Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/361

 Caei'philly Castle, Glamorgan. 335 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 I. The injuries received by this castle are similar to others at Corfe and elsewhere, known to be referable to the same period of civil strife in which the battle of St. Fagan's, and the occupation of Cardiff, prove the men of Glamorgan to have taken an active part. Nothing, therefore, 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. Though history has afforded no clue as to the one of the contending parties to which either proceeding is to be referred, there can be no doubt but that the blowing up of the towers was the work of the Parliament. 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 Rudry road, are the ruins of the " Van," or *' Ffanvawr," the ancient and very stately manor-house of the Lewis family, the direct descendants in blood, and the heirs in heritage, of Ivor Bach, on whose land Caerphilly was erected. 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, doorcases, quoins, and stringcourses of the lower story, are either of oolite or Sutton stone, and are very evidently a part of the spoils of Caer- philly. Most of these stones have been worked up, and their original ornaments destroyed, but one long stringcourse 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 Caerphilly earUer than the reign of Elizabeth, in which reign, or rather in that of Henry VIIL, the castle was used as a prison. Probably the central parts were so occupied, and the parts allowed to be spoiled were those connected with the east front. In appropriating the stones of Caerphilly to the erection of their manor-house, the Lewis family, from whom the ground was originally wrested, may have committed a breach of taste, but none had a better moral right to help themselves from that source.