142 Essay on Caerphilly Castle. 



The hall is an oblong chamber, seventy-tbiee feet east and 

 Hall. west by thirty-five north and south, and about thirty feet high. 



It is lighted by four lofty and large windows towards the court, 

 which with a huge fire-place between, and a door to the east of them, oc- 

 cupy the north side. In the south side is a door leading down the steps 

 to the water-gate, and a second leading to the kitchen, offices, and tank. A 

 door at the west end opens into the state apartments, and two other doors 

 and a large window on the east communicate with another apartment and 

 with the chapel. 



The roof, of wood, springs from sliort pilasters resting on corbels, placed 

 against the north and south walls. The north wall is of dressed 

 stone, and divided horizontally by a string about three feet from the 

 ground, and a second, which runs along the east side also, on a level with 

 the returns of the drip-stone of the door ; the east, south, and western 

 sides were plastered, and probably covered with tapestry. 



The chapel, evident from its position and large east window. 

 Chapel. presents nothing remarkable ; neither do the state apartments, 



with the exception of one long window hereafter to be noticed. 

 These apartments are four in number; two on the ground, and two on the 

 upper story ; they are lighted by windows towards the north, and are 

 connected by doors on the eastern and western sides. A staircase, in the 

 thickness of the curtain wall, leads to the triforial gallery, as well as to 

 the upper apartments, and to some smaller out-buildings, which seem to 

 have been added at a later period. 



In our description of the disposition of the ground upon 

 Redoubt. which the castle stands, mention was made of a knoll, lying to 

 the north-west of the castle, and crowned with a redoubt. 



The body of this earth-work or redoubt is quadrangular, being capped at 

 the angles by four bastions, and excavated in the centre into a sort of 

 open casemate. The curtain towards the castle is intersected by two 

 trenches, separated by a mound of earth or cavalier, and leading into the 

 casemate. 



Round the redoubt, and following the curve of its bastions, is a fosse, 

 upon the three outer sides broad and deep, and but slightly marked on the 

 fourth. The ramparts of the redoubt are unprovided with either parapets 

 for cannon, or banquettes for musquetry, and the scarp is continued un- 

 broken to the rampart ; neither that nor the counterscarp, though steep, 

 being supported by a wall. 



Without the fosse, in advance, is a spacious glacis, terminating in four 

 low bastions and a shallow fosse. Both the fosses of this work were pro- 

 bably dry. 



The whole work resembles much those thrown up during the parliamen- 

 tary wars, though it seems either never to have been completely finished, 

 or else, which is less probable, to have been partially destroyed. 



