Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/376

 348 Mediceval Military Airhitecture, Stuarts came into possession, under the advice of "Capability" Brown they pulled down the Herbert buildings, cleared the great court, filled up the moat of the keep (then called the Magazine), constructed the two wings, modernised the interior of the lodgings, and left everything, in general features, as lately seen. It is singular, that in so important a castle as Cardiff no traces should remain of a regular gatehouse. Leland speaks of two gates, the Shire Hall and the Exchequer ; of which the former was, no doubt, the present gate, and the latter, probably, that from the outer to the middle ward. That the present occupies the place of the original entrance is pretty certain. Where else could it have been? If cut through the earthworks, or through any other parts of the wall, traces would certainly remain. Probably, therefore, as already stated, and as was sometimes the case, the entrance was a mere gateway in the curtain ; and the real barrier was that from the outer into the middle ward, which was certainly of great strength. The ' outer ward must have been a place of common resort for exchequer and other public business ; and the knights' lodgings were occupied regularly by some persons, though not usually by the owners. The traffic attendant upon this state of things would have made the formalities of gates, portcullis, and drawbridge, inconvenient, and may have been a reason for the usual regular defences of the gateway having been dispensed with. The foundations of these buildings, public and private, have been laid open in the great court. The only remaining difficulty relates to the defences of the cir- cumscribing embankment. Buck's general view, published in 1748, and an engraving by Ryland, show an extensive wall, covering the great wall and the earthwork at the north-west angle, and prolonged upon the present course of the feeder. This can scarcely be one of Buck's common errors in perspective, since he shows also the present wall capping the earthen bank. It is, therefore, possible that there was, on the north front, a wall between the bank and the moat. But, however this may be, it must be remembered that the enemy who surmounted the earthworks still had before him a fortress which for thickness and height of wall was equalled by few in Britain. The chapel of the castle, the Shire Hall, and the knights' houses stood in the outer ward, and might be burned or destroyed ; but the knights themselves, and their followers and effects, would take refuge and be in absolute security in the interior parts of the castle. Rees Meyric, writing about 1578, has left a minute, and, on the whole, a very intelligible account of the castle as restored by the Earls of Pembroke for their occasional residence, before the build- ing of Wilton. From his description it appears that the principal entrance was from the town by "a fair gate," having the Black Tower with its prisons on the left, and opening into the outer ward. This ward occupied the eastern part of the general enclosure, being separated from the inner and middle wards by the mound and the strong curtain that extended from the Black to the White Tower or keep.