Essay on Caerphilly Castle. 141 



four angles capped by as many circular towers. Of the enclosure, or court 

 thus formed, the southern side is occupied by the hall and other apartments. 



The four towers which cap the angles of this ballium are 

 Bastion very marked features in the general appearance of the castle ; 



Towers. tiiey have a projection without of three- fourths of a circle, are 



high, and eighteen feet in their interior, and thirty-six feet in 

 exterior diameter, at the bottom ; they are divided into three stages, by 

 wooden floors, and the walls are nine feet thick. Each story is lighted by 

 loop-holes, very large within, and diminishing externally to a line ; a cir- 

 cular well-stair winds to the summit of each tower. These towers open 

 into the court and upon the battlements. 



Of the curtain walls those on the north and east are not 



Curtains. above thirty feet high, battlement inclusive. Those on the 



south and west are higher by a story, and the rampart walk is 



continued round them, below as a vaulted triforial gallery, and above as an 



open walk. 



The gate-houses of this ballium are surpassed by no others 

 Eastern Gate- in this country. That on the east is an oblong building, with 

 houses. two semi-circular bows without, towards the east, two circular 

 stair-case towers within the court, towards the west. The arch of entrance 

 is broad but low, and defended by gates, portcullis, and stockade ; besides a 

 contrivance within for dropping hot liquids upon any assailants who might 

 have gained the court from the other side. On each side of the portal 

 are lodges, and the first story is a spacious hall or council-chamber, 

 with an enormous fire-place, and two large and handsome windows looking 

 towards the court. Above this chamber is the battlement. On the 

 north and south sides of this gate-house area number of small apartments, 

 mostly vaulted, and used for various purposes, as portcullis rooms for the 

 portals to the ramparts, &.c. One of them, on the souths is fitted up as a 

 small oratory, it has a ribbed roof and two decorated windows. There is a 

 similar apartment, but of earlier date, in the castle of Chepstow. 



The western gate-house in shape and dimension resembles 

 Western. the eastern, except that it has no projection or staircase-towers 

 within the court, its staircases running up in the thickness of 

 the wall. The lodges below, on each side of the i)ortal, are vaulted and 

 ribbed, and seem to have been used as prisons : they do not open into the 

 portal, but into the court. The state chamber above is not so large as that 

 in the eastern gate-house, but its floor is vaulted instead of being of timber. 



Tlie triforial galleries have loops towards the field; they 

 Triforial are about eight feet high and four wide, vaulted, and lying in 

 GalleriiK. the thickness of the curtain wall. Of the ramparts and bat- 

 tlements wc shall speak afterwards. 

 yyel/. In the court, apparently iu a most inconvenient and dan- 



gerous place, is the well, about four feet iu diameter. 



