TAUNTON CASTLE. 27 



are the mouldings piain massive chamfers, quite dissimilar 

 to those of the fifteenth Century iised in some parts of 

 the Castle, bat the arch and the whole character of the 

 building, as well as the windows of the Chamber north of 

 gate (now destroyed, but well represented in some old 

 drawings which have been shewn me), are decidedly such as 

 to lead to the conclusion that the gate-house is not later 

 than the time of Edward III., and probably earlier than 

 even the reign of that monarch. At this point, outside the 

 moat, were discovered, a short time since, the foundations 

 of some strong stone fabric ; either those of a barbican, 

 which was sometimes,though rarely, constructed of masonry, 

 or of walls leadlng to the drawbridge and confining the 

 approach to a narrow passage commanded by the gate- 

 house ; an arrangement not uncommon in Castles of the 

 Edwardian type. On the north side, the marshy ground, 

 the river Thone, and the ancient mill stream passing nearly 

 close to the Castle walls, rendered any other moat quite 

 unnecessary. At a short distance below the junction of 

 the brook with the mill stream, at the corner of Stevens's 

 garden, a second moat opens upon the water, and exiend- 

 ing round the buildings now in use, joins the external moat 

 at the back of the Castle Inn. Whether this moat was 

 ever deeper than it now i>5 admits of a doubt, as there 

 appears to have been a sort of platform on the interior side 

 of the great moat, leadlng to an outwork at the uorth- 

 eastern extremity of the place, nearly on a level with the 

 bottom of the interior moat, which may perhaps mark its 

 original depth before the construction of the outer de- 

 fences ; but it probably was deeper, for Sir Benjamin 

 Hammet is said to have expended a large sum in laying 

 out the grounds and Alling up the moat, which on the 

 western and southern sides is now occupied by gardens. 



