THE CONCENTRIC CASTLE, c. 1250, TO THE CASTELLATED MANSION PERIOD

The inception of the concentric idea in castellation must not be ascribed to the English builders of the second half of the thirteenth century, inasmuch as the plan is essentially oriental and appeared in the Levant before 1200. Thus ChÂteau Gaillard, built by Richard I. in 1196 upon the banks of the Seine near Les Andelys, is based essentially upon the concentric type, though it does not absolutely conform to that ideal owing to the configuration of the ground. That crusading monarch was among the first to recognise the possibilities of the Saracenic form and based this castle upon it. Upon the only side where it could be attacked it offered first an outer triangular-shaped ward, with an encircling wall, having five towers upon its enceinte. Between this and the second ward was a formidable ditch, 30 feet in depth, the wall standing upon the brink of the scarp; this second ward was of large dimensions with five towers upon its walls, which were practically built upon the edge of precipices. It was roughly hexagonal in shape and contained the inner ward, partially circular in outline and surrounded by a ditch. The walls of this ward were lofty and faced with bastions segmental in plan, thus embodying the prevailing belief that angles and corners were more vulnerable than curved surfaces. Inside this ward stood the Keep, forming the fourth successive line of defence to be overcome. The Keep or Donjon is splayed outwards at the base, a device often adopted for projecting missiles among the assailants when dropped from above, and also for greater strength. Probably the earliest examples of machicoulis are found upon this Keep. This formidable fortress fell by a combination of mining, filling up of the great ditch, battering the Keep, and escalading the inner ward, after pounding the curtain walls with perriers.

The thousands of warriors returning from the many crusades were well acquainted with the Concentric Castle, having in many cases been detained before the walls of an eastern city built upon a similar design. The difficulty and danger in attacking such a place were well known to them, and we can only ascribe the question of cost as the chief reason for the non-adoption of the idea at an earlier period.

At Constantinople the crusading hosts before the city found themselves confronted by a comparatively low fortified wall, bristling with impediments; within it, at the distance of some hundreds of feet, arose another and taller wall, while beyond that again a third wall, the highest of all, appeared. These walls extended for more than three miles upon the western side, with one hundred towers; all were embattled, and they offered a stupendous scene to the wondering eyes of the Crusaders as they vanished in grand perspective into the distance. There is no castle in England which presents more than three hundred yards of continual front. The capture of the first defence of the eastern capital by no means imperilled the integrity of the second, while the prospective losses of the assailants when confined in the narrow space between the first and second lines was appalling to contemplate. The same difficulty would occur with regard to the second and third lines of defence, and it is small wonder that the leaders paused in a projected attack upon so formidable an obstacle.

The essential principles underlying the construction of a castle erected upon the concentric plan were:—

1. That the natural features of the selected site should be adapted
and made part of the defences, and that no rigid plan of the ground occupied, based upon former principles of castellation, should be strictly followed.

2. That a series of defences independent and complete in themselves
should be presented in turn to an assault, the capture of one by no means entailing that of another.

The castle-builders of the second half of the thirteenth century rigidly adhered to the principles embodied in the first clause given above; they did not produce a structure of the Motte and Bailey, or the Keep and Base-court types, with little regard to the situation and configuration of the ground, but made their plans with the utmost care, embracing every advantage which the site presented. As a necessary sequence the ground plan of one Concentric Castle differs from every other, and it is only by a general summary of the ideas prevailing that any comparison can be made.

The second clause naturally suggested a concentric plan whereby each defence was placed within the other, the strongest of all naturally being in the centre. But as most of the English castles were rendered concentric by means of additions to buildings previously existing, the pure concentric ideal is seldom reached except in those structures reared entirely at that period, the others attained it more or less by developing conditions already obtaining.

The ideal concentric outline may be gleaned from the accompanying plan, where the three entrances are a special feature, each being placed as far as possible from the one adjacent. By this device the assailants who had managed to capture the outer enceinte would be compelled to pass under one half of the second line of towers and curtain walls before reaching the entrance pierced through them, being all the time subjected to a plunging fire of deadly missiles. The same would occur if the second line were captured. The gates were in all cases flanked by defensive towers, and generally reached by a drawbridge which could be raised before the entrance archway; this was narrow and defended by one or more portcullises, while a strong gate, usually sheathed with iron, was placed at the entrance immediately behind the raised drawbridge. If these formidable obstacles were overcome and the first part of the passage captured the inner portcullis or portcullises had to be forced, but the assailants would in the meantime be subjected to a galling discharge of arrows and bolts from the narrow loopholes on either side, which were pierced in the walls of rooms whose only entrances were from the inner courtyard or from the ramparts. In the vaulted roof of the passage also circular openings were built, termed "meurtriers," or murderers, through which melted lead, hot water or oil, and other liquids could be poured upon the struggling mass of assailants below. From the formidable nature of the defence it may readily be understood that direct assaults of castles built upon the concentric ideal were limited, the besiegers contenting themselves with waiting until famine had done its work, or treachery within the walls allowed them to enter. The project of capturing three strong castles, one within the other, was a prospect sufficient to daunt any ordinary commander, and so long as the besieged could count upon a friendly army in the field outside, the loyalty of the garrison, and a plentiful supply of provisions, the fortress might be relied upon to maintain its integrity.

It was during this period that machicoulis and alurs reached their highest efficiency and development, and in every castle built after 1250 they may be found wherever extra strengthening of the defence was desirable. In some illustrated medieval romances of the second part of the thirteenth century the castle is depicted with these additions, although at times the perspective indulged in by the artist is somewhat disconcerting. Where machicolation was not adopted, probably by reason of the expense, the walls were generally corbelled outwards at the upper parts of towers and walls, thus giving a more effective control over the bases of these structures where mining or battering might be attempted. Battlementing was almost universal, and the system of piercing the merlons with arbalestraria may be assigned to this early date, although not reaching the full development it subsequently met with in the Edwardian Castles of Wales. It may be seen in illustrated manuscripts in the form of simple circular openings in the merlons. The protection of loopholes and windows by a hanging shield is likewise illustrated; it prevented the admission of arrows and bolts discharged with a high trajectory.

The maximum development of the art of castle-building in the British Isles occurred in the reign of Edward I. and is exhibited in its best form in those magnificent buildings which he erected in Wales to consolidate the conquest of that country. With the great Snowdonian range as the centre he placed a ring of fortresses at those strategic points, chosen with remarkable military perspicacity, where they would be of the utmost advantage in commanding the widest stretch of country. Criccieth and Harlech, standing upon the sites of previous strongholds, and Conway and Carnarvon upon entirely new ground, are the most prominent and famous of this encircling ring. The term "Edwardian," however, for a Concentric Castle so frequently used, is a misnomer, because some of the grandest examples of the style date from the time of Henry III.; the outer ward of the Tower of London, for example, rendered it concentric in 1240 to 1258.

The Castle of Harlech approaches the concentric form so far as its position will permit, but the bold rocky promontory upon which it stands was too irregular for the complete ideal, and consequently the Castle was adapted to the site. It is practically an oblong with massive circular buttress towers at the four angles; two others defend the gateway and two smaller ones are on either side of the barbican entrance. Small watch-towers, corbelled at the summits upon false machicolations, are adjacent to the larger. The barbican lies upon the eastern side of the fortress, and was only accessible by a steep and narrow entrance after a dry ditch had been crossed. Harlech and Kidwelly are similar in not being purely concentric; each have short fronts of wall and the defences of two of the baileys are united, thus only two lines of resistance are interposed. Neither possess a donjon, the two inner wards being the last resort of the garrison.

The inaccessibility of this massive pile, perched 200 feet above the adjacent sea and producing a strangely impressive effect by reason of its grim vastness, has been repeatedly tested since its walls were first raised. Owen Glendower beat in vain against its impregnable strength and lost Mortimer, his son-in-law, before its walls. In the Wars of the Roses, when the soul-stirring "March of the Men of Harlech" was penned, the Castle was summoned to surrender by the Yorkists, but the Constable of the time, a doughty Welshman, held out for the Lancastrian cause and made a most protracted resistance in the campaign of 1474, Harlech being the last fortress to surrender in that great struggle. In the Civil War it maintained its reputation, but was finally delivered up to Cromwell's brother-in-law.

Conway Castle, one of the most impressive and majestic of medieval fortresses in Britain, is situated in a romantic and picturesque spot at the mouth of the river Conway. It presents a perfect ideal of a fortress and a fortified town, the massive accompanying walls of the latter forming an integral portion of the defence as a whole. The town walls are over a mile in length and are in a singularly good state of preservation; there are twenty-one towers, arranged at regular intervals along this enceinte, and four gates, over one of which is a row of machicoulis, twelve in number, projecting from the upper part of the wall. It was also protected by a dry ditch and with drawbridges placed before the gateways.

The Castle occupies an irregular oblong area divided into a larger and smaller ward by a transverse wall, which is carried across at one of the narrowest parts; thus where breadth is unobtainable, as at Conway and Carnarvon, ward is set behind ward. Eight lofty circular towers are arranged at intervals around the massive curtain wall, four of them being provided with small look-out turrets upon their summits. In the larger bailey the banqueting hall and domestic apartments were placed.

The Castle and also the town fortifications were erected by King Edward I., with Henry de Elfreton as the architect; they were completed in 1284, and occupied by the King and Court in 1290, upon the occasion of a Welsh rising. The monarch, however, was nearly starved out in his fortress through an unusual flood whereby provisions were unable to be sent across the river. Previously, however, he had passed a Christmas there and the assertion that Conway was really a combination of a castle, a palace, and a pleasant residence is perfectly legitimate. Richard II. assembled his forces at Conway to resist the invasion of Bolingbroke, but was induced to leave it, and his betrayal and lodgment in Flint Castle followed. The edifice suffered but little during the Wars of the Roses; Henry VII. repaired it where decay had taken place, and it practically remained intact until the Great Rebellion, when it suffered from two sieges, and shortly afterwards, in 1665, was despoiled of its timber, lead, and iron, and reduced to its present condition. The excellence of the masonry which characterises the Edwardian castles in Wales is perhaps in no way better exemplified than at Conway, where a portion of the base of a tower on the south side fell out bodily in recent times through being undermined, and gave much trouble before it could be broken up. It has since been restored. The protection of the Castle is now in the hands of the town authorities of Conway.

Beaumaris Castle was erected by King Edward I. about 1295, and approximates more to the concentric ideal than perhaps any other castle in Britain. The outer enceinte is an almost regular octagon, strengthened by towers at each of the angles and in the centre of each curtain, excepting the one in which the entrance gateway is placed. The inner enceinte is square in shape and of very great height, thus commanding the ramparts of the outer; it has the usual towers, of immense strength, and is finished with a grand array of battlements. Its position probably detracts from impressiveness, for it was designed to have the moat surrounding it filled with water at every tide from the Menai Strait, and this necessitated the selection of low ground for a site. By the arrangement of the walls two baileys are formed, the inner and outer, and the Castle affords an example of a fortress built upon the concentric ideal where the ground does not modify the detail in any way.

Carnarvon Castle may be confidently claimed as the finest example of its type in Europe. It stands upon a site previously unoccupied and was commenced by King Edward I., who raised the walls sufficiently high to cover the garrison, and completed by his son, Edward II., who carried the walls and towers to their present altitude. It is built of limestone blocks with string-course bands of dark-brown sandstone, the mouldings, doorways, and other ornamental portions also being of the same material. The plan of the Castle approaches that of a kidney form, the whole of the space enclosed forming one ward in contradistinction to that at Conway, which is subdivided; as the ancient town of Carnarvon was surrounded by massive walls, large portions of which still remain, the area so enclosed may be looked upon as the outer bailey.

Although the enceinte of the Castle is plentifully supplied with towers which undoubtedly form the chief feature of its picturesque appearance, yet it is to be questioned if the latter added very materially to its powers of resistance when compared with the walls, which are in places over 15 feet in thickness, and of very great height, often over 100 feet. These walls contain, at the points most vulnerable to an attack, a double line of galleries traversing the thickness and leading easily into each other for mutual support. The outer walls of these passages are plentifully supplied with loopholes, and as the merlons upon the battlements are also pierced with oillets, a triple discharge of quarrels and arrows could be brought to bear upon assailants by a garrison securely protected from injury. Against such a hail of missiles any attack would probably prove futile.

The moat is of great width and depth and formed no inconsiderable portion of the original defences. The main idea of the architect when planning Carnarvon Castle appears to have been to render attacks upon the general line of the enceinte impossible of success, by reason of the galleries and the thickly-set mural towers, and thus to lead the assailants to concentrate upon the chief entrance. This, however, was protected primarily by the town walls, then by a formidable moat, two massive towers, a narrow entrance furnished with no less than four portcullises, with two inner obstructions of a similar nature to be overcome ere the entrance was forced. Such an elaborate concentration of effective resistance is seldom encountered in medieval fortresses, and the fact that Carnarvon Castle has never been taken by assault, but only subdued by starvation, is amply accounted for.

This magnificent structure has always been a Crown possession, and at the present time is preserved with a care deserving of all praise. It narrowly escaped demolition at that period which proved so fatal to all castles in Britain, but, although the order was issued, the carrying out was delayed, and the accession of Charles II. in 1660 nullified it. The chief architectural beauty is perhaps the Eagle Tower, crowned with its three graceful turrets and boasting of the birth within its walls of the first Prince of Wales, but the traditional apartment is still problematical.

Although as we have seen the Concentric Castle is usually associated with the reign of Edward I., and the formidable strongholds in North Wales are generally cited as the perfection of the type, yet earlier attempts at the ideal had been made in Britain, and in no greater perfection than at the well-known Castle of Caerphilly in Glamorganshire, completed a year before the King came to the throne. From a military point of view it is the grandest example of the concentric ideal in our islands, and it is perhaps to be deplored that this embodiment of a medieval fortress has never been subjected to the stern arbitrament of war, and that no great military renown is associated with its history. It was only assailed once, in 1648, when the Parliamentarians wreaked their traditional destructive tendencies upon it.

It was erected and completed in 1271 by Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and stands upon a mound of gravel in the middle of an artificial lake, produced by damming up two water-courses and turning the contents of a marsh into the catchment basin thus formed. The curtain of the middle ward is of no great height, that of the inner ward being thus able to dominate it. The outer ward is essentially divided into two, each forming a tÊte-du-pont.

The eastern portion, and the smaller, has a curtain 15 feet in height and a moat of its own, the island thus formed being approached through two gatehouses from the land side, and joined to the inner ward by drawbridges. The western and outer ward is much more important than the eastern. It acts as a tÊte-du-pont the same as its companion, but contains also the chief approach to the Castle, two conspicuous towers standing on either side of a narrow entrance, thus forming a strong gatehouse. From it curtain walls of great height branch off on either side, washed by the waters of the lake, and sundry half-drum towers, and other buildings have been built abutting upon the defensive wall. Thus any assailants would have most formidable obstacles to encounter on attacking either the eastern or western faces, two moats and three successive lines of walling being opposed to their efforts.

The immediate object of its erection was to overawe the Welsh Marches, but these had been reduced to order almost at the same time it was built; subsequently it but served to consolidate the peace thus secured.

A still earlier example, though not perhaps embodying all the conditions of the type, is to be found in the neighbouring county of Carmarthen. Kidwelly Castle occupies a commanding position upon Carmarthen Bay near the estuary of the river Gwendraeth. The stream here is of considerable width and the eastern side of the castle is built upon the edge of the steep slope leading down to it; consequently no fear of an assault was to be apprehended from that quarter, and a curtain wall of no great height was deemed sufficient for the defence. This wall formed the string of a bow as it were, and the semicircular portion defending the land side had to rely upon other obstacles, such as a deep moat and a curtain set with towers. The entrance gateway is at the southern termination of the wall and consists of two towers with a building between containing the passage; it affords rooms for soldiers on duty with two stories above, all the masonry being of the most solid description. This entrance gave upon the outer ward. The inner ward consisted of a square enclosure abutting upon the centre of the river line: it is protected by high curtains strengthened by the usual towers. It will be perceived that the deviation from the concentric consists in the coincidence of the east wall of the inner bailey with a portion of that of the outer. Its foundation dates from 1250, when Payn de Chaworth reared it.

Not far from Llandeilo, a village near Carmarthen, stand the remains of a Concentric Castle around which local tradition has woven a web of romance, asserting that all history is lost in remote antiquity and leading the imagination to run riot in conjuring up the identity of its former inmates. Upon the south side the walls stand upon a precipice with a sheer drop of probably 500 feet, while a climb of over 200 feet is necessary to reach the northern face. It is called Carreg Cennen and occupies the summit of a height springing up from a ring of encircling hills. It stands upon an acre of ground and is of the rectangular shape; within the outer curtain stands a small inner bailey with one side coincident with that of the outer curtain overlooking the precipice, and as such is comparable to Kidwelly. There is one round tower, but the others are angular like those of Carnarvon. It was built by Rhys of Wales in the thirteenth century.

It must not be imagined that the castle-building energies of Edward I. were entirely expended upon the grand examples of his work found in North Wales, on the contrary there are many buildings to be discovered where his handiwork, or that of contemporary barons, is a prominent feature. A tendency appears to have manifested itself at that period to alter existing castles of a previous type so that they conformed in some way to the concentric ideal, and Pevensey, Chepstow, and Corfe are cases in point. In addition to Caerphilly in Glamorganshire there are many other structures in South Wales showing a very high ideal of castellation, indeed that portion of the Principality has been termed the "Land of Castles," and the appellation is by no means undeserved. There is hardly a prominent position upon the coast, or a suitable site inland, but what has been seized upon at some period to erect a position of defence.

Pembroke Castle, with the town walls supporting it, is perhaps the most important pile to be found in this district; it embodies additions of varying dates in its massive walls and towers. The great gatehouse and circular Norman Keep are undoubtedly its chief attractions at the present day when, although shattered by powder after Cromwell's capture by means of starvation, and much subsequent spoliation, it presents one of the most imposing aspects to be found in the kingdom.

Carew Castle is deservedly celebrated for picturesqueness and affords an illustration of the use of the angle-spur at the foot of drum towers as a preventive against mining.

Cilgerran Castle occupies a position which is probably unparalleled in South Wales. It approaches very closely to the Edwardian type, but the area chosen has not entirely dominated the plan; it once possessed an inner and outer bailey with a great portcullised gatehouse and massive cylindrical towers, two of which still stand. Pembrokeshire is essentially the centre of the castle-land of Wales, for besides those mentioned there are Manorbier, Lamphey, Narberth, Haverfordwest, Llawhaddon, Roche and many others, most of them exhibiting traces of Edwardian influence based upon Norman work.

In the upper valley of the Wye the efficiency of castles was of great importance, inasmuch as they guarded one of the great lines of incursion from the heart of Wales into the Marches; here Edwardian additions may be seen at Builth where a donjon was placed upon a motte which had already been encircled by a Shell Keep, while a circular rampart surrounding the whole bailey made a very presentable representation of the concentric ideal. At Bronllys, farther to the south, a cylindrical tower was the chief addition, while at Tretower, still farther south near Crickhowell, a Shell Keep appears to have been inserted within the remains of a previous Rectangular Keep defending the motte.

The Tower of London.—This great fortress, palace, and prison, unique among the castles of England, dates from the time of William the Conqueror. The site occupied a position upon the river Thames immediately to the east of Roman London; the latter was surrounded by massive walls with mural towers which had subsequently been repaired by Alfred the Great. A portion of this walling undoubtedly furnished part of the western defence of the Norman citadel, inasmuch as remains have been found adjacent to the present Wakefield Tower. The wall thus adapted extended between two bastions, and possibly the first enclosure was merely stockaded.

It was, however, necessary to erect a more substantial fortress in order to overawe as well as protect London, and in 1078, William entrusted Gundulf, the architect-bishop of Rochester, with the commission. The great Keeps at Rochester and West Malling were also designed by him, and possibly he had much to do with those at Norwich, Colchester, and other places in England. To this period may also be ascribed some of the towers and part of the massive curtain wall lying to the west of the inner ward or ballium which at that period contained the royal palace, apartments for the court, and dwellings for the garrison. Possibly a narrow ditch encircled the walls on the inner line of the present spacious moat.

In 1155, the buildings were repaired by Thomas À Becket; but to Richard I. must be ascribed the carrying out of works which materially added to the general strength. Henry III. caused additions to be made, chiefly upon the river front, which give it the characteristic appearance it presents at the present day. The well-known Traitors' Gate dates from this period, and is one of the finest examples of medieval masonry in existence. About the year 1270 the Tower began to acquire those features which subsequently rendered it an excellent example of the concentric fortress; an outer wall of circumvallation was carried completely round, with a deep and broad moat washing its face. The outer ward was formed lying between the two lines of walls, thus producing three lines of defence, the innermost being the great Keep. A small barbican, which has now disappeared, stood upon the outer edge of the moat. In the early part of the reign of Edward III. some towers were added, the chief being the Beauchamp and Bowyer. Since the period of the Commonwealth the Tower has ceased to be inhabited by royalty, the removal of the palace, which stood against the south-eastern corner of the inner ward, being probably responsible for it. As the Tower of London has been inextricably involved in the major portion of events forming the history of England, it is obviously impossible to deal even in a cursory manner with them within the confines of this work. A few facts, however, relating to the Keep may be of interest, as it is undoubtedly the most ancient portion of the structure. It is rectangular in shape, 118 feet long by 107 feet broad; it rises to a height of 90 feet at the battlements and contains three stories. The usual Norman pilaster buttresses occur, those at the angles being continued upwards into three of the square turrets, while the remaining corner supports a large projecting circular turret containing the main staircase. The walls are of enormous thickness, ranging from 12 to 15 feet, and as usual the building is divided into two portions by a wall 10 feet thick, rising to the maximum height of the building.

The floors were originally of wood, but when Sir Christopher Wren destroyed the ancient interior features of the Keep, great brick vaults were built in the lower portion. St. John's Chapel is a magnificent gem of Early Norman ecclesiastical architecture; it stands upon the second floor, and its apsidal termination projects boldly beyond the walls of the Keep. The third floor contains the state apartments with the great Council Chamber, the walls of the chapel rising through it to the roof, and containing a mural passage and a triforium. The roof is flat and was adapted during the Tudor period for mounting artillery. The position of the original entrance to the Keep is now unknown, the present one being evidently a construction of later date. No traces of the forebuilding defending it have come to light. The internal arrangements for defence against surprise are marvellously intricate, the principal apartments being approached by mural passages so narrow that only one person could pass at a time. This was, of course, eminently desirable from a military standpoint, but inconvenient and awkward when occupied by the court.

Corfe Castle.—Seated upon an isolated chalk hill in the island of Purbeck, with a natural escarpment upon three sides where two rivers bifurcate on their way to Poole Harbour, and with a gentle slope upon the fourth side, the great castle of Corfe reared its massive front through many centuries of dramatic history, marked more than once with touches of the tragic. The remains of its cyclopean walls and towers now lie in mighty masses over its slopes, and tell eloquently of a day when destruction only seemed to occupy the minds of men, and all that was great and beautiful from the foregoing ages was marked out for desolation and ruin. Perhaps no castle in England has suffered so much as that of Corfe.

Its site is connected by history with the Saxon dynasty, for King Edgar is said to have founded it; and here the tragic deed was perpetrated by which it is popularly known, when his son Edward the Martyr, King of the West Saxons, was treacherously murdered by Elfrida his step-mother. Such an unholy deed was a sinister incident in the birth of a castle, and appears to have thrown a gloom over its subsequent history.

Four miles to the southward rises the bold coast-line of the Dorset littoral, while northward is the great depression occupied by the waters of Poole Harbour.

It appears to have been successively a Saxon Palace, then a Norman, and afterwards an Edwardian fortress. King Stephen besieged it in 1139, Earl Baldwin de Redvers having seized it for the Empress Maud. King John used it as an arsenal for military engines and stores, and here his foul crime of starving twenty-two knights and nobles to death, whom he had captured at Mireteau in 1203, was committed. The wretched ex-King Edward II. lived here for a time before his removal to Berkeley, and it appears to have been possessed by several important historical personages before it reverted to the Crown in 1552, when it was granted to Sir Christopher Hatton. That family sold it in 1635 to Sir John Bankes, the ancestor of the present owners. The notable defence of the castle for three years by Lady Bankes against the Commonwealth forces is one of those feats which stand out bravely against the somewhat sordid history of that period.

The Castle occupies an area of about three acres. The Norman work consists chiefly of a square Keep occupying the most elevated part of the hill, where possibly the Saxon Palace had been situated, and, with its enceinte, formed the innermost ward of the Castle. It is about 60 feet square, and 80 feet high, with the usual flat pilasters; the masonry is remarkably good, formed of large squared stones obtained from some hard beds in the vicinity. The floors and apparently the roof were of wood, and have now disappeared, while the battlements also are missing.

On the east side of the Keep are the remains of the Queen's hall of Early English work, and other buildings within the inner ward appear to be of the same date. The gateway of the middle ward was overthrown by undermining, part of it has sunk and moved out of the perpendicular. The great curtain wall reaching between this gateway and the Keep is comparatively intact, and forms one of the finest defences of that description now remaining in Britain. The entrance to the outer ward has been sadly wrecked; the two drum towers have been blown forwards by the explosive force of gunpowder, the vaulting is rent, and the adjacent wall to the west overthrown. More than half of the tower called the Buttavant Tower has been blown clean away, while the minor bastions and the encircling wall generally have either disappeared or been thrown out of the perpendicular.

The order to "slight" the Castle, i.e. to dismantle it, was issued by the Parliament in 1646, and perhaps no fortress exists in Britain where the decree was so thoroughly carried into effect. Unnecessarily large charges of gunpowder appear to have been used, not only dislodging the masonry but shattering it; while in many places the effect was obtained by undermining and propping up with wood, which when subsequently burnt brought down the superincumbent mass, similarly to the proceedings at the Keep of Raglan Castle.

Chepstow.—The noble ruins of Chepstow Castle form one of the attractive features of the celebrated Wye valley. They stand in a grand position surmounting a vertical escarpment springing from the river and protected on the three remaining sides by ditches of formidable width and depth. The ground plan is that of an elongated parallelogram, one of the longer faces being that overlooking the river. This is subdivided into four courts or wards, while the whole area enclosed is about three acres. The principal living-rooms overhung the river, where the great Hall, kitchens, ladies' apartments, etc., were placed. This was a point of a quite inaccessible character, and consequently permitted of a certain amount of embellishment, such as large windows, etc.; in the remainder of the enceinte, oillets and balistraria form the chief openings.

The main entrance to the Castle is on the eastern side, under a fine Norman arch flanked by two massive circular towers; the passage was guarded by a portcullis, and two meurtriÈres in the groining. Not far from this entrance the lesser Hall is placed. The Clare family, Earls of Pembroke, were the earliest Norman owners of Chepstow, after William Fitz-Osborne the founder, the last of whom, Richard Strongbow, is well known in connection with the Conquest of Ireland in 1172. His daughter Isabel married one of the Bigot family, and subsequently it passed to Sir Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester, from whom it has descended to the present owner, the Duke of Beaufort. Chepstow saw much of the Civil War, being held at first by the Royalists, but it was assailed by Colonel Morgan in 1645 and surrendered after a siege of four days. It was again attacked in 1648, when the governor, Sir Nicholas Kemyss, and forty of the garrison were killed.

Leeds.—This castle is undoubtedly one of the most picturesque in the British Isles, and its beautiful natural surroundings are enhanced by a rich history extending back to the Saxon Period. Here Ethelbert of Kent raised a fortification which was given to Bishop Odo at the Conquest and, at his fall, came into the CrÉvecoeur family, who began the Norman building. It remained in their hands until the Barons' War when it reverted to the Crown, with whom it remained for about 300 years. Edward VI. gave it to Sir Anthony St. Leger about 1550, and his descendants sold it to Sir Richard Smith. It subsequently came into the possession of the Colepeper family, from whom are descended the Martins, the present owners.

Among the many historical associations connected with the Castle is that of the frail Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II. She appeared one evening before the gateway with a large force of attendants and demanded admission; under the circumstances then obtaining the Governor, Sir Thomas Colepeper, thought fit to refuse, being without the king's orders, and, upon a display of force, saluted the visitors with a shower of arrows. She repaired to the king and so influenced him that the Castle was besieged and captured; the Castellan was hanged over the drawbridge with eleven others. At Leeds Henry V. received the Emperor Sigismund and imprisoned his step-mother Joan for practising witchcraft; subsequently, Eleanor, the wife of good Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, was tried here for the same offence in 1431.

The position of this castle was an exceedingly suitable one in those days when water was deemed the chief method of defence. It occupies two natural rocky islands, one in the centre of a lake, and one in an artificial one on the mainland made by sluices and ditches upon which was placed the Barbicans. The Keep, or Gloriette, as it is here termed, may have been modelled out of a late Norman Shell Keep, but has been much altered by additions and restorations. It contains a chapel built in 1380; the walls rise from the water to a considerable height and are arranged round a small middle court. In it are the dining-hall, the Queen's bed-chamber, and other domestic buildings, chiefly of the time of Henry VIII.

From this island drawbridges permit of passage to the larger central island, around which a curtain wall of great strength has been built at the edge of the water with drum towers at the principal angles. Inside this was a second and concentric wall, thus forming an Inner and Outer Bailey, but only the southern gate of this has been preserved. It is probably of late Norman work. The domestic buildings occupied the northern end of the inner area, now superseded by a splendid mansion standing upon Norman foundations. Another drawbridge gives upon the artificial island upon the mainland previously mentioned, where the Inner Barbican stood, and beyond this again was a strong and massive Outer Barbican.

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