Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/393

 Caste II Cock, Glamorgan. 363 side, very strong. The moat, which must always have been dry, ends, opposite to the north tower, in a curious excavation, resembling a water-tank, which, however, it could scarcely have been. The outer court of the castle occupies the remainder or east end of the natural platform. Its dimensions are about loo feet long by 40 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 men- tioned, 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 in this direction. Out- side, and on the counterscarp of the moat of the outer court, and 6 feet from the edge of the south precipice, there are traces of a tower, about 30 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 foundation of a distinct turret. There is no moat to the east of the 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 40 feet diameter, the foundations of which are very distinct, and which must have completely commanded 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. Supposing 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 towres, their curtain, and the gateway tower.