t 



Essay on CaerphUli) Castle. 139 



it would Lave been difficult to have devised one better suited to with- 

 stand the means of attack which that age was likely to have employed 

 against it. 



The counterscarp of the inner moat, formed on the east by 



LuNATED the terre plein, is continued along the northern face of the 



Ridge. castle by the Innated ridge^ until it terminates on the west in 



the horn-work. 



There is a tunnel and sluice in the ridge, by which the communication 



between the moats could be regulated. 



The horn- work, covering the western front of the castle, is 



Horn-Work, an irregular polygon, rising on every side with a revetement 



or lining wall, fifteen feet high, and falling off above with a 



talus of about eight more. From its south-western face gushes 



Spriiiff. a perpetual fountain, the principal supply of water to the 



castle. Towards the north-west is a low tower or pier, whence 



fell the draw-bridge by which it was connected with the main land. The 



general breadth of the moat is here about sixty feet, but the 



Outer and space between the abutment of the bridge and the opposite 



innerWestern bank, is only twenty. The horn-work is connected with the 



Bridge. body of the place by a similar draw-bridge, the span of which 



is twenty feet. 

 Middle We now arrive at the description of the middle and inner 



Ballium. ballia, the buildings occupying the island which has already 

 been described as terminating the peninsula. 

 This island is cut and scarped into a parallelogram, two hundred and 

 seventy feet east and west by two hundred north and south. The four 

 angles are capped by bastions of three-fourths of a circle, the intervening 

 straight lines being styled, in the language of fortification, curtains. 



If we imagine the sides or scarps of those curtains and bastions to be 

 faced with a perpendicular stone wall, thirty feet high, and surmounted by 

 a parapet of from five to twelve more, we shall form an adequate idea of 

 the basis upon which the two remaining ballia of the castle are placed. 



If we suppose a second parallelogram, smaller than the last, to be placed 

 within it, we shall have the last of these concentric defences before us as 

 the inner ballium ; the space between this and the boundary of the larger 

 parcillelogram being the middle ballium. 



The middle ballium presents thus four divisions, facing towards the four 

 cardinal points, all fi)rming terraces of nearly equal breadth, and the opposite 

 sides being of equal length. Upon the east and west are the gate-houses, 

 on the south offices and a water gate, and on the north an open terrace 

 overlooking all the outer defences of the castle on that side. 



VVc shall commence our description of the middle ballium from the 

 eastern side. 



Here the width of the moat is only forty-five feet, a space too wide in- 



