battle of St. Pagan's, and the occupation of Cardiff, prove the men of Glamorgan to have taken an active part. Nothing there- fore seems more probable, than that the redoubt should have been thrown up hastily by one party for the defence of the castle, and that the dismantling of the whole should have been perpetrated by the other, to prevent such a defence being practicable in future. History, however, has afforded no clue to which of the contending parties either proceeding is to be referred. There seems no reason to suppose that the works of Caerphilly were never completed. The flanking towers on either wing rest upon the lake, and the horn-work is a sufficient defence in the opposite direction. About three quarters of a mile from Caerphilly, on the Rtidry road, are the ruins of the " VAN," or " Ffan- vawr," the ancient manor-house of the Lewis family. Most of the outer walls of the house, and a curious old dovecot, remain standing. They are of the age of Elizabeth or James, but much of the hewn stone employed in the windows, door-cases, quoins, and string-courses of the lower story, are either of oolite or Button stone, and are very evidently a part of the spoils of Caerphilly. Most of these stones have been worked up, and their original ornaments destroyed, but one long string- course of Decorated date, evidently much earlier than the wall in which it is embedded, extends along the west front of the house. These stones could not have been removed from Caer- philly earlier than the reign of Elizabeth, in which reign, or rather in that of Henry VIII., the castle was used as a CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 35 prison. Probably, however, the central parts were so appropriated, and the parts allowed to be spoiled were those connected with the east front. Unlike Chepstow, Raglan, Oystermouth, and the Duke of Beaufort's castles, Caerphilly is entirely neglected. The east moat is encumbered with cottages, and the redoubt is so thickly planted as to be inaccessible. A very small sum expended in the removal of soil would expose the foundations and base mouldings of many of the buildings, and give much additional interest to the castle. Within the last ten years large masses of the wall have fallen into the moat, and other large portions, with the water-tank, are about to give way, the effect of which will probably be, in time, to undermine the leaning tower. Recently, parts of the wall have been opened as a quarry for stone, and the moats are crossed by modern walls, which disfigure the plan, and render the exami- nation of the building difficult. III. HISTORY. It is remarkable that the castle of Caerphilly should have remained hitherto altogether neglected, or very superficially noticed, by the historians of Wales, as well as by writers upon military architecture. The earlier authorities, Caradoc of Llancarvan, ( 1 157,) and Giraldus Cambrensis, (1188,) flourished before the erection of the present edifice ; but it is singular that silence concerning so immense a structure should have 36 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 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 reci- procally afforded to, and received from, the people of a considerable 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 Gla- morgan ; and from hence it followed, as a necessary con- sequence, 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 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 37 Parliamentary wars, its acquisition was considered as of great importance. Caerphilly, on the contrary, is rarely mentioned by the chroniclers, and only on one occasion is certainly known to have lodged a royal presence, when the second Edward took refuge there for a few hours, towards the close of his reign. These considerations will explain the little notice taken by contemporaries of this magnificent structure, and the consequent dearth of information respecting its fortunes. The Welsh district of Morgannwg, which appears to have included the modern county of Glamorgan, con- tained four cantreds, or hundreds, which were further subdivided into fifteen comots. The names of these cantreds were, Croneth, including the vales of the Neath, Avon, and Ogmore ; Pennythen, the vales of the Ely and Rondda ; Brenhinol and Gwentlhwg, now forming part of Monmouthshire. The comots, or subdivisions of Brenhinol were, Cibowr, and Senghennydd Vwchaeth, and Iscaeth. Leland adds to this statement of Caradoc, that " Seng- hinenith of some is divided into Iscaihac and Huhekaich," by which he evidently means Isa-caiach and Ucha-caiach the lower and upper Caich, that is, the part below and part above the Caich the comot being divided by the Caiach river; according to which division Caerphilly would be in " Iscaiach." The modern hundred is called indiscriminately Seng- hennydd or Caerphilly, and the north gate of Cardiff was formerly known as the " Senghennydd" gate. 38 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. Soon after the Norman conquest of England, Trahearn ap Caradoc, usurper of North Wales, having fallen in battle, Griffith ap Conan, and Rhys ap Tewdwr, succeeded him as princes, one over North, the other over South Wales. Rhys was attacked by Griffith ap Meredyth, at the instigation of Llewelyn and Einon, sons of Cadifor, Lord of Dyfed. They fought and were beaten ; Griffith was executed ; Einon fled to Jestyn ap Gwrgant, then Lord of Glamorgan, and, like himself, at war with Rhys, and covenanted with him to invite the neighbouring Normans to their assistance. Einon, who seems previously to have resided at the Norman Court, introduced (A. D. 1090) Robert Fitz- Hamon, a great baron nearly allied to the Conqueror, with a band of adventurers, into Glamorganshire, and by their aid Rhys was speedily vanquished and slain. The results of this victory raised a quarrel between Jestyn and Einon, and the latter, in revenge, recalled the departing Normans from their ships, and persuaded them permanently to occupy the country. Fitz-Hamon shortly afterwards became, by the slaughter of his old ally Jestyn, undisputed Lord of Glamorgan, and fixed his residence at Cardiff, where he probably laid the foundation of the present castle ; and, dividing the vallies and plains among the twelve knights who had accompanied him, he left to Einon, who subse- quently married " Nest," a daughter of Jestyn, such parts of the country as were barren and mountainous. The chancery, exchequer, and the chief habitation of the lord, were at Cardiff. Among the lordships into which the country was divided, Senghennydd is enume- CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 39 rated as having fallen to the share of Einon, whose name, however, does not again occur, but whose descendants retained possession of that district. Other adventurers, following the example of Fitz- Hainon, and assisted like him by the internal dissensions of the natives, and the treachery of the losing party, acquired lands upon the borders of Wales, and were constituted, by the English monarchs, Lords-Marchers. In this manner the fertile plains of the border were gradually acquired by the Normans, though not without considerable loss and continual disquiet, from the out- breaks of the Welsh, whose love of liberty permitted them not to remain cooped up in their mountains, while their enemies enjoyed the richest portion of their ancient inheritance. The estates won by Fitz-Hamon descended according to the pedigree given afterwards, and, about the begin- ning of the thirteenth century, were in the hands of the powerful family of De Clare ; Senghennydd having remained in the descendants of Einon. In the reign of Henry II., Ivor ap Meyric, better known as "Ivor Bach," having married Nest, daughter and heiress of Madoc ap Cradoc, of Senghennydd, claimed the ground on which Cardiff Castle was built, from William (others say Robert) Consul, Earl of Gloucester, assaulted and took the castle, and carried the earl and his family prisoners to the hill-country of Senghennydd. The affair is said, in some accounts, to have been finally arranged, by the marriage of the earl's daughter to Griffith, Ivor's eldest son. [Lewis Pedigree.] In 1174, Griffith ap Ivorap Meyric, of Senghennydd, 40 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. who had married a sister of Rhys, Prince of South Wales, came with Rhys, and other Welsh nobles, to do homage to King Henry II., at Gloucester [Arch. II. 2.] ; and it seems probable that this Griffith was identical with Griffith ap Rhys, called by Sir R. Hoare the descendant of Einon, and who was besieged in Castell Coch, by De Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and his eyes, with those of his children, put out, previous to their being starved to death [Giral- dus Cambrensis, Cur. R. C. Hoare]; an act quite in keeping with that of William de Braose, who, in 1175, massacred several Welsh chieftains in his castle of Aber- gavenny. Castell Coch, (the red castle) was probably erected by De Clare, on the site of the older structure, soon after this transaction. It was so styled in contradistinction from Caerphilly, which was called the " Blue Castle." " The name of ' Sengenny' appears in a dateless deed, entitled ' Protectio Morgani filii Cadwalan,' among the papers at Penrice Castle, Glamorganshire. ' 0~ms ho~ies de Brechineoch et Sengenny.' The sons of this Morgan passed a fine at Cardiff in the year 1249." [I. M. T.] In 1215, Gilbert de Clare, first Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, rose in arms against King John ; and, in the same year, Rhys, son of Griffith ap Rhys, marching from the west, came to Senghennydd Castle, but the garrison which kept it " thinking it fruitless, and to no purpose to oppose him, burnt it." He took all the castles in Gowerland and Morgannwg. [Wynne, p. 239]. The site of the castle of Senghennydd has been the subject of much discussion. It has been supposed to be the earth-work above Castell Coch, and, by others, to CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 41 have been near the Caiach river, where is a spot marked " Castell Barn" on the Ordnance map. Search has been made in this latter locality, but without success. There seems reason to suppose, as already stated, that Seng- hennydd Castle was a work of slight character, perhaps of timber, earth, and undressed stone, on the site of the present castle of Caerphilly. Giles de Braose, Bishop of Hereford, died 1215, and left his estates to his brother Reginald, who, says Wynne, (p. 240, 246,) had married Gwladys, the daughter of Prince Llewelyn. 1 In 1216, Llewelyn overran Wales, but on the landing of Louis, the Dauphin of France, in England in this year, King John called upon Llewelyn and Reginald Braose for their aid, which they refused. In 1217 Reginald made a secret and separate peace with Henry III. He was, in consequence, attacked by Llewelyn and the Welsh, and on his submission was forgiven, and received from Llewelyn the castle of Senghennydd, which he com- mitted to the custody of Rhys Vychan shortly afterwards. William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, attacked Caer- leon, upon which Rhys Vychan " razed Senghennydd and other castles, and divided the country among the Welsh." [Wynne, p. 244.] About this time John Giffard le Rych, issue of John Giffard, of Brunsfield, by his third wife, Margaret Nevile, received the custody of Dryslwyn Castle, Caermarthen, as well as the castles of Glamorgan and Morgannwg, 1 Dugdale does not mention this match j he makes Maud, a sister of the bishop, marry Griffith, Prince of South Wales, and he makes Reginald many a daughter and coheiress of William de Brewer. G 42 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. which, as it can be shown not to have been Cardiff, has been conjectured to be Senghennydd. [Jones, H. of Brec. II. 330. Camden.] It may be observed also, that a John Giffard is mentioned, in the next reign, by Wal- singham, as having, with Edmund Mortimer, slain Llewelyn Prince of Wales, and sent his head to the king. In 1221 Prince Llewelyn and Griffith his son were at feud ; and Reginald Braose, towards the end of the year, (in which year, however, he died, leaving William his son and heir,) obtained leave to fortify Senghennydd, which had been granted to him by Llewelyn. [Wynne, 246.] The internal feuds of the Welsh perpetually brought down the Lords-Marchers upon them ; and finally Prince Llewelyn, being old and broken, and incapable of defending himself against his unruly children, sought the protection of Henry III., did homage for his prin- cipality, and bound himself to pay an annual tribute ; and as, even in those lawless times, the colour of a legal claim was as eagerly sought after as in its absence it was disregarded, this gave to Henry and his son a claim upon the sovereignty of Wales, of which they were not back- ward to avail themselves. Llewelyn died in 1240, 24th H. III. Of his two sons Henry recognised David, the younger, but his sister's child. Griffith, the elder, found support, and the two brothers had recourse to arms. They survived their father about forty-two years. In the 25th Henry III., William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, when summoned to justify his right to the custody of, and presentation to, the church of LJandaff, pleaded his purchase of CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 43 the guardianship of Richard de Clare, who claimed wardship of the lands of the vacant episcopate. [Abb. Placit, 109.] A Patent Roll of 55th Henry III., 25th October, is headed, " concerning the contentions between Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, and Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, concerning the castle of Caerfily, at Westminster, 25th Oct., 55th H. III.," [Cal Rot. Pat. p. 43 b ] ; and the papers referred to seem to be the following, preserved in the Chapter-House at West- minster, which have not before been printed, and the existence of which was made known to me by the Rev. C. H. Hartshorne. How the De Clares obtained the land on which Caer- philly is built is uncertain ; probably from the family of Braose, of whom John, William, and Richard were sum- moned by Edward I. to his army in Wales, in 1276. [Feeder a in loc.~\ Be this as it may, these documents establish the fact that, in 1272 the castle of Caerphilly was possessed, and had been recently built by, Gilbert, the Red Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, who was born 1243, and died 1295, and who married Joan of Acre, aunt to Edward III. I find no mention of the name of " Caerphilly" before its appearance in these papers. Among the Records preserved in the late Treasury of the Exchequer in the Chapter-House, Westminster, and in the custody of the Master of the Rolls, pursuant to Stat. 1st & 2nd Vic., c. 94, to wit, among the documents relating to Wales, in the Roll endorsed " Glamorgan Kaerfily Castle Letters, &c., relating thereto, temp. Henry III.," are contained the following : 44 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. [1271.] # oimb3 IS sattm. Sciatis qd dedim 9 potestatem veflabilib5 prib3 * # Coventr' 1 LicK 1 2 G. Wigorn! Epis 1 ditcis T, fidelib3 nris 3 R. de Mortuo Mari T, 4 R. de Leyburn quos mittim 9 ad vadura Monte Gomery ad instantes Octab 1 Purif Be Marie audiendi omes tnsgressiones T- excessus fcos ditco 1 fideli nro Lewelino fit Griffini Principi Waft T; suis p ditcm 1; fidelem nrm 5 GilBtum de Clare Comite Glouc 1 Hertford T, suos *\ eciam omes tnsgressiones T, excessus quib3cuq3 Marchionib3 T; aliis de ptib3 Marchie fcis ut dicit r cont a formam pacis in? nos et pdcrn Lewelinu inite 1 firmate. Et ad omia ea corrigenda T; tminanda put scdm formam pacis ejusdem T; scdm consuetudinem ptium illar' de jure fu?it faciend. Nos eum ratum habibim 9 T, acceptum quicquid ipi quatuor tres vel duo ipor' quos psentes esse contig'it fec?int in p>missis. In cuj 9 Ic. T. ty apud Westm xxv. die Junl. IjL Vi8 Salop Staff. Hereford T; Wigorn ac Baronib3 militib3 t omib3 baftis T: fidelib3 suis de ptib3 March" ad quos 18 saltm. Sciatis qd dedim 9 potestatem ven!abilib3 prib3 I^k Coventr' 1 Licfi 1 G. Wigorn Epis T; dilcis I fidelib3 nris Ijfe de Mortuo Mari T; Ijfc de Leyburn quos mittim 9 ad vadum Montis Gomeri 6 1 Roger de Longespee, or de Molend. Elected Bishop of Litch- field and Coventry, 31st January, 1257 ; died 16th December, 1295. [Nicholas.] 2 Godfrey Giffard, Archdeacon of Wells. Appointed Bishop of Worcester, 30th June, 1268; Lord Chancellor j died about 1301. [Nicholas.] 3 Roger de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore, married Matilda, daughter and coheiress of William Lord Braose, and died 1282. 4 Sir Roger Leyborne was a steady adherent to Henry and his son. In 1264 he was a Lord-Marcher. The family were not given to create difficulties. In the siege of Caerlaverock we read of " William de Lcybourne, a valiant man, without but, and without if." 5 Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, married Joanne Plantagenet, daughter of Edward I. Died 1295. [ Nicholas.] 6 In 1273, the Abbots of Dore and Haghern waited (in vain) at the Ford, beyond the castle of Montgomery, to receive from Llewelyn his oath of fealty to Edward I. It was a common neutral meeting- place. [Feed. 1272-4.] CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 45 ad instantes Octafi Pur' Be Marie audiendi omes tnsgressiones *\ excessus T; injurias fcas dilco T; fideli nro Lewelino fit Griffini Principi Watt T; suis p ditcm T; fidele nrm GillStum de Clare Comitein Glouc ^ Hertford T; suos T; eciam omes tnsgressiones excessus T- injurias fcas pfato Coniiti T; suis p fPdcm Lewelinu T; suos. Et insup omes tnsgressiones T; excessus T; injurias qui- b3cuq3 Marchionib3 T: aliis de ptib3 March" fcis ut dicit r cont a form pacis in? nos T; pdcm Lewelinu inite T; firmate T; ea omia corrigendi T; Pminandi .put scdm formam pacis ejusdem 1 scdm consuetudine ptium illar' T; de jure fii?it faciend. Et ideo vob mandam 9 qd pdcis Epis Roo T; Roo trib3 vl duob3 ipor' quos ibidem in octafc pdcis vl dieb3 ad hoc p ipos si necesse fu?it continuand adesse conti^it in pmissis intendentes sitis T: respon- dentes consulentes T, auxiliantes ,put voB scire fac ex pte nra. In cuj 9 lc. T' ut s a . In? nobilem virum T; excellentem Dnm Lewilinu Principem Wattie Dnm quoq3 Snaudon qui Castrum de Caerfily p nobile virum Dnm G. de Clare Comite Glouc T: Hertford nup erectum obsedit ex pte una T; veffiabiles pres Dhos ty Coventr' T; Licfi ac G. Wigorn Epos quos illustris Rex Angt ad huj 9 modi castru in manu ipius capiend T; tenend quousq3 de contencoiie in eosdem nobiles occasione ipius castri exorta justicia competens p mag- nates T, consiliarios Dni Ijk ad vadum Motis Gomeri destinandos scdm leges T; consuetudines Marcfi ac scdm form" 1 pacis in? Regem T; Principem dudum inite T^ firmate reddat r p suas tras tiismiserat ex al?a in castris jux a Kaerfili sic convenit qd pdcus princeps cum ex"citu suo ab obsidione dci Castri recedat T; ipis Epis HBam tribuat facultatem capiend Castrum in manus Dni Regis aliquos de suis nomle Dni Re in ipo ponendi quousq3 ipe Rex aliquos custodes neutri pti suspectos nee alicui pciu con- sanguinitate vl afiinitate seu alia ronabili causa conjunctos ad ipm Castrum coservand novi? du\t destinand. Promisit eciam dciis Princeps qd nee ipe nee aliquis de suis guerram cont a Dnm Comite vl aliquem de suis lite sup pfato Castro pendente huj 9 modi contencois occasione movebit nee alique de pte Com p 46 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. se (vl p alique de pte Com p se vl) p alium abstrahi seu revocari pcurabit aut venientem receptabit qdq3 holes vl tenentes Com non impediet nee impediri patietur p suos quomin 9 cum hoib3 suis ^t tenentes libere contrahere valeant 1 cum ipis ificaturam exBcere. Promiserut simili? pfati Epi noie Reg ,p Com qd Garnestura ipius Coin p totum a sup a clco Castro recedet qdq3 ipe Comes de illo Castro pendente lite se non intromittet in aliquo nee aliquem de suis pmittet intromit?e circa refeccoem ipius Castri vl in fossar' augmentacone sive repacone vl muror' refeccone vl in aliquo alio augmento seu municone nisi scctm qd fftat die confecconis p'senciu nee eciam illi quos ex pte Re^ in ipo esse conti^it aliquid in eodem quo ad municoem Castri censeri valeat aliq u ten 9 innonabut nee cont a Principem vel alique de suis guerram racione pdca lite pendente movebit in aliq a pte ubi ipe nobiles Pras Hent conjuctas atq3 confines nee aliquem pti Principis adherentem p se vl p alium abstrahi seu revocari .pcurabit aut venientem receptabit qdq3 ipe Com hoies seu tenentes Principis no impediet nee ab aliis qntum in ipo est impedire patiet r quo min 9 ipicumn'omib3 vt tenentib3ejusdemCoin quodlibet coificium legitimu inire valeant T; li^e cum ipis similiP iflcaturam exficere. Item hoies de Seingbenyth similit qui modo sunt cum Principe non descendant inferius cum pdis T; familiis ascendant ad morand T; inhabitand T. locis ubi ffiunt tempore confecconis psentium nee illi de Seyngheynth similif? qui sunt cum Coin cum p*dis T; familiis ascendant ad morand T; inhabitand supius a locis quib3 habitabant tempe confecconis psentium. Dicti v plati pmittunt qd dcm Castrum non exibit de manib3 Re donee de contencone dcor nobiliu justicia copetcs exhibeaf in forma p'taxata. Promittunt eciam se curaturos qct Dns Ijk confinnabit ordinacoem pdcam p tras suas patentes. Et quecuq3 ptiu hanc ordinacoem infre^it in pte vel in toto cont a cois pacis form venisse intelligaf. Et licet aliqui latrones vel malefac- tores fefiint latrocinia aut alias transgressiones ex altut a pte nichiloi 9 dca ordinacio in suo robore durabit 1 thsgressiones emendantur p consideracoem pbor' viror' inP duas f ras scdm leges CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 47 1 consuetudines pciu illar'. Sup a dicti quidem Epi noie Re* diem ad justiciam recipiend T; faciend in forma pdca sup pmissis quindenam scitt post festum Sci Jofiis Bap? ,pxio futuram pti Principis ad vadum Montis Gomeri de voluntate T; consensu ipius Principis assig n runt. In quor' oinium testimon gti psentis cirogphi remaneti penes Principem Epi pfati Rege sua sigilla apposuerunt parti vero penes Epos remanenti sigilla Dnor' David filii Griffini T; Griffini fit Guenh

dco justicia exhiberet jux a form m pacis in? nos T; eundem Lewelinu inite T; firmate T; scdm leges Marcfi. p? quod nos ppendentes qd ex obsessione ilia 1 congregacione exScit 9 L pdci. ac congregacione amicor' T; posse pdci CoiS possent g a vis turbacio 1 guerra in ptib3 Marcfi T; alibi p potes- tatem nram suboriri t a ctatum diligentem fiuim 9 cum consilio nro T; pvidim 9 qd Castrum illud capiat r T; retineat r in manu nra t qd R. Coventr' T: Lich. T; G. WigornJ Epi pfatum Lewelinum adirent 1 ipm ex pte nra induSent ut ab obsessione ilia recederet qui sic ad mandatum nrin fecerunt T; cum ipo tractatum inde habuerut. Et licet idem Lewelin 9 ppendisset qd Castrum illud diriifie 1; penit 9 ps?nere potuisset infra ?cium diem tali? in? se ordinav'unt qd Castrum illud remaneret in manu nra in eodem statu quo tune fuit ut in muris, fossatis, brecbach, victualing T; aliis ita qd nichil repareretur exaltaref karnalaref brechachi- aret r vel alio modo stat 9 ille mutaref cit a quindenam Sci Jofiis Bapt pxio futuram in qua quindena pdci Epi ptib3 diem apud vadum Montis Gomeri ad faciend inde 1 reci- 48 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. piend justicia jux a form m pacis T, leges March. Et p>dci Epi L. ad hoc cum masiia difficultate inducto Castrum illud a Con- o stabulario ejusdem jux* tenorc trar' p>dci Coin sibi sup hoc p pfatos Epos traditar' in manura nram recepunt T: illud quib3dam de suis comiserunt quousq3 aliqui de nris ibide veniretT; castrum illud ab eis recipent T; in raanu nra custodiret in forma p>dca. Ecce Constabularius dci Comitis de Caerdif simul cum q u dra- ginta homib3 ad arma ,ppe ptem de Kaerfili accessit T: latenter T. clam adiit p'dcm Castrum de Kaerfili T; petiit ibi ingressum ad arma fcoium pdci Coin scrutanda T: videnda. et hoies p>dcor' Epor' in custodia ejusdem sinistra aliq a de ipo non suspi- tantes eum Castrum illud ingredi pmiserut quo ingresso petiit ut quidam miles suus sup reb3 in Castro illo existentib3 cerciorat 9 ingredi posset qui militem ilium 1 postmodum fcium ingredi pmiserut quib3 ingressis post scrutinium fern de armaturis itt ad porta ejusdem Castri accesserunt qua p ipos apta illos quos infra Castrum illud morari voluerut ad municoem ejasdem alioquin qd ipi Castrum illud exiret l eos pmitPent Castrum illud ad op 9 p>dci Coin Dni sui custodire. Ita qd hoies Epor' illor' p dis- triccoem eis foam p p>dcm Constabulariu de Kaerdif Castrum illud dimiserut T; ad Dnos suos redierut. Et nos quidem auditis pmissis T. non multo inde admirantes consulim 9 sup hoc cum ift qui jux* latus nrm morant T; negocio illo intellect mandavim 9 pfato Coin pmissa ut nos sup voluntate sua ^t si pmissa. p ipm. vt de assensu seu pteepto suo forent atteptata, ad plenu redderet ficiores unde quia si rumor istor' ad aures pfati Lewelini pveffiint ipe forte credet pmissa de consensu nro fore ppet r ta cum tamen de ijpor' ppefcone doleam 9 vob mandam 9 rogantes qd consilium vrm sup pmissis nob q u cicius distincte T; apte significetis una cum vre beneplacito voluntatis. T 18. Ijfc ditco 1 fideli suo Lewelino fit Griffini principi Watt saltm T; sincere dileccois affcm Cum diem vob T, vris 1 ditco 1 fideli nro G. de Clare Comiti GlouS 1 Hertford *\ suis ac cetls marchionib3 nris p nos pfixum a die Sci Jotiis Bapt ^xio p>?ito in unum mensem apd vadu Montis Gomeri 8tis de causis ^rogassem 9 ab CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 49 illo mense in unum mensem post festum Sci Micfiis |>xio ventur' ut tune cora magnatib3 1 fidelib3 nris p nos ibidem destinandos tarn vofc T; vris qin pfato Coin 1 suis ac aliis marchionib3 nris f?dcis plena fiat justicia sup in?cepconib3 excessib3 T; trans- gressionib3 hinc inde f cis cont a form" 1 pacis in? nos T; vos inite T; firmate ""I voB p tras nras mandassem 9 qd diem illu observetis apud locum p>dcm I qd intim pfato Coifi aut suis ac ce?is marchionib3 nris pdcis dapnum non inferatis vel g a vamen ac jam sim 9 in |?ficiscendo ad ptes tnsmarinas p homagio nro quod Dno Regi Francie illustri fa8e tenem m p duatu nro Aqui? Coi8 Agenen T; aliis ?ris quas tenem 9 1 tefle debem 9 in regno Francie eidem Dho Regi pstande T; .gpter hoc velim 9 T, speciali? optem 9 ad pacem T; tnquillitatem regni nri T; pcium Marchie quod voB aut vris p pfatum Com aut ce?os marchi5es nros seu pfato Com aut ipis marchionib3 nris p vos vel vros nullum in?im dapnum vi molestia inferaf set qd omia in pace conquiescant usq3 ad diem supdcm mandavim 9 pfato Com T^ ce?is marchionib3 nris districte inhibendo in vofo vt vris in?im inferant dapnu molestiam seu jacturam unde vofc mandam 9 firmi? injugentes qd pfatum Comite aut marchi5es pdcos in?im nullo modo gvetis seu a vris gvari pmittatis. CePum quia p fidedignos intellexim 9 qd vos exScitum vrm jam banniri fecistis T; ptes Marchie appinqre pponitis ad pfatum Comite T; alios marchioes nros g a vandos T; ?ras suas ibidem invadend de quo q a m plurimu admiramur voB mandam 9 in fide T; homagio T; dileccone quib3 no^ tenemini firmi? injugentes qd ab huj 9 modi ^posito voluntario desistentes in pace vos teneatis. Ita qd vot> non imputari debeat vel possit qd pax in ptib3 itt minus fan observed Scituri qd si secus egeritis impedire no possum 9 nee volum 9 quin pfati marchioes nri ad defensionem suam p se vt p amicos suos vo!5 resistant virili? T; poten?. T fy apud Westm. iiij. die Augusti. Ijk Lewelino fit Griffmi Principi Watt saltm T; sincere dilcois aflfcm. Ea que nob sup emend faciend T; recipiend de excessib3 1 tnsgressionib3 injuriis T. in?cepconib3 p G. de Clare Comite H 50 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. GlouS l Humfridum de Bohun T; suos ac alios Marchiones nros cont a form 1 " pacis in? nos 1 vos initam *\ firmatam illatas sicut asseritis T; fcis hinc inde p Iras vras expressistis una cum aliis que veflabit pa? Anian 92 Epus de Sco Assapti sollicite note exposuit noie vro pleni 9 audivim 9 T; intellexim 9 diligen? 1 sup hiis cum aliis p>latis 1 consiliariis nris tctatum *\ colloquiu habuim 9 exquisitum satis autem attenditis qli? sup exhibenda vote in hac pte justicia firmam T; ferventem voluntatem habentes majores de regno nro ad vadum Montis Goifii frequent tnsmisim 9 ex hac causa. Ita qd p nos in aliquo non stetit quin vote sup pmissis fieret justicie complementu sicut tarn p tras nras vote inde directas qm p alia nre sollicitudinis judicia satis constat T; constabit inpos?um eviden? modo ante supveffiunt nova que nos l consilium nrm urgen? occupant T; distrahunt ad di^sa. Dns enim Rex Fran8 illustris 8tum Pminum note pfixit in quindena videlicet Sci Martini jam venturi ut sibi de Ducatu Aqui? Com Agenenl ac aliis ?ris quas tenemus in regno FranS homagium faciam 9 Ita qd ul?ius supsedere non possum 9 quin ptes tnsmarinas psonali? adeamus p negocio antedicto. Et insup Edwardus p'mogenit 9 nr dilect 9 amic 9 vr jam est in redeundo de ra Sea v^sus ptes Angt sicut p ditcm 'I fidele nrm Ottonem de Grandisono ac alios milites familiares T; domesticos suos qui in ptes Vascon adventum ipius ibidem expectant veraci? intellexim 9 unde si p*dca negocia vos tangencia |?rogent ra ad temp 9 securi esse po?itis qd negocia ilia p pdcm Edwardum T: alios nobiles regni nri jux a formam pacis pdcam tarn quo ad emendas vote faciend qfn alia que incumbunt melius T; magis pfecte qm hactenus " explebunf ,pp quod Pminum nup vote in hac pte pfixum videlicet a festo Sci Mich" is in unum mensem duxim 9 progand usq3 ad quindenam Pasche pxlo futuram ad quern die 1 Humphrey de Bohun, second Earl of Hereford, Earl of Essex, and Lord High Constable. Died 1275. [Nicholas.] Anianus on Enion. Consec. 21st Oct., 1268. Died 5th Feb., CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 51 erit p Dei gram Edwardus p>dcus in cuj 9 psencia negocia p'dca felici? T; finali? po?unt frninari ad c5modum T: indepnitatem vram. Et scire vos volum 9 qd voft aut nob reb^ se habentib3 ut nuc nullaten 9 expediret quicquam mali vl excessus in?im atteptari cont a form pacis pdce unde voft mandam 9 rogantes 1 in fide homagio 1 dileccone I quib3 not> teneiiii firmi? injugen? quatin 9 die illu videlicet quindenam Pascfr pdcam observantes inPim vos 1 vros in pace teneatis ita qd vos fidelitate vra tune ut prius lire debeam 9 specialit comendantes. Prefat 9 ante Epiis quern in exposicone negocior' vror' iflito (?) c5mendamus voluntate nram pleni 9 vo^ viva voce referre po?it in pmissis. T R: apd Westm xxx. die Octob'r g ipm Ijfc Archiepm Ebor. R Agutt. Thedis de Camift. frem J. de Derlington. W. de M?ton. Magrui W. de la Corner 1 Eliam de Rabeyh. 1 Edward, upon his accession to the throne, vigorously pushed forward the plans which had already been com- menced against the Welsh. The destruction of the native princes Llewelyn 2 and David, one of whom was 1 King Henry III. died 17th November, 1272. These records corroborate, to some extent, the statement of the Brut y tywysogion, given in the following passage : " Deg mlyned a thrugeint a deu " It was the year of Christ one cant a mil oed oet Crist pan vu thousand two hundred and seventy uarw Maredud ab Grufud arg- when Maredud ab Grufud, Lord Iwyd Hiruryn trannoeth o duw of Hirvryn, died at the castle of gwyl Lucy wyry yn Kastell Llan Llan Ym dyfri, on the morrow Ymdyfri. Ac y cladwyt yn (query, vigil?) of the feast of Ystrat Fflur. Y vlwydyn honno Lucy the Virgin (query, St. y goresgynnawd Llywelyn ab Lucia?) and he was buried at Grufud gastell Caer Filu." Ystrat Fflur. That year Lly- [Brut y tynysogion. Myv. welyn ab Grufud took possession Arch., II., 464.] ' of Castle Caer Filu." 2 In the Fcedera for 1282, the death of Llewelyn is noticed in a letter from the king to the Archbishop of Canterbury, after which follows an account of "a paper found in his femoralia," garments which it is satisfactory to the upholders of Welsh civilization to know that he certainly wore. 52 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. slain in battle, 1282, and the other put to an ignominous death, (1283,) removed all regular opposition to his claim. In the 9th and 10th Edward I., Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, claimed to hold his lands in Glamorgan as " Regale." He said he and his ancestors held by con- quest, and appears, like Earl Warren, to have declined acknowledging the royal " quo warranto" for his Welsh lands. [Abb. Placit, 201.] "In 1285," says Walsingham, " Edward marched from Snowdon to Glamorgan, and having been received by the Earl of Gloucester with great honour, was by him, at his own proper charges, conducted to the Gloucester- shire border, whence he proceeded to Bristol." The king was probably entertained at Cardiff, which, for the reasons which have been stated above, was the ordinary residence of the Lords of Glamorgan. Twelve years later, the Welsh were again in arms, and, under Mailgon, actually drove out Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, who had inherited Glamorgan, and who died about this period. The king, however, entering Wales, speedily reduced the Welshmen to obedience ; and the three daughters of the Earl of Gloucester, and his son Gilbert, a minor, were reinstated in their father's possessions. Upon the accession of Edward II. he took advantage of the minority of the young Earl of Gloucester to give his sister away in marriage to his favourite, Gaveston, (1307,) a proceeding which gave great offence to the nobility of the realm, as well as to the earl her brother. In 1314 Earl Gilbert, then aged twenty-three, fell CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 53 childless on the field of Bannockburn, leaving three sisters the coheirs of his vast inheritance. The king, in the first instance, [March, 1314, Fcedera, II., 264,] appointed as custos of the estates Bartholomew de Badlesraere, who gave offence by his careless treatment of the Welsh hostages, and was directed to provide them with proper sustenance in future out of the De Clare lands. 1 [Close Rolls, 15th March, 1316.] Badlesmere also marched to repress this outbreak, and, next year, he had an assignment out of the king's rents in Glamor- gan and Morgannwg. [Rot. Parl. I. ,453-6 ; Fcedera, II., 370.] Before the division of the estates, February, 1316, a commission was issued to Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, to defend Glamorgan against the Welsh, who had risen under Llewelyn Bren, grand- son to Ivor, a former Lord of Senghennydd. [Feeder a. ~] The Rev. H. H. Knight, translating from the Monk of Malmesbury, adds, " He (Llewelyn) had used malicious words before, now he comes from words to blows ; for upon a certain day, when the Constable of Caerphilly Castle held his court outside of the castle, Llewelyn made an onset with his sons and adherents upon him, and having slain some of the officers, and severely wounded several of the attendants at the court, carried him off* captive. At the same time he attacked the castle, but met with such resistance as prevented his entrance, 1 Bartholomew, Baron de Badlesmere, born about 1275, married Margaret, daughter of Thomas, sister of Richard, and aunt and co- heiress of Thomas de Clare, grandson of Richard, Earl of Gloucester. Their son Giles, second baron, obtained from Eleanor, Countess of Gloucester, a part of his father's lands, which appear to have been attainted. 54 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. although he succeeded in burning all the outward walls." Among the articles at a later period (1321) exhibited against Le Despencer, it was stated, with reference to this Llewelyn, " That when the Earl of Hereford, and Lord Mortimer of Wigmore, had gone against Llewelyn Bren, who had raised a rebellion against the king in Glamor- ganshire, whilst the Earl of Gloucester's lands were in the king's hands, the same Llewelyn yielded himself up to the said earl, and to the Lord Mortimer, who brought him to the king on promise that he should have the king's pardon, and so the king received him. But after that the said earl and Lord Mortimer were out of the land, the Spensers, taking to them royal power, took the said Llewelyn, and led him unto Kardiff, where, after that the said Hugh Spenser, the sonne, had hi$ part of the said Earl of Gloucester's lands, he caused the said Llewelyn to be drawn, headed, and quartered, to the discredit of the king, and of the said Earl of Hereford, and Lord Mortimer, yea, and contrary to the laws and dignities of the imperial crowne." [ffollinshed, 4to. II., 562.] Edward married (13th Edward II.) Eleanor, the eldest sister of the deceased Earl Gilbert, to his favourite, Hugh le Despencer, the younger, and he allotted to her the Welsh estates. Accordingly, very shortly afterwards, Le Despencer is rated among the Welsh levies, at five hun- dred foot for his lands in Glamorgan and Morgannwg, and at three hundred for the king's lands in his custody. About this time, Le Despencer took advantage of Mortimer's attainder to sieze upon the castle of Caer- philly, which appears to have been held by the Mortimers, possibly through their descent from Gwladys, widow of CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 55 Reginald de Braose, of Senghennydd, who remarried Ralph, Baron Mortimer, of Wigmore. However this may have been, Despencer governed Caerphilly, for, 14th Edward II., [Pat. 14th E. II., m. 11,] he rendered it up to the king, and having fortified it by additional defences, was enabled, for some time, to withstand the forces brought against him by the barons, although they finally obtained possession of it. About the same time, or a little earlier, William, Lord Braose, had sold a part of Gower to Le Despencer the younger, to the great dissatisfaction of the Earl of Here- ford, and the Mortimers, and Lord Mowbray, who had married Braose's daughter and heir ; upon this the Lords Mowbray, Clifford, and others, in 1321, rose in arms against the king and Le Despencer, took " Kierdie (Cardiff), Kersillie (Caerphilly), Llanntrissane, Talvan, Llanllethien, Kenfegis, Neath, Drusselan, and Dinevor," from Le Despencer, and altogether did 10,000 worth of damage. {Hollinshed^ 559, 560.] " In an account of the possessions of Hugh le Despencer, and Eleanor his wife, 14th Edward II., (a copy of which appears in the Harleian MSS.,} the sum for the necessary repairs, &c., l de necessaria reparatione et custodia Cast, de Kerfilly,' is estimated at 43 per annum." [I. M. T.] In 1326, 20th Edward II., the queen and Mortimer having taken up arms, the king, attended by the De- spencers, and Baldock the chancellor, fled from London, to which he never returned. As the flight of the king from his barons and queen has, in its details, been generally neglected by historians, it may be useful to give the following rather minute par- 56 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. ticulars, compiled chiefly from, or corrected by, writs issued by the monarch during his journey. The king was at Westminster on the 2nd of October, and at Acton on the same day. [Feed, in loc.] On the 10th, with a few followers, pursued by his queen with a larger number, he rested at Gloucester, whence the elder Despencer, then ninety years old, was dispatched to defend the castle of Bristol. 1 From Gloucester, the king, accompanied by the younger Despencer and Robt. Baldock his chancellor, proceeded to Tintern, where he rested upon the 14th and 15th, and then remained at Striguil until the 21st. He was at Cardiff during the 27th and 28th, whence, probably thinking himself unsafe, he moved to Caerphilly, where he issued writs, bearing date the 29th and 30th of the montji, to Rhese ap Griffith, and others, giving them power to raise troops. Rhese seems to have been perfectly in the royal confi- dence, as his commission is unlimited. Whether Edward thought Caerphilly too near the English border, or whether the garrison was too small to defend its extensive outworks, does not appear ; but leaving Despencer, the grandson, in the castle, in opposi- tion to Mortimer, 2 he retired to Margam, where he was on the 4th of November, and thence to Neath, where he rested the next day, and whence he issued a safe-conduct to the abbot of that monastery, as his ambassador to the queen and Mortimer. 1 Walsingham says the elder Despencer was dismissed from Striguil. 2 " Prima patent de anno, 3 Regis Edwardi Tertii, quod Rogerus de Mortuomari, comes Marchiae Justiciarius Walliae, amoveat obses- sionem circa castr' de Kaerfily fact', et illud in maims regis resumat." [Cat. Mot. Pat. p. 105.] CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 57 Hugh le Despencer, the grandson, does not appear to have acted as official military governor of Caerphilly, during its siege by the queen and prince, at least in 1347, for (20th E. II., Rege captivo) a pardon is issued to John de Felton, for holding out Kerfilly against the queen and Prince Edward ; and a similar pardon to all within the castle during the siege, excepting only Hugh, the son of Hugh le Despencer the younger [Fcedera, 20th E. II. 1 ], who, however, received a pardon shortly afterwards. 2 As Edward is only certainly known to have been at Caerphilly on the 30th, and at Margam on the 4th, there remains an interval of not more than four whole days, and possibly a portion of two others, during which his wanderings are unrecorded. If we suppose that he employed the interval in proceeding by sea to Margam, taking water at Cardiff, or some neighbouring port, we shall be able to reconcile the narrative of Walsingham with that given above. Walsingham, whose information, though generally correct, is not always minute, makes him take water from Striguil. It seems, however, more probable that he went first to Caerphilly. 1 "Patent' de anno 20 Regis Edwardi Secundi'. Pardonatio con- cessa omnibus in castro de Kaerfily, (excepto Hugone filii Hugonis le Dispencer, junior') eoquod ipsi castrum prffidictum ac qua?dam bona in eodem ad mandatum Isabella? Regina3 Angliae et Edw' primo- geniti filii Regis eisdem super hoc ex parte R s directum non liber- averunt, apud Kenilworth, 4 Januarii." [Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 98]. " Prima patent' de anno primo Regis Edwardi Tertii. Pardonatio concessa diversis in castro de Cairfily existentibus." [Cal. Mot. Pat. p. 100.] 2 "Pardonatio concessa Hugoni le Dispenser, filio Hugonis le Dispenser, junioris, eoquod detinuit castrum de Kaerfily, contra Regem et Isabel!' Reginam, &c., ac nomina duodecem militum ejus manucaptorum." [Cal. Mot. Pat. p. 104.] I 58 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. Froissart says that the king, and Despencer, jun., held the castle, and Despencer, sen., and the Earl of Arundel, the town, of Bristol, against the queen's forces ; and that the two latter were executed under the walls of that castle, within sight of the king, and all within it. He also relates that the king, and Despencer, jun., were taken on the seas, while escaping from Bristol, and brought back thither points in which he is not borne out by contemporary writers. Froissart was clearly never in that part of England, and seems to have been misin- formed. Fabyan merely gives a very general statement, agreeing, as far as it goes, with Froissart. Hollinshed's statement is given below. 1 1 A 1326. " The king in this mean time kept not in one place, but shifting hither and thither, remained in great care. The king, with the Earl of Gloucester, and the Lord Chancellor, taking the sea, meant to have gone either into the ile of Lundaie, or else into Ireland, but being tossed with contrary winds for the space of a week together, at length he landed in Glamorganshire, and got him to the abbeie and castel of Neith, there secretly remaining upon trust of the Welshmen's promises. Hugoline Spencer, the sonne of the Earl of Gloucester, defended the castle of Kersillie against the power of the queen and of her sonne till Easter following, and then compounding for the safety of his own life, and all theirs within that castle, and likewise for the injoying of their goods, he yielded it to the hands of the men of warre that held siege before it in the queen's name, and of his sonne." " The queen remained about a month's space at Hereford, and in the mean while sent the Lord Henrie, Earl of Leicester, and the Lord W m la Zouch, and one Rice ap Howell that was lately delivered out of the Tower where he was prisoner, into Wales, to see if they might find means to apprehend the king by help of their acquaintance in those parts, all three of them having lands their abouts, where it was knowne the king for the more part kept. They used such diligence in that charge, that finallie with large gifts bestowed on the Welshmen, they came to understand where the king was, and so on the day of St. Edmund the Archbishop, being the 16th of November, they took CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 59 The king, Despencer, and Baldock remained at Neath until the 10th, when Henry, Earl of Lancaster, Master ap Howell, (afterwards Justiciary of Wales,) and William la Zouch, having lands and power in the neighbourhood, were sent by the queen from Hereford to watch the king, who finally, with his two minions, was siezed on Sunday, 16th November, near the castle of Llantursan, or Llan- trissaint, on his way, as has been supposed, back to Caerphilly. He gave up the great seal at Monmouth, 20th November, to Sir W. Blount. The next writ is dated Ledbury, 13th of November, and finally the king was conveyed to Kenil worth, on the 14th of December. Baldock, being an ecclesiastic, was confined to New- gate, where he died within the year; and Despencer, being hanged at Hereford, as his father had been at Bristol, his honours became extinct, and his estates reverted to the crown. He left, however, his widow, Eleanor, who stood in the relationship of cousin to the king. "In 1322," says Hollinshed, "the king (Edward III.) obtained possession of all the Despencer castles, and sent Lord Hastings into South Wales." [p. 564.] Knyghton mentions, among the nobles present at the coronation of the new monarch, Hugh le Despencer, the grandson, afterwards a distinguished soldier, "a great baron and a good knight," says Froissart, and who died finally without issue. " He delivered up," says Knyghton, referring to the above mentioned transaction, " the castle him in the monastery of Neith, near to the castle of Llantursan, together with Hugh Spencer, the son, called Earl of Gloucester, the Lord Chancellor, Robert de Baldocke, and Simon de Reading, the king's Marshall, not caring for the other king's servants, whom they suffered to escape." [Hollinshed, p. 58, 2-3.] 60 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. of Caerphilly, which he had from his father, to the king, and placed himself at his disposal, who in return granted unto him safety of life and limb." In addition to this, the monarch seems to have re- granted to him a portion of his paternal estates, since we find him ordered to raise three hundred and thirty-two men in Glamorgan and Morgannwg as his share of a Welsh army ; and again, five years afterwards, he is rated at three hundred. [Fcedera, 15th E. III.; 20th E. III.] The castle of Caerphilly does not, however, appear to have been restored to him, or to his mother ; for a writ (1329) is directed to Roger de Mortimer, Justiciary of Wales, " seeing that divers evil doers, abetted by William la Zouch de Mortimer, have beleaguered the castle of Caerphilly in warlike fashion, and held that leaguer in breach of the peace, and terror of liege subjects;" he is ordered " to raise the siege, (taking the posse if necessary,) and to seize the castle for the king, and safely to keep it, arresting the recusants, if any, and committing them to prison." Also, on the same day, was issued a second writ, stating that William la Zouch de Mortimer had been summoned to appear in person, and had refused ; refusing also to bring with him the king's cousin, Eleanor le Despencer, residing in her country, and ordering " John de Gynes to attack him, and to bring both to the king." A month afterwards, the writ to Roger Mortimer is repeated, expressing surprise at his delay in executing the first, forbidding any supplies of food to be admitted to the besieged, and commanding that restitution be CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 61 made of the goods and chattels seized by La Zouch from John de Gray, the king's faithful subject. From hence it would appear that William had already taken the castle, though the results of the royal writs are not mentioned. Shortly afterwards William, and the king's cousin, Countess Eleanor, were married. The castle was probably regranted by the king, with their titles, to the Despencers, for Elizabeth, widow of Edward, Lord le Despencer, he who died 1375, (49th E. III.,) had the castle and town of Caerphilly, and the territory of Senghennydd, as a part of her dowry ; she died 1409. After the battle of Shrewsbury, and Henry's subsequent campaign in the north, that monarch directed the Welsh castles to be put in order, with a view to the final sup- pression of Owen Glendwr and his adherents. A writ, cited by Thomas, {Memoirs of Owen Glendwr, 1822, p. 120,) commits the custody of Caerphilly and Gwyr Lacy to Constantia, Lady le Despencer, who was the widow of Thomas, Lord le Despencer, Earl of Gloucester, who was beheaded, 1339-1400, 1st H. IV. She was the daughter of Edmund Plantagenet, of Langley, and died 1417. No such place as Gwyrlacy is known ; but it is singular that in this writ, which enumerates the principal fortresses in Wales, the name of Cardiff does not occur. During the reign of Edward III. large levies were not unfrequently required at the hands of the Lords-Marchers of Wales ; and among the territories from which certain men are directed to be drawn, the name of Ewyas Lacy very frequently occurs. Thus, in 1343, (16th Edward III.,) a writ was addressed to Gilbert Talbot, Justiciary 62 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. of South Wales; in 1346, a similar one to the Earl of March, and B. de Burghersh; in 1367, to other persons; and, in each of these cases, Ewyas Lacy is enumerated in conjunction with Builth, and Crickhowel, and other places, all lying about Brecon, or between it and Crick- howel, while the levies for " Morgan and Morgannon" are in all the above cases directed to be raised by a different baron ; Ewyas Lacy, indeed, is in Hereford- shire, not far from the border. The name Gwyr Lacy does not once occur in the Fcedera : it is evidently a misnomer. It was the above " Constantia," the widow of Lord le Despencer, and sister to the Duke of York, who, a short time afterwards, attempted to rescue the young Earl of March and his brother from the power of Henry IV., for which offence she was imprisoned. " Among Lord Bute's papers is the account that Thay- ron ap Jevan ap Rawlyn, Bayliff of Kerfilly, 16th H. VI. * Unde 3s. 6d. quo? solvit p expens Oweyn ap Gwed et Jevan Llew n ap Jevan Vaughn, ap Jevan Vaure Felon ibm in Co. de Kerfilly exist p. iij. Septiin et postea suspens.' This original document is confirmative of Leland's account, that prisoners were kept here in Henry the Eighth's time." [I. M. T.] I have been able to find no further mention of Caer- philly until the time of Leland, who thus describes it in his Itinerary : " In Iscaihac is Cairfilly Castelle sette amonge marisches, wher be ruinous walles of a wonderful thickness and tower kept up for prisoners as to the chief hold of Senghenith." [Leland, VII. 39.] Owen Glendwr in his invasion of South Wales, in CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 63 1400, is said to have taken and garrisoned Caerphilly. [JBeauties.~\ Our typographical arrangements do not admit of the insertion, in the usual manner, of the pedigree, showing the descent of Caerphilly ; we shall endeavour, however, thus to supply its place : I. ROBERT FITZ-HAMON, nephew to the Conqueror, received from William Rufus the Honour of Gloucester; died A.D. 1107, 7 Henry I.; buried in the chapter-house of Tewkesbury Abbey, which he founded, rebuilding the church, to which his body was transferred, 1241. He married Sibil, or Isabel, sister of Robert Belesme, Earl of Shrewsbury. They had issue four daughters. II. MABEL, eldest daughter and coheiress, married ROBERT CONSUL, Earl of Gloucester, builder of Cardiff Castle, bastard son of Henry I., by Nest, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr. Died 1147, 12 Stephen, and is buried in St James' Monastery, Bristol, which he founded. Issue III. WILLIAM, Earl of Gloucester, died 1173; buried at Keyn- sham Abbey ; married Hawise, daughter of Robert, (Bossu) Earl of Leicester. Issue 1. Robert, born and died at Cardiff, s.p. 2. Mabel. 3. Amicia. 4. Isabella. IV. ISABELLA, daughter and coheiress, married first, John, after- wards king. He repudiated her, and gave up the Honour of Gloucester, but kept Bristol Castle ; second, Geoffrey de Magnaville, Earl of Essex ; third, Hubert de Burgh, Chief Justice of England. Leaving no children, her estates passed to her sister. V. MABEL, Lady of the Honour of Gloucester; she died, having married the Earl of Evreux in Normandy, and her only son dying without issue, left as sole heir her sister. VI. AMICIA, who married RICHARD DE CLARE; he died 1211, and is buried at Clare. Issue VII. GILBERT, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford ; died 1229, 64 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. (14 H. III.,) in Little Britain; buried in the choir at Tewkesbury ; married Isabella, third daughter, and coheiress of William Marshall the elder, Earl of Pembroke. Issue VIII. RICHARD, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford ; born 1221 ; died 14 July, 1261 (46 H. III.); buried at Tewkesbury; married Matilda, daughter of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. Issue IX. GILBERT, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, surnamed the "Red;" born 1243, at Christ Church, Hants; died at Monmouth Castle, December 1295 (24 Edward 1.); buried at Tewkesbury; married (18 Edward I.) Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I., (who remarried Ralph de Monther- mer.) 1 Issue 1. Gilbert. 2. Eleanor, 3. Margaret, mar- ried first, Piers Gaveston, and afterwards Hugh de Audley. 4. Elizabeth, foundress of Clare Hall, who married first, John de Burgh, son and heir to the Earl of Ulster, second, Theobald Verdon, and afterwards Roger d' Amory. X. GILBERT, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, slain at Ban- nockburn, 1314, 7 Edward II., aged 23; buried at Tewkes- bury. He married Matilda, daughter of John de Burgh, (died 1315,) and had one son, John, who died before his father. XI. Eleanor de Clare, eldest daughter and coheiress, married (13 Edward II.) HUGH LE DESPENCER, Earl of Gloucester, son of Hugh, Earl of Winchester, Chamberlain to Edward II. Hanged and quartered, 1326 ; buried at Tewkesbury. 1 The author of the Siege of Caerlaverock, describing his banner of arms, says, " He by whom they were well supported acquired, after great doubts and fears, until it pleased God he should be delivered, the love of the Countess of Gloucester, for whom he a long time endured great sufferings. He had only a banner of fine gold, with three red chevrons." Peter of Langtoft says, " Of Gloucestre stoute and gay, Sir Rauf the Mohermere, and his wif, Dame Jone, whilom Gilberde's of Clare." In 1298, he was summoned jure matris, as Earl of Gloucester and Hertford. After the death of his wife, in 1307, he appears to have dropped these titles. CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 65 Issue 1. Hugh. 2. Edward. 3. Gilbert. Eleanor remar- ried William la Zouch, of Mortimer, who was buried at Tewkesbury. 1 Eleanor was prisoner with her family in the Tower until 5th February, 1-2 Edward III. XII. HUGH LE DESPENCER, Baron le Despenser. He broke into the Scheldt in the naval battle of Sluys; died, S.P., February, 1349 ; buried at Tewkesbury. He married Eliza- beth, daughter of Hugh Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, and widow of Guy de Brian ; she is buried at Tewkesbury. XIII. EDWARD LE DESPENCER, died before his brother, 16 Edward III.; married Anne, daughter of Henry, Lord Ferrers, of Groby. Issue XIV. EDWARD LE DESPENCER, heir to his uncle, Lord of Glamorgan, 17 Edward III., made his will at Llanblethian Castle, 1375, 49 Edward III., and shortly afterwards died at Cardiff Castle, seized of the castle of Caerphilly ; buried at Tewkesbury ; married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Bartholomew, Baron Burghersh, who died 1409, and is buried at Tewkesbury. She had, in dower, the castle and town of Caerphilly, and the territory of Senghennydd above and below Taff. [Giraldus Cambrensis. Sir R. C. Hoare, II., 373.] Their eldest son, Edward, died at Cardiff, aged twelve years. XV. THOMAS LE DESPENCER, Earl of Gloucester, younger son, and finally heir ; obtained the reversal of the attainder of his great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, 1397. Created Earl of Gloucester, 1397 ; attainted, and beheaded at Bristol, 1 Henry IV., 1400 ; buried at Tewkesbury ; 1 William Zouch of Mortimer, was younger son of Robert, third Baron Mortimer, of Richard's Castle, by Joyce, daughter and heiress of William la Zouch, second son of Roger, second Baron Zouch, of Ashby. He took his mother's name. He was summoned to Parlia- ment 1323-1337. His son, Alan, succeeded him, but was not sum- moned. Hugh, fourth Baron of Mortimer, of Richard's Castle, was, in 1295, officially connected with South Wales. K 66 CAERPHILLY CASTLE. married Constance, daughter of Edmund Langley, Duke of York, son of Edward III. Issue 1. Richard; died aged eighteen years, s.p. 2. Elizabeth; died young at Cardiff; buried in St. Mary's Church. 3. Isabella. XVI. ISABELLA, final heir. Born at Cardiff; buried at Tewkes- bury ; married first, 1411, Richard Beauchamp, son and heir of William, Lord Abergavenny, Earl of Worcester ; killed; buried at Tewkesbury. Issue Elizabeth; born 16th September 1415 ; married Edward, son of Rafe Nevill, Earl of Westmoreland, and had issue, George Nevill. Isabella married second, by dispensation, Richard Beauchamp, first cousin to her first husband, Earl of Warwick. He died at Rouen, 1344. Issue 1. Henry. 2. Anne. XVII. HENRY BEAUCHAMP, Lord le Despenser, Duke of War- wick, died 1446, aged 22 ; buried at Tewkesbury ; married Cecilia, daughter of Richard Nevill, Earl of Salisbury; she remarried Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester; died 1450; buried at Tewkesbury. Their daughter, Anne Beauchamp, died 1449, aged six years. XVIII. ANNE, sister and heiress to Henry Beauchamp, died 1418, aged 32 ; married RICHARD NEVILL, Earl of Salisbury and Warwick, sixth son of Richard, Earl of Salisbury. Issue, three daughters 1. Isabel, married George, Duke of Clarence. 2. Mary. 3. Ann, who married first, Edward, Prince of Wales; and secondly, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III. Upon Richard's death the estates passed to HENRY VII., by whom the Lordship of Glamorgan was granted to Jasper, Duke of Bedford, at whose death in 1495 it escheated to the crown, where it remained, until Edward VI. granted it, in the fourth year of his reign, to (1.) William, Earl of Pembroke, Baron Herbert, of Cardiff, who was the son of Sir Richard Herbert, of Ewyas, the natural son of that Earl who was beheaded in 1469. From Earl William the Lordship of Glamorgan, including Caer- philly, came to his son, (2.) HENRY, second earl; died 1601; CAERPHILLY CASTLE. 67 having married for his third wife, Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Sidney, and leaving by her, (3.) 1. WILLIAM, third earl, 1630, married Mary, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and had issue, Henry, who died young. (4.) 2. Philip, brother and heir, fourth earl, and Earl of Montgomery, who left issue by Susan, daughter of Edward, Earl of Oxford, (5.) PHILIP, fifth earl, who married first, Penelope, daughter of Sir Richard Naun- ton, and had issue, (6.) WILLIAM, sixth earl; and secondly, Catherine, daughter of Sir WILLIAM VILLIERS, and had issue, (7.) 1. PHILIP, seventh earl, 1683, who married Henriette de Querouaille; and (8.) 2. THOMAS, eighth earl. Philip, seventh earl, left issue, (9.) CHARLOTTE, heiress of Usk Castle, who married first, John, Lord Jefferies, 1702, and left Henriette, who married the Earl of Pomfret ; and secondly, Thomas, Viscount Windsor, Baron Mountjoy, 1738, and by him had issue, (10.) HERBERT, Viscount Windsor, &c., who married Alice, daughter of Sir John Clavering ; and had issue, (11.) 1. CHARLOTTE JANE, who mar- ried John, Marquis of Bute, Baron Cardiff, &c.; and 2. Alice- Elizabeth, who married the Marquis of Hertford. Charlotte Jane had issue, (12.) JOHN, Lord Mountstuart, who married Elizabeth Penelope, daughter and heiress of Patrick, Earl of Dumfries, and left issue, (13.) the late Marquis of Bute, and Lord James Stuart. The Marquis died 1849, leaving an only son and heir, (14.) JOHN PA.TRICK CRICHTON STUART, third Marquis of Bute, the present possessor of Caerphilly Castle. Although the castle of Caerphilly, and the estates Avon by Fitz-Hamon have thus become alienated, both from his blood and from that of their ancient Welsh possessors, parts of the district of Senghennydd appear to have been transmitted, by unbroken descent, to the present day. It has been already stated that Ivor Bach married Nest, daughter and heiress of Madoc ap Cradoc, of Senghennydd, and that their eldest son, Griffith, married, according to some accounts, the daughter of William, 68 CA.ERPHILLY CASTLE. Earl of Gloucester. From this Griffith descended the Glamorganshire family of Lewis of " The Van," their seat from a remote period, and no doubt a part of the ancient Lordship of Senghennydd, allotted to their ances- tor. Einon. Early in the eighteenth century, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Thomas Lewis of " The Van," married Other, third Earl of Plymouth, ancestor of Lady Harriet Clive, the present possessor of " The Van." The male line was carried on by Lewis of Llanishen, and is at present vested in Henry Lewis, of Green Meadow, who is therefore to be regarded as one of the representatives, in the male line, of Nest, the heiress of the ancient Welsh Lords of Senghennydd, in which district this family has never ceased to reside. NOTE. The plan which accompanies this article has been procured for the author, by Mr. Armstrong. Though not strictly accurate in all its minute details, it is generally correct, and by very much the best plan extant of the castle. THE END. R. Mason, Printer, High Street, Tenby. !T !', I, OCH Caatdl Cnrlj, THE river Taff, from its origin under the Brecon Beacons, after a course of about twenty-six miles through the northern and mountain district of Glamorgan, escapes by a deep and narrow ravine across the last elevation, arid 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 Glamor- gan, 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 Gla- morgan, is traversed, in this immediate neighbourhood, by the three passes of the Ebbwy, 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 2 CASTELL COCH. 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 remark- able tumuli, well known as landmarks in the vale, and visible even from the distant shores of Somerset. 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 o 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 now 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, CASTELL COCH. 3 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 Caerphilly on the Rhymny, and Castell Coch on the Taff, may be cited as adjacent 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 commu- nication with the chief castle at Cardiff. Lower down the scarp, though still high above the plain, the Norman en- gineer 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, from their want of organisation, 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 Rheubina, and close upon which is the circular mound, which appears to have been the site of a tower, 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 mate- rials, 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 cur- tains and hall, and the outworks. CASTELL COCH. The platform occupied by the whole is about two hundred yards long, by seventy yards broad, and the principal works of the castle occupy its west end. The south face is, in part, precipitous, and from twenty to thirty 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 cylin- drical superstructure, the north and south angles termi- nating in buttresses, each the half of a pyramid cut verti- cally and diagonally across, after a fashion very common in Welsh castles, and well seen in Marten's Tower at Chepstow. The cylinder is forty feet in diameter. It contains three stories, of which the middle one is on a level with the inner court, or terre pleine, of the place. The lower story may have been a dungeon. It is vaulted, and has two great cross-springer ribs, and two windows opening high above the floor. A narrow pas- sage, vaulted, with steps, leads into it from the court. Its internal diameter is eighteen feet, its walls upwards of ten 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 fire-place, 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 cast side of the vaulted passage, a gallery passes off in the thickness of the wall, and leads to what was a small sewer chamber, occupying a square projection on the east side of the tower, at its CASTELL COCH. 5 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 fire-places, 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 ram- parts 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 twenty -six feet mean diameter, and the walls vary from two feet three inches to four feet thick. It was roofed flat, with timber, and above were ram- parts and a parapet, probably reached by means of a trap-door in the roof. 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 ram- parts 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 sewer chamber, and in the upper, probably a communication with the battle- 6 CASTELL COCH. ments of the hall. The lower chamber is entered by a vaulted passage, down steps, from the court-yard. The middle or main chamber probably was entered on the level, by a passage from the court-yard, and a triforial 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, forty feet diameter. The walls are eight 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 forty feet diameter ; but, towards the court-yard, 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 dis- tinct staircase, a gallery branches off from the passage to the middle chamber, and descends, winding in the thick- CASTELL COCH. 7 ness of the wall, to that 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 of the chamber is eighteen feet four inches, and the thickness of the wall ten feet ten inches. It was probably vaulted, although all traces of a vault are gone. The middle chamber, of the same dimensions, is entered by a passage from the court, on a level. This chamber had two loops. There is no fire-place, and no trace of a vault, although the walls are above ten 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. The upper chamber appears to have been en- tered 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 occupies the space between the north and south towers, which it connects, its outer wall forming the curtain between them. It is rectangular, thirty feet eight inches, by seventeen feet eight inches, vaulted, with a pointed arch, and having its outer wall seven feet, and its inner six 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 CASTELL COCH. a fine view. The door was near the north end of the opposite side, and possibly there may have been a fire- place 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 com- municated with the north and south towers directly, and with the court by a narrow stair, already noticed as lead- ing 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 eighty feet exterior face, and f with a chord of about sixty feet. It originally was a wall three 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, six feet thick, extending the whole way from the north to the east tower. The old wall contains seven loops at the court-yard level, and to preserve these an arch, six feet diameter, is turned in the new work, opposite to each. Above, there is, oi 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 inoat. 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 CASTELL COCH. 9 four loops, but traces of it are discernible in the mortar upon the old wall. The gate-house curtain is much less perfect. It ap- pears to have been slightly convex in plan towards the exterior, and about twenty -eight feet in length between the south and east towers, from both of which its ramparts were no doubt entered. It is about five feet thick. One loop remains, about six feet above the court-yard 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 cur- tain, 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 lead- ing to it, but the gate-tower, and most of the curtain, are utterly gone. Thus much of the castle. We next reach the outworks, for the representation of which the dimensions of the plate do not afford space. 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 c 10 CASTELL COCH. 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, op- posite to the north tower, in some curious excavations, resembling a water- tank, which, however, they 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 forty 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. As the principal object was to command the regular approach from the eastward, the defences were prolonged CASTELL COCH. in this direction. Outside, and on the counterscarp of the moat of the outer court, and six feet from the edge of the south precipice, there are traces of a tower, about thirty feet diameter, with what may have been a sort of buttress on its southern side, extending to the precipice. Opposite, on its northern side, and at its junction with a lower curtain, is what appears to have been a well-stair, or the founda- tion of a distinct turret. There is no moat to the east of this tower, but the ground falls in a natural scarp. This lower curtain, indicated, like the towers, by a mound of earth only, sweeps round, so as to cover the counterscarp of the outer moat, and ends in the roadway tower, about forty feet diameter, the foundations of which are very distinct, and which must have completely com- manded the approach, at a point much in advance of, and below, the outer causeway and the eastern tower. The regular approach, it is clear, lay from the east, and between the precipitous height crowned by the old Cymric camp and the level platform of the castle, and, approaching it by the side least strongly defended by nature, would, at 150 yards from the body of the place, be flanked by the fire of the lower tower, then of the lower curtain, and then of the roadway tower. Sup- posing these silenced, and the outer causeway reached, the besieger came directly below the east tower, and a part of its adjacent curtains ; and, as he crossed the outer court, and reached the second causeway, he would be opposed by a fire from the east and south towers, their curtain, and the gateway tower. Even if the place were surprised and entered, each of the three towers, and the platform of the hall, admitted 12 CASTELL COCH. of being defended for a few hours, until aid had been signalled for, and sent, from Cardiff. No doubt, before brave men, all defences fail ; and the Welsh, who cer- tainly were not wanting in courage, did, according to tradition, more than once take this castle, probably by surprise and escalade ; nevertheless, it was a very strong fortress, both by nature and art, and must have been a sore thorn in the side of the mountaineers of Glamorgan. The present condition of each part of the castle has already been described ; it may be added, generally, that the whole is very thickly grown over with brushwood and weeds, so much so that it is difficult to make out the details of the plan of the building. Although no ornaments remain, yet it is clear from the general plan, and from the doorways, that no part qf the castle is Norman. It is probably Early English, and may very well be of the reign of Henry III., and, I should judge, a little earlier than Caerphilly. Here and there, especially in the outer court, are some handsome Scotch firs, and a line of venerable beeches, the peculiar green of whose foliage marks, from a great distance, the line of the old approach. These, of course, with the wood clothing the hill side, and the ivy upon the walls and towers, should be left untouched ; but it is much to be wished that the castle itself, and the works of the Cymric camp above, were cleared of timber and underwood, and a little care taken to encourage fair greensward in their stead. This castle has descended with the rest of the De Clare estates, and is now the property of the Marquis of Bute. CASTELL COCH. 13 There are various traditions concerning it, but a great deficiency of recorded information. Being the key of the upper country, it must have witnessed many an inburst of the native Welsh, from the Norman conquest to the days of Owain Glyndwr, who is supposed to have descended by this pass when he burned the episcopal Palace of Llandaff, and ravaged Cardiff. R. Mason, Printer, High Street, Tenby. - 2LZ_ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. NOY2G '5 NOV z e DEC 11. . I i OFC'D ID-UW , 1 1! o 27 1969| REC'D LD-URL MAR1 10-82 Form L9-42m-8,'49(B5578)444 Clark - A. ctesr ;he Oastles of Caerphilly To^: 7U5 K35C5U 3 1158 00734 1646 RHHHBHBHHH^H^HIBH ^jfflBJBHHBBHHHBBIHI^HBi^H! NSHHHHraRilffl^H9BBH nHRHHBffiflnHHiHHH^^B / Va