Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/426

 396 MedicBval Military Architecture, centre of the east front is a low mound, apparently the foundations of a round mural tower. The depressed ground in the centre of the south front indicates that the outer entrance was there ; and midway between this and the causeway, leading to the inner ward, are two long heaps of earth and stone with a passage between them. They much resemble the remains of a long gate-house, between the outer and inner gate ; but if so, this must have been in the middle of a wall dividing the outer ward into two, of which no trace remains. This outer ward, never very strong, was evidently intended for the reception of villagers and cattle during the inroads of the Welsh. The earthworks, though deeper and broader than the Normans usually gave to so small a fortress, have nothing of the character of British or Saxon work, and are probably not older than the Conquest, or the reign preceding it. But of the existing masonry none can be safely called Norman. The walls are of inferior and rudely-coursed rubble ; no ashlar remains, save a bold cordon or bead, which runs along the top of the lower or battering part of the wall, and this is not carried all round. The arches of the mural tower are flat- pointed. On the whole, the general appearance of the buildings points to the reign of Henry III., and none of it seems of older date. Certainly no decidedly Norman work is seen. The ditches were substantially dry, though they may have received and retained more or less land-water. At the base of the slope of the outwork the ravine has been deepened for a rectangular pond, probably a fish-stew, and an early drawing shows water here collected. Looking from the inner ward upon the river, there is plainly seen, just above the castle, the line of the old mill leat, now a green ditch, and the small eyot upon which must have stood the castle mill. A ripple on the river, here somewhat expanded, shows a ford ; and opposite, on the edge of a broad expanse of low, level mead, is the village of Cabalva, said in Welsh to mean a horse-ford. Thus is seen at one view the cliff and the ford which, under the Saxon sway, gave its appellation to the parish, and from which one of the most celebrated of the great English families derived its name. Clifford, though the cradle of a great race, could have been valuable only while Herefordshire was an unsafe possession. With the settlement of the country under Edward I., it probably fell into disuse and decay. It is far too small and too inconvenient of access to be held, except for safety ; and such history as it has is confined to a very early and warlike period. The castle is reputed with Striguil or Chepstow, Ewyas, and Wigmore, to have been founded by William Fitz-Osborn, one of the companions of the Conqueror, and the first Norman Earl of Here- fordshire. He was killed in 1070, and his third son, Roger de Bretuil, who succeeded to his English lands, had forfeited them before the Domesday Survey, when the castle was held by Ralph de Toni, who, by Dugdale, is said to have married Alicia, one of