Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/375

 Cardiff Castle, Glamorgan. 347 great wall, and a corresponding north wall, destroyed by the Herberts or Sluarts, and rebuilt by the latter. There would thus be a clear space of abC)ut 6i feet by i8 feet for the hall ; and no doubt there were besides kitchens at the northern, and some additional buildings at the southern end. This would give a moderate hall and lodgings, and, with the Black Tower and the keep, afford very fair accommo- dation for a baron and his train. The southern stair-turret was, probably, an early addition to this work. Whether the great curtain wall which divided the castle proper from the mere earthen enclosure be regarded as coeval with the outer wall, or of later date, the gateway in it, with the drum towers, of which a sketch and the foundations remain, were evidently later, and probably De Clare insertions. The extinction of the De Clares, the division of the inheritance, the construction of Caerphilly, and the gradual pacification of the country, were causes which, with the long-continued misfortunes of the Despensers, no doubt led to the partial neglect of Cardiff, or at any rate, for a time, checked any additions to its buildings. Caerphilly, however, once so magnificent, seems to have been found too heavy a burthen, and to have been neglected, and the heiress who closed the line of Despenser was born at Cardiff Probably this fact, and the ambitious designs of the Beauchamps, led to the partial reconstruc- tion of the castle ; which, moreover, had, no doubt, suffered from Owen Glendower. Richard and Isabel Beauchamp evidently built the great octagonal tower, bonding it securely into the old wall. Connected with this, and at the same time, they added, also out- side of and bonded into the wall, the southern lesser wing, or that towards the town gate. Within the court they probably remodelled the lodgings, constructing a grand vault below the hall. Also, they added three turrets to the east wall, groining the interior of, at least, two of them as bays from the great hall, and embellishing with their armorial shield that which opened upon the dais. A tower, con- taining retiring-rooms at the south, and probably kitchens at the north end seem also to have been additions of the same epoch. Within the court, upon the hne of the eastern curtain, and up the slope of the mound, the Beauchamps also seem to have constructed or reconstructed the cluster of buildings of which a fragment only is left. This is that ruined tower which rises considerably above every other part of the enclosure, and adds as much to the picturesque appearance of the castle as it formerly did to its material strength. The Herberts, in their day, made considerable changes. They seem to have pulled down the kitchens, or whatever buildings existed at the north end of the lodgings, and to have replaced them by an Elizabethan building with large muUioned bay windows. They also pulled down the buildings on the south, and established a kitchen garden on their site. It is probable that the Herbert work was of a much less solid character than that which preceded it, since it has all disappeared. Towards the close of the last century, in 1778, soon after the