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at once walked down St. Mary’s Street and entered the precincts 
of the Castle through the gateway East of the tower, said to have 
been the place where Duke Robert of Normandy was confined for 
28 years (1106-35). Turning to the left and following the 
covered way along the South wall, they entered the South-west 
‘Clock Tower, which has been most gorgeously fitted up for winter 
and summer smoking rooms in the Moorish style. A lavish 
expenditure in gilding, painting, and many coloured Italian 
marbles abounds throughout and is almost oppressive. A winding 
‘stone stairs leads up to the topmost storey, the summer smoking- 
room, whence a fine view of the surrounding country is seen. The 
-chapel, dining-room, banquet hall, and library were next visited ; 
in the latter an admirable arrangement consisting of a hinged flap 
in the place of the usual leather fringe for excluding dust from the 
top of the books was noticed. A descent down the grand staircase, 
made of polished Aberdeen granite, was made, and the quadrangle 
-crossed to the keep, now a mere shell surmounting a mound of 
drift gravel, and the oldest portion of the original building now 
-existing—date 15th century. Clark writes of this castle (Med. 
Mil. Arch., vol. 1, p. 336) :—“ Its claim to more than local interest 
rests upon the character and fortunes of the great barons whose 
inheritance and occasional residence it was from the 11th to 15th 
century, from the reign of Rufus to that of Henry VI.” He 
considered it to have been originally a Roman castrum, and also 
a hold of the local British princes before Robert Fitzhamon won 
it in 1090. 
_ After lunch at the Park Hotel, the members wandered off by 
way of the bridge over the Taff and through the green fields to 
Llandaff in time to meet Minor Canon Dowding at 3 p.m. at the 
West door of the Cathedral. Under his guidance a pleasant hour 
or two were spent in the interior, whilst he pointed out the 
various architectural details of the building. Originally founded 
inthe 7th century by SS. Dubricius and Teilo the present structure 
dates from 1120, in the Episcopate of Urban. But little remains 
